Can you use Dynamic CI Group to create/maintain CIs for a business service?

[LC-303]

We are attempting to implement our CMDB ideally using the CSDM 4.0 model.

I want to know, if it is possible/ advisable to use Dynamic CI Group CIs related directly to business services, or does there have to be an application service as well every time?

[Mark Bodman]

Yes, this is possible as you can use a Dynamic CI group to populate the application Service.  When you use the App Service wizard under the CSDM navigator, you will find this option: 

When you define the Business Service and Offering, relate the Offering to the  Application Service that you cerated with Dynamic CI Group.  I suggest using Service Builder to create the Business Service and Offering.  This video will walk you through how that works. 

[Barry Kant]

I agree,
in general I used it for assets/owned devices like:

 so it links Technical Service Offerings as well as Business Service Offering. Those are edge cases I think (non apps), but conceptually it will do. 

Cheers,

Barry

[Mark Bodman]

Yes, there is grey area with regards to wether this is a technical or business service, David and I discuss that issue in this video.  For client compute, it makes sense to define it as a business Service, even through the deliverable is a technology.  The main differentiator is having a subscriber for Business Services vs. not having them for Technical Service.  

Also what should be done is to have Asset Management leveraged for managing the individual owners of the asset and synchronize the Business Service Offering subscribers to all those asset owners.  

[CMDB Whisperer]

In CSDM the Dynamic CI Groups are related to Technical Services/Offerings not to Business Services/Offerings.  However, in theory some Business Service Offerings could have underpinning dependencies on Technical Service Offerings, which could then in turn have dependencies on Dynamic CI Groups.  An example of this could be a data center hosting services business where the business consumer is actually consuming technical services such as infrastructure provisioning, data backups, etc.  It might seem in this case that the Technical Services and the Business Services are one in the same; however, in my opinion it would still be preferable to define them separately so there is a clear distinction between the "technical" services that are consumed by a business consumer, and those that are in support of internal operations.