It is common to equate ALM with the SDLC. This is because ALM is constructed around the SDLC's following core phases in an enterprise application development process:
- Requirement phase
- Design phase
- Implementation phase
- Testing phase
- Production phase
By design, the ALM framework is not developed from scratch; it is built around the SDLC framework. At the same time, ALM is considered more than the SDLC model. However, ALM being more advanced than the SDLC, its simple approach is still considered limiting.
With reference to the previous pictorial representation, the three core aspects are initiated with development as the first part of an application's life cycle. As time progress, the application is updated periodically so that it syncs with the latest features:
Practically, any software development life cycle is kickstarted only after the business case's approval. With the evolution of the IT industry, the software development methodologies have been changed into various levels. The main shift focuses on shorter and multiple iterations, instead of one huge and complete single cycle. In this context, the image depicts the expansion of SDLC's parts in the development life cycle. As a result, this modern process exhibits software development as a series of iterations. In each sub-process/iteration, it contains its own requirement definition, design, development and quality assurance testing activities.
This solution is not the silver bullet for every problem statement. Nevertheless, this iterative approach is still better than the traditional execution method, which is becoming the norm in many areas.
Let me illustrate with a real world example. As the concept of cross-platforms picked up during the mid 1990s by the Java community, Microsoft started working to release its competitive product, namely, .NET Visual Studio, which was marketed as a .NET developers, IDE (Interactive Development Environment) and so it was terms as vision for .NET development tool.
As depicted in the previous image, Visual Studio's product governance kickstarted at the initial time of the product's development, and so the timeline of governance runs from beginning to end in life cycle. This means Visual Studio governance started with Visual Studio 2002 on 13 Feb 2002, and has continued until Visual Studio's latest release on 1 Feb 2017.
In terms of development, each version of Visual Studio runs in an independent SDLC cycle. As per the previous picture, the development cycle is segregated into multiple stages or versions. This is depicted in the middle layer of the previous image.
The operation process actually starts on the eve of the first SDLC process's completion. This is referred to as a Professional Service in the product life cycle. Customer support service is key throughout the operation step. In our example, Microsoft launched Visual Studio's operation with its first release in 2002.