Coming up with a definition for Application Lifecycle Management (ALM)

is not easy. Different people (and different vendors) have quite different perspectives. Still, ALM is a vital process for any business, so understanding its breadth is important.
It is common to equate ALM with the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). However, this simple approach is far too restrictive, ALM is much more than just managing the SDLC. In fact, the life cycle of an application includes all time during which an organization is spending money on that asset, from the initial idea to the end of the life of an application. To be accurate and useful, our point of view on application lifecycle management should adopt a broader perspective. Anything less will just not suffice.

ALM can be separated into three different areas:

Administration, Development, and Operations. Like a person’s lifestyle, an application’s lifecycle is demarcated by many events of varying significance. It starts with an idea: “Let’s develop something that delivers a particular value.” Once the application is designed and developed, the next big occurrence is the release, when the application goes into production. And lastly, when no more enterprise value can be realized, the application evolves to end of its lifecycle and is retired from service.
Administration, which covers all of the decision-making and project planning for an application, spans over the entire life cycle.
Development, the procedure of actually developing the program, first occurs between design and release. For most applications, the development procedures will be executed several more times during the application’s life, both for improvements and for completely new designs.
Operations, the work necessary to run and maintain an application, generally begin before a release, and then execute continually until the application is retired from support. Each of these three facets of application lifecycle management are essential, and so each is truly worth looking at in more detail.

Administration:

In ALM, the goal of administration is to ensure that applications are developed that meet the needs of the enterprise. The first step in ALM administration is business requirements development. This research happens before the design and coding processes take place. Once the requirements are accepted, application development begins, and administration is applied through project portfolio management. In some companies, this is simple: A supervisor might be connected to the group, or one of the more specialized people in the group might take on this position. Other businesses use more professional techniques, depending on a central project management office (PMO) to employ previously established processes.
Once the application is release, it becomes part of the enterprise's application portfolio. An application is a resource like any other, and so the firm needs a continuous understanding of its costs and benefits. PPM tools usually provide this, giving organizations a way to avoid duplicating features across different programs. PPM also provides administration for deployed applications, dealing with things such as when releases and upgrades make financial sense and mitigating risk.
Administration is the only thing that spans the entire ALM period. In many ways, it’s the most important factor of ALM. Get it wrong, and you will not come close to extracting the maximum value from you applications.

Development:

Although ALM is not synonymous Software Development Life Cycle, development is definitely an integral part of the lifecycle of any software application.
Once a business requirements are accepted, the software development lifecycle begins. Agile SLDC's will use a series of iterations or sprints while a traditional SDLC would be one long waterfall process. In the case of iterations or sprints, each is executed with a set of requirements (expressed as user stories or use cases), various designs, code, and test procedures. This repetitive style of development is not always appropriate—some applications are still better developed using more traditional methods—but agile and hybrid practices are quickly becoming the standard.
Regardless of the model used, once the SDLC procedure for the first edition of an application is completed, the application is release. For most applications though, release does not mean the end of an application's lifecycle. Instead, the application needs intermittent updates and perhaps even one or more full software development cycles to create and implement new designs. For some applications, the investment of capital on these updates trumps the cost of developing the original application.
Be sure to note the significance of the SDLC to the overall ALM procedure. Although this facet is certainly important, it’s far from the whole tale. Thinking of ALM as equal to a SDLC is just plain wrong and can result in a sever misunderstanding of the factors needed to successfully manage the lifecycle of an application.

Operations:

Every released application must be managed and maintained. As with Administration, Operations practices are intimately connected with development. For example, organizing for a release likely takes place shortly before the application is finished, and the act of release itself is a basic part of operations. Once the application is release, it must be maintained throughout its lifecycle. Also, each revision to the application must be properly release once its ready.

Summary:

ALM is much more than just creating code. All three aspects—administration, development, and operations—are critical. Consider an application where the initial administration procedures are incorrect, for example, perhaps the business requirements are not properly understood or the right stakeholders are not engaged. No matter how well teams execute the development and operations processes, the application will not offer much value to the enterprise.
Similarly, a team that focuses on the right issues using first-class development procedures might overlook operational difficulties, such as offering enough resources to run the application stably. Once again, the value realized by the enterprise from this application will not be as large as it should be. Understanding the full scope of ALM can help businesses steer clear of difficulties like these.
Maximizing the value of the applications we make requires implementing all three factors of ALM well. Accomplishing this objective is not easy, especially when most of today's ALM tools are not as well built and integrated as they should be. Yet there is no way around it: Incorporating a full, holistic view of ALM is critical for increasing the value output of an enterprise.

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Supporters of Application Lifecycle Management Assert That It:

• Increases efficiency, as the team discovers and shares best methods for development and deployment, and developers need only focus on their current business requirements
• Improves quality and ensures that all deliverables meet the needs and expectations of stakeholders
• Breaks down barriers between teams through collaboration and smooth information flow
• Accelerates development through simplified integration
• Reduces maintenance cost and time by synchronizing design, development, and testing efforts
• Produces the maximum output from investments into skills, processes, and technologies
• Increases flexability by reducing the amount of time it takes to build and deploy applications that address new business objectives

Detractors of Application Lifecycle Management Assert That It:

• Increases an application's whole-life cost
• Increases vendor lock-in
• Provides a single point of failure

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Over the last few years Application Lifecycle Management practices have progressed from minimum to near maximum potential. According to many experts and toolmakers, three significant areas have come about in the last few years to change and improve ALM software. These three areas were all included with ALM software that tracked projects from inception thru to deployment and eventually retirement. After looking at these three areas, it will become clear how ALM best practices have changed.

The Three Changing Areas of Application Lifecycle Management

ALM tools now offer significantly better integrations through all phases of development. Of course as development practices evolve vendors will have to continue to refine and extend these integration points to deal with things like CTI servers and distributed SCM systems.
Agile Application Lifecycle Management has become challenging to separate from traditional ALM software. The definitions of what “agile” really is vary so much that many vendors have found themselves unable to properly define and market their products. The best vendors however have adapted to these changes by offering modular or hybrid solutions that can be easily adapted to fit and development style.
Application security and virtualized testing are quickly becoming a necessity in ALM software. Though still not used by the majority they have been widely recognized. When used they also certainly play an important role in how applications are developed.

The Upside of the ALM Software Evolution

Though there may be aspects of ALM software evolution that do not seem advantageous the consumer, it is important to recognize the potential benefits of an ALM solution. Application Lifecycle Management software was developed so that teams can work together without the fear of losing information in the gaps between separate, non-integrated tools. Allowing you team to work without the need for a full array of different software packages is hugely beneficial as it allows frameworks to work to their full potential.

The Future of ALM… Integrated Operations

All Application Lifecycle Management software vendors would agree that integrated Operations is the next logical step in the evolution of ALM practices. Having a seamless flow of information from support teams to development teams will offer the same types of gains that seamless communication within development teams offers. However very few vendors offer a solution that can grow to offer such an integration when needed. If you want a truly scalable solution be sure to seek out a vendor that can offer a robust integration between Operations and Development functions.

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Enterprises often end up spending a great deal of money investing in individual tools that handle Requirements Management, Project Planning, Development Tracking, QA Test Management and a whole lot more. The problem with these tools is that often their methods are too conventional and isolated. They tend to rely on cumbersome manual procedures to synchronization of data between tools. This is precisely why enterprises need to employ an integrated suite of tools that enable optimum application development. So, here are the top 5 reasons to select an integrated Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) product rather than piecing together individual tools:

• Transparency in the Development of Your Applications:

  A fully integrated ALM solution can link information in a better way allowing teams, individuals and organization to obtain insight into the software development life cycle. This means information regarding of reviews, discoveries, requirements, test cycles, test failures, etc can be rapidly found and distributed.

• Enable Globally Distributed Development:

  As ALM is becoming more prominent in the global space; working in disparate and different cultures frequently affects productivity and efficiency. A fully integrated ALM solution can help overcome such challenges by effectively ensuring that tools interact seamlessly behind firewalls and across several diverse networks overcoming structural obstacles across remote locations. This means on time delivery of projects and within stipulated budgets. Additionally ALM solutions with Multi-site capabilities can provide local performance for all teams further increasing the speed of communication of production.

• Realize Productivity Increases:

  A fully integrated ALM solution with easily customizable workflows can bring about better implementations and help enforce processes that ensure better productivity. Frequently repeated tasks can be automated, reducing the amount of tedious rework. Also, since stakeholders can easily stay up-to-date with project progress via built in reports there is a decrease in the need for time consuming meetings and update activities.

• Deliver Faster and More Often:

  A solution that supports shorter development cycles, enhanced team collaboration, elimination of errors and reduction of human interfaces means that deliveries becomes faster and meeting deadlines become easier than ever.

• Obtain New Levels of Customer Satisfaction:

  A fully integrated ALM solution allows for adoption of many software development best practices. This means that all developmental activities to be aligned with customer requirements. Thus ensuring that customers always get what they want. Additionally, customers can enjoy real-time updates on the progress and development of their projects. Thanks to enhanced levels of transparency, the customer can easily follow artifacts through all the relevant stages of development.

It becomes obvious then that without synchronization between all the pieces in the development process, you will not be able to provide enhanced value to your organization and its customers. The solution then is to have automatically synchronized software and collaboration systems such as those found in a fully integrated ALM suite.

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