Step 1. Define Scope

Define the scope for your first assessment

When using LeanIX for the first time, our recommendation is to start small. Define the scope of Applications for which it makes sense to engage in this first phase, in order to establish a minimal data repository. As a rule of thumb, we recommend our customers follow guidelines that will allow them to keep the effort focused, while at the same time creating meaningful reports during the data analysis:

• At this point, center your attention on these Fact Sheet types: Application, Business Capability, Organization, and IT Component.
• Define business capabilities, ideally up to two levels, with a maximum of three levels.
• Limit your set of applications: Rather than capturing every application in your organization's portfolio, you should identify a critical subset of applications that you can analyze, typically the business-critical applications that help drive your business.
• Another way to define the scope is to focus on one or two business areas that cover critical business capabilities. Think of which business units are likely to support your effort. Remember that you need input from the business and technical owners of the applications to have reliable data and attributes for the assessment.

Keeping these guidelines in mind, let's move forward to build your Inventory

Prerequisite: Build data repository

The pre-requisite to doing your first Application Portfolio assessment in LeanIX is to get your initial data into the tool. We have defined key steps in our Getting Started documentation you should revisit to ensure that you have a minimum set of data in place to run a meaningful assessment. It involves the following 3 key steps:

1. Uploading Application data to LeanIX: It involves adding information about Applications and their relevant attributes, such as Technical Fit, Functional Fit, and Business Criticality, into the platform. This can be done via the Excel Import/Export function, manual creation of Fact Sheets, crowdsourcing via Surveys, or automatic discovery with LeanIX Enterprise Architecture SaaS Discovery.
2. Import and Define Business Capabilities: Business Capabilities show an organization's high-level activities that work to achieve the organization's goals. Defining Business Capability properties such as responsible owner, Applications used, and cost can provide a better understanding of each capability's impact.
3. Link Applications to Business Capabilities: Finally, be sure to link your Applications to your Business Capabilities to establish relations; this will help you understand how IT supports your organization's high-level activities.

Step-by-step guide