A perfect amalgamation of development (Dev) and operations (Ops), DevOps is the union of people, processes, and technology for delivering high value to customers. It is a popular development methodology with a focus on decreasing development while simultaneously improving product quality.

In today’s time, as every organization is turning towards digital solutions for better operations, customer experience, and products, DevOps has become essential for seamless software deployment.

The application lifecycle management, on the other hand, is the set of tools and methodologies that are involved in the application life from conception to the final release. It includes planning, development, testing, deployment, and application maintenance.

In the software development cycle, application lifecycle management (ALM) and DevOps are two sides of the same coin. While DevOps connects the development and operations teams to improve cooperation, continuous integration, and delivery, ALM focuses on managing each component of the application.

In this article, we will understand how we can leverage DevOps practices for better application lifecycle management. When you combine these approaches, the result is a powerful balance, and the team can build resilient, high-quality software. Let’s start with the basics.

What is Application Lifecycle Management?

ALM facilitates the application lifecycle by automating, controlling, and monitoring it through various tools and infrastructures specially built for application optimization. If implemented correctly, it improves communication, automates regulatory compliance, and rapid organizational growth through effective application monitoring methods.

There are five major stages in the application lifecycle management:

• • Define Project Requirements and Objectives
  • Develop Software Using Design Specifications
  • Perform rigorous testing
  • Deploy Software with Automated Strategies
  • Monitor and Maintain Application Performance

How can DevOps impact application lifecycle management?

In the ALM, DevOps affects its various stages, such as planning, Developing, Delivering, and Operating. Each stage is dependent on others, and there are no role-specific stages. In a true DevOps culture, each role is involved in each phase to some extent.

Debunking Some Common Myths About DevOps:

Let’s discuss some common myths or misconceptions regarding DevOps:

1. 1. 1. Creation of a dedicated “DevOps” team: Many organizations think that they have to build a dedicated DevOps team. However, in DevOps, you are just converging your existing development and operations team for a streamlined development cycle. It reduces the meantime to deployment. For better alignment of these two teams, a collaborative work culture focused on automation, service quality, and operational stability is necessary.
      2. DevOps is just development and operations: Though DevOps seems to consist of the tasks associated with the development team and the operations team, it is just not limited to that. It is more about the adoption of agile methodology for faster processes through the pipeline. In other words, DevOps is the process of optimizing your delivery pipeline and the teams involved in the process.
      3. Tools aren’t Important: When a challenging DevOps collaboration tool is implemented, team members are encouraged to find ways to get around it. Additionally, there may be security hazards as well as a loss in productivity and reporting when developers and other technical staff circumvent a tool by using shadow IT or other methods. Make informed decisions about DevOps technologies by piloting products on small projects with a mix of development and operations teams to reduce this risk.
      4. Traditional IT Roles Get Eliminated in DevOps: Another major misconception is that DevOps makes developers database architects, cybersecurity specialists, and cloud engineers overnight. In fact, DevOps culture breaks down traditional silos between these teams to deliver maximum value to customers and stakeholders.
      5. Physical Proximity is Required in DevOps: Many organizations believe that in DevOps, all the team members should work within the same physical space. However, with the advancement of technologies, remote workers, 3rd party contractors, and cloud service providers play increasingly significant roles in the delivery lifecycle.

How DevOps can benefit your team?

Teams leveraging DevOps culture and tools can achieve higher performance and build software products faster for greater customer satisfaction. Here are the major advantages:

• 
  Faster Delivery: As the repetitive tasks get automated and CI/CD gets enabled, DevOps requires much less time for development, testing, and deployment updates.
• 
  Higher Reliability: Automated testing and monitoring ensure that changes are stable and high-quality. It results in minimum downtime and disruptions.
• 
  Improved Scalability: DevOps allows organizations to scale their operations seamlessly. So, the organizations can manage growing business needs with no downfall in performance.
• 
  Cost Efficiency: There is much less manual effort in automation through DevOps. It results in lower operational costs and optimized resource allocation.
• 
  Better Compliance: The in-built audit trails and automated compliance checks allow DevOps to adhere to different regulatory and corporate policies.

Best DevOps Practices for Efficient Software Delivery:

Here are the major practices that you can follow for efficient software delivery.

1. Adopt Agile Project Management: Agile in DevOps gives you a high level of flexibility and responsiveness. In the agile approach, the focus is on continuous iteration of development and testing through the project lifecycle. It ensures that the development always remains dynamic along with the operational environment. There are short sprints in agile, which adapt quickly to changing requirements and deliver value quickly.

2. CI/CD Accelerates Product Delivery: There are two major pillars of DevOps: Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery. In CI, the code is merged into a central repository in which automated tests are built and checked. Thus, if there are any persisting issues, they get resolved at this stage. CD builds upon CI by automatically deploying all code changes to a testing or production environment following the build step. This ensures reliable software releases at any time, with minimal manual intervention.

3. Bring Automation: In DevOps, automation of tasks and testing will reduce errors and maximize output. You can bring automation to routine tasks such as code compilation, database migrations, and environment setups. The automated tasks in continuous integration prevent new changes from breaking existing functionality.

4. Monitor the DevOps Pipeline: A deep knowledge and understanding of the DevOps pipeline is essential for smooth software delivery. It is like keeping tabs on every step, from coding to deployment, to ensure that all tasks are being performed efficiently. It also provides insights regarding deployment, allowing teams to continuously improve their workflows. Organizations may ensure reliable application lifecycle management by making proactive decisions based on current facts.

5. Leverage Correct Tools for Higher Productivity: The selection of the right tools is important in DevOps. It can influence collaboration, automation, and monitoring in a positive direction. The tools should be able to support various DevOps practices like continuous integration, continuous delivery, and infrastructure as a code.

6. Seek Continuous Feedback: Last but not least, ongoing feedback is important for the refinement and improvement of your DevOps strategy. You can ask different team members and end-users throughout the software development and deployment process. It will help you identify areas of improvement, improve product quality, and ensure the software exceeds expectations.

Wrapping Up:

In this article, we have delved deep into all the critical aspects of DevOps and Application Lifecycle Management amalgamation, along with the benefits and right set of practices.

At Ahana, we have a DevOps team with vast experience in ALM, Agile methodology, CI/CD pipelines, programming languages, and other available tools. We can provide you with the best software development services as per your business or industry niche. Let us know your requirements.