Keywords:
ALM, Areas, governance, development, Maintenance, Stages, Evolution, ALM
Suites, Tools
·
ALM is the lifecycle
management of applications, which includes governance,
development and maintenance.
·
ALM includes these
disciplines: requirements management, software architecture, development,
testing, maintenance, change management, support, continuous integration,
project management, deployment, release management and governance.
·
ALM tools provide a
standardized system for communication and collaboration between software
development teams and related departments, such as test and operations.
·
ALM combines the
disciplines concerned with all aspects of the process to achieve the goal of
driving efficiency through predictable and repeatable software delivery.
·
Governance includes requirements management, resource
management, nurturing and system administration such as data security, user
access, change tracking, review, audit, deployment control, and rollback.
·
Application development includes identifying current
problems, and planning, design, building, and testing the application and its
continuous improvements. This area includes traditional developer and app maker
roles.
·
Maintenance includes deployment of the app, and maintenance
of optional and dependent technologies.
·
The application lifecycle is the cyclical
software development process that involves these areas: plan and track,
develop, build and test, deploy, operate, monitor, and learn from discovery.
·
The application management
lifecycle can be divided into several stages, depending on the specific
methodology or framework being used. Most ALM processes include the following Key
Stages:
o Stage 1: Evaluation
§
Key considerations include Business
Case, Requirements Gathering, Technical Feasibility, Vendor Selection
o Stage 2: Implementation
§
Key considerations include Development,
Testing, Deployment, Management
o Stage 3: Live
§
Key considerations include Monitoring,
Maintenance, Support, Optimization, Application Register
o Stage 4: Phasing Out
§
Key considerations include Data
Migration, Communication, Deprecation
o Stage 5: Retired
§
Key considerations include Roadmaps
and Migration Plans, Decommissioning, Data Retention, Lessons Learned
·
The Main stages of ALM
include Application requirements, Application development, Application testing,
Application deployment, Application maintenance
o Application requirements
§
Stakeholders define what
they require from the application.
§
They analyze how the
application will help them to meet their business goals and regulatory
compliance requirements.
§
Requirements management
typically involves writing user stories that show how different users will
interact with the application.
o Application development
§
various teams work together to convert
the requirements into a working application
§
Project managers estimate the time and
development cost.
§
Developers identify the design tasks
and programming activities.
§
Quality analysts add review tasks and
checkpoints for quality and progress checks.
§
The development and testing teams also
plan a timeline for their software projects. They identify any interdependence
among the requirements and decide the order in which to complete and release
new features.
o Application testing
§
Quality analysts assess the
application to verify it meets requirements.
§
They identify and
prioritize any software errors or bugs, which the software development team
then fixes.
§
Application testing and
development often proceed simultaneously during the application’s lifecycle.
§
Agile development
methodologies use automated testing tools to test the entire code base every
time developers make a software change.
o Application deployment
§
Developers release the
application to end users.
§
Release management also
includes planning how the team deploys software changes over time.
§
Agile development teams
automate deployment to speed up the release of new features and updates.
o Application maintenance
§
Support and development
teams work together to resolve the remaining bugs, plan new updates, and
improve the product further.
§
They incorporate user
feedback and release new features that are relevant to customers.
·
Adoption of Agile and
DevOps practices
o
The widespread adoption of
Agile and DevOps methodologies has transformed how software is developed and
managed.
o
ALM has evolved to support
these practices, enabling organizations to be more adaptive and automated in
delivery software while enhancing cross-team collaboration.
·
Shift towards
cloud-based ALM solutions
o
Cloud-based ALM solutions
provide organizations with the agility and scalability to manage software
delivery and collaborate across distributed teams and geographies.
o
Cloud-based ALM platforms
offer benefits such as reduced infrastructure costs, increased accessibility,
and easier maintenance.
·
Use of artificial
intelligence (AI)
o
AI technologies are
transforming ALM. AI algorithms enable predictive analytics, anomaly detection,
root cause analysis, human-like automation, and workflow optimization.
o
ALM platforms with AI
capabilities significantly improve productivity, reduce time-to-market, and
enhance software quality and performance.
·
Emphasis on compliance
and governance
o
As regulatory requirements
and compliance standards become more stringent, ALM has evolved to incorporate
robust compliance and governance features.
o
ALM tools can track
changes, document audits, enforce policies, and ensure adherence to regulatory
requirements
·
ALM tools are software that
developers, testers, analysts, and other stakeholders use for application
management. They provide a standardized environment that everyone can use to
communicate and collaborate. Some common features of an integrated ALM suite:
o
Project management
o
Requirements management
o
Source code management
o
Test management
o
Real-time chat support
o
Project portfolio
management
o
Visualization tools, such
as charts and graphs
·
Some ALM software suites
are:
o
Microsoft Azure DevOps
o
Atlassian JIRA
o
GitLab
o
Helix ALM
o
Enterprise Architect
o
Tuleap
o
Jama Connect
o
Codebeamer
o
Orcanos Application
Lifecycle Management
o
Visure
o
ClickUp
o
IBM Targetprocess
o
Rally Software
o
Polarion ALM
o
DocSheets
o
Polarion
o
SpiraTeam
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/alm/overview-alm
https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/application-lifecycle-management
https://aws.amazon.com/what-is/application-lifecycle-management/
https://www.opentext.com/what-is/application-lifecycle-management
https://www.ardoq.com/knowledge-hub/application-lifecycle-management
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/products/devops
