Application lifecycle management (ALM) is the
product lifecycle management
In industry, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is the process of managing the entire lifecycle of a product from its inception through the engineering, design and manufacture, as well as the service and disposal of manufactured products. PL ...
(
governance
Governance is the process of interactions through the laws, norms, power or language of an organized society over a social system ( family, tribe, formal or informal organization, a territory or across territories). It is done by the gove ...
,
development
Development or developing may refer to:
Arts
*Development hell, when a project is stuck in development
*Filmmaking, development phase, including finance and budgeting
*Development (music), the process thematic material is reshaped
* Photograph ...
, and
maintenance
Maintenance may refer to:
Biological science
* Maintenance of an organism
* Maintenance respiration
Non-technical maintenance
* Alimony, also called ''maintenance'' in British English
* Champerty and maintenance, two related legal doct ...
) of
computer program
A computer program is a sequence or set of instructions in a programming language for a computer to execute. Computer programs are one component of software, which also includes documentation and other intangible components.
A computer program ...
s. It encompasses
requirements management
Requirements management is the process of documenting, analyzing, tracing, prioritizing and agreeing on requirements and then controlling change and communicating to relevant stakeholders. It is a continuous process throughout a project. A requi ...
,
software architecture
Software architecture is the fundamental structure of a software system and the discipline of creating such structures and systems. Each structure comprises software elements, relations among them, and properties of both elements and relations.
...
,
computer programming
Computer programming is the process of performing a particular computation (or more generally, accomplishing a specific computing result), usually by designing and building an executable computer program. Programming involves tasks such as anal ...
,
software testing,
software maintenance,
change management,
continuous integration,
project management
Project management is the process of leading the work of a team to achieve all project goals within the given constraints. This information is usually described in project documentation, created at the beginning of the development process. T ...
, and
release management.
ALM vs. Software Development Life Cycle
ALM is a broader perspective than the
Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), which is limited to the phases of
software development such as requirements, design, coding, testing, configuration, project management, and change management. ALM continues after development until the application is no longer used, and may span many SDLCs.
Integrated ALM
Modern software development processes are not restricted to the discrete ALM/
SDLC steps managed by different teams using multiple tools from different locations. Real-time collaboration, access to the centralized data repository, cross-tool and cross-project visibility, better project monitoring and reporting are the key to developing quality software in less time.
This has given rise to the practice of integrated application lifecycle management, or integrated ALM, where all the tools and tools' users are synchronized with each other throughout the application development stages. This integration ensures that every team member knows Who, What, When, and Why of any changes made during the development process and there is no last minute surprise causing delivery delays or project failure.
Today's application management vendors focus more on
API
An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how ...
management capabilities for third party best-of-breed tool integration which ensures that organizations are well-equipped with an internal software development system that can easily integrate with any IT or ALM tools needed in a project.
A research director with research firm
Gartner
Gartner, Inc is a technological research and consulting firm based in Stamford, Connecticut that conducts research on technology and shares this research both through private consulting as well as executive programs and conferences. Its client ...
proposed changing the term ALM to ADLM (Application Development Life-cycle Management) to include
DevOps
DevOps is a set of practices that combines software development (''Dev'') and IT operations (''Ops''). It aims to shorten the systems development life cycle and provide continuous delivery with high software quality. DevOps is complementary to ...
, the software engineering culture and practice that aims at unifying software development (Dev) and software operation (Ops).
ALM software suites
Some specialized
software suite
A software suite (also known as an application suite) is a collection of computer programs (application software, or programming software) of related functionality, sharing a similar user interface and the ability to easily exchange data with eac ...
s for ALM are:
See also
*
Application Lifecycle Framework
*
Business transaction management
Business transaction management (BTM), also known as business transaction monitoring, application transaction profiling or user defined transaction profiling, is the practice of managing information technology (IT) from a business transaction per ...
*
Open Services for Lifecycle Collaboration
Open Services for Lifecycle Collaboration (OSLC) is an open community, originally proposed in 2008, to define a set of specifications that enable integration of software development. It has evolved, and continues to evolve, to areas such as Appli ...
*
Systems development life-cycle
In systems engineering, information systems and software engineering, the systems development life cycle (SDLC), also referred to as the application development life cycle, is a process for planning, creating, testing, and deploying an info ...
*
Software project management
Software project management is an art and science of planning and leading software projects. It is a sub-discipline of project management in which software projects are planned, implemented, monitored and controlled.
History
In the 1970s and 1 ...
**
Comparison of project management software
The following is a comparison of project management software.
General information
Features
Monetary features
See also
* Kanban (development)
* Project management software
* Project planning
* Comparison of scrum software
* Comparison ...
**
Bug tracking system
A bug tracking system or defect tracking system is a software application that keeps track of reported software bugs in software development projects. It may be regarded as a type of issue tracking system.
Many bug tracking systems, such as thos ...
**
Forge (software)
In FOSS development communities, a forge is a web-based collaborative software platform for both developing and sharing computer applications. The term ''forge'' refers to a common prefix or suffix adopted by various platforms created after the ex ...
References
Further reading
*
*
*
*
External links
* Chappell, David
What is Application Lifecycle Management?(PDF), archived from th
original(PDF) on December 7, 2014
* Gartner Analyst Sean Kenefick
Market Profile: Application Life Cycle Management (ALM) Tools, 2012* Margaret Rouse
application lifecycle management (ALM)* Dave West
Integrated ALM Tools Are Fundamental to Success* Dominic Tavassoli
Integrating application lifecycle management (ALM) processes provides additional benefits* Zane Galviņa1, Darja Šmite
Software Development Processes in Globally Distributed Environment
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Software project management