IBM Rational ALM vs Microsoft Azure DevOps comparison

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between IBM Rational ALM and Microsoft Azure DevOps 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 IBM Rational ALM vs. Microsoft Azure DevOps Report (Updated: March 2024).
763,955 professionals have used our research since 2012.
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 have something called the GC (global configuration), which is a unique feature compared to any other competitor we have in the ALM space.""At the same time, if you're working from the architect or the designing team you, it's quite easy to manage the resources online.""The most valuable feature is the reporting of the CPU usage on the dashboard.""The solution is customizable.""It helped us contain critical things, like source code and several documents, which is very important to us.""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.""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 integration with Git works well."

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"It is a cloud-based system. So, it is stable and scalable.""Stable and scalable solution for work planning and code collaboration. It's fast, and it offers a good user experience.""The most valuable feature is that it's fully integrated, where we have a single place to do everything that we need.""The solution is scalable.""I like the cloud infrastructure of Microsoft Azure DevOps.""You can have test cases in DevOps but not in JIRA. And, DevOps has advantages in terms of executing those test cases.""Azure enables us to create a staging environment through to a production environment in an easier way and then get the code and run that.""Most of the features are very valuable for us, especially the source code control and task management."

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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.""IBM Rational ALM should remove the features not used by the customers and keep this product as lightweight as possible.""The GUI is a little bit outdated.""The features should be more intuitive. If I'm looking for something, its location should be easy to locate.""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 solution can improve in the development area and the customized applications.""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 reporting functionality needs to be improved."

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"It should have security features for scanning the code and checking it for vulnerability and security. Currently, I am using other tools for this. It should also have integration with other tools to improve security.""I would like to see a bit more project tracking.""There could more integration with other platforms.""At times, our development work encounters issues, particularly when executing numerous CI/CD processes.""The UI could be improved.""It should be able to handle the different types. There is ecosystems engineering, and there is software applications engineering. There is a need to bring these teams together, but the disciplines don't integrate very well, and so it won't work.""Compared to JIRA, I think Azure DevOps is missing some management elements, like some reporting features. It would be helpful if some things were clearer when we're adding attributes. For instance, sometimes we want to add some categories or attributes, and it's not so easy.""Incorporating security tools directly into DevOps is crucial, as many existing DevOps solutions lack robust security features."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "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."
  • "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."
  • "IBM Rational ALM has both monthly and yearly licensing options."
  • "The solution is not cheap."
  • More IBM Rational ALM 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 →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:We have some special needs. The product does not support our needs perfectly. The GUI is a little bit outdated. There are not many diagrams that help us organize or plan the work for the team. The… more »
    Top Answer:We have three modules. The DOORS module is for requirements. RTC is for storage planning and workflow planning. We also use the module for quality. We use IBM Rational ALM as the main tool to plan… more »
    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:The build and release management features are valuable.
    Ranking
    Views
    1,611
    Comparisons
    1,191
    Reviews
    7
    Average Words per Review
    396
    Rating
    7.4
    Views
    26,984
    Comparisons
    20,439
    Reviews
    18
    Average Words per Review
    614
    Rating
    8.1
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Rational ALM, MKS
    Azure DevOps, VSTS, Visual Studio Team Services, MS Azure DevOps
    Learn More
    Overview
    Lifecycle management capabilities built on the open, unifying IBM Rational Jazz platform can help agile and traditional teams: see at-a-glance status, access better data for decisions, manage costs, reuse the most efficient processes across the organization, manage cloud, web, SOA and mobile application design and development. Teams can also gain real-time traceability, manage work across vendors, unify across a diverse set of lifecyle tools, and provide collaborative development for continuous delivery as part of the IBM DevOps solution.

    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.”

    Sample Customers
    Tennis Australia, WeCloud AB, Port Otago Limited, Logicalis US, Valmer, The Chevrolet Volt, Ashurst
    Alaska Airlines, Iberia Airlines, Columbia, Skype
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company38%
    Manufacturing Company23%
    Comms Service Provider15%
    Government8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Manufacturing Company21%
    Computer Software Company14%
    Financial Services Firm8%
    Government8%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company23%
    Financial Services Firm14%
    Energy/Utilities Company11%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company13%
    Manufacturing Company11%
    Financial Services Firm11%
    Government9%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business21%
    Midsize Enterprise21%
    Large Enterprise58%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business13%
    Midsize Enterprise11%
    Large Enterprise77%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business31%
    Midsize Enterprise18%
    Large Enterprise51%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business18%
    Midsize Enterprise14%
    Large Enterprise68%
    Buyer's Guide
    IBM Rational ALM vs. Microsoft Azure DevOps
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Rational ALM vs. Microsoft Azure DevOps and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    763,955 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    IBM Rational ALM is ranked 10th in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites with 7 reviews while Microsoft Azure DevOps is ranked 1st in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites with 23 reviews. IBM Rational ALM is rated 7.2, while Microsoft Azure DevOps is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of IBM Rational ALM writes "Highly scalable and stable solution". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Microsoft Azure DevOps writes "High level protection, scales well, but more customer feedback updates needed". IBM Rational ALM is most compared with Jira, Codebeamer, Polarion ALM, PTC Integrity and Atlassian ALM, whereas Microsoft Azure DevOps is most compared with GitLab, Jira, TFS, Rally Software and ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management. See our IBM Rational ALM vs. Microsoft Azure DevOps 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.