Application Prioritization

Definition

Application Prioritization

the architecting task during which potential new systems or new versions of existing systems are prioritized for development

Classification

As illustrated in the preceding figure, application prioritization is part of the following inheritance hierarchy:

• Type: Concrete
• Superclass: Task
• Subclasses: None

Responsibilities

The typical responsibilities of the application prioritization task are to:

• Prioritize the potential applications or versions of applications for development.

Preconditions

Application prioritization can typically begin when the following preconditions hold:

• The business strategy phase has begun.
• The business strategy team has been adequately:
  • Staffed.
  • Trained in application prioritization.
• The business objectmodeling task has begun.
• The business processmodeling task has begun.

Completion Criteria

Application prioritization is typically complete when the following postconditions hold:

• New applications have been prioritized for development.
• New versions of existing applications have been prioritized for development.

Steps

Application prioritization typically involves the following teams performing the following steps in an interative, incremental, parallel, and time-boxed manner:

• Business Strategy Team:
  • Identify existing applications that potentially need new versions developed.
  • Identify potential new applications that should probably be developed.
  • Evaluate these applications.
  • Prioritize these applications.
  • Select applications to develop.

Techniques

Application selection can typically be performed using the following techniques:

• Cost/Benefit Analysis
• Cost Estimation
• Cross Functional Teams
• Engineering Tradeoff Analysis
• Gap Analysis
• Iteration
• Timeboxing

Work Products

Application selection typically results in the production of all or part of the following work products:

• List of prioritized applications

Guidelines

• This task is only needed for business [re]engineering projects.