ALM Categories at a Glance

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

1. Architecture and Design
2. Configuration Management
3. Data Management
4. Deployment and Release Management
5. Development
6. Governance
7. Maintenance and Operations
8. Project Planning and Management
9. Requirements and User Experience
10. 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 Analysis and Design
Configuration Management	Build Management Change Management Collaborative Development Release Management Version Control and Repository
Data Management	Database Change Management Database Deployment Database Modeling Database Testing
Deployment and Release Management	Deployment Environment Management
Development	Code Analysis Code Reuse Code Reviews Code Writing Quality Metrics
Governance	Application Portfolio Management Compliance Management IT Governance Maturity
Maintenance and Operations	Customer Support Designed for Operations Operations
Project Planning and Management	Project Close Project Initiation Project Monitoring and Control Project Planning Risk Management Stakeholder Management
Requirements and User Experience	End-User Documentation Requirements Analysis Requirements Elicitation Requirements Management Traceability UI Design and Prototyping UI Implementation User Experience Envisioning
Testing and Quality Assurance	Test Management Test Planning Test Resource Management Test Types

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 Subsetability
Configuration Management
Data Management
Deployment and Release Management	Release Management
Development	Build Management Configuration APIs
Governance
Maintenance and Operations	Change Management
Project Planning and Management	Collaborative Development Source Control Management
Requirements Engineering and User Experience	Database (physical) Modeling Domain Modeling
Testing and Quality Assurance	Build Verification Testing Cross-Configuration 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 Enterprise Data Governance
Maintenance and Operations	Database Change Management Database Tuning and Performance Optimizations
Project Planning and Management	Data Migration / Integration Planning Data Platform Selection
Requirements Engineering and User Experience	Data Requirements Gathering Validation, Rule Sets, Constraints
Testing and Quality Assurance	Database Testing Database Performance 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 Threat Modeling
Configuration Management
Data Management
Deployment and Release Management	Security Deployment Inspection
Development	Security Code Inspection Static Code Analysis
Governance	Legal Compliance Alignment Privacy Policies
Maintenance and Operations	Control Tuning Security Patching
Project Planning and Management	Compliance Risk Management
Requirements Engineering and User Experience	Estimation Security Goals Identification
Testing and Quality Assurance	Fuzz Testing Risk-Based Testing

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