What Is Enterprise Application Management?

This chapter defines Enterprise Application Management, a term used in two different senses, and explains which sense IF4IT recommends.

Two Senses of the Term

The term Enterprise Application Management is used in two different ways:

3. The IF4IT primary sense. Application Management applied consistently to every Application the enterprise owns, operates, licenses, or depends upon, using the same practices, standards, templates, and policies for all of them.

4. The common industry sense. The management of “Enterprise Applications,” meaning large, enterprise-class software such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and Human Resources (HR) systems. This sense is vague and inconsistent across enterprises; where it is used, the enterprise should state which Applications it includes.

IF4IT recommends avoiding the second sense and adhering to the first.

Why the Second Sense Causes Confusion

The phrase “Enterprise Application” is an informal label for large, enterprise-class software typically used across many organizations within an enterprise. It has no consistent definition. One enterprise may consider its finance system an Enterprise Application but not its customer portal; another may draw the line in exactly the opposite place. A discipline built on such a vague category inherits its vagueness, and it implies that smaller or narrower Applications deserve less management attention, which is rarely true. A small, departmental Application may hold regulated data or support a critical business operation.

In the first sense, “Enterprise” refers to scope (every Application across the entire enterprise), not to the type or size of the Applications. Every Application the enterprise depends upon is included, and each is managed to the same standard.

How Enterprise Application Management Relates to Application Management and Application Portfolio Management

Application Management is the application of the practices in this document to a single Application. Enterprise Application Management is the application of those same practices, consistently, to every Application in the enterprise. The difference lies not in what is done for each Application but in consistency and coverage: one enterprise Application Documentation Template, one Minimum Application Documentation Policy, the same roles and accountability, and a governed record in the Application Inventory for every Application, with no Application exempt because it is small, departmental, or old. The enterprise-wide practices described later in this document, such as templates, the Digital Library, documentation policy and enforcement, and conformance reporting, are what make that consistency achievable.

Enterprise Application Management is related to, but distinct from, Application Portfolio Management. Application Portfolio Management decides what to do with defined groups of Applications, up to and including the enterprise’s entire Application Portfolio. Consistent Enterprise Application Management is what makes enterprise-wide Application Portfolio Management trustworthy, because portfolio decisions depend on complete, comparable facts about every Application.

Best Practice: Use “Enterprise Application Management” Only in Its Enterprise-Wide Sense

Use Enterprise Application Management to mean Application Management applied consistently to every Application in the enterprise, and avoid using “Enterprise Application” as a classification. Where the industry sense cannot be avoided, such as in vendor contracts or external communications, state explicitly which Applications are included.

Benefits: Using the term in one clear sense keeps conversations, policies, and reports unambiguous. It also makes consistency an explicit goal, so that every Application is managed to the same standard and none escapes management attention simply because it was not considered “enterprise-class.”

Connections to Related IF4IT Practices and Inventories

The Application Portfolio Management (APM) Best Practices describes how enterprise-scoped APM ownership should be assigned and practiced.