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Application lifecycle management (ALM) is the coordinated work of guiding an application from its initial idea through requirements, development, testing, release, operation, maintenance, change, and eventual retirement. It is broader than the software development lifecycle (SDLC): SDLC focuses on building software, while ALM also covers the governance and operational work needed to manage the application over time.
What application lifecycle management includes
ALM brings together the activities, people, processes, and tools involved in managing an application across its useful life. That scope commonly includes:
- Planning and requirements: establish goals, gather requirements, track work, and make decisions about the application.
- Architecture and development: design the solution and build or change its code.
- Build, test, and release: verify changes, manage releases, and prepare deployments.
- Deployment and operation: put the application into use and keep it available.
- Monitoring, support, and maintenance: observe how it performs, resolve issues, and make ongoing improvements.
- Change management and governance: control and coordinate changes, responsibilities, and decisions.
- Retirement: plan the application’s end of life when it is no longer needed.
Organizations do not all define ALM with the same stage names or boundaries. IBM describes it as managing an application from conception and development through deployment, revisions, maintenance, and retirement. Microsoft Learn likewise includes requirements, architecture, testing, support, change management, continuous integration, project management, deployment, and release management in its overview. The precise practices depend on the organization and platform.
How ALM differs from SDLC
SDLC, or software development lifecycle, refers to the methods and activities used to build software. ALM takes a wider view: it includes the development work, but also the planning, governance, delivery, operation, ongoing changes, support, and eventual retirement around the application. In short, SDLC is part of ALM rather than a synonym for it.
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Terminology varies among organizations and vendors, so a team may use different labels or draw the boundary differently. The useful distinction is whether the discussion is limited to building the software or covers its broader management over time.
Why the lifecycle is usually a cycle, not a one-way sequence
An application’s work does not end when it is released. Teams operate and monitor it, respond to issues and feedback, and plan further changes. Those changes lead back into development, testing, and deployment. Microsoft Learn presents this as a cycle of planning and tracking, developing, building and testing, deploying, operating, monitoring, and learning.
This cyclical view helps explain why ALM includes both delivery and operations: information from use can shape the next set of requirements and work. A stage model can help organize responsibilities, but it should not imply that every application progresses only once through a fixed sequence.
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What ALM tools do—and what they do not do
ALM tools can help teams coordinate work, maintain traceability, manage source control, and automate parts of building, testing, and deployment. Microsoft Learn describes them as a standardized way to support communication and collaboration among software development teams and related groups such as testing and operations.
A tool is only one part of ALM. Teams still need defined responsibilities, workable processes, and decisions about governance and change. When evaluating tools, consider whether they support the work your team actually needs:
- Lifecycle coverage: Can the approach support planning and requirements through release, operations, maintenance, and retirement?
- Traceability and visibility: Can the team connect requirements and work items to code changes, tests, defects, releases, and operational feedback?
- Integration and automation: Does it fit with existing source control, build and test automation, deployment pipelines, and other systems?
- Governance: Does it support the team’s needs for access, review, audit, change tracking, deployment control, security, or compliance?
- Team and platform fit: Does it match the team’s workflow, scale, platform, and skills?
There is no universally best ALM tool established by these criteria; the right fit depends on the team’s needs and environment.
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ALM in a specific platform
ALM is a broad management concept, but implementation guidance can be platform-specific. For example, Microsoft’s Power Platform ALM overview describes its own practices and environment-related details. Those requirements should not be treated as universal rules for ALM across other platforms or organizations.
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