Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:

• Define and establish the scope and structure of the application portfolio.
• Apply structured methods (e.g., time-to-value, cost-to-operate) to assess application health.
• Develop a strategic application rationalization roadmap (rationalize, retire, retain, renovate).
• Quantify the total cost of ownership (TCO) for the application portfolio.
• Identify and prioritize applications for modernization or cloud migration.
• Establish a governance model for managing the application portfolio lifecycle.
• Communicate the value and risk profile of the portfolio to business stakeholders.
• Manage shadow IT and ensure compliance across the software estate.

• IT Directors and Portfolio Managers
• Enterprise and Solution Architects
• Business Relationship Managers (BRMs)
• Application Development Leaders
• IT Financial Managers
• Professionals involved in mergers and acquisitions (M&A)

• Group activities to assess a sample application portfolio (using a scoring matrix).
• Workshops on developing an application retirement business case.
• Case studies on the impact of technical debt on business agility.
• Individual exercises in calculating the TCO of two competing applications.
• Discussions on best practices for gaining business sponsorship for modernization.

Unit 1: Foundations of Application Portfolio Management

• The difference between application inventory and application portfolio.
• Establishing boundaries and categorization of the portfolio.
• The linkage between applications and business capabilities.
• The role of ASPM in reducing technical debt.

• Defining key metrics: Business Value, Technical Fit, and Cost.
• The BCG Matrix and other portfolio mapping techniques.
• Collecting and validating application data (e.g., usage, age, support costs).
• Identifying the financial implications of application redundancy.

Unit 2: Application Rationalization and Roadmap

• Strategies for Retaining high-value, high-fit applications.
• Criteria and process for Retiring obsolete or redundant systems.
• Planning for Renovating or modernizing key applications.
• Deciding when to Replace or Repurchase commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) solutions.

• Prioritizing rationalization initiatives based on value and risk.
• Sequencing retirement and replacement projects to minimize disruption.
• Gaining executive sponsorship and business unit buy-in.
• Resource planning for the rationalization program.

Unit 3: Financial Management of the Portfolio

• Components of application TCO (licensing, infrastructure, support, labor).
• Modeling the cost savings realized through rationalization.
• Developing a chargeback model for application usage.
• Budgeting for application maintenance vs. innovation.

• The role of SAM in managing and optimizing software licenses.
• Ensuring application compliance and avoiding costly audit penalties.
• Tracking usage to optimize license pools and contracts.
• Integrating SAM data with the application portfolio.

Unit 4: Application Modernization and Risk

• Assessing applications for cloud readiness (SaaS, PaaS adoption).
• Techniques for refactoring monolithic applications to microservices.
• Managing data migration and transformation complexity.
• Justifying the investment in modernization efforts.

• Identifying security vulnerabilities and compliance gaps in the portfolio.
• Managing the risk associated with end-of-life and unsupported software.
• Implementing a consistent application security testing process.
• Developing risk mitigation plans for critical legacy systems.

Unit 5: Governance and Continuous Improvement

• Establishing an Application Review Board (ARB) or governance body.
• Defining the process for new application requests and acquisition.
• Regularly reviewing and updating the portfolio status and health.
• Defining ownership and accountability for application groups.

• Designing an executive dashboard for portfolio status.
• Communicating complex rationalization decisions to the business.
• Measuring the strategic impact of ASPM (e.g., TCO reduction, time-to-market).
• Integrating ASPM results into strategic planning cycles.