How Alm Technology- Overcome Challenges In A Federal Agency

By Author: Martin Lobo
Total Articles: 355
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An integrated tool environment for IT Lifecycle Management (ITLM) is essential to easily re-engineer any organization so as to ensure the least minimal impact to current development and maintenance activities. Large federal agencies usually have a conglomeration of non-integrating, multi-vendor Commercial-off-the-Shelf (COTS) engineering tools that are defined for use in disparate and distinct processes. And most often than not, these tools are owned and managed by different contractors.

Understanding the Challenges

Although it is necessary in any large federal organization to offer an infrastructure as well as services supporting IT development and maintenance, it is usually done in a fragmented method. This leads to a lack of processes across tools across the entire Software Development Lifecycle. Traceability between engineering artifacts becomes convoluted and error prone while consolidated reporting is usually performed manually. There is therefore zero visibility between groups. With the disparate tools not being smoothly connected with each other, the information flow among the tools lacks coordination ...
... and synchronization.

How an effective ALM and process automation technology can help

Seamless integration with the IT department’s existing ALM tool set is the chief requirement. It is also essential for the ALM solution to be web based, and offer advanced requirements management tools so that workflow can be easily implemented into the Agency’s requirements management, while also integrating with all of the existing tools in use. An effective ALM and process technology should have a configurable and task-based workflow engine that can automate any IT process or product development. It should not need a coding but should instead have workflow rules, events, and decisions that can be established by means of a Visio-like graphical user interface, like dragging and dropping, and simple condition statements. The solution must also allow users retrieve data from any other lifecycle and support management tool.

An efficient solution will not only support all engineering management needs, but also supports other functional requirements. The solution will be able to integrate with the existing IT department life cycle management tool, and also provide the distinct capabilities of each integration tool . It can offer a uniform process, a common interface, and an integrated tools environment with several tools connected through adaptors for seamless data transfer between them.

Hence choose in an efficient and effective ALM technology solution that is cost effective and can address requirements for Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)tool and meet the mission-critical needs of the IT department.

Learn more about: ALM Software, SDLC