Application portfolio assessment's many benefits  |  October 7, 2009  

Recently HP released a video about application portfolio assessment discussing some of the tools allowing developers to see into the complexity of the code they maintain. It is clear that there are many mechanisms now available that didn't exist a few years ago.

I've blogged in the past about the many benefits of this kind of assessment and the decision between improving an existing environment and starting over. One of the decision criteria beyond just the maintenance and flexibility costs of the systems is an application assessment of the value generated per watt consumed for the applications. Too often we're so caught up in the operational excellence of delivery that we don't ask questions like "Why are these applications even here?"

A holistic assessment of an organization's applications is one of the foundational elements of an enterprise architecture and strategic IT plan.