I’m reviewing some ALM (Application Life-Cycle Management) work for a colleague, so I thought it would help to rehydrate a map of the ALM space.
I’m a fan of having simple maps to find my way around. By map, I simply mean topics and categories, and ideally sub-categories to help see the lay of the land, at a glance.
This map is based on rationalizing work with the field, our patterns & practices work, and input from a lot of smart people that are intimately familiar with the ALM space.
What I like about it is that it’s simple, intuitive, and it really does help map out the ALM domain into meaningful buckets and categories. If you can map out a space, you can always dive deeper, than if you don’t have a map.
ALM Categories
- Architecture and Design
- Configuration Management
- Data Management
- Deployment and Release Management
- Development
- Governance
- Maintenance and Operations
- Project Planning and Management
- Requirements and User Experience
- Testing and Quality Assurance
ALM Frame and Sample Activities
This is a sampling of some of the activities that would fall under each ALM category:
Category | Items |
Architecture and Design |
Architecture Framework |
Configuration Management |
Build Management |
Data Management |
Database Change Management |
Deployment and Release Management |
Deployment |
Development |
Code Analysis |
Governance |
Application Portfolio Management |
Maintenance and Operations |
Customer Support |
Project Planning and Management |
Project Close |
Requirements and User Experience |
End-User Documentation |
Testing and Quality Assurance |
Test Management |
Overlay: Configuration Management Overlay
Configuration Management is a cross-cutting concern. Here is an overlay of Configuration Management activities across the ALM categories.
It is just a sample set and it’s extensible.
Category | Items |
Architecture and Design |
Extensibility |
Configuration Management | |
Data Management | |
Deployment and Release Management | Release Management |
Development |
Build Management |
Governance | |
Maintenance and Operations | Change Management |
Project Planning and Management |
Collaborative Development |
Requirements Engineering and User Experience |
Database (physical) Modeling |
Testing and Quality Assurance |
Build Verification Testing |
Overlay: Data Management Overlay
Configuration Management is a cross-cutting concern. Here is an overlay of Data Management activities across the ALM categories.
It is just a sample set and it’s extensible.
Category | Items |
Architecture and Design | |
Configuration Management | |
Data Management | |
Deployment and Release Management | |
Development | |
Governance |
Data Evolution Strategy |
Maintenance and Operations |
Database Change Management |
Project Planning and Management |
Data Migration / Integration Planning |
Requirements Engineering and User Experience |
Data Requirements Gathering |
Testing and Quality Assurance |
Database Testing |
Overlay: Security Engineering Overlay
Configuration Management is a cross-cutting concern. Here is an overlay of Security Engineering activities across the ALM categories.
It is just a sample set and it’s extensible.
Category | Items |
Architecture and Design |
Security Design Guidelines |
Configuration Management | |
Data Management | |
Deployment and Release Management | Security Deployment Inspection |
Development |
Security Code Inspection |
Governance |
Legal Compliance Alignment |
Maintenance and Operations |
Control Tuning |
Project Planning and Management |
Compliance |
Requirements Engineering and User Experience |
Estimation |
Testing and Quality Assurance |
Fuzz Testing |
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