In-Depth
Resources for Application Lifecycle Management
Delve into application lifecycle management with this list of resources compiled by the staff of FTPOnline.
There has been a strong push in recent years throughout the enterprise to reign in the design process and ensure a better return on investment for development projects.
Aspects of this push include the general trend toward software as services and improved testing procedures, but it also includes trying to improve the design and modeling process, and to ensure that apps are designed for change over their lifetimes. ALM is a comprehensive approach to ensuring that you create the best possible app at the outset, as well ensuring that you design application that can adapt to change over time.
Fortunately, there is no shortage of resources targeted at those responsible for ALM. For example, you can find information on everything from general lifecycle tools, to requirements, to design and modeling. Moreover, the issues that pertain to ALM tend to apply to all large organizations, whether you work with Microsoft or some other platform, so the information available tends to apply across different domains.
Partners for this tool include traditional partners such as Compuware, Borland, and Macrovision, along with another dozen or so companies. In several cases, Microsoft's new tool encroaches on the space traditionally occupied by many of these companies.
In any case, follow-up with this list of resources to learn more about application-lifecycle management space, including several Microsoft-specific sites related to the company's efforts in the ALM space.
General Lifecycle Tools
Visual Studio Team System Developer Center
Eclipse's Application Lifecycle Framework (ALF) Project
WinFX
Application Lifecycle Management, Serena Software
Tools Services Framework (also known as Project Corona), Compuware
Borland Solutions for the Application Lifecycle
Mercury Application Change Lifecycle
Visual Studio Industry Partner (VSIP) program
Requirements
Forrester Research, Inc. "The Total Economic Impact of Using ThoughtWorks' Agile Development Approach." January 2004.
The Inmates are Running the Asylum by Alan Cooper (Sams Publishing, 2004)
Requirements and Analysis, IBM Rational Software
Designing and Modeling
Java API Design Guidelines, by Eamonn McManus
How to design a module API
How to design a good API and why it matters, by Joshua Bloch
Carnegie Mellon University's Community Software Architecture Definitions
Software Architecture in Practice (2nd edition)
Evaluating Software Architectures: Methods and Case Studies
Wikipedia: Architectural Styles
Wikipedia: Patterns
About the Author
Written/compiled by the editors of Visual Studio Magazine.