Technical Document Template

Document Information

Purpose

Reduce Cost & Resource Usage: Retiring unused or obsolete applications frees up infrastructure, licenses, and support resources, reducing operational costs.
Mitigate Security Risks: Old or unsupported applications can become security vulnerabilities if not properly decommissioned.
Ensure Compliance: Regulatory and internal policies often mandate proper data handling, retention, and system lifecycle management, including decommissioning.

Scope

Identification of Unused Applications: Conduct a thorough assessment to identify applications that are no longer in use or required by the organization.
Compatibility Verification of Dependent Applications: Evaluate and confirm that all dependent systems or applications are either no longer reliant on the application being decommissioned or have been successfully transitioned to alternative solutions.
License Deactivation: Proceed with the deactivation or termination of licenses associated with the unused application to optimize costs and ensure compliance.
User Communication: Prepare and distribute a formal communication to all impacted users. This should include the rationale for the application decommissioning, key dates, and any required user actions.

Prerequisites/Assumptions

Ensure that the most recent and fully tested version of the application is deployed to the production environment, incorporating all approved enhancements, bug fixes, and security updates.

Workflow Diagram

Step-by-Step Process

A table or numbered list of each step in the process. For each step, include:

Step	Description
Latest version in prod	Once Application N+1 version is packaged and successfully tested and moved to Production.
Lower version to retire	N version we need to retire because N+1 version is in production.
License check	We need to check application is licensed or not. If freeware can proceed further without any actions. If licensed, we need to remove license for that app to that particular user/device.
Dependency	We need to check N version is having any dependency application or this is dependant application. We need to check compatibility with N+1 version, only when compatible we can proceed further otherwise we need to stop.
End user communication for retiral	We need to send out communication to users on the N+1 version came up in the environment. So that they are aware of this and they will send objections if any. If there is any objections, either we need to clear the doubts or stop the retiral.
Raise CR for deployment	After previous step completed, we need to raise CR for upgrade and we need to upgrade all devices which are having N version with N+1 version.
Remove assignments/Collections	Remove assignments/Collections from N version so that you can stop usage of this application.
Delete application from SCCM/Intune	After 30/60 days we can retire application from intune/SCCM
Retired	Retiral is successful.

Retiral Workflow