Improve Product and Software Development by Integrating ALM and PLM (Part 2 of 4)

Today the clear demarcation of the boundary between product development and software development is blurring fast as software increasingly becomes a major component of products. Companies urgently need to integrate the management of their product and software development efforts. In Part 1, I likened the process to a climb up a mountain. We looked at the current landscape characterized by a chasm between ALM and PLM, and we quickly realized that there are business benefits to be reaped at the summit.

Business benefits of ALM-PLM integration

Let’s take a look at the main reasons for the integration, as outlined by OVUM Principal Analyst Michael Azoff:

The Motivation:

• Visibility across all assets
  
  
  
  • Improve search and locate information
  
  
  
  


• Accurately link firmware with hardware:
  
  
  
  • Avoid errors, avoid damage costs, avoid reputation risk
  
  
  
  


• Traceability of assets for engineers in all lifecycle phases:
  
  
  
  • Reduce time wasted.
  
  
  • Enable effective collaboration across globally distributed units.
  
  
  
  


• Support maintenance, repair, & operations (MRO):
  
  
  
  • Quickly locate parts and manage defect fixes.
  
  
  • Reduce inoperative time of broken products.
  
  
  
  

So what are the top-level things to understand about the ALM-PLM Integration? Again, according to OVUM Principal Analyst, Michael Azoff:

The Recommendations:

• Manage software linked to the hardware that embeds it.


• Touch points:
  
  
  
  • Requirements management.
  
  
  • Testing & QA management.
  
  
  • Change management and version control.
  
  
  • Release management.
  
  
  
  


• Integration occurs at two fundamental levels:
  
  
  
  • Linking is challenging across a supply chain so data exchange is necessary.
  
  
  • Live linking is cheaper and easier to manage but need a good process around it.
  
  
  
  

Now that we have a general idea of why ALM-PLM integration is critical for the road ahead, it’s time to dive in a bit deeper and explore the actual levels of integration. I’ll take you through that in the next article in this series.
Remember: at the end of the series you’ll be able to download the full series content as a handy PDF eBook.

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