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.
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.
9.1/10
Overall Impact
$31,736
Average $ Saved
26
Average Days Saved
Client
Experience
Impact
$ Saved
Days Saved
University of the Fraser Valley
Guided Implementation
9/10
$11,500
10
Bi-State Development
Workshop
10/10
$88,199
50
BDO Canada LLP
Guided Implementation
10/10
$11,500
5
Anne Arundel Community College
Guided Implementation
10/10
$62,999
20
Bloomfield Hills Schools
Guided Implementation
10/10
N/A
N/A
VCU Health System Authority
Guided Implementation
9/10
N/A
35
Strathcona County
Guided Implementation
8/10
$1,500
3
Braeston Proprietary Limited
Guided Implementation
7/10
N/A
N/A
Toronto and Region Conservation Authority
Guided Implementation
10/10
$10,000
5
Greenheck Fan Corporation
Guided Implementation
6/10
$6,197
1
Lane Council of Governments
Guided Implementation
10/10
$61,999
105
CLO-OCOL
Workshop
9/10
N/A
N/A
Clark Pacific
Guided Implementation
10/10
N/A
N/A
Western Forest Products Inc.
Guided Implementation
7/10
N/A
N/A
Natural Resources Canada
Guided Implementation
10/10
N/A
N/A
MicroPort Orthopedics Inc.
Workshop
4/10
N/A
N/A
Westconsin Credit Union
Workshop
10/10
$12,399
20
Twin Disc
Guided Implementation
9/10
N/A
2
One Call Care Management
Workshop
9/10
N/A
20
State of Ohio - Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities
Guided Implementation
10/10
$10,000
5
Apega
Guided Implementation
8/10
N/A
N/A
University of Exeter
Guided Implementation
10/10
N/A
N/A
University of Western States
Guided Implementation
10/10
N/A
10
Natural Resources Canada
Workshop
8/10
$14,500
16
Montgomery County Board of County Commissioners
Guided Implementation
10/10
$6,366
35
Tokyo Electron US Holdings, Inc.
Guided Implementation
8/10
N/A
N/A
City Colleges of Chicago
Guided Implementation
4/10
N/A
N/A
MUFG Bank Mexico Sociedad Anonima Institucion de Banca Multiple Filial
Guided Implementation
10/10
N/A
N/A
Workshop: Application Portfolio Management Foundations
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 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
Define goals and metrics.
- Set short- and long-term goals and metrics.
Define application categories.
- Set the scope for applications.
Determine steps and roles.
- Set the scope for the APM process.
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
Populate inventory.
- Initial application inventory
Assign business capabilities.
- List of areas of redundancy
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
Assess business value.
- Business value score for individual applications
Assess end-user perspective.
- End-user satisfaction scores for individual applications
Assess TCO.
- TCO score for individual applications
Assess technical health.
- Technical health scores for individual applications
Assess redundancies.
- Feature-level assessment of redundant applications
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
Prioritize initiatives
- Prioritized new potential initiatives.
Populate roadmap.
- Built an initial portfolio roadmap.
Determine ongoing APM cadence.
- Established an ongoing cadence of APM activities.
Build APM action plan.
- Built an action plan to complete APM activities.
Application Portfolio Management Foundations
Ensure your application portfolio delivers the best possible return on investment.
Analyst Perspective
You can’t outsource accountability.
Many lack visibility into their overall application portfolio, focusing instead on individual projects or application development. Inevitably, application sprawl creates process and data disparities, redundant applications, and duplication of resources and stands as a significant barrier to business agility and responsiveness. The shift from strategic investment to application maintenance creates an unnecessary constraint on innovation and value delivery.
With the rise and convenience of SAAS solutions, IT has an increasing need to discover and support all applications in the organization. Unmanaged and unsanctioned applications can lead to increased reputational risk. What you don’t know WILL hurt you.
You can outsource development, you can even outsource maintenance, but you cannot outsource accountability for the portfolio. Organizations need a holistic dashboard of application performance and dispositions to help guide and inform planning and investment discussions. Application portfolio management (APM) can’t tell you why something is broken or how to fix it, but it is an important tool to determine if an application’s value and performance are up to your standards and can help meet your future goals.

Hans Eckman
Principal Research Director
Info-Tech Research Group
Is this research right for you?
Research Navigation
Managing your application portfolio is essential regardless of its size or whether your software is purchased or developed in house. Each organization must have some degree of application portfolio management to ensure that applications deliver value efficiently and that their risk or gradual decline in technical health is appropriately limited.
Your APM goals |
If this describes your primary goal(s) |
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Executive Summary
Your Challenge |
Common Obstacles |
Info-Tech’s Approach |
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Info-Tech Insight: You can’t outsource strategy.
Modern software options have decreased the need for organizations to have robust in-house application management capabilities. Your applications’ future and governance of the portfolio still require a centralized IT oversight to ensure the best return on investment.
The top IT challenges for SE come from app management
Source: National Small Business Association, 2019 |
Having more applications than an organization needs means unnecessarily high costs and additional burden on the teams who support the applications. Especially in the case of small enterprises, this is added pressure the IT team cannot afford. A poorly maintained portfolio will eventually hurt the business more than it hurts IT. Legacy systems, complex environments, or anything that leads to a portfolio that can’t adapt to changing business needs will eventually become a barrier to business growth and accomplishing objectives. Often the blame is put on the IT department. |
56%
of small businesses cited inflexible technology as a barrier to growth Source: Salesforce as quoted by Tech Republic, 2019 |
A hidden and inefficient application portfolio is the root cause of so many pains experienced by both IT and the business.
- Demand/Capacity Imbalance
- Overspending
- Security and Business Continuity Risk
- Delays in Delivery
- Barriers to Growth
APM comes at a justified cost
The benefits of APM
APM identifies areas where you can reduce core spending and reinvest in innovation initiatives.
Other benefits can include:
- Fewer redundancies
- Less risk
- Less complexity
- Improved processes
- Flexibility
- Scalability
APM allows you to better understand and set the direction of your portfolio
Application Inventory
The artifact that documents and informs the business of your application portfolio.
Application Rationalization
The process of collecting information and assessing your applications to determine recommended dispositions.
Application Alignment
The process of revealing application information through interviewing stakeholders and aligning to business capabilities.
Application Roadmap
The artifact that showcases the strategic directions for your applications over a given timeline.
Application Portfolio Management (APM):
The ongoing practice of:
- Providing visibility into applications across the organization.
- Recommending corrections or enhancements to decision makers.
- Aligning delivery teams on priority.
- Showcasing the direction of applications to stakeholders.
Create a balanced approach to value delivery
Enterprise Agility and Value Realization
Product Lifecycle Management
Align your product and service improvement and execution to enterprise strategy and value realization in three key areas: defining your products and services, aligning product/service owners, and developing your product vision.
- Make the Case for Product Delivery
- Deliver on Your Digital Product Vision
- Build a Better Product Owner
Product Delivery Lifecycle (Agile DevOps)
Enhance business agility by leveraging an Agile mindset and continuously improving your delivery throughput, quality, value realization, and adaptive governance.
- Agile/DevOps Research Center
- Implement Agile Practices That Work
- Spread Best Practices With an Agile Center of Excellence
- Implement DevOps Practices That Work
- Perform an Agile Skills Assessment
- Define the Role of Project Management in Agile and Product-Centric Delivery
Application Portfolio Management
Transform your application portfolio into a cohesive service catalog aligned to your business capabilities by discovering, rationalizing, and modernizing your applications while improving application maintenance, management, and reuse.
Every organization experiences some degree of application sprawl
Causes of Sprawl
- Poor Lifecycle Management
- Turnover & Lack of Knowledge Transfer
- Siloed Business Units & Decentralized IT
- Business-Managed IT
- (Shadow IT)
- Mergers & Acquisitions
Problems With Sprawl
- Redundancy and Inefficient Spending
- Disparate Apps & Data
- Obsolescence
- Difficulties in Prioritizing Support
- Barriers to Change & Growth
Application Sprawl:
Inefficiencies within your application portfolio are created by the gradual and non-strategic accumulation of applications.
You have more apps than you need.
Only 34% of software is rated as both IMPORTANT and EFFECTIVE by users.
Source: Info-Tech’s CIO Business Vision
Build your APM journey map
Application rationalization provides insight
Directionless portfolio of applications |
Info-Tech’s Five Lens Model |
Assigned dispositions for individual apps |
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Application Alignment |
Business Value |
Technical Health |
End-User Perspective |
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) |
Maintain: Keep the application but adjust its support structure. Modernize: Create a new initiative to address an inadequacy. Consolidate: Create a new initiative to reduce duplicate functionality. Retire: Phase out the application. Disposition: The intended strategic direction or implied course of action for an application. |
How well do your apps support your core functions and teams? |
How well are your apps aligned to value delivery? |
Do your apps meet all IT quality standards and policies? |
How well do your apps meet your end users’ needs? |
What is the relative cost of ownership and operation of your apps? |
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Application rationalization requires the collection of several data points that represent these perspectives and act as the criteria for determining a disposition for each of your applications. |
APM is an iterative and evergreen process
APM provides oversight and awareness of your application portfolio’s performance and support for your business operations and value delivery to all users and customers.
Determine Scope and categories | Build your list of applications and capabilities | Score each application based on your values | Determine outcomes based on app scoring and support for capabilities | |||
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1. Lay Your Foundations 1.1 Assess the state of your current application portfolio. 1.2 Determine narrative. 1.3 Define goals and metrics. 1.4 Define application categories. 1.5 Determine APM steps and roles (SIPOC). |
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2. Improve Your Inventory 2.1 Populate your inventory. 2.2 Align to business capabilities. *Repeat |
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3. Rationalize Your Apps 3.1 Assess business value. 3.2 Assess technical health. 3.3 Assess end-user perspective. 3.4 Assess total cost of ownership. *Repeat |
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4. Populate Your Roadmap 4.1 Review APM Snapshot results. 4.2 Review APM Foundations results. 4.3 Determine dispositions. 4.4 Assess redundancies (optional). 4.5 Determine dispositions for redundant applications (optional). 4.6 Prioritize initiatives. 4.7 Determine ongoing cadence. *Repeat |
Repeat according to APM cadence and application changes
Executive Brief Case Study
INDUSTRY: Retail
SOURCE: Deloitte, 2017
Supermarket Company The grocer was a smaller organization for the supermarket industry with a relatively low IT budget. While its portfolio consisted of a dozen applications, the organization still found it difficult to react to an evolving industry due to inflexible and overly complex legacy systems. The IT manager found himself in a scenario where he knew the applications well but had little awareness of the business processes they supported. Application maintenance was purely in keeping things operational, with little consideration for a future business strategy. As the business demanded more responsiveness to changes, the IT team needed to be able to react more efficiently and effectively while still securing the continuity of the business. The IT manager found success by introducing APM and gaining a better understanding of the business use and future needs for the applications. The organization started small but then increased the scope over time to produce and develop techniques to aid the business in meeting strategic goals with applications. Results The IT manager gained credibility and trust within the organization. The organization was able to build a plan to move away from the legacy systems and create a portfolio more responsive to the dynamic needs of an evolving marketplace. |
The application portfolio management initiative included the following components: Train teams and stakeholders on APM Model the core business processes Collect application inventory Assign APM responsibilities Start small, then grow |
Info-Tech’s application portfolio management methodology
1. Lay Your Foundations |
2. Improve Your Inventory |
3. Rationalize Your Apps |
4. Populate Your Roadmap |
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Phase Activities |
1.1 Assess your current application portfolio 1.2 Determine narrative 1.3 Define goals and metrics 1.4 Define application categories 1.5 Determine APM steps and roles |
2.1 Populate your inventory 2.2 Align to business capabilities |
3.1 Assess business value 3.2 Assess technical health 3.3 Assess end-user perspective 3.4 Assess total cost of ownership |
4.1 Review APM Snapshot results 4.2 Review APM Foundations results 4.3 Determine dispositions 4.4 Assess redundancies (optional) 4.5 Determine dispositions for redundant applications (optional) 4.6 Prioritize initiatives 4.7 Determine ongoing APM cadence |
Phase Outcomes |
Work with the appropriate management stakeholders to:
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Gather information on your own understanding of your applications to build a detailed inventory and identify areas of redundancy. |
Work with application subject matter experts to collect and compile data points and determine the appropriate disposition for your apps. |
Work with application delivery specialists to determine the strategic plans for your apps and place these in your portfolio roadmap. |
Blueprint deliverables
Each step of this blueprint is accompanied by supporting deliverables to help you accomplish your goals.
Application Portfolio Management Foundations Playbook |
Application Portfolio Management Snapshot and Foundations Tool |
This template allows you to capture your APM roles and responsibilities and build a repeatable process. |
This tool stores all relevant application information and allows you to assess your capability support, execute rationalization, and build a portfolio roadmap. |
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Key deliverable:
Blueprint Storyboard
This is the PowerPoint document you are viewing now. Follow this guide to understand APM, learn how to use the tools, and build a repeatable APM process that will be captured in your playbook.
Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs
DIY Toolkit |
Guided Implementation |
Workshop |
Consulting |
“Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful.” | “Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track.” | “We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place.” | “Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project.” |
Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options
Guided Implementation
What does a typical GI for on this topic look like?
Phase 1 | Phase 2 | Phase 3 | Phase 4 |
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Call #1: Establish goals and foundations for your APM practice. |
Call #2: Initiate inventory and determine data requirements. |
Call #3: Initiate rationalization with group of applications. Call #4: Review result of first iteration and perform retrospective. |
Call #5: Initiate your roadmap and determine your ongoing APM practice. |
Note: The Guided Implementation will focus on a subset or group of applications depending on the state of your current APM inventory and available time. The goal is to use this first group to build your APM process and models to support your ongoing discovery, rationalization, and modernization efforts.
A Guided Implementation (GI) is a series of calls with an Info-Tech analyst to help implement our right-sized best practices in your organization. A typical GI, using our materials, is 3 to 6 calls over the course of 1 to 3 months.
Workshop Overview
Contact your account representative for more information.
workshops@infotech.com 1-888-670-8889
1. Lay Your Foundations | 2. Improve Your Inventory | 3. Rationalize Your Apps | 4. Populate Your Roadmap | Post Workshop Steps | |
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Activities | 1.1 Assess your current 1.2 Determine narrative 1.3 Define goals and metrics 1.4 Define application categories 1.5 Determine APM steps and roles | 2.1 Populate your inventory 2.2 Align to business capabilities | 3.1 Assess business value 3.2 Assess technical health 3.3 Assess end-user perspective 3.4 Assess total cost of ownership | 4.1 Review APM Snapshot results 4.2 Review APM Foundations results 4.3 Determine dispositions 4.4 Assess redundancies (optional) 4.5 Determine dispositions for redundant applications (optional) 4.6 Prioritize initiatives 4.7 Determine ongoing APM cadence |
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Outcomes | Work with the appropriate management stakeholders to:
| Work with your applications team to:
| Work with the SMEs for a subset of applications to:
| Work with application delivery specialists to:
| Info-Tech analysts complete:
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Note: The workshop will focus on a subset or group of applications depending on the state of your current APM inventory and available time. The goal is to use this first group to build your APM process and models to support your ongoing discovery, rationalization, and modernization efforts.
Workshop Options
Contact your account representative for more information.
workshops@infotech.com 1-888-670-8889
Outcomes |
1-Day Snapshot |
3-Day Snapshot and Foundations (Key Apps) |
4-Day Snapshot and Foundations (Pilot Area) |
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APM Snapshot
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✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
APM Foundations
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✓ Establish APM practice with a small sample set of apps and capabilities. |
✓ Establish APM practice with a pilot group of apps and capabilities. |
Blueprint Pre-Step: Get the right stakeholders to the right exercises
APM Lead/Owner (Recommended) ☐ Applications Lead or the individual responsible for application portfolio management, along with any applications team members, if available Key Corporate Stakeholders Depending on size and structure, participants could include: ☐ Head of IT (CIO, CTO, IT Director, or IT Manager) ☐ Head of shared services (CFO, COO, VP HR, etc.) ☐ Compliance Officer, Steering Committee ☐ Company owner or CEO Application Subject Matter Experts Individuals who have familiarity with a specific subset of applications ☐ Business owners (product owners, Head of Business Function, power users) ☐ Support owners (Operations Manager, IT Technician) Delivery Leads ☐ Development Managers ☐ Solution Architects ☐ Project Managers |
Understand your APM tools and outcomes
1.Diagnostic ![]() |
5. Foundations: Chart
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2. Data Journey
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6. App Comparison
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3. Snapshot
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7. Roadmap
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4. Foundations: Results
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Examples and explanations of these tools are located on the following slides and within the phases where they occur.
Assess your current application portfolio with Info-Tech’s APM Diagnostic Tool
One of the primary purposes of application portfolio management is to get what we know and need to know on paper so we can share a common vision and understanding of our portfolio. This enables better discussions and decisions with your application owners and stakeholders.
APM worksheet data journey map
Interpreting your APM Snapshot results

Interpreting your APM Foundations results
Interpreting your APM Foundations chart
Compare application groups
Group comparison can be used for more than just redundant/overlapping applications.

Apply Info-Tech’s 6 R’s Rationalization Disposition Model
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TCO, compared relatively to business value, helps determine the practicality of a disposition and the urgency of any call to action. Application alignment is factored in when assessing redundancies and has a separate set of dispositions.
Populate roadmap example

ARE YOU READY TO GET STARTED?
Phase 1
Lay Your Foundations
Phase 1 1.1 Assess Your Current Application Portfolio 1.2 Determine Narrative 1.3 Define Goals and Metrics 1.4 Define Application Categories 1.5 Determine APM Steps and Roles |
Phase 2 2.1 Populate Your Inventory 2.2 Align to Business Capabilities |
Phase 3 3.1 Assess Business Value 3.2 Assess Technical Health 3.3 Assess End-User Perspective 3.4 Assess Total Cost of Ownership |
Phase 4 4.1 Review APM Snapshot Results 4.2 Review APM Foundations Results 4.3 Determine Dispositions 4.4 Assess Redundancies (Optional) 4.5 Determine Dispositions for Redundant Applications (Optional) 4.6 Prioritize Initiatives 4.7 Determine Ongoing APM Cadence |
This phase involves the following participants:
Applications Lead
Key Corporate Stakeholders
Additional Resources
APM supports many goals
Building an APM process requires a proper understanding of the underlying business goals and objectives of your organization’s strategy. Effectively identifying these drivers is paramount to gaining buy-in and the approval for any changes you plan to make to your application portfolio.
After identifying these goals, you will need to ensure they are built into the foundations of your APM process.
“What is most critical?” but also “What must come first?”
Discover |
Improve |
Transform |
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Collect Inventory Uncover Shadow IT Uncover Redundancies Anticipate Upgrades Predict Retirement |
Reduce Cost Increase Efficiency Reduce Applications Eliminate Redundancy Limit Risk |
Improve Architecture Modernize Enable Scalability Drive Business Growth Improve UX |
Assess your current application portfolio with Info-Tech’s APM Diagnostic Tool
One of the primary purposes of application portfolio management is to get what we know and need to know on paper so we can share a common vision and understanding of our portfolio. This enables better discussions and decisions with your application owners and stakeholders.
1.1 Assess your current application portfolio with Info-Tech’s diagnostic tool
Estimated time: 1 hour
- This tool provides visibility into your application portfolio and APM practices.
- Based on your assessment, you should gain a better understanding of whether the appropriate next steps are in application discovery, rationalization, or roadmapping.
- Complete the “Data Entry” worksheet in the Application Portfolio Management Diagnostic Tool (Excel).
- Review the “Results” worksheet to help inform and guide your next steps.
Download the Application Portfolio Management Diagnostic Tool
Input | Output |
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Materials | Participants |
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1.1 Understanding the diagnostic results
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Understand potential motivations for APM
The value of APM is defined by how the information will be used to drive better decisions.
Portfolio Governance |
Transformative Initiatives |
Event-Driven Rationalization |
Improves:
Impact on your rationalization framework:
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Enables:
Impact on your rationalization framework:
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Responds to:
Impact on your rationalization framework:
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Different motivations will influence the appropriate approach to and urgency of APM or, specifically, rationalizing the portfolio. When rationalizing is directly related to enabling or in response to a broader initiative, you will need to create a more structured approach with a formal budget and resources.
1.2 Determine narrative
Estimated time: 30 minutes-2 hours
- Open the “Narrative” tab in the APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool.
- Start by listing your prevailing IT pain points with the application portfolio. These will be the issues experienced predominantly by the IT team and not necessarily by the stakeholders. Be sure to distinguish pain points from their root causes.
- Determine an equivalent business pain point for each IT pain point. This should be how the problem manifests itself to business stakeholders and should include potential risks to the organization is exposed to.
- Determine the business goal for each business pain point. Ideally, these are established organizational goals that key decision-makers will recognize. These goals should address the business pain points you have documented.
- Determine the technical objective for each business goal. These speak to the general corrections or enhancements to the portfolio required to accomplish the business goals.
- Use the “Narrative - Matrix” worksheet to group items into themes if needed.
Record the results in the APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool
Input | Output |
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Materials | Participants |
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Connect your pains to what the business cares about to find the most effective narrative
Root Cause |
IT Pain Points |
Business Pain Points |
Business Goals |
Narrative |
Technical Objectives |
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Sprawl Shadow IT/decentralized oversight Neglect over time Poor delivery processes |
Back-End Complexity Disparate Data/Apps Poor Architectural Fit Redundancy Maintenance Demand/ Low Maintainability Technical Debt Legacy, Aging, or Expiring Apps Security Vulnerabilities Unsatisfied Customers |
Hurdles to Growth/Change Poor Business Analytics Process Inefficiency Software Costs Business Continuity Risk Data Privacy Risk Data/IP Theft Risk Poor User Experience Low-Value Apps |
Scalability Flexibility/Agility Data-Driven Insights M&A Transition Business Unit Consolidation/ Centralization Process Improvement Process Modernization Cost Reduction Stability Customer Protection Security Employee Enablement Business Enablement Innovation |
Create Strategic Alignment Identify specific business capabilities that are incompatible with strategic initiatives. Reduce Application Intensity Highlight the capabilities that are encumbered due to functional overlaps and complexity. Reduce Software Costs Specific business capabilities come at an unnecessarily or disproportionately high cost. Mitigate Business Continuity Risk Specific business capabilities are at risk of interruption or stoppages due to unresolved back-end issues. Mitigate Security Risk Specific business capabilities are at risk due to unmitigated security vulnerabilities or breaches. Increase Satisfaction Applications Specific business capabilities are not achieving their optimal business value. |
Platform Standardization Platform Standardization Consolidation Data Harmonization Removal/Consolidation of Redundant Applications Legacy Modernization Application Upgrades Removal of Low-Value Applications |
1.3 Define goals and metrics
Estimated time: 1 hour
- Determine the motivations behind APM. You may want to collect and review any of the organization’s strategic documents that provide additional context on previously established goals.
- With the appropriate stakeholders, discuss the goals of APM. Try to label your goals as either:
- Short term: Refers to immediate goals used to represent the progress of APM activities. Likely these goals are more IT-oriented
- Long term: Refers to broader and more distant goals more related to the impact of APM. These goals tend to be more business-oriented.
- To help clearly define your goals, discuss appropriate metrics for each goal. Often these metrics can be expressed as:
- Leading indicators: Metrics used to gauge the success of your short-term goals and the progress of APM activities.
- Lagging indicators: Metrics used to gauge the success of your long-term goals.
Record the results in the APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool
Input | Output |
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Materials | Participants |
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1.3 Define goals and metrics: Example
Goals |
Metric |
Target |
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Short Term |
Improve ability to inform the business |
Leading Indicators |
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Improve ownership of applications |
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Reduce costs of portfolio |
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Long Term |
Migrate platform |
Lagging Indicators |
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Improve overall satisfaction with portfolio |
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Become more customer-centric |
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“Application” doesn’t have the same meaning to everyone
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Code: A body of code that's seen by developers as a single unit. |
Functionality: A group of functionality that business customers see as a single unit. |
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Funding: An initiative that those with the money see as a single budget. |
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?: What else? |
“Essentially applications are social constructions.”
Source: Martin Fowler
APM focuses on business applications.
“Software used by business users to perform a business function.”
– ServiceNow, 2020
Unfortunately, that definition is still quite vague.
You must set boundaries and scope for “application”
1. Many individual items can be considered applications on their own or components within or associated with an application. |
2. Different categories of applications may be out of scope or handled differently within the activities and artifacts of APM. |
Different categories of applications may be out of scope or handled differently within the activities and artifacts of APM.
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Apps can be categorized by generic categories
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Apps can be categorized by bought vs. built or install types
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Apps can be categorized by the application family
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Apps can be categorized by the group managing them
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Apps can be categorized by tiers
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Set boundaries on what is an application or the individual unit that you’re making business decisions on. Also, determine which categories of applications are in scope and how they will be included in the activities and artifacts of APM. Use your product families defined in Deliver Digital Products at Scale to help define your application categories, groups, and boundaries.
1.4 Define application categories
Estimated time: 1 hour
- Review the items listed on the previous slide and consider what categories provide the best initial grouping to help organize your rationalization and dispositions. Update the category list to match your application groupings.
- Identify the additional categories you need to manage in your application portfolio.
- For each category, establish or modify a description or definition and provide examples that exist in your current portfolio.
- For each category, answer:
- Will these be documented in the application inventory?
- Will these be included in application rationalization? Think about if this item will be assigned a TCO, value score, and, ultimately, a disposition.
- Will these be listed in the application portfolio roadmap?
- If you completed Deliver Digital Products at Scale, use your product families to help define your application categories.
Record the results in the APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool
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1.4 APM worksheet data journey map

1.4 Define application categories: Example
Category |
Definition/Description |
Examples |
Documented in your application inventory? |
Included in application rationalization? |
Listed in your application portfolio roadmap? |
Business Application |
End-user facing applications that directly enable specific business functions. This includes enterprise-wide and business-function-specific applications. Separate modules will be considered a business application when appropriate. |
ERP system, CRM software, accounting software |
Yes |
Yes. Unless currently in dev. TCO of the parent application will be divided among child apps. |
Yes |
Software Components |
Back-end solutions are self-contained units that support business functions. |
ETL, middleware, operating systems |
No. Documentation in CMDB. These will be listed as a dependency in the application inventory. |
No. These will be linked to a business app and included in TCO estimates and tech health assessments. |
No |
Productivity Tools |
End-user-facing applications that enable standard communication of general document creation. |
MS Word, MS Excel, corporate email |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
End-User- Built Microsoft Tools |
Single instances of a Microsoft tool that the business has grown dependent on. |
Payroll Excel tool, Access databases |
No. Documentation in Business Tool Glossary. |
No | No |
Partner Applications |
Partners or third-party applications that the business has grown dependent on but are internally owned or managed. |
Supplier’s ERP portal, government portal |
No | No |
Yes |
Shadow IT |
Business-managed applications. |
Downloaded tools |
Yes |
Yes. However, just from a redundancy perspective. |
Yes |
The roles in APM rarely exist; you need to adapt
Application Portfolio Manager
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Business Owner
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Support Owner
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Project Portfolio Manager
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Corner-of-the-Desk Approach
- No one is explicitly dedicated to building a strategy or APM practices.
- Information is collected whenever the applications team has time available.
- Benefits are pushed out and the value is lost.
Dedicated Approach
- The initiative is given a budget and formal agenda.
- Roles and responsibilities are assigned to team members.
The high-level steps of APM present some questions you need to answer
Build Inventory
Create the full list of applications and capture all necessary attributes.
- Who will build the inventory?
- Do you know all your applications (Shadow IT)?
- Do you know your applications’ functionality?
- Do you know where your applications overlap?
- Who do you need to consult with to fill in the gaps?
- Who will provide specific application information?
Collect & Compile
Engage with appropriate SMEs and collect necessary data points for rationalization.
- Who will collect and compile the data points for rationalization?
- What are the specific data points?
- Are some of the data points currently documented?
- Who will provide specific data points on technical health, cost, performance, and business value?
- Who will determine what business value is?
Assess & Recommend
Apply rationalization framework and toolset to determine dispositions.
- Who will apply a rationalization tool or decision-making framework to generate dispositions for the applications?
- Who will modify the tool or framework to ensure results align to the goals of the organization?
- Who will define any actions or projects that result from the rationalization? And who needs to be consulted to assess the feasibility of any potential project?
Validate & Roadmap
Present dispositions for validation and communicate any decisions or direction for applications.
- Who will present the recommended disposition, corrective action, or new project to the appropriate decision maker?
- Who is the appropriate decision maker for application changes or project approval?
- What format is recommended (idea, proposal, business case) and what extra analysis is required?
- Who needs to be consulted regarding the potential changes?
1.5 Determine APM steps and roles (SIPOC)
Estimated time: 1-2 hours
- Begin by comparing Info-Tech’s list of common APM roles to the roles that exist in your organization with respect to application management and ownership.
- There are four high-level steps for APM: build inventory, collect & compile, assess & recommend, and validate & roadmap. Apply the SIPOC (Supplier, Input, Process, Output, Customer) model by completing the following for each step:
- In the Process column, modify the description, if necessary. Identify who is responsible for performing the step.
- In the Inputs column, modify the list of inputs.
- In the Suppliers column, identify who must be included to provide the inputs.
- In the Outputs column, modify the list of outputs.
- In the Customers column, identify who consumes the outputs.
- (Optional) Outline how the results of APM will be consumed. For example, project intake or execution, data or platform migration, application or product management, or whichever is appropriate.
Record the results in the APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool
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1.5 Determine steps and roles
Suppliers |
Inputs |
Process |
Outputs |
Customers |
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Build Inventory Create the full list of applications and capture all necessary attributes. Resp: Applications Manager & IT team member |
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Collect & Compile Engage with appropriate SMEs and collect necessary data points for rationalization. Resp: IT team member |
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Assess & Recommend Apply rationalization framework and toolset to determine dispositions. Resp: Applications Manager |
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Validate & Roadmap Present dispositions for validation and communicate any decisions or direction for applications. Resp: Applications Manager |
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Project Intake Build business case for project request. Resp: Project Manager |
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Planning your APM modernization journey steps
Discovery | Rationalization | Disposition | Roadmap |
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Enter your pilot inventory.
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Score your pilot apps to refine your rationalization criteria and scoring.
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Determine recommended disposition for each application.
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Populate your application roadmap.
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Phase 2
Improve Your Inventory
Phase 1 1.1 Assess Your Current Application Portfolio 1.2 Determine Narrative 1.3 Define Goals and Metrics 1.4 Define Application Categories 1.5 Determine APM Steps and Roles | Phase 2 2.1 Populate Your Inventory 2.2 Align to Business Capabilities | Phase 3 3.1 Assess Business Value 3.2 Assess Technical Health 3.3 Assess End-User Perspective 3.4 Assess Total Cost of Ownership | Phase 4 4.1 Review APM Snapshot Results 4.2 Review APM Foundations Results 4.3 Determine Dispositions 4.4 Assess Redundancies (Optional) 4.5 Determine Dispositions for Redundant Applications (Optional) 4.6 Prioritize Initiatives 4.7 Determine Ongoing APM Cadence |
This phase involves the following participants:
- Applications Lead
- Applications Team
Additional Resources
Document Your Business Architecture
Pre-step: Collect your applications
- Consult with your IT team and leverage any existing documentation to gather an initial list of your applications.
- Build an initial working list of applications. This is just meant to be a starting point. Aim to include any new applications in procurement, implementation, or development.
- The rationalization and roadmapping phases are best completed when iteratively focusing on manageable groups of applications. Group your applications into subsets based on shared subject matter experts. Likely this will mean grouping applications by business units.
- Select a subset to be the first group of applications that will undergo the activities of rationalization and roadmapping to refine your APM processes, scoring, and disposition selection.
Info-Tech Best Practice
The more information you plan to capture, the larger the time and effort, especially as you move along toward advanced and strategic items. Capture the information most aligned to your objectives to make the most of your investment.
If you completed Deliver Digital Products at Scale, use your product families and products to help define your applications.
Learn more about automated application discovery:
High Application Satisfaction Starts With Discovering Your Application Inventory
Discover your applications
2.1 Populate your inventory
Estimated time: 1-4 hours per group
- Review Info-Tech’s list of application inventory attributes.
- Open the “Application Inventory Details” tab of the APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool. Modify, add, or omit attributes.
- For each application, populate your prioritized data fields or any fields you know at the time of discovery. You will complete all the fields in future iterations.
- Complete this the best you can based on your team’s familiarity and any readily available documentation related to these applications.
- Use the drop-down list to select Enabling, Redundant/Overlapping, and Dependent apps. This will be used to help determine dispositions and comparisons.
- Highlight missing information or placeholder values that need to be verified.
Record the results in the APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool
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2.1 APM worksheet data journey map

Why is the business capability so important?
For the purposes of an inventory, business capabilities help all stakeholders gain a sense of the functionality the application provides.
However, the true value of business capability comes with rationalization.
Upon linking all the organization’s applications to a standardized and consistent set of business capabilities, you can then group your applications based on similar, complementary, or overlapping functionality. In other words, find your redundancies and consolidation opportunities.
Important Consideration
Defining business capabilities and determining the full extent of redundancy is a challenging undertaking and often is a larger effort than APM all together.
Business capabilities should be defined according to the unique functions and language of your organization, at varying levels of granularity, and ideally including target-state capabilities that identify gaps in the future strategy.
This blueprint provides a simplified and generic list for the purpose of categorizing similar functionality. We strongly encourage exploring Document Your Business Architecture to help in the business capability defining process, especially when visibility into your portfolio and knowledge of redundancies is poor.
For a more detailed capability mapping, use the Application Portfolio Snapshot and the worksheets in your current workbook.
What is a business capability map?
A business capability map (BCM) is an abstraction of business operations that helps describe what the enterprise does to achieve its vision, mission, and goals. Business capabilities are the building blocks of the enterprise. They are typically defined at varying levels of granularity and include target-state capabilities that identify gaps in the future strategy. These are the people, process, and tool units that deliver value to your teams and customers.
Info-Tech’s Industry Coverage and Reference Architectures give you a head start on producing a BCM fit for your organization. The visual to the left is an example of a reference architecture for the retail industry.
These are the foundational piece for our Application Portfolio Snapshot. By linking capabilities to your supporting applications, you can better visualize how the portfolio supports the organization at a single glance. More specifically, you can highlight how issues with the portfolio are impacting capability delivery.
Reminder: Best practices imply that business capabilities are methodologically defined by business stakeholders and business architects to capture the unique functions and language of your organization.
The approach laid out in this service is about applying minimal time and effort to make the case for proper investment into the best practices, which can include creating a tailored BCM. Start with a good enough example to produce a useful visual and generate a positive conversation toward resourcing and analyses.
We strongly encourage exploring Document Your Business Architecture and the Application Portfolio Snapshot to understand the thorough methods and tactics for BCM.
Why perform a high-level application alignment before rationalization?
Having to address redundancy complicates the application rationalization process. There is no doubt that assessing applications in isolation is much easier and allows you to arrive at dispositions for your applications in a timelier manner.
Rationalization has two basic steps: first, collect and compile information, and second, analyze that information and determine a disposition for each application. When you don’t have redundancy, you can analyze an application and determine a disposition in isolation. When you do have redundancies, you need to collect information for multiple applications, likely across departments or lines of business, then perform a comparative analysis.
Most likely your approach will fall somewhere between the examples below and require a hybrid approach.
Benefits of a high-level application alignment:
- Review the degree of redundancy across your portfolio.
- Understand the priority areas for rationalization and the sequence of information collection.
2.2 Align apps to capabilities and functions
Estimated time: 1-4 hours per grouping
The APM tool provides up to three different grouping comparisons to assess how well your applications are supporting your enterprise. Although business capabilities are important, identify your organizational perspectives to determine how well your portfolio supports these functions, departments, or value streams. Each grouping should be a consistent category, type, or arrangement of applications.
- Enter the business capabilities, from either your own BCM or the Info-Tech reference architectures, into the Business Capability column under Grouping 1.
- Open the “Group 1 Alignment Matrix” worksheet in the APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool.
- For each application’s row, enter an “X” in the column of a capability that the application supports.
- Optionally, repeat these steps under Grouping 2 and 3 for each value stream, department, function, or business unit where you’d like to assess application support. Note: To use Grouping 3, unhide the columns on the “Application and Group Lists” worksheet and unhide the worksheet “Grouping 3 Alignment Matrix.”
Record the results in the APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool
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2.2 APM worksheet data journey map
2.2 Aligning applications to groups example
Alignment Matrix: Identify applications supporting each capability or function.
Capability, Department, or Function 1 |
Capability, Department, or Function 2 |
Capability, Department, or Function 3 |
Capability, Department, or Function 4 |
Capability, Department, or Function 5 |
Capability, Department, or Function 6 |
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Application A |
x | |||||
Application B |
x | |||||
Application C |
x | |||||
Application D |
x | |||||
Application E |
x | x | ||||
Application F |
x | |||||
Application G |
x | |||||
Application H |
x | |||||
Application I |
x | |||||
Application J |
x |
In this example:
BC 1 is supported by App A
BC 2 is supported by App B
BC 3 is supported by Apps C & D
BCs 4 & 5 are supported by App E
BC 6 is supported by Apps F-G. BC 6 shows an example of potential redundancy and portfolio complexity.
The APM tool supports three different Snapshot groupings. Repeat this exercise for each grouping.
Align application to capabilities – tool view
Phase 3
Rationalize Your Applications
Phase 1 1.1 Assess Your Current Application Portfolio 1.2 Determine Narrative 1.3 Define Goals and Metrics 1.4 Define Application Categories 1.5 Determine APM Steps and Roles | Phase 2 2.1 Populate Your Inventory 2.2 Align to Business Capabilities | Phase 3 3.1 Assess Business Value 3.2 Assess Technical Health 3.3 Assess End-User Perspective 3.4 Assess Total Cost of Ownership | Phase 4 4.1 Review APM Snapshot Results 4.2 Review APM Foundations Results 4.3 Determine Dispositions 4.4 Assess Redundancies (Optional) 4.5 Determine Dispositions for Redundant Applications (Optional) 4.6 Prioritize Initiatives 4.7 Determine Ongoing APM Cadence |
This phase involves the following participants:
- Applications Lead
- Application SMEs
Additional Resources
Phase pre-step: Sequence rationalization assessments appropriately
Use the APM Snapshot results to determine APM iterations
- Application rationalization requires an iterative approach.
- Review your application types and alignment from Phase 2 to begin to identify areas of overlapping or redundant applications.
- Sequence the activities of Phase 3 based on whether you have a:
- Redundant Portfolio
- Use the APM Snapshot to prioritize analysis by grouping.
- Complete the application functional analysis.
- Use the “Application Comparison” worksheet to aid your comparison of application subsets.
- Update application dispositions and roadmap initiatives.
- Non-Redundant Portfolio
- Use the APM Snapshot to prioritize analysis by grouping.
- Update application dispositions and roadmap initiatives.
- Redundant Portfolio
Phase pre-step: Are the right stakeholders present?
Make sure you have the right people at the table from the beginning.
- Application rationalization requires specific stakeholders to provide specific data points.
- Ensure your application subsets are grouped by shared subject matter experts. Ideally, these are grouped by business units.
- For each subset, identify the appropriate SMEs for the five areas of rationalization criteria.
- Communicate and schedule interviews with groups of stakeholders. Inform them of additional information sources to have readily available.
- (Optional) This phase’s activities follow the clockwise sequence of the diagram to the right. Reorder the sequence of activities based on overlaps of availability in subject matter expertise.
Application Rationalization | Additional Information Sources | Ideal Stakeholders |
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| Business Value
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| End User
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| TCO
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| Technical Health
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| Application Alignment
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Rationalize your applications
One of the principal goals of application rationalization is determining dispositions
Disposition: The intended strategic direction or course of action for an application.
Directionless portfolio of applications |
Assigned dispositions for individual apps High-level examples: |
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Maintain: Keep the application but adjust its support structure.
Modernize: Create a new project to address an inadequacy.
Consolidate: Create a new project to reduce duplicate functionality.
Retire: Phase out the application.
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Application rationalization provides insight
Directionless portfolio of applications | Info-Tech’s Five Lens Model | Assigned dispositions for individual apps | ||||
![]() | Application Alignment | Business Value | Technical Health | End-User Perspective | Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) | Maintain: Keep the application but adjust its support structure. Modernize: Create a new initiative to address an inadequacy. Consolidate: Create a new initiative to reduce duplicate functionality. Retire: Phase out the application. Disposition: The intended strategic direction or implied course of action for an application. |
How well do your apps support your core functions and teams? | How well are your apps aligned to value delivery? | Do your apps meet all IT quality standards and policies? | How well do your apps meet your end users’ needs? | What is the relative cost of ownership and operation of your apps? | ||
Application rationalization requires the collection of several data points that represent these perspectives and act as the criteria for determining a disposition for each of your applications. Disposition: The intended strategic direction or implied course of action for an application. |
3.1-3.4 APM worksheet data journey map
Assessing application business value
The Business | Business Value of Applications | IT |
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Keepers of the organization’s mission, vision, and value statements that define IT success. The business maintains the overall ownership and evaluation of the applications. | Technical subject matter experts of the applications they deliver and maintain. Each IT function works together to ensure quality applications are delivered to stakeholder expectations. |
First, the authorities on business value need to define and weigh their value drivers that describe the priorities of the organization.
This will then allow the applications team to apply a consistent, objective, and strategically aligned evaluation of applications across the organization.
In this context…business value is the value of the business outcome that the application produces and how effective the application is at producing that outcome.
Business value IS NOT the user’s experience or satisfaction with the application.
Review the value drivers of your applications
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Financial vs. Human Benefits Financial benefits refer to the degree to which the value source can be measured through monetary metrics and are often quite tangible. Human benefits refer to how an application can deliver value through a user’s experience. Inward vs. Outward Orientation Inward orientation refers to value sources that have an internal impact and improve your organization’s effectiveness and efficiency in performing its operations. Outward orientation refers to value sources that come from your interaction with external factors, such as the market or your customers. |
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Increased Revenue |
Reduced Costs |
Enhanced Services |
Reach Customers |
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Application functions that are specifically related to the impact on your organization’s ability to generate revenue and deliver value to your customers. |
Reduction of overhead. The ways in which an application limits the operational costs of business functions. |
Functions that enable business capabilities that improve the organization’s ability to perform its internal operations. |
Application functions that enable and improve the interaction with customers or produce market information and insights. |
3.1 Assess business value
Estimated time: 1 -4 hours
- Review Info-Tech’s four quadrants of business value: increase revenue/value, reduce costs, enhance services, and reach customers. Edit your value drivers, description, and scoring on the “Rationalization Inputs” worksheet. For each value driver, update the key indicators specific to your organization’s priorities. When editing the scoring descriptions, keep only the one you are using.
- (Optional) Add an additional value driver if your organization has distinct value drivers (e.g. compliance, sustainability, innovation, and growth).
- For each application, score on a scale of 0 to 5 how impactful the application is for each value driver. Use the indicators set in Phase 1 to guide your scoring.
- For each value driver, adjust the criteria weighting to match its relative importance to the organization. Start with a balanced or low weighting. Adjust the weights to ensure that the category score matches your relative values and priorities.
Record the results in the APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool
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3.1 Weigh value drivers: Example
For additional support in implementing a balanced value framework, refer to Build a Value Measurement Framework.
Understand the back end and technical health of your applications
Technical health identifies the extent of technology risk to the organization.
MAINTAINABILITY (RAS)
RAS refers to an app’s reliability, availability, and serviceability. How often, how long, and how difficult is it for your resources to keep an app functioning, and what are the resulting continuity risks? This can include root causes of maintenance challenges.
- Optimize Systems Management to Improve IT Resilience and Proactivity and Establish a Program to Enable Effective Performance Monitoring
SECURITY
Applications should be aligned and compliant with ALL security policies. Are there vulnerabilities or is there a history of security incidents? Remember that threats are often internal and non-malicious.
ADAPTABILITY
How easily can the app be enhanced or scaled to meet changes in business needs? Does the app fit within the business strategy?
INTEROPERABILITY
The degree to which an app is integrated with current systems. Apps require comprehensive technical planning and oversight to ensure they connect within the greater application architecture. Does the app fit within your enterprise architecture strategy?
BUSINESS CONTINUITY/DISASTER RECOVERY
The degree to which the application is compatible with business continuity/disaster recovery (BC/DR) policies and plans that are routinely tested and verified.
Unfortunately, the business only cares about what they can see or experience. Rationalization is your opportunity to get risk on the business’ radar and gain buy-in for the necessary action.
3.2 Assess technical health
Estimated time: 1-4 hours
- Review Info-Tech’s suggested technical health criteria. Edit your criteria, descriptions, and scoring on the “Rationalization Inputs” worksheet. For each criterion, update the key indicators specific to your organization’s priorities.
- For each application, score on a scale of 1 to 5 on how impactful the application is for each criterion.
- For each criterion, adjust the weighting to match its relative importance to the organization. Start with a balanced or low weighting. Adjust the weights to ensure that the category score matches your relative values and priorities.
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Record the results in the APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool
End users provide valuable perspective
Your end users are your best means of determining front-end issues.
Data Quality
To what degree do the end users find the data quality sufficient to perform their role and achieve their desired outcome?
Effectiveness
To what degree do the end users find the application effective for performing their role and desired outcome?
Usability
To what degree do the end users find the application reliable and easy to use to achieve their desired outcome?
Satisfaction
To what degree are end users satisfied with the features of this application?
What else matters to you?
Tune your criteria to match your values and priorities.
Info-Tech Best Practice
When facing large user groups, do not make assumptions or use lengthy methods of collecting information. Use Info-Tech’s Application Portfolio Assessment to collect data by surveying your end users’ perspectives.
3.3 Assess end-user perspective
Estimated time: 1-4 hours
- Review Info-Tech’s suggested end-user perspective criteria. Edit your criteria, descriptions and scoring on the “Rationalization Inputs” worksheet. For each criterion, update the key indicators specific to your organization’s priorities.
- For each application, score on a scale of 1 to 5 on how impactful the application is for each criterion.
- For each criterion, adjust the weighting to match its relative importance to the organization. Start with a balanced or low weighting. Adjust the weights to ensure that the category score matches your relative values and priorities.
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Record the results in the APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool
Consider the spectrum of application cost
An application’s cost extends past a vendor’s fee and even the application itself.
LICENSING AND SUBSCRIPTIONS: Your recurring payments to a vendor.
Many commercial off-the-shelf applications require a license on a per-user basis. Review contracts and determine costs by looking at per-user or fixed rates charged by the vendor.
MAINTENANCE COSTS: Your internal spending to maintain an app.
These are the additional costs to maintain an application such as support agreements, annual maintenance fees, or additional software or hosting expenses.
INDIRECT COSTS: Miscellaneous expenses necessary for an app’s continued use.
Expenses like end-user training, developer education, and admin are often neglected, but they are very real costs organizations pay regularly.
RETURN ON INVESTMENT: Perceived value of the application related to its TCO.
Some of our most valuable applications are the most expensive. ROI is an optional criterion to account for the value and importance of the application.
Info-Tech Best Practice
The TCO assessment is one area where what you are considering the ”application” matters quite a bit. An application’s peripherals or software components need to be considered in your estimates. For additional help calculating TCO, use the Application TCO Calculator from Build a Rationalization Framework.
3.4 Assess total cost of ownership
Estimated time: 1-4 hours
- Review Info-Tech’s suggested TCO criteria. Edit your criteria, descriptions, and scoring on the “Rationalization Inputs” worksheet. For each criterion, update the key indicators specific to your organization’s priorities.
- For each application, score on a scale of 1 to 5 on how impactful the application is for each criterion.
- For each criterion, adjust the weighting to match its relative importance to the organization. Start with a balanced or low weighting. Adjust the weights to ensure that the category score matches your relative values and priorities.
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Record the results in the APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool
Phase 4
Populate Your Roadmap
Phase 1 1.1 Assess Your Current Application Portfolio 1.2 Determine Narrative 1.3 Define Goals and Metrics 1.4 Define Application Categories 1.5 Determine APM Steps and Roles | Phase 2 2.1 Populate Your Inventory 2.2 Align to Business Capabilities | Phase 3 3.1 Assess Business Value 3.2 Assess Technical Health 3.3 Assess End-User Perspective 3.4 Assess Total Cost of Ownership | Phase 4 4.1 Review APM Snapshot Results 4.2 Review APM Foundations Results 4.3 Determine Dispositions 4.4 Assess Redundancies (Optional) 4.5 Determine Dispositions for Redundant Applications (Optional) 4.6 Prioritize Initiatives 4.7 Determine Ongoing APM Cadence |
his phase involves the following participants:
- Applications Lead
- Delivery Leads
Additional Resources
Review your APM Snapshot
4.1 Review your APM Snapshot results
Estimated time: 1-2 hours
- The APM Snapshot provides a dashboard to support your APM program’s focus and as an input to demand planning. Unhide the “Group 3” worksheet if you completed the alignment matrix.
- For each grouping area, review the results to determine underperforming areas. Use this information to prioritize your application root cause analysis and demand planning. Use the key on the following slide to guide your analysis.
- Analysis guidance:
- Start with the quartile grouping to find areas scoring in Remediate or Critical Need and focus follow-up actions on these areas.
- Use the lens/category heat map to determine which lenses are underperforming. Use this to then look up the individual app scores supporting that group to identify application issues.
- Use the “Application Comparison” worksheet to select and compare applications for the group to make your review and comparison easier.
- Work with teams in the group to provide root cause analysis for low scores.
- Build a plan to address any apps not supported by IT.
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Record the results in the APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool
Interpreting your APM Snapshot
4.1 APM worksheet data journey map
Review your APM rationalization results
4.2 Review your APM Foundations results
Estimated time: 1-2 hours
The APM Foundations Results dashboard (“App Rationalization Results” worksheet) provides a detailed summary of your relative app scoring to serve as input to demand planning.
- For each grouping, review the results to determine underperforming app support. Use this information to prioritize your application root cause analysis using the individual criteria scores on the “Rationalization Inputs” worksheet.
- Use guidance on the following example slides to understand each area of the results.
- Any applications marked as N/A for evaluation will display N/A on the results worksheet and will not be displayed in the chart. You can still enter dispositions.
- Use the column filters to compare a subset of applications or use the “App Comparison” worksheet to maintain an ongoing view by grouping, redundancy, or category.
- Any applications marked as N/A for evaluation will display N/A on the results worksheet and will not be displayed in the chart. You can still enter dispositions.
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Record the results in the APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool
4.2 APM worksheet data journey map
Interpreting your APM Foundations results
Interpreting your APM Foundations chart
Modernize your applications
Apply Info-Tech’s 6 R’s Rationalization Disposition Model
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TCO, compared relatively to business value, helps determine the practicality of a disposition and the urgency of any call to action. Application alignment is factored in when assessing redundancies and has a separate set of dispositions.
4.3 Determine dispositions
Estimated time: 1-4 hours
- The Recommended Disposition and Priority fields are prepopulated from your scoring thresholds and options on the “Disposition Options” worksheet. You can update any individual application disposition or priority using the drop-down menu and it will populate your selection on the “Roadmap” worksheet.
- Question if that disposition is appropriate. Be sure to consider:
- TCO – cost should come into play for any decisions.
- Alignment to strategic goals set for the overarching organizational, IT, technology (infrastructure), or application portfolio.
- Existing organizational priorities or funded initiatives impacting the app.
- Some dispositions may imply a call to action, new project, or initiative. Ideate and/or discuss with the team any potential initiatives. You can use different dispositions and priorities on the “App Rationalization Results” and “Roadmap” worksheets.
- Note: Modify the list of dispositions on the “Disposition Options” worksheet as appropriate for your rationalization initiative. Any modifications to the Disposition column will be automatically updated in the “App Rationalization Results” and “Roadmap” worksheets.
Input | Output |
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Materials | Participants |
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Record the results in the APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool
4.3 APM worksheet data journey map
Redundancies require a different analysis and set of dispositions
Solving application redundancy is a lot more complicated than simply keeping one application and eliminating the others.
First, you need to understand the extent of the redundancy. The applications may support the same capability, but do they offer the same functions? Determine which apps offer which functions within a capability. This means you cannot accurately arrive at a disposition until you have evaluated all applications.
Next, you need to isolate the preferred system. This is completed by comparing the same data points collected for rationalization and the application alignment analysis. Cost and coverage of all necessary functions become the more important factors in this decision-making process.
Lastly, for the non-preferred redundant applications you need to determine: What will you do with the users? What will you do with the data? And what can you do with the functionality (can the actual coding be merged onto a common platform)?
Disposition |
Description & Additional Analysis |
Call to Action (Priority) |
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Keep & Absorb Higher value, health satisfaction, and cost than alternatives |
These are the preferred apps to be kept. However, additional efforts are still required to migrate new users and data and potentially configure the app to new processes. |
Application or Process Initiative (Moderate) |
Shift & Retire Lower value, health satisfaction, and cost than alternatives |
These apps will be decommissioned alongside efforts to migrate users and data to the preferred system. *Confirm there are no unique and necessary features. |
Process Initiative & Decommission (Moderate) |
Merge Lower value, health satisfaction, and cost than alternatives but still has some necessary unique features |
These apps will be merged with the preferred system onto a common platform. *Determine the unique and necessary features. *Determine if the multiple applications are compatible for consolidation. |
Application Initiative (Moderate) |
Compare groups of applications
4.4 Assess redundancies (optional)
Estimated rime: 1 hour per group
This exercise is best performed after aligning business capabilities to applications across the portfolio and identifying your areas of redundancy. At this stage, this is still an information collection exercise, and it will not yield a consolidation-based disposition until applied to all relevant applications. Lastly, this exercise may still be at too high a level to outline the full details of redundancy, but it is still vital information to collect and a starting point to determine which areas require more concentrated analysis.
- Determine which areas of redundancy or comparisons are desired. Duplicate the “App Comparison” worksheet for each grouping or comparison.
- Extend the comparison to better identify redundancy.
- For each area of redundancy, identify the high-level features. Aim to limit the features to ten, grouping smaller features if necessary. SoftwareReviews can be a resource for identifying common features.
- Label features using the MoSCoW model: must have, should have, could have, will not have.
- For each application, identify which features they support. You can use the grouping alignment matrix as a template for feature alignment comparison. Duplicate the worksheet, unlock it, and replace the grouping cell references with your list of features.
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Materials | Participants |
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Record the results in the APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool
4.4 Assess redundancies (optional)
Account Management |
Call Management |
Order/Transaction Processing |
Contract Management |
Lead/Opportunity Management |
Forecasting/Planning |
Customer Surveying |
Email Synchronization |
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M | M | M | M | S | S | C | W | |
CRM 1 |
✓ |
✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
CRM 2 |
✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||||
CRM 3 |
✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
4.5 Determine dispositions for redundant applications (optional)
Estimated time: 1 hour per group
- Based on the feature-level assessment, determine if you can omit applications if they don’t truly overlap with other applications.
- Make a copy of the “App Comparison” worksheet and select the applications you want to compare based on your functional analysis.
- Determine the preferred application(s). Use the diagram to inform your decision. This may be the application closest to the top right (strong health and value). However, less expensive options or any options that provide a more complete set of features may be preferable.
- Open the “App Rationalization Results” worksheet. Update your disposition for each application.
- Use these updated dispositions to determine a call to action, new project, or initiative. Ideate and/or discuss with the team any potential initiatives. Update your roadmap with these initiatives in the next step.
Input | Output |
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Materials | Participants |
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Record the results in the APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool
Compare application groups
Group comparison can be used for more than just redundant/overlapping applications.
Roadmaps are used for different purposes
Roadmaps are used for different communication purposes and at varying points in your application delivery practice. Some use a roadmap to showcase strategy and act as a feedback mechanism that allows stakeholders to validate any changes (process 1). Others may use it to illustrate and communicate approved and granular elements of a change to an application to inform appropriate stakeholders of what to anticipate (process 2).
Select Dispositions & Identify New Initiatives |
Add to Roadmap |
Validate Direction |
Plan Project |
Execute Project |
Select Dispositions & Identify New Initiatives |
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Approve Project |
Add to Roadmap |
Execute Project |
The steps between selecting a disposition and executing on any resulting project will vary based on the organization’s project intake standards (or lack thereof).
This blueprint focuses on building a strategic portfolio roadmap prior to any in-depth assessments related to initiative/project intake, approval, and prioritization. For in-depth support related to intake, approval, prioritization, or planning, review the following resources.
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Determine what makes it onto the roadmap
A roadmap should not be limited to what is approved or committed to. A roadmap should be used to present the items that need to happen and begin the discussion of how or if this can be put into place. However, not every idea should make the cut and end up in front of key stakeholders.
4.6 Prioritize initiatives
Estimated time: 1-4 hours
- This is a high-level assessment to provide a sense of feasibility, practicality, and priority as well as an estimated timeline of a given initiative. Do not get lost in granular estimations. Use this as an input to your demand planning process.
- Enter the specific name or type of initiative.
- Process Initiative: Any project or effort focused on process improvements without technical modification to an app (e.g. user migration, change in SLA, new training program). Write the application and initiative name on a blue sticky note.
- App Initiative: Any project or effort involving technical modification to an app (e.g. refactoring, platform migration, feature addition or upgrade). Write the application and initiative name on a yellow sticky note.
- Decommission Initiative: Any project and related efforts to remove an app (e.g. migrating data, removal from server). Write the application and initiative name on a red sticky note.
- Prioritize the initiative to aid in demand planning. This is prepopulated from your selected application disposition, but you can set a different priority for the initiative here.
- Select the Initiative Phase in the timeline to show the intended schedule and sequencing of the initiative.
Input | Output |
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Materials | Participants |
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Record the results in the APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool
4.6 APM worksheet data journey map
Populate roadmap example
Create a recurring update plan
- Application inventories become stale before you know it. Build steps in your procurement process to capture the appropriate information on new applications. Also, build in checkpoints to revisit your inventory regularly to assess the accuracy of inventory data.
- Rationalization is not one and done; it must occur with an appropriate cadence.
- Business priorities change, which will impact the current and future value of your apps.
- Now more than ever, user expectations evolve rapidly.
- Application sprawl likely won’t stop, so neither will shadow IT and redundancies.
- Obsolescence, growing technical debt, changing security threats, or shifting technology strategies are all inevitable, as is the gradual decline of an app’s health or technical fit.
- An application’s disposition changes quicker than you think, and rationalization requires a structured cadence. You need to plan to minimize the need for repeated efforts. Conversely, many use preceding iterations to increase the analysis (e.g. more thorough TCO projections or more granular capability-application alignment).
- Portfolio roadmaps require a cadence for both updates and presentations to stakeholders. Updates are often completed semiannually or quarterly to gauge the business adjustments that affect the timeline of the domain-specific applications. The presentation of a roadmap should be completed alongside meetings or gatherings of key decision makers.
- M&A or other restructuring events will prompt the need to address all the above.
Build your APM maturity by taking the right steps at the right time
Info-Tech’s Build an Application Rationalization Framework provides additional TCO and value tools to help build out your portfolio strategy.
APM is an iterative and evergreen process
APM provides oversight and awareness of your application portfolio’s performance and support for your business operations and value delivery to all users and customers.
Determine scope and categories | Build your list of applications and capabilities | Score each application based on your values | Determine outcomes based on app scoring and support for capabilities |
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1. Lay Your Foundations
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2. Improve Your Inventory
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3. Rationalize Your Apps
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4. Populate Your Roadmap
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Repeat according to APM cadence and application changes
4.7 Ongoing APM cadence
Estimated time: 1-2 hours
- Determine how frequently you will update or present the artifacts of your APM practice: Application Inventory, Rationalization, Disposition, and Roadmap.
- For each artifact, determine the:
- Owner: Who is accountable for the artifact and the data or information within the artifact and will be responsible for or delegate the responsibility of updating or presenting the artifact to the appropriate audience?
- Update Cadence: How frequently will you update the artifact? Include what regularly scheduled meetings this activity will be within.
- Update Scope: Describe what activities will be performed to keep the artifact up to date. The goal here is to minimize the need for a full set of activities laid out within the blueprint. Optional: How will you expand the thoroughness of your analysis?
- Audience: Who is the audience for the artifact or assessment results?
- Presentation Cadence: How frequently and when will you review the artifact with the audience?
Input | Output |
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Materials | Participants |
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Record the results in the APM Snapshot and Foundations Tool
4.7 Ongoing APM cadence
Artifact | Owner | Update Cadence | Update Scope | Audience | Presentation Cadence |
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Inventory | Greg Dawson |
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Rationalization Tool | Judy Ng |
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Portfolio Roadmap | Judy Ng |
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Appendices
- Additional support slides
- Bibliography
The APM tool provides a single source of truth and global data sharing
The table shows where source data is used to support different aspects of APM discovery, rationalization, and modernization.
Worksheet Data Mapping | Application and Capability List | Group Alignment Matrix (1-3) | Rationalization Inputs | Group 1-3 Results | Application Inventory Details | App Rationalization Results | Roadmap | App Redundancy Comparison |
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Application and Capability List | App list, Groupings | App list | App list, Groupings | App list, Categories | App list, Categories | App list | App list | |
Groups 1-3 Alignment Matrix | App to Group Tracing | |||||||
Application Categories | Category | Category | Category | |||||
Rationalization Inputs | Lens Scores (weighted input to Group score) | Lens Scores (weighted input) | ||||||
Disposition Options | Disposition list, Priorities list, Recommended Disposition and Priority | Lens Scores (weighted input) | ||||||
App Rationalization Results | Disposition |
Common application inventory attributes
Attribute | Description | Common Collection Method |
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Name | Organization’s terminology used for the application. | Auto-discovery tools will provide names for the applications they reveal. However, this may not be the organizational nomenclature. You may adapt the names by leveraging pre-existing documentation and internal knowledge or by consulting business users. |
ID | Unique identifiers assigned to the application (e.g. app number). | Typically an identification system developed by the application portfolio manager. |
Description | A brief description of the application, often referencing core capabilities. | Typically completed by leveraging pre-existing documentation and internal knowledge or by consulting business users. |
Business Units | A list of all business units, departments, or user groups. | Consultation, surveys, or interviews with business unit representatives. However, this doesn’t always expose hidden applications. Application-capability mapping is the most effective way to determine all the business units/user groups of an app. |
Business Capabilities | A list of business capabilities the application is intended to enable. | Application capability mapping completed via interviews with business unit representatives. |
Criticality | A high-level grading of the importance of the application to the business, typically used for support prioritization purposes (i.e. critical, high, medium, low). | Typically the criticality rating is determined by a committee representing IT and business leaders. |
Ownership | The individual accountable for various aspect of the application (e.g. product owner, product manager, application support, data owner); typically includes contact information and alternatives. | If application ownership is an established accountability in your organization, typically consulting appropriate business stakeholders will reveal this information. Otherwise, application capability mapping can be an effective means of identifying who that owner should be. |
Application SMEs | Any relevant subject matter experts who can speak to various aspects of the application (e.g. business process owners, development managers, data architects, data stewards, application architects, enterprise architects). | Technical SMEs should be known within an IT department, but shadow IT apps may require interviews with the business unit. Application capability mapping will determine the identity of those key users/business process SMEs. |
Type | An indication of whether the application was developed in-house, commercial off-the-shelf, or a hybrid option. | Consultation, surveys, or interviews with product owners or development managers. |
Active Status | An indication of whether the application is currently active, out of commission, in repair, etc. | Consultation, surveys, or interviews with product owners or operation managers. |
Common application inventory attributes
Attribute | Description | Common Collection Method |
---|---|---|
Vendor Information | Identification of the vendor from whom the software was procured. May include additional items such as the vendor’s contact information. | Consultation with business SMEs, end users, or procurement teams, or review of vendor contracts or license agreements. |
Links to Other Documentation | Pertinent information regarding the other relevant documentation of the application (e.g. SLA, vendor contracts, data use policies, disaster recovery plan). Typically includes links to documents. | Consultation with product owners, service providers, or SMEs, or review of vendor contracts or license agreements. |
Number of Users | The current number of users for the application. This can be based on license information but will often require some estimation. Can include additional items of quantities at different levels of access (e.g. admin, key users, power users). | Consultation, surveys, or interviews with product owners or appropriate business SMEs or review of vendor contracts or license agreements. Auto-discovery tools can reveal this information. |
Software Dependencies | List of other applications or operating components required to run the application. | Consultation with application architects and any architectural tools or documentation. This information can begin to reveal itself through application capability mapping. |
Hardware Dependencies | Identification of any hardware or infrastructure components required to run the application (i.e. databases, platform). | Consultation with infrastructure or enterprise architects and any architectural tools or documentation. This information can begin to reveal itself through application capability mapping. |
Development Language | Coding language used for the application. | Consultation, surveys, or interviews with development managers or appropriate technical SMEs. |
Platform | A framework of services that application programs rely on for standard operations. | Consultation, surveys, or interviews with infrastructure or development managers. |
Lifecycle Stage | Where an application is within the birth, growth, mature, end-of-life lifecycle. | Consultation with business owners and technical SMEs. |
Scheduled Updates | Any major or minor updates related to the application, including the release date. | Consultation with business owners and vendor managers. |
Planned or In-Flight Projects | Any projects related to the application, including estimated project timeline. | Consultation with business owners and project managers. |
Bibliography
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“Application Rationalization – Essential Part of the Process for Modernization and Operational Efficiency.” Flexera, 2015. Web.
“Applications Rationalization during M&A: Standardize, Streamline, Simplify.” Deloitte Consulting, 2016. Web.
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Fowler, Martin. “Application Boundary.” MartinFowler.com, 11 Sept. 2003. Web.
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“How Application Rationalization Contributes to the Bottom Line.” LeanIX, 2017. Web.
Jayanthi, Aruna. “Application Landscape Report 2014.” Capgemini, 4 March 2014. Web.
Lankhorst, Marc., et al. “Architecture-Based IT Valuation.” Via Nova Architectura, 31 March 2010. Web.
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Mauboussin, Michael J. “The True Measures of Success.” HBR, Oct. 2012. Web.
Neogi, Sombit., et al. “Next Generation Application Portfolio Rationalization.” TATA, 2011. Web.
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