This document provides guidance on choosing an Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) tool. It outlines key decision points to consider, such as identifying needs, listing available tools, checking for tool integration capabilities, and calculating costs and benefits. An Excel spreadsheet is referenced that can help evaluate tools against criteria. The document advises consulting with stakeholders across departments to understand needs and identify any "knock out" criteria. It also provides templates to help calculate the costs of implementation and expected benefits.

1. How to choose an ALM Tool
Items to consider

2. Decision points for choosing an ALM
Sometimes ist hard, finding the right tool.
A lot of OPINION exists
People do not like changes
People want to keep existing structures
A new tool challenges everyone
Costs are hard to defend
Here is a decision sheet

3. „Out of the box“

4. „Out of the box“ decision flow
1. List all tools available / suitable
2. Find rationale decision points
3. Check your needs
 Check needs of stakeholder
4. Find KO criteria (if any)
5. Get the quotes
6. Check if there is an existing integration of your
toolchain
7. Check what tool chain integration will cost
 If you have existing Tools like Mathlab or EA you will
need to integrate them into your ALM solution.
Check existing Connectors
8. If you introduce a Norm
(i.E. ISO 15504,26262 DO178,254, Medical)
, check if there are integration templates
 Are Work products predefined
 Are Processes predefined
 Is the workflow predfined
 Do you have, or does the template offer a reasonable
projectplan for the introduction (Refer to ISO 16326)
9. Calculate the external costs
10. Calculate the internal costs
11. Calculate benefits

5. What we have prepared
1. We have created an Excel tool that makes it easy for you to get the data
2. Go to http://www.deutscher-mittelstand.com/fileadmin/ALM.xlsx
3. On the page you find
4. A list of Tools that can can be considered an ALM tool
If you want to remove or add a tool, just do so

6. What we have prepared 2
1. On the left side, you find a list of criteria
1. Full ALM Tool
2. Business Support
3. Is not open source
4. Installable on Own Server
5. Support multiple methodologies
6. Requirement traceability
7. Support V Modell development
8. Supports Automotive
development
9. On/Off line specification
authoring
10. Wiki support
11. Performance speed sufficient
12. Advanced workflows
13. Project planning
14. Impact Analysis
15. Portfolio planning
16. Risk management
17. Agile Development
18. Epic support
19. Task management
20. Defect management
21. SCM integrations
22. Test Management
23. Test planning
24. Test case Management
25. Advanced reporting
26. Knowledge Repository
27. LDAP support
28. Round-Trip Tickets
29. Round-Trip Defects
30. Round-Trip Requirements
31. Round Trip Tasks
32. Multi-site support
33. Multilingual support
34. Local Language support
35. Native tablet support
36. Handling / GUI (Excellent?)
37. Local Language GUI
38. Server Adminstration by local
IT
39. Local administration &
configuration possible
40. Annual Support
41. Local Support
42. 1st Year Support
43. Access Rights per Role
44. Element-based access rights
45. Field Based access Rights
46. Status Based access Rights
47. Dashboards
48. Process Modelling
49. Baselining / Recovery
50. Variants Management
51. Bi-Directional DOORS Rational
9.x Link
52. Bi-Directional Enterprise
Architect Link
53. Bi-Directional IBM Rhapsody
Link
54. 100% full feature Web-Frontend
55. Templatemanagement
56. Multi-User Editing
57. Exchange with suppliers
58. Open API to integrate to tools
59. Vector Toolchain
60. Import/Export Autosar XML
61. Matlab/Simulink integration
62. Other Criteria 1
63. Other Criteria 2
64. Other Criteria 3
65. Other Criteria 4
66. Other Criteria 5
67. Document Export ( Word, PDF,
Excel)
68. "License can be bought (it is not
a rented license)"

7. Check your needs by Department
▪ Check what needs you have
▪ Check what your colleagues in other departments have as needs
▪ Check if one of that items is a „Knock Out Criteria“
(This will lead to a

8. ALM Vergleich
Welche Funktionen werden in einem ALM-System benötigt?
Welches ALM-Tool erfüllt Ihre Anforderungen? List of tools
Decision
criteria (63) Stakeholder
Needs
KO Criteria
Calculation of need
coverage
Entscheidungs-Matrix für das Werkzeug

9. „Cost Calculation“

10. Get the real costs, including he internal costs
Yellow marked
can be changed
by you
Calculate the costs includin internal costs
Fill in internal costs for
the introduction

11. „Benefit calculation“

12. Check what changes you expect
Your Management will like that!

13. Questions
Please ask us in case you have a question on how to proceed
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