Polarion ALM is an application requirement management software platform now owned and supported by Siemens since the 2015 acquisition. It is available on the cloud (Polarion X) and on-premise. Polarion connect teams and projects to improve application development processes with
a single, unified solution for requirements, coding, testing and release.
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.
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.
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.
Polarion ALM provides a centralized repository for capturing and managing requirements. Teams can define, organize, and link requirements to other artifacts like test cases and development tasks.
Test Management:
Polarion ALM facilitates end-to-end test management. Teams can create detailed test cases, manage test execution, and track test results.
Traceability and Impact Analysis:
Polarion ALM ensures traceability across all phases of the development lifecycle. Users can establish links between requirements, test cases, development tasks, and other artifacts. This traceability helps in impact analysis, allowing teams to understand how changes in one area may affect other parts of the project.
Customization and Adaptability:
Polarion ALM is highly customizable to fit the unique needs of different organizations and industries. Users can create custom workflows, define custom fields, and adapt the tool to their specific development processes.
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.
More robust engine as far as the actual took is concerned. There are navigation components in trace to reporting which we feel can be improved especially when dealing with cross global accessing of the tool. It slows us down a bit so it's backend driven optimization as well as some front end "clunkiness" that can be improved.
Improve some filtering capabilities especially in creating custom reports and generally all around the ALM components of the tool.
As of the version we have, the ability to enhance replationship types in traceability is limited.
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.
There is too much at stake to go into a new system. But with everything else being promised as far as newer more innovative products, the justification to not renew is a huge risk so that is not a concern
Polarion ALM can be used individually and what I do with Polarion ALM is decided by my configuration. Lesson-learned, operational risk management, product, system or software development or customer management .... doesn't matter at all. I decide with my configuration what I will do with Polarion ALM. Of course, you can also use Polarion ALM out-of-the-box for your development because it comes with a large set of project templates.For this reason, I would also recommend not to just get started. A suitable consultant will show you the right templates and customize them according to your needs. Having Polarion ALM is like having a car. You know exactly how to operate the car. You've done it a thousand times before. The details are in the configuration: did I have a navigation system installed or not? Do I have a lane departure warning system or not? Do I have cruise control or not? Unlike when buying a vehicle, almost all functions are already available and can be used, usually at no extra cost. However, if something is missing, it can be obtained via the manufacturer's extension portal. Individual extensions are subject to a charge. Polarion ALM - easy to deploy and easy to use.
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.
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.
Polarion ALM has the best usability, extensibility and reactiv product management. The support is also very good compared to other companies. Or in other words it is closer to the customer. Codebeamer is for sure also a good ALM tool with a great feature set, but existing customers are often neglected. We will see, what PTC as the new owner of codebeamer will change at this point.
