Ask FERF (financial executives research foundation) about ... managing information technology applications.Legacy applications and data have historically been defined as those inherited inherited received by inheritance. inherited achondroplastic dwarfism see achondroplastic dwarfism. inherited combined immunodeficiency see combined immune deficiency syndrome (disease). from languages, platforms and techniques earlier than the current technology (mainframe-based COBOL COBOL: see programming language. COBOL in full Common Business-Oriented Language. High-level computer programming language, one of the first widely used languages and for many years the most popular language in the business community. applications). A recent Financial Executives Research Foundation (FERF FERF Financial Executives Research Foundation FERF Far End Reporting Failure FERF Far End Receive Failure ) Issue Alert, titled "Legacy Management," extends this definition to a new legacy base that represents the full set of applications and resources that are currently being used, maintained and supported. The legacy base includes applications, data, infrastructure and services. A legacy management practice has two principal components: one process builds and maintains a categorized cat·e·go·rize tr.v. cat·e·go·rized, cat·e·go·riz·ing, cat·e·go·riz·es To put into a category or categories; classify. cat inventory or portfolio of existing information technology (IT) applications and assets. The second regularly assesses those applications and gauges their performance based on common criteria (Common Criteria for Information Technology Security) An international standard process for defining security objectives and for evaluating compliance with those objectives. The Common Criteria have largely replaced the Trusted Computer Security Evaluation Criteria (TCSEC), the Canadian . Based upon a survey of financial executives from 28 companies, the research examines factors driving legacy management from a business and IT perspective and identifies methods used by different organizations to manage their existing IT applications and assets. The study explores the maturity of legacy management as a practice and examines the development of legacy management within each of the respondents' companies. Results show that legacy management is a key issue for 63 percent of the companies surveyed, with companies with less than $100 million in revenues being the least likely to view it this way. Excluding these, 83 percent of the remaining companies listed legacy management as a key issue. The top three drivers for legacy management are operational performance, systems functionality and business risk. Management of IT costs was a less significant driver. In the study, 71 percent of the participants indicated that their companies have established an application portfolio. The average number of legacy applications in the portfolio was 50, but this was strongly dependent on company size, with large companies having more than 200 applications. Legacy portfolios, however, were regularly updated and maintained by only 40 percent of respondents In the context of marketing research, a representative sample drawn from a larger population of people from whom information is collected and used to develop or confirm marketing strategy. , indicating that for most companies, updating the legacy portfolio is connected to other initiatives and is not yet a consistent management process. Among the survey participants who have application portfolios, 85 percent said that they do some form of assessment on those resources. The three most common assessment criteria were business impact, cost and service level. These criteria reinforce and reflect the management drivers mentioned above. However, only 35 percent of the legacy portfolios were assessed on a regular basis. Key Legacy-Management Issues The analysis of this research survey has led to the three following conclusions: 1. Legacy management is an issue of growing importance. Two trends seem to be converging con·verge v. con·verged, con·verg·ing, con·verg·es v.intr. 1. a. To tend toward or approach an intersecting point: lines that converge. b. . First, chief information officers (CIOs) and CFOs are increasingly accountable for reporting results for IT investments and resources. Second is the use of portfolio management as a method of organizing and managing IT budgets--not just the investment in new development, but also the ongoing expenses of legacy applications and infrastructure. Portfolios are excellent tools for communicating that the IT budget is meeting board and senior management expectations. 2. Legacy management is primarily about managing service delivery and value. The survey makes it clear that legacy management is not being viewed as a method for reducing costs but as a method for managing the return on the money already committed. Performance and functionality were viewed as the primary drivers for legacy management as a management issue, and business impact was the most commonly used assessment criterion. 3. Legacy management is still a developing process for most organizations. On a 0-to-5-process maturity scale, nearly 90 percent of survey participants are at Level 2 or below, based on completeness and regularity of process. Many of the components of a legacy management practice exist. But they are not being executed regularly and would not seem to be integrated into the regular management processes around planning and budgeting. We see this changing as the role of the IT portfolio manager continues to evolve and expand. The complete study is authored by William Walton Noun 1. William Walton - English composer (1902-1983) Sir William Turner Walton, Sir William Walton, Walton from the Beta Group The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. Please help [ improve the introduction] to meet Wikipedia's layout standards. You can discuss the issue on the talk page. , and is available at the FERF bookstore at www.fei.orglrfbookstore. Cheryl Cheryl is a female given name and can refer to: In crime:
(networking) org - The top-level domain for organisations or individuals that don't fit any other top-level domain (national, com, edu, or gov). Though many have .org domains, it was never intended to be limited to non-profit organisations. RFC 1591. ) is Director of Research for Financial Executives Research Foundation (FERF). contributed by FERF |
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