All of us that have worked with the CSDM know the importance of keeping data structured. One thing is off course the discoverable bits and parts like the different CI, that we put into different classes like Windows Servers, Linux Servers, computers etc. But what about the non-discoverable parts like services and offerings?
To ensure that business requirement doesn’t deem which services that you need to create, there exists several predefined frameworks that can be utilized like IT4IT, TBM etc. Which framework that fits your organization the best is different from company to company, but to utilize and existing framework is a key to success as I see it.
The best framework that I have located so far is either IT4IT or TBM. Below I have stated how to utilize the TBM framework with links also to their documentation, as this is the one we choose for our organization.
The TBM Solution types TBM Framework & Taxonomy - TBM Connect Thrive:
TBM Technology consists of 6 different solution types with different solution categories. E.g. a solution type from above pictogram is workplace where the solution categories Are Client Computing, communication and collaboration and connectivity.
If we take this into consideration according to the documentation from TBM V4.1 together with CSDM 4.0 which can easily be transferred to CSDM 5 and TBM V5.0.1, we can see that the solution types such as workplace, business and shared / Corporate, should be mapped as taxonomy nodes which is mapped to business services, where Solution types like Delivery, Infrastructure and platform should be mapped to technical services.
How to map your offerings.
As seen above, within the different solution categories there are different solutions. The solutions are then mapped to different offerings like standard laptop, developer laptop, standard desktop etc.
So, if we transfer this into a multilayer taxonomy and the CSDM framework, then the solution type and categories are your Taxonomy nodes, where the solutions are the different services – either business service or technical services. The Service offerings is not defined from a TBM framework perspective but is defined by the business according to what the different teams “sells/offers” to the business.
No matter which framework you choose in your CSDM journey, it’s important to be true to the decided framework, and NOT deviate based on business requirement. If you first deviate once or twice, then suddenly your service framework will be much more scattered and will not give an overall view of your service landscape when utilizing e.g. the Digital Portfolio Management application in ServiceNow.
I hope the above article give some inputs to how your service and service offering could be structured.
