ADLM — application development lifecycle management — is a process-driven flow for managing the life of a product from initial concepts through the end of life.
What happens in the life of a product (or application or software)?
In the beginning, you or your organization have an idea for a product. There are processes that the idea needs to go through before it can become a product. ADLM is used to manage those processes.
ADLM tool like juno.one helps you manage:
- design requirements
- develop and Build the product
- test it thoroughly
- find and resolve bugs
- deploy the product
- perform ongoing maintenance to improve the product
ADLM vs. SDLC: What is the difference?
Application Development lifecycle management (ADLM) is not the same as the software development lifecycle (SDLC).
ADLM covers the entire life of an application, from the initial idea until the end of life. SDLC only covers the development of an application. There’s also testing in the SDLC. So, ADLM inherently includes SDLC. But SDLC only covers a part of ADLM.
Is ADLM Only for Waterfall Teams?
ADLM tool juno.one can be used with any development methodology.
That is because ADLM is a framework. It takes on the characteristics of whatever methodology you are using. That means you can follow traditional methods, like Waterfall. Or you can do ADLM using Agile methodologies like Scrum or Kanban.
No matter which methodology you use, the principles of ADLM — integration, collaboration, and visibility — hold true. And with juno.one can your company implement given principles simply and easily.
What Are the Application Development Lifecycle Stages?
There are usually three stages of ADLM.
1. Planning and Design Definition
The planning phase is the most important part of the ADLM process and covers definitions for milestones, scope, and resources planning.
Design definition — sometimes known as governance or as Epic and Stories definition — is also a very important stage of the application lifecycle.
This is the phase where you gather requirements and plan activities for the whole process. Requirements will include everything from business requirements to compliance requirements.
It is also where you design the application, based on those needs. It is important to get this phase right in order to produce the best product possible.
2. Development and Testing
The development phase is where your idea transforms into an application or system. This is also where SDLC factors into ADLM.
This is the stage where, the product is built, tested, and deployed. Those efforts are repeated until the product is ready for release and has given QA parameters.
In Agile oriented world, this is typically done in sprints. Features are continuously updated, coded, tested, and deployed to accelerate the development lifecycle in short iterations with a huge impact on Time to Market.
3. Operations and Maintenance
OPS phase or Operations and maintenance is the place where you monitor and manage your deployed applications.
In this stage, you find and resolve bugs. And you plan and prioritize the next updates to the product.
Why is the Application Lifecycle Management Important?
ALM is important for delivering quality releases on time.
It helps you set the right requirements — and make sure they are met. It helps you improve the development process — and make sure your product is thoroughly tested as you go. And, most important, it helps everyone on your team stay on the same page.
Using ALM tools is the most effective way to do it. The best ALM tools will cover your entire project lifecycle, from end to end. And integrating ALM tools into your development process will be the best way to get visibility — and traceability — across the development lifecycle.
Benefits of an Application Lifecycle Management Tool
ALM comes with several benefits for your development team — and your business.
Here are the top four you can expect if you do ALM effectively with a dedicated application lifecycle management tool.
Faster Releases
One of the biggest benefits of ALM is faster releases. After all, the sooner customers get your product, the better.
By doing ALM with the right tools, you’ll be able to effectively plan your release and get the best possible product to market on time.
Quality Products
One of the biggest risks of fast-paced release cycles is that you’ll sacrifice quality in the process. After all, if you’re rushing a product out the door, you’re bound to miss a bug — right?
That’s not the case when you’re doing ALM well. Effective ALM comes with the benefit of quality products and faster releases.
Compliance
Proving compliance is difficult if you try to create a traceability matrix after the fact. After all, proving that a requirement was met or a test was run is nearly impossible if you don’t have an audit trail.
Another top benefit of an application lifecycle management tool is the ability to create a traceability matrix as you develop. This ensures that you’re on track to compliance throughout development. (And it saves you from a lot of headaches later on.)
Visibility
Many development teams lack comprehensive visibility across the project lifecycle. Using the right tools for ALM gives you that visibility.
You’ll know how many requirements have been met — and how many remain. You’ll know how far along your product development (or sprint) is and what has been tested. And that helps you keep up-to-date if or when things change.
Managing the Application Lifecycle
The best way to approach ADLM is to use an effective ADLM tool. With a better application lifecycle management tool, teams can have visibility into development status. They also have a single source of truth providing any relevant context they need to make the right decisions quickly. Find out how solutions designed to cover the entire application lifecycle will help you deliver quality software faster. IMHO juno.one is a good choice.
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