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Application Lifecycle Framework Overview

Integrate Tools Throughout Application Lifecycle Management

Application lifecycle development and operational communities are supported throughout by a combination of commercial, open source, and homegrown tools. The Eclipse Application Lifecycle Framework (ALF) Project enables these tools to be orchestrated and integrated to make them fully interoperable in support of the consumer’s business needs.
 

Serena is leading the Eclipse ALF Project

Eclipse Foundation logo

  • Serena is a founding Eclipse member.
  • Serena proposed the ALF project in April 2005. It was approved by the Eclipse board in July of the same year.
  • After approval, Serena took the lead on defining the requirements, specifying the architecture and implementing the project.

Eclipse Site »
ALF Site »
About ALF »
ALF Project Milestones »

ALM Tools work against each other as often as they work with each other

  • Today’s development environments are supported by a combination of heterogeneous commercial, open source, and homegrown tools.
  • If tools are integrated at all, they use partial, fragile and inflexible point-to-point integrations.
  • This leads to application solutions that are inflexible and costly to maintain.

ALF Site »
About ALF »

Open, Standards-based Interoperability is the answer.

  • A modern approach: Create a multi-layered interoperability framework leveraging SOA technologies.
  • Tools can be orchestrated to provide repeatable, efficient processes.
  • Tool vendors can expose as much (or as little) functionality as they choose.
  • Consumers control how these technologies are orchestrated. 


ALF Page »
ALF Architecture Page »
ALF Demo »

SOA Standards Are the Key.

  • ALF provides the logical definition of the overall interoperability business process.
  • ALF uses widely-accepted SOA standards: SOAP, WSDL and BPEL.
  • ALF includes domain vocabularies that define events, objects and attributes.
  • ALF provides common services for logging, notifications, security, etc.


ALF Page »
ALF Architecture Page »

ALF has broad industry support among ALM vendors.

ALF Logo

  • Serena and partners are committed resources to implement ALF
  • Vendors are committed to ALF-enabling ALM tools
  • Customers are committed to supporting and deploying ALF


ALF Page »
ALF Ecosystem Page »

Consumer benefits

  • Reliable and robust integrations
  • Tools to support consumers’ development process
  • Open framework means greater choice
  • Legacy and homegrown tools can be ALF-enabled
  • Consumers not locked into proprietary frameworks
Visit the Eclipse ALF home page »

FAQ

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