Application Lifecycle Management (ALM), is the practice of managing a software application throughout its entire lifespan, from its initial conception all the way to its eventual retirement. It involves various roles (people), tools, and processes that work together to ensure the application is built, tested, deployed, maintained, and ultimately retired effectively.
ALM solutions aim to streamline the process of software development and maintenance, ensuring that business goals are aligned with IT capabilities, thereby enhancing efficiency, productivity, and quality of software applications.
Key Features and Benefits
For IT professionals, ALM offers a framework that promotes efficiency and effectiveness in software development and maintenance. By adopting ALM tools and practices, IT teams can optimize resource allocation and utilization, implement agile practices and DevOps methodologies, and enhance code quality and reduce time to market for new software releases.
Business executives can benefit from ALM by gaining insights into the software development process, helping them make informed decisions regarding project priorities, investments, and strategic directions.
ALM vs. SDLC
ALM has a broader scope compared to the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). SDLC focuses on the development phases of an application, like designing, coding, testing, and deployment. ALM, on the other hand, encompasses the entire lifecycle, including SDLC stages, but also continuing through maintenance, updates, and eventually retirement. You can think of SDLC as a subset of ALM.
To summarize, Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) is a critical component of modern software development and management, offering a blend of tools, processes, and practices that help organizations develop and maintain high-quality software applications efficiently and effectively.
Application security is a significant challenge for software engineers, as well as for security and DevOps professionals. It comprises the measures taken to improve the security of online services and websites against malicious attacks by finding, repairing, and preventing security weaknesses and vulnerabilities.
Application management performance (APM) is the process of managing and monitoring an application's performance.
DevSecOps solutions integrate security practices into every phase of the software development lifecycle. This approach emphasizes collaboration between development, security, and operations teams, ensuring that security is a shared responsibility embedded in our daily routine, and we start thinking about it early.
Software Development Analytics provide insights into the development process to improve efficiency and productivity. These platforms analyze activities across code commits, project timelines, and team contributions, turning raw data into actionable intelligence.
Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) is a systematic approach to managing the development and delivery of software applications. It encompasses all aspects of the software development process, from requirements gathering to deployment and maintenance.
Application release automation (ARA) is the process of packaging and deploying an application or software update. ARA goes from development through production. The process, and the tooling that makes it happen, brings together solutions that automate deployment, manage and model environments and coordinate releases. ARA solutions sometimes form part of the broader DevOps process.
IT operations analytics is a group of practices and processes to monitor systems in order to gather, process, analyze, and interpret data from IT operations to guide decisions and manage risks.
What is agile planning? Agile planning in project management is a method of working that is incremental and iterative. It means you use a process that takes your vision for what you want to achieve and breaks it down into smaller, achievable steps. Agile ensures that you have the flexibility to change your plan throughout the project based on constant feedback from end users.
What is an APM in mobile? Mobile application performance management (APM) is the process of employing a variety of monitoring tools to analyze and view the health of a given mobile application in a production environment. Mobile APM tools help evaluate performance and flag failures and bugs to help software and networking teams gain better visibility into the end-user experience of a mobile application’s users.
What is regression testing? Regression testing is a software testing practice that developers employ after they make changes to a computer program or application that they have created.
What is a patch management process? Patch management is the process of acquiring, testing, and installing many patches (code modifications) on current applications and software tools on a computer.
Build automation tools automate the time-consuming tasks inherent in creating a “build,” or usable version of an application. They automate and orchestrate the sometimes complex processes of compiling computer source code into binary code and packaging that binary code as well as running automated tests
Enterprise Architecture Management (EAM) solutions are designed to help organizations effectively plan, design, and manage their enterprise architecture. These tools provide a comprehensive view of an organization's business processes, IT systems, and their relationships, enabling better decision-making and alignment between business and IT strategies.
Application requirements management is a critical aspect of software development and project management that involves the systematic identification, documentation, analysis, and tracking of requirements for an application or software system.
Software Supply Chain Security is a critical aspect of cybersecurity that focuses on safeguarding the entire software development lifecycle (SDLC), from application development to deployment.
Version control solutions are essential tools for software development teams, enabling them to effectively manage and track changes to their codebase over time.
API Monitoring Software ensures that APIs are performing optimally and securely by focusing on monitoring the health, performance, and usage, providing insights that are vital for maintaining seamless integrations.
Value Stream Management (VSM) software is an essential tool for modern enterprises seeking to optimize their software delivery process. It provides a holistic view of the software delivery lifecycle, enabling organizations to improve efficiency, quality, and speed.
Software Distribution solutions are designed to streamline and automate the process of distributing software packages, updates, and configurations across an organization's network.
Software Configuration Management (SCM) refers to tracking and controlling software changes. SCM tracks software updates. Software engineers will closely monitor software used by the enterprise to stay on top of revision control. SCM assists in detecting and monitoring functional software elements and configurations, tracking version selection and changes, establishing software control and implementing baselines. Software Configuration Management is also known as Software Control management.
Mainframe Management refers to the processes and tools used to oversee the operations of mainframe computers (typically Z Series or “legacy” systems).
Application Security Training Software is a category of software designed to educate and train developers and security professionals on best practices to secure applications.
Software Development Services is a category that encompasses a range of solutions aimed at creating, designing, and maintaining software applications.
Agile and DevOps Services is a category that encompasses a range of solutions aimed at improving software development and delivery processes.
There are several different types of ALM methodologies that organizations can adopt:
Key components of ALM solutions include requirements management, design, coding, testing, configuration management, and release management. These components work together to ensure a smooth and efficient development process.
ALM works by providing a structured framework for managing the development lifecycle of an application. This framework allows developers to track progress, make necessary changes, and ensure that the final product meets the desired specifications.
Some key functionalities of ALM include: requirement management, design, coding, testing, configuration, and release management.
For developers, ALM tools provide a centralized platform to manage all aspects of the development process. These tools often include features such as project tracking, collaboration, reporting, and integration with other development tools.
Key benefits of Application Lifecycle Management include:
