For CIOs

CIOs: Business Alignment And BT Enablement Require Business Capability Maps

At Your Level, You Can't Rely On Any Other Single IT Business Model

by Bobby Cameron, October 30, 2009

CIOs are aggressively tackling their planning and management challenges, deploying tools and building models to address a wide variety of functions like asset management, IT services management, application rationalization, business process efficiencies, . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Integrate Enterprise Architecture With Application Portfolio Governance

by Henry Peyret, August 24, 2009

IT organizations that are seeking to drive down operating costs while delivering business projects on time and on budget find they must manage their application portfolios to provide an optimal foundation for execution. Application portfolio management . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Anatomy Of A Portfolio Management Tool

Common Qualities Apply To All Types Of Portfolio Management Tools

by Phil Murphy, June 23, 2009

The term "portfolio management" is officially in vogue — it has been appended to applications, projects and programs, enterprises, and to IT itself. But what does it mean to manage a portfolio? What are the criteria for determining whether portfolio management . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Four Steps To Optimize Your Application And Project Portfolios In Volatile Economic Times

by Phil Murphy, Margo Visitacion, January 14, 2009

Economic instability around the globe is forcing organizations to react: Some organizations will have to cut costs to survive, some organizations will proceed as usual, while still others will take a more predatory stance to gain market share from their . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Micro Focus's Purchase Of Relativity Strengthens Its APM And Modernization Offerings

by Phil Murphy, December 19, 2008

Micro Focus's acquisition of rival Relativity Technologies for $9.7 million is expected to close in early 2009. What does the acquisition mean to applications professionals? It will have several key positive results, including: the combined company will . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Application Modernization Taxonomy Clarifies Choices And Paves A Path For Progress

by Phil Murphy, October 17, 2008

Modernizing aging application portfolios presents application development and program management professionals with a bevy of confusing choices — the IT industry uses terms with overlapping and conflicting meanings that have ultimately lost all clarity. . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Use Action-Oriented Categories To Guide Application Life-Cycle Investment Decisions

Human Life-Cycle Analogies Provide No Value And Introduce Bias

by Phil Murphy, October 17, 2008

Excessive IT costs have application development and program management professionals searching for ways to reduce wasteful spending within their application portfolios. Many organizations begin the process by describing applications using human terms . . .

For CIOs

Develop Metrics Thoughtfully To Streamline Application Portfolios Successfully

by Phil Murphy, July 23, 2008

CIOs will be stuck with burdensome, expensive application portfolios until they take the steps necessary to rationalize and streamline the portfolios. But streamlining the portfolio with poor transparency and no usable metrics virtually guarantees that . . .

For CIOs

The Application Management Continuum Offers CIOs A Contemporary Approach To Modernization

by Phil Murphy, July 14, 2008

The technology needs of an industry evolve and mature unevenly — in the early years, companies replace technology frequently to scale in step with organic growth. As the industry matures, it reaches a leveling-off point where the need to gain and retain . . .

For CIOs

APM Trends: Board-Mandated Cuts To The IT Budget Spur A Global Bank To Adopt APM

by Phil Murphy, January 7, 2008

The impetus for streamlining application portfolios can originate from many different directions and catalysts. In this case it was simple: The bank's board of directors mandated that IT management cut IT costs by 10% and stipulated a five-year period . . .

For CIOs

APM Trends: Bank Assessed The Ability Of Core Applications To Suit Future Business Plans

by Phil Murphy, January 7, 2008

The business leaders in one bank regularly plan business strategy several years into the future. During these sessions, leaders pose forward-looking questions: "How much will our business change seven to 10 years out, and will our systems support these . . .

For CIOs

CIOs: Reduce Costs By Scoring Applications

Lower Maintenance Costs And Change IT Demand Governance

by Phil Murphy, January 10, 2007

As long as IT spends the majority of the IT budget for "lights on" operational and maintenance activities against existing applications, CIOs will be criticized by business executives for their inability to respond fast enough to new business needs. IT . . .

Micro Focus Acquires APM Vendor HAL Knowledge Solutions

Validates APM And Broadens Its Legacy Modernization Offerings

by Phil Murphy, November 9, 2006

Micro Focus announced its intention to acquire HAL Knowledge Solutions, one of the premiere application portfolio management (APM) vendors. The acquisition came as part of an announcement that projected Micro Focus' mid-fiscal year revenues will be in . . .

PPM Vendors Falsely Claim To Offer APM

Source Code Parsing, Auto-Detection Are Key Missing Requirements

by Phil Murphy, August 7, 2006

The No. 1 goal of application portfolio management (APM) is to drive strategic application decisions in support of an overall rationalization effort. Counterintuitive as it seems, source-code parsing — a comparatively low-level process — enables APM. . . .

Application Dependency Mapping Is Not APM

Runtime Dependencies Serve Different Audiences And Purposes

by Phil Murphy, June 8, 2006

Two growing markets are causing some confusion: application portfolio management (APM) and application dependency mapping. APM tools build a knowledge repository about the applications in the portfolio by reading source code and collecting data from various . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Building The Business Case For APM

Dashboards Increase Your Capacity To Innovate And Rebalance IT Spending

by Phil Murphy, October 20, 2005

In a small number of firms today, IT management is using application portfolio management (APM) tools to shave 10% to 30% or more from the maintenance budget, achieving ROI within the first 12 months. These savings provide the opportunity to increase . . .

Packaged Applications Are Poorly Served By APM

Understand The True Problem Before Assuming APM Is The Answer

by Phil Murphy, August 8, 2005

The advent and growth of application portfolio management (APM) tools has encouraged many prospective customers to look to APM as a panacea for all IT governance and metrics problems. APM will help organizations with large investments in custom-developed . . .

APM Tools Will Reach $500 Million To $700 Million By 2008

APM Helps CIOs Rationalize Applications And Reduce The Maintenance Burden

by Phil Murphy, July 22, 2005

The application portfolio management (APM) tool market grew 280% in 2004 because a small handful of CIOs realized that APM can help them reduce application maintenance burdens and rationalize their application portfolios. Waning application knowledge . . .

Compuware Walks, Not Runs, Toward IIM

One Step Closer To APM And A Full Integrated IT Management Offering

by Phil Murphy, Margo Visitacion, February 25, 2005

Compuware's announcement that it will resell CAST's application quality product exposes CAST to a rich new field of prospects within Compuware's customer base. It also provides Compuware with an application metrics collection engine to complement the . . .

Integrated IT Management Drives Efficiency

Role-Based Dashboard Views Will Make It Happen — Get Ready

by Margo Visitacion, Phil Murphy, Thomas Mendel, Ph.D., February 2, 2005

Dashboard-type views permit business managers and executives to see business events, to understand their subsequent impact, and to take corrective action. It is ironic, then, that IT — the enabler of many dashboard views — lacks any comprehensive view . . .

Application Rationalization In 2005

Leverage Tools, Process, Internal Biases, and Future Plans

by Phil Murphy, December 20, 2004

IT organizations that fail to rationalize their application portfolios in 2005 are missing an opportunity to trim substantial costs from the maintenance budget, simplify their technology base and application portfolio, and lay the ground work for deciding . . .

Trends 2005: Application Portfolio Management

IT Management Imperative: Streamline Bloated Application Inventories

by Phil Murphy, October 27, 2004

IT management will increasingly turn to application portfolio management (APM) to stem the flow of money into its largest financial sinkhole — the expense to maintain its existing application portfolio. APM builds an application knowledge base that serves . . .

Project Portfolio Management Vendor Claims Of APM Functionality Are False And Misleading

by Phil Murphy, Margo Visitacion, August 9, 2004

The success of early application portfolio management (APM) implementations have encouraged project portfolio management (PPM) vendors to claim to offer APM functionality, but Forrester issues a strong caveat emptor — none of the PPM vendors actually . . .

Compuware Acquires Changepoint

Services Automation Plus A Unique New Opportunity Await

by Margo Visitacion, Phil Murphy, May 6, 2004

Compuware's acquisition of Changepoint is a positive move for both vendors and offers further proof that point solutions in the services automation (SA) market are an endangered species. In the short term, Compuware gains a foothold in a new market, while . . .

Application Portfolio Management Tools

Smart Application Management Saves Time, Money, And Maybe Your Job

by Phil Murphy, April 12, 2004

Forrester believes that the application portfolio management (APM) market space will grow from approximately $15 million in 2003 to exceed $400 million by 2008. Too valuable to eliminate, too costly, complex, and interdependent to replace, existing IT . . .