Enterprise Ontology based Application Portfolio Rationalization at Rijkswaterstaat
Martin Op 't Land, Karin Middeljans and Vincent Buller
Wednesday, 07 May 2008
At Rijkswaterstaat, under direct steering of its CFO and CIO, a large-scale application
portfolio rationalization program is taking place. The Enterprise Architecture
Rijkswaterstaat team, responsible for guarding integrated business-IT steering,
shaped this program using part of an Enterprise Ontology as a stable description of
the business. By connecting transactions from the DEMO Construction Model for
Road Traffic Management directly to applications, we were able to detect duplications and similarities between applications used in different regions but supporting
the same business. At relatively low cost, this led to a well underpinned phasing out
proposal of 49% of all applications and also to a positive attitude-change towards
the application portfolio rationalization program. In the future the DEMO Construction Model can play a key role in the ongoing clarification of responsibilities in the
several Rijkswaterstaat regions.
At Rijkswaterstaat, under direct steering of its CFO and CIO, a large-scale application
portfolio rationalization program is taking place. The Enterprise Architecture
Rijkswaterstaat team, responsible for guarding integrated business-IT steering,
shaped this program using part of an Enterprise Ontology as a stable description of
the business. By connecting transactions from the DEMO Construction Model for
Road Traffic Management directly to applications, we were able to detect duplications and similarities between applications used in different regions but supporting
the same business. At relatively low cost, this led to a well underpinned phasing out
proposal of 49% of all applications and also to a positive attitude-change towards
the application portfolio rationalization program. In the future the DEMO Construction Model can play a key role in the ongoing clarification of responsibilities in the
several Rijkswaterstaat regions. 
