Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) vs Polarion ALM comparison

IBM and Siemens are both solutions in the Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites category. IBM is ranked #13 with an average rating of 7.2, while Siemens is ranked #6 with an average rating of 8.3. IBM holds a 3.9% mindshare in ALM, compared to Siemens’s 7.5% mindshare. Additionally, 76% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 88% of Siemens 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
Polarion ALM
Read 23 Polarion ALM reviews
  • 3,602 Views
  • 3,350 Comparison Views
88% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report
Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 6, 2025

IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management and Polarion ALM are competing products in the application lifecycle management category. IBM ELM seems to have the upper hand in customer support and integration, while Polarion ALM is more favorable due to its modular architecture and scalability, often seen as more cost-effective in the long term.

Features: IBM ELM is known for robust reporting, traceability across various tools, and seamless integration with other IBM products like DOORS for detailed requirements mapping. Its automation capabilities facilitate efficient data management and decision-making. Polarion ALM stands out for its customizable workflows, robust version control, and comprehensive requirement tracking. Its powerful document control and traceability features allow teams to handle all aspects of requirements engineering effectively.

Room for Improvement: IBM ELM could improve its deployment flexibility to better support cloud-based implementations and streamline its cost structure to appeal more to small and medium-sized businesses. The user interface could also be simplified for easier navigation. Polarion ALM may benefit from enhancements in out-of-the-box functionality for planning and management. Users have suggested simplifying the setup process and refining report generation for better user efficiency.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM ELM provides a traditional deployment process tailored for enterprises needing extensive support. Its thorough enterprise-grade customer service suits larger organizations with complex infrastructures. Polarion ALM offers modern cloud-based deployment, enabling faster implementation and facilitating agile transitions. Its efficient customer service is particularly beneficial for smaller, agile teams.

Pricing and ROI: IBM ELM's initial setup can be substantial but offers a good ROI with its comprehensive functionality and support. It is ideal for enterprises requiring thorough lifecycle management. Polarion ALM provides a cost-efficient pricing model with competitive ROI due to its lower upfront investment and scalability. This makes it an attractive choice for businesses seeking quick adaptation without heavy initial costs.

DOWNLOAD THE COMPLETE REPORT
To learn more, read our detailed IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) vs. Polarion ALM Report (Updated: September 2025).
Buyer's Guide
IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) vs. Polarion ALM
September 2025
Download the complete report
Helped 868,759 peers since 2012

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
19
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Polarion ALM
Ranking in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites
6th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Agile Planning Tools (7th)
 

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 Polarion ALM is 7.5%, up from 6.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Polarion ALM7.5%
IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM)3.9%
Other88.6%
Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites
 

Featured Reviews

Juergen Albrecht - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Read full review
Dina Bindi - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides traceability and compliance with high flexibility
It's extremely flexible. Configuring items is straightforward and doesn't require involving the supplier each time. We find the requirement management, test management, documentation, and dashboards very effective. However, we don't use DevOps-related features, such as integration with tools like SVN or Git, because we use Azure DevOps. The aspects related to requirements, testing, changes, tasks, and agile methodology are excellent, which is why we've been using it for a long time.
Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The cataloging is a very valuable feature. For a lot of enterprises, they end up not knowing which applications do specific features. The cataloging helps with this. It's not that verbose, but it still gives you allowances to put in more detail."
"The most valuable feature is the reporting of the CPU usage on the dashboard."
"The tools for requirement capture we have found very useful."
"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."
"The solution is customizable."
"It is relatively easy to use and user-friendly once the setup is complete."
"The integration with Git works well."
"It's easy to use."
More IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) pros
"It is a very stable solution."
"Polarion ALM helps us better structure our customer requirements, and we can also validate the specs of our products against those. If anything changes on our side, we see the impact, and we can see the effect If a customer changes requirements."
"The tool helped us to more effectively and efficiently gather and structure the information (requirements, test plans, project management data, etc.), and share it with the involved stakeholders in a safe and change-controlled manner."
"The features I find the most valuable are requirement tracking and schematics."
"The technical support is quite good."
"Polarion ALM's integration is very good and easy to use."
"Polarion ALM is excellent for tracking who is working on what and how many people are involved in a project."
"It offers good performance."
More Polarion ALM pros
 

Cons

"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."
"The GUI is a little bit outdated."
"The interconnectivity between packages is a major support problem and can be improved."
"Improvement is needed in bridging DNG and Rhapsody and vice versa for better data exchange from both sides with some trigger technologies."
"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."
"The stability of IBM Rational ALM could be improved."
More IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) cons
"The user interface of Polarion ALM needs improvement as it can experience changes that disrupt workflows, especially during major updates."
"Integration requires a lot of effort. You typically need to work with an implementation partner to get it done. Most connectors available for Polarion ALM are paid. Unlike other vendors offering several standard connectors for free, integrating third-party software with Polarion ALM involves discussing and coordinating with the third-party software providers, which requires effort."
"The most important thing for them to improve should be platform-independent features. They should also provide extensive pipelines and release pipelines that we can define and we can work on."
"The user interface is not yet optimized."
"I also recently suggested that CMS consider incorporating generative artificial intelligence into the system."
"Based on my understanding, the tool's integration capabilities with multiple tools is an area of concern that Polarion needs to focus on more."
"As Polarion ALM is a development-oriented tool, easy support or easy access is provided by default, but if I want to use detailed features, I need to write the script, particularly the VM script, and this is its area for improvement. I want Polarion ALM to have a graphical user interface that doesn't need scripting. In the next release of the tool, I'd like for it to not require scripting and programming because needing to run script language is time-consuming."
"The system’s technology is not the most current, leading to missing features that are common in web-based applications."
More Polarion ALM cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have a contract, but I am not aware of the details."
"IBM Rational ALM has both monthly and yearly licensing options."
"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."
"This product is a little expensive and we had to pay extra to have them set it up for us."
"The solution is not cheap."
"You have to pay around 50-60 euros per user."
"Our license for Polarion ALM is yearly. And it's not the cheapest tool that we've looked at. So if we had made our decision purely based on the licensing cost, we wouldn't have selected Polarion."
"It is an expensive product."
"Software for medical devices is always expensive."
"The license model is okay for large companies but would be quite expensive for smaller enterprises."
"The solution is expensive."
"If the pricing would come down and it was more affordable then we wouldn't have to switch."
report
See which vendors are best for you
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites solutions are best for your needs.
See recommendations
868,759 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
23%
Computer Software Company
13%
Government
12%
Transportation Company
5%
Manufacturing Company
28%
Computer Software Company
11%
Healthcare Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
4%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise12
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise12
 

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...
See all answers
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...
See all answers
What do you like most about Polarion ALM?
It is a very stable solution.
See all answers
What needs improvement with Polarion ALM?
The backlog management for Agile in Polarion ALM could be improved or enhanced in future releases. What is missing is that if you have a hierarchy in your backlog with epics, features, and user sto...
See all answers
What is your primary use case for Polarion ALM?
We are in our product development using Polarion ALM's functionalities. I am a power user, partly responsible for configuring the tool. We are using it for many things. The idea was to go for a req...
See all answers
 

Comparisons

Jira vs IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) Logo
Jira vs IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM)
Compared 24% of the time
Codebeamer vs IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) Logo
Codebeamer vs IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM)
Compared 17% of the time
Microsoft Azure DevOps vs IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) Logo
Microsoft Azure DevOps vs IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM)
Compared 12% of the time
PTC Integrity vs IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) Logo
PTC Integrity vs IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM)
Compared 8% of the time
Atlassian ALM vs IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) Logo
Atlassian ALM vs IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM)
Compared 8% of the time
More IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) Competitors
Codebeamer vs Polarion ALM Logo
Codebeamer vs Polarion ALM
Compared 31% of the time
Jira vs Polarion ALM Logo
Jira vs Polarion ALM
Compared 18% of the time
Microsoft Azure DevOps vs Polarion ALM Logo
Microsoft Azure DevOps vs Polarion ALM
Compared 13% of the time
Jama Connect vs Polarion ALM Logo
Jama Connect vs Polarion ALM
Compared 7% of the time
GitLab vs Polarion ALM Logo
GitLab vs Polarion ALM
Compared 3% of the time
More Polarion ALM Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM)
September 2025
IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) reportDownload IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) product report
Buyer's Guide
Polarion ALM
September 2025
Polarion ALM reportDownload Polarion ALM product report
 

Also Known As

IBM Engineering Rhapsody, Rational ALM, MKS
No data available
 

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

The world’s first 100% browser-based ALM enterprise solution, which enables seamless collaboration across disparate teams, multi-directionally linked work items, full traceability, accelerated productivity and automated proof of compliance.

Siemens
 

Sample Customers

Tennis Australia, WeCloud AB, Port Otago Limited, Logicalis US, Valmer, The Chevrolet Volt, Ashurst
Engineering Ingegneria Informatica, IBS AG, Zumtobel Group
Buyer's Guide
IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) vs. Polarion ALM
September 2025
Free Report: IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) vs. Polarion ALM
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) vs. Polarion ALM and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
DOWNLOAD NOW
868,759 professionals have used our research since 2012.
See our IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) vs. Polarion ALM report.
See our list of best Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites vendors.

We monitor all Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.