Skip to main content

Before implementing CMDB in ServiceNow

As seen in the industry most organizations seem struggling to get CMDB corrected or implemented. Following are 5 simple tips to get it back on track.

1. Plan before Jump :

To simplify the concept; CMDB is an entity that consists of 20% tech components and 80% business components. Often organizations rush to implement the technical part of CMDB without having a proper plan for the rest of the 80%.

CMDB is not about having CIs in a database it has a border business vision to cater for. Understanding this business vision and matching it with your business roadmap is required before you jump into technical implementation.

Said that first should think about why you need a CMDB and what are you expecting to do with it. Once you are confident with the answers, plan the data you wish to have in the CMDB and the systems you need to integrate with CMDB to have those data in it.

Are we ready now? Nop

2. Plan the CSDM

Without a Common Service Data Modal, CMDB is just a database with lots of data and technical complexities. if you try to plug such CMDB with your ITSM or other modules, you will be ended up with a confused set of users who are continuously complaining about the CMDB.

CSDM is about establishing a common set of definitions across the organization to simplify the utilization of CMDB. Planning CSDM is required before you start the CMDB.

ref : CSDM - https://lnkd.in/gh8XWu2h

3. Overcome political challenges.

There are 4 common challenges you need to overcome before you start the implementation project.

  1. Security - i.e. No way we’ll give access to that
  2. Stakeholders - i.e. We don’t want to give up our time, power, and data on this
  3. Resistance - i.e. We have never seen a successful CMDB which means this can’t exist
  4. Regional Differences - i.e. We have never seen a successful CMDB which means this can’t exist
To overcome this, you need to initiate a CMDB implementation project as a global/organizational project.

4. Select the correct implementation direction

Starting with CIs is always time-consuming work hence often it ends with frustration. Usually, I recommend starting your implementation with business capabilities. Later you can identify Services supporting each business capability followed by the CIs catering for each service.

This direction facilitates you to have an incremental project delivery approach and often comes with better results.

5. Target CIP (Continual improvement process)

CMDB is not about ITSM its about the Continual improvement of the business. Supporting ITSM is just a milestone of the overall CMDB roadmap. So, placing CMDB in your continual improvement roadmap and binding it with your CMDB product roadmap is a mandatory requirement.

Other than the above 5 points, it is important to allow your CMDB expert to operate freely.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Before ZBoot your ServiceNow instance

Things to Remember When you take the decision to ZBoot your ServiceNow instance. If you are using a highly customized ServiceNow environment that gives you a hard time being aligned with the latest trends, you might consider resetting your environment. ZBoot is the name given by ServiceNow for this operation. ZBoot simply factory resets your ServiceNow environment and brings it back to its original state. This sounds simple but is associated with numerous hard business decisions. ZBoot simply erases your existing data and changes the table structures to a different level. So Having your old business data in your newly built environment will be challenging and sometimes it's impossible.  So make sure you have a proper plan for the data before you make the decision of a ZBoot. Changing your usual business work environment requires proper user training. ZBoot results in drastic changes to the current work environment (Depending on the customizations you had).  So, make sure you h...
Post a Comment
Read more

iPaaS - Tools

  What is iPaaS ? An integration Platform as a Service is a set of automated tools (Middleware) that are deployed in different environments under different conditions. their tools are used in large-scale B2B (Business to Business) enterprises to integrate their on-prem applications with cloud services.  Usually, most of the PaaS providers provide you with a server, middleware and data infrastructures, and other tools which help you to expose your on-prem apps as cloud-accessible services. Common features ESB (Enterprise service Bus) Data Mapping Data/information routing and filtering Orchestration Protocol and format bridging ETL (Extract, transfer, Load) - users for data science and related services Top-ranking iPaaS tools Dell Boomi URL: https://boomi.com/ Review: https://reviews.financesonline.com/p/dell-boomi/#user-review community: https://community.boomi.com/s/ IBM AppConnect URL: https://www.ibm.com/cloud/app-connect Review: NA community: https://community.ibm.com/commu...
Post a Comment
Read more

ServiceNow, ITIL and Agile - A different symphony

As a 9+ experienced Solution Architect who is mainly focusing on software system automation in ITSM Domain, I had the invaluable opportunity of being a part of a few successful business transitioning projects. With that experience on hand, I'm writing this article to share the challenges you can expect during this kind of transition. Agile Since we are in a rapidly changing business world which directly depends on IT, IT organizations play major roles in every business. Bigger the company, the responsibility of the IT company getting bigger and bigger day by day. Things get much more complicated when an IT organization supports IT businesses like Software development firms or Infrastructure services providers. Therefore a better process of managing delivery activities is required for such an IT company.  Many years ago, When Agile invaded the tech market, businesses eagerly looked forward to restructuring their IT organizations according to those practices.  Agile is a pr...
Post a Comment
Read more