Introducing [Microsoft] Application Lifecycle Management
Downloaded and installed the Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 Training Kit today, made by the Microsoft DPE's. [explained: What does a Technical Evangelist do?]
120 Mb of training material with many decks, sources and code examples.
Beside all the nice .NET 3.5 things there is also a folder containing some decks about Application Lifecycle Management and that one got my special interest. Just because VSTS Architect plays a major role in this vision, connecting all the different roles with all their different concerns and viewpoints together. Something I'm working on... and not only setting up a process but also supported by tools [models / automation].
Some quotes from the decks :
We’ve had ALM 1 and ALM 2, effectively Microsoft is preparing ALM “3.0” getting to something that is completely integrated across the whole lifecycle.
ALM 1 was the introduction of .NET? ALM 2 was the introduction of TFS? ALM 3 is automation with models ;-)
ALM from the MS perspective is beyond the app and the SDLC itself – and also includes business governance, infrastructure management and operations and support. While the tools are not all there just yet, this is the direction in which Microsoft are headed.
Great I like this and when you look at the current product releases / announcements [Oslo, SCMOM, Rosario, etc] and you think of an ideal world you can see ALM 3.0 getting real.
VSTS supports ALM from the SDLC perspective
Often you think that Microsoft is saying that VSTS and TFS are complete ALM tools, I thought...
ALM is a discipline as well as a product category. ALM doesn’t support specific lifecycle practices, but rather it keeps them in sync– manual processes can be more efficient and effective through tool integration. Development efforts can still fail even if separate development activities are done correctly. ALM ensures the coordination of these activities. An ALM solution is therefore the integration of lifecycle tools, not merely a collection of those tools. Furthermore ALM is labor intensive without the integration of lifecycle tools i.e automation is needed.
See comment on quote 1 and the last sentence of this quote ... ALM 3.0 == Automation
VSTS Architect is not for architects, but for people who have the responsibilities of an architect.
Important..! roles not people
Having introduced the tools, introduce the QoS mindset. Much of what makes the tools useful is they generate models/code that can be analyzed for QoS failures, and the tools are the way operations and scalability are considered as part of the development lifecycle.
See.. Team Architect is ALM ready ;-)
Note though that VSTS can't help much with architecting secure systems. The Microsoft Threat Analysis Modelling tool (TAM) can:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/security/aa570413.aspx
See.. Team Architect is ALM ready, even more when integrated with other tools / models / views.
Anyway, anyone noticed that I have a new blog engine?