Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Application Lifecycle Management (ALM), and Software Product Lines

There is a convergence afoot among the closely related technologies of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) and Software Product Line management (SPL).

Product Lifecycle Management refers to a class of software tools for managing the lifecycle of a product line of mechanical products. The entire lifecycle is addressed, from inception, through computer-aided design (CAD), through manufacturing, and into maintenance and repairs. For example, when you go to your automotive dealer for a replacement part on your car model, the system they use navigate through the diagrams, part descriptions, and part numbers is a PLM tool for the maintenance and repairs phase in the lifecycle for your car model. PLM systems typically support both the variation in time (evolution throughout the lifecycle) and the variation in space (variations among the products within a portfolio at any point in time) for a product line. PLM systems typically have only rudimentary support for software, such as tracking a compiled and executable firmware version as a single part number.

Application Lifecycle Management refers to an analogous class of software tools for managing the entire lifecycle of a software product, as opposed to mechanical products for PLM. A suite of ALM tools typically supports requirement management at the inception end of the lifecycle, all they way though architecture and design, source code development, configuration management, quality assurance and testing, change management, and maintenance. ALM system typically support variation in time (via a configuration management tool), but do not support variation in space (variation among products in a software product line portfolio).

Software Product Line development tools provide support for variation in space within a portfolio of similar software products. These tools, such as BigLever Software Gears, manage the product line variations that exist in requirements, architecture, design, source code implementation, test cases, documentation, and so forth.

Because software has become an integral part of so many mechanical products, and because product lines have become such an integral part of software development, the product development market is starting to demand the convergence of PLM, ALM and SPL.

Convergence of PLM, ALM and SPL: Product Line Portfolio Lifecycle Management

The relative strengths of PLM, ALM and SPL converge in near-perfect jigsaw puzzle fashion. PLM's limited support for software can be overcome by ALM tools. ALM's limited support for software portfolio variation in space can be overcome by SPL tools. The result is a powerful solution for managing the development lifecycle of software-intensive mechanical product line portfolios – or what might be called Product Line Portfolio Lifecycle Management (PLPLM).