Introduction
Today's information technology (IT) organizations are faced with the challenge of managing a host of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) applications, legacy systems, and in-house custom applications. The reality of many of today's IT departments is complex, as they have the immense task of maintaining, managing, integrating, and supporting these business-critical applications. Tracking upgrades and providing first level support, as well as troubleshooting, represent a fraction of the application management challenges. In addition, the applications running a business require consistent inventory tracking, along with monitoring of their performance and the value they bring to the business. Consequently, application portfolio management (APM) has emerged as a critical component of IT governance.
In light of this reality, most IT departments have adopted some form of APM. Managing the development, implementation, training, and support of enterprise applications is central to every IT department. Decisions must be made in terms of prioritizing application projects and tracking their success. However, implementing a governance framework and a product portfolio management (PPM) solution to formalize decisions is still a novel concept to many IT organizations. Consequently, PPM vendors have embraced APM as a key differentiator in their efforts to assist IT organizations in managing their applications as business investments.
Defining Application Portfolio Management
APM provides a framework for an organization's enterprise software portfolio. Using PPM methodologies, APM focuses on the application lifecycle to determine which applications should be maintained, retired, or replaced. APM treats enterprise applications as investments, and evaluates their effectiveness based on business needs, client usage, performance, and client satisfaction. APM also takes inventory of an organization's applications, and evaluates their costs, risks, and value.
Like PPM, APM is a methodology for streamlining IT management processes. Thus, APM solutions aim at facilitating the tracking and monitoring of the following business objectives:
For larger IT organizations, implementing an IT governance framework entails tracking new projects through PPM, evaluating existing enterprise applications through APM, and tracking all IT assets through enterprise asset management (EAM).
Due to the importance, magnitude, and complexity of tracking applications, APM has developed into a major category in evaluating an organization's IT business investments. Organizations are looking beyond the mere functionality of their applications, and are evaluating the total impact of the applications running their business. Organizations are tracking metrics such as customer satisfaction, maintenance, usage, and performance, all in order to determine the value of their applications.
Several vendors feature prominently as far as best-of-breed APM solutions are concerned:
There are also broad PPM vendors who feature prominently in terms of APM solutions:
Currently, broader PPM solutions offering APM modules and functionality are typically weaker in delivering granular metrics at the code level. Consequently, these systems are better for managing COTS enterprise applications that require more tracking at the support and client performance level. In any case, as IT organizations continue to treat their applications as business investments, PPM vendors will continue to strengthen their efforts in providing stronger APM-specific functionality in their offerings.