For years, IBM Rational DOORS has been a cornerstone for requirements management in highly regulated industries. Unfortunately, as development practices evolve, DOORS has not evolved with them. One of the biggest challenges with this is that there’s no direct upgrade path from DOORS to DOORS Next Generation (DOORS NG). Moving from DOORS to DOORS NG requires significant manual effort. This raises the question: if you’re already committing to a complex migration, why not evaluate modern ALM solutions that offer greater value, scalability, and long-term ROI?
Moving Away from DOORS
Organizations today need tools that go beyond static requirements management. They require traceability across the development lifecycle, integrated risk management, and agile collaboration capabilities. Unfortunately, IBM built DOORS for a different era of software development. While IBM positioned DOORS NG as the successor, it’s essentially a separate platform. With no automated upgrade path, customers face a manual migration that’s just as intensive as moving to other modern ALM tools. That’s why now is the perfect time to evaluate alternatives.
PTC Codebeamer: Your Modern ALM System
PTC Codebeamer stands out as the strongest successor for organizations leaving DOORS. Designed with today’s agile, safety-critical, and compliance-driven industries in mind, Codebeamer delivers:
- End-to-end traceability: Connect requirements, risks, tests, and code to achieve full visibility.
- Integrated risk management: Built-in FMEA, hazard analysis, and ISO/IEC 14971 support make it ideal for regulated environments like MedTech, automotive, and aerospace.
- Powerful requirements management: Manage complex hierarchies, variant management, and branching with modern ease.
- Audit readiness: Preconfigured templates for FDA, ISO, IEC, and automotive standards streamline compliance.
- Scalability: Handles large datasets and enterprise-scale processes without bottlenecks.
As we explored in our business case blog on switching from DOORS to Codebeamer, the investment pays for itself quickly through efficiency gains, reduced rework, and faster time to market.
Atlassian Jira
For teams already using Jira as their core project management tool, extending it into requirements and risk management territory is possible. With the right plugins and Marketplace apps, Jira can approximate ALM capabilities. For example:
- Risk management add-ons like SoftComply Risk Manager.
- Requirements management extensions for structured specifications and traceability.
- Confluence integrations for documentation and audits.
As we highlighted in our “Can and Should You Use Jira and Confluence as a QMS” blog, this approach can work for some organizations. However, it requires careful setup, governance, and ongoing plugin management. For highly regulated industries, Jira is often a temporary solution rather than a long-term ALM platform.
How SPK Helps You Migrate
At SPK and Associates, we’ve helped organizations across MedTech, automotive, aerospace, and beyond make the leap from legacy tools like DOORS into modern ALM ecosystems. Our approach includes conducting a migration strategy, providing expertise, and ensuring proper adoption. First, we start by assessing which ALM system is the right fit for your business needs. We handle all the manual effort needed to move requirements, links, and histories into your new platform. Then, we modernize your processes by helping you move beyond simple requirements tracking into traceability, risk management, and compliance-ready workflows. Lastly, we train your engineering teams and compliance stakeholders so they are fully enabled on the new toolset. If needed, we can also manage your systems for you.
Whether you’re in a highly regulated industry or just ready to upgrade to a modern tool, SPK provides the technical expertise and regulatory experience to make your transition seamless.
Moving from DOORS to Modern ALM Solutions
Staying on DOORS means investing in a tool that wasn’t designed for today’s agile, compliance-heavy development environments. If migration is inevitable, why not take the opportunity to upgrade to a modern ALM platform that delivers traceability, risk management, and efficiency gains? Let SPK help you choose and implement the ALM solution that sets your organization up for success in the years ahead. Start your journey with us today.
