Mastering Application Management: 4 Key Challenges and Best Practices

Managing enterprise applications gets harder every year. With new technologies, growing complexity and constant change, it‘s an endless struggle to keep apps running smoothly.

In this guide, we‘ll explore the top challenges IT teams face when managing applications and proven solutions to overcome them:

1. Gain visibility across disconnected teams
2. Take control of sprawling application versions
3. Eliminate errors from manual processes
4. Track real-time progress on releases

By the end, you‘ll have expert insights on transforming application management at your organization. Let‘s get started!

Why Application Management Matters

First, let‘s look at why application management should be a priority:

• Business depends on apps: From CRM and ERP to custom mobile apps, software runs the business. Failures directly impact revenue and customer experience.
• Application sprawl: The average enterprise uses over 1,000 applications, up from around 750 just 5 years ago according to Mulesoft. Managing more apps makes coordination harder.
• Frequent changes: New releases now happen multiple times per week versus 2-3 times per year previously. This velocity strains management processes.
• Customer expectations: Users expect flawless app performance and instant upgrades. Management must keep pace with these demands.

Given those trends, staying on top of application management is an exponential challenge. How do leading organizations conquer it? Let‘s examine the top 4 problems they aim to solve.

Challenge #1: Lack of Visibility and Collaboration

Modern IT departments tend to work in disconnected silos focused on specific technologies and applications:

This fragmentation leads to delayed releases, duplicated work, and a lack of standardization. For example:

• Developers don‘t see production issues until after apps are live
• Ops teams must scramble to fix compatibility issues post-release
• Security teams are brought in late, opening compliance risks

The high cost of misalignment

According to IDC, 70% of outages are due to poor IT process and misconfiguration – not technology failures.

"We spent over $500k last year on application rollback and remediation of bad deployments that could have been prevented with better collaboration between teams." – Jason Smith, SVP of Engineering, Acme Retail

How leading organizations solve it

• Institute cross-team KPIs: Shared goals and metrics such as release frequency, lead time, and defect rates.
• Streamline hand-offs: Smooth the transition between teams via Milestone Tracking and Release Orchestration tools.
• Improve visibility: Provide a single source of truth for release progress, risks, and requirements.
• Automate governance: Embed standards for security, compliance, and testing across the pipeline.

With improved collaboration, releases become more predictable and reliable.

Challenge #2: Manual Version Control and Tracking

Modern applications are constantly evolving. Just consider:

• 35% of code is changed every release (Atlassian)
• Over 80% of IT budgets go towards managing existing apps vs. new development (Forrester)
• 95% of organizations have problems tracking application versions (IT Revolution)

This dynamic nature strains manual approaches to version control:

• No single source of truth on the current application portfolio
• Compatibility breaks when outdated versions get deployed
• Security flaws and compliance gaps from old builds
• Rollbacks are complex and risky without automated version control

The productivity drain

IDC estimates that companies lose $3.6 million annually due to release coordination issues like version mismatch.

"We never fully know what application versions are running where. It‘s not uncommon to have apps just stop working due to some compatibility issue between mismatched versions." – Leila Gonzalez, Director of Operations, XYZ Logistics

How leading organizations solve it

• Standardize packaging: All releases follow consistent packaging with immutable version labels.
• Automate build tracking: Create an audit trail of all builds and deployments across environments.
• Enable one-click rollback: Quickly revert to older versions in case of issues.
• Trigger progressive deployments: Ensure coordinated upgrades across connected systems.

With mature version control, operations teams know exactly what‘s currently deployed. They can move fast without breaking things.

Challenge #3: High Rates of Errors from Manual Processes

Here‘s another alarming stat – up to 68% of unplanned outages are caused by changes and human errors, according to BMC:

• Deployments done manually lead to downtime from mistakes
• Developers build locally but struggle in production environments
• IT ops lack consistency without standard release workflows

This variability also hinders compliance:

"When deployments are done manually, it‘s hard to prove our security controls and checks were followed before each release. This puts us at major risk of audit findings." – Joanne Lee, Head of Compliance, Acme Retail

How leading organizations solve it

• Standardize deployments: Document required steps and automated via configuration tools.
• Shift left on testing: Enable developers to simulate production environments locally.
• Automate repetitive tasks: Deployments, configurations, license updates should be bot-driven.
• Notify on changes: Keep teams informed on all changes that could impact uptime.
• Build rollback into processes: Quickly revert any failed changes to restore services.

Humans focus on creative, high-judgment tasks while eliminating manual errors from routine work through automation.

Challenge #4: Lack of Project Visibility

Consider this scenario – after months of work, a major release is nearing launch. Suddenly, days before go-live, integration flaws emerge and testing gaps surface.

This forces delays while defects are fixed under intense pressure. Stakeholders are left wondering:

• Why didn‘t testing spot these issues sooner?
• How far behind will this set the schedule?
• What‘s the risk of cutting corners to make the deadline?

The cost of unpredictability

According to KPMG, 50% of IT projects end up delayed or over budget. For a $10 million IT project, that translates to $5 million in cost overruns.

"We have no idea if a release will take 2 weeks or 2 months until the final stages. Our timelines are constantly shifting." – Raj Shah, CIO, Acme Retail

How leading organizations solve it

• Visualize pipelines end-to-end: From development to staging and production with full visibility.
• Track milestone progress: Monitor each phase to spot delays early.
• Automate approvals and hand-offs: Ensure transitions between teams happen smoothly.
• Manage requirements and risks: Identify gaps early to keep efforts on track.

With real-time insights, teams course-correct quickly before issues snowball and threaten deadlines.

Best Practices for Mastering Application Management

Now that we‘ve explored the key challenges, let‘s switch gears to capabilities that enable modern application management. Leading organizations drive consistency, collaboration and automation across these areas:

These capabilities work together to create a streamlined, low-defect release pipeline. Developers design, test, build, and deploy applications in a consistent, automated fashion for faster time-to-market.

Meanwhile, Ops gains control over the growing application portfolio with real-time insights. They manage the entire lifecycle – from immediate issue resolution to long-term optimizations.

Master New Demands

In today‘s digital economy, the pressure on applications and teams is rising exponentially. Businesses must move at startup speed while maintaining enterprise-class reliability and compliance.

This requires transforming how applications are built, deployed, and managed through:

• Improved collaboration between teams
• Automating manual tasks
• End-to-end visibility into release pipelines
• Mature version control and rollback

With these solutions, IT organizations can eliminate chronic issues like delayed deployments, costly outages, and uncontrolled sprawl. The result is the agility, scalability, and resiliency demanded by modern application management.

So are your teams bogged down in application management chaos? It‘s time to shift left on quality, automate routine work, and orchestrate delivery for the future. Reach out if you need help getting started!