Blogs The Superior Choice for A&D Requirements Management: Codebeamer

The Superior Choice for A&D Requirements Management: Codebeamer

December 16, 2025 Explore Codebeamer

Enrique Krajmalnik is PTC’s General Manager for ALM, leading strategy and growth for the ALM portfolio, including Codebeamer. He brings 30+ years of experience in engineering software. Prior roles include leadership at Vitech, VP of Business Development at Zuken USA, and CTO of No Magic. He holds a BA in economics from UC Santa Cruz and studied mechanical engineering at Duke University.

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Aerospace and Defense (A&D) programs represent some of the most complex engineering challenges in the world. They involve thousands of stakeholders, millions of requirements, and strict compliance with regulatory and contractual standards. Traditional tools often fall short in managing this complexity at scale. Codebeamer, a purpose-built Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) platform, is uniquely suited for large-scale requirements management in A&D environments compared to alternatives like Catia Magic.

The challenge of Requirements Management in A&D

A&D programs face unique challenges that make requirements management mission-critical:
- Massive Scale: Programs often involve tens of thousands of requirements spanning multiple tiers of suppliers.
- Regulatory Compliance: Standards such as DO-178C, DO-254, MIL-STD-882, and ITAR demand rigorous traceability and auditability.
- Distributed Teams: Global collaboration across OEMs, Tier 1 suppliers, and subcontractors requires secure, role-based access and workflow automation.
- Integration Complexity: Requirements must link seamlessly to system models, test cases, risk assessments, and source code across multiple tools and repositories.

Why Codebeamer excels for A & D requirements management

  • Purpose-Built for Scale and Structure
  • Unlike generic tools, Codebeamer is designed for structured requirements management. It supports hierarchical organization, versioning, baselining, and change tracking.

  • Enterprise Scalability and Performance
  • Codebeamer is optimized for high concurrency and large deployments, proven to handle thousands of users and millions of artifacts efficiently.

  • End-to-End Traceability and Compliance
  • Codebeamer provides full lifecycle traceability—from requirements to test cases, risks, source code, and defects. Built-in compliance templates and audit trails support standards like DO-178C, DO-254, MIL-STD-882, and ITAR.

  • Collaboration and Workflow Automation
  • A&D programs require secure collaboration across multiple organizations. Codebeamer offers web-based access, review workflows, electronic approvals, and integrations with Jira, Git, Jenkins, and PLM systems.

Where Catia Magic fits—and where it falls short

Catia Magic (Cameo/MagicDraw) is a leading MBSE tool, ideal for SysML/UML modeling and visual traceability within system models. However, for large-scale textual requirements management, it faces limitations such as model-centric collaboration and high infrastructure requirements for scaling.

Comparison table: Codebeamer vs. Catia Magic

Feature Codebeamer Catia Magic (Cameo)
Primary Purpose ALM for structured requirements management MBSE and SysML/UML modeling
Scalability Handles thousands of users and millions of artifacts efficiently Requires significant infrastructure for large-scale deployments
Requirements Management Purpose-built for textual requirements with hierarchy, baselines, and versioning Limited; optimized for model-centric requirements only
Traceability End-to-end across requirements, tests, risks, source code, and defects Visual traceability within system models only
Compliance Support Built-in templates for DO-178C, DO-254, MIL-STD-882, ITAR No native compliance workflows; manual configuration needed
Collaboration Web-based, role-based access, review workflows, electronic approvals Collaboration tied to modeling environment; less suited for distributed teams
Integration Strong integrations with Jira, Git, Jenkins, PLM systems Integrates with MBSE and PLM tools; ALM integration is complex
Infrastructure Requirements Cloud or on-premise; optimized for enterprise-scale deployments High IT overhead for scaling to thousands of users
Ideal Use Case Large-scale requirements management and compliance in regulated environments System architecture modeling and MBSE

 

Future-readiness: AI in ALM

Codebeamer is investing in AI-driven capabilities such as automated impact analysis, intelligent traceability suggestions, and predictive quality analytics.

Conclusion: The case for Codebeamer in A&D

For aerospace and defense organizations, managing requirements at scale is mission-critical. Codebeamer delivers purpose-built capabilities, proven scalability, end-to-end traceability, and seamless collaboration.

Want to learn how Codebeamer can accelerate your A&D programs? Contact us for a personalized demo.

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Enrique Krajmalnik

Enrique Krajmalnik is PTC’s General Manager for ALM, leading strategy and growth for the ALM portfolio, including Codebeamer. He brings 30+ years of experience in engineering software. Prior roles include leadership at Vitech, VP of Business Development at Zuken USA, and CTO of No Magic. He holds a BA in economics from UC Santa Cruz and studied mechanical engineering at Duke University.

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