What is ALM (Application Lifecycle
Management)? Process
ByThomas HamiltonUpdatedFebruary 17, 2022
What is ALM?
ALM is a process of specification, design, development, and testing of a
software application. It covers the entire lifecycle from the idea of the
application through to the development, testing, deployment, support, and
ultimately user experience phase. The full form of ALM is Application life cycle
management.
Depending on the software development methodology (for example, waterfall,
agile, or DevOps), ALM might be split into various phases. ALM process is
mainly broken down into three elements: Governance, development, and
operations.
In this ALM tutorial, you will learn:
ALM Process
Why ALM is important?
Stages of ALM (Application Lifecycle Management)
Advantage of ALM
ALM Tools
Use case scenario of ALM from a Developer perspective
Use case scenario of ALM from a Project leader perspective
ALM Process
Here are some key areas of ALM:
Governance:
It includes requirements management, resource management, data security,
user access, review, audit, deployment control, and rollback. It also provides
resource management, data security, and user access.
Benefits of Governance:
Here are pros/benefits of Governance:
Aligned business strategy
Developing a business case
Offers continuous monitoring
Funding projects which deliver the highest value
Clear accountability and control
Application development:
It includes identifying current problems, planning, design, building, and testing
the application. This area consists of the traditional developer and app maker
roles. This stage includes identifying current issues, planning, design,
building, testing, deploying, etc.
Application operation:
The next important element of ALM is Application operation. This area
includes the deployment of the app and the maintenance of the technology
stack. In the waterfall software development method, operation is a separate
stage from development. DevOps team brings operations and development
together into a fully-integrated, continuous process.
Why ALM is important?
The following are the main reasons for using ALM:
If you are using ALM, then you have good visibility into project status.
Teams are able to communicate effectively.
It is easy to track or define requirements.
The software was tested adequately.
The cost of maintaining and operating the solution remains limited.
Stages of ALM (Application Lifecycle Management)
Here are the different stages of ALM:
1) Requirement management:
Requirement management is the first ALM stage that helps you in
documenting, analysing, tracking, prioritizing, and agreeing on requirements.
It is a continuous process that will continue throughout a project life cycle.
Also Check our list of best requirements management software:- Click Here
2) Design
Design management is a process that helps to enhance customer satisfaction
and loyalty by improving usability. It also provides interaction among the
customer and the product.
3) Build Management
Build Management is also known as code management. It is the process of
converting source code files into standalone software component. In this
stage, an application idea transforms into an actual application.
During this stage, the application is built, tested, and deployed, and the tester
begins preparing their tests-cases and write a test script for the testing phase.
4) SCM
Software Configuration Management (SCM) is another ALM stage where the
development team systematically organizes, manages, and controls the
changes in the documents, codes, and other entities during the Application
Development Life Cycle process.
5) Operations and Maintenance
Operations and maintenance is the next phase. In the ALM phase, the
process of monitoring, Management, and the development of the applications
will begin. In DevOps, this ALM phase it covers “release,” “config,” and
“monitor”.
In this stage, you find and resolve bugs. This phase helps you to plan and
prioritize the next updates to the product.
6) Test management:
In the testing phase, the testers need to verify that the application is
complying with the requirements defined in the initial steps of the process.
They also need to ensure that, even if this is not properly defined in the
requirements phase, the application will meet the user expectations and all
the other stakeholders that will require to support it throughout its lifecycle.
7) User experience:
Maintenance or user experience is traditionally the longest stage of ALM. Still,
it is also the one where the participation of the testing and development teams
is usually the lowest.
After the application is developed, the role of the users comes to play. They
check the entire application and share their experience base on their
feedback. The final application will be delivered.
Advantage of ALM
Here are pros/benefits of using ALM:
ALM helps you to control the system by organizing and tracking
You can share defects across projects, reducing risk by helping.
ALM offers integration with other testing tools
It provides a clear direction for an app before it is built.
Without ALM, it is hard for a software development team to produce
software at the speed and agility needed to stay competitive.
ALM efficiently delivers software with minimum ‘tax’ on the team.
ALM Tools
Here are some important ALM tools:
1) Kovair ALM Studio
Kovair is most of the comprehensive Application Lifecycle Management
product. It can handle end to end development lifecycle stages from
Requirements to Release.
Features:
Adopt a 100% web-based solution with no client-side software for
reducing the support burden
Practice any of the development methodologies waterfall, agile or hybrid
Implement a configurable task-based workflow engine for increased
efficiency and productivity
Get real-time notifications at every actionable stage
Provide complete coverage of development about every step, enabling
compliance with standards.
Allow real-time viewing of artifacts status, which increases transparency
and releases predictability.
Link: https://www.kovair.com/alm-studio/
2) Microfocus
Microfocus ALM is Lean, Agile and DevOps software and solutions help
organizations to release software faster. This tool allows team of all sizes to
deliver high-quality apps with greater speed. The tool was orginally developer
by Mercury, later acquired by HP and finally taken over by MicroFocus.
Features:
Deliver Apps with Speed, Quality, and Scale
It allows stakeholders to interact and coordinate to achieve the project
goals.
It provides robust tracking & reporting and seamless integration of
various project-related tasks
It allows detailed project analysis and effective Management.
ALM can connect to email systems and send emails about any changes
to all desired team members.
Link:https://software.microfocus.com/en-us/select/free-trial
3) VersionOne
VersionOne simplifies product planning with easy backlog management. It is
built for DevOps and provides end to end continuous delivery. It has a drag-
and-drop interface.
Features:
It allows users to prioritize stories and defects using the drag-and-drop
function.
Manage Business Initiatives with Portfolio Items
Allows to group Items by theme
Provide result according to Business Goal
Capturing all Feature Requests in One Place
Helps users to ensure alignment between corporate objectives and
product deliverables
It provides a forum for engaging with other customers to learn from
peers.
Provides insights and end to end visibility to project manager.
Link: https://www.collab.net/products/versionone
Use case scenario of ALM from a Developer
perspective :
Developer starts his work
Check the task list which is assigned to him
He checks tasks with priority and picks up one.
He then change the status of the task to In Progress
Check out code from the source code repository.
He implements a unit test with the testing framework.
Execute test with the standard build script. Code inspection displays
illegal naming convention or potential bugs.
He fixes the code and re-test the script.
After confirming the code, the coverage rate meets the target rate. He
commits the code with the task ID.
Then he checks out the code and runs build script.
Compile and deploy the code to the staging machine.
Run the test case. In case if it is broken , it automatically sends a
notification to the developer and project manager.
Developer then rolls back the code in the source repository and staging
machine.
If the test is passed, it invokes code inspection and coverage analysis. If
there is a problem. It will report the problem; otherwise, the developer
notifies that all of the implementations have been done successfully.
He writes his work history in a task management system
Project manager gets the notification that the task is resolved.
He check-up the note of the task result.
Developer completes his working day.
Use case scenario of ALM from a Project leader
perspective:
The project leader executes a web browser and goes to the ALM
dashboard page.
Each project has a page dashboard.
It displays the number of open tasks, the number of pending tasks, and
all the critical tasks that are opened.
The project leader is notified of potential risk and project a healthy
status by using the dashboard.
All of the commit and change are automatically reported.
Here, the ALM process helps the team in such a way that they do not
need to make a meeting or phone call to check the CI process of the
critical tasks.
Summary:
Application Lifecycle Management acronym ALM is a process of
specification, design, development, and testing of a software
application.
Key areas of ALMS are defined as 1) Governance, 2) Application
Development 3) Application management.
If you are using ALM, then you have good visibility into project status.
Requirement management, Design, Coding, SCM, Build Management,
Test management, and User experiences are important stages of the
ALM process.
ALM helps you to control the system by organizing and tracking.
ALM process is useful for Developers, Project managers and all entries
of the system management process.
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