The enterprise ALM problem
IBM DOORS, Siemens Polarion, and PTC Codebeamer are serious tools built for serious programmes. They handle requirements traceability, test management, and document control at a scale and depth that large automotive, aerospace, and medical device organisations genuinely need. They are also priced, deployed, and maintained accordingly.
For a 5–20-person engineering team working to ISO 26262, IEC 62304, or DO-178C, the economics do not work. Annual licence costs routinely start above €12,000 and frequently exceed €30,000. Implementation projects take months and often require dedicated consultancy. The result: the tools that exist are either unaffordable or not fit for purpose — and most SMB engineering teams end up managing their compliance infrastructure in Excel spreadsheets and Word documents.
The point-solution trap
Some teams assemble their own stack — a requirements tool alongside a separate test management tool. This reduces the per-tool cost, but introduces a different problem: the traceability seam between the tools is now your responsibility. Maintaining end-to-end coverage from requirement to test execution — the thing auditors actually examine — requires manual synchronisation, custom integrations, or both.
This is not a hypothetical risk. Traceability integrity across tool boundaries is a documented audit finding in regulated industries. Stitching point solutions together is viable for larger teams with the engineering resource to maintain the integration. For SMBs, it trades one problem for another — and at audit time, the seam is visible.
Why self-hosted matters in regulated industries
Siemens Polarion has moved primarily to SaaS delivery. Jama Software is cloud-first. For many engineering environments this is not an option:
- Data residency requirements — regulated industries often mandate that project data remains within specific jurisdictions or infrastructure boundaries.
- Air-gapped environments — classified or security-sensitive programmes cannot connect to external cloud services at all.
- Audit trail ownership — some customers require complete control over where compliance-relevant data is stored and who can access it.
TraceBoard Suite deploys via Docker into your own infrastructure in minutes to a couple of hours — including fully air-gapped environments. Your data stays where it belongs, under your control.
TraceBoard Suite: right-sized compliance ALM
TraceBoard Suite was built specifically for the gap between enterprise ALM and no ALM. It combines three modules — TraceBoard (requirements), TraceDocs (document control), and TraceTest (test management) — into a single integrated tool where traceability across all three layers is a first principle, not an afterthought.
Annual plans start at €999, including all three modules with no per-user fees. It is not a replacement for IBM DOORS if you are running a 500-person programme. It is the tool that gives a 10-person ISO 26262 team the compliance infrastructure they need to pass an audit, at a price their engineering lead can approve without escalating to procurement.