What should we be focusing on?

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The business question What should we be focusing on? focuses on the IT landscape from the perspective of the business and helps you to make sound investment decisions about the IT. The visualization shows you which first- and second-level business capabilities in the business capability model are most critical and which are less critical to the business. Review the aggregated number of as-is applications currently supporting a business capability as well as the to-be applications planned to support it. Determine which applications to invest in, migrate, or divest based on the relevance of the business capabilities they support.

This business question visualizes data in a nested matrix report. The visualization shows the first-level and second-level business capabilities in the business capability model. The business capabilities that are subordinate to the second-level business capabilities are not displayed in the report but are included in the data source and the calculation of application support.

Which business capabilities are most critical for your company? The business capabilities are colored according to their business criticality. Business criticality is based on the value defined for the Business Relevance attribute of a business capability.

• The most critical business capabilities are shades of purple.
  • Dark purple  indicates that business relevance is set to Mission Critical. Mission Critical means that the business capability is crucial to the organization's business and therefore essential to the accomplishment of the vision, goals and objectives.
  • Light purple  indicates that business relevance is set to Business Evolving. Business Evolving means that the business capability responds to internal and external change and helps to support the necessary steps to transition the organization's business.
• The less critical business capabilities are shades of green.
  • Dark green  indicates that business relevance is set to Business Operating. Business Operating means that the business capability is not unique to the business but does provide the support required to operate the business. Because it is not unique to the business, it does not constitute a core business capability.
  • Light green  indicates that business relevance is set to Business Enabling. Business Enabling means that the business capability is currently core to the business of the organization and describes what currently exists in the business.

How many applications currently support the business capability? Each second-level business capability shows a box with the number of as-is applications that currently provide support. The number is an aggregation of all applications that provide support to the second-level business capability as well as its subordinate business capabilities on lower levels of the business capability model. An application is counted as an as-is application if the Object State attribute = Active and the current date is between the application's start and end date.

How will the business capability be supported in the future? To-be applications are planned applications that shall support the business capability. Each business capability shows a box with the aggregated number of to-be applications that are planned to provide support. An application is counted as a to-be application if the object state is set to Plan and:

• the application's start date is in the future, or
• the application is a strategic application and is recommended for future consideration. ( Strategic Application = True and Recommendation = Invest, Tolerate, or Migrate)

Recommendation: Review whether more to-be applications are planned than as-is applications for critical and non-critical business capabilities. Determine whether the planned applications are justified or if it is possible to consolidate the to-be applications. Create a project to consolidate applications.

Which applications provide support to a business capability? Double-click the as-is element in the business capability to open the As-Is Applicationsview. The view displays a Gantt report with the lifecycles of all as-is applications supporting the business capability. Recommendation: Review the lifecycles of the applications to ensure that relevant application support is available for the business capability.

Which applications are planned to support the business capability in the future? Double-click the to-be element in a business capability to open the To-Be Applications view. The view shows a data workbench all to-be applications that are planned to support the business capability.

Which business capabilities should I most focus on? Symbols are added to the second-level business capability that are focus areas of concern.

• A warning symbol  is displayed if more to-be applications are planned for non-critical business areas.

  Recommendation: Review why the number of supporting applications will be increased for a non-critical business capability. Which of the to-be applications are considered strategic applications and why? Determine which applications can be sundowned. Create a project to sundown applications.

• An issue symbol  is displayed if more to-be applications are planned than as-is applications for a critical business capability.

  Recommendation: Review whether it is really necessary to increase the number of planned applications that support the business capability or whether the current number of applications suffices. Which of the to-be applications are considered strategic applications and why? Are applications missing in the to-be architecture?

Which applications are used by a specific organization? Click the Filter   button and select an organization in the Using Organization field. The visualization shows the numbers of as-is and to-be applications used by the specified organization. Recommendation: Look for business capabilities where more to-be applications are planned and determine whether they are necessary for the owning organization.

Which applications belong to a specific application portfolio? Click the Filter   button and select an application group in the Application Group field. Recommendation: Find the focus areas where more to-be applications are implemented for the application portfolio than in the current landscape. Look for possible redundancy or areas of optimization to streamline the application portfolio. Create a project to sundown applications.