Application Portfolio Management

How do you measure Enterprise IT

How do you visualize the metrics and the business benefits of the software and apps in your organization? Which Apps are open source or outdated?

We will answer these questions here, briefly.

We will show step by step with screenshots of how you can create an application architecture for portfolio management on the Dragon1 Platform.

Benefits of Application Portfolio Management

But first, what is APM? APM, or application portfolio management, has emerged in companies with mid- to large-size information technology organizations since the 1990s.

Application portfolio management (APM) is a framework for managing enterprise IT software applications and software-based services. APM provides managers with an inventory of the company's software applications and metrics to illustrate the business benefits of each application.

How To Create An Overview of Your Applications on Dragon1?

A USE CASE

We will show you in a few steps how to create an application diagram that can be used for portfolio management, meaning you can measure and manage the applications and show and improve their value for the business.

1. Import Data

You can enter data manually. Still, as most organizations have many applications and lots of data in systems, you can import data from files (CSV, XLS, XML, etc) and via REST APIs.

Here you can download an CSV file example that is often used as a basis to create an import file.

Screenshot of the example data that can be used.

Below, you see how you can import a CSV file in the Architecture Repository.

Screenshot of the import feature in the Architecture Repository application.

Screenshot of the imported data in the Architecture Repository application.

To keep this example easy and understandable, we work with 10 applications only. In practice, you can easily place 200 applications, with 30+ attributes per application, on one visualization.

2. Create Model and Relationships

Suppose the imported data is a list of applications, then in the column relationships and servers there might be an enumerated list of values. Dragon1 uses these values to generate relationships. In the screenshot below you see relationships (associations) generated for applications and servers.

Screenshot of a relationship between an application and a server.

If you go to the Visual Designer, open the cabinet, and click on the model, a model will be generated showing visually the relationships between the applications and servers.

Screenshot of a model showing relationships between domains, applications and servers.

3. Creating Views

If creating many relationships for many entities, the model will contain information that is not interesting to everyone. Therefore, we create views (filters) on the model. We link the views to the button on the visualization so that a specific view of interest to a stakeholder is shown when one clicks on the button.

Below is an example view created. You can try that view in the live application landscape at the top of the screen.

4. Creating a Visualization Template

On Dragon1, you can create visualization templates. A template is a drawing canvas that contains visual items. A visual item is a shape configured to show data from a source like a view, model, or folder in a cabinet.

Below are three visual items configured and placed on a canvas. We have clicked on one of the visual items so the configuration is shown. The rectangle for the domain is used to group the applications. You can choose whatever entity class or attribute you want for grouping.

Screenshot of a visualization template with visual items for data-aware shapes and buttons for views.

You can place buttons on a visualization that check the attribute value of entities and show icons with tooltips accordingly. Below is an example of a GDPR button, turning a visualization into a management tool.

Screenshot of a configured button on a visualization template.

5. Publishing the Visualization To The Viewer

When you click on the View Data button in the Visual Designer or you watch the visualization in the viewer (as a stakeholder) your visual items from the template are interpreted and the application portfolio management visualization is generated. Now, you can click on the button to leave comments and search for values of attributes in the visualization.

Below you see the result when you click the red GDPR View button. Per application, an icon indicates whether sensitive data is stored, read, or updated.

Screenshot of an Application Portfolio Management GDPR View.

Below you see an example where it is searched for the attribute Owner. The visualization shows that Dr. Spock owns the applications EPIC and BARNEY. Next, the user clicked on the application EPIC. In the bar on the left, the details of that application are shown.

Screenshot of an Application Portfolio Management Owner View.

Being able to search and filter information on the visualization opens a door to a world of freedom. You can now ask and answer all kinds of questions like:

• Which applications are not compliant to a certain standard?
• For which applications do we use more licenses than we bought?
• Which applications should already have been replaced because of outdated technology?
• Which applications should be abandoned because they do not add value to the business?
• Can I replace a certain application and what is the impact of that change?

Screenshot of an example query report.