The Essential Project Forum

Hello,

First, I would like to thank for your effort in creating the excellent EA open source tool.

I am new to this tool. Today, I downloaded EAM to evaluate for the purpose of establishing the baseline enterprise application portfolio. Currently, the application information (NOT relationship)sits in the form excel spreadsheet. This is not efficient for the complex environment. That is why I am in process of evaluating the Essential AM tool to establish the centralized application portfolio repository for the purpose of governance process and EA (Enterprise Architect) analysis.

I have few following questions:
1. Looking at the tools features. It appears to me that I can use this tool for APM (Application Portfolio Management). Is this tool appropriate for the use of APM?

2. What type of application layer instances or elements do I need to create if this tool is right choice for APM?

3. Do you have any sample examples on Application Layer, Business Layer, Information Layer, and Tech Layer?


Thanks
Ramesh Gantyaka

Yes, EAM certainly appropriate to support Application Portfolio Management.

The main elements of the Application Layer to support APM are:

Application Service - which define the types of application in terms of the functionality and behaviour that should be provided, e.g. ERP System, CRM System, Order Management System.

Application Provider - which capture the actual systems in your organisation, which should be named according to how each is known in the organisation, e.g. MyOrgERP, OurCRMApp, or names like that. It is best to use the name that the system is given - organisations normally come up with a name for a major system - rather than just the name of the packaged application technology product that is used as the platform or starting point for that system.

Application Provider Role - which creates the relationship between the Application Provider and the Application Service and defines what behaviour / functionality that Application Provider provides. In addition, we use this relationship to understand what the Application Provider is being used for (in terms of the functionality it is providing) what it should be used for and equally important, what it should not be used for. This relationship is used to connect the Application Providers to the Physical Business Processes, so we can understand what a system is being used for in the context of supporting a specific team or individual as they perform a business process.

Application Deployment - which captures where instances of each Application Provider - typically Production, Test, Development would only be required if you need to understand the specific Technology Product dependencies of an Application Provider.

In terms of sample examples, we do have an 'ACME demo repository'. Unfortunately, this is only compatible with version 1.x of Essential and not the latest Essential 3 Viewer. We're preparing an upgrade script to support migration from previous versions to 3.x. This will be available soon. We're also preparing an updated demo which we also hope to share very soon.

Jonathan

Thanks a lot for the explanation.

Thx
Ramesh

Have any organisations successfully used Essential AM for Software Asset Management (SAM) and Software Licence Management (SLM) as well as to fulfil the broader function of ICT Asset Management (at both a strategic and tactical / operational - ITSM level?). I am interested in using a holistic EA repository as a rich database to maintain an inventory of "applications" rather than a dedicated, single purpose APM / SAM / Asset Management tool?

Looking forward to your responses.

Regards,

Steven Aquilina

Hi Steven,

We have worked with organisations who are using Essential alongside their existing CMDB and also instead of a commercial CMDB. In the cases where Essential has been running alongside an existing CMDB, we synchronise relevant content between Essential and the CMDB.

The Essential Meta Model certainly has the constructs required to support License Management and Asset Management, providing an integrated architectural and physical perspective of the Applications and Technology in use within an organisation.

The focus for Essential is on the more architectural content but to provide accurate information about the architecture, we often need a detailed understanding of the organisation, it's applications and technology etc. This means that we often have (and manage) all the information that would typically be owned by a CMDB or similar asset management tools.

So, although Essential was not conceived as a CMDB (or other asset-management toolset), it has been proven more than adequate in this capacity and combined with the more logical and conceptual content, can provide a more holistic view of the enterprise - often by integrating content with even more sources, e.g. BPM.

Depending on your specific requirements, you may need or want to extend the tool but we designed Essential to make that as easy as possible.

Jonathan