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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    OpenText Dimensions CM

    Score8 out of 10
    N/ADimensions CM is Software Change and Configuration Management for Agile development, developed by Serena Software and now sold by OpenText.N/A

    Perforce ALM

    Score8.3 out of 10
    N/AHelix ALM (formerly TestTrack) is an application performance testing and application requirements management suite.N/A
    Pricing
    OpenText Dimensions CMPerforce ALM
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
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    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    OpenText Dimensions CMPerforce ALM
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
    Best Alternatives
    OpenText Dimensions CMPerforce ALM
    Small Businesses
    GitHub
    Score9.2 out of 10
    Polarion ALM
    Score10 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Git
    Score10 out of 10
    PTC Windchill RV&S
    Score2 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Perforce P4
    Score7.5 out of 10
    Polarion ALM
    Score10 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    OpenText Dimensions CMPerforce ALM
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    OpenText Dimensions CMPerforce ALM
    Likelihood to Recommend
    OpenText
    Serena CM is well suited to highly controlled, audited, and process driven environments. It will allow strict segregation of duties, and change traceability. If implemented correctly it will help you quickly build trusts with your auditors. It is also well suited to environments that require constant branching and merging. Due to the complexity of the product and learning curve for your development and operations team it may be overkill in a small shop with loose rules
    Incentivized
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    Perforce Software
    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
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    Pros
    OpenText
    • Code Promotion: Dimensions CM allows supervisors to control changes to code, in that they delegate requests to developers, and act as a gatekeeper prior to promoting to the next environment. This functionality is configurable so you can set up a workflow that best fits the structure and requirements of your own company.
    • Code Repository for changes and versioning: Code can be checked out by item or by synchronizing folders. Code revisions can be compared against other revisions or work files. Item histories show which developers made which modifications, and which supervisor and operations personnel were involved in assigning the request and promoting the code to each environment. Additionally a pedigree will show a stream diagram which graphically displays branches and merges.
    • Deployment: Serena Change Management offers help automating deployment including integrations with SVN and Jenkins. Its newer versions also have a powerful graphical deployment automation tool (Serena Deployment Automation- SDA). It comes with a certain amount of licenses built-in. If you have a many nodes to deploy to there will be separate licensing costs for that.
    Incentivized
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    Perforce Software
    • Traceability for design controls.
    • Managing workflow of bugs/issues.
    • Maintaining risk management information.
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    OpenText
    • The only major negative that I have encountered with Serena CM product is that the very power and flexibility of the tool means there is a risk that you will make a mess of things. In other words it gives you plenty of rope to tangle yourself with. I recommend careful, well thought out deployments implementing the built in roles and workflows that can be turned on and configured, using a consistent methodology.
    • My experience with the Serena help desk support has not been impressive. Though reasonably polite and diligent, the technicians were well trained, and often gave bad advise and terrible scripts. On several occasions I had to rewrite scripts they have me; if I had run them as provided they would have caused even more difficulties than the problem I was trying to solve. I speak of the support in the past tense because I conditioned myself not to call them, it was usually just easier to solve nay problems my self. They do have a good account management team though, and for any major issues you can go thru them.
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    Perforce Software
    • 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
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    Support Rating
    OpenText
    No answers on this topic
    Perforce Software
    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
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    Alternatives Considered
    OpenText
    Serena CM is superior to Microsoft Team Foundation Server (TFS) in overall functionality, but does not have very good native integration with Microsoft. Therefore in a Microsoft centric shop with no audit needs ,TFS would be better. Otherwise I would choose Serena CM
    Incentivized
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    Perforce Software
    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
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    Return on Investment
    OpenText
    • Serena has facilitated our annual completion of various audit and technology control certifications. These certifications make a huge difference to our company's reputation and bottom line.
    • There has been no negative impact on our company.
    Incentivized
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    Perforce Software
    • Improved management of requirements, risks and bugs to make sure they don't get lost in emails or long documents.
    Incentivized
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