Application Lifecycle management is nothing but managing the life of an application or applications through proper and continuous monitoring, development and maintenance. The lifecycle of an application comprises of different phases such as idea, design, development, testing, deployment and management. Thus, application lifecycle management involves the collaborative effort of business management and software engineering.
Forrester describes Application Lifecycle Management or rather ALM as “The coordination of development life-cycle activities, including requirements, modeling, development, build, and testing, through:
* enforcement of processes that span these activities;
* management of relationships between development artifacts used or produced by these activities; and
* reporting on progress of the development effort as a whole.
Hence, ALM is synchronizing various development activities to produce software applications of high quality at a faster rate. Application Lifecycle Management system in no way supports or manages any single activity of a lifecycle management process. Instead it sorts of act as a connecting link between various activities. For instance, even if the business requirements are documented flawlessly, models are built impeccably, codes are written well, and numerous tests are conducted, the application can be a failure if there is lack of co-ordination between these activities. ALM ensures that all these activities are in perfect sync so that the application developed conforms to business requirements.
Advantages of Application Lifecycle Management
* Faster Development: By facilitating simplified assimilation, ALM speeds up the development process.
* Improved Quality: Applications developed through ALM conforms to the needs and requirements of the user.
* Bridging Boundaries: Smooth flow of information and teamwork makes geographical boundaries irrelevant
* Enhanced Productivity: Since all developers work on the same software, no scope of error can happen during the development and deployment stages, even if the developers are geographically distributed.
* Reduced Maintenance Time: Synchronization is the foremost aspect of Application Lifecycle Management. Hence, through effective co-ordination of application and design it can lower maintenance time considerably.
* Enhanced Flexibility: The time required for the applications to adjust and adapt to new business requirements is very low.
Though Application Lifecycle Management system is considered to increase the whole life cost of an application, it is negotiable when compared to its immense advantages.
ALM software uses various kinds of interconnected tools such as Requirements Management tool, Test Management tool, Issues Management tool, Risk Management tool, Release Management tool, and Project Management tool.
Hence, enterprises in search of an application that not only conforms to business requirements but also to internal external requirements should invest in ALM software.
Forrester describes Application Lifecycle Management or rather ALM as “The coordination of development life-cycle activities, including requirements, modeling, development, build, and testing, through:
* enforcement of processes that span these activities;
* management of relationships between development artifacts used or produced by these activities; and
* reporting on progress of the development effort as a whole.
Hence, ALM is synchronizing various development activities to produce software applications of high quality at a faster rate. Application Lifecycle Management system in no way supports or manages any single activity of a lifecycle management process. Instead it sorts of act as a connecting link between various activities. For instance, even if the business requirements are documented flawlessly, models are built impeccably, codes are written well, and numerous tests are conducted, the application can be a failure if there is lack of co-ordination between these activities. ALM ensures that all these activities are in perfect sync so that the application developed conforms to business requirements.
Advantages of Application Lifecycle Management
* Faster Development: By facilitating simplified assimilation, ALM speeds up the development process.
* Improved Quality: Applications developed through ALM conforms to the needs and requirements of the user.
* Bridging Boundaries: Smooth flow of information and teamwork makes geographical boundaries irrelevant
* Enhanced Productivity: Since all developers work on the same software, no scope of error can happen during the development and deployment stages, even if the developers are geographically distributed.
* Reduced Maintenance Time: Synchronization is the foremost aspect of Application Lifecycle Management. Hence, through effective co-ordination of application and design it can lower maintenance time considerably.
* Enhanced Flexibility: The time required for the applications to adjust and adapt to new business requirements is very low.
Though Application Lifecycle Management system is considered to increase the whole life cost of an application, it is negotiable when compared to its immense advantages.
ALM software uses various kinds of interconnected tools such as Requirements Management tool, Test Management tool, Issues Management tool, Risk Management tool, Release Management tool, and Project Management tool.
Hence, enterprises in search of an application that not only conforms to business requirements but also to internal external requirements should invest in ALM software.
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