The business question What is our technical debt? focuses on the dependencies of the applications in the application portfolio and highlights their dependencies on technical component based on lifecycle data. You can analyze lifecycle conflicts according to different time scales, thus reducing the risk and technical debt that accompany end-of-life technologies. This business question supports better planning and transparency in the IT so that you can act on your technical debt before an application or component goes out of service.
component
A component is a reusable block of functionality that provides technical services and/or business functionality to the applications or platforms using it. An operating system, database management system, or application server are examples of components that an application typically requires.
lifecycle
The lifecycle describes the planned schedule of a current real-world object in different lifecycle phases of a product. Lifecycle phases will be different depending on the object class. Lifecycle phases for an application are Pilot, Production, Retired, and Sunset.
The Gantt chart shows all applications with their dependent components. The lifecycle of each application visualizes the start and end dates. Below each application, you can see the components that the application uses along with the component start and end dates. A technological component with an end date before the end date of the application is a potential source of risk and increases the technical debt of your IT portfolio. Retired components are not displayed in the report.
With this information, you can address the technical debt before the application or component goes out of service and prioritize applications that require immediate migration. This business question ensures that you effectively plan the most urgent requirements for application migration or updates that are important for regulatory requirements.
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Mature organizations may have a lifecycle planning practice and capture the phases of a lifecycle. Application lifecycle phases are: Plan, Pilot, Production, Sunset, Retired
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To understand which application will retire soon and may require a technology migration plan:
To sort the data based on the application end date, select End Date in the Sort Order filter field. The applications that are strategic to the business will have a checkmark in the Strategic column.
To understand which active applications are running on obsolete components or use components that will soon go out of service:
Select Active in the Object State filter field and already obsolete in the Lifecycle Conflict field. Switch to within six months in the Lifecycle Conflict field to understand which technologies require immediate attention.
Recommendation: Determine which applications are most at risk due to end-of-life technologies and make plans to mitigate the risk of running unsupported applications.
To understand the impact of potential lifecycle conflicts that may prevent application support to the business:
Select a business capability in the Business Capabilities filter field to show only the applications supporting that business capability.
Recommendation: Review which applications may be at risk because the components that they use may soon be obsolete. Determine which business capabilities are at risk based on end-of-life technologies.
To understand the impact of potential lifecycle conflicts for a specific organization:
Select an organization in the Business Owner filter field to show only applications owned by the organization.
Recommendation: Contact the business owner so that they are aware that components that their applications use may soon be obsolete.
To understand the impact of potential lifecycle conflicts for a specific application portfolio:
Select an application group in the Application Group filter field to show the applications assigned to the application group.
Recommendation: Review which applications may be at risk because the components that they use may soon be obsolete.