Application Portfolio Management (APM) Best Practices

Overview

Applications do not operate in isolation. They depend on people who operate and maintain them, processes that they enable or automate, and data that they generate, consume, or store. When these dependencies are not mapped and maintained, portfolio decisions consistently underestimate their consequences. An application that appears straightforward to retire reveals, only after retirement is initiated, that three critical business processes depend on data it generates and that the only person who understands its customization logic left the organization two years ago. These discoveries are avoidable - but only if the dependencies are mapped before decisions are made.

Best Practice

Map and maintain the key dependencies between every application and the people, processes, and data assets it involves. For people dependencies, identify key-person dependencies - situations where specific named individuals hold critical knowledge about an application’s operation, configuration, or data that is not documented anywhere else. For process dependencies, identify the business and technology processes the application enables, automates, or is embedded in. For data dependencies, identify the data assets the application generates, consumes, or stores, including any regulated or sensitive data with specific governance obligations. Treat these dependency maps as required inputs to every significant application assessment, retirement, or change decision.

Benefit(s)

Dependency mapping prevents the most common and most painful consequence of uninformed portfolio decisions: the discovery of critical dependencies only after a change has been committed and is in progress. Retirement costs are estimated more accurately. Risk assessments are more complete. Succession planning for key-person dependencies is informed rather than reactive. The organization develops a realistic picture of the complexity and interconnectedness of its application portfolio that enables better decisions at every stage of the portfolio management lifecycle.