Portfolio Assessment Matrix
Plotting each application on business value against technical quality, producing a disposition for every system in the estate.
The standard four-quadrant analysis, and it works because it forces a decision on every application rather than only on the ones somebody has complained about.
High value, high quality — invest. These support the business well and deserve continued funding. The common error is neglecting them because they are not causing problems.
High value, low quality — remediate or replace. The priority quadrant, and the most expensive. These are business-critical systems on unsupported technology, with poor maintainability or high incident rates.
Low value, high quality — maintain cheaply, or consolidate. Well-built systems nobody needs much. Resist the instinct to keep improving them.
Low value, low quality — retire. The quadrant that produces the fastest savings and the most political resistance, because every system has someone who uses it.
What makes the assessment credible: rate against evidence — for value, usage numbers, revenue supported, capability criticality; for quality, incident rate, change lead time, technology support status, maintainability, and cost per user. Ratings by opinion produce a matrix that reflects who was asked.
And a disposition without a plan and an owner is a slide. Each quadrant needs a named action, a sequence and a budget, or the exercise repeats in two years with the same findings.