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For any product to hit the market, serve and exit, it goes through a product lifecycle of specific processes from inception, service and release. In today’s software-driven world, companies build their productivity and functionality around their software, with developers working behind the scenes to release updates regularly. Application Lifecycle Management is essential in this case for businesses to efficiently manage their software.
Application Lifecycle Management is a unified system of people, tools, and processes that manage an application’s lifecycle from the initial idea through to its end-of-life. ALM is the product lifecycle management of software. It brings together methods that are usually separate, such as requirements management, project management, development, testing and quality assurance, software maintenance, release management and customer support.
ALM is flexible in that it follows any methodology you use, whether DevOps, waterfall, or agile. It will integrate these disciplines’ development approaches to have a collaborative and effective operation in your organization.
Stages of Application Lifecycle Management
The lifecycle of any given application undergoing development goes through five different phases. These phases include requirement specification, application development, testing and debugging, deployment and maintenance. These phases can be covered under ALM in three interlinked stages: governance, development, and operations.
Application Governance
Governance is the place where you make decisions about the applications. When you begin creating an application, the structure and design are the first steps that come up. You also consider how this idea will affect the needs and goals of your business. In DevOps, this is the stage that covers the planning and creation phase.
In this stage, stakeholders and decision-makers decide what requirements they expect the application to fulfill for the business and their needs. For effective governance, the decision-making structure should be clear and transparent to make the right decision about application development and operation. The information flow should be able to reach project managers for appropriate communication with their departments.
Other components of governance include data and security, resource management and user access. Getting this phase right and running is vital for your business to create and have the best application.
Application Development
After deciding what the application is to achieve, the next stage is turning the idea into a product. This stage brings out the difference between Application Lifecycle Management and Software Development Lifecycle. The incorporation of SDLC in a fraction of ALM is evident in this stage.
The application/product goes through molding in the development stage, where the responsible team brings together and breaks down the requirements agreed on into phases to create a release plan. Afterward, the new code undergoes testing and debugging, and then the application is deployed into the production environments. It is crucial to involve sales, IT, testing, and product marketing representatives in this stage to have the current needs met with the application’s release.
The testing and quality assurance stage should provide feedback that will determine the release of the application. The tests should evaluate if the stakeholders’ expectations are satisfactorily met in the application. Testing and debugging is done throughout the development process. It includes the full and unit integration to check any issues that arise and fix any bugs reported to the development team.
Deployment frequency and periods may differ depending on the methodology that the organization’s team follows. For those that use the agile method, deployments may be daily or even several times each day. The application development stage phases undergo repetition until the team is satisfied that the software is ready for release.
Application Operation
The third stage of ALM is operations and maintenance. This stage involves the deployment of the application to the users after development. Application operations concentrate on the total lifespan of the application by conducting regular updates and maintenance routines.
In this stage, the product goes through monitoring and evaluation of performance in production. The use of monitoring tools and access is granted to the development team to track performance data. Product teams can find application operation issues and coordinate fast responses. Any remaining bugs found are reported and resolved.
The application operation runs throughout the software lifecycle until its end of life. During this period, there are constant improvements, new updates undergoing implementation. One key element of this stage is for developers to determine the expected retirement period of the system. The teams should clearly define the point at which the application will no longer have the support and when the migration of work should commence to a new version.
Sometimes development may migrate entirely to a completely different product.
Agile methodology continuously offers support and welcomes customer feedback on released applications. Microsoft, for example, contains a help desk in ALM for user support. Customer feedback will be an essential guide for the next application updates and maintenance.
Benefits of ALM
ALM is essential for a business that aspires to deliver quality releases. A few of the benefits include:
- ALM provides a clear map and directions for the building, development and operation of an app. Businesses can plan their resources and the lifespan of a product before committing to it to save on time and unnecessary costs.
- ALM keeps the team on toes with speed and agility to keep up in the competitive market hence faster deployments. Collaborative processes and transparent communication systems in ALM helps in setting software objectives that favor the business goals.
- There is increased visibility into the workflow.
Some businesses can source software development services from companies like Icreon, one of the top software companies in New York to design, engineer and develop strategic digital software. Of course, if you have your development team, specific ALM tools are used to bring the processes together. There is a wide variety of tools, and a few examples include:
- Atlassian Jira
- Tuleap
- VersionOne
- OneOps
- Rommana ALM
- Clarive
When picking an ALM tool, you will need to consider several factors to make the right choice for your business needs.
- Version Control
- Requirements management
- Automatic deployment
- Quality Assurance and testing
- Real-time team communication and planning
- Source code management
- Maintenance and support
The options to choose ALM tools range from those that support one another to a single one that integrates all your needs. These tools can benefit your business in faster product releases, quality products, enhanced visibility, and promote product compliance to the set requirements.
Conclusion
In conclusion, ALM is critical for software companies or businesses looking to build an app to meet their goals. By integrating people, tools, and processes into a collaboration network, application lifecycle management enables firms to produce quality products and manage them with ease. While users of DevOps or SDLC may find some of these concepts in their processors, ALM is an all-in-one system encompassing everything within the methodologies.