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IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) vs Targetprocess comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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...
Average Rating
7.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
20
Ranking in other categories
Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites (11th)
Targetprocess
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
8.1
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Agile Planning Tools (9th), Value Stream Management Software (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Application Lifecycle Management solutions, they serve different purposes. IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) is designed for Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites and holds a mindshare of 3.5%, down 3.8% compared to last year.
Targetprocess, on the other hand, focuses on Enterprise Agile Planning Tools, holds 1.7% mindshare, up 1.0% since last year.
Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM)3.5%
Jira11.0%
Microsoft Azure DevOps9.8%
Other75.7%
Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites
Enterprise Agile Planning Tools Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Targetprocess1.7%
Microsoft Azure DevOps31.3%
GitLab24.4%
Other42.6%
Enterprise Agile Planning Tools
 

Featured Reviews

LasseMikkonen - PeerSpot reviewer
CEO at byte
Has supported highly regulated documentation needs but requires a modernized user experience
I think usability should be improved in IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) as the top priority. If you look at the UI, it was literally designed ten years ago, and even at the time it was introduced, it was already somewhat outdated. Even though it is a professional tool, nowadays people expect at least some level of usability from their tools, regardless of how professional the task is. Additionally, if you want to utilize it on a wide scale in an organization, you need to train every person to use it. There is always a threshold for new users to start using it.
Joseph  Washington - PeerSpot reviewer
Project Manager at Target
Visual workflow has improved planning and reporting and now supports data driven decisions
The best features Targetprocess offers include web-based administrators of this application that allow me to do field level mapping in a significant way. It lets us use graphical and custom reports to pinpoint certain trends and I am able to forecast performance. Additionally, program board management, risk stroke dependency management, creating graphs and dashboards, and project governance planning are also great features. Targetprocess has positively impacted my organization because the license cost is low, hence saving a lot of time and cost. Efficiency has been improved. I am able to save approximately three to four hours per project. Also, it has increased levels of cross-team transparency.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The tools for requirement capture we have found very useful."
"You can customize the board according to your needs."
"It is very flexible and powerful for creating workflows, and in fact, it is the best solution available for creating workflows."
"The integration with Git works well."
"For companies in heavily regulated industries who are doing product development, IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) is a good tool as it helps them create documentation that satisfies auditors."
"One of the key advantages of IBM Rational ALM is its workflow capabilities, which enable seamless collaboration between development and production teams and ensure that all stakeholders are aware of the progress and readiness of the solution. Additionally, the solution is good for integration."
"I would rate the stability of this product a nine out of ten."
"The most valuable feature is the reporting of the CPU usage on the dashboard."
"I have additional thoughts about Targetprocess, as its biggest strengths are that it is highly customizable, can fit the needs of almost any team, it is a robust reporting tool, easy to use and administer, and provides all the functionality an Agile organization would be looking for."
"It is a very recommendable tool because it has had a significant positive impact on our organization, and the ability of Targetprocess to integrate with other tools has dramatically increased productivity by cutting down the time to market and project planning by half."
"I have seen a return on investment with Targetprocess, including improvement in cycle time from 97 to 45 days by understanding the bottlenecks and flow improvements through visualization and tracking functionality."
 

Cons

"When we started to use the product it was a little bit of a mess because we were not used to using it and implemented it poorly in some ways that would have been easy to avoid."
"Improvement is needed in bridging DNG and Rhapsody and vice versa for better data exchange from both sides with some trigger technologies."
"In the next release, we expect a traceability metrics configuration where we can configure the user stories. We also expect them to improve or simplify the query process."
"The stability of IBM Rational ALM could be improved."
"IBM Rational ALM is not that stable, at least in our company, it has several issues."
"The reporting functionality needs to be improved."
"IBM Rational ALM should remove the features not used by the customers and keep this product as lightweight as possible."
"The user interface requires significant improvement as it is overly complex."
"Targetprocess can be improved by enhancing integration."
"I believe that Targetprocess can be improved in areas such as integration, user experience, and customer support, which is somewhat slow and should be improved."
"One way Targetprocess can be improved is by making self-service in configuring new item types, workflows, and automation easier, as it currently requires us to pay a contractor to do these things, hence being a bit expensive."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is not cheap."
"We have a contract, but I am not aware of the details."
"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."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
16%
Government
9%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
30%
Construction Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Healthcare Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise12
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Large Enterprise10
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with IBM Rational ALM?
I think usability should be improved in IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) as the top priority. If you look at the UI, it was literally designed ten years ago, and even at the time it was i...
What is your primary use case for IBM Rational ALM?
For companies in heavily regulated industries who are doing product development, IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) is a good tool. It helps them create documentation that satisfies auditors.
What advice do you have for others considering IBM Rational ALM?
I would rate IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) eight out of ten overall, but it is of course difficult to tell compared to what. If it is compared to tools for advanced requirements manage...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Targetprocess?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing has been very cost-effective. The licensing cost is low and very straightforward.
What needs improvement with Targetprocess?
Targetprocess can be improved by enhancing integration. Also, personalization capabilities at every user level should be improved. I would add that it should allow users to navigate easily.
What is your primary use case for Targetprocess?
Targetprocess is a powerful product that is frequently used by the whole organization. The powerful visualization of my workflow is a blessing because it allows me to have a perfect distraction-fre...
 

Also Known As

IBM Engineering Rhapsody, Rational ALM, MKS
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Tennis Australia, WeCloud AB, Port Otago Limited, Logicalis US, Valmer, The Chevrolet Volt, Ashurst
Vodafone, NHS, Infineon, Kone
Find out what your peers are saying about Atlassian, Microsoft, OpenText and others in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites. Updated: August 2026.
913,683 professionals have used our research since 2012.