Application Rationalization A Complete Guide
You're under pressure. Your application portfolio is bloated, overlapping, and burning budget. Stakeholders demand answers. Executives want cost savings and risk reduction. And you're expected to deliver clarity - fast. But where do you start? How do you confidently justify retiring or consolidating systems without stepping on political landmines? Most teams survive on outdated inventories, gut instinct, or reactive firefighting. But that approach doesn’t scale - and it won’t earn you a seat at the strategic table. What if you could walk into your next IT steering committee with a data-backed, repeatable framework to rationalise applications across the enterprise? Application Rationalization A Complete Guide gives you the exact methodology used by top-tier architects and transformation leads to reduce application portfolios by 30–60% while increasing stability and agility. This isn’t theory. It’s the battle-tested system for turning chaos into clarity, cost drain into savings, and uncertainty into confidence. One learner, a senior IT manager at a global financial services firm, used this guide to rationalise 148 applications down to 62 core systems in under 12 weeks. The result? $3.8M in annual licensing and maintenance savings, with full stakeholder buy-in and zero service disruption. They didn’t have a dedicated team or external consultants - just this guide and their determination. This course is your blueprint for going from overwhelmed and reactive to strategic and board-ready. You’ll build a comprehensive application rationalisation proposal in 30 days, complete with scoring models, governance frameworks, and migration roadmaps - all designed to gain executive sponsorship and deliver measurable ROI. Here’s how this course is structured to help you get there.Course Format & Delivery Details Self-Paced, Immediate Online Access
This is an on-demand course with no fixed start dates or time commitments. Enrol anytime, access instantly, and progress at your own pace. Most learners complete the core content in 25–35 hours, with many achieving their first rationalisation recommendation within the first week. Lifetime Access, Zero Future Costs
Your investment includes lifetime access to all course materials. This means you’ll receive all future updates, refinements, and expanded content at no additional cost. As application landscapes and vendor technologies evolve, your knowledge stays current. Available Anytime, Anywhere
Access your course 24/7 from any device, including smartphones and tablets. The platform is fully responsive, allowing you to study during commutes, plan during lunch breaks, or refine models late at night - without interruptions. Expert Guidance Included
You’re not alone. Throughout the course, you’ll have access to direct guidance from experienced enterprise architects who have led rationalisation programs across Fortune 500 organisations. Questions are answered within 12–24 hours on business days, ensuring you never get stuck. Certificate of Completion by The Art of Service
Upon finishing the course and submitting your final project, you’ll receive a Certificate of Completion issued by The Art of Service. Renowned for rigorous, practical standards, this credential is recognised globally by employers, auditors, and enterprise architecture teams. It validates your ability to execute a full application rationalisation initiative from end to end. Clear, Transparent Pricing
One flat fee. No hidden charges, no subscription traps, no automatic renewals. What you see is what you pay. The course accepts Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal - all processed securely with no data retention. Risk-Free Learning Guarantee
Try the course for 30 days. If you don’t find the frameworks actionable, the templates useful, or the outcomes valuable, simply request a full refund. No questions asked. Your investment is 100% protected. Enrolment Confirmation Process
After enrolment, you’ll receive an automated confirmation email. Your course access details will be sent separately once your registration is fully processed. This ensures that all user accounts are verified and your learning environment is secure and ready for use. “Will This Work for Me?” - Real-World Confidence
You don’t need to be a certified TOGAF architect or lead a massive transformation office to benefit. This guide is designed for practitioners at all levels - from application owners and solution architects to IT portfolio managers and digital transformation leads. Whether you manage a handful of legacy systems or oversee a 500+ application estate, the frameworks are scalable, modular, and customisable. You’ll get role-specific templates and real industry examples tailored to finance, healthcare, manufacturing, and public sector environments. This works even if: you’ve never led a rationalisation before, your data is incomplete, stakeholders are resistant, or you’re working with limited resources. The step-by-step system builds your confidence and credibility at every stage. You’re Covered by Full Risk Reversal
Your success is guaranteed. With lifetime access, expert support, recognised certification, and a full money-back promise - you’re taking zero risk. The only cost of inaction is staying stuck with underperforming systems, shrinking budgets, and missed strategic opportunities.
Module 1: Foundations of Application Rationalization - Defining application rationalization in the modern enterprise
- Understanding the business drivers: cost, risk, agility, compliance
- Common myths and misconceptions about retiring legacy systems
- The difference between rationalization, modernization, and migration
- Key stakeholders and their expectations across the organization
- Aligning rationalization with digital transformation goals
- Recognising symptoms of an unhealthy application portfolio
- Initial scoping: determining the boundaries of your engagement
- Building the business case for rationalization
- Establishing success metrics and KPIs
- Understanding total cost of ownership (TCO) by application
- Identifying redundancy, overlap, and functional duplication
- Planning for organisational change and political sensitivities
- Introducing the 5-phase rationalization lifecycle
- Leveraging industry benchmarks and benchmarks from peer organisations
- Using maturity models to assess current-state capabilities
Module 2: Data Collection and Application Inventory Management - Designing a comprehensive application data model
- Essential attributes: owner, vendor, lifecycle stage, technology stack
- Mapping integrations, dependencies, and data flows
- Assessing business criticality and usage frequency
- Collecting performance, support, and incident history
- Validating functional descriptions with business owners
- Automated discovery tools vs manual inventory collection
- Dealing with incomplete or inaccurate data
- Creating a central application repository
- Versioning and audit-trail practices for inventory updates
- Privacy, confidentiality, and data handling protocols
- Integrating CMDB data with application inventory
- Using spreadsheets effectively for small to mid-scale estates
- Defining data ownership and stewardship roles
- Scoping cloud-native and SaaS applications
- Documenting custom-built vs COTS systems
Module 3: Application Assessment and Scoring Frameworks - Designing a weighted scoring model for rationalization decisions
- Assigning weights to cost, risk, strategic fit, and technical health
- Creating custom scoring templates based on organisational priorities
- Normalising scores across diverse application types
- Using relative scoring to break ties and prioritise actions
- Calculating technical debt and maintenance burden
- Assessing vendor viability and end-of-life risks
- Measuring alignment with enterprise architecture principles
- Evaluating business capability coverage and gaps
- Scoring integration complexity and architectural fit
- Incorporating security and compliance posture into scores
- Validating scores with peer reviews and stakeholder input
- Handling subjective assessments with calibration workshops
- Creating heat maps for visual analysis
- Using scoring outputs to segment applications into action categories
- Defining thresholds for retire, replace, retain, rehost, refactor
Module 4: Rationalization Strategies and Decision Models - Overview of the five core rationalization actions
- When to retire an application: criteria and warning signs
- Identifying candidates for consolidation or merging
- Selecting systems for replacement with modern alternatives
- Strategic retention: justifying continued investment
- Rehosting legacy systems with minimal changes
- Refactoring for performance or compliance without full replacement
- Building a decision matrix for consistent outcomes
- Managing exceptions and high-value outliers
- Creating an action roadmap based on risk and effort
- Phasing decisions by business unit, region, or function
- Incorporating sunset timelines and decommission plans
- Using cost-benefit analysis to justify each decision
- Assessing impact on business processes and users
- Building stakeholder alignment through transparent models
- Documenting decisions with audit-ready rationale
Module 5: Stakeholder Engagement and Change Management - Identifying key influencers and decision makers
- Understanding emotional attachments to legacy systems
- Preparing targeted communications for different audiences
- Conducting application rationalization workshops
- Facilitating consensus on contentious retirements
- Addressing fear, uncertainty, and resistance
- Creating transparency through dashboards and reports
- Using pilot programs to build trust and momentum
- Establishing a rationalization governance board
- Setting up review cycles and decision gates
- Managing vendor relationships during transitions
- Engaging business unit leaders as partners
- Communicating wins and progress to the wider organisation
- Handling employee concerns about job impact
- Embedding rationalization into ongoing IT governance
- Designing feedback loops for continuous improvement
Module 6: Financial Impact and Business Case Development - Calculating direct savings from software licensing and maintenance
- Estimating indirect savings: support, hosting, and operations
- Quantifying risk reduction and compliance improvements
- Modelling opportunity cost of maintaining legacy systems
- Projecting ROI over 1, 3, and 5 year horizons
- Building a board-ready business case presentation
- Creating before-and-after TCO comparisons
- Incorporating avoided costs from technical debt
- Using financial models to prioritise high-impact actions
- Securing budget for transition and migration activities
- Aligning with enterprise finance and procurement teams
- Documenting assumptions and data sources transparently
- Presenting financial outcomes with confidence
- Using sensitivity analysis to test key variables
- Linking cost savings to strategic initiatives
- Demonstrating net present value (NPV) of rationalization
Module 7: Migration and Transition Planning - Defining data migration requirements and challenges
- Planning user retraining and change adoption
- Creating transition playbooks for each rationalization action
- Developing fallback and rollback procedures
- Coordinating with project management offices (PMO)
- Sequencing transitions to minimise disruption
- Testing integrated workflows post-transition
- Handling data archival and retention policies
- Managing vendor exit strategies and contract closures
- Establishing post-decommission monitoring
- Documenting knowledge transfer and handover
- Ensuring continuity of critical business functions
- Planning for cutover weekends and downtime windows
- Using phased rollouts for high-risk retirements
- Validating migrated data integrity and accuracy
- Obtaining formal sign-off from business owners
Module 8: Governance, Oversight, and Decision Frameworks - Establishing a formal application rationalization council
- Defining roles: enterprise architect, IT director, business sponsor
- Setting up regular review cadences and decision meetings
- Creating standard operating procedures for assessment cycles
- Documenting decisions in a central repository
- Linking rationalization to IT investment planning
- Using stage gates to control progression
- Ensuring compliance with regulatory and audit requirements
- Integrating with cloud strategy and SaaS standardisation
- Monitoring rationalization progress with KPIs
- Reporting outcomes to executive leadership
- Handling appeals and re-evaluation requests
- Building a culture of continuous portfolio hygiene
- Automating governance with policy rules and alerts
- Tying rationalization to IT service management (ITSM)
- Scaling governance for global, multi-region operations
Module 9: Tooling, Automation, and Technology Enablers - Overview of application portfolio management (APM) tools
- Selecting tools based on organisational size and needs
- Integrating rationalization data with enterprise architecture tools
- Leveraging IT asset management (ITAM) systems
- Using dependency mapping and visualisation software
- Automating scoring calculations with templates and macros
- Generating standard reports: rationalization heat maps, dashboards
- Data import/export best practices across systems
- API integrations between inventory and financial systems
- Using RPA for repetitive data collection tasks
- Configuring alerts for end-of-life or security risks
- Cloud discovery tools for SaaS and IaaS environments
- Open-source vs commercial tool comparison
- Building lightweight tools with Excel and Power BI
- Validating tool outputs with manual checks
- Preparing for future AI-assisted rationalization analysis
Module 10: Implementation Roadmaps and Project Execution - Transforming decisions into an actionable implementation plan
- Prioritising initiatives based on business value and effort
- Building a 30-60-90 day execution roadmap
- Resource planning: internal teams vs external support
- Integrating with existing project portfolios
- Managing parallel rationalization waves
- Tracking milestones, deliverables, and dependencies
- Using Gantt charts and execution timelines
- Communicating progress to stakeholders
- Handling roadblocks and delays proactively
- Adjusting plans based on feedback and new data
- Managing scope creep and additional requests
- Aligning with infrastructure and security teams
- Integrating with application development lifecycles
- Conducting post-implementation reviews
- Documenting lessons learned and process improvements
Module 11: Integration with Enterprise Architecture and IT Strategy - Positioning rationalization within the broader EA practice
- Linking application decisions to business capability models
- Using TOGAF, COBIT, or Zachman for alignment
- Ensuring compliance with technology standards
- Integrating with cloud-first and data strategy
- Supporting zero trust security by reducing attack surface
- Aligning with application development and DevOps practices
- Feeding rationalization outcomes into future roadmaps
- Using insights to inform procurement and vendor strategy
- Supporting mergers and acquisitions integration
- Reinforcing IT as a strategic enabler, not a cost centre
- Enabling faster innovation by reducing technical debt
- Positioning the IT department as a value creator
- Aligning with sustainability goals through reduced energy use
- Building an adaptive architecture through ongoing hygiene
- Connecting rationalization to agility and time-to-market
Module 12: Risk Management and Business Continuity - Identifying risks associated with application retirement
- Assessing operational, financial, and reputational exposure
- Conducting business impact analysis (BIA) for each candidate
- Developing risk mitigation plans for high-impact actions
- Ensuring compliance with legal and regulatory obligations
- Managing data retention and archiving requirements
- Testing fallback and recovery procedures
- Monitoring for unintended consequences post-retirement
- Using insurance and contractual protections where applicable
- Addressing intellectual property and licensing concerns
- Handling embedded business logic in legacy code
- Ensuring audit readiness after decommissioning
- Managing third-party dependencies and integration risks
- Planning for vendor lock-in and exit challenges
- Communicating risks transparently to stakeholders
- Documenting risk treatment decisions and approvals
Module 13: Metrics, Reporting, and Performance Tracking - Designing KPIs for rationalization success
- Tracking cost reduction, system count, and TCO trends
- Measuring reduction in technical debt and incident rates
- Monitoring stakeholder satisfaction and adoption
- Creating executive dashboards for visibility
- Using before-and-after comparisons for impact validation
- Reporting progress to boards and audit committees
- Automating data collection for ongoing tracking
- Setting benchmarks and improvement targets
- Incorporating feedback into future cycles
- Analysing trends over time for continuous optimisation
- Linking metrics to organisational performance goals
- Avoiding vanity metrics and focusing on business outcomes
- Ensuring data accuracy and source transparency
- Using visualisation tools for stakeholder engagement
- Sharing results to build credibility and momentum
Module 14: Certification, Final Project, and Next Steps - Overview of the Certificate of Completion by The Art of Service
- Requirements for successful course completion
- Submitting your final application rationalisation project
- Project components: inventory, scoring model, roadmap, business case
- Receiving expert feedback and validation
- How the certificate enhances your professional credibility
- Adding your achievement to LinkedIn, CV, and professional profiles
- Using the certificate in performance reviews and promotions
- Accessing alumni resources and updates
- Joining a network of certified practitioners
- Next steps after certification: leading your first initiative
- Scaling rationalisation across the enterprise
- Building a center of excellence for portfolio management
- Staying current with emerging trends and tools
- Advancing into enterprise architecture or transformation leadership
- Accessing advanced guides and specialisations
- Defining application rationalization in the modern enterprise
- Understanding the business drivers: cost, risk, agility, compliance
- Common myths and misconceptions about retiring legacy systems
- The difference between rationalization, modernization, and migration
- Key stakeholders and their expectations across the organization
- Aligning rationalization with digital transformation goals
- Recognising symptoms of an unhealthy application portfolio
- Initial scoping: determining the boundaries of your engagement
- Building the business case for rationalization
- Establishing success metrics and KPIs
- Understanding total cost of ownership (TCO) by application
- Identifying redundancy, overlap, and functional duplication
- Planning for organisational change and political sensitivities
- Introducing the 5-phase rationalization lifecycle
- Leveraging industry benchmarks and benchmarks from peer organisations
- Using maturity models to assess current-state capabilities
Module 2: Data Collection and Application Inventory Management - Designing a comprehensive application data model
- Essential attributes: owner, vendor, lifecycle stage, technology stack
- Mapping integrations, dependencies, and data flows
- Assessing business criticality and usage frequency
- Collecting performance, support, and incident history
- Validating functional descriptions with business owners
- Automated discovery tools vs manual inventory collection
- Dealing with incomplete or inaccurate data
- Creating a central application repository
- Versioning and audit-trail practices for inventory updates
- Privacy, confidentiality, and data handling protocols
- Integrating CMDB data with application inventory
- Using spreadsheets effectively for small to mid-scale estates
- Defining data ownership and stewardship roles
- Scoping cloud-native and SaaS applications
- Documenting custom-built vs COTS systems
Module 3: Application Assessment and Scoring Frameworks - Designing a weighted scoring model for rationalization decisions
- Assigning weights to cost, risk, strategic fit, and technical health
- Creating custom scoring templates based on organisational priorities
- Normalising scores across diverse application types
- Using relative scoring to break ties and prioritise actions
- Calculating technical debt and maintenance burden
- Assessing vendor viability and end-of-life risks
- Measuring alignment with enterprise architecture principles
- Evaluating business capability coverage and gaps
- Scoring integration complexity and architectural fit
- Incorporating security and compliance posture into scores
- Validating scores with peer reviews and stakeholder input
- Handling subjective assessments with calibration workshops
- Creating heat maps for visual analysis
- Using scoring outputs to segment applications into action categories
- Defining thresholds for retire, replace, retain, rehost, refactor
Module 4: Rationalization Strategies and Decision Models - Overview of the five core rationalization actions
- When to retire an application: criteria and warning signs
- Identifying candidates for consolidation or merging
- Selecting systems for replacement with modern alternatives
- Strategic retention: justifying continued investment
- Rehosting legacy systems with minimal changes
- Refactoring for performance or compliance without full replacement
- Building a decision matrix for consistent outcomes
- Managing exceptions and high-value outliers
- Creating an action roadmap based on risk and effort
- Phasing decisions by business unit, region, or function
- Incorporating sunset timelines and decommission plans
- Using cost-benefit analysis to justify each decision
- Assessing impact on business processes and users
- Building stakeholder alignment through transparent models
- Documenting decisions with audit-ready rationale
Module 5: Stakeholder Engagement and Change Management - Identifying key influencers and decision makers
- Understanding emotional attachments to legacy systems
- Preparing targeted communications for different audiences
- Conducting application rationalization workshops
- Facilitating consensus on contentious retirements
- Addressing fear, uncertainty, and resistance
- Creating transparency through dashboards and reports
- Using pilot programs to build trust and momentum
- Establishing a rationalization governance board
- Setting up review cycles and decision gates
- Managing vendor relationships during transitions
- Engaging business unit leaders as partners
- Communicating wins and progress to the wider organisation
- Handling employee concerns about job impact
- Embedding rationalization into ongoing IT governance
- Designing feedback loops for continuous improvement
Module 6: Financial Impact and Business Case Development - Calculating direct savings from software licensing and maintenance
- Estimating indirect savings: support, hosting, and operations
- Quantifying risk reduction and compliance improvements
- Modelling opportunity cost of maintaining legacy systems
- Projecting ROI over 1, 3, and 5 year horizons
- Building a board-ready business case presentation
- Creating before-and-after TCO comparisons
- Incorporating avoided costs from technical debt
- Using financial models to prioritise high-impact actions
- Securing budget for transition and migration activities
- Aligning with enterprise finance and procurement teams
- Documenting assumptions and data sources transparently
- Presenting financial outcomes with confidence
- Using sensitivity analysis to test key variables
- Linking cost savings to strategic initiatives
- Demonstrating net present value (NPV) of rationalization
Module 7: Migration and Transition Planning - Defining data migration requirements and challenges
- Planning user retraining and change adoption
- Creating transition playbooks for each rationalization action
- Developing fallback and rollback procedures
- Coordinating with project management offices (PMO)
- Sequencing transitions to minimise disruption
- Testing integrated workflows post-transition
- Handling data archival and retention policies
- Managing vendor exit strategies and contract closures
- Establishing post-decommission monitoring
- Documenting knowledge transfer and handover
- Ensuring continuity of critical business functions
- Planning for cutover weekends and downtime windows
- Using phased rollouts for high-risk retirements
- Validating migrated data integrity and accuracy
- Obtaining formal sign-off from business owners
Module 8: Governance, Oversight, and Decision Frameworks - Establishing a formal application rationalization council
- Defining roles: enterprise architect, IT director, business sponsor
- Setting up regular review cadences and decision meetings
- Creating standard operating procedures for assessment cycles
- Documenting decisions in a central repository
- Linking rationalization to IT investment planning
- Using stage gates to control progression
- Ensuring compliance with regulatory and audit requirements
- Integrating with cloud strategy and SaaS standardisation
- Monitoring rationalization progress with KPIs
- Reporting outcomes to executive leadership
- Handling appeals and re-evaluation requests
- Building a culture of continuous portfolio hygiene
- Automating governance with policy rules and alerts
- Tying rationalization to IT service management (ITSM)
- Scaling governance for global, multi-region operations
Module 9: Tooling, Automation, and Technology Enablers - Overview of application portfolio management (APM) tools
- Selecting tools based on organisational size and needs
- Integrating rationalization data with enterprise architecture tools
- Leveraging IT asset management (ITAM) systems
- Using dependency mapping and visualisation software
- Automating scoring calculations with templates and macros
- Generating standard reports: rationalization heat maps, dashboards
- Data import/export best practices across systems
- API integrations between inventory and financial systems
- Using RPA for repetitive data collection tasks
- Configuring alerts for end-of-life or security risks
- Cloud discovery tools for SaaS and IaaS environments
- Open-source vs commercial tool comparison
- Building lightweight tools with Excel and Power BI
- Validating tool outputs with manual checks
- Preparing for future AI-assisted rationalization analysis
Module 10: Implementation Roadmaps and Project Execution - Transforming decisions into an actionable implementation plan
- Prioritising initiatives based on business value and effort
- Building a 30-60-90 day execution roadmap
- Resource planning: internal teams vs external support
- Integrating with existing project portfolios
- Managing parallel rationalization waves
- Tracking milestones, deliverables, and dependencies
- Using Gantt charts and execution timelines
- Communicating progress to stakeholders
- Handling roadblocks and delays proactively
- Adjusting plans based on feedback and new data
- Managing scope creep and additional requests
- Aligning with infrastructure and security teams
- Integrating with application development lifecycles
- Conducting post-implementation reviews
- Documenting lessons learned and process improvements
Module 11: Integration with Enterprise Architecture and IT Strategy - Positioning rationalization within the broader EA practice
- Linking application decisions to business capability models
- Using TOGAF, COBIT, or Zachman for alignment
- Ensuring compliance with technology standards
- Integrating with cloud-first and data strategy
- Supporting zero trust security by reducing attack surface
- Aligning with application development and DevOps practices
- Feeding rationalization outcomes into future roadmaps
- Using insights to inform procurement and vendor strategy
- Supporting mergers and acquisitions integration
- Reinforcing IT as a strategic enabler, not a cost centre
- Enabling faster innovation by reducing technical debt
- Positioning the IT department as a value creator
- Aligning with sustainability goals through reduced energy use
- Building an adaptive architecture through ongoing hygiene
- Connecting rationalization to agility and time-to-market
Module 12: Risk Management and Business Continuity - Identifying risks associated with application retirement
- Assessing operational, financial, and reputational exposure
- Conducting business impact analysis (BIA) for each candidate
- Developing risk mitigation plans for high-impact actions
- Ensuring compliance with legal and regulatory obligations
- Managing data retention and archiving requirements
- Testing fallback and recovery procedures
- Monitoring for unintended consequences post-retirement
- Using insurance and contractual protections where applicable
- Addressing intellectual property and licensing concerns
- Handling embedded business logic in legacy code
- Ensuring audit readiness after decommissioning
- Managing third-party dependencies and integration risks
- Planning for vendor lock-in and exit challenges
- Communicating risks transparently to stakeholders
- Documenting risk treatment decisions and approvals
Module 13: Metrics, Reporting, and Performance Tracking - Designing KPIs for rationalization success
- Tracking cost reduction, system count, and TCO trends
- Measuring reduction in technical debt and incident rates
- Monitoring stakeholder satisfaction and adoption
- Creating executive dashboards for visibility
- Using before-and-after comparisons for impact validation
- Reporting progress to boards and audit committees
- Automating data collection for ongoing tracking
- Setting benchmarks and improvement targets
- Incorporating feedback into future cycles
- Analysing trends over time for continuous optimisation
- Linking metrics to organisational performance goals
- Avoiding vanity metrics and focusing on business outcomes
- Ensuring data accuracy and source transparency
- Using visualisation tools for stakeholder engagement
- Sharing results to build credibility and momentum
Module 14: Certification, Final Project, and Next Steps - Overview of the Certificate of Completion by The Art of Service
- Requirements for successful course completion
- Submitting your final application rationalisation project
- Project components: inventory, scoring model, roadmap, business case
- Receiving expert feedback and validation
- How the certificate enhances your professional credibility
- Adding your achievement to LinkedIn, CV, and professional profiles
- Using the certificate in performance reviews and promotions
- Accessing alumni resources and updates
- Joining a network of certified practitioners
- Next steps after certification: leading your first initiative
- Scaling rationalisation across the enterprise
- Building a center of excellence for portfolio management
- Staying current with emerging trends and tools
- Advancing into enterprise architecture or transformation leadership
- Accessing advanced guides and specialisations
- Designing a weighted scoring model for rationalization decisions
- Assigning weights to cost, risk, strategic fit, and technical health
- Creating custom scoring templates based on organisational priorities
- Normalising scores across diverse application types
- Using relative scoring to break ties and prioritise actions
- Calculating technical debt and maintenance burden
- Assessing vendor viability and end-of-life risks
- Measuring alignment with enterprise architecture principles
- Evaluating business capability coverage and gaps
- Scoring integration complexity and architectural fit
- Incorporating security and compliance posture into scores
- Validating scores with peer reviews and stakeholder input
- Handling subjective assessments with calibration workshops
- Creating heat maps for visual analysis
- Using scoring outputs to segment applications into action categories
- Defining thresholds for retire, replace, retain, rehost, refactor
Module 4: Rationalization Strategies and Decision Models - Overview of the five core rationalization actions
- When to retire an application: criteria and warning signs
- Identifying candidates for consolidation or merging
- Selecting systems for replacement with modern alternatives
- Strategic retention: justifying continued investment
- Rehosting legacy systems with minimal changes
- Refactoring for performance or compliance without full replacement
- Building a decision matrix for consistent outcomes
- Managing exceptions and high-value outliers
- Creating an action roadmap based on risk and effort
- Phasing decisions by business unit, region, or function
- Incorporating sunset timelines and decommission plans
- Using cost-benefit analysis to justify each decision
- Assessing impact on business processes and users
- Building stakeholder alignment through transparent models
- Documenting decisions with audit-ready rationale
Module 5: Stakeholder Engagement and Change Management - Identifying key influencers and decision makers
- Understanding emotional attachments to legacy systems
- Preparing targeted communications for different audiences
- Conducting application rationalization workshops
- Facilitating consensus on contentious retirements
- Addressing fear, uncertainty, and resistance
- Creating transparency through dashboards and reports
- Using pilot programs to build trust and momentum
- Establishing a rationalization governance board
- Setting up review cycles and decision gates
- Managing vendor relationships during transitions
- Engaging business unit leaders as partners
- Communicating wins and progress to the wider organisation
- Handling employee concerns about job impact
- Embedding rationalization into ongoing IT governance
- Designing feedback loops for continuous improvement
Module 6: Financial Impact and Business Case Development - Calculating direct savings from software licensing and maintenance
- Estimating indirect savings: support, hosting, and operations
- Quantifying risk reduction and compliance improvements
- Modelling opportunity cost of maintaining legacy systems
- Projecting ROI over 1, 3, and 5 year horizons
- Building a board-ready business case presentation
- Creating before-and-after TCO comparisons
- Incorporating avoided costs from technical debt
- Using financial models to prioritise high-impact actions
- Securing budget for transition and migration activities
- Aligning with enterprise finance and procurement teams
- Documenting assumptions and data sources transparently
- Presenting financial outcomes with confidence
- Using sensitivity analysis to test key variables
- Linking cost savings to strategic initiatives
- Demonstrating net present value (NPV) of rationalization
Module 7: Migration and Transition Planning - Defining data migration requirements and challenges
- Planning user retraining and change adoption
- Creating transition playbooks for each rationalization action
- Developing fallback and rollback procedures
- Coordinating with project management offices (PMO)
- Sequencing transitions to minimise disruption
- Testing integrated workflows post-transition
- Handling data archival and retention policies
- Managing vendor exit strategies and contract closures
- Establishing post-decommission monitoring
- Documenting knowledge transfer and handover
- Ensuring continuity of critical business functions
- Planning for cutover weekends and downtime windows
- Using phased rollouts for high-risk retirements
- Validating migrated data integrity and accuracy
- Obtaining formal sign-off from business owners
Module 8: Governance, Oversight, and Decision Frameworks - Establishing a formal application rationalization council
- Defining roles: enterprise architect, IT director, business sponsor
- Setting up regular review cadences and decision meetings
- Creating standard operating procedures for assessment cycles
- Documenting decisions in a central repository
- Linking rationalization to IT investment planning
- Using stage gates to control progression
- Ensuring compliance with regulatory and audit requirements
- Integrating with cloud strategy and SaaS standardisation
- Monitoring rationalization progress with KPIs
- Reporting outcomes to executive leadership
- Handling appeals and re-evaluation requests
- Building a culture of continuous portfolio hygiene
- Automating governance with policy rules and alerts
- Tying rationalization to IT service management (ITSM)
- Scaling governance for global, multi-region operations
Module 9: Tooling, Automation, and Technology Enablers - Overview of application portfolio management (APM) tools
- Selecting tools based on organisational size and needs
- Integrating rationalization data with enterprise architecture tools
- Leveraging IT asset management (ITAM) systems
- Using dependency mapping and visualisation software
- Automating scoring calculations with templates and macros
- Generating standard reports: rationalization heat maps, dashboards
- Data import/export best practices across systems
- API integrations between inventory and financial systems
- Using RPA for repetitive data collection tasks
- Configuring alerts for end-of-life or security risks
- Cloud discovery tools for SaaS and IaaS environments
- Open-source vs commercial tool comparison
- Building lightweight tools with Excel and Power BI
- Validating tool outputs with manual checks
- Preparing for future AI-assisted rationalization analysis
Module 10: Implementation Roadmaps and Project Execution - Transforming decisions into an actionable implementation plan
- Prioritising initiatives based on business value and effort
- Building a 30-60-90 day execution roadmap
- Resource planning: internal teams vs external support
- Integrating with existing project portfolios
- Managing parallel rationalization waves
- Tracking milestones, deliverables, and dependencies
- Using Gantt charts and execution timelines
- Communicating progress to stakeholders
- Handling roadblocks and delays proactively
- Adjusting plans based on feedback and new data
- Managing scope creep and additional requests
- Aligning with infrastructure and security teams
- Integrating with application development lifecycles
- Conducting post-implementation reviews
- Documenting lessons learned and process improvements
Module 11: Integration with Enterprise Architecture and IT Strategy - Positioning rationalization within the broader EA practice
- Linking application decisions to business capability models
- Using TOGAF, COBIT, or Zachman for alignment
- Ensuring compliance with technology standards
- Integrating with cloud-first and data strategy
- Supporting zero trust security by reducing attack surface
- Aligning with application development and DevOps practices
- Feeding rationalization outcomes into future roadmaps
- Using insights to inform procurement and vendor strategy
- Supporting mergers and acquisitions integration
- Reinforcing IT as a strategic enabler, not a cost centre
- Enabling faster innovation by reducing technical debt
- Positioning the IT department as a value creator
- Aligning with sustainability goals through reduced energy use
- Building an adaptive architecture through ongoing hygiene
- Connecting rationalization to agility and time-to-market
Module 12: Risk Management and Business Continuity - Identifying risks associated with application retirement
- Assessing operational, financial, and reputational exposure
- Conducting business impact analysis (BIA) for each candidate
- Developing risk mitigation plans for high-impact actions
- Ensuring compliance with legal and regulatory obligations
- Managing data retention and archiving requirements
- Testing fallback and recovery procedures
- Monitoring for unintended consequences post-retirement
- Using insurance and contractual protections where applicable
- Addressing intellectual property and licensing concerns
- Handling embedded business logic in legacy code
- Ensuring audit readiness after decommissioning
- Managing third-party dependencies and integration risks
- Planning for vendor lock-in and exit challenges
- Communicating risks transparently to stakeholders
- Documenting risk treatment decisions and approvals
Module 13: Metrics, Reporting, and Performance Tracking - Designing KPIs for rationalization success
- Tracking cost reduction, system count, and TCO trends
- Measuring reduction in technical debt and incident rates
- Monitoring stakeholder satisfaction and adoption
- Creating executive dashboards for visibility
- Using before-and-after comparisons for impact validation
- Reporting progress to boards and audit committees
- Automating data collection for ongoing tracking
- Setting benchmarks and improvement targets
- Incorporating feedback into future cycles
- Analysing trends over time for continuous optimisation
- Linking metrics to organisational performance goals
- Avoiding vanity metrics and focusing on business outcomes
- Ensuring data accuracy and source transparency
- Using visualisation tools for stakeholder engagement
- Sharing results to build credibility and momentum
Module 14: Certification, Final Project, and Next Steps - Overview of the Certificate of Completion by The Art of Service
- Requirements for successful course completion
- Submitting your final application rationalisation project
- Project components: inventory, scoring model, roadmap, business case
- Receiving expert feedback and validation
- How the certificate enhances your professional credibility
- Adding your achievement to LinkedIn, CV, and professional profiles
- Using the certificate in performance reviews and promotions
- Accessing alumni resources and updates
- Joining a network of certified practitioners
- Next steps after certification: leading your first initiative
- Scaling rationalisation across the enterprise
- Building a center of excellence for portfolio management
- Staying current with emerging trends and tools
- Advancing into enterprise architecture or transformation leadership
- Accessing advanced guides and specialisations
- Identifying key influencers and decision makers
- Understanding emotional attachments to legacy systems
- Preparing targeted communications for different audiences
- Conducting application rationalization workshops
- Facilitating consensus on contentious retirements
- Addressing fear, uncertainty, and resistance
- Creating transparency through dashboards and reports
- Using pilot programs to build trust and momentum
- Establishing a rationalization governance board
- Setting up review cycles and decision gates
- Managing vendor relationships during transitions
- Engaging business unit leaders as partners
- Communicating wins and progress to the wider organisation
- Handling employee concerns about job impact
- Embedding rationalization into ongoing IT governance
- Designing feedback loops for continuous improvement
Module 6: Financial Impact and Business Case Development - Calculating direct savings from software licensing and maintenance
- Estimating indirect savings: support, hosting, and operations
- Quantifying risk reduction and compliance improvements
- Modelling opportunity cost of maintaining legacy systems
- Projecting ROI over 1, 3, and 5 year horizons
- Building a board-ready business case presentation
- Creating before-and-after TCO comparisons
- Incorporating avoided costs from technical debt
- Using financial models to prioritise high-impact actions
- Securing budget for transition and migration activities
- Aligning with enterprise finance and procurement teams
- Documenting assumptions and data sources transparently
- Presenting financial outcomes with confidence
- Using sensitivity analysis to test key variables
- Linking cost savings to strategic initiatives
- Demonstrating net present value (NPV) of rationalization
Module 7: Migration and Transition Planning - Defining data migration requirements and challenges
- Planning user retraining and change adoption
- Creating transition playbooks for each rationalization action
- Developing fallback and rollback procedures
- Coordinating with project management offices (PMO)
- Sequencing transitions to minimise disruption
- Testing integrated workflows post-transition
- Handling data archival and retention policies
- Managing vendor exit strategies and contract closures
- Establishing post-decommission monitoring
- Documenting knowledge transfer and handover
- Ensuring continuity of critical business functions
- Planning for cutover weekends and downtime windows
- Using phased rollouts for high-risk retirements
- Validating migrated data integrity and accuracy
- Obtaining formal sign-off from business owners
Module 8: Governance, Oversight, and Decision Frameworks - Establishing a formal application rationalization council
- Defining roles: enterprise architect, IT director, business sponsor
- Setting up regular review cadences and decision meetings
- Creating standard operating procedures for assessment cycles
- Documenting decisions in a central repository
- Linking rationalization to IT investment planning
- Using stage gates to control progression
- Ensuring compliance with regulatory and audit requirements
- Integrating with cloud strategy and SaaS standardisation
- Monitoring rationalization progress with KPIs
- Reporting outcomes to executive leadership
- Handling appeals and re-evaluation requests
- Building a culture of continuous portfolio hygiene
- Automating governance with policy rules and alerts
- Tying rationalization to IT service management (ITSM)
- Scaling governance for global, multi-region operations
Module 9: Tooling, Automation, and Technology Enablers - Overview of application portfolio management (APM) tools
- Selecting tools based on organisational size and needs
- Integrating rationalization data with enterprise architecture tools
- Leveraging IT asset management (ITAM) systems
- Using dependency mapping and visualisation software
- Automating scoring calculations with templates and macros
- Generating standard reports: rationalization heat maps, dashboards
- Data import/export best practices across systems
- API integrations between inventory and financial systems
- Using RPA for repetitive data collection tasks
- Configuring alerts for end-of-life or security risks
- Cloud discovery tools for SaaS and IaaS environments
- Open-source vs commercial tool comparison
- Building lightweight tools with Excel and Power BI
- Validating tool outputs with manual checks
- Preparing for future AI-assisted rationalization analysis
Module 10: Implementation Roadmaps and Project Execution - Transforming decisions into an actionable implementation plan
- Prioritising initiatives based on business value and effort
- Building a 30-60-90 day execution roadmap
- Resource planning: internal teams vs external support
- Integrating with existing project portfolios
- Managing parallel rationalization waves
- Tracking milestones, deliverables, and dependencies
- Using Gantt charts and execution timelines
- Communicating progress to stakeholders
- Handling roadblocks and delays proactively
- Adjusting plans based on feedback and new data
- Managing scope creep and additional requests
- Aligning with infrastructure and security teams
- Integrating with application development lifecycles
- Conducting post-implementation reviews
- Documenting lessons learned and process improvements
Module 11: Integration with Enterprise Architecture and IT Strategy - Positioning rationalization within the broader EA practice
- Linking application decisions to business capability models
- Using TOGAF, COBIT, or Zachman for alignment
- Ensuring compliance with technology standards
- Integrating with cloud-first and data strategy
- Supporting zero trust security by reducing attack surface
- Aligning with application development and DevOps practices
- Feeding rationalization outcomes into future roadmaps
- Using insights to inform procurement and vendor strategy
- Supporting mergers and acquisitions integration
- Reinforcing IT as a strategic enabler, not a cost centre
- Enabling faster innovation by reducing technical debt
- Positioning the IT department as a value creator
- Aligning with sustainability goals through reduced energy use
- Building an adaptive architecture through ongoing hygiene
- Connecting rationalization to agility and time-to-market
Module 12: Risk Management and Business Continuity - Identifying risks associated with application retirement
- Assessing operational, financial, and reputational exposure
- Conducting business impact analysis (BIA) for each candidate
- Developing risk mitigation plans for high-impact actions
- Ensuring compliance with legal and regulatory obligations
- Managing data retention and archiving requirements
- Testing fallback and recovery procedures
- Monitoring for unintended consequences post-retirement
- Using insurance and contractual protections where applicable
- Addressing intellectual property and licensing concerns
- Handling embedded business logic in legacy code
- Ensuring audit readiness after decommissioning
- Managing third-party dependencies and integration risks
- Planning for vendor lock-in and exit challenges
- Communicating risks transparently to stakeholders
- Documenting risk treatment decisions and approvals
Module 13: Metrics, Reporting, and Performance Tracking - Designing KPIs for rationalization success
- Tracking cost reduction, system count, and TCO trends
- Measuring reduction in technical debt and incident rates
- Monitoring stakeholder satisfaction and adoption
- Creating executive dashboards for visibility
- Using before-and-after comparisons for impact validation
- Reporting progress to boards and audit committees
- Automating data collection for ongoing tracking
- Setting benchmarks and improvement targets
- Incorporating feedback into future cycles
- Analysing trends over time for continuous optimisation
- Linking metrics to organisational performance goals
- Avoiding vanity metrics and focusing on business outcomes
- Ensuring data accuracy and source transparency
- Using visualisation tools for stakeholder engagement
- Sharing results to build credibility and momentum
Module 14: Certification, Final Project, and Next Steps - Overview of the Certificate of Completion by The Art of Service
- Requirements for successful course completion
- Submitting your final application rationalisation project
- Project components: inventory, scoring model, roadmap, business case
- Receiving expert feedback and validation
- How the certificate enhances your professional credibility
- Adding your achievement to LinkedIn, CV, and professional profiles
- Using the certificate in performance reviews and promotions
- Accessing alumni resources and updates
- Joining a network of certified practitioners
- Next steps after certification: leading your first initiative
- Scaling rationalisation across the enterprise
- Building a center of excellence for portfolio management
- Staying current with emerging trends and tools
- Advancing into enterprise architecture or transformation leadership
- Accessing advanced guides and specialisations
- Defining data migration requirements and challenges
- Planning user retraining and change adoption
- Creating transition playbooks for each rationalization action
- Developing fallback and rollback procedures
- Coordinating with project management offices (PMO)
- Sequencing transitions to minimise disruption
- Testing integrated workflows post-transition
- Handling data archival and retention policies
- Managing vendor exit strategies and contract closures
- Establishing post-decommission monitoring
- Documenting knowledge transfer and handover
- Ensuring continuity of critical business functions
- Planning for cutover weekends and downtime windows
- Using phased rollouts for high-risk retirements
- Validating migrated data integrity and accuracy
- Obtaining formal sign-off from business owners
Module 8: Governance, Oversight, and Decision Frameworks - Establishing a formal application rationalization council
- Defining roles: enterprise architect, IT director, business sponsor
- Setting up regular review cadences and decision meetings
- Creating standard operating procedures for assessment cycles
- Documenting decisions in a central repository
- Linking rationalization to IT investment planning
- Using stage gates to control progression
- Ensuring compliance with regulatory and audit requirements
- Integrating with cloud strategy and SaaS standardisation
- Monitoring rationalization progress with KPIs
- Reporting outcomes to executive leadership
- Handling appeals and re-evaluation requests
- Building a culture of continuous portfolio hygiene
- Automating governance with policy rules and alerts
- Tying rationalization to IT service management (ITSM)
- Scaling governance for global, multi-region operations
Module 9: Tooling, Automation, and Technology Enablers - Overview of application portfolio management (APM) tools
- Selecting tools based on organisational size and needs
- Integrating rationalization data with enterprise architecture tools
- Leveraging IT asset management (ITAM) systems
- Using dependency mapping and visualisation software
- Automating scoring calculations with templates and macros
- Generating standard reports: rationalization heat maps, dashboards
- Data import/export best practices across systems
- API integrations between inventory and financial systems
- Using RPA for repetitive data collection tasks
- Configuring alerts for end-of-life or security risks
- Cloud discovery tools for SaaS and IaaS environments
- Open-source vs commercial tool comparison
- Building lightweight tools with Excel and Power BI
- Validating tool outputs with manual checks
- Preparing for future AI-assisted rationalization analysis
Module 10: Implementation Roadmaps and Project Execution - Transforming decisions into an actionable implementation plan
- Prioritising initiatives based on business value and effort
- Building a 30-60-90 day execution roadmap
- Resource planning: internal teams vs external support
- Integrating with existing project portfolios
- Managing parallel rationalization waves
- Tracking milestones, deliverables, and dependencies
- Using Gantt charts and execution timelines
- Communicating progress to stakeholders
- Handling roadblocks and delays proactively
- Adjusting plans based on feedback and new data
- Managing scope creep and additional requests
- Aligning with infrastructure and security teams
- Integrating with application development lifecycles
- Conducting post-implementation reviews
- Documenting lessons learned and process improvements
Module 11: Integration with Enterprise Architecture and IT Strategy - Positioning rationalization within the broader EA practice
- Linking application decisions to business capability models
- Using TOGAF, COBIT, or Zachman for alignment
- Ensuring compliance with technology standards
- Integrating with cloud-first and data strategy
- Supporting zero trust security by reducing attack surface
- Aligning with application development and DevOps practices
- Feeding rationalization outcomes into future roadmaps
- Using insights to inform procurement and vendor strategy
- Supporting mergers and acquisitions integration
- Reinforcing IT as a strategic enabler, not a cost centre
- Enabling faster innovation by reducing technical debt
- Positioning the IT department as a value creator
- Aligning with sustainability goals through reduced energy use
- Building an adaptive architecture through ongoing hygiene
- Connecting rationalization to agility and time-to-market
Module 12: Risk Management and Business Continuity - Identifying risks associated with application retirement
- Assessing operational, financial, and reputational exposure
- Conducting business impact analysis (BIA) for each candidate
- Developing risk mitigation plans for high-impact actions
- Ensuring compliance with legal and regulatory obligations
- Managing data retention and archiving requirements
- Testing fallback and recovery procedures
- Monitoring for unintended consequences post-retirement
- Using insurance and contractual protections where applicable
- Addressing intellectual property and licensing concerns
- Handling embedded business logic in legacy code
- Ensuring audit readiness after decommissioning
- Managing third-party dependencies and integration risks
- Planning for vendor lock-in and exit challenges
- Communicating risks transparently to stakeholders
- Documenting risk treatment decisions and approvals
Module 13: Metrics, Reporting, and Performance Tracking - Designing KPIs for rationalization success
- Tracking cost reduction, system count, and TCO trends
- Measuring reduction in technical debt and incident rates
- Monitoring stakeholder satisfaction and adoption
- Creating executive dashboards for visibility
- Using before-and-after comparisons for impact validation
- Reporting progress to boards and audit committees
- Automating data collection for ongoing tracking
- Setting benchmarks and improvement targets
- Incorporating feedback into future cycles
- Analysing trends over time for continuous optimisation
- Linking metrics to organisational performance goals
- Avoiding vanity metrics and focusing on business outcomes
- Ensuring data accuracy and source transparency
- Using visualisation tools for stakeholder engagement
- Sharing results to build credibility and momentum
Module 14: Certification, Final Project, and Next Steps - Overview of the Certificate of Completion by The Art of Service
- Requirements for successful course completion
- Submitting your final application rationalisation project
- Project components: inventory, scoring model, roadmap, business case
- Receiving expert feedback and validation
- How the certificate enhances your professional credibility
- Adding your achievement to LinkedIn, CV, and professional profiles
- Using the certificate in performance reviews and promotions
- Accessing alumni resources and updates
- Joining a network of certified practitioners
- Next steps after certification: leading your first initiative
- Scaling rationalisation across the enterprise
- Building a center of excellence for portfolio management
- Staying current with emerging trends and tools
- Advancing into enterprise architecture or transformation leadership
- Accessing advanced guides and specialisations
- Overview of application portfolio management (APM) tools
- Selecting tools based on organisational size and needs
- Integrating rationalization data with enterprise architecture tools
- Leveraging IT asset management (ITAM) systems
- Using dependency mapping and visualisation software
- Automating scoring calculations with templates and macros
- Generating standard reports: rationalization heat maps, dashboards
- Data import/export best practices across systems
- API integrations between inventory and financial systems
- Using RPA for repetitive data collection tasks
- Configuring alerts for end-of-life or security risks
- Cloud discovery tools for SaaS and IaaS environments
- Open-source vs commercial tool comparison
- Building lightweight tools with Excel and Power BI
- Validating tool outputs with manual checks
- Preparing for future AI-assisted rationalization analysis
Module 10: Implementation Roadmaps and Project Execution - Transforming decisions into an actionable implementation plan
- Prioritising initiatives based on business value and effort
- Building a 30-60-90 day execution roadmap
- Resource planning: internal teams vs external support
- Integrating with existing project portfolios
- Managing parallel rationalization waves
- Tracking milestones, deliverables, and dependencies
- Using Gantt charts and execution timelines
- Communicating progress to stakeholders
- Handling roadblocks and delays proactively
- Adjusting plans based on feedback and new data
- Managing scope creep and additional requests
- Aligning with infrastructure and security teams
- Integrating with application development lifecycles
- Conducting post-implementation reviews
- Documenting lessons learned and process improvements
Module 11: Integration with Enterprise Architecture and IT Strategy - Positioning rationalization within the broader EA practice
- Linking application decisions to business capability models
- Using TOGAF, COBIT, or Zachman for alignment
- Ensuring compliance with technology standards
- Integrating with cloud-first and data strategy
- Supporting zero trust security by reducing attack surface
- Aligning with application development and DevOps practices
- Feeding rationalization outcomes into future roadmaps
- Using insights to inform procurement and vendor strategy
- Supporting mergers and acquisitions integration
- Reinforcing IT as a strategic enabler, not a cost centre
- Enabling faster innovation by reducing technical debt
- Positioning the IT department as a value creator
- Aligning with sustainability goals through reduced energy use
- Building an adaptive architecture through ongoing hygiene
- Connecting rationalization to agility and time-to-market
Module 12: Risk Management and Business Continuity - Identifying risks associated with application retirement
- Assessing operational, financial, and reputational exposure
- Conducting business impact analysis (BIA) for each candidate
- Developing risk mitigation plans for high-impact actions
- Ensuring compliance with legal and regulatory obligations
- Managing data retention and archiving requirements
- Testing fallback and recovery procedures
- Monitoring for unintended consequences post-retirement
- Using insurance and contractual protections where applicable
- Addressing intellectual property and licensing concerns
- Handling embedded business logic in legacy code
- Ensuring audit readiness after decommissioning
- Managing third-party dependencies and integration risks
- Planning for vendor lock-in and exit challenges
- Communicating risks transparently to stakeholders
- Documenting risk treatment decisions and approvals
Module 13: Metrics, Reporting, and Performance Tracking - Designing KPIs for rationalization success
- Tracking cost reduction, system count, and TCO trends
- Measuring reduction in technical debt and incident rates
- Monitoring stakeholder satisfaction and adoption
- Creating executive dashboards for visibility
- Using before-and-after comparisons for impact validation
- Reporting progress to boards and audit committees
- Automating data collection for ongoing tracking
- Setting benchmarks and improvement targets
- Incorporating feedback into future cycles
- Analysing trends over time for continuous optimisation
- Linking metrics to organisational performance goals
- Avoiding vanity metrics and focusing on business outcomes
- Ensuring data accuracy and source transparency
- Using visualisation tools for stakeholder engagement
- Sharing results to build credibility and momentum
Module 14: Certification, Final Project, and Next Steps - Overview of the Certificate of Completion by The Art of Service
- Requirements for successful course completion
- Submitting your final application rationalisation project
- Project components: inventory, scoring model, roadmap, business case
- Receiving expert feedback and validation
- How the certificate enhances your professional credibility
- Adding your achievement to LinkedIn, CV, and professional profiles
- Using the certificate in performance reviews and promotions
- Accessing alumni resources and updates
- Joining a network of certified practitioners
- Next steps after certification: leading your first initiative
- Scaling rationalisation across the enterprise
- Building a center of excellence for portfolio management
- Staying current with emerging trends and tools
- Advancing into enterprise architecture or transformation leadership
- Accessing advanced guides and specialisations
- Positioning rationalization within the broader EA practice
- Linking application decisions to business capability models
- Using TOGAF, COBIT, or Zachman for alignment
- Ensuring compliance with technology standards
- Integrating with cloud-first and data strategy
- Supporting zero trust security by reducing attack surface
- Aligning with application development and DevOps practices
- Feeding rationalization outcomes into future roadmaps
- Using insights to inform procurement and vendor strategy
- Supporting mergers and acquisitions integration
- Reinforcing IT as a strategic enabler, not a cost centre
- Enabling faster innovation by reducing technical debt
- Positioning the IT department as a value creator
- Aligning with sustainability goals through reduced energy use
- Building an adaptive architecture through ongoing hygiene
- Connecting rationalization to agility and time-to-market
Module 12: Risk Management and Business Continuity - Identifying risks associated with application retirement
- Assessing operational, financial, and reputational exposure
- Conducting business impact analysis (BIA) for each candidate
- Developing risk mitigation plans for high-impact actions
- Ensuring compliance with legal and regulatory obligations
- Managing data retention and archiving requirements
- Testing fallback and recovery procedures
- Monitoring for unintended consequences post-retirement
- Using insurance and contractual protections where applicable
- Addressing intellectual property and licensing concerns
- Handling embedded business logic in legacy code
- Ensuring audit readiness after decommissioning
- Managing third-party dependencies and integration risks
- Planning for vendor lock-in and exit challenges
- Communicating risks transparently to stakeholders
- Documenting risk treatment decisions and approvals
Module 13: Metrics, Reporting, and Performance Tracking - Designing KPIs for rationalization success
- Tracking cost reduction, system count, and TCO trends
- Measuring reduction in technical debt and incident rates
- Monitoring stakeholder satisfaction and adoption
- Creating executive dashboards for visibility
- Using before-and-after comparisons for impact validation
- Reporting progress to boards and audit committees
- Automating data collection for ongoing tracking
- Setting benchmarks and improvement targets
- Incorporating feedback into future cycles
- Analysing trends over time for continuous optimisation
- Linking metrics to organisational performance goals
- Avoiding vanity metrics and focusing on business outcomes
- Ensuring data accuracy and source transparency
- Using visualisation tools for stakeholder engagement
- Sharing results to build credibility and momentum
Module 14: Certification, Final Project, and Next Steps - Overview of the Certificate of Completion by The Art of Service
- Requirements for successful course completion
- Submitting your final application rationalisation project
- Project components: inventory, scoring model, roadmap, business case
- Receiving expert feedback and validation
- How the certificate enhances your professional credibility
- Adding your achievement to LinkedIn, CV, and professional profiles
- Using the certificate in performance reviews and promotions
- Accessing alumni resources and updates
- Joining a network of certified practitioners
- Next steps after certification: leading your first initiative
- Scaling rationalisation across the enterprise
- Building a center of excellence for portfolio management
- Staying current with emerging trends and tools
- Advancing into enterprise architecture or transformation leadership
- Accessing advanced guides and specialisations
- Designing KPIs for rationalization success
- Tracking cost reduction, system count, and TCO trends
- Measuring reduction in technical debt and incident rates
- Monitoring stakeholder satisfaction and adoption
- Creating executive dashboards for visibility
- Using before-and-after comparisons for impact validation
- Reporting progress to boards and audit committees
- Automating data collection for ongoing tracking
- Setting benchmarks and improvement targets
- Incorporating feedback into future cycles
- Analysing trends over time for continuous optimisation
- Linking metrics to organisational performance goals
- Avoiding vanity metrics and focusing on business outcomes
- Ensuring data accuracy and source transparency
- Using visualisation tools for stakeholder engagement
- Sharing results to build credibility and momentum