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: