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Mike Reams
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PRJ · 2026

Application Portfolio Rationalization

A ServiceNow and CSDM practice that turns an application inventory into a portfolio you can actually make decisions about.

Spreadsheet dispositions to Ratified decisions

Diagram: a technology request flows through a six-question review to the right records, two capability lenses, a ratified and dated disposition, and consolidation groups, with domain-by-domain certification workshops feeding the flow and weekly checks catching what slips.Diagram: a technology request flows through a six-question review to the right records, two capability lenses, a ratified and dated disposition, and consolidation groups, with domain-by-domain certification workshops feeding the flow and weekly checks catching what slips.

What it is

An application portfolio rationalization practice built on ServiceNow and the Common Service Data Model: a set of rules, registers and routine checks that turn an inventory of applications into a portfolio someone can actually make decisions about.

The problem

An application inventory drifts toward noise. Platforms get registered as applications, environments get registered three times, tools arrive with no decision about their future, and dispositions sit in spreadsheets with no evidence and no owner. Rationalization built on that data argues about the data instead of the applications.

What I built

  • Record rules at intake. Every technology request is reviewed against six questions that decide which records it produces, so the portfolio gets the right records at approval, not a guess at fulfilment.
  • Two capability lenses. Every application maps to the business capabilities it serves and to exactly one technical class.
  • Dispositions as decisions. TIME and 6Rs with evidence, a named ratifier, a review date and a clear source — ratified, AI-proposed or unknown — never summed together.
  • Consolidation groups. Candidates tagged as a group with overlap evidence on both lenses, without naming a survivor before the decision is made.
  • Contract reconciliation. Every contract export diffed and successor-traced, with one contract line mapped to one application.
  • Certification workshops. One domain at a time, with each workshop feeding both the CMDB and the architecture knowledge base.
  • Weekly checks. Platforms and environments filed as applications, certified products with no manufacturer, and dispositions past their review date, caught automatically and routed for correction.

What came out of it

Rationalization conversations start from records people trust. New applications enter the portfolio with owners, both capability lenses and a disposition already attached. And the portfolio's gaps are measured and tracked, not discovered in the middle of a decision.