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IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management vs. Retrace (legacy)

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management

    Score5 out of 10
    N/AIBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) is an integrated suite for managing requirements, engineering work, system and software models, and verification activities across complex product-development programs. It is used by systems engineers, software teams, test organizations, project managers, and compliance teams in industries such as automotive, aerospace and defense, medical devices, and public infrastructure.N/A

    Retrace (legacy)

    Score8 out of 10
    N/AStackify Retrace provides application performance management across the entire stack. Coupled with aggregated logs from common logging frameworks, find every exception in code. Retrace code with lightweight code profiling and track and monitor all key application and server metrics. The vendor states that with coverage for full lifecycle development, the Stackify Retrace software offering is tailored to be inclusive for multiple role types, and presents everything your team needs to know about…

    $99

    up to 3 servers, 500,000 traces, and 1,000,000 logs

    Pricing
    IBM Engineering Lifecycle ManagementRetrace (legacy)
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Essentials
    $99
    up to 3 servers, 500,000 traces, and 1,000,000 logs
    Standard
    249+
    2,000,000+ traces and 5,000,000+ logs
    Enterprise
    Custom
    Customer number of traces and logs
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    IBM Engineering Lifecycle ManagementRetrace (legacy)
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details—Pricing is based on trace and log usage.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    IBM Engineering Lifecycle ManagementRetrace (legacy)
    Considered Both Products
    IBM
    No answer on this topic
    Discontinued Products
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    78%
    Would buy again
    7 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    88%
    Delivers good value for the price
    7 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    89%
    Happy with the feature set
    8 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    5 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    86%
    Implementation went as expected
    6 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    IBM Engineering Lifecycle ManagementRetrace (legacy)
    Application Performance Management
    Comparison of Application Performance Management features of IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management and Retrace (legacy)
    Feature
    IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management
    -
    Ratings
    Retrace (legacy)
    6.4
    1 Ratings
    20% below category average
    Application monitoring00 Ratings7.01 Ratings
    Database monitoring00 Ratings6.01 Ratings
    Out-of-the box templates to monitor applications00 Ratings6.01 Ratings
    Application dependency mapping and thresholding00 Ratings7.01 Ratings
    Server availability and performance monitoring00 Ratings6.01 Ratings
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    IBM Engineering Lifecycle ManagementRetrace (legacy)
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    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    IBM Engineering Lifecycle ManagementRetrace (legacy)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    3.0
    (22 ratings)
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.0
    (6 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    4.0
    (5 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    5.0
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    IBM Engineering Lifecycle ManagementRetrace (legacy)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    IBM
    The software is robust enough to handle highly complex software development or other product development and can be used well beyond the range to do what a client needs. However, because of the inability to hold its users to proper best practices, things can get wildly out of hand and cascade over the years, creating unnecessary technical debt. The system has a lot of usable features, but they don't funnel users toward the correct processes and practices.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    If I need to change a logo design on the invoice, the new logo is slightly larger or smaller so the type below the logo is in a different area than before. In this case, you would need to load the new version of the document into APM Plus and redo the mapping of the field areas to properly grab the information needed to process the document. Without doing this, the document could fail or go to the wrong archive based on the fields.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    IBM
    • Open Services supporting Lifecycle Collaboration (OSLC).
    • Required definition management and managed capabilities enabling.
    • Rational DOORS Web Access for local on the test field presence.
    • On-sites established reporting system.
    • Approved linking requirements to test plans
    • Engineering Requirements Management DOORS traces requirements thereby eliminates manually processes and spreadsheets, for improved productivity.
    • Returns the investment efficiently.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • Integration of performance management with log management so you get the parameters sent
    • In-line log and error data in trace
    • Integration of error and log data, so in one click you can see all the logs recorded when an error was thrown
    • Very reasonably priced
    Read full review
    Cons
    IBM
    • I feel like it is too heavy sometimes and updating is not very straight forward. For example, if I want to change an incident ticket (IN) to a service request (SR) and add some comment for the change, I have to first change the IN to SR, then click refresh which takes a few seconds, then add a comment. If I forget the refresh step, my comment will be discarded without warning like my ticket is not in the latest status. This also happens when somebody else changes the ticket during my edit as I can not lock the ticket exclusively.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • To set up the fields that APM Plus monitors, you need to map each field area on each document.
    • APM Plus could use a way to link the documents back into the finance or business software so you can find the document under the PO, Sales Order, Invoice, etc.
    • APM Plus setup is only for the professionals. There are many areas that need tweaking on setup, having a better default setup would lessen the learning curve to set it up for use.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    IBM
    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
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    IBM
    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
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    IBM
    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
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    IBM
    No problems
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    IBM
    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
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    It is a very impressive tool which doesn't overwhelm you with unnecessary data. They have combination of tools that haven't seen by any other company which makes it a very powerful tool
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    IBM
    • It's part of CLM suite so it can be used to manage the whole lifecycle with tight integration with development module (Rational Team Concert) and quality module (Rational Quality Manager).
    • Comprehensive reports and dashboards provide better visibility.
    • License cost is on higher side.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • APM Plus has freed up users from having to manually attach documents to each place they are sending it. APM Plus will do it automatically.
    • APM Plus provides a searchable archive to re-visit sent documents with customers and vendors. Having to reprint a document you risk the potential that something has changed since it was last printed.
    • APM Plus does need IT staff for adjustments and to review sending problems. Not for an average user.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Retrace (legacy) Screenshots

    Screenshot of Detailed stack trace with inline error and logsScreenshot of Web Apps Dashboard:
The Apps Page gives you a high-level overview of all applications found and monitored across all servers in each environment. Click on any app to take you to the App Dashboard to view more information for a particular app.Screenshot of Apps Dashboard:
The App Dashboard is a powerful monitoring and troubleshooting perspective that gives you a view of application health across one or more environments.Screenshot of Performance (APM+) Dashboard:
The Performance section will give you a report of how well the application is performing overall, as perceived by your users.  A graph will allow you to view all requests by Satisfaction by viewing "Fast", "Sluggish", "Too Slow", or "Failed" types of requests.  Another report includes graphs of HTTP Error%, Satisfaction Score%, and Page Load Time.  Lastly, you will have the ability to sort each page request of your App by different categories: Satisfaction, Slowest page, Failed pages, pages hit, and total load time.  By clicking on an individual page a Performance Details page with further information about that specific page's health, performance, and errors will be displayed.Screenshot of Performance Traces:
One of the ways we strive to deliver relevant insights is to only collect traces around interesting requests. Some examples of these request types that are interesting would be faster than normal, slower than normal, new web requests, requests introducing new SQL, requests introducing new exceptions, or abnormal satisfaction scores. Under performing requests will be profiled more often than fast requests. As long as the app is getting steady traffic Retrace should be saving a trace every 5 to 15 minutes.Screenshot of Errors Dashboard:
From the Errors Dashboard, you can get an overview of all the exceptions of all your applications across different environments. It gives you a central location to view details about your errors.