NEXT GENERATION ALM Accelerating and Scaling Innovation Why implementing a next generation ALM tool is a strategic decision for high-tech product developers

As today’s complex products increasingly rely on (embedded) software, being able to enhance the efficiency of means a competitive advantage for companies across all industry verticals. While Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) platforms are widely used to manage the development of hardware products, these solutions aren’t equipped to handle the complexity of embedded software development.

Software proficiency is becoming the currency in high-tech product development. Therefore, companies need next generation Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) tools to enhance traceability, transparency and collaboration throughout a mature development lifecycle. Simply put, integrated ALM helps companies meet their business goals by enabling them to build higher quality products faster. Adopting integrated ALM is becoming a strategic decision rather than one that is limited to the software department only. 3 Understanding the Value of ALM in Product Development

Coping with increasing complexity in high-tech product development

The automotive industry is a good example of why there’s an increasing need for Application Lifecycle Management software across industry verticals. Today, with IoT connectivity and autonomous features, new cars are equipped with incredibly complex, robust embedded software. In fact, a modern road vehicle may contain up to 150 million lines of code, while a Boeing-787 Dreamliner operates its avionics & online support systems with about 7 million lines.

In addition to sheer volume, complexity is also increasingly problematic. Navigation, infotainment, built- in communication, safety systems, advanced driver assistance systems, and connectivity to the Internet of Things require more and more software which all need to be integrated. Orchestrating the parallel development of such integrated systems, whether safety-critical or not, is a challenging task.

In order to stay ahead of the competition, automotive developers need to provide reliable software systems packed with features, delivered as fast as possible, and in compliance with relevant regulations and standards. More and more carmakers today are realizing that as software is playing an increasingly important role in their products, they need to give this area due attention. Investing in hiring software development talent, and purchasing top-performing tools are becoming strategic decisions that will affect the competitive edge and profitability of these companies in the long run. Implementing next generation ALM helps future-proof the processes of product innovation and development.

ALM software solutions are no longer optional in the development of high quality embedded software: they are becoming necessary tools to complement PLM software.

Organizations tend to have a mix of tools, and as a result of the tool friction, there is a difficulty in the traceability. We see a trend towards to integrated, holistic solutions that allow that traceability across the lifecycle.

Another key trend is the increase in software content in advanced engineered products. And with that exponential rise of software, there is increased complexity. There’s a need to manage that, and ALM plays a strong role.

Michael Azoff, Principal Analyst at Ovum

Watch the video: Product Lifecycle Management solutions are very important in managing the entire lifecycle of products, and can help reduce production costs. ALM software solutions are just as essential to software development teams, as they help them manage mature Ovum: lifecycle processes from defining requirements to delivering releases and maintenance services. Similarly to PLM, ALM can Investigating the help reduce the time and costs of product development. Need for ALM 4 Understanding the Value of ALM in Product Development

Understanding why ALM should go hand in hand with PLM

Product Lifecycle Management software platforms allow multiple teams to collaborate efficiently in the design, development, and manufacturing of physical products from the early phases of ideation throughout the lifecycle all the way to eventual product retirement. The name PLM can be misleading in that it does not cover all aspects of product development: PLM software actually only manage hardware design and manufacturing lifecycles.

Generally, PLM tools aren’t equipped to handle the development of complex embedded software. Integrated Application Lifecycle Management platforms essentially do for software what PLM does for hardware. Such technology has evolved from being a novelty to becoming a fundamental necessity for developers of innovative products, especially so in safety-critical fields such as the development of medical devices, avionics and automotive embedded systems, pharmaceutical products, etc. Fierce market competition is forcing product developers to build more sophisticated and innovative products in better quality while reducing development time to enhance profitability.

Next generation ALM tools are flexible enough to dock into preexisting PLM and software development tool environments, and can greatly support the implementation of an integrated approach to product development. Even more important than the simple exchange of data between ALM and PLM tools is the integration of processes between these platforms. Mapping data structures and connecting workflows helps make sure that the entire lifecycle is adequately covered.

What is next generation ALM?

Application Lifecycle Management is a relatively new discipline that has emerged and really gained traction over the past decade or so. However, due to the rapid pace of technological development, vendors and platforms that aren’t able to evolve flexibly can quickly become obsolete.

Next generation ALM tools offer scalability in terms of database performance & architecture, and a single repository that spans the entire process of development providing gapless traceability and advanced collaboration throughout the lifecycle. Through a high-performance database designed for managing vast amounts of data throughout the lifecycle, next generation ALM tools such as codeBeamer are capable of handling of 35,000+ requirements and all their connected artifacts (code, test cases, test results, change requests, etc) efficiently.

Such tools let you flexibly configure and enforce the use of mature and complex processes. They support the scaling of development across large teams and departments, and codeBeamer ALM also offers automated documentation & simple reporting options to support transparency, compliance audits, and to provide management insights. 5 Understanding the Value of ALM in Product Development

Complexity How processes and all their reliations are covered even across functional teams and departments.

Next Generation ALM

1000+

500+

100+

0-10

Performance The technical ability of a tool to serve large scale operations where the number of users, teams, and departments involved is rapidly growing.

Scalability The purpose of scaling is to serve enlarged teams with all the necessary features and system capabilities at an economic cost. 6 Understanding the Value of ALM in Product Development

Integrating ALM in your development environment

Most teams already have their tried and tested processes and tools for requirements management, software development, communicating with stakeholders, quality assurance, etc. A large portion of development teams operate in a legacy tool environment that has organically evolved to suit their specific needs. These tools may have been customized or even developed in-house to fit the specific processes of the development team, and updated over time to follow any changes in these processes.

Maintaining these isolated tools and the interfaces that allow them to exchange data requires continuous effort. Even so, at best they support current processes, but hardly enable or encourage process innovation and optimization. Relying on a set of proven, but inflexible and unwieldy tools makes it difficult to stay ahead of the competition in a fast-paced market where speed of innovation is becoming the currency.

A common concern is that adopting integrated ALM will disrupt these processes, and previously used, trusted tools will have to be abandoned. With next generation ALM tools, that is not the case. codeBeamer ALM, for instance, integrates well into any legacy toolchain via its out of the box integrations with widely used software tools. Its native integration with IBM DOORS and data exchange via ReqIF, MS Excel, and MS Word ensures data consistency across the requirements management lifecycle. UML diagrams may be imported from Enterprise Architect, or drawn using codeBeamer’s own diagram editor. Integrations are offered with MATLAB Simulink, SAP, JIRA, defect management tools, Jenkins, and other automation & test management tools. Git, Mercurial, Subversion, Plastic SCM and CVS are all supported.

SAP

IBM MS Excel, DOORS Word

EA, MATLAB codeBeamer MS Project Simulink ALM

SVN, Git 7 Understanding the Value of ALM in Product Development

ALM to support multiple product development methodologies

Tools, however, are just part of the necessary infrastructure for quality product development. The processes used to design, build, test, integrate, and ensure the correct functioning of products have a more significant effect on the quality of the end product. Adequate software tools such as integrated ALM can facilitate process optimization, but in general, simply adopting a new tool won’t streamline your processes.

When rolling out Application Lifecycle Management software, development teams need carry out scrupulous process mapping and optimization work, and some may choose to maintain their tried and tested processes. That said, this shouldn’t be the result of an incapacity to change due to a limiting toolset, but rather the result of rigorous analysis and a series of level-headed decisions. Your chosen ALM solution should give you a level of freedom in defining new, efficient product development processes.

Integrated, collaborative Application Lifecycle Management tools enable teams to map, analyze, and streamline their development processes to remove waste, cut time to market, and to enhance product quality. These benefits may be achieved without disrupting current processes: in addition to integrating with various tools (including PLM platforms), the ideal ALM solution will flexibly support various development methodologies across the lifecycle. Development processes come in all shapes and sizes, and next generation ALM tools are able to accommodate and streamline any development process without breaking the cycle of value creation.

Waterfall

Traditionally, the Waterfall methodology has been used to manage the engineering and manufacturing processes of hardware products. Where embedded software is involved, it will be developed and eventually integrated at a later stage of the process. It remains a sensible option for the development of complex safety-critical products where it is still widely used, as the sequential phases and linear structure of this methodology is thought to ensure the transparency of processes and to ensure product quality, reliability and safety.

As an advanced next generation Application Lifecycle Management platform, codeBeamer ALM supports the use of a structured Waterfall methodology in the development of complex products. By configuring and rigorously enforcing custom processes, users can make sure that processes are aligned to the development plan at all times. ► 8 Understanding the Value of ALM in Product Development

Agile

Agile is the more modern, less strictly structured alternative to Waterfall. Its iterative model allows the members of self-organizing, cross-functional teams to work with a level of autonomy, focusing on adaptive planning and improvement, early delivery, and fast response to change. Agile offers the benefits of shortening development time, increasing product quality, and enhancing user satisfaction.

While it’s believed by some to offer less transparency, insufficient traceability, and difficult compliance than Waterfall, due to its benefits the adoption of Agile practices is now ramping up in all industries including safety-critical sectors.

Through its template with predefined workflows and flexibly configurable processes, codeBeamer ALM adequately supports any kind of Agile development lifecycle regardless of the specific method used. It provides transparency due to its single-repository architecture, efficient collaboration, and automatically recorded, gapless traceability from requirements to product release and maintenance.

Scaled Agile

While Agile users are happy to realize the widespread benefits this methodology offers, some claim that spreading the Agile culture across large organizations is a challenge due to the need for an easy to manage organizational hierarchy and transparency throughout the development lifecycle. Several approaches to scaling the Agile methodology have been devised, with one of the most popular being Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe®), chosen and successfully implemented by large enterprises the world over.

In addition to supporting various methodologies to scale Agile, codeBeamer ALM offers a dedicated template to help large enterprises transition to, or scale this methodology using the Scaled Agile Framework. The template is preconfigured for all 4 levels of SAFe (Team, Program, the optional Value Stream level, and Portfolio), with predefined artifacts and comprehensive documentation helping enterprise users implement the Scaled Agile Framework.

Agile-Waterfall Hybrid

While both Waterfall and Agile have their die-hard fans, some teams have started experimenting with combining the benefits of both methodologies, resulting in the creation of custom Agile-Waterfall Hybrid processes. In such a , Waterfall is generally used to manage the production of hardware components, while embedded software and services are developed using some sort of Agile methodology. A next generation ALM platform helps bring together these development streams to provide gapless traceability, data consistency, and transparency throughout the entire product development lifecycle.

With codeBeamer’s flexible architecture, BPM process control capabilities, and preconfigured Agile- Waterfall Hybrid Template, it’s very simple to implement and customi a Hybrid framework to fully support highly specialized lifecycles. 9 Understanding the Value of ALM in Product Development

The value of Application Lifecycle Management

By integrating and managing all development processes from a single central platform, holistically integrated next-generation ALM tools such as codeBeamer ALM provide a variety of benefits to all stakeholders:

C-Level Executives (CIOs/CTOs) Process Managers • ALM helps unlock synergies in terms of collaboration and efficiency across teams and projects • Flexible visual customization, and reliable enforcement of processes • Provides transparency, gapless end-to-end traceability, and simplifies compliance audits • Predefined, built-in processes to cut time and effort • Easy access to customizable, automatically scheduled reports • Access to best practices via out- of-the-box templates • Scalability of operation: scalable ALM architecture to keep pace with organizational growth • Easy reporting and visual graphs for analytics • Seamless integration of the ALM tool into the current toolchain (ALM, PLM, and legacy software tools • Management dashboards for KPIs

Product/Software Developers Compliance Officers and Auditors • Efficient collaboration: • Mature processes enforceable throughout the process and access control, lifecycle work management

• Automatically recorded audit trails • Easy follow up on tasks using the board • Full change control on all trackers, documents, comments, etc. • Agile support: Scrum in practice, Scaled Agile • Easy to export, comprehensive reports Framework

• Continuous compliance using mature processes • Built-in release management and automated documentation to support & DevOps • Full support for versioning and baselining for traceability in time • Single repository to ensure gapless end-to-end traceability 10 Understanding the Value of ALM in Product Development

Scalability of ALM for enterprise use

While the benefits and increasingly necessary nature of integrated ALM for product developers are obvious, some companies are still worried about how ALM scales across large, possibly geographically dispersed development teams and departments. In the past, that might have been a legitimate concern (and for some ALM platforms, it still is). However, next-generation Application Lifecycle Management software such as codeBeamer ALM have been specifically designed with scalability in mind. codeBeamer’s flexible web-based architecture and database allow for optimal performance even when managing large numbers of work items, complex processes, and multiple development teams or departments. Speed and reliability are ensured across the lifecycle, and go hand in hand with granular permission control, BPM workflows, and complete change control from requirements all the way to operations.

The DevOps framework, considered an extension of Agile to operations, is embraced by a growing number of product developers as the preferred method to manage . Channeling in customer feedback to bug fixing and development, and releasing early and often can be challenging without the right tools. Scalable next generation ALM systems provide advanced DevOps features to support issue tracking and escalation management, release management in a fast-paced environment, and cross-functional collaboration – all this with gapless traceability ensured in a single platform. For companies wishing to adopt DevOps in regulated safety-critical product development, codeBeamer ALM’s next generation DevOps features are essential.

Functional scalability • Flexibly configurable platform • Ability to easily expand functionality

Teams

Technical scalability • Database performance • Low response time • Single repository for data consistency 11 Understanding the Value of ALM in Product Development

ALM for safety-critical industries

The general benefits of ALM render it a valuable addition to any company’s product development toolset. But due to compliance requirements, businesses operating in safety-critical industries (developing, for instance, medical devices, automotive and avionics embedded systems, pharmaceutical products, etc) are actually becoming dependent on the use of integrated ALM.

Developers of safety-critical products (operating in areas where human lives may depend on the correct functioning of the product) are required by regulatory bodies to comply with a variety of rigorous standards and strict regulations.

In general, these standards require that product developers are able to:

• Design, and enforce the use of, mature processes

• Establish links between work items, and show gapless end-to-end traceability throughout the lifecycle

• Provide full change control on all work items

• Document audit trails with minimal effort

Without the capabilities of next generation ALM tools, these guidelines are immensely challenging to adhere to. Using a modern tool such as codeBeamer ALM enables developers to implement a system of continuous compliance in which all their processes are automatically compliant at all times. At unannounced or scheduled compliance audits, all they need to do is export a few readily available reports. Therefore, ALM can greatly reduce the burden of adhering to safety-critical standards, and simplify audits.

Free download:

Medtronic Customer Case Study 12 Understanding the Value of ALM in Product Development

Transitioning to integrated ALM: What to consider?

For most high-tech product development companies, making the transition to integrated Application Lifecycle Management is a question of “when” rather than “if”. Before making a purchase and rollout decision, an analysis and evaluation of ALM vendors and tools needs to be carried out to identify the solution that best suits your individual needs.

Making the decision to buy ALM is rarely at the discretion of the development team. To help executives and managers understand the real value of integrated ALM, it’s a good idea to quantify some of the benefits and calculate the ROI.

Instead of investing considerable time and energy in searching for ALM tools, some companies prefer to rely on the help of independent expert analysts. Ovum’s Decision Matrix is one of the most commonly used analysis reports, as the company’s expertise is trusted by large enterprises worldwide. Find out why Ovum was impressed by Intland, and named codeBeamer ALM a market leader in Application Lifecycle Management:

Ovum Decision Matrix: Selecting an Application Lifecycle Management Solution, 2016-17

Watch the video: Blog post:

How to select Calculating the right ALM the RoI of ALM solution Tools codeBeamer’s ALM comprehensive feature set covers the entire development lifecycle

codeBeamer ALM is successfully used by: Download the latest version of codeBeamer: www.intland.com/download-codebeamer/

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