What is application lifecycle management (ALM)?
Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) is the strategic process of managing a software or product lifecycle from initial idea through design, development, testing, deployment, and end of life. ALM enables software engineering teams to efficiently collaborate on projects using proven Agile practices and trusted, up-to-date information. It is a foundational discipline for successful products, teams, and companies.
Why is ALM important?
Application lifecycle management helps teams manage the inherent complexity of modern software development. Today, product value is increasingly delivered through software. For example, the average automobile is composed of microprocessors running over 100 million lines of code. ALM connects people, processes, and tools to align teams around common goals, speed software delivery, and simplify regulatory compliance.
Key areas of ALM
Governance
Establish a transparent, well-documented governance framework for software development. ALM enables organizations to establish transparent processes for decision-making and improve oversight and accountability of projects and software systems.
Application Development
Navigate the inherent complexity of modern, Agile software development. Today's software engineers are vastly more productive than their predecessors of even a few years ago. This remarkable efficiency is delivered in the context of added complexity. By providing a single source of truth and end-to-end traceability for software development, covering requirements management, test management and project management, ALM makes modern software development possible.
Maintenance
It's estimated that maintenance consumes 40-70% of the costs of the software lifecycle. Ongoing software maintenance is necessary to fix errors, maintain competitive parity, and respond to evolving customer needs. Application lifecycle management enables teams to efficiently track and manage changes and scheduled product releases over the lifetime of the product, enabling organizations to fulfill the promise of their product long after initial deployment.
Six stages of application lifecycle management (ALM)
ALM stages vary from organization to organization, but typically include the following:
Requirements Definition
Stakeholders analyze the problem and define the high-level scope of the solution. Over many iterations, requirements are refined and detailed.
Design
Software Development
Testing and Quality Assurance
Deployment
Maintenance
Key ALM capabilities
Excellence in application lifecycle management requires mastery of the following:
Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE)
MBSE is a methodology that uses models to design, analyze, and manage complex systems throughout their lifecycle.
Product Line Engineering (PLE)
PLE helps to develop product variants efficiently. It streamlines the development process, reduces time –to market, and improves product quality.
Application lifecycle management case studies
The future of ALM
Software engineers are applying Agile techniques to automatically generate code and utilize reusable, off-the-shelf components, saving time and costs. AI-assisted engineering is poised to unleash the next wave of product development efficiency. Even as software engineering evolves, ALM capabilities will always be required, as it enables fundamental principles of transparency, governance, and collaboration.