Unlike Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), which refers to the process of developing a software product, Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) refers to the process of managing the life of an application through governance, development and maintenance.

1. Enhance Business Value of Custom Applications with ALM Integration
Unlike Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), which refers to the process of developing a software
product, Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) refers to the process of managing the life of an
application through governance, development and maintenance. That means ALM looks at the various
phases of a product lifecycle while SDLC looks at just one phase of the product lifecycle.
According to David Chappell, the Principal of Chappell & Associates, the lifecycle of a product or
application goes through some important phases. The first phase is idea creation when the development
team comes up with the idea of building an application and goes through the various formalities to
make it happen. Then comes the deployment phase when the application goes into production. Finally,
the end of life phase when the application is no longer in use.
As mentioned above, ALM comprises of three important stages namely governance, development and
maintenance. Governance refers to the decision making and project management processes and
therefore extends throughout the application lifecycle. Development refers to the time between idea
creation and deployment. In certain cases, development takes place even after the deployment phase in
the form of upgrades and new versions. Maintenance refers to the operations required to run and
manage the application and therefore this stage starts before the deployment phase and continues until
the end of life phase of the application.
Enterprises looking to developing an application high in business value must ensure that all the three
stages i.e., governance, development and maintenance are achieved completely. However, it is not as
easy as it sounds since the development team needs to achieve each stage correctly for the ALM
solutions to be effective.
The development team uses different tools to develop an application. However, these tools are mostly
point function tools encompassing requirements management, architecture, coding, build, testing,
tracking, release management and more. These tools live in isolation, rely mostly on traditional broken
manual procedures to synchronize data of one tool with the other and as a result do not work well
together. Hence, though enterprises spend millions of dollars a year on best of the breed tools from a
single vendor /different vendors for different lifecycle phases, lack of integration between the various
tools prevent the development team to maximize the business value of the custom application.
Integration between the multiple lifecycle tools help enterprises to:
 Collect Actionable Metrics & Intelligence
 Enable Collaboration between Stakeholders
 Enact Best Practice Processes and Enhance Customer Satisfaction
 Gain Greater Insights into Projects ,Improve Quality
 Increase Productivity and Deliver Faster
 Manage Change with Confidence
 Overcome Challenges for Globally Distributed Development
Thus, ALM integration helps the development team to build custom applications with higher business
value.
Related Link : agile methodology