The Polarion4U conference on the Siemens Polarion ALM software took place in Berlin at the end of September, offering both new topics and classic project experiences in a varied series of presentations. We from ECS were also there as listeners on the second day.
But first of all - what is Polarion? Polarion is a comprehensive application lifecycle management (ALM) software that supports the planning, development, testing and management of software projects. Polarion offers tools for requirements management, audits, test management, issue tracking and documentation - and much more to optimize the entire development process and promote team collaboration. Polarion is also often used for classic requirements management in the PLM area. Here too, we at ECS are your experienced partner for the successful implementation of projects involving Polarion/ALM and associated systems.
The following speakers, who deserve special mention, provided a varied picture of the use of Polarion:
Radek Krotil from SiemensPLMSoftware, in his role as Polarion Technical Product Manager, spoke about the strategic outlook for version 2310 - with a particular focus on agile engineering, transformation to cloud environments (Saas) and seamless integration into customer ecosystems (including MBSE = Systems Engineering). AI features and the modern UI are also at the forefront. A Simulink-Polarion connector as well as improvements in the daily use of Polarion were also highlighted. Two new versions per year are planned for the future.
Ania Gewald-Wilke and Alexey Andrianov from Adtran (network components) highlighted the use of Polarion in the context of time recording for SAP and the integration of various tools such as Salesforce. Even in this unusual case, the advantages of Polarion were clearly demonstrated, which ultimately led to an increase in the efficiency of the relevant company processes.
Frans Slothuber of InTraffic, a company in the transportation/rail vehicle sector, gave a presentation on InTraffic's use of Polarion to develop design documents and implement risk analysis and safety requirements, with the software providing traceability of all work elements from source to system validation. The company found Polarion to be very helpful and supportive in obtaining the necessary certifications for its in-house developments. It was emphasized that Polarion did not add too much "ballast" to the operation - users were able to concentrate centrally on their content work.
Anna Makarova and Daniel Schartner from Stabilus gave a presentation on the neutral format ReqIF in connection with Polarion. The import and export of ReqIF was the project goal. This included a mapping to be solved, collaboration and integration of varying tools. In addition, traceability and process reliability (no crashes, "lost" documents) were the main challenges to be solved for the automotive supplier Stabilus. All in all, both companies painted a positive picture of the implementation. Polarion is seen as the leading requirements management platform for Stabilus.
Matias Beijar from Wärtsilä provided an introduction to the topic of decarbonization through advanced developments for the marine and energy sectors. In the wide field of tension between new regulations, technological developments, data and connectivity challenges, "maneuvering" through advanced process support with Polarion is an absolute necessity for Wärtsilä. Topics served by Polarion are requirements management, risk management, project management and resource/task management. Overall, the quality of the solutions provided by Polarion in many areas was also seen as very positive.
Minal Ladda and Giulia Morello of the internationally positioned Swedish automotive supplier Aurobay, who, with a total of 19,000 employees at 17 production sites, went from the start of the Polarion implementation to GoLive (i.e. productive use) in an incredible 8 weeks. The challenges lay in the data migration, the coordination of downtimes during the implementation phase and the external dependencies. One interesting aspect was the initiation of a hackathon to find solutions within the implementation project. The improved communication and collaboration across organizational units with simultaneous automation and integration were highlighted as a positive result of the introduction of Polarion.
Finally, the Polarion Product Management team presented the latest features and improvements in Polarion as well as a strategic outlook.
Overall, the series of presentations provided a diverse picture of the use of Polarion - not only in the ALM sector.