在过去，您知道瀑布统治时期，并且某些3字母缩写产品被广泛使用，应用程序生命周期管理（ALM）系统庞大，单一，以文档为中心，并且普遍受到行列式文件工程的讨厌员工。
然后出现了带有宣言的敏捷运动，它的第一条原则说：“过程和工具上的个体和相互作用”。这项原则背后的部分历史是，在1990年代中期，发生了一项称为“业务流程再造”的运动，该运动明确地重视了人们的价值。 BPR运动渗透到软件开发中，繁重的方法论方法在管理中变得很流行。该原则还与以文档和模型为中心的自动化工具（生命周期重点的前端）的兴起相抵触，后者支持“繁重”的方法论。
In any movement there tends to be an overreaction or over-correction. Some Agilists interpreted the principle as “no process and tools,” which was not the intent. Card walls, spreadsheets, and wikis became the tools of choice for many 敏捷 teams. However, these same teams that eschewed Microsoft Project and complicated modeling tools did embrace tools that enhanced programming and testing—development environments and testing tools like j-Unit and FIT.
在过程方面，在我的书中 敏捷 Project Management 我概述了一个五步开发过程-构想，推测，探索，适应和关闭。有一次，我在一家非常大的公司工作，我被问到我的流程在哪里。经理们正在寻找分层分解的详细流程，而不是具有一系列异步实践的高级流程。因此，问题不是“否”流程，而是构建一个简化的流程。
This is all a lead-in to the fact that it’s not a case of having an ALM or not—many organizations clearly need one—but of the type of ALM and which parts of the development process it concentrates on. With the growing interest in Continuous Integration and Continuous 交货, what we need is a re-definition of ALM; a definition that fits with the advances in 敏捷 and Lean practices over the last few years.
Three colleagues of mine at ThoughtWorks have made a great beginning at such a definition, not from the standpoint of this feature and that, but from the perspective of the high-level principles that should define an 敏捷 ALM. 敏捷 ALM: Redefining ALM with Five Key Practices, 通过 Ethan Teng, Cyndi Mitchell, Chad Wathington has just been released. For those of you who are working on larger projects, or those who are trying to implement Continuous Integration and Continuous Design, or those who are trying to define what 敏捷 ALM means in your organization, this paper is a good starting place.
