Services

  1. Application Lifecycle Management- ALM
  2. ALM Tools Evaluation

Technology Consulting & Architecture

⁠Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) is important & key pillar of Digital Engineering landscape. As OEMs are focusing on making their products more autonomous, ALM is key enabler in ensuring software data in products is managed, matured, traceable, configurable. Our approach for defining ALM Strategy for OEMs is as following:

ALM Tools Evaluation

⁠There are multiple out of the box ALM tools available from various well known product vendors in the market; however, OEMs needs to meticulously evaluate these tools based on the organisation requirements, strategic objectives, short term and long-term projects, ROI, product complexities. Techflakes Digital helps OEMs with our framework developed based on vast experience. Below is the high-level approach we use for ALM tools evaluation.

Technology Consulting & Architecture

⁠ALM implementation blueprint requires an alignment with capabilities required at various stages of the new product development cycle. Techflakes leverages our home grown UseFlakes product that gives configurable use cases across the NPI phases. We frequently experience the gap in communicating transition state & end state models of the overall ALM roadmap; Techflakes digital develops functional & logical model based on the use cases & scenarios. These early models help all stake holders to have common understanding of the capabilities & implementation roadmap.

Following functional & logical modelling we develop technical architectures, data models, security models, end to end data flows, technical requirements mapping with implementation phases. These technical artifacts bring clarity for the development team, improves quality of implementation, reduces feedback loops & rework.

ALM Supplier Collaboration Scenarios

ALM strategy design requires careful consideration for the models’ OEMs using for software developments. ALM implementation requirements and use cases varies for each collaboration model.

  • In-house development teams working on the confidential and strategic projects. These teams also work on regular ongoing in production projects. So, the level of data security, integration with PLM, lean release & change process etc. requires specific solution approaches.
  • Co-Development with Supplier model is the one where OEM jointly develop software with suppliers. In this case OEM may provide design specification & be the part of review and approval process OR OEM developers may work closure with supplier developers on the same product features. In this model we have to ensure data security for other projects where given supplier is not part of that project, likewise co-development have specific requirements and scenarios to consider in ALM implementation.
  • Independent Supplier Development model is the one where suppliers work independently on the requirements or design specification shared by OEMs. In this model data exchange scenarios have specific requirements to consider.

PLM-ALM Integration

PLM & ALM are key founding pillar of digital engineering. Software data development & management in ALM should have tight integration with PLM from the processes and systems perspective. Most of the OEMs matures their ALM & PLM landscape separately; however, need of PLM-ALM integration arises right from product requirements management to software distribution. Below are few selective reasons why OEMs should have tight integration of PLM & ALM.

  • Overall Product requirements have subset of software requirements, engineering requirements, manufacturing requirements etc. As software requirements gets delivered through software data managed in ALM it requires integration with PLM to link upstream and downstream linkage with engineering requirements.
  • PLM should be master for Part Number generation so though software part is developed and matured in ALM, Part Number should be generated in PLM.
  • Complete Bill of Materials in PLM requires software parts in the BOM so that full EBOM can be managed, reviewed.
  • Hardware Parts (where software parts are linked) developed and managed in PLM integrated CAD systems.
  • Compatibility matrix in between software versions and hardware parts requires linkage of PLM & ALM system.
  • Product Release management in PLM should have Software parts at same maturity levels.
  • To establish traceability between requirements and deliverables across the product development cycle.
  • In context of Digital thread, integrated change management requires clear linkages between PLM & ALM.