IBM Rational is playing catch up in the ALM tool space, Gartner reports notwithstanding. Rational Team Concert 2.0 is an incremental step to answer MS Team Foundation Server 2008 and other ALM solutions. Both tools are too large to compare in depth in one article. The following article is a HIGH LEVEL comparison.
ALM disciplines and tools (modified from an earlier article)
| ALM Discipline | TFS 2008 | IBM Rational Team Concert |
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| The future release will integrate with Quality Manager to extend work item traceability to testing artifacts | |
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| Software Maintenance/Asset Management |
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Table adopted from RTC edition comparison (https://jazz.net/downloads/rational-team-concert/releases/2.0)
| Features | Express-C | Express | Standard | Enterprise | Microsoft Team Foundation Server |
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| Maximum Developers / Contributors | 10 / unrestricted | 50 / unrestricted | 250 / unrestricted | unrestricted / unrestricted | practical limit of ~ 3600 TFS users |
| Database included (optional) | Derby only | Derby and DB2 Workgroup | Derby and DB2 Workgroup | Derby and DB2 Workgroup | MS SQL Server |
| Application server included (optional) | Tomcat only | Tomcat (WebSphere) | Tomcat (WebSphere) | Tomcat (WebSphere) | IIS, WSS, MOSS |
| IDE support | Eclipse, Microsoft Visual Studio | Eclipse, Microsoft Visual Studio | Eclipse, Microsoft Visual Studio | Eclipse, Microsoft Visual Studio | Eclipse, Microsoft Visual Studio |
| Agile planning: daily, iteration, release |
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| Source code management |
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| Build management |
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| Work item tracking |
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| Customizable process |
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| Project milestone tracking and status |
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| Subversion integration |
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| N/A |
| Role-based process permissions |
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| Project level access control |
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| LDAP authentication |
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| N/A |
| Dashboards | (One per Project) | (One per Project) | (Unlimited Project, Team, and Personal) | (Unlimited Project, Team, and Personal) | |
| Cross-project dashboards |
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| Cross-repository dashboards |
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| Customizable work item attributes and presentations |
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| Customizable work item workflow |
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| Plan risk assessment |
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| Reports |
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| ClearCase Synchronizer and Bridge |
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| ClearQuest Synchronizer and Bridge |
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| LDAP import/synchronize |
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| HTTP proxy support |
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| Floating licenses available |
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| High availability | * |
* Entitles installation of a second copy of the server in an idle standby application server failover configuration. Requires WebSphere Application Server and optional high availability database configuration (DB2, Oracle, SQL Server).
One note on dashboards. TFS 2008 uses SharePoint portal, which allows all kinds of customizations, but there is no nice dashboard out of the box. However, TFS 2010 will change all that. See http://blogs.msdn.com/bharry/archive/2009/05/19/tfs-2010-project-management.aspx for more details.
Table adopted from RTC features (http://www-01.ibm.com/software/awdtools/rtc/standard/features/?S_CMP=rnav)
| Features | RTC Benefits | TFS Benefits (added for comparison by me) |
| Integrated work item management | Automatically creates and tracks progress of individual work items in accordance with team process and project rules. Additionally captures and maintains work item relationships to other artifacts, such as code change sets and builds. | TFS has had all features listed under RTC work item management. In addition, TFS extends its traceability and work item tracking to its integrated testing capability and testing artifacts. Automated tests can be incorporated into builds. |
| Integrated source control | Provides essential software version control, workspace management, and parallel development support to individuals and teams. Additionally, Rational Team Concert is fully aware and integrated into work items (why a code change was made) and build management (when did this code change make it to a build). | TFS has provided the same type of source control and work item management capabilities. Work item traceability also extends to test artifacts. |
| Integrated build management | Allows you to schedule and execute software build processes. Leverages multiple servers for rapid, cross-platform build processing. Integrates with work items and source control to create detailed bill of materials to guarantee build reproducibility. | TFS has had the same type of build management and execution capabilities. |
| Process awareness and automation | Guides team workflow with a customized project process and automates process steps and checkpoints at varying degrees of rigor. | Besides the out of the box MSF templates, TFS has process template manager to customize project and process templates. There are a number of templates, including open source Scrum, that may be readily imported and used. |
| Customizable project dashboard | Lets you stay on top of project progress, troubleshoot project problems, and take corrective action earlier in the project lifecycle. | TFS 2008 uses SharePoint portal, which allows all kinds of customizations, but there is no nice dashboard out of the box. However, TFS 2010 will change all that. See http://blogs.msdn.com/bharry/archive/2009/05/19/tfs-2010-project-management.aspx for more details. |
| ClearQuest Connector | Integrates the enterprise scalability of Rational® ClearQuest® for change and defect management while maintaining the integration with SCM and build management. | N/A |
| ClearCase Connector | Integrates the enterprise scalability of Rational ClearCase® for SCM while maintaining the integration with work item management and build management. | N/A |
| Subversion bridge | Integrates your investment in SCM while maintaining the integration with work item management and build management. | N/A |
| Team awareness and collaboration | Provides project-integrated presence and messaging. | TFS 2008 uses SharePoint/MOSS portals for project collaboration along with various alerts |
| Ready to use reports | Leverages ready to use reports to perform trend analysis and to make informed predictions based on patterns. | TFS 2008 has its own data warehouse with sophisticated reporting and analysis capabilities. |
TFS vs RTC (modified from an earlier article)
| Microsoft Visual Studio® 2008 Team Foundation Server | IBM Rational Team Concert v2.0 |
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By default, only Microsoft Windows®
TeamPrise third-party partner solution enables cross-platform (i.e. Eclipse) clients.
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Windows and Linux
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| Extensibility | |
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.NET object model. TFS Server web services based API
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REST web services API
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| Traceability | |
| Supports Work Item traceability out of the box | Supports Work Item traceability out of the box |
| Parallel Development | |
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Supported through branches/merging and workspaces.
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Supported through baselining and delivering change set from streams and workspaces and their respective flow targets |
| User Interaction (UI) | |
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By default, only Windows and Microsoft Office solutions. Team System Web Access by default; in addition, a separate Work Item Web Access (WIWA) client is available (free). TFS Eclipse plug-in by TeamPrise
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Eclipse IDE plug-ins; Visual Studio IDE plug-in; Web clients by default
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| Distributed Development | |
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No offline support.
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No offline support.
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| Developer Workspaces | |
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Private workspaces on local disk that must be updated manually. |
Jazz Source Control enables private workspaces that can be updated manually. |
| Scalability Limits | |
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500 Team Projects is the maximum that one TFS server can support. Up to 3600 TFS users
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Not enough information about limits
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Team Concert Prices (IBM RTC pricing is based on version 1.0)
Team Foundation Server Prices
| Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Foundation Server | $2,799 |
| Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Foundation Server Client Access License ( | $499 |
References
IBM ALM products roadmap
http://www-01.ibm.com/software/rational/jazz/roadmap/
IBM Rational Team Concert Editions Comparison
https://jazz.net/downloads/rational-team-concert/releases/2.0
VSTS & TFS 2008
VSTS Product comparison
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vsts2008/products/cc149003.aspx
TFS 2008
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/tfs2008/default.aspx
TFS 2010 dashboards
http://blogs.msdn.com/bharry/archive/2009/05/19/tfs-2010-project-management.aspx
Thanks for the great effort.
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