I published a substantially similar definition on my blog at msdn.blogs.com/nickmalik. This defintion is not copyrighted material. Nickmalik

Don't see a difference

I read this article twice and still don't see a difference between software application and application software. What would be an example of a software application that is not application software? Oicumayberight 04:50, 23 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The difference is in the purpose it serves

That is a good question. This article provides a definition of a software application that is precise for a specific purpose. That purpose is described in the article: application portfolio management (APM).

For the purpose of APM, a clear definition must exist. The lithmus test is: take the definition, give it to two teams of analysts, and have them independently count all of the applications running in an enterprise. If the result is +/- 5% of each other, then the definition is good enough.

In large organizations, it is not uncommon to find thousands of software applications running. Many of them will be connected, or integrated, with one another. Therefore, the line between one and another can blur, making it difficult to 'count' them. Counting them is of critical importance to managing them, and the total count serves as a key indicator of IT cost for balanced scorecards.

Therefore, the definition used in application software provides some examples of software applications that may be recognizable to the user, and provides a hierarchy helpful for classifying those applications, it is not useful for counting them.

Remember, this is an encyclopedia, not a dictionary. Articles are different because they serve different purposes, not because there is no overlap.

I regret the unfortunate naming.

If you can help me to find a better way to characterize the distinction between these two topics, I'd be grateful. Nickmalik 05:20, 1 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

On second thought

At present, there is no article on Application Porfolio Management... just an empty link from the IT portfolio management page. Perhaps the better thing to do would be to pull all of this content down and put it up as a subtopic of a single page dedicated to APM to exist at that location. It would probably be simpler to find and use.

Comments? Nickmalik 05:34, 1 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Time for a change

The criticism above was well placed. The article was too technical and too confusing. The goal of defining an application is a subgoal of a larger effort, which is to capture a list of applications for the sake of portfolio management. Given that purpose, I moved the definition (which I wrote) to an altogether new page [Application Portfolio Management] that was already referenced from the IT Portfolio Management page but which had not yet been written, and I added the necessary surrounding content and references to make it valid. As a practitioner of APM and a public proponent of the science of APM, I consider myself an expert to the level sufficient to author this article. Nickmalik 23:13, 2 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]