Application Portfolio Management

Intro

Application Portfolio Management (APM) manages the application estate to optimise cost, risk, and value. In EA, it supports rationalisation and lifecycle decisions.

Key points:

• Provides inventory, lifecycle, cost, and risk visibility
• Supports rationalisation and investment planning
• Common use cases: duplicate elimination, technical debt tracking, lifecycle policies, business fit analysis, dependency mapping
• Pitfall: weak data quality undermines decisions

Examples:

• Identify redundant applications serving the same capability
• Plan upgrades or retirement based on lifecycle and risk
• Assess business fit and cost per capability

In practice:

See Application Rationalization and Application and Technology Lifecycle Management.

Related terms: Application; Technical Debt; Portfolio

FAQs:

Q: What’s the first step in APM?
A: Build a trusted inventory with lifecycle status and ownership.

Q: How do you prioritise rationalisation?
A: Target high‑cost, low‑fit apps with overlapping functionality.

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