CMDB Health Check & Service Portfolio Alignment

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Enterprises depend on their Configuration Management Database (CMDB) as the backbone of IT operations and digital service delivery. Over time, data sprawl, incomplete relationships, and lack of governance reduce the CMDB’s value. A structured CMDB health check was conducted to baseline the current state, identify gaps, and define a roadmap for alignment with Service Portfolio Management (SPM).

Industry: Enterprise IT / Financial Services

Problem:

The CMDB had grown to hundreds of thousands of configuration items, but many lacked operational status, had incomplete discovery sources, or carried inconsistent attributes. Critical items were missing governance details such as ownership and support groups. These issues limited the ability to perform accurate impact analysis, align with the Common Service Data Model (CSDM), and support data-driven IT decision-making.

Solution:

A 3-week CMDB assessment was performed to review existing CI classes, attributes, and relationships against CSDM standards. The engagement included stakeholder workshops, documentation analysis, and validation against best practices. Key deliverables included:

  • Gap analysis of CI coverage, relationships, and data quality.

  • Tactical recommendations to improve discovery, health dashboards, and data certification processes.

  • Roadmap for SPM alignment, including business applications, services, and capabilities.

  • Governance guidance to improve CI ownership and lifecycle management.

Technology Stack:

  • ServiceNow CMDB

  • Discovery / Integrations (e.g., SCCM, vulnerability scanners, manual imports)

  • CMDB Health Dashboard

  • CSDM 3.0 Framework

  • Service Portfolio Management (SPM)

Impact:

The assessment delivered immediate tactical value (e.g., health dashboard adoption, CSDM alignment guidance) and provided a prioritized roadmap for long-term improvement. Outcomes included:

  • High-priority: CSDM alignment, Business Application selection in ITSM, foundations dashboards.

  • Medium-priority: discovery improvements, CI data cleanup.

  • Strategic: service-to-change impact mapping.

This roadmap gave IT leadership a clear, actionable plan to remediate CMDB gaps, strengthen service visibility, and unlock portfolio-level management of business and technical services.

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