Application Portfolio Management Research Center
Application rationalization and modernization help you become a trusted partner.
Talk to an AnalystDeliver More Value From Your Application Portfolio
You have a lot of applications.
- Do you know what they do, how much they cost, or why they exist?
- Are these apps supporting your most important capabilities?
- Do you have multiple applications doing the same thing?
- Is application management becoming more challenging?
Application portfolio management (APM) helps you transform your applications into a cohesive service catalog aligned to your business capabilities.
Jump to Why APM Matters
Follow Our Three-Step Application Portfolio Management Process
Discover
Discover Your Applications
You can't manage what you don't know. Iteratively build your application inventory with key data.
View BlueprintRationalize
Build a Rationalization Framework
Use your inventory to align your application architecture to your IT and business strategy.
View BlueprintModernize
Modernize Your Applications
Modernizing your application portfolio using business and technical perspectives.
View BlueprintIf you are starting APM for a small enterprise, government, or division with >200 applications, consider starting with Application Portfolio Management for Small Enterprise, where we consolidate these three steps into one blueprint.
Why Does Application Portfolio Management Matter?
Effective application portfolio management doesn’t happen on its own. It requires assistance with supporting pieces such as application maintenance, application management, business architecture, optimized intake, value measurement, and end-user feedback. Refer to these APM journey supporting topics below: Diagnostics, Related Blueprints, and Additional APM Resources to Support Your Role.
- 72%
of organizations do not have an excellent understanding of the application portfolio.1
- 83%
of employees are using apps not sanctioned by their IT departments.2
- 68%
of IT directors have wasted time and money because they did not have better visibility of application roadmaps.3
- 49%
of current IT performance is aligned to business needs.4
- 54%
of CIOs don't know how many cloud-based subscriptions their organization has.5
- 48%
of organizations believe there are more applications than the business requires.1
- Your Challenge
- Application sprawl comes from evolving capabilities, turnover, mergers and acquisitions, and end-user implementations.
- Leaders are spending more time and resources managing a portfolio that is larger than necessary.
- Complex environments impede goals of change and scalability, expose the organization to risks, and inhibit growth.
- Common Obstacles
- Poor visibility into the portfolio makes strategic planning difficult and business use unclear and hides application risk.
- Organizations lack standard practices to define the business value, leading to rationalization decisions that are misaligned to business needs.
- Time-to-value takes too long, and business buy-in slowly fades.
- Info-Tech Approach
- Build a framework tailored to your specific goals and limitations. Focus on:
- Discovering all your applications.
- Understanding their business use and value.
- Building an iterative approach to rationalization that examines applications from multiple perspectives.
1. Jayanthi, Aruna. "Application Landscape Report." Capgemini, 2014. Accessed 20 Nov. 2017. 2. Starke, Joann. “The Shadow IT Dilemma.” Cisco Blogs, 23 March 2016. Web. 3. Bowling, Alan. "Clearer Visibility of Product Roadmaps Improves IT Planning." ComputerWeekly.com, 1 Nov. 2010. Accessed 29 Sept. 2015. 4. Info-Tech Research Group, n=350+ pairs of CEOs and CIOs. 5. “The CIO in 2017 Cloud Sprawl and Shadow IT: Why IT Leaders Need Visibility and Control.” VansonBourne, 2017. Web.
Fill in the Missing Pieces
Explore the following Info-Tech Diagnostics and blueprints that support your APM journey.
Diagnostics
Application Portfolio Assessment: End User Feedback
Don't guess what’s important, measure application satisfaction.
Start Now
CEO-CIO Alignment Program
Improve IT-business alignment to operate effectively and generate tangible value.
Start Now
Related Blueprints
Application Portfolio Management for Small Enterprises
Simplified APM journey for smaller organizations and local government.
Download Our 4-Piece Solution Set
Review Your Application Strategy
Ensure your applications enable your business strategy.
Download Our 5-Piece Solution Set
Document Your Business Architecture
Define your value streams and supporting capabilities to better align applications to your capabilities.
Download Our 19-Piece Solution Set
Streamline Application Management
Deliver a successful application catalog by improving your application management processes.
Download Our 7-Piece Solution Set
Optimize Project Intake, Approval, and Prioritization
Improving your application portfolio is a great opportunity to update your intake process and prioritization criteria.
Download Our 20-Piece Solution Set
Maximize Business Value From IT Through Benefits Realization
Since rationalization is about enabling capabilities to deliver value, use rationalization to help improve your application value realization.
Download Our 10-Piece Solution SetAdditional APM Resources to Support Your Role
Small Business / Government
How do your right-size your application portfolio management program? What is most important to your APM as a smaller IT organization?
If you are a small business, government, Not-for-Profit, or smaller IT shop, consider starting our streamlined Application Portfolio Management for Small Enterprises blueprint.
CIO Perspective
What is the overall cost of the application? What is the projected cost as your organization grows? What is the cost to maintain the application?
As a CIO, consider starting our Enterprise Application TCO-ROI Assessment Diagnostic.
App Team Perspective
What is the state of the backend of the application? Has the application maintained sufficient code quality? Is the application reliable? How does it fit into your application architecture?
To update and define your application management processes and governance, consider starting our Streamline Application Management blueprint.
Architect Perspective
How well does the entire portfolio align to your business capabilities? Are there overlaps or redundancies in your application features? Are they capabilities that could benefit from application enablement?
As an enterprise or application architect, consider completing our Application Portfolio Snapshot.
End-User Perspective
How does the end user perceive the application? What is the user experience? Do the features adequately support the intended functions? Is the application important or does it have high utilization?
To understand how your end users feel about your applications, consider starting our End User Feedback Diagnostic.
CEO Perspective
Is the application producing sufficient business value? Does it impact profitability, enable capabilities, or add any critical factor that fulfills the mission and vision?
To meet the goals of your CEO and the needs of your line of business stakeholders consider starting our Build a Value Measurement Framework blueprint.