What is Application Lifecycle Management (ALM)? Stages, Benefits, & More

Today’s software landscape can get complex fast. On average, an organization uses around 991 apps across their digital ecosystem. Without the agility of ALM, keeping all those apps up to date, secure, and feature-rich would become unfeasible.

ALM frameworks give organizations the structure they need to scale with confidence, providing a roadmap to coordinate updates, ensure security compliance, and introduce new features smoothly.

By adopting ALM, you can unlock several DevOps benefits across three core areas:

ALM facilitates better collaboration and communication across teams, especially in digital and online environments.

For instance, Salesforce DevOps Center connects teams across departments, making sure everyone is on the same page with clear visibility into project statuses, tasks, and metrics. With a unified view, ALM helps teams collaborate effortlessly, turning cross-departmental coordination into a well-oiled machine.

Quality and reliability are non-negotiable in enterprise app development, and ALM supports these through continuous testing and feedback loops. By focusing on continuous monitoring and rigorous quality checks, ALM ensures that enterprise applications stay robust and meet high standards, making software success a sustainable goal.

ALM is also about working smarter, not harder. By automating repetitive tasks and streamlining project management, ALM frees up your teams to tackle strategic, high-impact work. This optimized use of resources cuts down on human error, lowers development costs, and boosts productivity — a triple win that any business can appreciate.

There are five key stages of application lifecycle management: planning, development, testing, deployment, and maintenance. These best practices play an important role in the lifecycle of an app:

The planning phase is where every project starts on the right foot. Here, you’ll define the project’s requirements, creating a solid foundation for everything that follows. This step gives the development team a clear understanding of the project’s scope and goals.

Breaking down the project into manageable tasks and outlining detailed design specifications early on helps identify the right development and testing environments and avoid future roadblocks.

With the planning phase complete, it’s time to turn ideas into code. In the building phase, developers follow the design specifications to bring features and customizations to life. Keeping a centralized source code repository is essential to make sure all development aligns with the latest specifications in the DevOps pipeline.

Testing is where quality takes center stage, happening in several key steps:

• Integration testing: Before merging changes, make sure to test your work. It’s especially important to test features in a separate environment to ensure they work as expected without disrupting the existing codebase.
• User acceptance testing (UAT) and training: Test the software in an environment that closely mirrors production, typically a full sandbox, to verify performance under realistic conditions. UAT confirms the software meets user requirements, and training in a full sandbox lets new users get comfortable without impacting live development.

Once testing is complete and the software is approved, it’s go-time. Using automated deployment strategies minimizes the risk of human error and ensures smooth, reliable releases into production.

After release, monitoring is essential to keep the application running smoothly. Track performance closely and address any issues before they impact users. Ongoing updates and maintenance, informed by user feedback and real-time observations, help keep your software at its best.

Choosing the right tools means identifying the features that will drive your organizational goals forward. As you compare options, focus on DevOps platforms that deliver essential capabilities:

• Project management: Look for tools that provide planning capabilities, task assignments, and progress tracking to keep your projects on schedule.
• Version control: Effective version control ensures that developers can manage changes seamlessly, with access to the complete history of your codebase, so everyone is in the know and up to date.
• Testing and quality assurance: Continuous integration and testing features are invaluable for catching bugs early, improving the quality of your final product and reducing last-minute fixes.
• Collaboration features: Prioritize DevOps tools that make team communication a breeze, with chat functions, comment threads, and real-time updates that keep everyone connected and informed.

The relationship between ALM and DevOps opens up a world of possibilities. By utilizing DevOps automation and advanced tools, organizations can achieve greater efficiency, faster deployments, and a more responsive customer experience. Integrating ALM practices with tools can further these advantages, improving project visibility and data utilization for more informed decision-making.

With robust CRM capabilities, teams can incorporate customer feedback directly into the development cycle, building a faster, more responsive approach that drives customer satisfaction and builds loyalty.

Achieving seamless ALM takes more than a structured process — it calls for the power of DevOps. Integrating core DevOps practices – such as version control, collaboration, automation, and continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) – makes each stage of the software development lifecycle more efficient and quality-driven.

Using the right tools, such as Salesforce’s DevOps Center, is essential for managing the complete application lifecycle. These tools optimize every step, enhancing visibility and fostering collaboration across teams, which is crucial for today’s competitive landscape.

As you look to refine your software development processes, think about your approach to ALM on boosting productivity and elevating customer relationships.