Application lifecycle management

Application lifecycle management (ALM) is the

product lifecycle management (governance, development, and maintenance) of computer programs. It encompasses requirements management, software architecture, computer programming, software testing, software maintenance, change management, continuous integration, project management, and release management.^[1]^[2]

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.^{[citation needed]} 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.^{[citation needed}

]

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.^[citation needed] 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.^{[citation needed]}

Today's application management vendors focus more on API 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.^{[citation needed]}

A research director with research firm Gartner proposed changing the term ALM to ADLM (Application Development Life-cycle Management) to include DevOps, the software engineering culture and practice that aims at unifying software development (Dev) and software operation (Ops).^[3]

ALM software suites

Some specialized software suites for ALM are:

Name	Released by
Visual Studio Application Lifecycle Management	Microsoft
Enterprise Architect	Sparx Systems
GitLab	GitLab
Helix ALM	Perforce
JIRA	Atlassian
Micro Focus Application Lifecycle Management	Micro Focus
Mylyn	Eclipse Foundation
Parasoft DTP	Parasoft
Protecode System 4	Protecode
PTC Integrity	PTC
Pulse	Genuitec
Rocket Aldon	Rocket Software
SAP Solution Manager	SAP
StarTeam	Borland
TeamForge	CollabNet
Tuleap	Enalean

References

^ deJong, Jennifer (2008-04-15). "Mea culpa, ALM toolmakers say". SDTimes. Archived from the original on February 2, 2011. Retrieved 2008-11-22.
^ Chappell, David, What is Application Lifecycle Management? (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on December 7, 2014
^ "Gartner blogpost". 2011-12-02.

External links

Chappell, David, What is Application Lifecycle Management? (PDF), archived from the 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

[1] Jong, Jennifer (2008-04-15). "Mea culpa, ALM toolmakers say". SDTimes. Archived from the original on February 2, 2011. Retrieved 2008-11-22.

[2] Chappell, David, What is Application Lifecycle Management? (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on December 7, 2014

[3] "Gartner blogpost". 2011-12-02.

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