Index
Application Management: more than a single activity
As outlined in a previous article, Application Management covers the entire lifecycle of an application, from development and deployment to updates and ongoing maintenance.
More specifically, Application Management includes a range of activities and services related to managing applications, such as:
- Development: designing and building the application, including the selection of programming languages, tools and platforms.
- Testing: verifying the reliability and functionality of the application through automated or manual testing.
- Deployment: configuring and installing the application in the client’s or end user’s environment.
- Change management: updating the application with bug fixes, security patches, feature enhancements and other modifications.
- Technical support: resolving end-user issues, providing preventive maintenance, training and ongoing support.
- Performance monitoring: ensuring the application runs smoothly and identifying potential performance issues.
- Continuous improvement: evolving the application to meet user needs and stay aligned with new technologies and market changes.
All these activities can be carried out internally or in collaboration with external providers. In both cases, they are essential to ensure that applications remain reliable, secure and aligned with both business requirements and user expectations.
5 reasons to invest in Application Management
Application Management helps organizations to:
- Keep applications running smoothly: Application Management ensures that software applications remain available, reliable and ready for use. This includes issue management, troubleshooting, performance monitoring and planning preventive maintenance activities.
- Improve productivity: Well-managed applications provide up-to-date, high-performing tools that enable teams to work more efficiently and support higher productivity across the organization.
- Control costs: Costs can be managed more effectively by automating key management activities, such as vendor contract management and software license administration.
- Ensure application security: Application Management supports security by managing security policies, handling updates and ensuring that applications remain protected against evolving threats.
- Adapt to market changes: it helps organizations keep applications aligned with evolving business needs by updating features, adopting new technologies and integrating with other systems and services.
Application Maintenance: a key component of Application Management
Application Maintenance, together with Application Development, is a core element of Application Management.
It refers to all the support and maintenance activities carried out after an application has been deployed in production. This includes many of the activities mentioned earlier, such as monitoring, issue management, bug fixing, updates and change management.
Application Maintenance is essential for organizations that need to:
- ensure continuous application availability
- reduce the risk of downtime
- improve performance
- manage application-related costs
Maintaining applications effectively requires a deep understanding of how they work, as well as how they interact with other systems and applications within the organization.