Concluding its six city U.S. and European 'App Vision' tour this month, Serena Software has called for an accelerated approach to "shrink" application delivery processes by applying a business-like orchestrated approach to the lifecycle itself.

Serena chief evangelist Kevin Parker says that in the face of increasing application demands and budget pressures, that this "orchestration" as he puts it is now needed if programmers are to be able to operate and still breathe inside what is an increasingly shortened application development window.

"Without the right support and processes in place, talent alone can't overcome the challenges of siloed project teams, multiple development tools and methodologies, disconnected processes and the complexity of modern applications. Business decision-makers have to recognize that software development is one of their most important competitive assets -- it therefore requires a business-focused approach to managing this process in order to deliver the best results."

Featuring best practice presentations from Wells Fargo, Western and Southern Financial Group, Compass Bank, Aviva Europe and the UK's Ministry of Justice -- the tour's central message was the need to drive end-to-end efficiency through a holistic view of the complete application lifecycle.