Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) is integral not only in the military and avionics embedded technology realm - rife with product obsolescence - but also in the larger, more fast-paced embedded realm encompassing consumer, medical, smart grid, gaming, and many other application types. In essence, anywhere embedded software development takes place, an ALM software platform can help designers a
nd program managers to manage and coordinate all of an application’s or project’s artifacts and activities. Specifically, an ALM platform provides holistic coordination of all software design processes as a whole: system design, modeling, requirements management, defect management, test management, configuration management, and release management. Additionally, there’s the challenge of managing safety-critical applications’ traceability across disciplines; however, this too can be managed with an ALM software platform. Some ALM software includes compliance with standards such as MISRA, DO-178B, and the Homeland Security Agency’s Common Weakness Enumerations (CWE), among others. Closely tied to ALM is Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), which enables software designers to increase operational efficiency during a product’s lifetime. The Bill of Materials (BoM) is central to this process of growing efficiency, and PLM software provides a way to manage a product’s BoM from conception to obsolescence.
