The Application Lifecycle Management market is very competitive. If you work for a large company, the stakes are higher as are the politics. Rational, Borland, Collabnet, Microsoft, Agile, eXtreme programming, Waterfall, SCRUM, etc. ALM tools and processes are a hotly debated topic between not only developers but management as well. One thing is for sure - one size does not fit all.
One the one side you have a group that wants to reduce costs by stopping the proliferation tools/processes in use. This group is usually in favor of top-down heavyweight tools, processes and standards. On the other side, developers realize that software development is a process of creativity and construction rather than a process of control and management. No matter which side you take or which ALM tool/process you follow. ALM is fundamentally about collaboration and sharing information while developing/maintaining software.
CALM (Collaborative Application Lifecycle Management) is an acronym I coined today to describe the evolution of the ALM market to incorporate collaborative tools and methodologies into the software development lifecycle.
A few examples:
Microsoft Team Foundation Server - http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/teamsystem/aa718825.aspx
Collabnet - http://www.collab.net/
IBM Jazz - http://jazz.net
Cross posted from www.davidstrommer.com