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SpiraTeam

SpiraTeam is a project management solution that offers collaboration and quality assurance tools for businesses of all sizes and within all industries. The solution can be deployed either in the cloud or on-premise and is compatib...Read more about SpiraTeam

KYC Portal

KYC PORTAL is a fully configurable Client Lifecycle Management solution that provides a single, centralized, secure repository with fully customizable parameters, fields, rules, and user rights. The platform ensures that all data ...Read more about KYC Portal

Wrike

Wrike is a cloud-based project management platform for teams of 20+ that is suitable for both large enterprises and SMBs. It supports remote work for various teams. This solution comes with Gantt charts, calendars, workload view f...Read more about Wrike

4.3 (2590 reviews)

33 recommendations

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Planview PPM Pro

Innotas PPM is a cloud-based project and portfolio management (PPM) solution designed for midsize and large businesses. Key features include resource management, time tracking, financial management and reporting functionalities. ...Read more about Planview PPM Pro

4.0 (7 reviews)

Aha!

Aha! is the world's #1 product development software. We help more than 1 million product builders bring their strategy to life. Our suite of tools includes Aha! Roadmaps, Aha! Ideas, Aha! Whiteboards, Aha! Knowledge, and Aha! Deve...Read more about Aha!

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Favro

Favro is a project management and collaboration tool with which developers, marketers and executives can plan, track and evolve ideas. Designed to suit the size and needs of any project, Favro allows users to add features and inte...Read more about Favro

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ClickUp

ClickUp is a cloud-based collaboration and project management tool suitable for businesses of all sizes and industries. Features include communication and collaboration tools, task assignments and statuses, alerts and a task toolb...Read more about ClickUp

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Helix ALM

Helix ALM is an application lifecycle management (ALM) suite that enables organizations to scope, design, execute and track the application development process. Modules and key features include issue management, project collaborat...Read more about Helix ALM

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OneOps

OneOps is a cloud-based application lifecycle management (ALM) solution for software developers, information technology professionals and project managers. It is an open-source platform that can be deployed on public, private and ...Read more about OneOps

Simplicité

Simplicité is a low-code, application platform-as-a-service solution designed to create custom and scalable enterprise applications and services. It helps businesses manage all steps of the application lifecycle including designin...Read more about Simplicité

4.7 (6 reviews)

ALM/Quality Center

Micro Focus's ALM/Quality Center is a lifecycle management solution designed to help businesses in requirements management, testing and development in an agile environment. It is suitable for teams of all sizes. Key features ...Read more about ALM/Quality Center

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Cloudbyz PPM

Cloudbyz PPM is a cloud-based project portfolio management solution. The solution caters to the needs of a variety of sectors including education, medicine and technology. Cloudbyz includes tools that help users manage budget, pro...Read more about Cloudbyz PPM

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ConfigCat

ConfigCat is an application lifecycle management software that helps businesses create, manage and control feature roll-outs. The platform enables managers to configure role-based access permissions for staff members and retain au...Read more about ConfigCat

4.6 (9 reviews)

Jile

Jile enables entities to accelerate value delivery and ensure all products meet customer demands or expectations. It connects team goals to strategies, elaborates backlogs for value delivery, and controls Program Increments (PI) a...Read more about Jile

4.6 (7 reviews)

aqua

aqua ALM is an AI-powered test management solution helping QA teams to speed up releases x2. Enjoy enterprise-level flexibility & support for an affordable price (from 39 euro/mo) Organise tests & teams, run testing scenarios of ...Read more about aqua

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aligned elements

Aligned Elements is an on-premise and cloud-based solution that helps medical device businesses leverage requirements management tools to create and trace design controls throughout the application lifecycle. Managers can sign doc...Read more about aligned elements

Orcanos

Orcanos is a cloud-based platform designed to help businesses of all sizes manage and automate all document workflows, from initial approvals to final signoffs. The centralized platform enables users to publish approved document v...Read more about Orcanos

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Caspio

Caspio is a cloud-based, no-code, application development solution for organizations of all sizes. The platform is suitable for industries such as health care, media, government, education, nonprofits, consulting, churches and com...Read more about Caspio

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codebeamer

codebeamer is an Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) platform for advanced product and software development. The open platform extends ALM functionalities with product line configuration capabilities, and provides unique config...Read more about codebeamer

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DevSuite

DevSuite by TechExcel is a cloud-based asset lifecycle and business process management solution that helps businesses with designing, developing, testing and knowledge sharing. The tool can also be deployed on-premise and supports...Read more about DevSuite

Buyers Guide

Last Updated: March 16, 2023

Gartner predicts that by 2020, 40 percent of organizations will have shifted from a project management model to a product management one to manage technology investments in digital business.

"Because of the agile emphasis on taking a product perspective, organizations now have the opportunity to more tightly couple their application portfolio to their investment portfolio, and, instead of all investments being 'projects,' many (if not most) of them will become 'new product releases.'"

Source: Predicts 2017: PPM Leaders (content available to Gartner clients)

To keep pace with this shift, many organizations are investing in application lifecycle management (ALM) tools to create business processes that govern the full lifecycle of software projects and portfolios.

ALM tools combine project/product management with business process management, and are designed to serve a variety of business needs, from starter systems to robust full-service solutions. As such, it can be difficult to know exactly which type of ALM tool is the best fit for your business.

We've created this guide to help you better understand all that ALM encompasses, so you can make a more informed investment decision when choosing ALM software.

Here's what we'll cover:

What Is Application Lifecycle Management?

Common Capabilities of ALM Software

What Type of Buyer Are You?

What Is Application Lifecycle Management?

Application lifecycle management is a defined set of processes that govern how an organization manages software projects and investments, from concept to completion.

In this way, ALM fits within the larger IT project and product management markets, but speaks to a greater connectivity between business processes and software engineering.

ALM tools create an integrated environment that helps connect teams and improve the flow of work through each stage in the software development lifecycle (SDLC):

Software Development Lifecycle Stages

Software-Development-Lifecycle-Stages

Although work is designed to flow from one stage to the next, the process can move backward or forward as needed. For example, work will move from development to testing, then back to development then onto testing again, before reaching deployment.

  • Plan/gather requirements: In some models, “planning" and “requirements gathering" are separate stages, but we've included them together because these steps inform one another. This involves stakeholder analysis, defining the scope of the project, identifying any known risks and setting budget and timeline benchmarks. The functional and technical requirements (as well as the subsequent requirements review and approval by stakeholders) inform the project plan.

  • Design: Involves putting the application requirements into a design specification plan. Includes the interface design and proof of concept, as well as the design review and approval by all stakeholders.

  • Develop/build: Involves taking the design specs and actually building the application, i.e., generating the code, to meet the original requirements.

  • Test: Involves testing the code for defects and fixing them to ensure the final, approved product meets the original requirements and specifications for the end user.

  • Deploy: Involves rolling out the application to end users, i.e., product release. Depending on feedback from users, and approval from stakeholders, changes may be made to the application to better meet end user needs.

  • Maintain/support: Involves sustaining applications and maintaining their performance until application retirement. Includes application support, systems support and end user support.

ALM tools connect teams at each of these stages, improving visibility and collaboration. From planning through maintenance, they are important for tracking changes and providing an audit trail for retrospectives. This transparency plays a large role in helping teams reach their goal of continuous delivery and improvement.

These tools range from comprehensive suites designed to manage applications from inception to retirement, to products that specialize in one phase, e.g., planning or test, to simple agile solutions or wikis designed to monitor application progress or code review.

Common Features of ALM Software

While features will vary from system to system, ALM tools typically contain some or all of the following capabilities:

Project management (or product management)

Plan and track software projects, commonly following agile workflows. Streamline task management, time tracking, resource management and scheduling, dashboards, reporting and analytics.

Requirements management

Define end-user requirements, break work down into actionable sequences, plan backlogs and schedule iterations.

Design and development

Track works-in-progress. Often, agile teams develop software in two-week iterations, or sprints. This allows for more frequent testing and review.

Bug tracking

Process, track and report on bugs in the application. Also called defect or issue management.

Quality assurance (QA) and testing

Document and track application testing to ensure quality and function meets predetermined requirements.

Release management

Support application deployment. Oversee software release, intake of end-user feedback and planning/initiating maintenance and improvements on application.

Process review and optimization

Monitor and audit various stages in software development lifecycle with the goal to optimize processes (build, testing, release, application performance etc.).

Collaboration

Enable users to connect and collaborate within the tool to facilitate group work. Can include content management wikis, group forums or activity streams, user logs, user mentions as well as chat.

What Type of Buyer Are You?

The two most common development methodologies are waterfall and agile, although agile is increasingly becoming the de facto software development model. Several variations on these models exist, including the big bang and spiral models.

Waterfall. A more traditional project management method, the waterfall SDLC model works best for smaller, risk-averse projects where the requirements are clear at the start and not likely to change over the course of the project. Work flows from one stage to the next, sequentially, with the output of one phase becoming the input for the next.

Agile. The agile SDLC model works well for projects of any size, where requirements may not be clear at the start or are likely to change over the course of the project. The application is broken down and completed in cycles, over numerous releases. Testing and feedback on each release is then incorporated into the next version.

Which SDLC model you chose is largely dependent on the size and scope of the project as well as the customer's requirements. ALM tools should support your team's workflows, not dictate them. It's important to choose a solution that aligns with your team's current processes, but is flexible enough to support multiple SDLC models.