Application Portfolio Management

Architecture Planning Data Dictionary


Application Portfolio Management (APM) - High Level Process

  1. Focus on formulating business questions the portfolio needs to answer, e.g., “is our application portfolio supporting the business needs and is it technologically sound?”

    1. Typical Objectives of the Portfolio Review

      1. Portfolio overview

        1. Application landscape details: by business units/ functions, capability, lifecycle, location, recommended disposition, etc.

        2. Application profile: end-to-end stack, interfaces/ application communication diagrams and application health

      2. Lifecycle related issues across various portfolios - application, technology (OS, database, software (app, middleware), hardware (client, server)

      3. Application Rationalization: opportunities to rationalize/ consolidate portfolio where there are multiple applications supporting a capability/ process/ business area

      4. Financials: alignment of application spend and project spend to the capabilities that enable business goals

      5. Strategic planning roadmap: Support business unit/ functions to prioritize and sequence technology investments

    2. IT Planning Questions

      1. Which applications are the best candidates for rationalization?

      2. What applications are affected by removal of a technology?

      3. What is the health of key applications?

      4. What is the (value) lifecycle of key applications?

      5. What is the roadmap of an application and technology over time?

      6. Which key business capabilities have high technology risk?

      7. For a given strategy, what is its project and application roadmap?

  2. Determine key questions that need to be answered in terms of the portfolio as a whole

  3. Identify the key outcomes you want to achieve, e.g., eliminating redundancy

  4. Partner up with the PMO, GRC, Finance and Application Management - as needed

  5. Establish the application inventory attributes (fields) you want to track - less is more! If the attribute does not drive a decision - don’t collect it!

    1. Subscribe to the three Cs for the data being collected: Clear, Correct and Current

  6. Group the portfolio into business areas and have the business leaders own the portfolio - with supporting IT ownership

    1. Categorize the portfolio based on business functionality, e.g., how many CRM systems do we have?

    2. Capabilities are a many to many relationship to the application - only do this if you really need it, e.g., multiple business units with major redundancy

  7. Inventory the application list with logical names against the physical technology layer - if needed - if you are driving a technology roadmap or identifying risks

  8. Major Portfolio Areas that can be used to align the application portfolio

    1. Goals and Strategies

    2. Capability Investments

    3. Function Strategies [shared business area such as Human Resources or Finance]

  9. Provide reports on the application health in a 2x2 [Technology Feasibility and Business Value] - see below

  10. Assign applications to a Value Lifecycle to report out to business leadership - see below


Summary of Application Fitness Aspects and Indicators

Performance Aspects

Indicators

Application value and fit to the mission, mandate or process needed


  • Mission or process fit

  • Data and information quality/timeliness

  • Application robustness

  • Utilization

  • Future role of the organization


Operational Risk


  • Complexity

  • Reliance on subject matter experts

  • Maintenance change factors

Supportability


  • Availability and cost of support skills

  • Technical risk Architectural alignment or compatibility

  • Base technology quality

  • Extendibility and scalability

  • Technical execution

Costs


  • License and support contract

  • Service maintenance and enhancements

  • Total application life cycle costs



Application Value Lifecycle