IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) vs Inflectra SpiraTeam comparison

IBM and Inflectra are both solutions in the Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites category. IBM is ranked #13 with an average rating of 7.2, while Inflectra is ranked #21. IBM holds a 3.9% mindshare in ALM, compared to Inflectra’s 0.6% mindshare. Additionally, 76% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Inflectra users who would recommend it.

IBM Engineering Lifecycle M...

Read 19 IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) reviews

1,497 Views
1,482 Comparison Views

76% willing to recommend

Inflectra SpiraTeam

Read 2 Inflectra SpiraTeam reviews

342 Views
339 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

IBM Engineering Lifecycle M...

Inflectra SpiraTeam

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 12, 2025

IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management and Inflectra SpiraTeam compete in the project management solutions category. Inflectra SpiraTeam tends to have the upper hand in feature richness, while IBM ELM is noted for its scalability and integration capabilities.

Features: IBM ELM provides effective requirements management, systems engineering, and scalability, making it suitable for companies with intricate processes. Inflectra SpiraTeam is designed to handle quality assurance, agile project management, and flexibility, beneficial for teams adopting agile methodologies.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Inflectra SpiraTeam offers a cloud-based deployment model with an easy setup process, ideal for organizations looking for quick implementation and effective customer support. IBM ELM provides both on-premise and cloud deployment options, catering to businesses requiring customized configurations.

Pricing and ROI: IBM ELM incurs higher setup costs but delivers significant ROI on large-scale applications due to its extensive integration features. Inflectra SpiraTeam offers a more budget-friendly option with lower initial investment, appealing to medium-sized enterprises seeking cost-efficient and timely project delivery, leading to faster ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) vs. Inflectra SpiraTeam Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) vs. Inflectra SpiraTeam

September 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

IBM Engineering Lifecycle M...

Ranking in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites

13th

Average Rating

7.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Inflectra SpiraTeam

Ranking in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites

21st

Average Rating

9.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites category, the mindshare of IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) is 3.9%, up from 2.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Inflectra SpiraTeam is 0.6%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM)	3.9%
Inflectra SpiraTeam	0.6%
Other	95.5%

Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites

Featured Reviews

Juergen Albrecht

Managing Director at CCC Systems Engineering Suisse GmbH

Combining tools for effective data analysis while customization and integration need improvement

The most valuable feature is how IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) allows me to present to the customer what the actual software, even hardware, will do. It helps them gain an impression of the complexity of the functionality and find an easier way to decide whether to implement it. A picture says more than one thousand words, which is why I work with the combination of ELM and the specification of DOORS. The automation capabilities I built use column-based scripts for analysis to search, fetch, and transfer information. When I open modules, it automatically analyzes the changes since the last opening by me.

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it_user1241541

Quality Management Office (QMO) Manager at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

Great technical support with excellent integration and a fairly easy initial setup

The integration is really better than it was in the past. The initial setup was pretty simple. Their documentation is excellent. The solution is fast and very accessible. Organization time is free of charge in terms of licensing. This is until you finalize the migration from one tool to the other. That way, we don't need to pay to license two solutions at the same time. The maintenance team doing the support gives you a lot of knowledge. They often have up to ten years of support experience. Those leading the support teams are very knowledgeable. There seems to be very little turnover or team change, which helps retain the knowledge

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The planning feature is rich with Scrum concepts: Sprint, Sprint retrospective, the rules in the Scrum framework."

"The transition to a SaaS-based solution is a distinct advantage."

"It helped us contain critical things, like source code and several documents, which is very important to us."

"It is relatively easy to use and user-friendly once the setup is complete."

"The tools for requirement capture we have found very useful."

"At the same time, if you're working from the architect or the designing team you, it's quite easy to manage the resources online."

"I would rate the stability of this product a nine out of ten."

"The solution is customizable."

More IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) pros

"The solution is fast and very accessible."

"The initial setup and configuration are straightforward and relatively simple."

Cons

"The features should be more intuitive. If I'm looking for something, its location should be easy to locate."

"I think nowadays people are getting into Jira and other tools. What is happening is, this solution is becoming more traditional, whereas Jira and other tools are more attractive for the new users to learn and start using because of the graphical interfaces."

"I would like to see better reporting features. The out-of-box reporting is - I don't want to say limited - but the focus is on the Scrum and Sprint reports. We need more reporting features regarding the history of the work, tracking it more deeply."

"The directory designer manager is uncivil. The design manager is clearly really unstable."

"One of the complaints from users is that they have to click buttons too many times for just a simple task. Changing this would lead to a better user experience."

"There is not enough beginner support material in the form of FAQs or simple training to help you get started."

"Of course it would be related to customer experience. The solution is not user friendly at all. It needs an expert to use it, although the reporting feature was okay."

"Some improvements to the user interface (UI) would be helpful, such as exposing more services to make it easier to customize to the needs of each customer."

More IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) cons

"It would be great if they worked more closely with other solutions. There needs to be better integration with the platform for development purposes."

"They need to continue improving the interface with the third-party options."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"This product is a little expensive and we had to pay extra to have them set it up for us."

"The price of the solution could be reduced. Many of our customers are not using all the features and this could be why our clients feel the price is too high."

"IBM Rational ALM has both monthly and yearly licensing options."

"We have a contract, but I am not aware of the details."

"The solution is not cheap."

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

23%

Computer Software Company

13%

Government

12%

Transportation Company

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	12

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM Rational ALM?

The solution is customizable.

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM Rational ALM?

Improvement is needed in bridging DNG and Rhapsody and vice versa for better data exchange from both sides with some trigger technologies. This would provide a visual reminder of changes in a modul...

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What is your primary use case for IBM Rational ALM?

Most of my primary use cases involve the combination of IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) ( /products/ibm-engineering-lifecycle-management-elm-reviews ) and DOORS, including both Classic D...

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Comparisons

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Compared 24% of the time

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Compared 18% of the time

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Compared 12% of the time

Polarion ALM vs IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM)

Compared 10% of the time

PTC Integrity vs IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM)

Compared 8% of the time

More IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) Competitors

No data available

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM)

October 2025

IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) report

Download IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) product report

Buyer's Guide

Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites

October 2025

Download Inflectra SpiraTeam product report

Also Known As

IBM Engineering Rhapsody, Rational ALM, MKS

SpiraTeam

Overview

IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management stands out for its robust Agile Scrum planning, lifecycle traceability, and tool management, offering cloud-based configurability and strong collaboration features.

IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management provides rich capabilities for Agile project management, facilitating requirements and test management, configuration management, and version control. Its integration with IBM Doors supports comprehensive requirements handling, and the cloud-based platform enhances collaborative efficiency across teams. Despite needing advances in user-friendliness and reporting, ELM's global configuration and compliance features make it invaluable in demanding environments.

What are the key features of IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management?

Scrum-based planning: Supports Agile methodologies with rich planning tools.
Lifecycle traceability: Offers complete traceability across development stages.
Customizable workflows: Adaptable workflows with Kanban for flexibility.
Git integration: Supports efficient version control and collaboration.
Global Configuration: Manages complex configurations globally.
Compliance and reporting: Ensures robust auditing and comprehensive reporting capabilities.

What benefits should be evaluated in reviews?

Collaboration: Enhanced sharing across platforms for seamless teamwork.
Cost-effectiveness: Delivers efficient tools that optimize project spend.
Comprehensive requirement handling: Facilitates detailed requirement management through IBM Doors integration.

IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management is vital in sectors like automotive and manufacturing, where it implements Agile frameworks to manage requirements, conduct testing, and handle defects. It integrates into development pipelines ensuring live traceability and visibility, supporting critical engineering processes efficiently.

IBM

Need to manage your entire project lifecycle? From requirements and test cases, to tasks and code SpiraTeam has you covered. Powerful, straightforward, and flexible, SpiraTeam helps you get started fast. With SpiraTeam, manage your tasks and bugs quickly and easily, sync them with your team, and get back to developing. Integrated version control, testing (manual and automated), and customizable reporting, help you track it all.

Inflectra

Sample Customers

Tennis Australia, WeCloud AB, Port Otago Limited, Logicalis US, Valmer, The Chevrolet Volt, Ashurst

Cenduit, Maas Database Applications, DHHS Tasmania, Rota Yokogawa, ASI Business Solutions, ComputaCenter

Buyer's Guide

IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) vs. Inflectra SpiraTeam

September 2025

Free Report: IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) vs. Inflectra SpiraTeam

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