Application owner sounds like a pretty important role—and in many organizations, it is. However, the responsibilities of an application owner vary significantly, with a range of responsibilities that may require just minutes per month or mean regular demands requiring daily activity. Depending on how each organization defines the role, application owners may have different, more complex tasks expected of them. Here, we discuss the different kinds of application owners you might employ. Responsibilities and expectations for each deliberately vary along with the time and effort required. The guide below is based on years of conversations with organizations implementing such programs. For more information, check out our in-depth guide, "The Ultimate Guide to Application Owner Program Success." While value is subjective, this chart expresses the increase in time necessary when assigning more significant roles to an application. How many minutes in total depends on the check-in interval for the application in question, which may be weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, etc. Furthermore, as opposed to assigning the same type of application owner and check-in interval for all applications, enterprises will often assign different types of application owners and different check-in requirements for certain applications as deemed necessary.
In summary, an Application Monitor is expected to sign up for any announcements and periodically check in on an application to see if any noteworthy updates are available. This can take as little as ten or fifteen minutes every couple of weeks (depending on the frequency of check-ins required by policy.)
Juriba’s upcoming App Owner solution is designed specifically to assist Application Monitors with reminder emails as well as provide consistent capture and reporting of necessary details. Learn more about Juriba App Owner.
Increasing the scope of the Application Owner role further, the level of Application Coordinator is a step above that of Application Monitor, with responsibilities often expanded to include:
This kind of application owner is asked to do more than simply monitor the application, but not significantly more, and so can be appropriate for certain applications or in environments where the organization is having success with their Application Owner program and wants to see if more value can be easily squeezed from it.
While Juriba’s App Tester can help automate the smoke testing of an application, it can also facilitate functional testing by application owners using virtual images representative of the production environment.
In addition to all the above responsibilities, an Application Administrator is a kind of application owner who is typically asked to take on the following additional tasks:
At this level, the time and effort required may become significant. Limiting the number of applications assigned to any app owner or reserving this kind of application owner only for specific applications can be effective ways to attain the desired value while mitigating the risk that the application owner program may become too onerous for those holding the role.
Juriba’s App Packager automates the packaging process, which can be initiated with no technical expertise required, making it an ideal way to empower application owners to provide this valuable role for the majority of applications (those that can be automated; some are too complex and require specialists). Among a broad range of benefits, Juriba’s App Lifecycle offering can be an invaluable asset in identifying what versions exist where in the environment to prevent version sprawl.
The most significant kind of application owner is the Application Subject Matter Expert, and quite a lot is expected of them. At this level, the individual is to serve as a primary resource for any questions related to any aspect of an application.
At this top tier, the Application SME is a recognized expert on the application. Their responsibilities include strategic planning, high-level decision-making, and acting as the primary point of contact for all application-related queries and issues. They possess deep knowledge of the application and its integration within the organization’s IT ecosystem.
Juriba’s App Lifecycle offering can be an invaluable asset in identifying what versions exist, for what users, and on what devices, all of which are important to confirm everything is as expected with the application and to identify if anything unexpected surfaces.
Like so many things, it is often not a one-size-fits-all solution, and the goals of your application owner program will dictate what is necessary. It often comes down to a balance of time and benefit for that time. Some organizations start with all application owners at the Application Monitor level and then, based on the application and the individuals assigned, move some up to levels that require more effort and responsibility as necessary.
