Application Strategy

Modified on Thu, 5 Jun at 5:11 PM

Overview

To effectively plan and execute IT transformation projects which involve applications, it's essential to thoroughly understand the application estate and how the applications are used. It's therefore important to develop a clear strategy for processing the discovered applications early on in the project to ensure that stakeholders have a clear understanding of the application requirements within the project.

The table below shows the common ways in which applications are created in ManagementStudio.

Source	Type	Initial Status	Comments
SCCM	Based on software usage	Pending	The SCCM connector shows which applications have been run by which users on which devices. Where multiple versions of an application have been run, an application record will be created for each version. This is generally seen as an excellent source of knowledge as it is based on which software title each user has run, rather than the full set of installed applications. The SCCM connector identifies which users have run which applications on which devices. If multiple versions of the same application have been used, a separate application record is created for each version. This data is generally regarded as the most useful source as it reflects actual application usage per user, rather than simply listing all installed software.
Intune Managed	Shows Managed applications from Intune	Accepted	The Intune connector can import Managed Applications. These are applications which have been setup to be deployed by Intune. They are assigned to users and/or devices.
Intune Discovered	Shows installed applications	Pending	Where details of installed applications are useful, the Intune Discovered Applications should be enabled in the Intune Connector. This creates a large number of application records so should be used with caution.
Excel import	Allows a list of known applications to be imported	Accepted	Where a list of known applications is in Excel or CSV format, this can be imputed into ManagementStudio as a one-off exercise.
AD Groups	Links existing apps with users or devices via AD group membership	n/a	If Active Directory groups are used to deploy applications, the group names can be imported into application records and links auto-created between the applications and the members (users or devices) of the deployment groups.

The reason that applications from the SCCM Connector and Intune Discovered applications are created with the Pending status is because they require a level of triage by the project team to mark them as either in-scope or out-of-scope. This evaluation ensures that only relevant applications are considered for further action (e.g. preparing for deployment to the new environment) helping the project team understand the scope of works and put a plan together around the application-related work.

Reviewing the Pending Applications

Pending applications will be processed differently depends on the project goals. The process outlined below is typical, but won't apply to all scenarios:

Step 1: Rejecting Applications

The overall goal when building an Application Strategy is to understand which areas of the business require which applications. Whilst rejecting applications doesn't achieve this, it is still worth considering as an initial step as it is relatively quick, and can clean up the view of the Pending Applications significantly by removing noise.

See here for the steps required to reject applications quickly using the ACE:AI Connector.

Generally, you'll begin by reviewing the applications and rejecting those that fall outside the scope of the project. The ACE:AI recommendations can assist by suggesting which applications to reject based on decisions made by other customers (presented as a percentage confidence rating).

A crucial part of this process is distinguishing between core apps, which are essential and typically used by everyone, and line-of-business apps, which are specific to certain departments or roles. Often, projects will focus on understanding and managing line-of-business apps, especially those where there are licensing implications or specific user requirements.

Ultimately, the goal is to streamline and rationalize the applications to ensure they align with your project’s objectives. This might involve deciding whether to standardize on the highest version of a particular application or rationalizing each major version separately. Tools like ACE can facilitate this rationalization process by offering default strategies, but it’s important to carefully consider licensing requirements, compatibility with target operating systems, and user needs.

By systematically reviewing and processing these applications, you can ensure that your transformation project meets its objectives efficiently and effectively.

These links help the project team determine which users require specific applications for Windows 11, and in turn, who is ready for migration and when.
They can be created using either application deployment groups or usage metrics (if available via Landesk).
The two methods yield different results—deployment groups reflect entitlement, while usage metrics reflect actual app usage.1