Polarion ALM Reviews

Pros

I find Polarion ALM to be quite a complex tool with a wide range of functionality. For example, I can create functional test times, measure the time of the test during execution, and make testing more effective.

Cons

I find the design to be older and confusing. It is quite complex, so there are times when I struggle to understand how it works. Additionally, I miss having a dark mode.

Pros

Polarion ALM provides full traceability. It gives me the ability to configure all elements, such as work items, documents, and widget pages, which allows a high degree of adaptation to internal processes. The integrated electronic signature and document workflow ease document release, and it offers a wide range of functionality to cover all software development-related process elements.

Cons

I feel that the document editing capabilities are not state-of-the-art.

Pros

For me, requirement management is one of the most useful features of Polarion ALM. It also provides a well-integrated solution for change management and source code management.

Cons

I believe integrations with third-party tools and automation using scripts should be added.

Pros

I find Polarion super flexible and very configurable. When I use the standard configurations, I only utilize less than 20% of the product. The power of Polarion lies in its customization. There are many extension examples in the contained SDK. Studying these examples makes my head spin as I discover a lot of additional possibilities to adapt Polarion closer to my processes. Even as a standalone product with standard configuration, I have a tool with a super solid versioning concept. I can look and compare every version of my documents, work items, and test runs; I can even examine when configurations were changed. This makes it very difficult to lose information. Also, Polarion is super stable. The underlying SVN repository and its data structure remain backwards compatible with very old versions. Plugins usually work after updates, although sometimes the JDK changes and requires recompiling.

Cons

It is easy for me to make mistakes due to the flexibility. With all this flexibility, it is easy for me to fulfill every small wish in every small team, which leads to dysfunctional cross-team processes. However, this is an organizational issue, not the tool's fault. Since the tool is very flexible, if I am someone who really likes to adapt a tool perfectly, I can overengineer and get lost. A Polarion Consultant usually knows the limit of customization I shouldn't cross.

Pros

We appreciate the high level of customization that Polarion offers which allows us to tailor it to our specific workflows and processes. We also find it easy to create our own extensions and plugins. Moreover we have access to a wide range of communitycreated extensions and plugins that can be used with Polarion. It is important to note that while we can implement our wayofoperating in Polarion the reverse is not possible.

Cons

The updating process for Polarion software involves reindexing all your data which can take a considerable amount of time ranging from several hours to possibly even days depending on how large your data is. If you have experienced a software update before you are likely aware of this.

Pros

One of the most useful features of this ALM tool for me is the simplicity of maintaining documentation, such as test cases and requirements.

Cons

The reports I can generate from Polarion are basic. I think they could add more facilities to create different kinds of reports and dashboards based on the data available in Polarion ALM.

Pros

I find the learning material easy to use and the performance impressive.

Cons

My team used the biggest package, and I do not know the cost, so it may be pricey. However, I suppose there are smaller license options for less money.

Pros

Polarion ALM offers many configuration options so I can map processes exactly as needed. Establishing and tracking traceability between work items is easy. Collaborative work is possible without any problems, and so far, I haven't experienced any major bugs or performance issues.

Cons

Some functions are somewhat hidden and less intuitive for me to use, such as adding paragraphs by clicking on the current work item. I need some time to completely find my way around Polarion ALM. As a suggestion for improvement, a tool or test run to check whether each work item meets the desired traceability requirements would be helpful.

Pros

Compared to other tools, I find Polarion easy to use and its core idea brilliant. All functionality is based on the same or a similar usability. This means handling requirements is nearly the same as handling test cases, issue management, change management, and so on. Workflows and attributes may differ, but the core functionality can be transferred to every area. The traceability and the reports or live-created information are easy to use and especially helpful in regulated areas like medical, automotive, railway, or aviation. But it raises the quality in any other area as well, especially when managing a complex system or a huge number of requirements. Consistency checks are very easy to perform, and as Polarion always comes with an "all in" installation, I do not need to add new software when using more and more features.

Cons

Since it is web-based, I have to remember to press the "save" button. To keep the speed high, it makes sense for me to use more tabs, but this makes it hard for me to get an overview if I have too many open.

Pros

Unfortunately, this paragraph only allows a maximum of 1500 characters, so I had to shorten it constantly to address as many advantages of this software as possible. I can create any work item types and track them. I can also link the items according to today's norms and standards and evaluate the links. It does not matter which method (agile or classic) is used in my project. Overall, Polarion ALM shines with its evaluation options and supports everyone involved in the project equally. I also receive support during testing, as the test execution and documentation can be stored with the requirements. The best part about Polarion ALM is the chosen document-based approach. URS, FS, and DS have documents or specifications and functional specifications for various industries. Anyone in my company who can use Word can write these documents. We have mapped and carried out a wide variety of projects from simple lessons-learned projects to IT operations and software development with or without safety.

Cons

The most difficult point for me is and was cross-project resource and project management. Depending on how my company is structured, I find that some functionality is lacking. There's functionality in MS Project that no one uses because such complex projects aren't managed with MS Project.

Pros

For me, the greatest advantage of Polarion is how easily I can handle traceability over multiple levels of development, between requirements (customer requirement to system requirement to component requirements, etc.), different levels of test cases, issues, and change requests. Report pages provide me a quick and easy overview of my data. Polarion has intuitive user guidance, and different project templates help establish agile development in my company to develop systems efficiently. Even when developing huge systems, Polarion's performance is still good.

Cons

If I want very specific reports or functions that are not available by default or in the extension portal, I need to build them myself using the open API.

Pros

It is easy to use and very well documented. I can import existing Word or Excel documents and reuse this data directly. The integrated risk assessment function and the optional variant management complete the coherent picture.

Cons

My test installation only ran after half an hour, which I think could be optimized.

Pros

I find the GUI user-friendly and the Word round-trip very quick and efficient. Being a web-based application adds to its convenience.

Cons

I found it impossible to make it run on our server.

Pros

As someone involved in writing requirements for the development team per our intended use, I find the traceability matrix to be the most complicated module in the software, but it is done properly and correctly. The navigation within the tool is also easy and reasonable.

Cons

In Polarion, there is no such thing as 'Folders' or 'Tree', everything is done by searching. If I do not give the right name or I forget, I can easily get lost.

Pros

Since Polarion is a web-based tool, I do not have issues with speed. The user-friendly, Word document-like interface for writing requirements makes it very easy to establish traceability between different levels of requirements. This tool also helps with the independent review of requirements. I can customize it according to the project or organization needs.

Cons

I think end users need a lot of training to use this tool, which is a bit expensive. I also need to save the document as and when the requirements are written on the interface document because there's no auto-save option.

Pros

I like the nice marketing slides, but it's hard to find any pros beyond that.

Cons

Even after spending a fortune on consultants, it still does not work. It is very slow, crashes frequently, and it is necessary for me to manipulate .xml files to get trivial tasks done. There are no administration tools, the user interface is outdated, and support blames the browser, but no major browser works flawlessly with Polarion. It distracts me from getting my job done.

Pros

This software provides everything I need to control the development of my teams in a single solution. I can see all the relationships between all the artifacts in development. I can deploy my own development methodology, from agile to waterfall or hybrid, even a custom-defined methodology, easily. I can control the status of development in real-time and extend or connect the solution with web services.

Cons

I notice some lack of documentation to make extensions or connections with other solutions.