What Is Application Management?

This chapter defines Application Management, the discipline this document addresses, and explains how it applies to each individual Application.

Definition

The IF4IT Dictionary defines Application Management in several senses. The primary sense, and the one used throughout this document, is: the professional discipline encompassing the planning, delivery, operation, and support of one or more Application Items.

Application Management Is Practiced One Application at a Time

Although the definition allows for one or more Applications, Application Management is practiced for each Application individually. For any one Application, Application Management encompasses everything done to plan for, design, build, deploy, verify, operate, support, and govern it, from the moment it is first proposed until it is fully retired.

This includes, for each Application:

• Establishing clear accountability for it, including its Business Application Owner, IT Application Owner, and Application Manager.

• Planning and delivering its Releases through the Systems Development Lifecycle (SDLC).

• Operating, monitoring, and supporting its Instances.

• Managing its Issues, such as Defects, Risks, Problems, and Technical Debt Items.

• Creating, publishing, and maintaining its Application Documentation.

• Registering and maintaining its Application Record in the Application Inventory.

• Carrying out its Decommissioning and Full Application Retirement when the time comes.

Where Ownership and Governance Belong

The definition of an Application says what an Application is; the definition of Application Management is where ownership, accountability, and governance belong. Every Application needs an accountable owner, a manager responsible for its day-to-day management, and an organization that operates it. These roles are introduced in the chapter “Understand Application Management Roles and Responsibilities” and are addressed in detail in the chapters that follow it.

Best Practice: Practice Application Management Explicitly for Every Application

Treat Application Management as an explicit, accountable discipline for every Application the enterprise owns, licenses, operates, or depends upon, including vendor-provided and SaaS Applications, rather than as something that happens informally only for the Applications a team built itself.

Benefits: Applications that no one explicitly manages still fail, still hold sensitive data, and still need to be upgraded and eventually retired. Practicing Application Management explicitly for every Application ensures that each one has someone accountable for its health, its documentation, and its future, so that no Application becomes an orphan the enterprise depends on but no one understands.

Connections to Related IF4IT Practices and Inventories

The Application Portfolio Management (APM) Best Practices addresses the management of groups of Applications. The Service Management Best Practices addresses how Applications support the Services delivered to customers and users.