Application Portfolio Management and Project Portfolio Management have overlap but are essentially different. However, many of the software products used for both applications are the same.
Application Portfolio Management, or APM, is a practice that identifies and removes poor performing and redundant systems, improving the bottom line or freeing up resource to focus on efforts that will improve the top line.
APM has a lot in common with Project Portfolio Management (PPM). PPM is a project management related discipline aimed at managing project investments in a way that maximizes results, or return, to the organization for a set of ongoing or proposed projects. APM takes a similar investment view, but must take into account many non-project related areas and aspects. APM is about applications, PPM is about projects.
In APM the focus is to rationalize and eliminate multiple systems that perform the same function; or eliminate systems that have costs that exceed their benefit. Many reasons exist for duplication of systems. Typically they include silo based decision making, corporate mergers, and failed attempts to implement new tools. Regardless of the driver for duplication, each application consumes project and operational resource through maintenance, upgrades, license fees, and associated hardware costs.
Application Portfolio Management is usually an Enterprise initiative that includes building an application knowledgebase (the Portfolio Management Tool) of key application metrics to help govern and manage application activity. This often includes the following characteristics:
Primavera ProSight is a product specifically designed to capture and maintain this type of information about applications or software assets.
Pinnacle Management Systems has extensive experience in helping organizations establish their PPM and APM business practices by implementing the Portfolio Management and supporting Enterprise Project Management tools used to support each of these practices.
