Data Foundations (CMDB and CSDM) Mainline Certification

[hanwar2]

Hi All, 

Has anyone cleared the Data Foundations (CMDB and CSDM) Mainline Certification. 

[Mark Manders]

The only possible answer to this question is yes or no. What is it that you are looking for? I have seen several posts on LinkedIn from people that cleared it, so the answer is 'yes'. But what is your actual question?

[hanwar2]

I wanted to understand if this is similar to other mainline certification like discovery, event management, service mapping etc. 

The blueprint shows lots of topic with 70 questions unlike 60 questions usually we have. 

[Mark Manders]

It is different in the way that it is setup. Don't ask me why, but this CIS consists of multiple courses and isn't a single path. I hope this is a mistake they are going to correct, but at the moment you will have to take all the courses and get a voucher after that. 

I guess the number of questions is related to the number of topics it needs to cover. Looking at 'normal' CIS exams: I haven't taken any yet, where they didn't have at least a couple of duplicate questions in there. 

[Dr Atul G- LNG]

Hi @hanwar2 

1 – What This Exam Is About
The Certified Implementation Specialist – Data Foundations (CIS-DF) exam is focused on:
* CMDB concepts & implementation best practices
* CSDM (Common Service Data Model) alignment
* Data governance, quality, and health
* Relationships between CIs and services
* Using ServiceNow tools to manage CMDB data
*
It’s not a deep-dive technical “Discovery” exam — instead, it’s more about data modeling, governance, and how CMDB fits into the overall ServiceNow platform.

2 – Official Exam Structure
From the ServiceNow blueprint, the exam usually covers these domains

Domain	Weight
CMDB Fundamentals (concepts, classes, attributes, lifecycle)	~25%
CSDM Concepts (domains, stages, mapping to CMDB)	~20%
CMDB Data Management & Governance (Data Manager, Data Certification, policies)	~25%
CMDB Health (completeness, correctness, compliance)	~20%
Implementation Approach (phases, roles, data loading, maintenance)	~10%

3 – What You Need to Study from Product Docs
A. CMDB Core Concepts
* CMDB tables & hierarchy (cmdb, cmdb_ci, subclasses)
* CI attributes, identifiers, and discovery sources
* Relationship types (Depends on, Runs on, etc.)
* CI lifecycle (Installed, Retired, In Maintenance)
* CMDB Class Manager

B. CSDM
* Purpose and benefits of CSDM
* The 4 core CSDM domains (Design, Manage Technical Services, Sell/Consume, Manage Portfolio)
* How CSDM maps to CMDB classes
* Service Portfolio > Service Offerings > Service Instances
* Technical vs Business Services

C. CMDB Health & Data Quality
* CMDB Health dashboard metrics: Completeness, Correctness, Compliance
* How to configure health indicators
* Data Certification process
* CMDB Data Manager and cleanup policies
* Duplicate CI identification

D. Data Loading & Maintenance
* Import sets vs Discovery vs IntegrationHub ETL
* Identification & Reconciliation Engine (IRE)
* Data governance roles & processes
* Best practices for CMDB implementation

4 – Recommended Learning Path
1. Take ServiceNow’s “CMDB Fundamentals” training (free in Now Learning)
2. Complete “CSDM Fundamentals” training (also free)
3. If possible, attend the official CIS – Data Foundations course (paid, but very targeted for the exam)
4. Practice:
* Creating & relating CIs in Class Manager
* Setting up CMDB Health metrics
* Using Data Manager policies
* Mapping a simple CSDM service model

5. Go through exam practice questions from Now Learning (they follow the blueprint style closely)

5 – Key Exam Tips
* Know the CSDM diagram well — questions will test you on which table/class belongs to which stage/domain.
* Understand the difference between Business Service, Technical Service, Service Offering, and Service Instance.
* Remember: IRE enforces identification rules, not ACLs.
* CMDB Health → Completeness = mandatory fields, Correctness = valid data format, Compliance = policy adherence.
* Expect scenario-based questions like:
* “You have duplicate CIs from multiple sources — what do you configure?”
* “A service instance must be linked to X in CSDM — what is it?”

Reference links for that:-

https://learning.servicenow.com/lxp/en/credentials/certified-implementation-specialist-data-foundati...

https://learning.servicenow.com/lxp/en/credentials/certified-implentation-specialist-data-foundation...

https://learning.servicenow.com/lxp/en/it-operations-management/configuration-management-database-cm...

CC: @AJ-TechTrek