What is Agile ALM?
Application Life Cycle Management (ALM) is the life cycle management of software applications from initial development to final release. ALM encompasses all the practices, processes, and tools that help manage the lifecycle of an application from a development and business perspective. The key capabilities of an ALM platform include the ability to handle change management, workflow, source code management, task management, testing and bug tracking, laboratory management, reporting And the analysis. An ALM platform must also include a central repository for managing all the various types of content created (i.e. code, tasks, roles, requirements, and other artifacts), as well as a system for establishing traceability and accountability across the many processes of the ALM platform. locations and types of tools.
Given the complexity and magnitude of time and resources that a company invests in software development, risk management becomes extremely important. All software development contains inherent risk, since software development is not based on mathematical or physical certainty, but on innovation, discovery and art. Unlike a manufacturing system in which processes can be automated, the software development process cannot translate into a one-size-fits-all solution. It is impossible to predict each and every variable that could possibly affect a software project from the start.
In the past, development teams have relied primarily on the “waterfall” approach to managing ALM. However, like the manufacturing assembly line, the cascade method is a “linear” approach in which product requirements are collected in advance and the development process follows a predefined sequence of events from coding to production. testing, quality control, and then launch. The risk of following this type of approach is that it increases the risk of project failure. By the time the final product is released, it may no longer be relevant to the market for which it was designed.
To reduce the risk of project failure, software development teams are constantly looking for ways to improve both the software development process and technology. No software system is so simple that all development can be scheduled from start to finish in a linear fashion, which is why we are seeing a shift in the market towards “Agile ALM”. Simply put, both the ALM and Agile communities are focused on improving the current state of software development. While ALM addresses the challenge from a technology standpoint, Agile is focused on improving the “process.” Due to the common goals and synergies of ALM and Agile, we expect several Agile ALM vendors to appear on the market in the next 1-3 years.
Unlike the “linear” waterfall approach, agile teams use an “iterative” or “watch and adapt” approach to ALM to address the changing requirements, complexities, and risk factors that will emerge over the course of the software project. Scrum, the most popular implementation of the Agile movement, has seen exponential growth in recent years for both small and large-scale development projects, and is now rapidly expanding its presence in the enterprise. Scrum’s success, for the most part, stems from its focus on enabling the creation of “high value features” as well as efficient collaboration between self-organizing teams. Teams using Scrum see Scrum as a benefit because they get business ROI sooner, minimize project repetition, and accelerate product innovation.
