How well will our current portfolio of applications help us achieve the company's top priorities?

What additions, improvements and changes are necessary in the near-term, medium-term, and long-term?

These questions are addressed by your Application Direction.

As an analogy, let's say you are considering the purchase of a vacation property in the country. When you see the property, you can imagine what you want it to be like – the landscaping, the house, and the outbuildings. These are your objectives. Then you consider what you have – the existing home and buildings, the current access road and the trees and shrubs that are already there. Which do you keep? Which do you tear out? Where will you renovate and where will you build new?

Just as the development plan for your new country property needs to consider those things, your Application Strategy needs to consider the health of existing applications and their suitability in the future of the enterprise.

Application Strategy is composed of two steps:

1. Assess Current Enterprise Applications.
2. Develop Application Strategic Direction.

When you have completed the Business – IT Alignment program you will have:

• An inventory of current applications.
• A good understanding of how well current applications are suited to support company strategic priorities.
• A set of improvement opportunities to fill in gaps or to make improvements to the application portfolio.

Application Direction should be revisited periodically – at least annually, or when there is a significant course correction in corporate direction.

Tools included in this bundle:

• Application Direction and Migration Strategy Guide
• Application Improvement Opportunity
• Application Topology
• Business Function and Application Assessment