Analyze system portfolio

The IT landscape that is documented in process support maps can be best standardized in line with strategic specifications by building an IT system portfolio. In such a portfolio, systems can be given a structure by means of quadrants.

In ARIS, application system type diagrams are used to build these portfolios. Quadrants are represented by application system classes. The Quadrant attribute serves to identify an application system class as a quadrant. In addition to the four quadrants, a total of five intermediate areas can be defined. The following is a suggestion for the semantic meaning of the four quadrants:

Quadrant view of IT system portfolio

The data stored here can be evaluated graphically. In a process support map, the Analyze system portfolio macro visualizes the quadrant status or quadrant assigment of IT systems by coloring the border of the IT system symbol accordingly.

System portfolio analysis

To do this, it is necessary to mark the quadrant objects (application system classes) defined in the application system type diagram by using the Quadrant attribute. Nine different attribute values are available whose names may be customized in the method configuration if required.

Attribute values of the Quadrant attribute at the application system class:

Specify the attributes on the tab with the same name.

Configuration file for the system portfolio quadrants

For the IT system symbols to be correctly colored in the process support map according to their quadrant assignment, the quadrant and color representation must be defined in the configuration file quadrants configuration.xml.

Configuration

First, the attribute used to identify the application system classes as a quadrant must be specified in the configuration file. In the figure below, the default attribute Quadrant is specified. However, a user-defined attribute may also be used instead.

Configuration of the 'Quadrant' attribute

The attribute values are then mapped to color values. The Properties dialog for the Quadrant attribute can be used as a template. The settings in the configuration file are specified manually:

Configuration of colors

Once all settings have been correctly specified, the Analyze system portfolio macro can be started for any process support map. The borders of all IT systems (application system types) are temporarily colored according to their quadrant assignment.

If you want to retain the coloring for the next time you open the model, freeze the IT landscape view. To do so, start the Freeze IT landscape view macro and enable the Freeze IT landscape view check box.