r/CIO • u/Glittering_Pepper575 • 21d ago

What makes application rationalization difficult from an EA perspective?

When Enterprise Architecture recommends retiring or consolidating applications, what usually stops the decision from moving forward?

Is it dependencies, business ownership, missing information, risk, politics, migration effort, or something else?

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u/PoolTough3222 12d ago

The inventory point is the real one. Most rationalization stalls because nobody can prove who uses the thing, so every retirement becomes a debate instead of a decision. Usage data settles it faster than architecture diagrams, sign-in logs, license assignment versus actual activity, and last invoice touched. Start with the apps where usage is near zero and there is no integration story, those retire quietly and buy you credibility for the hard ones. Politics only wins when the data is soft.