CSDM Service Migration Playbook and Use Case Examples

John Zhang1 · ‎07-14-2024

I have been leading CMDB remediation and CSDM Service migration project since last year. I would like to share what I have learned through ServiceNow Community and my project.

The Common Service Data Model (CSDM) is the ServiceNow® framework and prescriptive guidance for building out your CMDB. CSDM identifies where to place service- and application-related data within the CMDB. By providing a unified model for organizing and relating IT data, CSDM enables organizations to achieve greater visibility, efficiency, and alignment across their IT landscape.

CSDM provides a unified view of IT services and their underlying components, facilitating easier management and understanding of service portfolios. CSDM standardizes how services are defined and categorized, ensuring consistency and alignment with business objectives in service portfolio management. By leveraging CSDM’s structured data model, ServiceNow enables automation of service management processes, such as service catalog management, service request fulfillment, and incident resolution.

CSDM contains five domains: foundation, design, build, manage technical servers, and sell/consume, which allow organizations to map their IT services accurately, from business objectives down to technical infrastructure components. CSDM empowers organizations to transform their IT ecosystem and drive digital innovation with confidence.

Objectives

CSDM Framework 4.0
CSDM Service Relationships
CSDM Service Migration Approach
‘CSDM Use Cases (samples)
References

CSDM Framework 4.0

CSDM Relationship

This is a high-level example of what the data model of CSDM relationships presented by ServiceNow with the following relationships:

The Business Application “Consumes” information from the Application Service.
the Business Service Offering “Depends on” the Application Service
Applications Run on Servers

CSDM Service Migration Approach

ServiceNow recommends a staged approach for CSDM implementation as follows: I have listed all action items required for each stage with a sample use case as well as ServiceNow supporting documents.

1. Foundation Stage

We need to ensure the base tables (Location, User, Group, Org. structure, Business Unit, Company, CMDB group, Product models and Contracts, etc.) are populated and accurate since common data is shared, and foundational data used throughout the Now Platform. We need to understand that the foundational data elements are not configuration items.

Populating all base table data can be populated and configured by the following the supporting documents:

2. Crawl Stage

This stage represents how to define Business Application, Application service and application and their relationship. In this stage, back-end data is cleaned up and moved to the correct tables. The minimum CMDB requirements for ITSM are met.

The Business Application is the design view of the Application Service within CSDM design domain, which an application purchased or developed internally support a business capability. The Business Application is a part of CSDM Conceptual Model. This stage is staring from the business application data it helps build a foundation between the capabilities of the business, what applications provide those capabilities, and represents an IT application that directly supports or enables specific business processes or functions. It is aligned with business objectives and serves a particular business purpose. Business Applications are viewed from a business perspective and are typically associated with specific business units or departments. Examples include applications for finance, human resources, sales, etc.

In CSDM, Business Applications are positioned at a higher level, representing the business context and purpose. They are supported by lower-level Application Services, which in turn are composed of technical components (e.g., servers, databases) that collectively enable the Application to function. Business Applications are supported by specific Application Services that cater to their operational needs. The alignment ensures that IT resources are provisioned and managed according to the business requirements of each Application. Each Application is associated with one or more Application Services that support its operation. This mapping helps in understanding the technical dependencies and requirements of each Application.

Application Services is the operational view of a unique deployed instance of a Business Applications, which is the logical view of a deployed an application or system. An Application Service in CSDM represents the IT services and components that support and enable the functionality of an Application. It encompasses the technical infrastructure, platforms, and resources required to host, operate, and maintain the Application. It includes components like servers, databases, middleware, networking, and other IT resources that are necessary for the Application to function properly.

Data Maps from ServiceNow CSDM Workshop

Here is data map to present employees can “consume” or utilize various business applications to meet the capabilities of their organization. The IT Layer is where the applications are deployed, running in different environments and are running, connected to, dependent on various components like servers, routers, databases etc.

In summary of this stage within the CSDM architecture:

Business Application represents the software applications themselves that are used to support business operations so employee can “consume” or utilize various business applications to meet the capabilities of their organization within the consumer layer
Application Service represents the specific services or capabilities that these applications provide, abstracting their functionality into manageable units in different environments and are running, connected to, dependent on various components like servers, routers, databases etc.
Relationship between Business Application and Application Service - The Business Application record needs to “Consume”” information from the Application Service. When an incident or change is happening to the Application Service, this information becomes visible on the Business Record.
Application Service mapping to CIs - this map makes the connection between the logical understanding of the Application Service to CIs that have been discovered and populated into the CMDB.

The following migration steps shall be performed by the following supporting documents.

I have used ServiceNow as a use case to model their business application and application service in the following diagram.

Use Case

3. Walk Stage

You need to complete operational view model mapping of technical services by managing the infrastructure using service offerings rather than metadata in this stage. It is ready to request service offerings within the catalog. In this stage, the main focus on Manage Technical Service domain to address the management and support of deployed applications and infrastructure.

Technical service provides a higher-level view of technical functionalities, focusing on the service as a whole rather than individual components. A Technical Service represents the IT capabilities provided to support the business. It includes the various technical components, systems, and processes that deliver a specific functionality or service. Technical service can be referenced by one or more technical service offerings as an operational view to allow you view and manage the technology you provide to the business.

Technical Service offerings details the variations or different packages of a Technical Service available to consumers, including the service level agreements (SLAs/OLAs), pricing, and other attributes. A Technical Service Offering is a specific instance or version of a Technical Service. It represents a particular implementation, configuration, or level of a Technical Service provided to consumers. Technical Service Offerings are more consumer-focused, detailing what is available to end-users or customers and it has listing the group (Support group, Approved group, Change group and Managed by) that administrates or supports the Application Service.

Once the Technical Service Offering has been created you will need to create the relationship between the Technical Service Offering and the Application Service by service mapping. The Application Service has "contains" relationship with the Service Offering.

A Dynamic CI Group in ServiceNow is a group of Configuration Items (CIs) that are dynamically added or removed based on defined conditions or criteria. Unlike static groups, which have a fixed set of members, dynamic groups update their membership automatically as CI records are created, updated, or deleted to match the criteria set for the group. It actually utilizes the CMDB Group for filtering based on a criteria defined through a CMDB group but then exposes the results as an actual CI, whereas a CMDB Group isn't actually a CI. This was restrictive whereas CMDB group provides an approach to include CIs by creating encoded query on the CMDB, selecting saved queries or adding CIs manually. The Dynamic CI Group in practice is treated as a logical system of similar or related CIs that are typically the focus of a Technical Service Offering.

The benefit of using the Dynamic CI Group:

Automatic Incident or Change Management: Dynamic CI groups can be used to automatically assign incidents or changes to the appropriate group of CIs based on their characteristics.
Reporting and Analytics: These groups facilitate easier reporting and analytics by automatically categorizing CIs according to predefined criteria.
Service Mapping: In Service Mapping, dynamic groups help in mapping and visualizing dependencies dynamically based on real-time updates.

The following migration steps can be performed by following supporting documents

CSDM Manage Technical Services

Use Case

4. Run Stage

The propose of this stage is to incorporate business services to understand the impact technology can have on the business through the accurate mapping between Application Services and Business Service Offerings helps in understanding the impact of technical issues on business operations. It also aids in incident management, problem management, and change management by linking technical components to business outcomes.

It is very important to understand their relationship:

In the CSDM framework, Business Service Offerings are typically at a higher level in the hierarchy, focusing on the business perspective. Application Services are more technical and detail-oriented, residing at a lower level to support the technical aspects.
Application Services support Business Service Offerings by providing the necessary technical functionality. This relationship ensures that the business services delivered to end users are reliable and effective.
Application Service is a service type that is a logical representation of a deployed application stack. It is a unique deployed instance of a Business Application.
Business Service Offerings are dependent on Application Services. For a Business Service Offering to function correctly, the underlying Application Services must be operational.
Service Portfolio Mgmt. (SPM) utilizes data from CSDM to support informed decision-making regarding service investments, priorities, and optimizations based on real-time insights and analytics.

The following migration steps shall be performed by the following supporting documents:

Mapping Business Service Offering

Use Case

5. Fly

The "Fly" stage in ServiceNow's Common Service Data Model (CSDM) represents a phase where the data model is fully operational and delivering value to the organization. It is part of a maturity model that outlines the stages of adoption and implementation of CSDM within an organization. The stages typically include Crawl, Walk, Run, and Fly.

Information Objects represent specific types of data or information that are used by Business Applications. These can include data sets, documents, databases, or any other type of information resource that the application relies on or produces.

We already have the detail description of business application in previous stage Crawl , Business Applications are software applications that support specific business functions or processes within an organization. They are critical to the operation of the business and are typically managed within the ServiceNow platform for tracking and optimization..

Relationship between business Applications and Information Objects in CSDM

In the CSDM framework, the relationship between Business Applications and Information Objects is modeled to provide a clear understanding of how information flows within the organization and how it supports business processes.

Dependency Mapping: Business Applications are mapped to the Information Objects they use. This mapping helps in understanding the dependencies between applications and the data they require. It also aids in impact analysis when changes are made to either the applications or the data.
Data Governance: By defining these relationships, organizations can better manage data governance. They can ensure that data used by Business Applications is accurate, secure, and compliant with regulatory requirements.
Service Delivery: Understanding the relationship between Business Applications and Information Objects is crucial for effective service delivery. It ensures that the right data is available to the right applications at the right time, which is essential for maintaining service quality and performance.

This stage can be implemented by following steps and supporting documents:

Business Application with Information Object Relationship

Information Objects with Business Application relationship

Referenced Sample Use Cases created by ServiceNow.

I would like to share the following sample use cases I learned from @Mark Bodman at ServiceNow.

In my CSDM project, we started one business unit/department as POC and then increased our project scope to more business units. I recommend you read all referenced documents below before you start your CSDM project, specially many CSDM videos posted by @Mark Bodman at ServiceNow.

References:

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CSDM Service Migration Playbook and Use Case Examples

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