Definition of Business Application Life cycle stage status

[alihamzei]

Dear All, 

We are implementing APM for a company in the Netherland and I need some help in regards to Application Life cycle stage status definition. let me start elaborating my confusion and hope someone can help me. 

Life cycle Stage	Life cycle Stage Status	Definition (My interpretation)	Question
Operational	End of Support	Business Application still in-use however there is no support from the vendor or new feature.	1. What is the definition of the "End of support"?
Operational	Pending Retirement	Business Application is still in-use however there is a plan of the retirement in the pipeline.	1. pending retirement and obsolete can use interchangeably, What is the correct use case for each ? 2. What is the definition of "Pending retirement"?
End of Life	Obsolete	Business Application Reached its end of life however still few users are using it as a process dependent of this business application and successor business application hasn't yet developed/planned/unknown.	1. what is the definition of "obsolete"?
End of Life	Retired	Business Application has reached its end of life and retired.	1. what is the definition of "retired"?

[Tina Watson1]

End of Life typically means that a vendor no longer manufactures/sells the product.

End of Support means that the vendor will no longer provide parts or patches.

[Jeff Aldrich]

Agreed.  However, End-of-Support is most often based on particular versions of an application (Software Model).  Unless a vendor stops selling an application, there are some versions that are supported and others that are not.  That is why that value better applies to Software Models, rather than Business Applications.

[mcastoe]

Exactly, and this is why I'm not a fan of that particular set of values as its more "software-ish".     

Business Applications are indeed built upon software, but they are not software itself.

[alihamzei]

Thanks Graham Roy and mcastoe, 

your comments feed my thoughts to have better discussion with my stakeholder. with my experience, technology isn't a challenge from the technical point of view however companies with no or pure business process in this case APM makes it challenging to have effective role out. if any of you has documented business application process, I am more than happy to have a copy to get inspired how you look at it in your organization. 

[mcastoe]

@alihamzei ,

You have observed a very critical point.  The importance of the Process.  Without it the APM or any such program will falter and fail.  Just like all ITSM, ITOM and other such processes, they must be established and embraced across the company or people will simply ignore it.

The link below is to the APM Process Guide hosted on NowCreate.  As a Partner and/or customer, you shoudl have access with your ServiceNow login.  Just in case you don't have access, i am attaching the latest (Vancouver) version.

APM Process Guide on NowCreate