APM: Application Category vs Category Group vs Application Family

[jason_lau]

Hi, I'm in the process of importing application portfolio data from a 3rd party application into ServiceNow APM (Paris, with strict adherence to CSDM v3). 

I'm a bit confused as to the best way to preserve the current application categorization when importing to APM. 

CATEGORIZATION:
Application Category and Category Group *seem* to be the most orthodox place, but that's also a static 2-tier model. Lastly, there is application portfolio, but that seams to be more pm related. Any guidence on which to use?

APPLICATION FAMILY:
We do have a concept of Application ecosystem which I need to import into APM, and I'm thinking application family would be the best place for that. In the current system, application ecosystem is a grouping of components used by an application. For example: the ecosystem would be 'leasing service' and the applications in that would be the sub-components of that overall application: 'leasing portal', 'leasing data store', 'leasing API', etc. Would application family be the correct translation for application ecosystem above? I can't help but think I also need an operations ci, like an application service to also relate the sub-components in the ecosystem. 'Application Family' seems more like a non-operational logical grouping (for reporting) so I think I need to stub in a business application as well ('leasing service') and an application service (leasing service - Prod) and have the components related back up to that root. How do others use application family field in APM?

Thanks!

[Jon Miller1 · Accepted solution]

I'm not sure I'm going to be much help, Jason, as I'm asking myself the same questions. A few things struck me (my thoughts/opinions more than hard facts)...

1. Like me, I think you're struggling to define "application". IMO, APIs, portal, DB are all components of an application, not applications themselves. But other APM examples I've seen would suggest I'm wrong on that.

2. My understanding is that application portfolio and demand/project portfolio are the same thing (use the same table). I have mixed feelings on that. We've defined portfolios to align with business function (purchasing, sales, customer service, etc.) which works well for projects. But many of our applications span multiple business functions so I'm not sure I agree with that definition of "application portfolio". But I'm still working through that. Maybe having a "primary" business function (maybe where the primary "business owner" sits?) will work out OK.

3. Based on the out-of-the-box values, Application Category is also used to categorize applications based on business usage. Similar to portfolio, I'll see how that works out for applications that span multiple business functions.

3. You don't mention Platform. In our case, I've defined "SAP" and "Salesforce" as platforms (they might even come out-of-the-box) so that I can have multiple "applications" that make up a "platform". But I think "platform" is more about a framework that allows applications to be developed upon them. So I'm not sure if that aligns to your use-case or not.

4. Application Family does seem to be more open to however you want to define it.

Bottom line, I'd say either Platform or Application Family is what you're looking for. I'm not sure I could make a recommendation of one over the other. One is a simple drop-down (Platform) and one is a table (Application Family) is that helps guide you.

Interested to see what other replies you get.

[Daniel Carvalho]

Hello

I do not use ITBM APM, but was looking to setup applications as well, also with that family of applications concept. I based my solution on the OOB field Architecture type, but had to create a new value.

OOB example: Platform host (ServiceNow product); Platform app (Knowledge Base app).

My model: Platform system / ecosystem (SAP or "inhouse product family XYZ") as custom new value ; Platform host as the main applicaiton itself (SAP-FI or "inhouse product XYZ-CustomerIntake") ; Platform app as a main function / subModule (sap transaction SAPMA01B  or "inhouse developed function CustomerCreditValidation").

Cordial