Helix ALM vs. IBM DevOps Test Performance

Helix ALM is very well suited for maintaining traceability between user needs, requirements and tests for medical device design controls. It allows users to customize the reports to create a traceability matrix or any other reports that are needed. It is also a good program for tracking issues and bugs and for storing/linking verification and validation test protocols and reports.

Incentivized

Go for IBM RPT if: 1. You're testing a Java-based Web application with HTTP protocol 2. You wanted to distribute the load across machines easily 3. Your team is in learning phase/not really introduced to a wide range of performance testing tools Do not go for IBM RPT if: 1. You wanted to test REST or any other advanced protocols 2. Your system under test demands a very high user load 3. Your application is written in .NET or any other platform except Java.

Incentivized

• Traceability for design controls.
• Managing workflow of bugs/issues.
• Maintaining risk management information.

Incentivized

• Live Monitoring of Performance Testing Metrics
• Easier Test Data Parameterization
• Performance Tests Scheduler
• Server Resource Monitoring
• Great Reports that can be Exported as HTML Reports

• Better integration with electronic document control systems like Arena PLM.
• Easier setup in the back end (customization is available but the interface is not intuitive).

Incentivized

• Memory utilization could have been improved.(Eats up system's RAM)! It may crash if a test is conducted with the heavy load if adequate RAM is not available in the VM/host machine.
• Licensing could have been made simpler. IBM's licensing method is difficult to follow.
• Support for protocols other than HTTP. Not really up to the current trend.

Incentivized

The support from Perforce has been extensive and allowed us to customize the setup of Helix ALM specific to our needs. They also hosted training sessions for our users and administrators and provided us with troubleshooting help during initial setup.

Incentivized

The other tools that we evaluated did not have all of the capabilities and customization that Helix ALM had to offer and therefore we decided to select Helix ALM.

Incentivized

IBM Rational Performance Tester is better in many aspects when compared to Apache JMeter. For example, you have ready made scripts to assist you, You have better monitoring of different performance metrics and can generate better reports that can be exported as HTML. The only downside of IBM RPT is that it can be very costly at times while JMeter is for free which is a huge advantage. That's why we try using in our organization a combination of both as much as we can.

• Improved management of requirements, risks and bugs to make sure they don't get lost in emails or long documents.

Incentivized

• Accuracy in metrics, thus improving system's performance
• Costs less compared to competitor like HP LoadRunner
• Helped the team of beginners learn things quickly

Incentivized