IBM Rational ALM vs. TFS
As of February 2019, IBM Rational ALM is ranked 12th in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites with 1 review vs TFS which is ranked 3rd in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites with 28 reviews. The top reviewer of IBM Rational ALM writes "Rich planning features including Sprint, Sprint retrospective, and rules in Scrum framework". The top reviewer of TFS writes "Can Provide A Centralized Place To Store All Source Code And Build Information For Entire Organization". IBM Rational ALM is most compared with JIRA, TFS and PTC Integrity. TFS is most compared with JIRA, Micro Focus ALM and CA Agile Central.
Add to compare
Most Helpful Review | |||||
|
| ||||
 Find out what your peers are saying about Atlassian, Micro Focus, Microsoft and others in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites. Updated: January 2019. 317,758 professionals have used our research since 2012. | |||||
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros | |
The planning feature is rich with Scrum concepts: Sprint, Sprint retrospective, the rules in the Scrum framework. | It's an integrated system that includes all the information that we need to deliver our products smoothly and to track the progress of each piece of code. From the project management perspective, the tool is efficiently managing teams by giving management information, such as reports, graphs, velocity, capacity, etc. The biggest value-add is the solution integrates well with most Microsoft products. Build definitions and releases within the product. allow us to put our latest applications in the field. It has great functionality: work items, backlogs, source code, build releases, and it's easy to use. Complete integration with VS IDE and Office tools: This give us a possibility of high-level automation, thus minimizing human error. Version Control: TFS offers both the centralized “TFVC” version control technology as well as the distributed “Git” version control technology. I like its MTM (Microsoft Test Manager) section which gives us options to create various test plans and add test cases into it. |
Cons | |
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 dashboard needs more enhancements. More options could be provided from the perspective of requirements management, which would help product owners to use the tool effectively. Since it is Microsoft, it is technology agnostic, thus it does not really fit into various different technologies in the organization. We are also using Microsoft Teams. The two products function separately. There is not enough collaboration between Microsoft Teams and TFS. TFS on-premise does not support integration with SharePoint Online. Not all of the functionality, which is exposed by the command line interface (tf.exe) is available in the Visual Studio GUI. TFS and MTM have their own style of working and they are different from other tools like Jira or TestRail, which are simpler and easy to use. Sometimes we feel that it need more CPU, and RAMs on TFS server, either we implemented the hardware with the product minimum requirements. |
Pricing and Cost Advice | |
Information Not Available | It is pretty expensive compared to other project management tools. If running TFS on-premise is expensive, maybe you could consider moving to the Cloud and use the Visual Studio Team Services. Use the Microsoft recommended “seat-based” licensing model. This allows a single developer with multiple machines to consume only one client license. TFS is on the higher side, but if you intend to use the tool as a complete ALM tool, it will reduce your costs in the long run. It's just as expensive as HPE ALM, without many of the features, best used for development tool only to avoid higher costs. |
 Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites solutions are best for your needs. 317,758 professionals have used our research since 2012. | |
Ranking  | |
Views 2,028 Comparisons 972 Reviews 1 Followers 197 Avg. Rating 8.0 | Views 38,298 Comparisons 22,168 Reviews 28 Followers 1,339 Avg. Rating 8.4 |
Top Comparisons | |
 Compared 52% of the time.  Compared 15% of the time.  Compared 8% of the time. | Compared 64% of the time.  Compared 6% of the time.  Compared 4% of the time. |
Also Known As | |
| Rational ALM, MKS | Team Foundation Server |
Learn | |
| IBM | Microsoft |
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. | Visual Studio Team Foundation Server (TFS) is the collaboration platform at the core of Microsoft's application lifecycle management (ALM) solution. TFS supports agile development practices, multiple IDEs and platforms locally or in the cloud and gives you the tools you need to effectively manage software development projects throughout the IT lifecycle. |
Offer | |
Learn more about IBM Rational ALM | Learn more about TFS |
Sample Customers | |
| Tennis Australia, WeCloud AB, Port Otago Limited, Logicalis US, Valmer, The Chevrolet Volt, Ashurst | Vendex KBB IT Services, Info Support, Fujitsu Consulting, TCSC, Airways New Zealand, HP |
Top Industries | |
No Data Available | Financial Services Firm43% Manufacturing Company14% Software R&D Company10% Retailer10% Financial Services Firm18% Manufacturing Company18% Insurance Company8% Healthcare Company7% |
Company Size | |
No Data Available | Small Business14% Midsize Enterprise23% Large Enterprise63% Small Business7% Midsize Enterprise13% Large Enterprise80% |
Find out what your peers are saying about Atlassian, Micro Focus, Microsoft and others in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites. Updated: January 2019.
317,758 professionals have used our research since 2012.
See also IBM Rational ALM Reviews, TFS Reviews, and our list of Best Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites Companies.
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.
Sign in to see all reviews and comparisons. It's free!
By clicking Sign in with LinkedIn™ you agree to let IT Central Station use your LinkedIn profile
and email address in accordance with our Privacy Policy and agree to the Terms of Service.
- Unlimited access to 23000+ reviews from real users
- Your own page to promote your professional skills
- Networking events and peer-to-peer consultations
Already a member? Sign in.
By registering, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
- Unlimited access to 23000+ reviews from real users
- Your own page to promote your professional skills
- Networking events and peer-to-peer consultations
Already a member? Sign In.