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Polarion ALM

Polarion ALM

Overview

What is Polarion ALM?

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…

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Recent Reviews

The All-in-One ALM Solution

9 out of 10
March 16, 2024
Our software development works according to an agile software development process that covers the following four phases: requirements …
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Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Reviewer Pros & Cons

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Video Reviews

1 video

Application Lifecycle Management is Crucial | Siemens Polarion ALM Review
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Pricing

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What is Polarion ALM?

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…

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Product Demos

Polarion ALM. 22R2 release - demo and howto for REST API

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I4 Polarion ALM Traceability & Compliance Demo Video

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Polarion ALM. 22R2 release - demo of new features

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POLARION ALM. 21R1 release - demo of new features

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Siemens Polarion ALM OSLC Connect for Confluence Demo l SodiusWillert

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Polarion ALM - Automation & Reuse

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Product Details

What is Polarion ALM?

In legacy software development environments, many different point solutions are used to manage the application lifecycle. As a result, development artifacts are scattered, slowing down collaboration, hindering transparency, undermining integrity and making it difficult to drive innovation.

Polarion ALM gives organizations one unified solution that delivers project transparency through real-time aggregated management information. It is designed so that everyone is aligned around what is being built and why to drive advancement while protecting integrity and compliance. The vendor states this helps teams respond faster and with better quality to new business opportunities and customer demands.

Polarion ALM Features

  • Supported: Collaboration, Traceability and Workflow
  • Supported: Change & Configuration Management
  • Supported: Test & Quality Management
  • Supported: Requirements Management
  • Supported: Issue & Risk Management
  • Supported: Reuse & Branch Management
  • Supported: Planning & Resource Management
  • Supported: Agile / Hybrid Project Management
  • Supported: Build & Release Management
  • Supported: Connectors & Extensibility

Polarion ALM Screenshots

Screenshot of Combination and Appending of Multiple Live Docs 2Screenshot of Combination and Appending of Multiple Live DocsScreenshot of Document Baselines, Collections and ReuseScreenshot of Functional and user experience improvementsScreenshot of Performance and Sacalability OptimizationsScreenshot of Polarion Jenkins ConnectorScreenshot of User Groups Management

Polarion ALM Videos

Resource Traceability gives Polarion users the power to link source code assets semantically. (Link Work Items directly to the source code function, method or variable that implements them.) This gives managers and auditors a traceable record of all implemented changes and de...
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Many companies must have documentation meet certain internal Style Guides, or to match a document style provided by a stakeholder or customer. Watermarks are important for clearly establishing a status for released documents. We’ll talk in depth about these two important top...
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Effective use of Polarion’s ability to easily connect and collaborate with stakeholders ensures that requirements are complete and shortens the time to market. In this session, we’ll show how to maximize this functionality, bringing speed and accuracy to the development proce...
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Reuse is an important component in the ability to maintain governance and consistency throughout the software development process. Along with collaboration and traceability, reuse completes the triad of fundamental pillars that support, enable, and energize efficiency in the ...
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Polarion ALM Technical Details

Deployment TypesOn-premise, Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsWindows
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

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.

codeBeamer ALM, PTC Windchill RV&S, and Helix ALM are common alternatives for Polarion ALM.

Reviewers rate Polarion Requirements Management highest, with a score of 8.4.

The most common users of Polarion ALM are from Enterprises (1,001+ employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(40)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-22 of 22)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
Daniel Schartner | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
As Tier 1 Supplier of Motion Control Solutions, our company is always faced with the challenge to manage its position between the OEM and our suppliers. The customer expectation regarding the compliance with automotive standards like ASPICE, ISO-26262 and ISO-21434 has increased over the last years. Stabilus works continuously on fulfillment of customer expectations in scope of Development of products with integrated Software, such like Power Door and Power Tailgate Systems. Polarion supports us to manage the whole project development including the requirements and the changes, as well as with matters relating to faults, configuration, and risks. But none of this was a surefire success: At the beginning, it was very hard to use Polarion, so it took a lot of work to adapt Polarion to meet the company’s needs, but now it’s hard to imagine handling day-to-day projects without Polarion.
  • Requirements Management
  • Test, Defect, Change and Risk Management
  • Project Planning and Monitoring
  • Traceability
  • Collaboration
  • High flexibility of adaptions
  • Complex Customization
  • Difficult to reset items or documents
  • Limited document and table editor
  • Polarion-to-Polarion connector not included for automatical synchronization between Stakeholders (Defects, Tasks etc.)
  • License model implausible, only ALM can create Test Runs or Plans but not RM
  • Several levels of traceability not generated down to the deepest level as required in the automotive business (i.e. Stakeholder Requirements to System Requirements to Software Requirements to Test Cases and Results)
Polarion is well suited when it comes to import/export Documents that are neatly constructed such as ReqIF. But when it comes to Roundtrips with Stakeholders, that use other Tools than Polarion and ReqIF-Strucutre is a little bit different, it is hard to exchange documents properly. In case of wrongly imported documents, it is impossible to reset the failure directly inside Polarion.

Moritz Killat | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Polarion ALM in the development of medical systems. Polarion ALM helps us to comply with our processes and supports us in meeting regulatory requirements. The ability to supplement Polarion ALM with our own validated extensions allows us to provide user-specific views of the development artifacts and perform the associated evaluations. Processes and checks can also be automated, which can contribute significantly to increased efficiency and error reduction. We also use Polarion ALM to support our customers in transferring various processes to an ALM system. Depending on requirements, Polarion ALM allows a wide range of configuration options, from very restrictive settings that always remain close to the specifications, to relaxed configurations that allow greater flexibility in favor of more efficient processing. This breadth makes it possible to adapt Polarion ALM to a wide variety of systems and thus enable their digital transformation.
  • Traceability
  • Interfaces for customizations
  • Configuration options
  • Re-merge branches of documents
  • Linking Polarion ALM projects across different Polarion ALM servers
In regulatory environments where compliance with regulatory requirements and processes is important, Polarion ALM can be a great help. A tool that can have such an impact naturally comes with a certain degree of complexity. It must therefore be considered whether the effort-benefit ratio of the tool is also worthwhile for very small projects.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Polarion to manage the whole software development lifecycle, from requirements to development to testing and release, in a collaborative environement that ensure full traceability across the overall workflow. Thank to Polarion we can link together all the activitites in a meaningful way, making easier to retrieve information when needed and to ensure that all the actors involved are working following the right workflows, reducing risks, errors and being able to anticipate any issue and resolve them earlier in the process.
It also makes easier to demonstrate the compliance to the needed regulations.
  • Requirement management in Polarion is extremely effective, with a simple but powerful authoring environment, simple approval process management, seamless traceability and advanced reuse capabilities
  • Test management capabilities allow to link together the requirements with the validation process, and let the user define, plan, execute and record tests across the whole development process
  • Day bay day management of development is easy to track, with out of the box support for agile methodologies, live planning reports and integration with Git, SVN and CI/CD tools.
  • Test management could have more ways to organize test sessions
Polarion ALM is particulary effective when an organization needs a solution to cover the whole process thanks to its capabilities for connecting data, processes and artifacts across the whole workflow. This makes easier to control the process, to keep data consistent, to improve collaboration and speed of development, and to achieve compliance with regulations and standards
March 24, 2024

Polarion is real ALM

Martin Lachkovics | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
ResellerIncentivized
We at Covalgo Consulting are using Polarion ALM for various purposes. On the one hand for our quality management system (ISO 9001) to guarantee compliance and legal standards, or for our internal CRM system, and on the other hand to develop our consulting products. Business analysis (BA) is one of our core competencies and Polarion is also the perfect tool to support all tasks of BA, from the idea - over concrete requirements - to the finalized product specification. Our customers value Polarion as a real ALM tool, with great possibilities for traceability and reporting. The tool Polarion aligns with any customer's process and can easily be adapted, even by the customer himself!
  • Traceability and Workflow of any object is guaranteed over the whole lifecycle
  • Polarion ALM is highly customizable and open to be easily integrated in a complex toolchain
  • Reviews or Audits are supported tremendously by the possibility of accessing all historical data of your projects
  • Many functions are provided to Reuse instead of Duplicate
  • Improve Documentation (API, REST-API)
  • Improve Administration
  • Improve ReqIf import/export functionality
  • Improve install/update/backup
Covalgo is a consulting company, and we decided to recommend just one tool to our customers. I guess this describes best the trust and value we see in Polarion in the field of ALM. Any kind of lifecycle management over all industries is supported very well by Polarion.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Our software development works according to an agile software development process that covers the following four phases: requirements management, the actual implementation, i.e. the development/coding, the subsequent (automated and manual) tests as well as the software evolution or maintenance including defect management. Appropriate isolated systems to support these phases were in place, such as Excel in Requirements Management, Trac for task management, TestLink for test management, and Mantis as an issue tracker. However, these systems were only partially integrated with each other, which meant that there were some weak points within the development process or in parts of it, such as media disruption, the use of unsuitable systems, Data redundancy, and as a result outdated or nonsynchronous data. By introducing Polarion ALM, the system landscape was significantly simplified. Tools such as Excel, Mantis, TestLink, and Trac could be replaced by Polarion ALM in the process, with the corresponding existing data from the systems being easily migrated or imported to Polarion. For example, the complete changelog with the entire version history of our software products is generated from Polarion ALM at the push of a button. Redundancy and manual data transfer have been eliminated in the software development process, which on the one hand saved time and, on the other hand, increased process reliability and transparency. Traceability presents complex relationships in a simple manner. For example, the connection from a failed test to the implemented user story, including associated code changes, to the original customer requirement can be traced. This enables the safe handling of changing requirements. Last but not least, Polarion ALM is very well accepted by users - in product management, software development, and support. The introduction could also be carried out with minimal training.
  • Traceability
  • Customization
  • Requirements Management
  • Test Management
  • All-in-one solution
  • User Interface
  • Customization can be complex
Polarion ALM shines where it is intended to be used: Application Lifecycle Management. It fits well with agile development concepts, but the extensive customization abilities allow it to adapt to other concepts, too. It is suitable as an all-in-one solution, which is capable of giving transparency over all related areas, be it Requirement Management, Test Management, Release Management, Defect Management, etc., to the involved stakeholders.
February 29, 2024

ELM and beyond

Tommi Paunonen | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
ResellerIncentivized
We are using Polarion as an enabler for our R&D process development. It has proven to be an unbeatable solution for solving our customers' business problems. Thanks to its configurability, the use cases for Polarion are virtually unlimited. It is rare for us to tell our customers that we cannot achieve something.

We utilize Polarion for all our information management needs and leverage it as the platform for developing systems for our customers. These uses are primarily within R&D, but we have also successfully implemented Quality Management Systems (ISO27001) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems using Polarion.

While Polarion may not be the cutting-edge tool for every application, its versatility often makes it the most productive choice. Its familiarity among users and its efficient integration with other processes are invaluable benefits.

Having worked with Polarion for over a decade, we have gained deep expertise in its functionality. Although Polarion is marketed primarily as an Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) tool with a focus on software, our clients are mainly developing hardware or both HW & SW.

Siemens has recently been enhancing features to improve usability and productivity, enhancements that our customers have warmly received.
  • Requirement management
  • Test management
  • Traceability
  • Information reuse
  • Collaboration
  • Configurability
  • Any information management where you can gain advantage from objects and documents.
  • Depending on complexity of application, it can be difficult to learn
  • Object oriented way of organizing information might be difficult due to high abstraction level
  • Massive configuration possibilities give also great responsibility and need clear focus on business benefits to prevent going too much tool centric
Polarion is a swiss army knife of information management, but the biggest productivity leap can be achieved in Engineering Lifecycle Management. Especially in regulated industries where you have standards defining how to do you R&D, the Polarion is unbeatable. These industries include at least medical technology, functional safety, cybersecurity, automotive and all risk management. Also other high quality areas where you need similar control over development and bullet-proof traceability from requirements to testing (and maybe architecture).
Tord Ringenhall | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
ResellerIncentivized
We are using Polarion ALM as a management system for all the policies, procedures and guidelines, for training management, for the asset and risk management part of our operation. Using Polarion ALM we could implement a digitized management system and get a certification for ISO27001:2023 in very short time. The change control and traceability enabled by Polarion ALM is very useful if you need to have a structured approach in your operation. We also implemented the controls of ISO27002:2023 and with the reporting capabilities together with the traceability capabilities we could easly create coverage reports on how much of the requirements and controls that has been implemented and having links to the actual implementation.
  • Traceability
  • Reviews and approvals
  • Change management
  • requirement management
  • test management
  • Risk management
  • Workflow scripting from the admin panel
  • Configuration management capability on the oslc side
Polarion ALM is great for digitizing work where traceability is required. Typical use-cases are within requirement management, verification and validation, risk management, and not only for software development. Polarion ALM can also be used as a MBSE tool with some configuration. The configuration possibilities are endless, for both good and bad. Find a knowledgeable partner for a successful roll-out!
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Reseller
Polarion ALM (Application Lifecycle Management) is a comprehensive software solution designed to manage and streamline the entire application development lifecycle. It encompasses various aspects of the development process, including requirements management, test management, release planning, and collaboration. In an organization, the use of Polarion ALM can address several business problems and enhance the efficiency of software development processes. Here are some common use cases and the associated business problems that Polarion ALM can address.
  • Requirements Management:
  • 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.
  • User Interface and User Experience
  • Mobile Accessibility
  • Customization Complexity
Well Suited: 1.Organizations operating in regulated industries such as aerospace, automotive, or healthcare benefit from Polarion ALM's strong emphasis on traceability and compliance. The tool's ability to maintain a clear audit trail and facilitate adherence to regulatory standards makes it well-suited for projects where compliance is critical Less appropriate: 2.For small projects with straightforward requirements and minimal testing needs, Polarion ALM might be seen as overly complex. The tool's rich feature set may be more than what is necessary for less intricate projects, making it less appropriate for smaller teams with simpler workflows
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Reseller
We use Polarion in our projects for requirements management, testing and project planning. Polarion is very well suited for recording and coordinating customer requirements. These can then be refined into the subsequent levels such as system or component. Very good traceability is possible by means of the linking, which also supports impact analysis in the case of change requests. It is also possible to schedule the requirements into different releases. The link to testing allows us to ensure test coverage via traceability, and failed tests can be processed directly via an issue mangament and the errors corrected. Reports, either via board tools or self-written scripts, provide a transparent overview of the project for all persons at any time. A high level of integration and connections to other tools makes Polarion the central platform for managing the project.
  • Very good traceability
  • Reporting
  • Supports project workflows
  • With a good configuration, no issues with audits
  • Sometimes a lot of browser tabs are used
  • More features in the REST API soon
In the context of regulated environments like ASPICE, Polarion shines.

Less suited for small and less complex developments.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
One of the key business problems that Polarion ALM addresses in our company is the lack of visibility and collaboration in software development projects. With its centralized platform, Polarion ALM enables our teams to collaborate and communicate effectively, which lead to improved productivity and faster time-to-market. Additionally, Polarion ALM provides end-to-end traceability, which can help us to ensure compliance with regulatory standards and reduce the risk of errors.
  • Enter requirements via livedocs
  • Traceability between all used artifacts like workitems
  • Included easy to configure reporting
  • Inbtegration to MATLAB Simulink
  • Support for System of Systems
  • Product Portfolio Planning
Large-scale software development projects with multiple teams: Polarion ALM's centralized platform can help teams across different locations and time zones collaborate effectively, ensuring everyone is on the same page.

Compliance-focused industries: Polarion ALM's end-to-end traceability and audit trail capabilities can help organizations meet regulatory requirements and reduce the risk of errors.

Agile software development: Polarion ALM's support for agile methodologies, such as Scrum and Kanban, can help teams manage and track their work efficiently.
Mario Götz | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We have been utilizing Polarion ALM for Software as Medical Device development since 2006. It is fully integrated into our process landscape and serves as an excellent foundation for complete traceability. With proprietary configurations, widget pages, and embedded scripts, we can achieve full coverage of aspects such as requirements, document, test usability, and risk management. Additionally, Polarion ALM supports additional processes like tool validation and management activities. The platform allows for the configuration of all elements (workitems, documents, widget pages, etc.), resulting in a high degree of adaptation to internal processes. The integrated electronic signature and document workflow also facilitate document release. Overall, Polarion ALM provides a wide range of functionalities to cover all software development-related process elements.
  • Excellent Traceability
  • Fully configurable
  • Covers all relevant aspects of R&D related processes in Med Tech
  • Provides interfaces to relevant external software systems (e.g. for requirements import)
  • Provides all necessary features for document management
  • Document editor is okay but formatting is sometimes challenging
  • Some (minor) default settings are annoying
Polarion covers all relevant aspects of ALM related to our Design Controls based on standard features in combination with specific configurations and scripts (Pros): - Multi level requirement management - Traceability Matrices - Full set of templates Workflow control - Consistency checks (e.g. workitem states) - Digital signatures - Config Management: Component and artifact trees linked to requirements - Code repository linked to Polarion items - Dedicated structure and process for change management - Test Management - Risk Management There are no relevant aspects where Polarion is less appropriate.
Kevin Schmiechen | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
As the Institute of Flight System Dynamics of the Technical University of Munich, we use Polarion in research and teaching.
As part of our research, we work on lean model-based development workflows for light control systems (FCS) and unmanned aircraft system (UAS).
Based on our configuration and custom extensions, Polarion helps us to implement these workflows to reduce the effort for the users, improve traceability and ensure consistency.
Everything we have learned during our research, we try to include in our practical seminars so that students get hands-on experience with Polarion and already know what it means to work on the full lifecycle of the system or software.
  • Requirements engineering in a document editor
  • Customizable automation through workflow functions and conditions
  • Connectivity to outside ressources
  • Collaboration
  • UI could be more modern
  • Some areas of the API need more documentation
  • LiveDoc editor could more advanced (e.g. reference figures and tables)
Polarion is an established tool in the industry and works especially well with the other tools from Siemens (e.g. TeamCenter).
It is well suited for any engineering or software development project independent of the industry segment.
It works well for smaller teams but also large companies.
It's ready to use in short time when you only need built-in features or use existing third-party extensions.
Extending Polarion's features on your own takes time but then you can fully adapt it too your needs.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Reseller
As a Polarion Partner, we support companies from the implementation and configuration of Polarion to support, maintenance, administration and hosting.
  • High flexibility and adaptability
  • Reuse of proven requirements and tests
  • Specific extensions for requirements e.g. in medical technology
  • UI is intuitive, but could be more modern
  • Easy project start possible quickly, but training for competent use of the versatile tool makes sense
Polarion ALM is an established tool for the development of medical software or safety-critical systems. Due to its flexibility, it can be used excellently in a wide variety of industries and also for large numbers of users and international projects. Polarion offers everything needed for the development process and its optimization/digitization - requirements management, test management, full traceability up to variant management, individual workflows and roles, custom fields. Fast and easy import of requirements from Word and Excel. Proven requirements, codes and tests can be reused, saving time and effort when setting up new projects. Numerous extensions offer established solutions for standards-compliant development and documentation in regulated industries, such as our MedPack for lifecycle requirements according to IEC 62304 and our RiskPack for risk management according to ISO 14971. Thus, depending on requirements, a complete package can be put together that can be adapted very flexibly to the demands of the development process.
Phillip Bösger | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
In the first place, as a Siemens partner, we distribute the Polarion software.
Here we have the focus on the medical industry and deliver the software with our own extensions for existing problems. For our customers, we use it in risk analysis, product development, a formal review & release, and other areas.

As avasis, we use Polarion for our planning, developments and documented communication.
  • Interaction of Work Items and LiveDocs
  • Customizability
  • Planning functionalities
  • Review & Release
  • API usage
  • Save Hooks
  • Scaling and performance for large projects (LiveDocs and Work Items) in Polarion
Suitable for the entire traceability from product idea, development, market launch and activities after
Rainer Kreutzer | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We are using it as the Standard Requirements and Testing Application for customer projects.
  • Managing Requirements
  • Task-Management
  • Test-Management
  • All combined in one Application used from Locations all over the world
  • Improve Administration
  • Add more Functionality to the REST-API
Polarion ALM is a powerful software solution that offers excellent support for managing the application lifecycle of complex software projects. One of the standout features of this software is its scalability, making it suitable for businesses of all sizes. Regardless of the size of your organization or the complexity of your project, Polarion ALM can handle it with ease. Another strength of Polarion ALM is its system design. The software has a modular architecture that allows users to customize the system to meet their specific requirements. Additionally, the system design ensures that it can scale seamlessly as your organization grows. The Polarion Live Docs feature is another standout capability. This feature enables teams to create live, interactive documentation that is linked to the application development process. This ensures that documentation is always up-to-date and that teams can keep track of changes and updates easily. In terms of revision control, Polarion ALM provides complete traceability, enabling users to track changes and revisions throughout the application development process. This ensures that all changes are auditable and that compliance with regulatory requirements is maintained. Another advantage of Polarion ALM is the ease with which users can optimize their processes using Java/JavaScript. The software provides an intuitive interface that allows users to automate tasks, streamline workflows, and improve overall efficiency. In summary, Polarion ALM is an excellent software solution for managing complex software projects. Its scalability, system design, Polarion Live Docs, revision control, and the ease of optimizing processes with Java/JavaScript make it a standout choice for businesses of all sizes.
Hartmut Schäfer | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Mainly we, at ReQonsult, rollout, configure, adapt and maintain Polarion ALM in R&D departments of other companies. So, we gained a lot of experience in all industries and all methodologies implemented in Polarion ALM. We found Polarion ALM a very powerful tool to implement processes, ensure good process guidance, a high grade of process automation and proper collaboration in R&D. Polarion ALM has an excellent stability, robustness and scalability. The long missing REST API is finally developed and providing a good feature set. In general Polarion ALM integrates good into existing toolchain. The main features like Requirements Engineering, QA and Planning are well developed and good adaptable to any process. It is easy to make Polarion ALM an integrated part of a company. With 3-4 days of training to configure the tool and additional 4 days of training for implementing complex reports, complex check and automations or even extensions, it is done. The online help deserves its name. Typical feedbacks we received from are customers are: It just works. It is very intuitive. We get new Requirements Engineers productive within a hour.
  • Requirements Engineering
  • Process Automation
  • Good scalability
  • Reuse of artifacts
  • Transparency
  • Stability
  • Complete REST API as soon as possible
  • User Interface could be a bit more state of the art, like adding more drag and drop, save changes after leaving the field.
Polarion ALM is well suited for: Requirements Engineering Testing and QA and a basic planning integration with other tools It is less appropriate if you want to do a capacity planning. For this you need an extension from Nextedy. To do a risk management in a regulated environment like medical devices it helps a lot to by an extension existing on the market.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Polarion ALM as fully integrated development platform for Medical Devices. For this purpose, we configured the standard installation as well as customized it with multiple extensions to cover the Product Lifecycle from Requirements Engineer to Verification and Validation in combination with Risk Management, Usability Engineering, and Clinical Evaluation. In addition, we use it for general Quality Management and Regulatory affairs tasks as well as Process Validation, Test Equipment management, and SW tool management.
  • Polarion ALM is very robust and provides rock-solid traceability
  • Polarion ALM can be easily configured to adapt to our company needs
  • Polarion ALM can be customized to extend its functionality beyond the standard package
  • Polarion ALM provides inter-connectivity to other databases to integrate into our tool landscape
  • The user interface is a bit old-fashioned and does not provide many state-of-the art features such as drag-and-drop out of the box.
The existing extensions are extremely helpful to make your life easier for medical device development.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
When we worked on a locomotive project, we were responsible for managing the requirements, reviews, and test cases. In order to handle several projects and various documentation levels, Polarion ALM is utilized to link them and trace them back to each other. Management systems and software requirements may be managed with this tool, Additionally, it helps link and track the two entities. Since it is web-based, it also allows for user-to-user cooperation.
  • System and software needs may be managed in a systematic manner.
  • Because it is web-based, it makes it possible for users to work together.
  • It is possible to upload the papers and files.
  • Text editing in that program may be more sophisticated, similar to what you'd find in Word.
  • Views, like Table, Tree, and Matrix, aren't all that easy to figure out.
  • Finding items that fit specific criteria using filters is cumbersome and should be made simpler. This is particularly true when filtering numerous documents at once.
Because of its flexibility and ability to be tailored to your unique business, it is ideal for large organizations with numerous users that require online collaboration. However, users must undergo extensive training before they can begin using the system, and mistakes are common. When it is utilized for an excessive number of purposes, it may make things exceedingly difficult to understand.
June 23, 2022

Go for it

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We used to manage requirements, reviews, and test cases for a locomotive project. There are many line replaceable units in the system so Polarion ALM is used to manage several projects and different levels of documentation and the linking and tracing between the two.
Scope:- It provide a means to management system and software requirement
It also provide linking and traceability between the two
It also allow for collaboration between users since it is web based
  • manages multiple documents well and saves time in navigation
  • allows multiple uses to view the same document and provide comments and feedback
  • provide a means to management system and software requirements
  • The text editing could be more advanced like Word
  • The different views like Table, Tree and Matrix and not very intuitive
  • The ability to use filters to search for items that meet certain criteria is a little clumsy and could be easier, especially if you want to run a filter against multiple documents
It is good if you have a lot of users and need online collaboration and it can be customized for your specific company but it takes a lot of training for users to learn how to use it and there is a lot of room for errors. Sometimes it is used for too many things and it can get very confusing.
Score 3 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Polarion ALM is used to manage requirements, reviews, and test cases for an aerospace project. There are many line replaceable units in the system so Polarion ALM is used to manage several projects and different levels of documentation and the linking and tracing between the two.
  • provide a means to management system and software requirements
  • provide linking and traceability between the two
  • allow for collaboration between users since it is web based
  • Thet text editing could be more advanced like Word
  • The different views like Table, Tree and Matrix and not very intuitive
  • The ability to use filters to search for items that meet certain criteria is a little clumsy and could be easier, especially if you want to run a filter against multiple documents
It is good if you have a lot of users and need online collaboration and it can be customized for your specific company but it takes a lot of training for users to learn how to use it and there is a lot of room for errors. Sometimes it is used for too many things and it can get very confusing.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Polarion ALM is being used as a test management tool in my company. Am using Polarion since 1+ years, and i can tell you that this was one of the best Test management tools I've ever used. Everything is so easy to understand and the interface is user friendly. Easy to use and can learn this tool fastly. I use this for Test plan, Test cases authoring, Test execution and results review along with the close out documentation.

I definitely recommend other organisations to use this tool.
  • Re using process is much more easy
  • Uploading the documents and files can be done.
  • We can export our file's and TC's as well
  • We can lock our Test cases and Results as well, which is a good one. So that our data is safe and secured
  • Documentation process can be even more better.
  • UI needs some more improvement. Some buttons look like traffic symbols for me personally
  • Hard to find difference between which one is TC review and which one is TC execution
If you guys can fix all cons which i mentioned before then it'll be great tool without any doubt. I definitely recommend other organisations to use this tool.
Fred Sookiasian | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Polarion is used across the entire line of businesses in our entire corporation. Each business is its "own" entity but has crossover products and processes from division to division. As such, many products might share common components and imbedded technologies while each SKU is its own item and has its own "life span." Each division has its own sandbox but many higher level components within each sandbox span across multiple units. The business problem that it addresses is the disparity that would happen by either design or circumstance and it ties in through "traceability" all the aspects of requirements in the lifecycle that would otherwise fall through the cracks.
  • The workflows that are customizable in Polarion are amazing. They have specified workflows for companies that deal with different product lines related to regulatory requirements like medical devices. The ability to enhance "out of the box" workflows helps with risk mitigation immensely without having to allocate so many resources to get it going from ground up.
  • Reporting - bringing together dashboards with key metrics is an absolute must and leveraging output based on needs from executive level presentations to development metrics is a winner for us. And the drill downs are immensely useful for anyone who wants to get the microscopic view of what drives our success on that nth degree.
  • Over all Risk Mitigation: Risk based ALM is very important to us. The ability to integrate our regulatory SOPs into our own client defined formats and procedures gives us the leverage to tie in all that traceability I discussed earlier into palpable digests of risk which our company leaders use to drive vision.
  • Requirements management is an absolute nightmare for most people. Polarion helps us drive requirements on different levels like regualtory, business, user interface, etc. This ties in to all the risk mitigation criteria we so much rely on to make us succeed.
  • 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.
It is well suited in just about any large scaled environment. For the cost to benefit ratio, it works perfect for large scaled systems. With standard traceability matrix view and enhanced task management, it's a behemoth of a software and welcomed one. In the cases for smaller efforts or organizations, it may be a tall order so I would heed with caution for those people. Polarion has wonderful modelling abilities to test try any system being built. And the Risk Management components are down right amazing. Some filtering enhancements can help it rise to the top as well as performance optimizations.
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