CSDM 5.0
According to officials, this will be the final time this diagram is presented.
The Common Service Data Model (CSDM) initial view has been enhanced to more accurately represent data flow and management across the entire lifecycle. The model now comprises five key domains, each serving an essential function in the management of digital products and services.
Ideation & Strategy domain:
Overview:
This recently introduced CSDM domain represents the business model, ideation, and strategy phase of the service lifecycle. The business model plays a central role in driving both innovation and investment direction, with Strategic Portfolio Management (SPM) products currently supporting customers in this area. The standard data model enables organizations to incorporate business strategies even if they do not own SPM products.
Significance:
This domain establishes an explicit connection between business objectives and technology-driven investment and execution. It supports the definition of future service offerings prior to their progression into planning, development, or consumption.
Design & Planning domain:
Overview:
Formerly referred to as "Design," this phase has been expanded to encompass both design and planning activities. It focuses on defining business applications, version-agnostic product models, and resource investment requirements. Architects and planners articulate their scope through application specifications, microservice or platform structures, and broad-level dependencies to conceptualize service structure. Product models utilize version-agnostic specifications, enabling organizational standardization for intended builds.
Significance:
This domain bridges the gap between business and technical teams by providing standard methods for planning and documenting integration and development efforts. It ensures scalability and consistency in application and service design while enhancing governance and decision-making through clearer product specifications.
Build & Integration domain follows:
Overview:
Previously known as the Build domain, this phase decomposes design specifications into deployable system components. It includes details about external software, third-party components, and internal build deliverables. Introduction of Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) tracking, adopted from Security Operations (SecOps) and Vulnerability Response, enhances management of software dependencies and security considerations.
Significance:
This domain provides transparency regarding service components, reducing risks related to shadow IT and unauthorized integrations. It strengthens compliance and security via comprehensive supply chain traceability and facilitates efficient integration of new services with proper dependency management.
Service Delivery domain:
Overview:
Previously titled "Manage Technical Service," this phase is now termed Service Delivery. A key enhancement is the introduction of “Service Instance” as a base class, replacing Application Services, though the latter remains in use. This change accommodates the need for industry-specific classifications, such as network, facility, or manufacturing services.
Significance:
This standardizes service tracking across industries and service types, supporting flexible and industry-specific definitions. The updated approach improves operational efficiency by ensuring consistent management of all service instance types.
Service Consumption domain:
Overview:
This domain addresses how end-users interact with and consume services, including sales, support, and service catalog contexts. It encompasses offerings, products, and services made available to employees and customers.
Significance:
It enables organizations to define and manage service offerings, expectations, and commitments more effectively. By encouraging a product-based service approach, it aligns IT and business product definitions and revenue streams, facilitating tracking of service adoption and customer satisfaction for all provider-consumer interactions.
This vision applies across all platform products, clarifying their alignment within this spectrum of activity and the CSDM elements they leverage or contribute.
Final Thoughts
The enhanced CSDM framework offers a value stream perspective that improves clarity and understanding of the data model throughout the entire service lifecycle. These refinements integrate each lifecycle stage—from strategy to consumption—resulting in better executive decision-making, reduced risk, and improved service delivery.
Key Differences Between CSDM 4.0 and CSDM 5.0
The shift from CSDM 4.0 to CSDM 5.0 marks a significant evolution in how organizations can manage the full lifecycle of digital products and services. While CSDM 4.0 laid a solid foundation for service modeling with an IT-centric focus, CSDM 5.0 expands the model’s scope to fully embrace digital product-centric thinking, offering a more holistic and strategic view across the entire value stream—from ideation to consumption.
By introducing new domains such as Ideation & Strategy and Manage Portfolio, and enhancing areas like product modeling, SBOM tracking, and service instance classification, CSDM 5.0 delivers richer modeling capabilities and tighter alignment between business objectives and technology execution. These changes empower organizations to improve governance, increase agility, and ensure traceability across the lifecycle of products and services.
Importantly, CSDM 5.0 is designed to be additive and backward-compatible, allowing organizations to adopt new capabilities without discarding their existing CSDM 4.0 investments. This incremental migration path ensures continuity while enabling future-ready service architecture and planning.
In essence, CSDM 5.0 is not just a model update—it’s a strategic enabler that helps organizations better connect strategy to execution, align IT with business value, and drive more intelligent, resilient, and scalable service delivery in the digital age.
PS: This article may not cover every aspect of the topic—it is based on my best understanding and interpretation of the available information.
Regards,
Pratiksha Khandelwal
