This is simply a guide and lessons learned on how to the approach populating CSDM tables.
Most of the effort that goes into rolling out CSDM is that of preparation work to gain access and vetting of data to consume import and ultimately maintain in ServiceNow. Data is not simply imported and left alone. It must be maintained, there is no use in having data that go's stale. Otherwise It might as well be kept in excel 😂.
Some of the bellow is explained in Migrate to the Common Service Data Model framework but not fully elaborated on. You can also use the CSDM workshop to assist with your data architecture in your adoption of CSDM.
Rules
Rule #1: Data quality = Value (if data is not consistent and governed its of no use for CSDM)
Rule #2: If Data quality is poor see Rule #1
Business Maturity
Implementing CSDM will test your business. It will bring to light gaps and deficiencies businesses have on ownership, responsibility, accountability and transparency. Lines of support get blurred and people will point fingers.
- You can find yourself engaging departments\divisions and teams in order to populate CSDM tables, only to find they are no where near ready to provide data due their maturity (effectiveness) level.
- You cannot handhold them to reach your CSDM goals without accounting for the work of defining what their process is if the above is true.
Data Maturity
This is key for CSDM success. You need to have reliable clean and vetted data to import and maintain. Manually maintained and stale data is of no use. For this follow the below maturity model in order to assess each data source you need to import.
-
- By in large getting to Level 1 is good enough for importing for CSDM use.
- Anything less than Level 1 is just going to pollute your tables and make CSDM roll out have to account for “cleanup” work and prolong the effort.
|
Maturity Level |
Maturity Class |
Definition |
Example |
|
3 |
Wisdom |
I can use Knowledge to make decisions on the past, present and future. |
2 out of 3 people are born in January. At a 66.66% historical rate.
|
|
2 |
Knowledge |
I can use information to provide context and can be reported on to provide insights. |
All are younger than 40 years of age
|
|
1 |
Information |
I can use data that is managed and reliable. (governance) |
|
|
0 |
Data |
I have data that is centrally stored or distributed. (no governance or consistency) |
|
Data Import & Ongoing Maintenance
Data that is imported should be at least at a Level 1 maturity in order to provide value. The import should have a cadence on frequency. This frequency can be different for each table depending on the data being imported. Your business maturity will indicate cadence for importing per table.
Its up to you (or Configuration Management Team) to determine what is appropriate.
It's best practice to create a standard operating procedure (SOP) on the data to be consumed\imported. It should clearly outline where the data comes from (source of truth), how often its imported a RACI and all steps necessary to maintain the data.
Examples:
- Business Capabilities: This data does not change often and can imported every quarter.
- Business & Technical Services: This data is changes more often than be imported monthly
- Service Offerings: Can change weekly
Required Fields
This again can be determined by your business maturity. If they simply don’t have quality data or they do not currently capture what is minimum required fields. This can hamper and slow down your roll out of CSDM.
Data Governance
You may need to tackle data quality via an implementation of a Data Governance structure before CSDM can consume it. Ultimately an individual or group of people need to decide how to manage data. It can usually fall in of the three tiers shown below.
