Application lifecycle management

Software development process
A software developer at work
Activities and steps
Requirements Specification Architecture Construction Design Testing Debugging Deployment Maintenance
Methodologies
Waterfall Prototype model Incremental Iterative V-Model Spiral Scrum Cleanroom RAD DSDM RUP XP Agile Lean Dual Vee Model TDD FDD
Supporting disciplines
Configuration management Documentation Quality assurance (SQA) Project management User experience design
Tools
Compiler Debugger Profiler GUI designer IDE Build automation

Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) is the process of managing the life of an application through governance, development and maintenance. ALM is the marriage of business management to software engineering made possible by tools that facilitate and integrate requirements management, architecture, coding, testing, tracking, and release management. The term originates from Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) when Chrysler used a central database to manage all the artifacts of the Jeep Cherokee product.

Disadvantages

Opponents of application lifecycle management claim that it:

• Increases vendor lock-in.
• Creates a single point of failure.

Categories of ALM tools

• Requirements analysis
• Requirements management
• Feature management
• Modeling
• Design
• Project management
• Change management
• Software information management (for ALM tool integration)
• Build management
• Software configuration management

• Revision control

• Software testing
• Release management
• Software deployment
• Issue management
• Monitoring and reporting
• Workflow
• Open source license management

As the Integrated Development Environment (IDE) continues to evolve, 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 the application lifecycle, providing full 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 Modeling Language (UML). Cloud computing is leading to further evolution of ALM tools requiring them to be able to integrate with runtime environments in the cloud, be able to be run themselves in the cloud, and to manage cloud based assets.

Software

Proprietary software

Notable products include:

Name	Vendor
codeBeamer	Intland Software
Coverity Development Testing Platform	Coverity
Endevor	CA Technologies
FogBugz	Fog Creek Software
FusionForge	FusionForge
Gemini	Countersoft
GeneXus	GeneXus - Artech
HP Application Lifecycle Management	HP Software Division
IBM Rational solution for Collaborative Lifecycle Management	IBM
IBM Rational Team Concert	IBM
Parasoft Concerto	Parasoft
Protecode System 4	Protecode
Pulse	Genuitec
SAP Solution Manager	SAP
StarTeam	Borland
Team Foundation Server	Microsoft
uberSVN	WANdisco
Visual Studio Application Lifecycle Management	Microsoft
workspace.com	workspace.com

Open source software

Name	Sponsor	To use it, it requires integration with	Software tools used to develop it
Mylyn	Community, Eclipse Foundation	Version 3.7.1 requires Eclipse platform 3.6 or 3.7	Eclipse platform (a package supporting Java development)

See also

• Business transaction management
• Product lifecycle management
• Application Lifecycle Framework
• Systems development life-cycle
• Open Services for Lifecycle Collaboration

Further reading

• Keuper, Frank; Oecking, Christian; Degenhardt, Andreas; Verlag, Gabler (2011). Application Management: Challenges - Service Creation - Strategies. ISBN 978-3-8349-1667-9. 
• Linnartz, Walter; Kohlhoff, Barbara; Heck, Gertrud; Schmidt, Benedikt (2004). Application Management Services und Support. Publicis Corporate Publishing. ISBN 3-89578-224-6. 
• "Gartner Market Scope for ALM 2010". 
• Hüttermann, Michael (2011). Agile Application Lifecycle Management. Manning. ISBN 978-1-935182-63-4. 

Electronic sources

• ASL-Library
• IT Infrastructure Library