Application lifecycle management
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Application lifecycle management (ALM) regards the process of delivering software as a continuously repeating cycle of inter-related steps: definition, design, development, testing, deployment and management. Each of these steps needs to be carefully monitored and controlled.
Image = Simple overview of ALM
Benefits of ALM
Proponents of Application Lifecycle Management represent that a true Application Lifecycle Management solution- *increases productivity, as the team shares best practices for development and deployment, and developers need focus only on current business requirements
- *improves quality, so the final application meets the needs and expectations of users
- *breaks boundaries through collaboration and smooth information flow
- *accelerates development through simplified integration
- *cuts maintenance time by synchronizing application and design
- *maximizes investments in skills, processes, and technologies
- *increases flexibility by reducing the time it takes to build and adapt applications that support new business initiatives
Principles of ALM
The principles of Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) are integral to mature development disciplines. Experienced development organizations employ these principles to ensure quality in the products they develop. Quote from [StandardTime]Application Lifecycle Management involves a variety of typical software project phases
- *Project management
- *Project tracking
- *Requirements planning
- *Design and development
- *Quality Assurance
- *Release management
History, Proponents and Precursors
While there are a large number of vendors offering ALM solutions, both in terms of process and technology, Borland are notable in that they have recently repositioned themselves with a focus on ALM solutions.The following information is taken from Butler Group ALM Report. September 2005. [Butler Report]
The Integrated Development Environment (IDE) is evolving, tool vendors are increasingly integrating their products to deliver suites. IDEs are giving way to tools that reach outside of pure coding and into the architectural, deployment, and management phases of an application’s lifecycle: Application Lifecycle Management. The hallmark of these suites is a common user interface, meta model, and process engine that also enable ALM team members to communicate using standards-based architectures and technologies such as Unified Modelling Language (UML).
ALM as an integrated end-to-end suite is a reality today offered by the key vendors in this market, following organic development and recent intensive acquisitions and integration programmes. In addition to vendor-specific integration platforms, the players are also recognising the importance of plug-compatibility with the open Eclipse platform, as well as with Microsoft’s Visual Studio and Visual Studio Team System.
The market forces behind the need for integrated suites are increased accountability – the result of IT governance initiatives – and the need to repeat development processes with increasing frequency across multiple projects. ALM suites exploit a common integration layer that enables better communication of project artefacts, such as requirements and documentation, across all ALM team members, and also keep an accurate audit log of changes.
ALM tools can help deliver faster-to-market, high quality software products. However, tools should not be used as a defence mechanism against dealing with difficult software development issues, otherwise the developers will bypass the tools and the same old problems will re-surface. Rather, there needs to be a better understanding by business of the nature of software development and its practitioners, and vice versa, software developers need to understand the impact their solutions have on the business. This comes down to communication as the key to bridging the cultural divide between IT and business. Used intelligently ALM tools and better people management can lead to that elusive project success.
See also
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