Application Portfolio Management—An Integrated Framework and a Software Tool Evaluation Approach

Daniel Simon, act! consulting
Kai Fischbach, Department of Information Systems and Information Management, University of Cologne
Detlef Schoder, Department of Information Systems and Information Management, University of Cologne

Abstract

Despite the growing number of organizations that have lost track of their application landscape and have suffered from a sharp increase in application portfolio complexity, a comprehensive and systematic approach to Application Portfolio Management (APM) still appears far from being adopted. To move the adoption process along, this paper develops a comprehensive framework assimilating and extending previous research and presents an APM process comprising data collection, analysis, decision-making, and optimization phases. This paper also presents an approach for evaluating software tools for APM and identifies which software tool families are best able to provide support for specific purposes. With this integrated conceptual guideline for APM and its translation into a model for measuring appropriate practical support, this paper not only allows for a move more deeply into the research area but also offers advice for both researchers and practitioners.

Recommended Citation

Simon, Daniel; Fischbach, Kai; and Schoder, Detlef (2010) "Application Portfolio Management—An Integrated Framework and a Software Tool Evaluation Approach," Communications of the Association for Information Systems: Vol. 26, Article 3.
Available at: http://aisel.aisnet.org/cais/vol26/iss1/3