Application Portfolio Management

The first step in managing an application portfolio is to conduct an inventory of all applications. The inventory should include information such as the application's purpose, key roles, functionality, technology stack, and maintenance requirements.

The list should cover past, present, and future applications, and application portfolio management tools will help with this process.

Colloquial provides out-of-the-box templates as guide rails for data entry, bulk upload, and Microsoft Teams integration to engage your users.

Who are the users impacted by the applications? During this investigation, it is typical to discover that specific applications have very few users and that some applications are entirely unused or in the process of becoming so.

Once the inventory is complete, the organisation should assess each application based on its cost, value, and risk.

Determine the total cost and business value of every application– even the ones barely used. Compare this cost to the TCO of similar applications used in the industry. At this stage, it is best to use business capabilities.

A tool can provide a library of templates for assessing applications based on various criteria, including strategic fit, business value, technical quality, and regulatory compliance. Using dashboards will allow you to prioritise those details that are required and recommended for assessment.

Use a matrix of business usage to business impact to identify which applications should be your focus, using a framework like TIME (see below). This will help you prioritise how applications should be handled.

Define an initial Remediation Strategy for each of the four categories: Tolerate, Invest, Migrate and Eliminate

Tolerate — Re-engineer

Invest — Innovate, Evolve

Migrate — Modernize

Eliminate — Replace, Consolidate

Looking at your apps holistically using a heatmap is a great way to identify areas in which change will have the highest impact.

Colloquial provides you with flexible views allowing you to have a bird’s eye view of your applications, and identify where further information may be required.

While Application Portfolio Management as a one-time activity will provide great value - if you can maintain this practice you will ensure your future organisation’s agility.

Monitoring and reporting are essential to ensure that it remains aligned with the organisation's business goals and objectives. It is highly recommended to maintain a central source of information (repository in architecture parlance).

We recommend segmenting your data along your organisation operational responsibilities. For example, align a “Shared Services” domain architect to monitor data quality. Set yourself data quality targets, and monitor these quarter on quarter, and year on year.