• Service strategy: High-level requirements are the outputs of this phase. The decision-making criteria relating to whether applications are developed in-house or are bought in (and customised as necessary) are of particular
relevance to applications management. Application management will have the knowledge and experience to contribute to this decision.
• Service design: How applications are to be designed and subsequently managed is established during the service design phase. Application management will have an understanding of how similar applications are presently managed, and will provide information and views during the service design phase.
• Service transition: Application management will be included in testing and in ensuring that the testing process is appropriate and robust. Knowledge held within the application management teams on the applications and how they interface with each other and with the technical infrastructure will be used to help draw up test scripts. Known errors may be identified at this stage. The known errors may be eradicated or, after a cost and risk assessment, be
allowed into the live environment with problem management and the known error database being updated.
• Service operation: Application management will typically be available to
respond to support requests for the applications for which they are responsible. It is common for application management teams to undertake operational
activities as part of the IT operations management function. Application
management teams provide second-line support and are available for
functional escalation relating to events, incidents and problems.
• Continual service improvement: The performance of applications which make up or underpin a service will be constantly monitored. Improvements will be identified and considered from the point of view of cost and urgency.
For applications that have been bought in, close liaison is required with the supplier to ensure that the organisation is aware of possible enhancements that may be considered for implementation.