An integration-oriented model for application lifecycle management

• Günter Pirklbauer
• Rudolf Ramler
• Rene Zeilinger

In the last years a new trend emerged in the software engineering tool market: Application Lifecycle Management (ALM). ALM aims at integrating processes and tools to coordinate development activities in software engineering. However, a common understanding or widely accepted definition of the term ALM has not yet evolved. Thus, companies introducing ALM are usually confronted with a wide range of solutions following different, vendor-specific interpretations. The aim of this paper is to clarify the concept of ALM and to provide guidance on how to develop an ALM strategy for software development organizations. The paper identifies key problem areas typically addressed by ALM and derives a model to relate the solution concepts of ALM to engineering and management activities. The work has been applied in the context of an improvement project conducted at an industrial company. This case shows how the model can be used to systematically develop a tailored, vendor-independent ALM solution.