Helping the IT department to manage the origination, evaluation, execution and delivery of business critical applications

Overview

Competitive advantage can be won and lost through the identification, development, support and retirement of applications in a timely, accurate and meaningful manner. Managing this lifecycle is critical to the value of the investment.

Application lifecycle management as a discipline has become essential as IT evolves from a cost centre to a strategic business unit. With businesses demanding better controls throughout the organisation the need to align IT with business goals while measuring and improving project execution is no longer simply a luxury.

Scope

The scope of application lifecycle management is an evaluation of the applications development, delivery and maintenance processes used in an organisation from a service delivery perspective.  The purpose is to ensure that the way applications are delivered meets the needs of the customer as defined in any SLA’s which will than be backed up by the teams that take them over.

This represents best practice application delivery.  It enables IT departments to manage the origination, evaluation and execution of initiatives, projects, upgrades and other investments.

The benefits include the ability to:

•	Increase the return on technology investments
•	Improve upfront decision-making and project execution
•	Achieve consensus with internal customers
•	Deliver on commitments
•	Make efficient use of resources
•	Demonstrate regulatory compliance

So what does it take to achieve best practice in application delivery?

Best practice in application delivery means having clearly understood processes which ensure that:

•	applications are developed in line with business and users needs
•	mature test, user acceptance and release processes are in place
•	released applications are efficiently managed by ITIL based processes
•	appropriate emphasis is given to compliance, governance and security considerations
•	the organisation is not financially or legally exposed by an application release
•	end user experience is constantly managed from on-going real time performance monitoring
•	a rapid return on investment is gained by efficient application lifecycle management within the organisation

Partners in IT Application Lifecycle Management Review:

Our fixed price Application Lifecycle Review will work with your IT organisation and key business stakeholders to independently and objectively review current performance against industry best practice.

The review is delivered within 6 weeks and includes:

•	Workshop consultations with key stakeholders within each application lifecycle ‘silo’
•	Analysis of current strengths and weaknesses
•	Training skills and tools audit
•	Analysis of current lifecycle process
•	Organisational benchmark against best practice
•	Recommendations for improvement with suggested timescales for implementation
•	Define the interfaces required between the software configuration database and the Service Management ITIL process
•	Identification of any key business and compliance risks

Methodology
Our review uses the Application Management specification of the OGC ITIL library as its base methodology and to act as the review framework as below:

The Application lifecycle review is focused around the ITIL V3 Service lifecycle, where each application in question is the delivered service.

The process
The process takes a workshop approach with individuals within each of the ‘silos’ across the business to benchmark against ITIL  best practices, from initial business requirements through development and test to end user monitoring and service management. 

Particular focus is placed on improvement of the application lifecycle to more rapidly meet business requirements including the creation of technical and software specifications, version control, service management and awareness of the importance of clear design, test, release, project management and end user monitoring.

The benefits of application lifecycle management include:

•	Improved speed of delivery and implementation of applications to the business which in turn improves the agility of the business to respond to market needs
•	The end user experience is constantly managed and monitored so applications can be tuned to deliver optimal performance across the business
•	Appropriate consideration given to compliance, governance and security so that the business can be sure that it is working within its required regulatory framework
•	Mature test, user acceptance and release processes are in place so that the process for the provision of new applications and services are repeatable, resilient and efficient
•	A mature ITIL methodology is delivered that aligns the technical delivery team with the business functions
•	Improved return on technology investments as a result of efficient application management throughout the organisation

Deliverables:

•	A Benchmark of your application lifecycle against industry best practice – measuring current success in delivery and support
•	A detailed analysis of the application lifecycle, identifying ‘bottlenecks’ and inhibitors to success within your organisation
•	An analysis of governance or financial risks associated with the application lifecycle
•	An analysis of ITIL-based processes associated with the development, test and deployment of applications
•	A specification of what the underlying OLA’s need to be to support the customer SLA’s to which you are operating or plan to operate
•	An assessment on how to drive improvement in the lifecycle processes and to deliver a rapid return on investment for critical applications
•	An assessment of fitness for purpose of current development and management tools
•	A skills audit and training needs for key staff
•	A report on real ‘user experience’ of your web services compared to your competitors

Our Application Lifecycle review is undertaken within six weeks by experienced consultants who have an unrivalled track record in transformation of IT Service Management. 

For more information please call us today
on +44 (0) 1344 488123