ALM Rules of Engagement
If you've been reading the pages of
Redmond Developer News lately, you
know that application lifecycle management (ALM) is an increasingly active arena
for solutions providers. Borland famously bet the farm on ALM when it decided
to shift away from the developer tools business in 2006. More recently, software
configuration management (SCM) vendor CollabNet has extended its Subversion
product to incorporate ALM features.
But adopting ALM takes a lot more than simply deploying tools. After all, enabling
a successful ALM strategy means tapping into existing software development and
business processes, while doing it in a way that does not prove prohibitively
rigid or difficult.
It's a tricky balancing act that Macehiter Ward-Dutton Principal Analyst Bola
Rotibi says needs to be well thought-out. For those embarking on an ALM initiative,
Rotibi offered some key "rules of engagement." Her list includes:
- Get professional help and support from the outset.
- Work from a coherent strategy and vision.
- Invest in mature tools and platforms that offer modular implementation
(and licensing) with strong usability features.
- Develop a small and steady modular roadmap.
- Establish a repository and configuration management strategy.
- Define clearly existing processes and goals.
- Evaluate potential failure points and strengths.
- Invest in education and training for the IT delivery team and business
heads.
- Implement a measurement, QM and risk-mitigation framework.
- Build support for proactive and reactive processes.
- Start off small and build out.
Are you embarking on an ALM initiative, and if so, what challenges have you
encountered in the effort? E-mail me at mdesmond@reddevnews.com.
Posted by Michael Desmond on 08/26/2008