Selecting and Implementing an Application Life Cycle Management Strategy

Luis Claudio Mangi

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Application Life Cycle Management Practitioners Balance Multiple Perspectives

Are you changing the way you do ALM in response to changes such as Cloud, Agile Development, SOA and Advanced Integration?"
Managers

PMs
Executives

Business users Testers

Req'ts analysts Operations

("\Programmers\")

ALM Practitioner

Key Issues What is ALM and what kind of organizations can benefit from it now? How does ALM advance demand, requirement, quality and change management practices and processes? How will ALM alter the AD tools landscape?
ALM delivers value by reducing the variability and thus the risk of software development, and maintenance activities. This benefits RUN, GROW and TRANSFORM initiatives that depend on the execution of software delivery projects.

Key Issues What is ALM and what kind of organizations can benefit from it now? How does ALM advance demand, requirement, quality and change management practices and processes? How will ALM alter the AD tools landscape?

Aspects of ALM Combine to Achieve Three Benefits

Demand and Requirements Definition and Management

Productivity Integrations Support mix and match of AD tools

Quality Management

Process Frameworks/ Methodology

Software Change, Configuration and Release

Management transparency and visibility Effective execution of challenging processes Consistent, predictable delivery

How is ALM Different From PPM and ITCM?

Principal Audience Program and Portfolio Management (PPM) Application Life Cycle Management (ALM) Business planners, finance, executive management Focus Items Deliverables, staff, money, schedule Development activities from requirements through source to new function Time Horizons Weeks to years

Business analysts, development, production control

Hours to months

IT Change Management (ITCM)

End users, operations

Configuration (infrastructure and executables), service levels

Seconds to weeks

ALM Adoption Hot Spots

Category
Agile

Reason for Adoption

Establish team memory, maintain flow, "auditability;" drive iteration mentality. Support process change Virtual team collaboration, consistency of artifacts, reduction of communication delays, Challenges stem from multiorganization handoffs Process enforcement, auditibility, traceability Multiple sources of demand, multiple delivery vehicles

Geographically distributed teams, Multisourcing

Complex (High-value, high-risk) processes Complex Products

Challenges in Clouds, Multisourcing and Globally Distributed Development

Premium on Shared, Current Views
- Scope, Requirements, Questions, Approvals, Issues

- Progress and State of Code, Tests, Resources

- Process Handoffs (Around the Clock or Stage Gate)

Multi-organization Handoffs Additional Stakeholders and Processes for Validation/Verification Virtualization and Cloud broadens and quickens use.

Not Just Custom Any More: Packages, SOA and Legacies

Packaged Applications
- Proprietary Configurations, Transports

- Incomplete Team, Process Support

SOA
- Registries/Repositories Are Distinctive Technologies - Change Integration Incomplete - Build and Deployment Challenges

Legacy
- Platform Support Fading - Skills Issues

- Need to Supplement CM for Coordination

Where Do Improvements Show?

Reduction in defect cost
- Early Detection - Key Improvement in Requirements Defects
Costs of Correcting Defects
$16,000 $14,000 $12,000 $10,000 $8,000 $6,000 $4,000 $2,000 $0 Rqmts Design Coding Testing Maint

Project Cycle Time

- 80/20 Rule - Increased Consistency Release Train - Reduced time to market 30% average

Metric Driven Insight

- Watch anomalies for problems or improvements - Avoid Hawthorne effect - Correlated, not single dimension

$/Defect Correction

Key Issues What is ALM and what kind of organizations can benefit from it now? How does ALM advance demand, requirement, quality and change management practices and processes? How will ALM alter the AD tools landscape?

ALM Supports Agility, Speed, Accuracy and Quality

Practice
Coder-driven manual processes Year Variation by team, 2008 site, environment, day of the week

Need
Target 60 days
Today's Cycle Time

Agility

Common definitions and views

Consistent and connected Just enough Governance Traceable, auditable

2010 2012 2014

30 days 14 days 7 days

Disconnected project, development, operation and business views

Manual recording Power through information ownership

2016

3 days

2018

Same day

ALM: Supports Shared Information Across Multiple Teams and Roles

Unstructured Collaboration
Traceability
Support/Process Project

Distribution
Requirements Release

Methods Support
Accountability and Separation of Concerns
Change Quality Configuration

Design

Construction

Build

Overcome: interruptions of flow, physical separation, staff turnover, long projects, multiple teams, differing methodologies and time scales

ALM Provides Core Management Control: Plan, Measure, Manage, Report

Demand Management Model and Design Management Requirements Management Quality Management Release Management

Project Management

Process Management

Version and Configuration Management

Build Management

Reporting and Metrics

Change

Integration

Collaboration

Customizable Workflow

Work Item, Metadata and Process Store

ALM is About Connecting the Boxes

Project/Planning
Business Drivers Iterations Sign-Off Contract Risk Assess

Requirements
Use Cases Nonfunctional Sign-Off Contract Risk Assess Threat Model Test Requirements

Development
TDD Build Management Static Analysis BVT Source Management Pair Programming/ Code Review

Testing
ScenarioDriven Automation

Fill Cracks
User Involvement Contract Validation

User Involvement
Feedback and Improvement

Continuous Learning and Feedback

Key Issues What is ALM and what kind of organizations can benefit from it now? How does ALM advance demand, requirement, quality and change management practices and processes? How will ALM alter the AD tools landscape?

Seismic Changes in Needs and Tools

Low-end version and configuration commoditize Teams select dev tools based on ALM function

Integrations to ITSM become more important

Requirements Management and Test Management move out of specialized tooling to ALM

Agile and Waterfall hybridize

Status, time reporting and work breakdown are done in ALM instead of PPM. Hosted Offerings allow ALM in the Cloud. Development, Test activities done in the Cloud.

ALM is a Misnomer

Requirements

Life cycle doesnt begin with Dev to Deploy requirements and end with build

ALM Solution Space

Centralized Enterprise Support Workflow Workflow and Stores Metadata Store MetaModel Instance Store Management Reporting User and Security Administration Data Integration Control Integration
Single Instance Common
Common Common common Common Common Common

Hybrid
Multiple-Replicated Common + Tool
Coupled Integrated Integrated Mixed Mixed Mixed

Siloed
Many Instances Tool Specific
Independent Independent Independent Independent Independent Independent

Common Implicit
Implicit

Mixed Available
Available

Independent Limited
Limited

Other Criteria
Method Support Client platforms Browser-, Mobile-, Role-Based User Roles and Personas WAN Performance

Delivery Method On Premises, SaaS

Product Strategies to Gain Traction in Emerging ALM Markets

IBM and Microsoft leverage breadth and control of the developer desktop

SCCM, PPM and test vendors leverage their install bases

Specialists focus on scaling agile implementations

Challenges and Benefits

Challenges of the New Normal Smaller units of change, but more frequent Reuse spreads the impact of changes more broadly Larger and more diverse groups of people able to make changes (rise of the citizen developer) Quality risks from reduced skills

Benefits of ALM and Composite IT Planning and Control

Enables better toleration of change (evolution-friendly) Enables rapid assembly of new applications to support new processes and meet new requirements (greater agility)

Fosters reuse of code and components (improves developer productivity)

Reduces skill requirements for creating new application functionality (potentially reducing the IT backlog)

Recommendations
This Year
- ALM is a tactical deployment

- Leverage in current hot spots

Agile, Geographic Distributed, Complex Process, Complex Product

- Prepare for spread to trouble areas

Packages, SOA, Legacy

Three to Five Years

- Broader Coordination of ALM, PPM, ITCM
- Strategic Suppliers Emerge, Consolidate

Related Gartner Research

"Flying on Instruments: The IT Planning and Control Panel," (G00161603) "Optimizing IT Configuration Management," (G00170897) "Key Issues for Application Life Cycle Management, 2010," (G00200514) "Key Issues for IT Operations Management, 2010," (G00200431)

"From Development to Production: Integrating Change, Configuration and Release," (G00165306)

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