--- sourceDocument: Zurich Enterprise Architecture (formerly Application Portfolio Management) sourceDocumentLink: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/zurich/application-portfolio-management Release : - zurich ft:locale : - en-US ft:publication_title : - Zurich Enterprise Architecture (formerly Application Portfolio Management) ft:clusterId : - appportman bundleId : - appportman workflow : - Technology --- # Enterprise Architecture (formerly Application Portfolio Management) # Enterprise Architecture (formerly Application Portfolio Management) {#ariaid-title1} * Release version: Zurich * * Updated July 31, 2025 * * ![](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ico-clock) 3 minutes to read Summarize ![AI sparkle icon](https://servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ai-sparkle-icon) Summarized using AI This content was generated using new OpenAI-powered functionality. Results are provided on an as is basis and are not guaranteed to be accurate or complete. ## Summary of Enterprise Architecture (formerly Application Portfolio Management) ServiceNow's Enterprise Architecture solution, formerly known as Application Portfolio Management, empowers organizations to align business and IT strategies by managing business capabilities, application portfolios, information, and technology portfolios. It serves as a strategic decision engine that helps enterprise architects rationalize, plan, and transform their IT landscape to improve efficiency, reduce redundancy, and optimize costs. Show full answer Show less This solution addresses common challenges such as redundant applications, high maintenance costs, upgrading demands, conflicts between legacy and vendor applications, and outdated application performance. ## Key Features * **Enterprise Modeling and Visualization:** Create detailed architecture diagrams using industry standards like CSDM, ArchiMate, and AWS to model current and future IT states and their business relationships. These diagrams aid stakeholder understanding, impact assessment, and change planning. * **Architecture Analyzer:** Provides an interactive canvas to explore relationships across applications, services, and infrastructure without needing custom diagrams, facilitating impact analysis and collaborative decision-making. * **Rationalization of Business Applications:** Evaluate applications based on cost, risk, value, and technical debt using interactive bubble charts and list views. This helps prioritize whether to invest, sustain, migrate, or retire applications. * **Publishing Center:** Centralizes management of publishing workflows for Technology Reference Model catalogs and architecture standards, ensuring consistent sharing and governance of architectural outputs. * **Data Certification:** Enables defining and running certification policies for architecture data to ensure accuracy, completeness, and reliability, thus improving trust in data-driven reporting and decision-making. * **Enterprise Architecture Workspace (EA Workspace):** An interactive interface within the Enterprise Architecture application that helps architects manage tasks, monitor portfolio health, and gain insights into the architecture landscape. * **ServiceNow Otto for Enterprise Architecture:** A tool to summarize Architectural Decision Records and gather insights into business applications within the EA Workspace. ## What You Can Expect Using Enterprise Architecture, ServiceNow customers can: * Gain a comprehensive view of their application estate and technology relationships. * Make informed investment and modernization decisions by rationalizing applications based on standardized indicators. * Visualize and communicate architecture dependencies and future states effectively to stakeholders. * Ensure high-quality, certified architecture data for reliable reporting and governance. * Streamline publishing and sharing of architecture standards and insights across the organization. * Support strategic planning and transformation initiatives with data-driven insights and collaborative tools. The ServiceNow® Enterprise Architecture unites strategic and operational teams, enabling organizations to achieve their business objectives. It serves as a powerful decision engine, combining robust modeling with the management of business capabilities, application portfolios, information portfolios, and technology portfolios. Enterprise Architecture helps enterprise architects manage business applications as part of an enterprise architecture practice focused on strategic planning, rationalization, and transformation. Enterprise Architecture helps you decide whether to invest, sustain, or replace applications based on the business need aligned toward the organization goal. You can address business challenges such as: * Redundant applications for similar functions. * Increasing cost of owning and maintaining applications. * Increasing demand to upgrade the existing applications for new functions. * Conflict between in-house legacy applications and that of the vendors. * Inadequate performance because of outdated applications. {#application-portfolio-management-landing-page__ul_rrf_lht_tw} Overcome these challenges, improve business functions in an efficient and smooth manner, and optimize cost with these Enterprise Architecture processes. |-|-| | | [Enterprise Modeling and Visualization](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/OubxgGE1XcXdWqPnmREhag#application-portfolio-management-landing-page__section_rts_qj4_dwb) Create diagrams and model the future state of your IT and its relationship to the business landscape. | | | [Rationalization of business applications](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/OubxgGE1XcXdWqPnmREhag#application-portfolio-management-landing-page__section_vsr_3l4_dwb) Rationalize all business applications in a category and decide whether to invest, sustain, migrate, or retire an application. | | | [Data Certification](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/OubxgGE1XcXdWqPnmREhag#application-portfolio-management-landing-page__section_ckg_4gq_w3c) Ensure the accuracy, completeness, and reliability of critical enterprise architecture data. | [ ] {#application-portfolio-management-landing-page__table_uw5_lxw_sjb} ## Enterprise Modeling and Visualization in the EA Workspace {#application-portfolio-management-landing-page__section_rts_qj4_dwb} Create diagrams and model the current and future state of your architecture and its relationship to the business landscape. Enterprise Modeling and Visualization in the Enterprise Architecture Workspace enables enterprise architects to: * Create architecture diagrams using industry‑aligned standards such as CSDM, ArchiMate, and AWS * Model applications, business capabilities, processes, value streams, and cloud architectures * Maintain architectural context by associating diagrams with applications, capabilities, and artifacts * Generate architecture documents directly from diagrams for review, sharing, and approval {#application-portfolio-management-landing-page__ul_fgc_hdq_w3c}These visual models help stakeholders understand dependencies, assess impact, and plan change with confidence. ## Architecture Analyzer {#application-portfolio-management-landing-page__section_kmd_4dq_w3c} Visually explore and analyze architecture relationships without creating or maintaining custom diagrams. Architecture Analyzer provides a dynamic canvas to: * Analyze relationships across applications, services, infrastructure, and Enterprise Architecture extended entities * Understand dependencies and assess the impact of architectural changes * Explore architecture perspectives interactively to support collaboration and decision‑making {#application-portfolio-management-landing-page__ul_k45_qdq_w3c}Architecture Analyzer helps architects quickly assess complex landscapes and communicate insights effectively. ## Rationalization of business applications {#application-portfolio-management-landing-page__section_vsr_3l4_dwb} Evaluate and rationalize business applications to support modernization and investment decisions. Application Rationalization enables you to: * Assess applications using standardized indicators such as cost, risk, value, and technical debt * Compare applications using interactive bubble charts and list views * Identify redundancy and prioritize actions to invest, sustain, migrate, or retire applications * Apply filters and fiscal periods to analyze application performance over time {#application-portfolio-management-landing-page__ul_dgv_12q_w3c}These insights support data‑driven decisions across large application portfolios. Bubble charts are interactive graphs that position applications in different quadrants, based on their indicator scores. Based on the position of the business application in the quadrants, enterprise architects can take decisions to invest in, sustain, migrate, or retire the business applications. The List view enables you to see high-level information on all your business applications and all the indicator scores that are attached to them. ## Publishing Center in Enterprise Architecture Workspace {#application-portfolio-management-landing-page__section_w4f_hgq_w3c} Control and manage publishing workflows from a centralized location. The publishing center enables you to: * Publish Technology Reference Model (TRM) catalogs to a knowledge base * Share approved technology standards across the organization * Monitor publishing status and view publishing history * Govern architecture outputs with consistent publishing processes {#application-portfolio-management-landing-page__ul_ast_jgq_w3c}Publishing center simplifies how architectural standards and insights are shared and consumed. ## Data Certification in Enterprise Architecture Workspace {#application-portfolio-management-landing-page__section_ckg_4gq_w3c} Ensure the accuracy, completeness, and reliability of critical enterprise architecture data. With data certification, you can: * Define certification policies directly in the Enterprise Architecture Workspace * Run certifications on demand or on a schedule * Track certification status and identify overdue or failed certifications * Improve trust in architecture data used for reporting and decision‑making {#application-portfolio-management-landing-page__ul_jzc_rgq_w3c}Data certification helps maintain high‑quality data across architecture portfolios. ## Applications and features {#application-portfolio-management-landing-page__section_vpq_1j1_pjb} * [Enterprise Architecture Workspace](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/bxN1~aS3UXgzdyPi8Xcunw "The Enterprise Architecture Workspace (EA Workspace) is part of the Enterprise Architecture application. It provides an interactive interface for enterprise architects to manage tasks, gain insights, and monitor portfolio health.") * [ServiceNow Otto for Enterprise Architecture (EA)](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/TMAmyaLjz1W_7Sj7JyJPKQ "Use the ServiceNow ServiceNow Otto for Enterprise Architecture (EA) application to summarize Architectural Decision Records (ADR) and help gather insights into business applications in the Enterprise Architecture Workspace.") * [Managing requests, certifications, and assessments](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/Qj9mqr2~e9bILCG7_klstw "As an Enterprise Architect, you can manage all requests. You can view the status of the certifications, assessments, and technology portfolio audit information.") * [Exploring a business portfolio](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/GXoQGkYangMX~urUhKEkOA "As an Enterprise Architect, view the capability hierarchy, manage capabilities, and assign business applications to the capabilities.") * [Explore the Enterprise Architecture Workspace dashboard](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/lZVewnzzZF2ep7Ziv5Wvpw "The Enterprise Architecture Workspace dashboard provides a summary of the business and application portfolio of your organization. It’s arranged according to different portfolios such as the application portfolio, technology portfolio, information portfolio, and so on.") * [Manage the Technology Lifecycle Management (TLM) in Enterprise Architecture Workspace](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/LppfRlP2L83euEPNBMzIpw "Technology Lifecycle Management helps Enterprise Architects to manage technology life-cycle risks and technology life-cycle exceptions. Enterprise Architects can evaluate all their business applications and application services by accessing the discovered technologies and auditing information in the Enterprise Architecture Workspace.") * [Exploring Enterprise Modeling and Visualization in the EA Workspace](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/jZn2m83MXmfvygOK55HkDQ "Enterprise Modeling and Visualization in EA Workspace helps you with diagramming and modeling capabilities and enable you to model the future state of your IT and its relationship to the business landscape.") * [Gantt view of TLM and TRM lifecycle timelines](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/VUbx9EHOHRYTGMWdbBJSew "A Gantt chart in the Enterprise Architecture Workspace displays TLM and TRM timelines for business applications and their associated application services.") * [Rationalization of business applications](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/OHrvTercY1LP6ON8iShUXg "As an Enterprise Architect, you can use application rationalization to evaluate your business applications.") * [Manage application total cost of ownership (TCO) in Enterprise Architecture Workspace](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/SbOTgS9a7nzVT4v4e4wlqg "You can configure the application TCO source and cost type in the Enterprise Architecture Workspace.") {#application-portfolio-management-landing-page__ul_od3_cj1_pjb} * **[Enterprise Architecture (formerly Application Portfolio Management)](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/toOv9_dou0e9yYeMyCkZHw)** Enterprise Architecture provides a complete picture of the application estate, including the underlying technology relationships. * **[Enterprise Architecture Workspace](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/bxN1~aS3UXgzdyPi8Xcunw)** The Enterprise Architecture Workspace (EA Workspace) is part of the Enterprise Architecture application. It provides an interactive interface for enterprise architects to manage tasks, gain insights, and monitor portfolio health. * **[ServiceNow Otto for Enterprise Architecture (EA)](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/TMAmyaLjz1W_7Sj7JyJPKQ)** Use the ServiceNow® ServiceNow Otto for Enterprise Architecture (EA) application to summarize Architectural Decision Records (ADR) and help gather insights into business applications in the Enterprise Architecture Workspace.