Polarion ALM Reviews & Insights

Score9.8 out of 10

44 Reviews and Ratings

Community insights

TrustRadius Insights for Polarion ALM are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.

Pros

Effective Requirement Management: Users have praised Polarion for its simple but powerful authoring environment, easy approval process management, and advanced reuse capabilities. Some users highlighted the seamless traceability features as a standout aspect of the requirement management in Polarion.

Test Management Capabilities: Many reviewers appreciated how Polarion allows them to link requirements with the validation process, define, plan, execute, and record tests seamlessly throughout the development process. They found this integration between requirements and testing to be highly beneficial for project efficiency.

Traceability and Workflow Features: The traceability and workflow of any object in Polarion were commended by users for their comprehensive coverage throughout the entire lifecycle, high customization options, and ease of integration into complex toolchains. Users also valued the impact analysis features that helped teams understand project changes better.

Reviews

25 Reviews

Polarion ALM Overall Review

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

January 16, 2025

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Siemens Polarion ALM to manage our software requirements process. Polarion ALM is broader than SDLC, providing a comprehensive software management process. In Polarion ALM, as many methods as you envisage can be implemented. Workflow processes are managed easily. There is no need to recreate software requirements. Requirements can be reused with the reuse and variant feature. This capability facilitates the work of the software engineer. The reporting capability is very robust. Reporting can be used to speed up many processes. I think it will provide an excellent environment when the deficiency related to data transfer is eliminated.

Pros

Reporting
Administrator
Tracelink
Integration
Rest API

Cons

Table capabilities. Polarion ALM should have table functionality like doors
data transfer from doors to Polarion ALM with baseline

Likelihood to Recommend

I don't think Polarion ALM is very good at retrieving data at the door. and remote modification cannot be made on the tables created in Polarion ALM. so users hesitate to use it.It is very nice that Polarion ALM can work integrated with many programmes. it can be integrated with almost all mbse tools I have seen.

Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology (10,001+ employees)

Vetted Review

3 years of experience

Polarion ALM - a smart, fast and versatile tool to get a handle on processes

Rating: 9 out of 10

October 28, 2024

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Polarion ALM not only as a development tool for our software and thus for requirements and tests, but we also use Polarion ALM for operational risk management within the framework of ISO9001 as well as for team organization and as a customer management platform. For our Polarion ALM customers we take over the server operation for OS (Linux and Windows) and Polarion ALM. We carry out migrations from PolarionX 2 OnPrem or Cluster in any combination. We advise customers who use Polarion ALM for software, system and product development on configuration, methods and processes. The methods play at least as important a role as the processes and their models such as A-SPICE, Do, GMP, GAMP and many more. The focus is also on scripts, extensions and widgets in a wide variety of favors. [...] - Is an independent company for consulting, implementation, operation, rollout, migration, workshop on Polarion ALM (and others). If you need a license, we will find a partner for you. Our slogan - everything from a single

Pros

Requirements Management
Test Management
Task Management
Release Management
Change Management
Risk Management
Team organziation
Customer Management
Lessons learned
Standards and norms
Quality Management
Agile Project Management
V-Cycle Project
Kanban Methods

Cons

Project management in the classic sense
Human resource management over multiple projects

Likelihood to Recommend

The question is actually not trivial to answer in 200 words. To summarize, I can say that we have had consistently positive experiences with all customers where we have used Polarion ALM. The sector in which the customer operates only played a subordinate role. We use Polarion ALM in almost all sectors: Medical technology, pharmaceuticals, aerospace, agriculture, automotive and many others. It is also interesting to note that in the beginning we were mostly active in the development of products, systems or software. Over time, this has changed more and more for some customers and risk management or projects for lessons learned have taken up more space. This enabled us to banish a seemingly endless number of Excel lists. Who doesn't know this problem: at first there is only one Excel list on the drive. Day by day there are more. Some with a date in the file name. Others with an employee abbreviation. In the end, nobody can tell which is the current and complete list. The really good thing about Polarion ALM is that it is extremely flexible to use and the configuration determines what the project is used for in Polarion ALM. It is customizable to my situation and not rigid.

Matthias Kienle

Senior Consultant & Principal Solution Architect in Professional Services at NAVI8 Consulting GmbH (10,001+ employees)

Vetted Review

16 years of experience

Polarion ALM for Requirements Management and traceability

Rating: 9 out of 10

March 28, 2024

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Polarion ALM to manage product requirements. Thanks to the flexibility of the tool, we could define different types of project templates, depending from the type of product and the stage in its lifecycle. We also use Polarion ALM of the management of User Acceptance Tests and appreciate the flexibility linking any object and creating hierarchies. We also appreciate the flexibility of the Polarion ALM configuration and its seamless integration with other tools. For example, we are integrating it with Azure DevOps and Teamcenter with minimal effort.

Pros

Requirements Management
Synchronization with Azure DevOps and Teamcenter
Cross references between projects

Cons

Collaboration in Live Docs (e.g. parallel editings)
Creation and sharing of project templates

Likelihood to Recommend

Polarion ALM is well suited for requirements management for products, platforms and portfolios. It also good for test management, in particular as requirements can be easily linked with test cases and test plans.
The LiveDoc feature is really powerful, in particular supporting the change management for users used to work with Word. Anyway, when possible we avoid to use LiveDoc as working only with Work Items is enough to manage the requirements. I would not reccomend to use Polarion ALM for CI/CD, as there are tools that are much easier to use in this area. It is also dofficult to find talents that know how to use CI/CD in Polarion ALM.

Michele Gobbi

PLM Product Owner in Information Technology at Mettler-Toledo (10,001+ employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

Polarion ALM - The All-Rounder in Project Planning and Development

Rating: 9 out of 10

March 27, 2024

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

As Tier 1 Supplier of Motion Control Solutions, our company is always faced with the challenge to manage its position between the OEM and our suppliers. The customer expectation regarding the compliance with automotive standards like ASPICE, ISO-26262 and ISO-21434 has increased over the last years. Stabilus works continuously on fulfillment of customer expectations in scope of Development of products with integrated Software, such like Power Door and Power Tailgate Systems. Polarion supports us to manage the whole project development including the requirements and the changes, as well as with matters relating to faults, configuration, and risks. But none of this was a surefire success: At the beginning, it was very hard to use Polarion, so it took a lot of work to adapt Polarion to meet the company’s needs, but now it’s hard to imagine handling day-to-day projects without Polarion.

Pros

Requirements Management
Test, Defect, Change and Risk Management
Project Planning and Monitoring
Traceability
Collaboration
High flexibility of adaptions

Cons

Complex Customization
Difficult to reset items or documents
Limited document and table editor
Polarion-to-Polarion connector not included for automatical synchronization between Stakeholders (Defects, Tasks etc.)
License model implausible, only ALM can create Test Runs or Plans but not RM
Several levels of traceability not generated down to the deepest level as required in the automotive business (i.e. Stakeholder Requirements to System Requirements to Software Requirements to Test Cases and Results)

Likelihood to Recommend

Polarion is well suited when it comes to import/export Documents that are neatly constructed such as ReqIF. But when it comes to Roundtrips with Stakeholders, that use other Tools than Polarion and ReqIF-Strucutre is a little bit different, it is hard to exchange documents properly. In case of wrongly imported documents, it is impossible to reset the failure directly inside Polarion.

Daniel Schartner

Requirements Engineer in Engineering at Stabilus (5001-10,000 employees)

Vetted Review

3 years of experience

Well-suited tool for support in the regulatory environment

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

March 26, 2024

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Polarion ALM in the development of medical systems. Polarion ALM helps us to comply with our processes and supports us in meeting regulatory requirements. The ability to supplement Polarion ALM with our own validated extensions allows us to provide user-specific views of the development artifacts and perform the associated evaluations. Processes and checks can also be automated, which can contribute significantly to increased efficiency and error reduction. We also use Polarion ALM to support our customers in transferring various processes to an ALM system. Depending on requirements, Polarion ALM allows a wide range of configuration options, from very restrictive settings that always remain close to the specifications, to relaxed configurations that allow greater flexibility in favor of more efficient processing. This breadth makes it possible to adapt Polarion ALM to a wide variety of systems and thus enable their digital transformation.

Pros

Traceability
Interfaces for customizations
Configuration options

Cons

Re-merge branches of documents
Linking Polarion ALM projects across different Polarion ALM servers

Likelihood to Recommend

In regulatory environments where compliance with regulatory requirements and processes is important, Polarion ALM can be a great help. A tool that can have such an impact naturally comes with a certain degree of complexity. It must therefore be considered whether the effort-benefit ratio of the tool is also worthwhile for very small projects.

Moritz Killat

Senior Manager in Quality Assurance at ITK Engineering GmbH (1001-5000 employees)

Vetted Review

10 years of experience

Full ALM process coverage with Polarion ALM

Rating: 10 out of 10

March 25, 2024

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Polarion to manage the whole software development lifecycle, from requirements to development to testing and release, in a collaborative environement that ensure full traceability across the overall workflow. Thank to Polarion we can link together all the activitites in a meaningful way, making easier to retrieve information when needed and to ensure that all the actors involved are working following the right workflows, reducing risks, errors and being able to anticipate any issue and resolve them earlier in the process.

It also makes easier to demonstrate the compliance to the needed regulations.

Pros

Requirement management in Polarion is extremely effective, with a simple but powerful authoring environment, simple approval process management, seamless traceability and advanced reuse capabilities
Test management capabilities allow to link together the requirements with the validation process, and let the user define, plan, execute and record tests across the whole development process
Day bay day management of development is easy to track, with out of the box support for agile methodologies, live planning reports and integration with Git, SVN and CI/CD tools.

Cons

Test management could have more ways to organize test sessions

Likelihood to Recommend

Polarion ALM is particulary effective when an organization needs a solution to cover the whole process thanks to its capabilities for connecting data, processes and artifacts across the whole workflow. This makes easier to control the process, to keep data consistent, to improve collaboration and speed of development, and to achieve compliance with regulations and standards

Davide Gualano

Presales Solution Consultant in Sales at Siemens (1001-5000 employees)

Vetted Review

15 years of experience

Polarion is real ALM

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

March 24, 2024

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We at Covalgo Consulting are using Polarion ALM for various purposes. On the one hand for our quality management system (ISO 9001) to guarantee compliance and legal standards, or for our internal CRM system, and on the other hand to develop our consulting products. Business analysis (BA) is one of our core competencies and Polarion is also the perfect tool to support all tasks of BA, from the idea - over concrete requirements - to the finalized product specification. Our customers value Polarion as a real ALM tool, with great possibilities for traceability and reporting. The tool Polarion aligns with any customer's process and can easily be adapted, even by the customer himself!

Pros

Traceability and Workflow of any object is guaranteed over the whole lifecycle
Polarion ALM is highly customizable and open to be easily integrated in a complex toolchain
Reviews or Audits are supported tremendously by the possibility of accessing all historical data of your projects
Many functions are provided to Reuse instead of Duplicate

Cons

Improve Documentation (API, REST-API)
Improve Administration
Improve ReqIf import/export functionality
Improve install/update/backup

Likelihood to Recommend

Covalgo is a consulting company, and we decided to recommend just one tool to our customers. I guess this describes best the trust and value we see in Polarion in the field of ALM. Any kind of lifecycle management over all industries is supported very well by Polarion.

Martin Lachkovics

Businessanalyst in Professional Services at covalgo consulting (1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

Reseller

17 years of experience

The All-in-One ALM Solution

Rating: 9 out of 10

March 16, 2024

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Our software development works according to an agile software development process that covers the following four phases: requirements management, the actual implementation, i.e. the development/coding, the subsequent (automated and manual) tests as well as the software evolution or maintenance including defect management. Appropriate isolated systems to support these phases were in place, such as Excel in Requirements Management, Trac for task management, TestLink for test management, and Mantis as an issue tracker. However, these systems were only partially integrated with each other, which meant that there were some weak points within the development process or in parts of it, such as media disruption, the use of unsuitable systems, Data redundancy, and as a result outdated or nonsynchronous data. By introducing Polarion ALM, the system landscape was significantly simplified. Tools such as Excel, Mantis, TestLink, and Trac could be replaced by Polarion ALM in the process, with the corresponding existing data from the systems being easily migrated or imported to Polarion. For example, the complete changelog with the entire version history of our software products is generated from Polarion ALM at the push of a button. Redundancy and manual data transfer have been eliminated in the software development process, which on the one hand saved time and, on the other hand, increased process reliability and transparency. Traceability presents complex relationships in a simple manner. For example, the connection from a failed test to the implemented user story, including associated code changes, to the original customer requirement can be traced. This enables the safe handling of changing requirements. Last but not least, Polarion ALM is very well accepted by users - in product management, software development, and support. The introduction could also be carried out with minimal training.

Pros

Traceability
Customization
Requirements Management
Test Management
All-in-one solution

Cons

User Interface
Customization can be complex

Likelihood to Recommend

Polarion ALM shines where it is intended to be used: Application Lifecycle Management. It fits well with agile development concepts, but the extensive customization abilities allow it to adapt to other concepts, too. It is suitable as an all-in-one solution, which is capable of giving transparency over all related areas, be it Requirement Management, Test Management, Release Management, Defect Management, etc., to the involved stakeholders.

Verified User

Engineer in Research & Development (51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

5 years of experience

ELM and beyond

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

February 29, 2024

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We are using Polarion as an enabler for our R&D process development. It has proven to be an unbeatable solution for solving our customers' business problems. Thanks to its configurability, the use cases for Polarion are virtually unlimited. It is rare for us to tell our customers that we cannot achieve something.

We utilize Polarion for all our information management needs and leverage it as the platform for developing systems for our customers. These uses are primarily within R&D, but we have also successfully implemented Quality Management Systems (ISO27001) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems using Polarion.

While Polarion may not be the cutting-edge tool for every application, its versatility often makes it the most productive choice. Its familiarity among users and its efficient integration with other processes are invaluable benefits.

Having worked with Polarion for over a decade, we have gained deep expertise in its functionality. Although Polarion is marketed primarily as an Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) tool with a focus on software, our clients are mainly developing hardware or both HW & SW.

Siemens has recently been enhancing features to improve usability and productivity, enhancements that our customers have warmly received.

Pros

Requirement management
Test management
Traceability
Information reuse
Collaboration
Configurability
Any information management where you can gain advantage from objects and documents.

Cons

Depending on complexity of application, it can be difficult to learn
Object oriented way of organizing information might be difficult due to high abstraction level
Massive configuration possibilities give also great responsibility and need clear focus on business benefits to prevent going too much tool centric

Likelihood to Recommend

Polarion is a swiss army knife of information management, but the biggest productivity leap can be achieved in Engineering Lifecycle Management. Especially in regulated industries where you have standards defining how to do you R&D, the Polarion is unbeatable. These industries include at least medical technology, functional safety, cybersecurity, automotive and all risk management. Also other high quality areas where you need similar control over development and bullet-proof traceability from requirements to testing (and maybe architecture).

Tommi Paunonen

R&D Process Consultant in Professional Services at Taipuva Consulting (11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

Reseller

2 years of experience

Polarion ALM as a systems engineering tool for managing a company

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

February 28, 2024

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We are using Polarion ALM as a management system for all the policies, procedures and guidelines, for training management, for the asset and risk management part of our operation. Using Polarion ALM we could implement a digitized management system and get a certification for ISO27001:2023 in very short time. The change control and traceability enabled by Polarion ALM is very useful if you need to have a structured approach in your operation. We also implemented the controls of ISO27002:2023 and with the reporting capabilities together with the traceability capabilities we could easly create coverage reports on how much of the requirements and controls that has been implemented and having links to the actual implementation.

Pros

Traceability
Reviews and approvals
Change management
requirement management
test management
Risk management

Cons

Workflow scripting from the admin panel
Configuration management capability on the oslc side

Likelihood to Recommend

Polarion ALM is great for digitizing work where traceability is required. Typical use-cases are within requirement management, verification and validation, risk management, and not only for software development. Polarion ALM can also be used as a MBSE tool with some configuration. The configuration possibilities are endless, for both good and bad. Find a knowledgeable partner for a successful roll-out!

Tord Ringenhall

CEO in Corporate at Taipuva (11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

Reseller

6 years of experience