Equinox IT Blog

What is Application Lifecycle Management or ALM?

If you work in IT you have probably heard the term Application Lifecycle Management, or ALM, but given it is not a heavily used term you may not be familiar with what it means.

Anthony Borton, an Microsoft MVP for Visual Studio ALM, is currently in New Zealand delivering two half-day presentations on ‘Driving Business Value with Visual Studio 2010’. Anthony runs Enhance ALM, an Australian consulting and training company specialising in software development processes and Microsoft Visual Studio. Equinox is working together with Anthony to deliver Visual Studio training in December (see details at bottom of post).

Equinox has always been strongly involved in the ALM area. With Anthony in Wellington for a couple of days, I took the opportunity to interview him to help describe ALM and its benefits.

Brendon: Anthony, how would you describe Application Lifecycle Management or ALM?

Anthony: Application Lifecycle Management is an evolution of the traditional Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC). It recognises that project success comes from more than just the development activities and looks at Governance and IT Operations as well.

Brendon: What benefits are there from using an ALM approach?

Anthony: Organisations adopting ALM products and practises could expect to realise benefits ranging from increased productivity, reduced time to market, improved quality and reduced maintenance costs. Using integrated ALM tools allows metrics to be captured and reported from project inception right through to the operations and maintenance phases. Through this greater visibility, business can ensure projects stay on track and can respond to issues or impediments much more quickly.

Brendon: What tools do you see commonly used to support an ALM approach to software development?

Anthony: My area of specialisation is on the Microsoft Visual Studio ALM suite based on Microsoft Team Foundation Server 2010. Many organisations are already using Microsoft Visual Studio as their primary development tool and introducing Team Foundation Server and ALM practises is a logical progression for most. Many organisations are already licensed to use TFS and the ALM tools but don’t realise it.

Brendon: How can people find out more about ALM?

Anthony: The inaugural New Zealand Visual Studio ALM Conference is scheduled for early 2011 in Wellington. This two-day event is much like the popular Microsoft TechEd event but much more focused on development and ALM practises.

recorded webinar: how agile development teams succeed

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