Seeking guidance / input on determining which applications belong in APM

[MEBoatman]

We are new to ServiceNow APM - just installed it and started using it in late 2023. We previously managed our APM inventory in a different tool + Excel.  Our organization seeks to remain as OOB as possible with ServiceNow and desires to follow CSDM wherever possible.  I am in the Enterprise Architecture organization and am the Process Manager for APM. My overarching requirement is to be able to provide a comprehensive inventory of applications - including both business applications as well as "tools".

One thing we are working through right now... Which applications belong in APM (which to me means the Business Application table).  Are there any guidelines or direction that would help us answer this? If certain "applications" don't belong in APM...where would we represent them?

To illustrate, I have a few representative use cases.

1. Internally developed Corporate Payment "application". In reality, this is made up of a mainframe online application, a mainframe batch application, a web service application, and a distributed batch application. Our initial shot at this one is to have one application called "Corporate Payment" in APM with app services for the mainframe apps, the web service app, and the distributed batch app.

2. ServiceNow is an application. We are planning to show that in APM and identify it as a "platform host" architecture type. Then we can also list APM as a business application (architecture type "platform application" with ServiceNow as the "platform host").

3. We have a collection of applications that are used to ensure our agents are properly licensed and appointed to sell our products. We call that process "Licensing and Onboarding". This represents a collection of applications including 2 SaaS applications plus internally developed batch, internally developed web service applications. We are struggling with this one, honestly.  I feel like the SaaS apps deserve to be business applications on their own accord but not so sure about the batch apps and web service apps.

4. We have a whole variety of tools like M365 (Word, Excel, etc.), Snagit (screen capture tool), Beyond Compare, etc. These don't seem like "business applications" per se but I do need to include them in the overarching "application inventory" that we are responsible for producing. Not sure where in ServiceNow these should be represented. TBH the path of least resistance seems to be to list them in APM but I'm not convinced that's what ServiceNow had in mind.

This is a representation of some of the decisions we are working through. Can anyone point me to documentation or other resources that would provide us with some guidance on how to best represent these applications?

[Sharon Geist]

I am having the same concerns as you have noted. So I'm also very interested in knowing the guidance for these things.  The additional item we are looking to know is what do you do with Mobile apps?  How do you put them in APM?

Thanx,

Sharon

[mcastoe · Accepted solution]

Hi,

The definition for Business Application can be tricky.  First and foremost it is not individual Software, in 99% of cases that is.  Of course there are exceptions.  they are instead an aggregation of Software, Hardware, and service working together and the Business Application is an Abstract representation of the "deployed instances" of said Business Application.  These are the Enterprise Systems which your company depends upon to do business.  I've attached some of our examples.  i find that examples are the best way to reinforce understanding of the Business Application concept.

Remember you are working in the abstract or Design layer here so what is the crucial and valuable metadata such as Ownership (can be many forms not just IT App Owner and Business Owner), general business criticality, data classification, and so forth.  

SaaS and even PaaS are Business Applications.  Look at ServiceNow for example, it is SaaS but also PaaS.   Each Application you license on ServiceNow should be modled as its own Business Application with one or more App Services and those App Services Depend upon, the Platform App Service (see attached examples).

Is SQL Server or Oracle DB a Business Application? NO THEY ARE NOT.   Abstractly (product view) theyare Sofwtare Products.  Instantiated, these are "Components" of an Application Service which in turn are deployments of their respective Business Applications.   We have seen many customers model them as Business Application (i've been doing this for over 20 yrs and this always comes up).   In and of themselves, SQL Server or Oracle DB, do not provide Business Capability, they work with other things like App Servers, WARS/EARS/Assemblies (i.e. code) and Message Queues and all the other "stuff" to make something happen.  They do provide a technical capability undoubtedly but, those are two separate concerns.   Finally, they are "Detectable by electronic means"; you can Discover them, you have multiple, hundreds even thousands of them.

A Data Lake built upon Oracle or Hadoop or some such?  Most definitely a Business Application.

Active Directory?  Most definitely a Busines Application (a Shared Service)

Office 365?  YES, most definitely a Business Application.  What about the Shared, SaaS, versions of Office Software?  Hmmm.. What value do you get by having those records?  See the following.

Word, Outlook, Excel?  these are difficult as is all End User Computing (EUC).  Yes, you and everybody else in your company use them for "business".   Here is the question... Do you and your comapny, your EA practice, get any value out of creating and maintaining EUC in your Business Application inventory.  Some customer processes do.  Its a value judgement you and your program must make.  Remember Each and Every record MUST have ownership, Must be Maintained and depending on your licensing it has a $ Cost. If you do have EUC, you must break CSDM standards because you are for certain never ever create an App Service of each and every deployment of Work/Excel/Outlook and so forth.   

My advice?  Use TRM to Express the EA Approval (or even disapproval) of all relevant EUC software.  Use ServiceNow SAM Pro to track and understand your licensing, Create Business Services and Offerings for each for manage the support and maintenance.  USe of TRM extends to enterprise software like Databases and so forth.

We are hosting a Getting Started on APM workshop for all Customers this month on 3-21-2024, see thsi link for Registration: 

Workshop: Get started with Application Portfolio Management

Also, don't forget to register for our Spring '24 APM Vision Series on the 9th of March: 

APM Vision Series March 2024

I hope this helps,

mark