Today several industries that include ISV Software Developers, Banking and Financial Services, Healthcare, Defense, Engineering Services, Pharmaceuticals and Government and a large number of IT service providers, including offshore outsourcers need automated workflow and reliable predictable processes for managing the application lifecycle.

1. Accelerate Delivery and Reduce Cost with Application Lifecycle Management
Today several industries that include ISV Software Developers, Banking and Financial Services, Healthcare,
Defense, Engineering Services, Pharmaceuticals and Government and a large number of IT service providers,
including offshore outsourcers need automated workflow and reliable predictable processes for managing the
application lifecycle. Application lifecycle management (ALM) is often equated with software development
lifecycle (SDLC). However, it is not so. SDLC is just a framework that defines the tasks to be performed at each
phase of the software development while ALM is much more than that. It is the management of a software
application right from its planning to its retirement. Wikipedia defines ALM as “a continuous process of managing
the life of an application through governance, development and maintenance.”
One of the important benefits of ALM is that it coordinates people, processes, information and tools involved in a
software development project. This means there is more involvement and coordination on the part of the
stakeholders, which eventually helps to deliver top-quality applications that match what the user asked for and
comply with all internal and external requirements.
Enterprises who wish to maximize the business value can achieve it with the right tools. They must collaborate
with the right ALM solution provider for managing the entire application lifecycle. A good ALM solution can help
enterprises with
 Tests, Issues, Risks, Releases Projects , Requirements Management
 Achieve Change Management with multi level traceability
 Automate workflow processes for better quality and productivity
 Integrate best of breed tools for Integrated ALM solutions
 Create dashboards & reports for excellent management visibility
An ALM solution provides a rich and configurable global platform for implementing a software development life
cycle (SDLC) process, collaborating on the entire development cycle and tracing implementations back to original
specs. Here is a look at some of the features of a best of the breed ALM solution.
 Multiple ALM solutions in a single Data Repository
 100% Web based for global access without any client side software
 Mobile device accessible
 Built in Workflow Process and Policy Engines for reviews and escalations
 Document attachment capabilities for a global review and approval of documents
 Excellent Reporting capabilities with Dashboards, Word, Excel and Crystal reports
 SOA based Enterprise Service Bus "Omnibus" Integrations Bus with any third party development tools
In today’s fast paced and hypercompetitive business environment, ALM is a business imperative as it helps
software development team to face the challenge of coming up with innovative products within a short time that
too without increasing their budgets or sacrificing quality. Thus, ALM brings about a change of attitude on the part
of the software development team towards software development.
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