Microsoft Azure DevOps vs OpenText ALM Octane comparison

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22,427 views|17,301 comparisons
95% willing to recommend
OpenText Logo
7,665 views|3,898 comparisons
94% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Microsoft Azure DevOps and OpenText ALM Octane based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Azure DevOps vs. OpenText ALM Octane Report (Updated: May 2024).
772,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Q&A Highlights
Question: What is the biggest difference between Micro Focus ALM Octane and Microsoft Azure DevOps?
Answer: Azure DevOps is well suited if you have a big team that is collaborating their codes and need to have devops pipeline for all build and release work. Also since this tool provides bug management facility, you don't need to purchase any other tool for that purpose. Moreover if you have your infrastructure built over Azure cloud then this is a best match for your requirements as it integrates well with it. If someone is already using ALM Octane, then it is worth the pain to go through the upgrade process to get the current versions. If you need it to tie into Jira, it can do that. Just be prepared for a rough road. If you have some other product that you use for DevOps, PM, and QA, you will probably be better off sticking with what you have. DaVita also uses TFS, but not in a full implementation (i.e. not with a build server for code deployment), so for them, ALM makes a lot of sense. If you are using TFS with a build server, there are other methodologies that won't end up making you want to pull your hair out trying to make it integrate with what you are using.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"We can track everything from the requirements stage to the production stage.""What I like the most about this product is that it's free and it's secure.""We can forecast tasks and the number of hours a task will take and can compare it with how long a task actually takes.""In Microsoft Azure DevOps, you have a one shop to get everything.""Typically the sprints themselves and managing the tasks have essentially eliminated our need for reporting.""The most valuable feature is that we can run integrations with DevOps. From a QA perspective and a testing perspective, we can run those tests and integrate automation tools. Then we can run those tests as part of the deployment process. Every time we are deploying something, it automatically runs all the tests.""The most valuable feature is that it brings order to our projects, and we know the status of each one at every moment.""Two of the most valuable features include the integrated project management suite, which consolidates source code and project management in a single location, and its powerful reporting capabilities."

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"The interface is user-friendly.""Backlog management is the most valuable feature. This was a capability that was missing or difficult to achieve in ALM Quality Center.""On the user side, what I like a lot is the reporting capabilities. There's no tool, to my knowledge, that gets anywhere close to Octane at the moment when it comes to the reporting capabilities. I can do everything with the reporting. There's nothing missing. I have all the options. I can create graphs, including graphs of several types and looks.""There are a lot of predefined reports. We can attach additional reports for users, like who worked on what defect and when, as well as what is the status of the release compared to the previous release. It is really endless. All the data is really linked together. Then, if all the data is linked together, there is an option to prepare reports out of it. We are very impressed with its reporting capabilities.""The key feature is the usability. It is fast to learn and easy to use. It's very intuitive to work with. Most of the important functions are available via a few clicks, compared to other tools where I have to open a sub-menu and then a sub-menu and another sub-menu, and then press a button.""It's brought our entire team into a single tool. We're all looking at the same real-time data. Our project management office has been able to set up dashboards for individual teams, and do comparisons by teams, of integration, and cross-team integration, burn-up, burn-down, and cumulative flow...""We like Micro Focus ALM Octane because its performance is okay, and its stability is okay, so we use it a lot. The platform is easy to use.""Its end-to-end traceability is one of the big advantages. Most of our agile projects work in a closed team structure. We are seeing what is the flow, where we are, and what is the project milestone. So, it provides end-to-end traceability and good visibility of project milestones."

More OpenText ALM Octane Pros →

Cons
"With Microsoft, I would prefer to have more test plans. It's very difficult to find individual test plan module training.""While reporting in Azure DevOps is a robust capability, there's always room for enhancement, particularly in providing more granular reports.""Azure has not yet advanced to the performance level of the other major competitors and is missing integration with important technologies.""I think that the integration is to some extent, immature.""The tool was developed for Agile project methodology, but I've noticed that there has also been a try to incorporate what is typically done in MS Project, which is for more sequential Waterfall projects. The problem with that is that it is half-baked for Waterfall projects. If you're going to do it, then either go all the way and allow us to use the tool for both or don't do it at all.""Microsoft could focus on refining the reporting and dashboard elements of Azure DevOps to improve it.""Proper Gantt charting should be a feature that is included because as it is now, we have to create it ourselves.""The functions have too much dependency right now, so it makes it really, really hard to upgrade and make a change in the code."

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"There is an opportunity for them to do a little more with the dashboarding. We still feel that HPE Quality Center/HPE ALM reporting is very powerful. We talked with R&D, and there are some things on their roadmap, but at the same time, their strategy is to connect Octane with visualization tools such as Power BI.""There are some challenges when we want to integrate the tool with other products, and it takes time for a team to figure out how to do it.""I like their smart analytics; perhaps they should continue to expand and improve there because it's a fantastic start.""I think the area of release management in the tool is an area of concern where improvements are required.""The reporting is lacking from a requirements matrix and a traceability perspective.""The Requirements Module could be better, to build up a better requirements process. There's a huge improvement from ALM.NET to Octane, but it's still not really facilitating all the needs of the product owners, to set up their requirements in Octane.""There's a trend in our requests to have the ability to export data, en masse, out of Octane. There are capabilities within Octane to export data, but there are specifics around test suites and requirements and relations, as well as certain attributes, that we would like to be able to export easily out of Octane and into a database or Excel.""Globally, I don't see many major points of improvement. It's mostly plenty of little things, and it's weird to me that they are not in the product yet. They are really details, but they're annoying details... Today, in the tool, we've got plenty of assets we can handle, like requirements, user storage, defects, tasks and so on. And to all of those elements, we can add comments. We can add comments to any asset in Octane but not to tasks. It's just impossible to understand why it's not available for the tasks because it's available everywhere else. Similarly, for attachments, you can attach files absolutely everywhere except on automated runs, which is, again, awkward. I don't understand why on this element, in particular, you cannot do it. It's little touches like that."

More OpenText ALM Octane Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "It's a good tool, quite rich, it has a lot of features, and quite a lot of analytical capabilities which are built on top of it so that you can see how your projects are going and all that stuff. It's a good tool."
  • "There is a licensing fee of $6/user per month."
  • "The price is cheaper than Jira and some of the other competing tools."
  • "It is the least expensive product in this class."
  • "I find that the pricing is good, and it is competitive with the other vendors in the market."
  • "Microsoft Azure DevOps is free for up to five users and allows you to track a maximum of three projects."
  • "It is a subscription model and I only pay for what I use."
  • "The price of this solution is fair."
  • More Microsoft Azure DevOps Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "Pricing is the weakest point. It is expensive, but the tool has plenty of features. The main problem we have is that the pricing is very high compared to some other solutions."
  • "It will be as expensive as ALM.NET, if not more expensive. But here's a good tip: If you have ALM.NET, you are able to share your licenses from ALM.NET to Octane. You just have to define a dedicated number of licenses on ALM.NET and then you can share them with ALM Octane, with some configuration effort. This is something that you have to take into account, that there is a possibility of such license sharing that could decrease your costs. Compared to open-source tools, the price the ALM Octane is definitely higher, in terms of the licensing cost."
  • "It's pretty pricey, one of the most expensive ones on the market... The value depends on if you use all the features that it has. It comes with a lot of features. The difference between the license structure of ALM and Octane versus JIRA, is that you get everything with ALM and Octane... For JIRA, you buy the pieces one piece at a time."
  • "It's expensive. HPE products, and now Micro Focus, have always been expensive. The license is not cheap, and it will always be a challenge, particularly for small organizations like ours."
  • "For what it does, it's very reasonably priced. I like the licensing model as well, because it's very flexible. You can scale licenses up and down for short periods of time."
  • "In terms of pricing, it's comparable to what we had previously. It's not priced at the higher end of the scale by any means. It's priced nicely, in the middle of the market. For what you're getting, it's a very good tool."
  • "Going forward, I think we will want to explore adding more licenses."
  • "The solution has reduced our testing costs."
  • More OpenText ALM Octane Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Answers from the Community
    Monica Aguilar
    Randy Masciana - PeerSpot reviewerRandy Masciana
    Real User

    Sadly, I have no experience with Micro Focus ALM, however, such facts may well hint at the answer to your question. By contrast, Azure DevOps has gained an incredible following, based on accelerating solid reputation, leaving many competitors behind. Also, as has often been stated, "No one ever got fired for buying Microsoft." That said, there are fact-based comparisons, which actually rate Azure DevOps higher (e.g., www.trustradius.com).

    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:Jira is a great centralized tool for just about everything, from local team management to keeping track of products and work logs. It is easy to implement and navigate, and it is stable and scalable… more »
    Top Answer:TFS and Azure DevOps are different in many ways. TFS was designed for admins, and only offers incremental improvements. In addition, TFS seems complicated to use and I don’t think it has a very… more »
    Top Answer:Valuable features for project management and tracking in Azure DevOps include a portal displaying test results, check-in/check-out activity, and developer/tester productivity.
    Top Answer:Hi Netanya Basically , it all depends on the use cases for your environment and the business needs. Hope the below data may be relevant to you for identifying your needs and deciding on the… more »
    Top Answer:The platform's most valuable feature is pipeline integration or continuous integration services.
    Top Answer:The product is highly priced compared to other tools. However, it offers substantial value. There is a distinction between OEM pricing and the final pricing for customers. They could understand the… more »
    Ranking
    Views
    22,427
    Comparisons
    17,301
    Reviews
    22
    Average Words per Review
    628
    Rating
    8.3
    Views
    7,665
    Comparisons
    3,898
    Reviews
    9
    Average Words per Review
    566
    Rating
    8.1
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Azure DevOps, VSTS, Visual Studio Team Services, MS Azure DevOps
    Micro Focus ALM Octane, Micro Focus Octane
    Learn More
    Overview

    Microsoft Azure DevOps is a cloud service that enables developers to collaborate on code development projects and create and deploy applications quicker than ever before. The service helps unite developers, project managers, and software development experts through a collaborative experience while using the application. For the users' convenience, Azure DevOps offers the user cloud services through Azure DevOps Services or an on-premises service using Azure DevOps Server. In addition, it supports integration with additional services and adding extensions, including the ability for the user to create their own custom extensions. 

    Azure DevOps provides a variety of unified features that can be accessed through their web browser or IDE client, such as:

    • Azure Pipelines - Develop and deploy services to support ongoing application integration and delivery. Azure pipelines, which work with almost every project type and most languages, will automatically test code projects in order to make them available to others.

    • Azure Artifacts - Share packages and integrate package sharing between teams. Packages include NuGet, npm, and Maven, in addition to other private and public sources. Developers can now share and consume packages with other developers from different public registries.

    • Azure Repos - Offers source control of your code through Team Foundation Version Control (TFVC) or Git repositories. Developers can now keep track of any changes that are made in their code over the course of their project.

    • Azure Test Plans - Offers continuous and manual/exploratory app testing through several tools. Test Suites, or a collection of Test Cases, are grouped together in a container called a Test Plan.

    • Azure Boards - Provides a suite of Agile tools to track work, support planning, code defects, and general issues while using Kanban and Scrum software. Teams are in need of tools that are flexible and will help them grow. Azure Boards is a service that helps developers manage their software projects. 

    Benefits of Microsoft Azure DevOps

    Microsoft Azure DevOps offers many benefits, including:

    • A quick setup and easy deployment
    • An elastic scale
    • Exceptional security
    • No-maintenance operations
    • Effortless collaboration through domains
    • The ability to create and deploy products faster than traditional software

    Reviews from Real Users

    Microsoft Azure DevOps stands out among its competitors for a variety of reasons. Two major ones are its ability to forecast how long each task will take and the ability for users to follow the entire development process.

    PeerSpot viewers note the effectiveness of this solution. An executive chief operating officer for a cloud provider notes, “We can forecast tasks and the number of hours a task will take and can compare it with how long a task actually takes.” 

    Carlos H., a product and system director at SPCM, writes, “I think the most usable thing is that you can follow the whole progress of the development process. This makes it very useful for us.”

    OpenText ALM Octane helps organizations implement a “quality everywhere” approach and improve Agile and DevOps development and testing processes to improve the flow of work across the software delivery value stream. You can tightly align quality efforts from development to release, employ a broad range of tests anchored by automation, and continuously monitor and improve for increased throughput. OpenText fosters an open approach so that quality is visible, traceable, and continuously improved. By synchronizing quality and testing with Agile and DevOps processes, risks are mitigated early in the software delivery value stream – speeding the way for faster delivery and improved customer satisfaction.

    ALM Octane facilitates a tailored and scalable approach for large enterprises. You can deploy your way and minimize infrastructure needs with deployment options spanning on-premises, SaaS, and public cloud (Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure Marketplaces). Similarly, various licensing options can tailor the features to meet specific needs with support for thousands of concurrent users in geographically disperse locations.

    Sample Customers
    Alaska Airlines, Iberia Airlines, Columbia, Skype
    Orange, Airbus, Haufe Group, Kellogg's, Claro, Bon Secours, World Wide Technology
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company23%
    Financial Services Firm15%
    Energy/Utilities Company11%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company13%
    Manufacturing Company12%
    Financial Services Firm11%
    Government9%
    REVIEWERS
    Comms Service Provider27%
    Financial Services Firm27%
    Transportation Company19%
    Energy/Utilities Company4%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm28%
    Computer Software Company12%
    Manufacturing Company10%
    Government9%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business31%
    Midsize Enterprise18%
    Large Enterprise51%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business18%
    Midsize Enterprise14%
    Large Enterprise68%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business18%
    Midsize Enterprise3%
    Large Enterprise79%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business13%
    Midsize Enterprise8%
    Large Enterprise79%
    Buyer's Guide
    Microsoft Azure DevOps vs. OpenText ALM Octane
    May 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Azure DevOps vs. OpenText ALM Octane and other solutions. Updated: May 2024.
    772,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Microsoft Azure DevOps is ranked 2nd in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites with 127 reviews while OpenText ALM Octane is ranked 7th in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites with 38 reviews. Microsoft Azure DevOps is rated 8.2, while OpenText ALM Octane is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of Microsoft Azure DevOps writes "Allows us to deploy code to production without releasing certain features immediately and agile project management capabilities offer resource-leveling". On the other hand, the top reviewer of OpenText ALM Octane writes "Reporting engine, widgets, and dashboards are a huge plus, and powerful REST interface means we can interact with other tools". Microsoft Azure DevOps is most compared with GitLab, Jira, TFS, Rally Software and Octopus Deploy, whereas OpenText ALM Octane is most compared with Jira, OpenText ALM / Quality Center, Rally Software, GitLab and Codebeamer. See our Microsoft Azure DevOps vs. OpenText ALM Octane report.

    See our list of best Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites vendors and best Enterprise Agile Planning Tools 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.