The trajectory helped the DOWR-ID-ICT team to shape application management in a more professional and objective way. The questionnaires and methodology provide a solid foundation for governance, risk management, and harmonization within the collaboration. The guidance was clear, practical, and well aligned with our organization. We look back on the process and its results with satisfaction.

Description of the Situation

DOWR-ID-ICT is the collaboration between the municipalities of Deventer, Olst-Wijhe, and Raalte in the areas of information management and ICT. There was a clear need to further professionalize application management and portfolio governance: to make choices more objective and to make business value and technical risks explicit, in order to harmonize the application landscape across the three municipalities.

To achieve this, a structured methodological approach was required that would allow applications to be assessed in a consistent way and enable better-substantiated decision-making regarding lifecycle management, replacement, and consolidation.

Contribution of ArchiXL

ArchiXL, in collaboration with Telengy, supported DOWR-ID-ICT in establishing a structured approach for application portfolio and lifecycle management, aligned with the existing governance and steering structure.

The core of the contribution consisted of:

• Developing and applying questionnaires to determine business value and technical value, based on objective criteria.

• Structuring multidisciplinary sessions so that the evaluation of applications was explicitly documented and reproducible.

• Positioning lifecycle management as an integral part of portfolio governance, with consistent assessment criteria as the basis for decision-making.

The guidance was organized in a practical way through workshops, joint evaluations, and transferable templates, enabling DOWR-ID-ICT to continue working with the methodology independently.

Impact

DOWR-ID-ICT now has a uniform methodology that enables lifecycle decisions to be supported transparently and in a traceable manner. The organization can independently assess applications and make well-founded decisions about retention, replacement, or consolidation across the three municipalities. This has established a structurally applicable framework for further governance of the application landscape within the collaboration.