5 Steps To Build A Healthy CMDB

Imagine your IT infrastructure as a complex puzzle with each piece representing a crucial part of your organization’s operations. Now, picture a CMDB as the master key that unlocks the true potential of this puzzle. Building a healthy CMDB is like breathing life into your IT infrastructure, providing you with a panoramic view of the intricate details. From change management to problem resolution, a robust CMDB helps identifying dependencies and hidden risks. In this article, we will guide you step-by-step in creating a robust deployment plan for your ServiceNow CMDB so that you can get the most out of the solution.?

Step 1 - Define the goals and objectives

Companies that achieve successful CMDB deployments possess a well-defined action plan outlining the necessary steps to be taken to accomplish the goal. They take the time to articulate their goals, document their approach and define the desired business outcomes they aim to achieve. Moreover, they establish a robust measurement framework to track their progress and evaluate the effectiveness of their CMDB implementation. This helps in ensuring efficient implementation and minimizes obstacles.?

Things to keep in mind while creating an action plan:?

1. Which categories of Configuration Items (CIs) are necessary for your CMDB and why?
2. Who should be responsible for owning and managing the various CI classes in your CMDB and why?
3. Which specific data and attributes are crucial to include for each CI class and why?
4. What are the important relationships between different CIs that you need to establish and understand in your CMDB and why are they important?
5. What processes and capabilities should your CMDB support to enable efficient IT management and how do these align with your organizational requirements?

Step 2 - Plan and develop CMDB structure

To maintain clarity and consistency, it is crucial to define the configuration item (CI) classes, attributes and relationships that align with your organization's needs. Consider the types of CIs you need to track such as servers, applications, databases and network devices. Determine the attributes and relationships that are essential for each CI class to track relevant information accurately. The next step is to implement a robust relationship mapping process for accurate dependency tracking. To ensure an up-to-date CMDB, integration with automated discovery tools is essential. These tools can scan the network and collect data on IT assets, configurations and relationships. Automated discovery helps reduce manual effort, improves data accuracy and enables real-time updates.

Step 3 - Populate and validate data

To ensure data accuracy and quality in your CMDB, it is important to establish clear mappings between each attribute within CI classes and authoritative sources such as ServiceNow Discovery, Asset Management systems and manual input. By configuring multiple sources initially, you can expedite the creation of CI records. However, to maintain data integrity, it is recommended to designate an authoritative source for each attribute, preventing other sources from modifying the attribute value moving forward. This approach enables your CMDB to contain the highest quality data from the chosen authoritative source for each CI class, while still allowing the initial source to swiftly create the CI record. Ensure data accuracy and consistency throughout the data validation processes, including data reconciliation and de-duplication. Regularly review and update the CMDB data to maintain its health and relevance.

Step 4 - Establish processes and governance

Clear documentation of policies and procedures is vital for updating and maintaining Configuration Items (CIs) within the CMDB. Any changes made to the CMDB should adhere to established change processes, including thorough reviews and approvals by key stakeholders. Define clear ownership and responsibilities for CI classes and ensure proper change management practices are in place. Implement workflows, such as approvals for CI modifications and establish data governance policies to maintain data integrity. Regularly audit the CMDB to identify and resolve discrepancies or inconsistencies.

Step 5 - Reporting and Auditing

Define the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Critical Success Factors (CSFs) to assess the progress and identify discrepancies. These should focus on factors such as data completeness, compliance with defined standards and data accuracy. By establishing these measurable targets, you can ensure that the CMDB consistently provides complete and reliable data attributes, enabling data-driven business decisions. Building a healthy CMDB is an ongoing process. Continuously monitor and measure the performance and update your CMDB structure, attributes and relationships to accommodate changes in your IT environment.?

By following these five steps, you can establish a solid foundation for your ServiceNow CMDB deployment. Embrace the power of ServiceNow CMDB to drive digital transformation and unlock new possibilities for your organization's success. Get in touch to discover how CubeSimple - an experienced pure-play ServiceNow partner can help you optimize your ServiceNow CMDB deployment.