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Larkinized LLC Skip to content

Larkinized LLC

Enterprise Architecture, Elevated

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Application Portfolio

Application Portfolio Health Assessment

Start immediately — no email required. Read the scoring guidance for each question — honest evidence-based scores produce actionable results. When you finish, print or save your scorecard, and optionally download the companion playbook.

Portfolio Inventory

You cannot rationalize what you cannot see — inventory quality drives every downstream decision.

Rate each statement: 1 = not true · 3 = partially true · 5 = consistently true with evidence

Application inventory covers business ownership, criticality, and lifecycle status.

Incomplete CMDB/spreadsheet hybrids score 2; trusted inventory with owners scores 4–5.

What makes a 1 vs a 5?

Score 1: 1 — No trusted inventory; shadow IT unknown.
Score 5: 5 — Inventory is system of record; federated updates; executive dashboards current.

1 2 3 4 5

Application-to-capability mapping links portfolio to business strategy.

Apps listed without capability context cannot inform investment — score low.

What makes a 1 vs a 5?

Score 1: 1 — No capability mapping.
Score 5: 5 — Apps mapped to L1/L2 capabilities; gaps visible on heatmaps.

1 2 3 4 5

Integration and data dependencies between applications are documented.

Retirements that break unknown downstream flows are a classic score-1 failure.

What makes a 1 vs a 5?

Score 1: 1 — Dependencies discovered during decommission incidents.
Score 5: 5 — Dependency maps maintained; impact analysis standard for change/retire.

1 2 3 4 5

Technical Debt & Risk

Debt must be visible, quantified, and tied to business risk — not an abstract developer complaint.

Rate each statement: 1 = not true · 3 = partially true · 5 = consistently true with evidence

Technical debt register exists with severity, cost-of-delay, and owners.

Backlogs without debt visibility hide portfolio risk.

What makes a 1 vs a 5?

Score 1: 1 — Debt invisible to leadership.
Score 5: 5 — Debt quantified; linked to apps; reviewed in portfolio forum.

1 2 3 4 5

End-of-life technology exposure (OS, runtime, vendor) is tracked with remediation dates.

Unsupported stacks running tier-1 processes = score 1 regardless of uptime.

What makes a 1 vs a 5?

Score 1: 1 — EOL exposure unknown or accepted indefinitely.
Score 5: 5 — EOL dashboard; funded remediation waves; exceptions time-bound.

1 2 3 4 5

Security and compliance posture per application informs prioritization.

CVSS piles without business context are insufficient — tie to app criticality.

What makes a 1 vs a 5?

Score 1: 1 — Security findings disconnected from portfolio decisions.
Score 5: 5 — Risk-based prioritization; compliance status on executive heatmap.

1 2 3 4 5

TCO & Value

Portfolio health includes economic clarity — run cost, change cost, and value delivered.

Rate each statement: 1 = not true · 3 = partially true · 5 = consistently true with evidence

Run and change costs are understood for major applications (± reasonable accuracy).

Perfect precision is not required — willful ignorance is.

What makes a 1 vs a 5?

Score 1: 1 — No TCO view; surprises in budget cycles.
Score 5: 5 — TCO model by app tier; reviewed annually; informs build/buy/retire.

1 2 3 4 5

Duplicate or overlapping applications are identified with consolidation hypotheses.

Three CRMs because of acquisitions? Score based on whether overlap is managed.

What makes a 1 vs a 5?

Score 1: 1 — Overlap unacknowledged; feature sprawl continues.
Score 5: 5 — Overlap analysis documented; consolidation roadmap with business cases.

1 2 3 4 5

Business value / fit assessment informs invest-maintain-retire decisions.

TIME model or equivalent should drive decisions — not vendor relationships alone.

What makes a 1 vs a 5?

Score 1: 1 — Decisions are political or ad hoc.
Score 5: 5 — Structured assessment (e.g. TIME); decisions recorded; outcomes tracked.

1 2 3 4 5

Lifecycle Discipline

Healthy portfolios retire gracefully, onboard predictably, and measure outcomes after change.

Rate each statement: 1 = not true · 3 = partially true · 5 = consistently true with evidence

Retirement process includes dependency analysis, data archival, and comms.

Turning off servers without archival is a 1 — even if nobody noticed yet.

What makes a 1 vs a 5?

Score 1: 1 — No retirement process; apps linger as zombie systems.
Score 5: 5 — Standard retirement checklist; legal/compliance sign-off; verified decommission.

1 2 3 4 5

New applications pass architecture and portfolio intake before funding.

SaaS sprawl from credit cards indicates low lifecycle discipline.

What makes a 1 vs a 5?

Score 1: 1 — Apps enter portfolio without review.
Score 5: 5 — Intake mandatory; duplicate check; architecture alignment required.

1 2 3 4 5

Post-implementation reviews measure expected benefits for major changes.

Benefits realisation separates portfolio management from project theatre.

What makes a 1 vs a 5?

Score 1: 1 — Benefits claims are never verified.
Score 5: 5 — Benefits tracked 6–12 months post go-live; lessons feed portfolio rules.

1 2 3 4 5

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