How do application and project portfolios support business decisions?
All of a company’s software applications can be thought of as their application portfolio. A business has three possible courses of action for each of these applications. They can retain, retire, replace or redesign the application. While the function point size of an application is a factor in this decision, there are usually several other factors to be considered. Several consulting firms claim to have methodologies to help with planning at this level, but there is no universal agreement on how these decisions should be made. Some notes on each course of action follow: • Retain – Applications that hold their value are usually retained. An application that was 1,000 function points when it was built, and still delivers about 1,000 function points of functionality to its users has held its value. Retained applications continue to be used and enhanced. • Retire – Applications that are no longer useful to the company should be retired.
All of a company’s software applications can be thought of as their application portfolio. A business has three possible courses of action for each of these applications. They can retain, retire, replace or redesign the application. While the function point size of an application is a factor in this decision, there are usually several other factors to be considered. Several consulting firms claim to have methodologies to help with planning at this level, but there is no universal agreement on how these decisions should be made. Some notes on each course of action follow: • Retain – Applications that hold their value are usually retained. An application that was 1,000 function points when it was built, and still delivers about 1,000 function points of functionality to its users has held its value. Retained applications continue to be used and enhanced. • Retire – Applications that are no longer useful to the company should be retired. A 1,000 function point system that no one uses anymo
