Product Development Three New Solutions for Application Lifecycle Management

Related Vendors

dataTec AG

Wuxi InfiMotion Technology Co., Ltd.

ALM integrates people, processes and tools to enable end-to-end collaboration and transparency in product development. We present three new solutions here.

PTC releases Codebeamer 3.2, Codebeamer AI 1.0 and Pure Variants 7.2

PTC presents the latest versions of Codebeamer, Codebeamer AI, and Pure Variants, which are central components of the Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) portfolio. These updates are specifically designed to assist companies in addressing current challenges. These challenges notably include the increased pressure from regulatory requirements and the growing complexity of products that are increasingly software-driven.

The new features aim to provide companies with greater security and better control. They enhance traceability and change management, offering managed AI support that meets regulatory and quality requirements.

Key New Features of Codebeamer 3.2 and Pure Variants 7.2 at a Glance:

• Digital thread integrations seamlessly connect Codebeamer with PTC's Windchill PLM solution and other enterprise systems. This enables teams to more easily track requirements, manage changes, and ensure compliance in software and hardware development.
• Stream baselines provide complete snapshots of all projects within a stream. This ensures consistent baselines, makes relevant project phases easier to identify, and helps optimize change management within complex portfolios.
• UI upgrades for the Review Hub enable bulk approvals and rejections, clearer notifications, and visual highlights of differences.
• Feature-Based PLE automates the creation of streams and stream baselines. It also utilizes Delta Merge (Beta) to support parallel development across platforms and variants. This enables teams to deliver new features at both levels and optimize reuse across the entire product line.

Based on these features, PTC introduces two new AI assistants with Codebeamer AI 1.0:
The Requirements Assistant, aligned with the guidelines of INCOSE and ISTQB, automatically detects quality issues in requirements. This allows for clearer, standards-compliant requirements to be created more quickly and with less reliance on expert reviews.

Additionally, the manual creation of test cases is often time-consuming and error-prone. The Test Case Assistant generates and optimizes test cases directly from the requirements, enabling higher accuracy and consistency, improved traceability, and accelerated validation activities.

ALM

Why ALM Systems Are Indispensable in Hardware Development

Intelligent Assistant “AI Optimizer” for Polarion Users Unlocks Automation Potential

According to BCT Technology AG, the AI Optimizer is a powerful extension for Polarion ALM, the Application Lifecycle Management system from Siemens Digital Industries Software. This solution has already been successfully implemented and is now being specifically introduced to a broader user base. The AI Optimizer acts as an intelligent assistant that uncovers automation potentials in requirements and test management, significantly facilitating the transition to AI-supported processes.

• AI-Based Quality Analysis of Requirements: A central feature of the AI Optimizer is the automated quality assessment of requirements. The AI analyzes work items based on established best practice criteria such as clarity, understandability, verifiability, and completeness. Users receive immediate improvement suggestions for linguistic or structural optimization. This ensures that requirements are not only documented but also substantive and testable.

• Generation of Test Cases via AI: The solution enables the complete generation of test cases from existing requirements, both from work items and live documents. The AI Optimizer creates structured tests, including descriptions, prerequisites, and test steps. This not only significantly accelerates the creation of test cases but also ensures better consistency in test coverage and saves valuable resources in quality assurance.
• Intelligent Capture of User Requests: With an integrated chatbot module, content such as support requests, bug reports, or change requests can be submitted by external users through web interfaces. The AI Optimizer analyzes the input, assists the user by asking targeted follow-up questions for complete information sharing, and automatically converts it into structured Polarion work items. Additionally, PDF or image files can be analyzed using OCR technology, allowing relevant content to be directly incorporated—without manual copy and paste.
• Quick Deployment Without Data Privacy Risks: The extension can be installed in just a few minutes and is ready for immediate use—without the need for additional infrastructure. The AI Optimizer can be utilized either through an OpenAI interface or seamlessly integrated into existing internal AI systems via Azure-GPT. When connected through Azure-GPT, the content remains entirely within the company's own system—an important advantage for security-sensitive or regulated industries.

The AI Optimizer is applicable across various industries, particularly in the fields of mechanical engineering, automotive, medical technology, and aerospace. Companies that are already using Polarion ALM can achieve significant efficiency gains through the targeted use of AI functions without fundamentally restructuring existing processes.

Contact Elements Integrates New ALM Solution

Up to 8x faster with one-third of the resource consumption: The current version of the open low-code platform Contact Elements aims to provide companies with a significant speed advantage in digital transformation. A central step is the departure from the Windows client and the complete transition to an optimized web architecture.

Contact Elements creates a seamless digital thread with over 50 flexibly combinable application components that support companies in efficient product development. The platform also paves the way for enterprise-level AI integration.

Enhanced PLM Functions for Complex Product Development:

• The new release brings improvements for Product Lifecycle Management (PLM). The integrated alternative PDF viewer in CIM Database PLM enables redlining, annotations, and digital signatures directly in the application. This accelerates collaborative work as well as document sharing.
• Variant management has been expanded to requirements structures, thereby supporting the efficient handling of product families and custom adaptations. A new usage structure creates transparency regarding the dependencies and usage locations of components and documents.
• The new solution Catalyst for ALM (Application Lifecycle Management) integrates software repositories into CIM Database, for example with GitLab. This enables seamless tracking of hardware and software components throughout their entire lifecycle.

Enhanced Data Analysis and Intuitive Operation
The new release optimizes the user experience in the Elements platform through better keyboard support and enhanced accessibility. Improvements in file management, including a new history interface, customizable filename rules, and duplicate checks, facilitate daily document handling.