<s>
IT	O
Application	B-Application
Portfolio	I-Application
Management	I-Application
(	O
APM	O
)	O
is	O
a	O
practice	O
that	O
has	O
emerged	O
in	O
mid	O
to	O
large-size	O
information	B-General_Concept
technology	I-General_Concept
(	O
IT	O
)	O
organizations	O
since	O
the	O
mid-1990s	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Application	B-Application
Portfolio	I-Application
Management	I-Application
attempts	O
to	O
use	O
the	O
lessons	O
of	O
financial	O
portfolio	O
management	O
to	O
justify	O
and	O
measure	O
the	O
financial	O
benefits	O
of	O
each	O
application	O
in	O
comparison	O
to	O
the	O
costs	O
of	O
the	O
application	O
's	O
maintenance	O
and	O
operations	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
APM	O
was	O
widely	O
adopted	O
in	O
the	O
late	O
1980s	O
and	O
through	O
the	O
1990s	O
as	O
organizations	O
began	O
to	O
address	O
the	O
threat	O
of	O
application	O
failure	O
when	O
the	O
date	O
changed	O
to	O
the	O
year	O
2000	O
(	O
a	O
threat	O
that	O
became	O
known	O
as	O
Year	O
2000	O
or	O
Y2K	B-Error_Name
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
many	O
organizations	O
,	O
the	O
value	O
of	O
developing	O
this	O
list	O
was	O
challenged	O
by	O
business	O
leaders	O
concerned	O
about	O
the	O
cost	O
of	O
addressing	O
the	O
Y2K	B-Error_Name
risk	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
some	O
organizations	O
,	O
the	O
notion	O
of	O
managing	O
the	O
portfolio	O
was	O
presented	O
to	O
the	O
business	O
people	O
in	O
charge	O
of	O
the	O
Information	B-General_Concept
Technology	I-General_Concept
budget	O
as	O
a	O
benefit	O
of	O
performing	O
the	O
work	O
,	O
above	O
and	O
beyond	O
managing	O
the	O
risk	O
of	O
application	O
failure	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
There	O
are	O
two	O
main	O
categories	O
of	O
application	B-Application
portfolio	I-Application
management	I-Application
solutions	O
,	O
generally	O
referred	O
to	O
as	O
'	O
Top	O
Down	O
 '	O
and	O
'	O
Bottom	O
Up	O
 '	O
approaches	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
For	O
that	O
reason	O
,	O
many	O
organizations	O
bypass	O
using	O
commercial	O
tools	O
and	O
use	O
Microsoft	B-Application
Excel	I-Application
to	O
store	O
inventory	O
data	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
However	O
,	O
if	O
the	O
inventory	O
becomes	O
complex	O
,	O
Excel	B-Application
can	O
become	O
cumbersome	O
to	O
maintain	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Automatically	O
updating	O
the	O
data	O
is	O
not	O
well	O
supported	O
by	O
an	O
Excel-based	O
solution	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
With	O
a	O
large	O
majority	O
of	O
expenses	O
going	O
to	O
manage	O
the	O
existing	O
IT	O
applications	O
,	O
the	O
transparency	O
of	O
the	O
current	O
inventory	O
of	O
applications	O
and	O
resource	O
consumption	O
is	O
a	O
primary	O
goal	O
of	O
Application	B-Application
Portfolio	I-Application
Management	I-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
application	B-Application
portfolio	I-Application
management	I-Application
,	O
the	O
definition	O
of	O
an	O
application	O
is	O
a	O
critical	O
component	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Application	B-Application
software	I-Application
—	O
An	O
executable	O
software	O
component	O
or	O
tightly	O
coupled	O
set	O
of	O
executable	O
software	O
components	O
(	O
one	O
or	O
more	O
)	O
,	O
deployed	O
together	O
,	O
that	O
deliver	O
some	O
or	O
all	O
of	O
a	O
series	O
of	O
steps	O
needed	O
to	O
create	O
,	O
update	O
,	O
manage	O
,	O
calculate	O
or	O
display	O
information	O
for	O
a	O
specific	O
business	O
purpose	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Examples	O
include	O
a	O
Dynamic	O
Link	O
Library	O
,	O
an	O
ASP	B-General_Concept
web	O
page	O
,	O
and	O
a	O
command	O
line	O
"	O
EXE	O
"	O
application	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
A	O
zip	B-General_Concept
file	I-General_Concept
may	O
contain	O
zero	O
or	O
more	O
software	O
components	O
because	O
it	O
is	O
easy	O
to	O
break	O
them	O
down	O
further	O
(	O
by	O
unpacking	O
the	O
ZIP	B-General_Concept
archive	I-General_Concept
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Software	B-Application
application	I-Application
and	O
software	O
component	O
are	O
technical	O
terms	O
used	O
to	O
describe	O
a	O
specific	O
instance	O
of	O
the	O
class	O
of	O
application	B-Application
software	I-Application
for	O
the	O
purposes	O
of	O
IT	O
portfolio	O
management	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
See	O
application	B-Application
software	I-Application
for	O
a	O
definition	O
for	O
non-practitioners	O
of	O
IT	O
Management	O
or	O
Enterprise	O
Architecture	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
art	O
and	O
practice	O
of	O
software	B-Application
application	I-Application
portfolio	O
management	O
requires	O
a	O
fairly	O
detailed	O
and	O
specific	O
definition	O
of	O
an	O
application	O
in	O
order	O
to	O
create	O
a	O
catalog	O
of	O
applications	O
installed	O
in	O
an	O
organization	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
definition	O
of	O
an	O
application	O
has	O
the	O
following	O
needs	O
in	O
the	O
context	O
of	O
application	B-Application
portfolio	I-Application
management	I-Application
:	O
</s>
<s>
A	O
mobile	B-Application
application	I-Application
that	O
is	O
published	O
to	O
an	O
enterprise	O
application	O
store	O
and	O
thus	O
deployed	O
to	O
employee-owned	O
or	O
operated	O
portable	O
devices	O
enabling	O
authenticated	O
access	O
to	O
data	O
and	O
services	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
A	O
legacy	B-Device
system	I-Device
composed	O
of	O
a	O
rich	O
client	O
,	O
a	O
server-based	O
middle	O
tier	O
,	O
and	O
a	O
database	O
,	O
all	O
of	O
which	O
are	O
tightly	O
coupled	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
A	O
website	O
publishing	O
system	O
that	O
pulls	O
data	O
from	O
a	O
database	O
and	O
publishes	O
it	O
to	O
an	O
HTML	B-Language
format	O
as	O
a	O
sub-site	O
on	O
a	O
public	O
URL	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
A	O
database	O
that	O
presents	O
data	O
to	O
a	O
Microsoft	B-Application
Excel	I-Application
workbook	O
that	O
queries	O
the	O
information	O
for	O
layout	O
and	O
calculations	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
is	O
interesting	O
in	O
that	O
the	O
database	O
itself	O
is	O
an	O
application	O
unless	O
the	O
database	O
is	O
already	O
included	O
in	O
another	O
application	O
(	O
like	O
a	O
legacy	B-Device
system	I-Device
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
An	O
Excel	B-Application
spreadsheet	O
that	O
contains	O
a	O
coherent	O
set	O
of	O
reusable	O
macros	O
that	O
deliver	O
business	O
value	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
spreadsheet	O
itself	O
constitutes	O
a	O
deployment	O
container	O
for	O
the	O
application	O
(	O
like	O
a	O
TAR	B-Application
or	O
CAB	O
file	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
A	O
set	O
of	O
ASP	B-General_Concept
or	O
PHP	B-Application
web	O
pages	O
that	O
work	O
in	O
conjunction	O
with	O
one	O
another	O
to	O
deliver	O
the	O
experience	O
and	O
logic	O
of	O
a	O
web	O
application	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
An	O
HTML	B-Language
website	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
A	O
legacy	O
client-server	O
app	O
that	O
writes	O
to	O
a	O
database	O
to	O
store	O
data	O
and	O
an	O
Excel	B-Application
spreadsheet	O
that	O
uses	O
macros	O
to	O
read	O
data	O
from	O
the	O
database	O
to	O
present	O
a	O
report	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
is	O
true	O
even	O
if	O
the	O
legacy	B-Device
system	I-Device
uses	O
the	O
same	O
stored	O
procedures	O
as	O
the	O
Excel	B-Application
spreadsheet	O
.	O
</s>
