Webinar: Application Understanding

You already know that applications automate your core operations. But do you have adequate control over these systems? The answer is often 'no' because of the sheer size and complexity of your application portfolio.

Find out how you can regain control over the applications that run your business at a webinar on May 27. Register here:

http://www.microfocus.com/promotions/wwwcwwmw0509/default.aspx?page=email

Application Understanding Paper

A good paper on how to understand existing applications from a business and technical perspective. After all, these are the systems that automate your most central business processes. You need to control them, adapt them, and modernize them. To do so requires application understanding. You can access the paper here.

Application Modernization Lifecycle

eWeek just published an excellent paper by Tim Pacileo. He discusses how to plan Application Modernization activities. On our Application Portfolio Management sister-site, we discuss our APM can be used to support many of the suggestions he discusses. Specifically, we look at how to identify and prioritize application modernization activities based on business priorities.

Another key point that Pacileo makes is the need to take an incremental approach to modernization. First, you can contain costs and risks by concentrating effort on a subset of the application portfolio. Second, you can quickly turn projects around, demonstrating value to line of business executives and oversight committees. Third, you can generate returns that can be reinvested in continued modernization. For instance, by rationalizing the application portfolio you can free assets and budgets that had been allocated toward non-productive or non-essential activities.

Another key aspect of his paper is the discussion of planning for the future. In that context, he suggests determining whether in-house or packaged applications make the most sense to use. This is an important aspect of the ‘understand’ phase of the application modernization article. That is, to perform gap analysis on the existing business logic / business processes embedded within the application portfolio. Matching needed functionality and processes with available applications can help the CIO to make smarter build / reuse / buy decisions.

To add to his piece, it is useful to look into the modernization lifecycle. This discusses the phases through which a typical application modernization initiative passes.

Rationalization vs. Modernization?

A reader placed an interesting post on our Application Portfolio Management sister site. The question was whether application rationalization is the same as application modernization. There are various opinions on the topic, with many suggesting that rationalization is an IT activity distinct from and on par with modernization. I think that is more helpful to consider it to be a subset of modernization.

Traditionally, application modernization has been thought of as an IT activity that involves IT-centric manipulations of existing code bases. Rationalization was seen as outside of this classic view because it involved the wholesale purging of applications, rather than updating them. It also was seen as separate because it was often the first step of clearing the site to make room for more targeted application modernization actions.

But as application portfolios have become recognized as key enablers of business processes, this IT-centric view of modernization has begun to recede. Changes to the application portfolio are increasingly in response to overarching business pressures and are no longer isolated within the IT department. For instance, modifications could involve introducing more dynamic application architectures to respond to shifting business strategies. Or, the elimination of non-strategic applications to cut costs as business needs change.

This adapting of application portfolios to respond to business pressures is application modernization. We start by asking what business requirements we have and then selecting our IT activities from our basket of alternatives (SOA, outsourcing, redevelopment, rationalization, etc.) based on what will best address this need. This trend has accelerated with the adoption of application portfolio management capabilities that allow IT to govern applications as business assets.

By thinking of application modernization as a business-led activity first, we elevate the process and increase its results (and relevance) for management. By thinking of rationalization as an alternative within the application modernization schema, we ensure that APM-led business decisions determine which path we will take toward efficient and flexible application portfolios. Certainly rationalization is often the first path taken because it can generate immediate budget benefits, but IT management should view all modernization options as being on the table for any portion of the application portfolio.

Portfolio Management is Top Priority for 2009

A new posting on Application Portfolio Management was added to our sister site. This details the announcement by Baseline that Project and Portfolio Management is one of the top priorities for CIOs for 2009.

Gartner on APM Best Practices

An excellent piece of research came out from Gartner this week. Jim Duggan’s research details methods to make Application Portfolio Management successful. A key aspect of the research centers around the need to manage from diverse perspectives. That is, to manage the application portfolio based on contexts that matter to the business. A post on our Application Portfolio Management sister site goes into greater detail.

Let’s outline why Application Portfolio Management is so important. IT has no shortage of priorities. But are they the right priorities? Are investments being made in the right way to support the needs of the business? It’s hard to select and justify projects unless you can validate that they support corporate priorities. And with the trend toward cost containment this is becoming a more important issue. In the same line, IT must be investigating where cost savings can be achieved by rationalizing systems that can be eliminated.

That is where Application Portfolio Management comes in. It is a process of measuring the value, cost, and risk of the application portfolio from perspectives that are important to the business. For instance, what is the cost of applications that automate a given business process – versus its value to the organization. Or, what is the software quality trend for our outsourcing partners.

There are two keys here. First, we are collecting metrics from diverse sources. It could be stakeholder surveys, code metrics (like function points or cyclomatic complexity), or cost data from an ERP system. The point is to collect the kind of measurements that will aid the decision making process. Second, we want to place our collected metrics into the right business context. That is, we want to collect and group the metrics such that they are organized by business concept. This allows us to make IT decisions in the context of the business goals that we are supposed to manage to.