Application Portfolio Management Foundations

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Organizations consider application oversight a low priority and app portfolio knowledge is poor:

No dedicated or centralized effort to manage the app portfolio means no single source of truth is available to support informed decision making.
Organizations acquire more applications over time, creating redundancy, waste, and the need for additional support.
Organizations are more vulnerable to changing markets. Flexibility and growth are compromised when applications are unadaptable or cannot scale.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

You cannot outsource application strategy.
Modern software options have lessened the need for organizations to have robust in-house application management capabilities. But your applications’ future and governance of the portfolio still require centralized oversight to ensure the best overall return on investment.
Application portfolio management is the mechanism to ensure that the applications in your enterprise are delivering value and support for your value streams and business capabilities. Understanding value, satisfaction, technical health, and total cost of ownership are critical to digital transformation, modernization, and roadmaps.

Impact and Result

Build an APM program that is actionable and fit for size:

Understand your current state, needs, and goals for your application portfolio management.
Create an application and platform inventory that is built for better decision making.
Rationalize your apps with business priorities and communicate risk in operational terms.
Create a roadmap that improves communication between those who own, manage, and support your applications.

Application Portfolio Management Foundations Research & Tools

Start here – read the Executive Brief

Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why APM is a necessity for your organization and how to right-size it to your needs.

Application Portfolio Management Foundations – Executive Brief

1. Lay your foundations

Work with key stakeholders to define the motivations, goals, and scope of your rationalization effort.

2. Improve your inventory

Inventory your applications and define their business capabilities based on your current understanding.

3. Rationalize your applications

Work with application subject matter experts to quickly rationalize your applications.

4. Populate your roadmap

Review, determine, and prioritize application initiatives, and initiate an application portfolio roadmap to showcase your rationalization decisions to key stakeholders.

Member Testimonials

After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve. See our top member experiences for this blueprint and what our clients have to say.

7.0/10

Overall Impact

Client

Experience

Impact

$ Saved

Days Saved

Testimonial

Braeston Proprietary Limited

Guided Implementation

7/10

N/A

It was too short due to the changes on my side of the business.

Toronto and Region Conservation Authority

Guided Implementation

10/10

$10,000

Greenheck Fan Corporation

Guided Implementation

6/10

$6,197

Knowing we're on the right track. Feeling like the bottleneck was really just on our side to do the work.

Lane Council of Governments

Guided Implementation

10/10

$60,319

105

Ben came to the call well-prepared, and immediately showed how the Info-Tech research material could be applied to our Division's modernization needs and quickly add value. I especially appreciated that Ben would introduce a slide or process, and then p...

CLO-OCOL

Workshop

9/10

N/A

Clark Pacific

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

Still forming a move forward strategy, i.e., execute department application surveys or focus on applications discovery. Previous conversations had me going down the path of immediate surveys, but that may be premature based on conversations with Allison....

Western Forest Products Inc.

Guided Implementation

7/10

N/A

Natural Resources Canada

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

MicroPort Orthopedics Inc.

Workshop

4/10

N/A

Westconsin Credit Union

Workshop

10/10

$12,399

The workshop was real ran and kept us on task. Adjustments were made to the schedule to accommodate us as needed to make sure it worked for everyone involved in the workshop. I don't have anything negative to say!

Twin Disc

Guided Implementation

9/10

N/A

Confirmed that I was following the right path, templates helped me prepare for future. Worst part - the images in the survey never download so have to take extra steps to be able to complete the actual survey.

One Call Care Management

Workshop

9/10

N/A

Randy and Ben did a great job facilitating the workshop. They were flexible and adapted the agenda to the knowledge of the folks in the workshop so that we could reach our objective. There was a lot of existing knowledge in the room that took a coupl...

State of Ohio - Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities

Guided Implementation

10/10

$10,000

Apega

Guided Implementation

8/10

N/A

University of Exeter

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

Very early stages but some really good pointers as to where to start and focus priorities, will have a better understanding of the savings as the project progresses.

University of Western States

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

No worst part. Ben provided some great insight to help me focus on the important areas, structure my thoughts around wrangling in terms (business application). Much appreciated.

Natural Resources Canada

Workshop

8/10

$14,500

Best - Day 3 BCM exercise was very informative and an interesting approach compared to the traditional application first approach. Overall enjoyed the interaction between facilitators, great mix and complimented one another.

Montgomery County Board of County Commissioners

Guided Implementation

10/10

$6,366

Dollar amount impact, currently is in time efficiencies for the Application Administrator. Although I believe we'll see more of an overall impact at the end of the project. BEST: 1) Ben brought some experience working with outside municipalities that was key to helping us move past those old "stuck" areas. WORSE: 2) Some information/research was under the Premium Membership, which we currently don't have at this time. Under discussion.

Tokyo Electron US Holdings, Inc.

Guided Implementation

8/10

N/A

City Colleges of Chicago

Guided Implementation

4/10

N/A

The topics always sound interesting but I have yet to feel like I've gotten real value out of the actual call itself. It's always kind of vague and conceptual.

MUFG Bank Mexico Sociedad Anonima Institucion de Banca Multiple Filial

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

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Onsite Workshop: Application Portfolio Management Foundations

Onsite workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost onsite delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

Module 1: Lay Your Foundations

The Purpose

Work with key corporate stakeholders to come to a shared understanding of the benefits and aspects of application portfolio management.

Key Benefits Achieved

Establish the goals of APM.
Set the scope of APM responsibilities.
Establish business priorities for the application portfolio.

Activities

Outputs

1.1

Define goals and metrics.

Set short- and long-term goals and metrics.

1.2

Define application categories.

Set the scope for applications.

1.3

Determine steps and roles.

Set the scope for the APM process.

1.4

Weight value drivers.

Defined business value drivers.

Module 2: Improve Your Inventory

The Purpose

Gather information on your applications to build a detailed inventory and identify areas of redundancy.

Key Benefits Achieved

Populated inventory based on your and your team’s current knowledge.
Understanding of outstanding data and a plan to collect it.

Activities

Outputs

2.1

Populate inventory.

Initial application inventory

2.2

Assign business capabilities.

List of areas of redundancy

2.3

Review outstanding data.

Plan to collect outstanding data

Module 3: Gather Application Information

The Purpose

Work with the application subject matter experts to collect and compile data points and determine the appropriate disposition for your apps.

Key Benefits Achieved

Dispositions for individual applications
Application rationalization framework

Activities

Outputs

3.1

Assess business value.

Business value score for individual applications

3.2

Assess end-user perspective.

End-user satisfaction scores for individual applications

3.3

Assess TCO.

TCO score for individual applications

3.4

Assess technical health.

Technical health scores for individual applications

3.5

Assess redundancies.

Feature-level assessment of redundant applications

3.6

Determine dispositions.

Assigned dispositions for individual applications

Module 4: Gather, Assess, and Select Dispositions

The Purpose

Work with application delivery specialists to determine the strategic plans for your apps and place these in your portfolio roadmap.

Key Benefits Achieved

Prioritized initiatives
Initial application portfolio roadmap
Ongoing structure of APM

Activities

Outputs

4.1

Prioritize initiatives

Prioritized new potential initiatives.

4.2

Populate roadmap.

Built an initial portfolio roadmap.

4.3

Determine ongoing APM cadence.

Established an ongoing cadence of APM activities.

4.4

Build APM action plan.

Built an action plan to complete APM activities.

About Info-Tech

Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest-growing information technology research and advisory company, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals.

We produce unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.

Member Rating

7.0/10
Overall Impact

After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve.

Read what our members are saying

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