ALM versus SDLC

I often find people confusing these two terms, Application life cycle management and software development life cycle, they are similar as they sound but differ as conceptually.


SDLC == Software Development Life Cycle;  this includes everything to do with DEVELOPING a software application, including requirements, architecture, coding, testing, configuration management project management.

ALM == Application Life Cycle Management;  as the name suggests includes everything that is part of the Application Lifecycle.  When does the life of an apps start?  No, not in development, it starts somewhere in the business as an idea, a need, a challenge, a risk.  When does the life of an application end?  No, not at the end of development, but when the application is no longer used by the business - potentially many years after the initial development.

I find a visual representation of ALM and SDLC may be this is helpful to understand both terms.

PDF Zilla Announce Free License

For those of you who need pdf converter, this could be good news. PDFZilla.com announced that they present the giveaway product, i.e. the free key registration for their software called PDFZilla.

PDFZilla Key Features
Convert PDF to Word
Convert PDF to Word with all text and Graphical data.
Convert PDF to RTF
Convert PDF to Rich Text Files. You can edit all text and graphic by Windows Wordpad.
Convert PDF to TXT
Convert PDF to plain text files. You can edit text by Notepad.
Convert PDF to Images
Convert PDF to BMP, JPG, GIF or TIF files.
Convert PDF to HTML
Convert PDF to HTML files and automatically generate the Index file.
Convert PDF to SWF
Convert PDF to Shockwave Flash Animation files which can be published on websites.
Page Selection
Convert all the pages, or partial pages of PDF file.
Easy to use software
Add a PDF File -> Select the Output File Format -> Click on Start Converting button, then just have a cup of coffee :)
The giveaway is valid until Feb 5th, 2011, so don’t miss this good chance.
For More Information Please Visit PDFZilla.com

Deskzilla Lite 2.0

Deskzilla Lite is a desktop client for Bugzilla (tm) bug tracking system, free for small projects with less than 1,000 bugs.

It delivers features for better productivity and improved working environment for Bugzilla users. Deskzilla downloads bug information from Bugzilla and stores it in a local database.

You can view and edit bugs and upload changes to Bugzilla. Additionally, it indexes all downloaded bugs, providing you with search capabilities and live statistical numbers. Benefits:

(a) Increased project visibility: use issue breakdown structure and live issue counters to monitor and analyze the state of a project
(b) Greater mobility: work with local copies of your issues when you are offline. The changes are synchronized to the server automatically when you become online.
(c) Improved productivity: save time by using interactive desktop application interface.

Key Features:

(a) Offline availability via cached bug records.
(b) Issue breakdown structure with queries and sub-queries.
(c) Instant issue counters providing immediate insight into the state of the project.
(d) Visual merge for merging parallel conflicting changes for a single bug.
(e) Screenshot capturing and editing tool.
(f) Aggregated access to several Bugzilla accounts in one rich user interface.

System Requirements: 2000/XP/Vista
License: Freeware

Download Now

Alfresco the Next Generation Platform

Alfresco is the leading open source alternative for enterprise content management. It couples the innovation of open source with the stability of a true enterprise-class platform. The open source model allows Alfresco to use best-of-breed open source technologies and contributions from the open source community to get higher quality software produced more quickly at much lower cost.

Alfresco is built using the latest open source infrastructure components including: Spring, Hibernate, Lucene, MyFaces and is based on Aspect-Oriented-Programming.

Alfresco's use of state-of-the art technology enable it to deliver a supported system that is:

   * 5 Times Faster than Traditional Closed Systems
   * 90% Less Expensive than Traditional Closed Systems

Alfresco is:

   * Open – Open Source, Open Standards
   * Source – Best-of-Breed Open Source Components
   * Enterprise – Enterprise-Scale, Enterprise-Infrastructure, Enterprise-Control
   * Content – Documents, records, Web Pages, Images, Rich Media
   * Management – Most Experienced Team in Content Management in the World from Documentum and Vignette.

Download Link

Free Services to Monitor Your Site’s Uptime

 You can’t sit staring at your monitor 24 hours a day to keep an eye on your website(s), so thank the heavens for the free services out there that do it for you.
Whether site downtime means loss of revenue or just loss of face, or you need to stay a step ahead of your clients, these services offer you a completely free way of knowing what’s up, what’s down and in some cases, why.
Read on for our list of ten suggested solutions, but as this list is by no means exhaustive, please do share any services you favor in the comments.

1.UptimeRobot

Number of Sites you can Monitor: 50
Regularity of Checks: Every 5 minutes
Methods of Alerts: E-mail, SMS, RSS
UptimeRobot looks at your site header’s status codes every five minutes and if the code comes back with a problem, does further checks. Then, if there are still issues, it lets you know about it pronto. Created by two devs who think the web should be free or cheap, it’s guaranteed a no-payment service until August 2010, so hop over now to check it out.

2. Pingdom

 

Number of Sites you can Monitor: 1
Regularity of Checks: User set, from 1 minute upwards
Methods of Alerts: E-mail, SMS (up to 20 per month), push alerts via iPhone app
Pingdom is a big boy of the paid monitoring services market, but does offer a very basic free account. Although the free service only lets you monitor one site, we feel it’s particularly worthy of mention since it comes with a free iPhone app gives you a handy on-the-go solution for monitoring your website’s status.

Pictures: New 7 Wonders vs. Ancient 7 Wonders

Pictures: New 7 Wonders vs. Ancient 7 Wonders

Release Readiness Review Checklist

 Below is a sample checklist for Release Readiness Review and Pre Delivery Audit. It is useful both for Project Managers and Software Quality Analysts.

    * Is delivery going against approved Contract/Statement of work/work order? If not, is the mail for approval from senior management available for the delivery?
    * Has the requirements document / FSD validated and approved by client?