IBM 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.
Gemini is well suited to help track issues and change requests, projects, bugs, time logs, etc. It is less appropriate for reporting needs or general office management needs.
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 If not were superseded by completely different approaches for the target solution worlds.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.
File De-Duplication - Gemini does a great job of finding files that are bit-for-bit identical to each other. Typically these are caused by user replication, and Gemini sniffs them out and displays them for easy user decisions.
Similar Photo identification - Got a lot of similar photos, but not the exact same one? That's ok, this is a huge source of wasted space, and Gemini can deal with these too. If you're a "spray and pray" type of photographer, Gemini will help you clean up near-duplicate photos, helping you keep only the best.
Fast File Triage - Once Gemini has identified all these duplicates, what do you do with them? Gemini helps you triage the list of duplicates and easily decide which copies to keep. This is handy if you want to keep all files in the X folder, but not in the Y folder.
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.
Sometimes when I search for an Ad Group, duplicates appear. But when I go into the Campaign and look for the Ad Group, there is only one.
The line in which it says which Campaign and then Ad Group you are in should be frozen so that it would easier to select the Campaign to go back & then into a different Ad Group.
You can't search for a keyword by its affiliate id. That is extremely frustrating. When I search for a keyword by its name, it brings up all keywords with that name, no matter what match type it has.
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.
Gemini's development team continues to improve the product and provides a comprehensive roadmap of upcoming features that makes you want to upgrade as soon as a new version comes out.
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.
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.
I've never had any problems with the support for the Gemini application itself, but it seems every time I re-install (on a single machine), I run into a licensing issue. As a result, I need to go to the app's website and request that my activation key gets reset or resent. In either case, it's a pain, but as I have to reinstall infrequently, it's a small price to pay for an otherwise solid application.
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.
I have also used Google Adwords Editor - 4 stars and Bing Editor - 2 stars. The fact that it's so easy to edit a bid in Gemini is a big deal. And the toggle switch that changes a keyword or ad group from active to paused is extremely useful and easier to use than the drop down menus that Google Adwords Editor and Bing Editor use.
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.
