What is ALM and why it becomes so Necessary nowadays in the Software Development Industry?

The term “ALM” is mainly used in the context of software applications. Application lifecycle management (ALM) is the process of managing the entire product lifecycle process of software program, right from interpretation/design to the retirement of computer programs.

In today’s era, application lifecycle management is an essential method in the app development process, and every app development company needs to embrace and follow it seriously to make the whole things run smoothly. ALM is used to outline the methodologies for mobile app development so that they used the methods and the tools effectively and improve efficiency.

The lifecycle of an application mainly includes the many phases that are:

* Requirements specification

* Software Development

* Programming

* Testing

* Software Maintenance

* Deployment

* Project Management

* Release Management

Three most critical stages of ALM that everyone should know

* Requirement Specification: Specification of requirement is one of the most crucial stages of the application lifecycle. This is something that everything begins and from where you gather the requirements.

As we know, application development starts with the idea and drawing of the requirement, so every relevant stakeholder needs to define the software developer about what they want to have in the application that supports their business cases. This is the source for generating the requirements. Part of proper requirements specification practice is to categorize the criteria based on the module, feature, etc. and also by prioritizing them that what is a must, what can come later, etc.

* Development & Testing: After specifying the requirements, the next critical phase is to start the development of the application. At the inception of the process, the team from different representatives came together and split the application’s requirements into parts and steps. Then, each representative from the different team handles the development, testing, support, IT, sales, etc.

The aim here is to verify that the software developer will meet all the actual needs, and the developed application will be simple to use, test, and deploy. Testers must start preparing their test cases and scenarios for the testing phase during the development phases.

They need to be in constant touch with the developers to provide feedback about the application to them. The most popular development methodologies and tools are the sequential (such as Waterfall), and the iterative based (such as Agile). During the testing phase, testers need to identify the issues and bugs and report them to the experts so that they can fix the problem by development.

* Maintenance: Maintenance is the eternal stage of ALM, and it is the phase where you monitor & maintain your deployed application. In this stage, the participation of the development and testing teams is usually the lowest. The maintenance duration of the application depends on the previous phases.

If the work has been done effectively during the preceding phases, then the volume of product maintenance will be significantly lower. Basically, the more issues that were found during the testing phases, the fewer intricacies we will see during the maintenance processes.

Application Lifecycle Management Tools

Many products are claiming to be Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) tools, but the accepted industry standard which allows a service to be referred to as an “ALM method” is that the tools that:

* Includes more than one ALM phase

* Enables users to view the traceability between the different stages.

* Shows entities history

Application Lifecycle Management is Crucial in these days or not?

Nowadays, building an app with an ALM plan is crucial for any app development company. ALM is mainly useful for the app development company because it provides clear direction to the team, speeds up development, and lowering the chances of bugs and issues. With a better application lifecycle development tool, teams can give more focus to the development process and have better distinctness into the development status. By integrating the right processes, tools, and experts from starting to end, ALM enables businesses to make better applications or software products and manage effectively in an effective manner. Using an effective tool is the best way to approach ALM.

Komal Bothra

Komal Bothra is a passionate article writer. She is writing articles on various topics and new technologies. She works currently in the mobile app development company which name is mobulous. Recently she celebrated her 2 years of work anniversary by writing about Indian politics and cryptocurrency. She has an outgoing personality and loves traveling. She spends her time baking as she loves to bake the cake.