Application Development Trends

Development solutions for corporate software managers

Application Management

Leading-edge firms putting a premium on I/S managers
who practice optimal software buy, build
and deployment decision-making

Year 1997 I/S Challenge:
Application Management

By Elizabeth U. Harding

Illustration by David Wink

I/S groups across the nation are desperately changing their organizational structures to better align themselves with business requirements. It is a nightmare people-wise and technology-wise. Organizations are running off in all directions in an effort to get a better handle on new technology, new business initiatives, the Year 2000 problem, changing roles and having to do more for less. According to a recent survey conducted by the Meta Group, Stamford, Conn., 50% of respondents said they are becoming increasingly decentralized, and 50% said they are becoming more centralized.

2000 problem, changing roles and having to do more for less. According to a recent survey conducted by the Meta Group, Stamford, Conn., 50% of respondents said they are becoming increasingly decentralized, and 50% said they are becoming more centralized.

"We see I/S organizations proactively looking at their software portfolio because they have lost control," said Mike Kennedy, Meta Group vice president of Advanced Information Management Service. "I/S hasn't been able to say no to business people and has taken on more and more projects without being able to realistically do them."

The friction between I/S and business has spawned a new type of executive. Consultant Ian S. Hayes, principal of Clarity Consulting, Marblehead, Mass., calls the new responsibility application management, and the new title, application manager. (See Reference.) Kennedy characterizes the new executives as "Kissinger children" (named for U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger) for their ability to act as shuffling diplomats between warring factions.

"As technology is becoming increasingly more important to business, the Kissinger children become technology strategists," said Kennedy. "One of their roles is to evaluate the work of each of the systems in place."

The responsibility of the application manager, suggests Hayes and others, is to proactively select strategies that optimize the business value of each application in the portfolio. On a strategic level, this includes decisions to buy versus to build applications, maintain or replace, and insource or outsource. On a tactical level, this requires methods to optimize the deployment and support of new business functionality across the myriad of platforms, networks and databases found in a modern I/S organization.

An application manager's responsibilities cover all phases of the life cycle of business applications. They range from package acquisition and integration to application development, deployment, monitoring and maintenance. The application manager is concerned with methods to reduce new development efforts while simultaneously ensuring future applications are flexible and maintainable.

To be successful as an application manager, this professional (most likely coming from I/S), must mix an enterprise-level understanding of technology issues and opportunities with a firm grasp of corporate objectives and enough organizational savvy to work effectively with ecutive management.

"In the '50s, '60s and '70s, I/S organizations were application builders," said Hayes. "They still build but, if you look where there resources are spent, it is in maintenance. Their role is now changing to managing the portfolio of applications."

The Association for Computer Operations Management recently changed its name to Association for Data Center, Network and Enterprise Systems Management. The change was necessary, according to spokesmen, because the responsibility of data center managers has expanded from the glass house to networks and client/server systems. The data center management job of five years ago no longer exists. The new role is much broader, requires much additional knowledge and is more global than ever before.

"AFCOM is mostly concerned with the deployment of applications and how to put something into production once the application has changed," said Hayes. "It is one heck of an application management issue."

Application management furthers the notion that an organization's software portfolio is a valuable corporate asset that must be managed to maximize its ability to support business objectives, Hayes suggests. This portfolio contains internally developed software and purchased software components that range in granularity from desktop widgets to human resource application packages.

This responsibility is fit into a larger framework by consultants at the Gartner Group Inc., Stamford, Conn. Gurus at the influential I/S think tank view application management from an asset management perspective -- as software asset management which is part of an overall asset management framework.

"Software asset management is often the very first to get into an asset management framework because it represents the biggest opportunity to improve conditions," said Christopher Germann, senior analyst of I/S Asset Management with Gartner. "Software asset management has to do with the life cycle of acquiring, using and retiring applications. It is essential that you not just manage the business aspect, but also manage the cost of ownership. How much does it cost to develop and to maintain an application?"

Germann said 20% to 30% of large global organizations have implemented a dedicated software asset management framework and he expects that number to jump to 60% or 80% within the next three years. "We see a trend for more accountability for cost involved in owning software," Germann said.

Fred Hencke, national client/server director, Computer Task Group Inc. (CTG), Buffalo, New York, looks at application management as a strategic problem, as an infrastructure problem. The issue surfaced as urgent when corporations realized the extent of the Year 2000 two-digit problem. CTG is an international provider of strategic variable work-force solutions specialized in helping companies become Year 2000 compliant. "A lot of companies look at the Year 2000 [problem] as a driver for change," said Hencke. "It is one thing to change the code, but it is another thing to pull all your applications into a well-managed portfolio." Managing applications on the mainframe has proven methods, but these processes are two-dimensional and no longer hold up in an enterprise-distributed client/server environment. "In a multitier environment, you get into dimensions and the procedures and processes for mainframes break down very quickly," said Hencke. "Moreover, there are multiple people involved that need to synchronize their efforts."

When applying application management, Hencke said, the five pillars of infrastructure need to be addressed:

1. Technology;
2. People and their skills;
3. Process;
4. Funding; and
5. Infrastructure.

"How do we get funds for new technology, and who pays for installation and maintenance?" said Hencke. "In the mainframe world, you can charge back based on usage. How do you do that in a distributed environment? There is no good model how you do that. It depends on your creativity how you get the funding model."

How to get started with application management

Clarity's Hayes lays out five integral steps toward achieving effective application management:

1. Take inventory of the applications that need to be managed; and
2. Take a look at the portfolio from the aspect of business value.

"The Gartner Group looks at application management in terms of what's the cost of supporting applications," said Hayes. "I throw on top of that: What kind of service you provide with this application? How often do you need to change? We know from Step 1 and 2 the value to the business and can quantify that through service level agreements." The final steps are:

3. Come up with strategies for how to optimize the applications to best meet the need of the business;
4. Look at the tools and processes and how to change them in order to meet Step 3 objectives; and
5. Do a mixture of BPR (business process reengineering) on business processes and I/S processes.

"I/S has been good doing BPR to business, but not to themselves," said Hayes. "They need to do BPR on their own processes. Once they know what tools they have and figured out what the new processes are, they can then use these processes to tie the tools together."

Year 2000 leads the way

The City of Phoenix moved into application management as a result of efforts to find a vendor to solve the Year 2000 problem. Choosing Viasoft's Enterprise 2000 to get Year 2000 compliant, the city found that the same Viasoft tools could be adopted for ongoing support of Cobol-based legacy applications, said Jack Thomas, the city's deputy information technology director.

Many organizations need tools that help manage a mixed portfolio. What Viasoft tools do for the Cobol environment, the Discover product suite from Software Emancipation, Lexington, Mass., does for the C and C++ environment. "We are seeing a new breed of applications moving into the software development arena," said Tom Axbey, Software Emancipation vice president of marketing. "We go to the customer and build an information model which is a complete understanding of the organization. We build a repository of all the applications at the lowest common denomination."

Development repositories, such as that within the Maestro II toolset from Softlab Inc., Atlanta, also prove to be extremely valuable for application management. Maestro II is an integrated work group environment that encompasses a set of facilities or tools supported by a LAN-based repository. This repository is the foundation of Maestro II providing management and control of objects, versions, configurations and work flow.

"Maestro is a good example of what can be done when you mix process management with a repository," commented Clarity's Hayes. "However this concept is often hard to put into place for many I/S organizations because these types of tools are expensive and difficult to implement." The challenges include difficulty getting staff to buy into what amounts to a culture change, and different opinions on what types of repositories should be used for application and wherethey should reside, Hayes suggested.

The Gartner Group's Germann suggests there are two main types of repositories: an operational change management repository, which in most organizations today is part of the integrated help desk; and a general asset management repository which keeps track of hardware, software and everything associated.

Systems integrators at the Computer Task group are using Platinum Process Continuum from Platinum Technology, Oakbrook Terrace, Ill. as their repository of methodologies. Continuum runs on Windows NT, Windows 95 and OS/2. "The question arises whether a higher percentage of your applications are mainframe-based versus distributed," said CTG's Hencke. "Depending on that, you can decide where you want your repository to live -- on the mainframe or Unix servers."

Continuum provides a road map when you look at application management issues," said Hencke. "Continuum is the first level repository providing you with the when, what and, to a degree, how. The next level down, you need an object repository where you capture the what. The tools wrapped around that object repository help you carry out the how."

Most companies have made a start on the knowledge/methodologies repository, Hencke said. People have figured out how to make good use of tools that manage configuration but, Hencke said, in most companies these two technologies have not intersected yet. There are numerous vendors already positioned to offer tools for application management and there are numerous vendors still rushing in, vying for position. "If you look at Platinum's overall set of tools, they are pretty good at application management," said Hayes. "In the long term, Viasoft wants to be in the application management space. Getting an underlying repository that helps manage all the information gathered will help them." Viasoft recently announced its plans to acquire Roettger & Osterberg Software Technik GmbH (R&O), a privately-held German provider of client/server repository technology.

As companies aim to improve their process more and more, put in place a reuse paradigm, improve their maintenance program and know exactly what they have in terms of applications, a standard way of managing applications will get attention from senior-level executives. "Would you get on an airplane that works as well as your application?" asks Hayes. "If they can make airplanes that work well, why can't we make applications work well?" The answer, according to Hayes, lies in defining application development as a science rather than an art.

Reference:
Hayes, Ian S. "App management emerges," Application Development Trends, August, 1996.

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Reprinted with permission from an article in Application Development Trends, January 1997.
© Copyright 1997 SPG/Ullo International, Inc. All rights reserved.