A CMDB is valuable only when decisions improve because of it. Start by defining critical services and the CIs required to support incident impact assessment, change risk, and asset lifecycle. Limit scope to high-value layers first (business services, applications, key infrastructure) and expand deliberately. Use discovery and service mapping to automate accuracy, then harden with reconciliation rules and ownership. Tie CMDB health to frontline workflows: change approvals should consider blast radius via relationships; incident impact should reflect service and dependency status; problem management should use patterns in CI failure history. Publish a CMDB Health Score—coverage, correctness, and compliance—and link it to change velocity and incident outcomes to prove value. Govern attribute sprawl; if fields don’t drive decisions, remove them. Integrate asset and lifecycle data to support cost and sustainability reporting (e.g., e-waste, power consumption where available). Finally, clarify roles: service owners define scope, platform team enforces models, and operations keeps it current through automation. A trusted CMDB reduces firefighting and makes risk visible before it materializes.
