Application lifecycle management
Application lifecycle management is the product lifecycle management of computer programs. It encompasses requirements management, software architecture, computer programming, software testing, software maintenance, change management, continuous integration, project management, and release management.
ALM vs. Software Development Life Cycle
ALM is a broader perspective than the Software Development Life Cycle, which is limited to the phases of software development such as requirements, design, coding, testing, configuration, project management, and change management. ALM continues after development until the application is no longer used, and may span many SDLCs.Integrated ALM
Modern software development processes are not restricted to the discrete ALM/SDLC steps managed by different teams using multiple tools from different locations. Real-time collaboration, access to centralized data repository, cross-tool and cross-project visibility, better project monitoring and reporting are the key to develop quality software in less time.This has given rise to the practice of integrated application lifecycle management, or integrated ALM, where all the tools and tools' users are synchronized with each other throughout the application development stages. This integration ensures that every team member knows Who, What, When, and Why of any changes made during the development process and there is no last minute surprise causing delivery delays or project failure.
Today's application management vendors focus more on API management capabilities for third party best-of-breed tool integration which ensures that organizations are well-equipped with an internal software development system that can easily integrate with any IT or ALM tools needed in a project.
A research director with research firm Gartner proposed changing the term ALM to ADLM to include DevOps, the software engineering culture and practice that aims at unifying software development and software operation.
ALM software suites
Some specialized software suites for ALM are:| Name | Released by |
| Endevor | CA Technologies |
| Enterprise Architect | Sparx Systems |
| GitLab | GitLab |
| Helix ALM | Perforce |
| HP Application Lifecycle Management | Micro Focus |
| IBM Rational Team Concert | IBM |
| JIRA | Atlassian |
| Mylyn | Eclipse Foundation |
| Parasoft DTP | Parasoft |
| Protecode System 4 | Protecode |
| PTC Integrity | PTC |
| Pulse | Genuitec |
| Rational solution for Collaborative Lifecycle Management | IBM |
| Rocket Aldon | Rocket Software |
| SAP Solution Manager | SAP |
| StarTeam | Borland |
| TeamForge | CollabNet |
| Team Foundation Server and Azure DevOps for Visual Studio Application Lifecycle Management | Microsoft |
| Tuleap | Enalean |