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Aldon
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CONTENTS INCLUDE:
What is ALM?
Getting Started with
n
n
End-to-End Application Lifecycle Management
n
Change Request Tracking
n
n
Inventory Control
Process Automation
Application Lifecycle Management
n
Deployment Automation and more...
By Daniel Magid
Automated Workflow
Business Needs Application Development Operations
user web portal design
deploy
mun i c at ions
com
email
backlog
text approvals assignment code approvals
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size
priority
phone
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ck test
co n s ba
application t a n t fe e d
message
www.dzone.com
reporting
(audit, metrics, management)
Application Lifecycle Management comprises all the functions that must be performed to appropriately automate, control, document and facilitate
everything that occurs from the time the need for an application change arises until the time a solution is delivered into production. Whether you are
working in a traditional waterfall environment or an agile environment or something in between, Application Lifecycle Management provides the tools and
process infrastructure to support you in achieving your goals.
•A
llowing access to change backlog from existing IDEs and
WHAT IS ALM?
version control tools
•H
elping to keep the backlog of work visible
Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) encompasses and organized
the automation, control and tracking of all activity involved
•K
eeping track of application artifacts (programs,
in delivering software solutions for resolving business
documentation, test cases, etc.)
challenges and taking advantage of emerging opportunities.
Application Lifecycle Management
When appropriately implemented, ALM simplifies the lives • Managing access to application artifacts
of everyone involved in the change process, improves
communication, automates regulatory compliance and
supports the organization in rapidly providing high quality
solutions to the highest priority business requirements. Application Lifecycle
Management
END-TO-END APPLICATION LIFECYCLE MANAGEMENT
•E
nsuring all the right application parts end up in all the The ALM system:
right places throughout the change lifecycle 1. Provides a simple method for entering requests
For organizations transitioning to Agile methodologies like 2. Ensures they contain the necessary detail
Scrum or Kanban, ALM provides the backlog management, 3. Notifies people who must be involved in the review
communication and reporting capabilities that are necessary in 4. Gathers and records approvals
order to truly realize the promise of Agile. 5. Routes the request through the appropriate workflow
In this Refcard, we will examine the components of ALM 6. R
ecords all communication regarding the request to
systems, the challenges they are meant to address and how ensure nothing is lost
they can be used effectively. We will begin with the basics 7. Provides a method to generate reports regarding activity
and then discuss how ALM applies to different management 8. K
eeps the request accessible to all authorized stakeholders
methodologies like Waterfall and Agile.
These are all necessary steps in most compliance and
Comprehensive end-to-end ALM addresses these best practice standards for ensuring that the appropriate
important areas: information is tracked and that nothing is ‘lost’.
•C
hange Request Routing and Tracking (What is it we are to Request Prioritization
do, who is to do it and in what sequence?) Once a Change Request has entered the system, it must
• Inventory Management (What artifacts need to change? be prioritized so the application development staff knows
Who can change them?) which things to do first. Inadequate prioritization is a major
contributor to misalignment between application development
•P
rocess Automation (How does a change flow through deliveries and business needs. It is the responsibility of the
the lifecycle?) business users to adequately communicate those priorities
•D
eployment Automation (How do changes get to their to application development. The ALM System can record
ultimate destination?) business value information and priorities and make them
visible to all the appropriate team members and stakeholders.
•C
ompliance Reporting (How do I keep the auditors happy?)
High performance application development organizations use
the ALM system as a tool to constantly review their change
CHANGE REQUEST TRACKING
backlog to ensure they are working on the changes that
provide the greatest business value.
Whether you are working in a Waterfall environment, an Agile
environment or something in between, the application change The ALM System can be a useful tool in creating prioritized
process always starts with a business requirement. Someone lists of changes based on business value. It can provide users
discovers a bug in the existing application or requests an with the capability to display a filtered list of backlog items
enhancement or needs an entirely new system. At that based on whatever criteria the user finds helpful. Users can
point, they need to communicate their need to application then move items around in an ordered list until they are in
development in order to pursue a solution. Many of the descending order by value with the most valuable changes on
problems in managing application change begin with faulty top. The ALM System provides visibility to the prioritized list
processes for gathering and prioritizing change requests. for all authorized, interested stakeholders.
should drive the design of the solution and the creation of the 40K
tests that will be used to determine when a change is ‘done’
— i.e. whether it meets the need the user described in an 30K
the change request to the appropriate end user team members Cost of Delay
for review and value assignment, gather the signoffs, record
the responses and then, if approved, forward the request to A two-month delay will only cost us a fraction of the high ROI project
application development. value, while we will lose all of the value of the Limited Window project.
available whenever the project is delivered. Conversely, there like check-in, build and unit test. By automatically gathering
may be a project with a lower overall ROI, but the value it this information as part of normal day-to-day activities, the
provides might be highly dependent on when it is delivered. ALM System can significantly reduce the administrative
In that case, the second project has a higher Cost of Delay. In documentation burden placed on developers by audit and
that case, application development might want to deliver the regulatory compliance requirements.
project with the higher Cost of Delay first (see chart on page 2).
Whichever method you choose, the prioritization justification
should be visible in the ALM System so that everyone is aware
of how decisions are being made. Once the change has been
delivered, actual values can be recorded so that the decision
making process can be validated.
At Aldon we ran into this situation and our Developers can associate their changes with a Change Request
Hot ALM system made it immediately visible. We directly through their IDE or version control system at the time
Tip were implementing a restructuring of our they Commit, Check-out or Synchronize. Development change
database that would provide a platform for a activity can then be tracked and reported upon with very little
administrative impact on developers.
variety of new enhancements to the product. Once those
enhancements were delivered, we anticipated a large ROI By tracking the Change Request from initiation to completion,
for the project. At the same time, our salespeople were the ALM System will be able to identify for the development
telling us that we could win a greater percentage of our team and other stakeholders how long it takes changes of
current opportunities if we would make some changes to different sizes to make it through the system. These ‘cycle
our user interface. The ROI for those changes was smaller times’ can then be used to make deliveries more predictable.
overall than the architectural change, but the window of Later, the activity logs can be used for compliance reporting.
opportunity for winning the current deals was relatively Auditors will be able to use the ALM system to view
short. We decided that the cost of delaying the big project exactly what happened from the time the request arose
by a few months was relatively minor while the cost of until the solution was delivered into production. They will
delaying the changes required by our prospects was be able to easily verify that the change process met the
much higher. We chose to deliver the interface changes audit requirements.
first and delay the restructuring. By recording the
relative value information in the ALM system, everyone INVENTORY CONTROL
understood the justification for our decision.
All applications have an inventory of related application
artifacts. These include files of program source, build results,
Request Tracking build scripts, test scripts, documentation and many other types
The ALM system allows request tracking to occur automatically of files. Managing and tracking these files can be especially
as a by-product of working together on a Change Request, difficult in today’s integrated, multi-platform application
so developers need not be burdened with time-consuming environment. A single application might have application logic
activity documentation requirements. residing on a mainframe with a mainframe database while using
Windows clients and supporting Unix or Linux Web Application
Once a Change Request has been prioritized and approved
Servers for a web-based interface. Changes to any of those
for work, the ALM System routes the change through its
environments might need to be synchronized with changes to
appropriate workflow and notifies users when they have a
the other environments.
task to perform. It records signoffs and state changes so that
important metrics like cycle time, velocity and wait-times As developers we might only be concerned with one part of
(bottlenecks) can be recorded and managed. Developer that architecture (the Windows client, for example). However,
activity is automatically logged as they perform operations we might be impacted by changes to the other environments.
the change is ready for the next step. The system automates
the movement of the related artifacts, eliminating manual,
administrative effort.
Deployments
Version Build ALM can be
Control Server Deployment managed,
monitored, &
(Subversion, (Hudson, rolled back if
CVS, Cruise Control necessary from
proprietary, User Scripts, a central
etc.) etc.) console.
Execute test scripts
on test targets
Commit
ALM AND AGILE
IDE Build Results
(If Builds done in IDE)
Automated In addition to the benefits described above, the ALM system
Worfklow
(Eclipse,
Visual Studio, can be indispensable in implementing Agile or Lean processes.
etc.)
on Commit For teams that are working in Agile or Lean environments,
the ALM system can provide the infrastructure for collecting
If you are working in a Continuous Integration environment the
metrics on velocity, flow, queuing and cycle time. These are
ALM system can automatically kick off the build and deploy process necessary measures to truly deliver on the value promised by
immediately upon a commit to version control. Agile methodologies.
Separation of duties — auditors can view user roles and until the time the solution is delivered to the end users while
functional authorizations to ensure that only the appropriate reducing administrative burdens on developers. Users have
people can perform specific operations (e.g. developers or an easy way to enter requests and developers have a powerful
testers can request a move to production but a change control way to review and work with those requests. At every stage of
administrator must approve the request before anything can the process, notifications are sent out regarding assignments
move forward). They can then review the activity reports to see and all activity is tracked. Auditors have a simple way to
that those rules were enforced. generate comprehensive reports and queries on activity and
process compliance — reducing the need for development
Service level reporting — Does IT have service level
staff members to provide those reports. ALM systems
agreements with business end users? If so, the ALM system can
automate administrative procedures and make information
report on service level compliance and violation.
about backlogs and work in progress available to all authorized
Importantly, this information is being gathered as a by- stakeholders. With an ALM System in place, developers can
product of normal day-to-day activities reducing the impact of focus on supporting the business with high quality solutions.
compliance efforts on product deliveries.
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#82
CONTENTS INCLUDE:
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About Cloud Computing
Usage Scenarios Getting Started with
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Cost
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