Simple CSDM Layout?

[UC Paul]

Hello,

I am wrapping my head around CSDM and best practices. I think I am starting to understand it but would like to make sure.

Let's say we are dealing with two companies. CoffeeCoffee run by Craig and IT_IT run by Irene. CoffeeCoffee has 3 locations and his IT support is done by Irene.

CoffeeCoffee provides on location sales and online sales.

IT_IT provides development of software, hosting of software, and general IT support for things like a broken printer.

These would be listed as business capabilities.

Irene wrote 2 applications for Craig, OnlineOrdering and CoffeeDisplayTV.

Looking at the IT_IT CSDM.

Business Applications would be OnlineOrdering, CoffeeDisplayTV, SoftwareHosting, General IT Support.

First Question - Do we say General IT Support is a Business Application if it isn't an application? It's just labour and knowledge?

Application Services would be OnlineOrdering Production (probably with Product Models as Versions) linked to an Infrastructure Server, CoffeeDisplayTV Production (probably with Product Models as Versions) linked to an Infrastructure Server, SoftwareHost Main linked to an Infrastructure Server, SoftwareHost Backup linked to an Infrastructure Server, General IT Support.

Technical Services would be OnlineOrdering Production, CoffeeDisplayTV Production, SoftwareHosting?

Second Question - Do we need a General IT Support Technical Service? It doesn't have a hardware or software backbone?

Technical Offerings would be OnlineOrdering Production, CoffeeDisplayTV Production, SoftwareHosting all linked to an Application Service?

Third Question - How do we link a Technical Offering to an Application Service? I'm not seeing anything in the Service Builder or on the table view that allows me to add a link. Ahh, I see it now in the Builder. How do I edit it once it's linked? Or if I forget to link it?

And then, moving to Business Services, this would be mostly visible on Customer Service Cases and portal requests that are facing Craig and his coffee team?

So Business Service would be OnlineOrdering, CoffeeDisplays, and InStoreOrdering (which would include General IT Support).

And Business Offerings would be

Online Ordering: Report an Issue with OnlineOrdering, Suggest an Improvement to OnlineOrdering, Request Admin Access to Online Ordering.

CoffeeDisplays: Report an Issue with CoffeeDisplays, Suggest an Improvement to CoffeeDisplays

InStoreOrdering: Report an Issue with Printers, Report an Issue with Terminals, Report an Issue with Internet, Report Other Issue.

And each Offering could have a category of locations...or we can have duplicate Business Services for each location (InStoreOrdering Store1, InStoreOrdering Store2, InStoreOrdering Store3) with repetitive offerings.

Last Question - Am I right in thinking something like an ITSM Incident should only show Technical Services as a Service Selection? And CSM Cases should only show external Business Services + Offerings?

Ok - maybe one more - is there a secret to naming Technical, Business, and Application services so they seem distinct from each other? Should they seem distinct from each other?

[Mathew Hillyard · Accepted solution]

Hi @UC Paul 

First Question - read the CSDM V4.0 draft and particularly the section describing a Business Application. If it's not application-based it should not be a Business Application. So, the answer to this question is "no".

Second Question - there is no such thing as general IT support except in a very very small organisation, like an IT department of five people, which CSDM isn't really designed for. Expect dedicated support for each element of infrastructure and each application or application family. In addition all CSDM services should be linked to something - hardware or software - so again, the answer is "no".

Third Question - If I were building relationships from the perspective of Application Services I would use the Application Service Wizard instead of Service Builder. It allows you complete freedom to link up Business Apps, other App Services and Service Offerings. Ultimately all CSDM links (that are not a reference, like the Parent field in Service Offering) are just CI Relationships so if you can find no other way to modify them, locate either the parent or child record, go to CI Relations on the form and amend from there.

Fourth Question - this is something hotly debated, not just within CSDM, but within ITSM in general. Some say all Incidents should only ever refer to Technical Services, others believe that Business Services face the business, and it is these that should appear. The platform doesn't force you to choose either way. Personally I think you can choose either. It's all about picking the most relevant Service Offering, and this is most definitely not "always" a Technical Service Offering or a Business Service Offering. I don't believe the structure you choose should change based on the ServiceNow product in use - it should be consistent. However, the Service Offering piece will be somewhat different in a CSM situation vs the internal IT organisation and their internal customers. Before making a decision have some idea how IT service reporting is used as this could shape the data required. It is also worth mentioning that the platform OOTB is not configured correctly to consume CSDM services on Incidents - see this Community Article.

Fifth Question - Application Services should in my experience follow the name of the parent Business App. They typically reference an application name or component. It's not a hard and fast rule but I prefer to put the environment on the end of an Application Service name so it is obvious from just the name which Application Service is which - and the Name field is unique so you have to create differently-named Application Services with the same parent Business App. An example could be a Business App named "Exchange" and  Application Services named "Exchange Prod", "Exchange Test" and "Exchange Dev". Business and Technical Services are an aggregation of Service Offerings, so should generally express an area of the portfolio and have generic, non-product or -vendor names - e.g. "Identity and Access Management" for a Technical Service or "Business Reporting" for a Business Service.

I hope this helps!

Mat

[Jonathan Schnei]

For more details on Business Applications specifically, check out the article from Mark Castoe that walks you through how to decide if something is a Business App 

[UC Paul]

Thank you both for your feedback! It's very helpful