Application Management

Description of Function version 1.1

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Table of content
Application Management..................................................................................................................3
Purpose........................................................................................................................................4
Responsibility...............................................................................................................................4
Input..............................................................................................................................................4
Output...........................................................................................................................................5
Roles within the function...............................................................................................................5

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Application Management
The Application Management function should have control of all applications included in the IT
environment. In distinction from Technical Management, the groupings which manage
applications are often dispersed organisationally. Moreover, it is common that this function is
managed by a supplier. Many IT organisations set up administration groups for the major
business systems. These groupings are described in this book as Delivery Management
functions. Even excluding the major systems and applications, there are usually several hundred
applications included in the IT environment and these also need to be administered.
This means that the Application Management's task is in two parts. The main responsibility is that
it must be possible to deliver all applications included in the IT environment together with the
infrastructure as a stable IT service to the business. For some of these applications there is a
separate grouping responsible for the administration. In these issues, Application Management is
responsible for operation and coordination. For all other applications, Application Management is
responsible for both operation and administration.

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Purpose
The purpose of Application Management is to act as the IT organisation's experts in the
applications included in the IT environment. It entails supplying expertise for design, testing,
deployment, ongoing maintenance and continual service improvement of applications.
The function must also provide all application resources to other parts of the IT organisation.
Application Management ensures that staff and contracted resources have sufficient training and
knowledge to participate in projects, maintain the application environment and implement
improvement measures.
In fulfilling these two purposes, Application Management ensures that the IT organisation has
access to the amount of resources and the level of expertise that is required in order to meet the
levels agreed with the business.

Responsibility
Application Management's overall responsibility is to plan, deploy and maintain applications in the
IT environment. It also includes continuously endeavouring to achieve as stable and cost-
effective an application environment as possible.
Application Management's responsibility comprises, but is not limited to:
 Identifying and establishing the knowledge and procedures required to manage
administration and the operation of the applications
 Producing and administering an application policy for IT
 Producing and administering an application portfolio for IT
 Acting as escalation point for issues which involve applications
 Providing expert skills in relation to all applications in the IT environment.
 Processing orders which arrive via the Request Fulfilment process
 Providing resources for Problem Management which can assist in locating problems
in applications
 Staffing projects and major activities requiring expertise
 Acting as experts and advisers in relation to procurement and development of new
applications
 Assisting the Change Manager as experts
 Performing activities in the Release Management process
 Holding training courses and producing training material and documentation targeted
at users and Service Desk
 Responsibility that the documentation of applications in the IT environment is always
complete and correct

Input
The overall input to Application Management is the issues which arrive via Coordination. More
specifically, input consists of:
 Problems
 Orders
 Operational Maintenance
 Projects
 Improvement activities

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Output
The overall output from Application Management is a stable and cost-effective application
environment. More specifically, output consists of:
 Resolved problems
 Processed orders
 Operational Maintenance performed
 Improvement activities implemented
 Changes deployed

Roles within the function

Role Description
Applications Manager Responsibly for the function Application Management
Applications Analyst Role working with and performing tasks in applications or systems

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