Application and users matrix can find out interesting things for you.

After mapping the current systems and how they integrated one with each other I decide to map applications with users in order to find out if there are useless applications/systems.

So I create a matrix that it X axis holds applications and Y axis holds all the enterprise working groups by profession. It looks like this:

Now I spend time with developer’s team leaders to map applications for users. If users group use certain application we mark the cell with green. Application or users that don’t have any usage/solutions marked with red and application that just serve other application marked with yellow.

Matrix like this not just shows which application are not being used but also shows which applications are cross enterprise and which users groups get more attentions.

After making that matrix I argue with one of the group member that I don’t believe that user groups can work today without any application. So, just out of curiosity, we interview one of the “red” group users. After couple of minutes we figure out that they have been developed entire application, including forms, using excel. Actually we found out another data silo…

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