Application Lifecycle Management — 5 Common Pitfalls to Avoid

Managing application lifecycle management (ALM) or it’s subset software development lifecyscle (SDLC), can be very challenging. Successful ALM can help the entire team understand the tasks that they are assigned and also the work done by other stakeholders on the project. Here are the top five mistakes that we see technology leaders often make when trying to manage the ALM:

Overlooking your existing products

Failing to invest in legacy applications with the mistaken view that only new projects can benefit from ALM.Legacy products can often benefit greatly from add-on tools or better methodology, including agile and lean. Investing wisely in your legacy products can help ensure that they continue to provide a return on your investment for many years to come.

Not getting senior management buy-in

Rushing to implement new ALM tools and DevOps processes without first assessing your existing practices and choosing the right process improvement initiatives. Doing an assessment first helps you to make the best choices and also provide a baseline from which to measure and demonstrate success from your efforts.

Ignoring internal stakeholders

Forgetting to obtain senior management buy-in can be an unfortunate mistake. Sharing your goals and strategies with those making the decisions above you gives your work more visibility and improves the likelihood that you will achieve your goals. Getting buy-in from senior management also makes it more likely that you will get the money you need to purchase the tools which can help your team achieve success and thrill your customers.

Reinventing the wheel

Writing you own solution is not always the right choice. Commercial, and especially open source solutions, have a significant better economy of scale and it will enable you to complete your projects faster, cheaper and you will likely get features suggested by other customers that you had not even envisioned.Writing your own solutions from scratch for tools may take you away from your company’s core interests such as writing systems that your customers actually pay for!

Underestimating the importance of automation

Ignoring the necessity to automate everything is a dangerous mistake. Manual processes substantially increase the likelihood of error. You always want to strive to automate even the simplest tasks, thereby reducing risk such as the chance of human error.

Managing the ALM can be very challenging, but trying to develop software and systems without these industry best practices is almost impossible. When you implement a successful ALM, your team will be much more productive leading to delighted customers and a profitable business!