Using Business Capability Maps To Guide Application Portfolio Rationalization

Most firms have application portfolios with significant redundancy — a legacy of how business needs have been funded or past merger and acquisition activity. Firms initiate application portfolio rationalization to support business goals, focus investments, and reduce costs. Because applications and business processes are closely tied, the process of developing a rationalization road map requires that business and IT develop a common view of the process and application landscape, including where process standardization is a goal, and then determine the optimal set of applications to support business processes. Capability maps provide the framework for doing this. To develop the application rationalization road map, Forrester recommends that firms use an eight-step process that leverages capability maps for key decisions.