application lifecycle management (ALM)
Application lifecycle management (ALM) is the supervision of a software application from its
initial planning through retirement. It also refers to how changes to an application are documented
and tracked.
ALM is a very broad term that reflects a change in attitude towards software development that is
also expressed in the term DevOp. DevOp is the blending
of tasks performed by a company's application development and systems operations teams. In the
past, a development team might work independently using a waterfall
development model and hand off the completed software application to an operations team for
deployment and maintenance. Today, it is more likely that developers will use an agile
model and remain involved with the application after deployment, working with business owners and
operations to make incremental changes as needed.
There are many ALM tools available for tracking application changes. These range from dedicated
ALM products that monitor an application from inception to completion, automatically sorting
files into logical buckets as changes are noted, to simple wikis that require team members to
record changes manually.
See also: change
management, change control,
change log, application
portfolio management
This was last updated in April 2011
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Application lifecycle management seems to take a cue from a "Scooby Doo" villain. Once you think you know what it is, it pulls off its mask and reveals itself as something else. Is ALM a development process? A project management tool? A bunch of different tools that help with the delivery and ongoing maintenance of your app? Or something else entirely? Even if you've spent your lifetime in the application development space, it's still easy to be confused by such a nebulous and (sometimes) schizophrenic term. In this piece Mike Jones shares his "unmasked" definition of ALM for 2010 based on the three key ALM needs that are critical for IT shops to improve efficiency and better meet business objectives.
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Using agile methodologies and tools can help streamline processes and bring flexibility to end-to-end software management. This tip delves into why ALM can only be effective if truly-agile tools are used. Get advice on choosing ALM tools that don’t add layers of bureaucracy and do increase integration and automation.
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Regardless of the methodology or process that your organization uses, it's important that you define your application lifecycle. Director of QA John Scarpino shares 11 important steps you can follow to ensure you carry out application lifecycle management (ALM) successfully in your organization.
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