The core role of application lifecycle management in software development

Do you want to know what really gets most of the software engineers I speak to fired up and ready to spit blood? You guessed it, well, hopefully… they always complain that their team leader or manager is a clueless timewaster that lets project skew slide into the team development environment from day one and makes everyone’s life more difficult and less productive as a result.

But we all complain about our bosses don’t we?

Well, yes – but hell hath no fury like a developer’s wrath when he or she is being told what to do when they know that the project needs a greater degree of control and management. The answer? Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) tools are surely a good option aren’t they?

Of course, in practice, ALM is very seldom adhered to in the commercial world. Due to time-constraints and lack of funding, most customers choose not to incorporate a software development plan that would result in a solid product. Instead, quite frequently, a buggy prototype becomes the finished product. As a result, the customer ends up spending more time and money on software maintenance, fixing bugs, enhancements and redeployments. All of which cost more than they would have done had the IT function followed good software engineering processes initially.

Do you agree? Even better – do you disagree? Please share your thoughts.