Question

Write a 3 to 5 paragraph response to the question "Why do big companies need an Application Lifecycle Management tool?"

You should focus on the benefits of security-focused configuration management and implementation of access control / controlled disclosure of information about software requirements, designs, source code, executables, etc.

Answer 1

Application Lifecycle Management Tools

Definition: The application lifecycle management tools are used to record the complete lifecycle of an application in the organisation from its beginning to its retirement. The application lifecycle management tools, oftenly known as ALM are the tools which store every bit of software’s information from its requirement gathering to its design, coding, testing, implementation and release. It even stores complete details to any change request added before OR after the application release. JIRA, TFS (by Microsoft), CA Agile centre are few of the ALM tools mostly used by big companies.

Use of ALM tools in big companies

It is very important for the bug companies to use Application Lifecycle Management Tools to handle their day to day work and project deliveries.

These companies may handle multiple application development at a time. It becomes difficult to track the different projects and documents related to the projects. Thus the companies use ALM tools. The ALM tool will store the data of projects separately. Each project will have separate users and access types. The only user, who is authorised to access the project in the tool, will be allowed to use the project and see the documents related to the project. E.g. when the company is using ALM tool to track the multiple projects, the project manager of project A, will not be able to see the data and documents of other on-going projects in the company.

Companies have lots of employees working on different projects. It makes it necessary that there is a restriction on the access of the project data. The software development team should only be able to see the data related to the requirement, designs etc. The team working on application implementation should only be able to see the implemented software. The project management team should be able to see the complete data of the project including the confidential documents containing the customer’s contract details. These requirements are achieved using ALM tools in the project management system.

When the company is working on customizing application for customers, it may happen that the company is using customer's confidential data. The data is to be accessible by their concerned implementation team only and access should be restricted for all other employees. This can be is done using the ALM tools.

Requirements and Designs for the purposed software can be created and stored under ALM tool and shared with all teams. It will be accessible by the developers as well as testers. The team members will not need to go to file systems and find the design requirement. ALM tool helps removing the discrepancies if any among the team member’s understandings as all refers same documents in their work.

A big and complex project requires multiple team members to work on same functionality implementation. This need a strong coupling between the work done by different team members. Using ALM tools, the team members can upload their work so that other members can use the same in their development.