- Without a configuration management database (CMDB) or formal configuration management, there is no way to obtain information about the assets that support IT services or the relationships between them.
- This makes it difficult for IT departments to successfully execute more client-facing service management activities, particularly incident and change management.
- Most organizations recognize the value of investing in a CMDB, but are wary of the cost involved and assume that the CMDB must contain information about every IT asset.
- Clients who do decide to invest in a CMDB often jump straight to solution selection and design, without ever considering the business case for building or purchasing a CMDB.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- ITIL’s version of configuration management will be too expensive and costly for most small or medium-sized organizations to implement.
- Without proper scoping and planning, organizations risk wasting time and resources procuring and maintaining an overly complex system.
- You do not need a system to record and monitor every asset in your environment in order to reap the benefits of configuration management. You just need to consider what your CMDB will accomplish before you invest.
- Configuration management, executed with a CMDB, is an enabling process. You cannot build or purchase a CMDB until you know which processes it will be supporting.
- If you do not gather the necessary requirements up front, you risk deploying a CMDB that is not useful to the people and processes who should benefit from it.
Impact and Result
- Gather comprehensive stakeholder requirements in order to accurately define the organization’s configuration management objectives and identify the IT processes that will be redesigned to integrate with a CMDB.
- Choose an appropriate technology target state. Configuration management can be achieved with a homegrown spreadsheet or vendor solution; the choice of solution will be driven largely by the complexity of your current environment and the availability of resources.
- Estimate the cost and benefit of re-designing the processes identified during the requirements gathering stage and prioritize them accordingly.
- Create a complete roadmap of initiatives that can be presented to stakeholders to obtain buy-in for selecting and implementing a CMDB and formal configuration management process.
Member Testimonials
After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve. See our top member experiences for this blueprint and what our clients have to say.
Client
Experience
Impact
$ Saved
Days Saved
CRH: Americas Materials
Workshop
10/10
N/A
4
Regional Sanitation & Sacramento Area Sewer District
Workshop
8/10
N/A
5
Educating staff on the concept and the importance of Config Management in other related IT processes.
Resorts World Las Vegas
Guided Implementation
10/10
$6,199
32
Southern Cross Austereo
Guided Implementation
10/10
$31,833
20
The session was full of practical, actionable information.
Lamb Weston
Workshop
7/10
$61,999
10
Alcoa Corporation
Guided Implementation
9/10
N/A
N/A
Scientific Games Corporation
Guided Implementation
10/10
N/A
N/A
California Department of Industrial Relations
Guided Implementation
10/10
$63,667
32
Workshop: Create a Configuration Management Roadmap
Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.
Module 1: Launch the Project
The Purpose
- Decide what your objectives are for configuration management.
- Establish consistent definitions for stakeholders.
- Make the case for a CMDB at your organization.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Defined configuration management goals.
- A clear set of definitions to ensure that everyone is on the same page.
- An understanding of the benefits of investing in a CMDB and configuration management.
Activities
Outputs
Identify goals
- Defined objectives.
Establish definitions
- Established definitions.
Identify pain points
- Defined pain points.
Identify CMDB benefits
- Defined benefits
Identify and analyze stakeholders
- Defined stakeholders.
Module 2: Gather Requirements
The Purpose
- Identify business and IT drivers that will impact the scope of your CMDB implementation.
- Identify the IT processes that will benefit most from integration with a CMDB.
- Define your CMDB end state by identifying the pain points that will be addressed by the CMDB and considering the ways in which the CMDB will help resolve the pain points and improve the processes.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Defined business and IT drivers to guide target state design.
- Selection of IT processes that will be re-designed to integrate the CMDB.
- A clear CMDB end state that will facilitate a more successful implementation.
Activities
Outputs
Identify business and IT drivers
- Defined business and IT drivers.
Identify impacted IT processes
- A list of impacted IT processes that will be improved through use of a CMDB.
Define the end state
- A defined end state: a list of processes that will be re-designed, the pain points that will be addressed by the CMDB, and use cases.
Module 3: Perform a Gap Analysis
The Purpose
- Decide what type of CMDB technology is best suited to your current environment, capabilities, and objectives.
- Document a roadmap for implementing the CMDB solution.
- Assess the cost and benefit of each CMDB initiative (both technology and process initiatives).
Key Benefits Achieved
- Selected technology target state for your CMDB (type of CMDB that you will invest in).
- A roadmap for your first roadmap initiative: implementing the CMDB.
- Documented cost, duration, and benefit of executing each process initiative in your CMDB roadmap.
Activities
Outputs
Assess current environment
- Assessment of current environment to guide target state design.
Select technology target state and document technology roadmap
- Selected technology target state and roadmap for CMDB implementation.
Assess initiative cost and benefit
- Documented cost, duration, and benefit of all process initiatives.
Module 4: Finalize and Sell the Roadmap
The Purpose
- Prioritize each intiative in your roadmap based on cost, benefit, and dependencies between processes.
- Complete the CMDB roadmap.
- Select the metrics that will be used to assess CMDB success.
- Prepare to launch the first initiative by creating an action plan with next steps.
Key Benefits Achieved
- All roadmap initiatives prioritized.
- CMDB roadmap completed.
- Succes metrics selected.
- Action plan defined.
Activities
Outputs
Prioritize initiatives and complete roadmap
- Completed configuration management roadmap.
Select success metrics
- CMDB success metrics.
Prepare to launch the first initaitive
- Action plan of next steps.