FAQ

The questions on this page have come from IT and Business owners during the data gathering process. More questions will be added as they come up; all members of the team can update this page. Questions are categorized into Cost and Business Value areas.

Tips and Tricks

1. One of the most critical but sometimes most difficult pieces of information to get is the Business Owner. If the IT group doesn't know this at the outset, start working on this as soon as the application itself is identified.

Effort

1. How long will it take me to fill out the inventory?
   1. The inventory list itself has varied, depending on the number of applications and the structure and record-keeping of the IT group. Once the list of applications is in hand, it takes about an hour to an hour and a half for the IT group to determine the cost information and about the same amount of time for a BA to determine the business value. So total effort is 2-3 hours per application not including functional people's time.
2. What if I don't have any BAs to do the Business Value scoring?
   1. Contact Greg Busby (gkb3) to discuss BA support; do this early as resources may be limited. We can provide some assistance, and can train someone in the IT group or from a business group to do the interviewing as well.

Cost

1. Should we be including fees and costs that do not come out of an IT budget?
   1. Include all direct costs regardless of funding source. Do not include FTE time contributed by non-IT personnel.
2. Should we include the CIT staff effort to remediate and/or support systems (such as PeopleSoft) that interface to the application under discussion?
   1. No, do not include efforts associated with any other application; those will be captured in that application's inventory
3. Should we include functional FTE time used to support or use the application?
   1. No, only IT personnel are considered. Functional time is not included.
4. How do we value FTE time?
   1. For purposes of estimation, use the figure of $100K to approximate one FTE.
5. How do we include development or implementation costs?
   1. Sunk costs for development or implementation should not be included. If the development or implementation is ongoing amortize the remaining costs over a reasonable period (3-5 years) based on the expected life of the application, but not longer than the expected life.

Business Value

1. What if we disagree with the final score we receive for business value?
   1. The absolute score is not as important as the score relative to other applications. The current scoring system is basedon a set of weightings that are simply a "first cut" at determining the relative importance of each category. Although the categorization of each answer will not change, the scores for each category may be changed in the future to reflect management's evolving prioritization of factors.
2. When answering the question on uniqueness, what if there is another similar application that we don't know about?
   1. Answer based on what you know now. If another application is found later, the score may be changed after discussion with the business owner.
3. How do we value a user interface if there are two portions, one outward or customer-facing that is easy with an administrative side that is more difficult?
   1. Use your bet judgment to come up with a blended score based on the number of users and frequency of use for each group of users. Err on the side of outward facing, since the administrative users will tend to get more training and can deal with the difficulties better.