BMC Compuware ISPW vs ChangeMan ZMF comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

BMC Compuware ISPW
Ranking in Software Configuration Management
2nd
Average Rating
8.6
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
ChangeMan ZMF
Ranking in Software Configuration Management
6th
Average Rating
7.6
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Market share comparison

As of June 2024, in the Software Configuration Management category, the market share of BMC Compuware ISPW is 34.7% and it decreased by 8.1% compared to the previous year. The market share of ChangeMan ZMF is 4.2% and it increased by 32.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Software Configuration Management
Unique Categories:
No other categories found
No other categories found
 

Featured Reviews

RJ
Feb 20, 2021
Does our CICS NEWCOPYs and Db2 binds, reducing operations and DBA workloads
One thing I would really like to see some improvement on is the promotion diagnostic messages. It invokes utilities "under the covers" to copy components, and it does not echo back any of the error messages from those utilities. So if we have an issue where, say, an old load module is missing an alias, it invokes IEBCOPY under the covers, and IEBCOPY returns a bad condition code. But there is nowhere that those messages are reported back to us. That's just a specific issue. In general, the logging and the message analysis, the output analysis, could be made easier to use. There are some features that are not well documented, so documentation could use a little help, on things like setting up deployment and which structures in the database correspond to which tables. The admin configuration of it are kind of arcane. It would be nice if the doc were brushed up and maybe there were some step-by-step guides on doing things. There are some out there, but there are some things, like propagation, that are simply not documented and we don't even know how to set it up.
BL
Mar 14, 2021
Very flexible with Johnny-on-the-spot tech support
I would like to see them enable parallel development for online. It's available now for batch stuff on the mainframe. Jenkins, IBM, and Rocket all supposedly already have safe and workable version of Git for the mainframe. With that in mind, we need to know where our feature is. Unfortunately, as good as ChangeMan is, if we're listing downfalls, they should be talking to me about this. Not me having to go talk to them about it. Hopefully, they have this in the works and they are positioning their product for the future. That's just a straightforward comment. It really comes down to whether they are complacent or not. The other thing that should improve is cost. Git, even on the mainframe, a large part of the components "free". They're the way you set them up yourselves and they're self-sustaining and built into the infrastructure. You can't charge me for that. I gave ChangeMan an overall score of eight, but what could drive them to a nine is coming up with a way for all my code that belongs together to be tracked and moved together. Everything should move based upon the mainframe; it needs to be alerted and synchronized.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I think the most valuable features are code management, code deployment, and code generation. The fact that those three features are included makes BMC Compuware ISPW a robust product. If one of those features was missing, it would be less robust and less interesting. But because it has those three features, it is a very good solution for code development and management."
"It does our CICS NEWCOPYs and our Db2 binds for us, whereas before, that was a manual process. It takes a lot of the workload off of the operations folks and off the DBAs."
"One of the features that the developers like is that they can retrieve what they need with the tool. They don't have to go through some process or request something be done by another team. They can get the programs they need, compile them, retrieve the JCL and alter the JCL if they need to, and put these programs wherever they need to go for their testing."
"The visual ability to see potential downstream impacts to changes being made assists our developers in understanding the impact associated with their change."
"We had parallel development before, but the way ISPW implements it is better. It has more control and oversight of the process, whereas before, it was like the Wild West. Everybody could have their own package with their own version of the component in it... ISPW is constantly aware of it. It notifies when someone else is using or has a different version of that component."
"We audit once a year for our ChangeMan access, accurate financial programs, and all of that. Auditors really love ChangeMan for how easy it is to get through and how tight the security is on it. Our internal auditors, external auditors, and SOX editors love this solution. We're in the healthcare business, so HIPAA regulations and all such things are a big deal, and this makes all that really simple."
"Scalability is great. It has absolutely met every need for us so far. We do have some concurrent development paths and we're able to flexibly assign variables. At the same time, our skeletons assemble where we want them to, so the scalability is very good."
 

Cons

"One thing I would really like to see some improvement on is the promotion diagnostic messages. It invokes utilities "under the covers" to copy components, and it does not echo back any of the error messages from those utilities."
"When you're setting up the parameters for how ISPW will work in your shop, there are a lot of questions that have to be answered... BMC Compuware should have more in-depth explanations about what the choices in each question mean. If you pick A, what does that mean has to happen? What does that impact? If you pick B, what does that mean? What does that impact?"
"The solution could be improved by being better integrated with the open world. In the next release, I would like to have the ability to work in an open environment whilst remaining integrated with the legacy environment."
"Better discussions to identify inventory prior to the start of any migration would be helpful for potential clients that have applications with code that is not modified often."
"There are some features that are not well documented, so documentation could use a little help, on things like setting up deployment and which structures in the database correspond to which tables."
"As such, there's nothing wrong with the product. It is great, but there are small things that can be better to make it much more friendly. The way you navigate through fields can be improved. If I'm going to stage a component over something that exists and that I've created in another library, and I want to pull it in and write it over what I've got there in my package, I've got to type in that data set name every time. That can be aggravating. It is not a big deal. The way things are sorted can also be improved. If you're doing a delete of a bunch of components, you can't sort those out by type or anything. Some things are just standard, and you can't look at them in a way that would be helpful."
"I would like to see them enable parallel development for online. It's available now for batch stuff on the mainframe. Jenkins, IBM, and Rocket all supposedly already have safe and workable version of Git for the mainframe. With that in mind, we need to know where our feature is."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I like the seat-based licensing much more than MSU-based licensing, and that the cost has been competitive."
"The price point is great."
"It's on a yearly basis. I am not aware of any additional costs."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
32%
Computer Software Company
19%
Insurance Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
28%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Insurance Company
13%
Computer Software Company
11%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about BMC Compuware ISPW?
I think the most valuable features are code management, code deployment, and code generation. The fact that those three features are included makes BMC Compuware ISPW a robust product. If one of th...
What needs improvement with BMC Compuware ISPW?
The solution could be improved by being better integrated with the open world. In the next release, I would like to have the ability to work in an open environment whilst remaining integrated with ...
What is your primary use case for BMC Compuware ISPW?
Our primary use case is managing and deploying code. We also build outputs from the code.
Ask a question
Earn 20 points
 

Also Known As

No data available
Open Text, Micro Focus ChangeMan ZMF
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

mBank, Standard Bank
SPTS Technologies, Generali France, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. (BBH), Kutxa-Vital-Banco Madrid, Space and Naval Warfare Information Technology Center (SPAWAR ITC)
Find out what your peers are saying about BMC Compuware ISPW vs. ChangeMan ZMF and other solutions. Updated: May 2024.
787,061 professionals have used our research since 2012.