Defining Technology Life
The technology life is characterized by:
• Its official life cycle, specified by the vendor
• Its life cycle within the organization; it can differ from the official life cycle.
Based on this data, indicators and report types enable you to analyze the risks of technology obsolescence and the applications concerned.
Official Life Cycle
Dates of the official technology life cycle are automatically defined in the Characteristics tab of the technology properties.
• Release date
• End of Support
• End of Extended Support
These properties are defined automatically when you import a technology from BDNA or IT-Pedia. To modify IT-Pedia properties, see Modifying dates from IT-Pedia.
For more details on importing technologies, see Importing Technologies from BDNA and Importing Technologies from IT-Pedia.you can also set them manually.
Technology Life Cycle within the Organization (Gantt Diagram)
An object evolving over time can take different states (preparation, production, retirement, etc.).
The Object life enables viewing of the planning of these different states in the form of a Gantt chart.
To view the Gantt chart representing the different states of a technology:
1. Open properties of the technology.
2. In the technology properties window, click the Characteristics page.
3. Expand the Gantt section.
As with an application, you can initialize the lifecycle of a technology, see Viewing Application Life (Gantt Chart).
Analyzing the life cycle of a technology and the applications that use it
A report enables display in the same Gantt diagram of life cycle steps of the technology and those of the applications that use it.
A second report indicates any conflicts between life cycles of these objects.
To access these reports:
1. Open the properties of the technology concerned.
2. Click the Reports page then:
• Gantt Chart to view life cycles of the objects
• Gantt chart with conflicts to view any conflicts.
Technology Support Alert
A Support Alert MetaAtribute available on each technology compares the technology life cycle (imported from BDNA or IT-Pedia or defined manually) with its life cycle in the organization.
Viewing the support alert of a technology
To view the Support Alert attribute on a technology:
1. Click the Technologies navigation menu.
2. Display “All Technologies”.
The Support Alert column defines the use of each technology within the organization.
The attribute can take the following values:
• Early life cycle: the technology has a life cycle in the organization which started before the official release date of the software technology.
• Supported usage: the life cycle of the technology begins after the release date of the technology and ends before the end of the support date.
• Delayed use: the life cycle of the technology begins after the release date of the technology and ends before the end of the extended support date.
• Non-supported use: the life cycle of the technology begins after the release date of the technology and ends before the end of the extended support date.
Attribute calculation
The value of the Support Alert attribute is defined by the following parameters:
Technology life cycle | Support Alert value |
|---|---|
Life cycle not defined | NA (Non applicable) |
Support end date and extended support end date not defined | NA (Non applicable) |
The release date of the technology is later than the current date and the begin date of use. | Early life cycle |
The support end date is not defined or later than the usage end date, and the extended support end date is later than the usage end date. | Supported usage |
The support end date is earlier than the usage end date, and the extended support end date is later than the usage end date. | Delayed use |
The usage end date is later than the support end date and the extended support end date. | Non-supported use |
Support Alert report
The Software Technology Support Alert report uses the Support Alert MetaAttribute to analyze technologies in the HOPEX repository and displays all possible conflicts between the use of these technologies in the organization and their official life cycles.
This report is available on an application portfolio or a technology portfolio.
To generate a Support Alert report:
1. Open the properties of the portfolio.
2. Click the Reporting > Software Technology Support Alert page.
The report results appear.
Obsolescence Risk and Remediation
You can visualize the risk of technological obsolescence for each technology, as well as for technologies associated with a portfolio or a selection of applications.
For each technology, the Obsolescence Risk indicator is available in the technology properties, and is calculated on the basis of the technology's lifecycle dates.
For a portfolio of applications or a selection of applications, you can analyze the obsolescence risks of the technologies associated with the applications. The Technology Obsolescence Remediation report shows, for the applications in the portfolio, the list of software technologies, their support state for the coming years and the potential new versions available to remedy their obsolescence.
Remediation proposals are based on technologies developed by IT-Pedia. See Importing Technologies from IT-Pedia.To open this report:
1. Click the Reports menu.
2. To the right of the edit area, click the Create a report button.
3. Search for the “Technology Obsolescence Remediation” report.
The report appears in the edit area.
4. Select the report type and click Create a report.
The report creation wizard opens.
5. Select the relevant application portfolio.
6. Click Preview then Continue.
7. Name the report.
8. Click Save and open.
The report displays:
• portfolio applications
• the technologies associated with the applications, with:
• The current version
• its life cycle for the current year and the next two years
• in the event of obsolescence, the proposed technology and version
• other applications concerned by the technologies analyzed
