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IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management vs. Micro Focus Caliber (discontinued)

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management

    Score7 out of 10
    N/AIBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) is an end-to-end engineering solution used to manage system requirements to design, workflow, and test management, extending the functionality of ALM tools for better complex-systems development.N/A

    Micro Focus Caliber (discontinued)

    Score1.3 out of 10
    N/ACaliber by Micro Focus (formerly Borland Caliber), is an application requirement management offering. It has been discontinued, but similar capabilities are supplied by Micro Focus by Dimensions RM.N/A
    Pricing
    IBM Engineering Lifecycle ManagementMicro Focus Caliber (discontinued)
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    IBM Engineering Lifecycle ManagementMicro Focus Caliber (discontinued)
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    IBM Engineering Lifecycle ManagementMicro Focus Caliber (discontinued)
    Considered Both Products
    IBM
    No answer on this topic
    Discontinued Products
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    88%
    Would buy again
    7 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    7 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    8 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    5 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    6 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Best Alternatives
    IBM Engineering Lifecycle ManagementMicro Focus Caliber (discontinued)
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    Jama Connect
    Score9.4 out of 10
    Jama Connect
    Score9.4 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Jama Connect
    Score9.4 out of 10
    IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management
    Score7 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    IBM Engineering Lifecycle ManagementMicro Focus Caliber (discontinued)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.8
    (22 ratings)
    1.0
    (1 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.0
    (6 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    2.1
    (4 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    5.0
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    IBM Engineering Lifecycle ManagementMicro Focus Caliber (discontinued)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    IBM
    IBM Engineering Requirements Management DOORS former IBM Rational DOORS profits very much from the mighty market position it had till today. It had been the most favored requirement engineering tools suite with the highest investments in the infrastructure concerning hardware, software, and knowledge sources. It was embedded in knowledge sources of test stands, hardware labs, and knowledge database servers. It allowed for some of the highest profit changes and made the fame with it. But the paradigms of requirements engineering change. If not were superseded by completely different approaches for the target solution worlds. The foremost position in the selling tables is unstable if changes are not solved or coped with by the strategist at IBM and their customers. Since the highly successful alternative suits are already at the market, and some are from IBM already the lifecycle for IBM Engineering Requirements Management DOORS is at the later highs. But the suite is still at the very top and very popular. There are still many problems unsolved and many wishes at the customers to make the use more comfortable and efficient at the overall level. If the time of setting up the software package is passed the adoption get more extended and complicated. There is a lot of work at the stage around and the expertise will be required for a long time from now.
    Incentivized
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    Discontinued Products
    I personally would prefer other products on the market right now such as Microsoft Team Foundation Server and Test Manager. I think having a product like Caliber that can only do requirements without integrating with a another system makes things a little more time consuming.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    IBM
    • Easy to use with well defined template and user defined fields. New team can setup a project area easily by copying an existing template and adding customized fields for their special needs.
    • It can be used during almost the whole project cycle and give us a better view and control on the projects.
    • Lots of built-in report functions.
    Incentivized
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    Discontinued Products
    • Borland Caliber tracks functional and non-functional requirements pretty easily. You can easily add a requirement and attach a spreadsheet or a picture if needed.
    • Moving the hierarchy of requirements is fairly easy by just dragging and dropping.
    • Assigning users to approve requirements is simple by the fields included when adding a requirement and then submitting for review.
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    IBM
    • Wireframes are quite basic. If you need intuitive and interactive wireframes to elaborate the requirements. you probably need to define outside the tool and then upload as image.
    • ER (define data dictionaries) modeling is not there.
    • Use case modeling is quite basic. You can visualize the use case and actors relation but the tool does not enforce the rules.
    • Does not support offline work.
    Incentivized
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    Discontinued Products
    • I think Borland Caliber visually needs to be updated. It looks very out of date compared to other products on the market. The text box has a notepad feel to it and it's hard to make it visually catching.
    • Borland Caliber needs to be easier to integrate with other testing and development products on the market.
    • Having fields more related to URS and FRS would be helpful to auto-link to a document. So enter in a URS or FRS document ID at the beginning of a project in Caliber and then auto-assigning requirement IDs to link to pieces of code or test cases and having the user be able to decide a naming convention.
    • Borland Caliber needs a specific table for linking to a document ID and then each requirement could auto-generate a sub ID for each requirement to make the process of filling in User Requirements and Functional Requirements more efficient. Then the user should be able to modify the sub ID if the naming convention needed to be different.
    Incentivized
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    Likelihood to Renew
    IBM
    At the moment we are required by contract to continue to use the IBM DOORS software for our current client. Given that it can be expensive, if we were to use it after our current client's needs were met, we would have to secure other projects in order to justify the continued use of the software.
    Incentivized
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    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    IBM
    The UI is terrible and not intuitive. Users need training in order to complete tasks. Much like SAP, it's not the clearest tool. The tracing feature is especially complicated because you must write the scripts yourself. There is a learning curve. Also, even the setup, installation, and logging in each time takes a considerable amount of time.
    Incentivized
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    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    IBM
    It does a basic job and has the potential to complete some robust reporting tasks, however, it really is a clunky piece of software with a terrible user interface that makes using it routinely quite unpleasant. Many of our legacy and maintenance projects still use DOORS but our department and company use many alternatives and are looking for better tools.
    Incentivized
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    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    IBM
    No problems
    Incentivized
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    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    IBM
    It was easier to do all the change management-related activities, even configurations were handled very effectively. New process definitions and initiatives made it easier for better project deliverables. Effective resource allocations and better reporting and defect management. The overall cost of the tool is great too and well within budget.
    Incentivized
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    Discontinued Products
    I think Borland Caliber is better than Atlassian Confluence and has way more options for ease of use and reporting. Team Foundation Server is my personal choice as it comes as a package for developers to link to requirements easily and link to test cases. Borland Caliber is visually the least attractive of the three systems I have used. If you need just a requirement manager for tracking and reporting then Borland Caliber is a great choice.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    IBM
    • If you can setup DOORS to your project, you will experience lower costs.
    • Also, less rework in the project, which means lower times to achieve your milestones.
    • Finally, the cost of setting up a related project is considerably lower, and the estimates obtained in the process are much more precise.
    Incentivized
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    Discontinued Products
    • Having Borland Caliber would be nice if you only need to track requirements and your company does not do any developing or testing.
    • It does link very well with HP Quality Center for requirement and test asset tracking and ease of use.
    • Borland Caliber is cheaper than a lot of other products on the market that have the same features.
    Incentivized
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