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Application Portfolio Management

TL; DR

Application Portfolio Management (APM) is an organization's strategic approach to managing and optimizing its software applications. Implementing APM involves:

• Analyzing application functionalities.
• Performance.
• Alignment with business goals.
• Making informed decisions about their future.

Challenges in APM modeling include selecting the best meta-model and determining suitable viewpoints. Tools like OrbusInfinity offer customization options, but the choice between simplified models like TOGAF and more complex ones like ArchiMate must be carefully considered. For the success of enterprise architecture (EA) departments, viewpoints must effectively present collected information and be comprehensible to users.

What is Application Portfolio Management?

Application Portfolio Management (APM) is a strategic framework employed by organizations to comprehensively oversee, evaluate, and optimize their entire inventory of software applications. This multifaceted approach involves cataloging all applications, understanding their functionalities, analyzing their performance, assessing their alignment with business objectives, and making informed decisions about their future. A key aspect of APM is identifying redundant or underperforming applications, evaluating potential risks, and aligning the application portfolio with the organization's strategic goals. Leveraging APM enables organizations to gain a holistic view of their application landscape, identify opportunities for consolidation or modernization, optimize resource allocation, mitigate potential security risks, and ensure that their technology investments align with their overall business objectives.

Overcoming the challenges of APM modeling with a tool

Modeling Application Portfolio Management (APM) data using an Enterprise Architecture (EA) tool like OrbusInfinity can be challenging. One of the main difficulties lies in the design of the meta-model, which is meant to store artifacts across different domains. Depending on the tool used, the stored information may need more detail for portfolio managers to carry out their responsibilities effectively. This lack of detail can make it difficult to accurately represent and analyze the application portfolio, hindering informed decision-making and effective management.

Challenge 1: Selecting the Best Meta-Model

After choosing a tool, the next step is to decide how to structure the meta-model. Although some tools require a specific meta-model, this is only sometimes true. This can be a major challenge to overcome because it defines the structure of the data and heavily impacts the effort needed to manage it. Additionally, the chosen meta-model affects the ease of user access to APM data, the complexity of data capture and input exercises, and the effort required to construct any custom viewpoints.

Numerous meta-models, most of them vendor-specific, offer support for application architecture. Some standards exist in this area, such as the TOGAF content meta-model and ArchiMate's meta-model provided by the Open Group. However, using these standards also presents challenges.

TOGAF Content Meta-Model

The TOGAF meta-model is known for its simplicity and ease of use. It offers only three object types in the application architecture area: Logical Application Component, Physical Application Component, and Information System Service, along with three relationships between them. This simplicity makes it easy to learn and format/load data, but it has limitations. For example, the meta-model may be perceived as overly simple compared to ArchiMate, but it needs more attribution defined on object types. While it is easy to work with, it may not fully capture complex attributes and relationships, such as explicitly modeling application functionality.

ArchiMate Meta-Model

The ArchiMate meta-model is known for its complexity, yet it offers a comprehensive framework for describing various object types and their relationships within the application architecture. While it may require more effort to learn and use, the model's logical construction and inclusion of concepts like relationship strength make it a powerful tool for descriptive and detailed architectural representation.

It's worth noting that tools like OrbusInfinity allow for creating custom meta-models, though this process demands time and effort. The advantage is that it simplifies data management, capture, and loading processes and enables organizations to use familiar terminology instead of adapting to a new language.

Challenge 2: Viewpoint Selection

When data is stored using specific tools in a chosen model, the next challenge is determining suitable viewpoints that effectively present the information collected from various sources. These viewpoints, which will serve as views of the content and expose it to the organization, must be well-received to ensure that the conveyed messages are comprehensible. The selected meta-model will influence users' ability to access APM data, the complexity of data capture, input exercises, and the effort required to create custom viewpoints. The success of Enterprise Architecture (EA) departments depends on various factors, including the accessibility, readability, and clarity of deliverables such as application architecture viewpoints. Given the reported failure rate of EA departments and the struggle of successful teams to make an impact and gain recognition, focusing on views could be crucial for EA teams. While TOGAF and ArchiMate propose several viewpoints, these viewpoints are focused on something other than Application Portfolio Modeling (APM). It may be necessary to extend these standards with custom views tailored to meet specific organizational needs, as TOGAF and ArchiMate offer only a limited number of attributes and viewpoints supporting APM.

Challenge 3: Custom Reporting 

When it comes to selecting a tool, it's essential to assess its ability to create custom reports, especially in the context of widely used business intelligence (BI) tools such as Power BI. Visualizing Application Performance Management (APM) data can take many different forms, and the predefined reporting capabilities of standard tools may not always be sufficient. The need for custom reports may arise due to factors like company mergers, stakeholder expectations, or specific requirements that standard reports cannot fulfill. Creating custom reports by extracting data directly from the tool's database is advisable. Utilizing a BI tool to access and process data effectively addresses the need for custom reporting and accommodates evolving needs over time. Direct data access from a specialized BI tool is preferred for application portfolio managers to align with organizational objectives. Seamless integration with BI tools is crucial for APM data, and OrbusInfinity offers native integration with Power BI. Additionally, orbusInfinity provides various integrations and a robust REST API to enhance this functionality further as needed.

Benefits of Application Portfolio Management

APM provides several benefits beyond rationalization, such as:

1. Consistent Reporting: When applications are managed under a unified naming system, generating reports that provide integrated statistics and analysis becomes more accessible. This consistency streamlines the reporting process and ensures that all relevant applications are included in the analysis, providing a comprehensive view of the entire application portfolio.
2. Risk Exposure: Through effective Application Portfolio Management, organizations can identify risks that may have gone unnoticed, such as outdated or unsafe practices within the application set. This proactive approach to risk assessment allows for mitigation strategies to be implemented, thereby enhancing the overall security and stability of the application portfolio.
3. Validation of Needs: By confirming the problems and needs reported through IT channels, Application Portfolio Management helps establish trust and credibility. This validation process ensures that the IT department's concerns are recognized and addressed, fostering a collaborative and responsive approach to meeting the organization's technological requirements.

Application Rationalization

Many organizations face the challenge of managing a large number of applications. Most CIOs believe their application portfolio needs to be streamlined, but this can be difficult and costly. Removing an application involves:

• Data migration.
• Finding new data storage solutions.
• Managing support and maintenance for old and new systems.

It can also encounter resistance from users. Despite these challenges, CIOs recognize the need to streamline their application portfolio due to cost implications. Operating, supporting, and maintaining multiple or unused systems represents wasted resources. Moreover, investing in new technologies like mobile, social, cloud, and big data requires reallocating IT budgets from old applications. Maintaining and supporting these old applications consumes a large portion of the budget.

Avoiding the Need for Rationalization

1. Architect for Change: This involves designing applications that allow for easy modification and updates. You can adapt to changing business requirements using flexible and standard solutions without causing unnecessary bloat.
2. Capture Business Requirements: It is crucial to understand and align IT solutions with business needs. By ensuring that the technology meets organizational requirements, you can avoid the unnecessary accumulation of optional features and processes.
3. Ensure Applications Function as Intended: Detecting defects early in the development cycle is crucial to prevent the accumulation of unnecessary code and features. By maintaining the intended functionality of applications, you can avoid bloat caused by patches and workarounds.
4. Establish a Governance Process: Monitoring the health of projects and applications is essential for preventing bloat. Establishing a governance process can ensure that resources are used effectively and that projects remain aligned with business objectives.
5. Retire Applications Properly: Implementing archiving practices and enterprise content management ensures that outdated applications are systematically retired. This prevents the accumulation of redundant systems and minimizes application bloat.

Approaches to Application Rationalization

Using an EA tool with a central repository, such as OrbusInfinity, improves the ability to execute rationalization effectively. Organizations can rationalize their application portfolios, cut costs, and enhance overall IT management by concentrating on these strategies and utilizing advanced EA tools.

Conclusion

Application Portfolio Management (APM) is a vital strategic framework for organizations to manage their software applications efficiently. Leveraging enterprise architecture tools such as OrbusInfinity is crucial for effective APM. The right meta-model, viewpoints, and custom reporting are essential for APM success. Despite the challenges in APM modeling, including meta-model selection and viewpoint determination, organizations can benefit from a holistic view of their application landscape, optimizing resource allocation and ensuring their technology investments align with overall business objectives. By addressing these challenges and leveraging suitable tools, organizations can enhance their APM processes, streamline application usage, and make informed decisions for the future.