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Broadcom Agile Requirements Designer vs SpecFlow comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 16, 2024

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

Broadcom Agile Requirements...
Ranking in Test Management Tools
8th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
21
Ranking in other categories
Application Requirements Management (6th), Test Design Automation (3rd)
SpecFlow
Ranking in Test Management Tools
22nd
Average Rating
7.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Test Management Tools category, the mindshare of Broadcom Agile Requirements Designer is 3.3%, up from 3.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SpecFlow is 2.1%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Test Management Tools Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Broadcom Agile Requirements Designer3.3%
SpecFlow2.1%
Other94.6%
Test Management Tools
 

Featured Reviews

Hosney Osman - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Solution Architect at Vodafone
Integration capabilities enhance testing and workflow automation
I rate Broadcom Agile Requirements Designer as 8 out of 10. It will be very nice if Broadcom has questions or comments related to my review and can reach me via email to clarify something. I want to be a reference for Broadcom. I don't have any information regarding the visual modeling function specifically. I'm not dealing with modeling requirements or generating optimized test cases in Broadcom Agile Requirements Designer. Broadcom takes a lot of information from us as end-users, and they provide fixes within two to five days maximum. My team has raised many enhancement requests and discussed them with Broadcom, and they are adding some of these features to the product itself. I look forward to receiving an email regarding these reviews, and I can add anything later if I forgot something, earning some points for this contribution on the website.
SD
Senior QA Automation Engineer at AMCS Group
Ensures efficient testing and validation of both business and technical requirements
In terms of improvement, SpecFlow's installation and configuration can be a bit challenging due to its flexibility as an open-source tool. While it offers a balanced flexibility, setting it up might require more effort compared to some licensed products that handle everything. However, SpecFlow is a framework, not an automation tool, so the actual automation is carried out through tools like Selenium. Despite setup complexities, the framework itself serves its purpose effectively. In future releases of SpecFlow, it would be beneficial to have some built-in methods for common actions like opening and closing browsers or implementing loops. Having predefined libraries for these functions would save automation engineers time and make the framework more user-friendly. While I'm not sure if such features already exist, they could be valuable, especially for those working on web applications. It would provide a generic and optimized solution that anyone can easily implement without worrying about performance issues.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The ability to create models/diagrams at multiple levels (nest/embed them) helps in taking models from high-level business requirements and building them into detailed requirements models and test models. Plus, it helps reuse lower level models. It also allows maintaining models at appropriate levels, even for very complex systems/solutions."
"We deliver test cases ten times faster and automate in hours vs. days or weeks."
"None came near to this solution."
"The modeling is a game-changer."
"Technical support is excellent. They provide solutions quickly for issues encountered."
"I like the way Broadcom ARD inserts test cases in execution mode."
"CA ARD has some beautiful features which I haven't found anywhere else. For example, when designing or creating our test cases and doing scenarios, we are able to restrict our flows. If we take a data link between two processes, we can actually restrict it, so that, in production, if our functionality breaks down, we can restrict that and all the flows related to it will be removed from the test data set."
"The most valuable features of this solution are the ease for creating test cases and the automation of the test cases from the user workflows."
"SpecFlow's best feature is the ability to add additional layers to the programming."
"It helps us to write down the scenarios in Gherkin and write down the implementation of each step and scenario."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is unit testing...It is also an easy-to-use and user-friendly product that can easily adapt to any framework."
"One of the most valuable features of SpecFlow for us is its risk identification capabilities."
"The initial setup is easy."
 

Cons

"Adding more connectivity to outside applications and the amount of detail we can export to systems of record could be improved."
"Needs improvement in aligning models so they look clear and readable without having to move boxes around."
"However, the documentation is not clear regarding best practices, so that could be improved."
"At present, there is no option for test data parameters from ARD for virtual databases. We have to create them in TDM and push them as well. Virtual database connectivity needs to be improved. They need to come up with some areas where they can create synthetic data parameters easily from the test cases that have been designed."
"Everything but the licensing was straightforward. The licensing is extremely complex."
"A template in App Test should be created in advance. This has proven to be time consuming. The process is not fully automated, because there is a lot of manual intervention is required."
"CA ARD is lagging in competing with these tools."
"It is not scalable anymore. It's not scalable because it doesn't support Kubernetes for making scalability, so I'm just going to increase memory and storage on the same machine."
"There should be more integration with the application life cycle management tools, including integration with Jira and Azure DevOps."
"I'd prefer in TFS if we could be writing test cases, not in the old classical version. We should be writing in Gherkin and then automatically have it convert that Gherkin test case into SpecFlow feature files."
"SpecFlow's installation and configuration can be a bit challenging due to its flexibility as an open-source tool."
"SpecFlow would be improved with the addition of functionality reporting, which would be really helpful for automation testing."
"Regarding improvement, it would be good if SpecFlow could provide chain testing, which it currently doesn't allow."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"At present, Broadcom works through partners rather than dealing directly with the consumer. When there are discounts given, it's up to the partner as to whether they want to give that discount to the customer. Sometimes, the partners decide to take the discount themselves. Pricewise, I would give ARD's price a rating of three out of five."
"We were able to scale down some resources to basically self-fund our ability to purchase the tool."
"This tool reduces the cost associated with test cases, automation script generation, and maintenance costs."
"Recommendation is to go with concurrent licenses as oppose to seat license; this gives more flexibility."
"​The cost of the tool was well worth the benefit that we saw on the back-end."
"The pricing model is based on how many people are using it. We have an annual license. There are not any additional costs."
"It is less costly when compared to other tools on the market."
"SpecFlow is an open-source product."
"SpecFlow is open-source and free of charge."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
18%
Construction Company
13%
Transportation Company
7%
Computer Software Company
6%
Construction Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
10%
Outsourcing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Large Enterprise21
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Broadcom Agile Requirements Designer?
It's not affordable; it's very expensive. It would be suitable only for large customers, and a large customer will think twice before making a deal with Broadcom.
What needs improvement with Broadcom Agile Requirements Designer?
Integration with AI is an area that needs to be improved quickly. To be clear, this relates to how to use AI to improve use cases, break down applications, and review designs, as this area needs to...
What is your primary use case for Broadcom Agile Requirements Designer?
This solution saves a lot of time in the software testing cycle because, with Broadcom Agile Requirements Designer specifically, I am doing a flowchart, and I can extract test cases and use cases t...
Ask a question
Earn 20 points
 

Also Known As

Grid Tools Agile Designer, CA ARD, CA Agile Requirements Designer
SpecFlow+
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Williams, Rabobank
Microsoft, Caterpillar, Siemens, Charles Schwab, IBM, Deloitte, Accenture, Philips, Dell, Deutsche Bank
Find out what your peers are saying about Broadcom Agile Requirements Designer vs. SpecFlow and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.