IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management vs. Pragmatic Workbench (discontinued)

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 If not were superseded by completely different approaches for the target solution worlds.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.

Incentivized

Workbench Enterprise is consistent across devices and users so far. It works the same, and access is easy. I have a problem with its security. If you use an enterprise password to access databases, it's very easy to click the show password on the connection page and expose the enterprise password. You shouldn't allow users to use the same accounts to access the database because that means all users are sharing the same password.

Incentivized

• 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.
• Lots of built-in report functions.

Incentivized

• Querying is easy and quick.
• Updating tables is very easy.
• It gives us very accurate error messages.

Incentivized

• 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.
• Does not support offline work.

Incentivized

• It has autocompleted, but I find it difficult to use or get to use.
• It doesn't automatically complete table names or field names.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

Our team does the support for us. Sometimes we see download related issues that can easily be fixed by our team. Most issues you will see with one user in your org will probably happen to others, so keep a log and track those issues. Then have a fix for them somewhere that everyone has access to. This will save you a lot of time troubleshooting.

Incentivized

No problems

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

• If you can setup DOORS to your project, you will experience lower costs.
• Also, less rework in the project, which means lower times to achieve your milestones.
• Finally, the cost of setting up a related project is considerably lower, and the estimates obtained in the process are much more precise.

Incentivized

• I personally like Workbench Enterprise, and I can do everything I need to do using it.

Incentivized