Enterprise Ontology based Application Portfolio Rationalization at Rijkswaterstaat

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.