The Common Service Data Model (CSDM) is a ServiceNow framework designed to standardize the way services and supporting components are modeled in the CMDB. It helps to ensure a consistent and unified view of services across IT. When working with Application Portfolio Management (APM), Digital Portfolio Management (DPM), and Service Portfolio Management (SPM), CSDM acts as the underlying structure to ensure these portfolios are connected and properly aligned.
I was asked by our customer with one very important question - "we can't implement CSDM, APM , DPM and SPM all together at same time due to budget constraint. Which one we shall implement first? "
You will find the answer after reading this blog.
Objectives
- CSDM relationship with APM, DPM and SPM.
- How CSDM can work with APM, DPM and SPM together?
- References
Relationship map among CSDM, APM, DPM and SPM
CSDM and Application Portfolio Management (APM)
APM is a solution designed to help organizations manage and optimize their application portfolios. APM provides visibility into applications across the enterprise, allowing businesses to assess their value, cost, and risk. Better allocation of costs, a clearer understanding of applications that support the business capability, greater alignment of APM to business strategy, and reduction of risk by understanding which applications are nearing end of life. ServiceNow APM is often used by IT leaders to streamline their technology landscape and optimize their application investments.
Application Portfolio Management (APM) Portal - enables complete transparency into the portfolio for all technical capabilities and all business functions.
APM can simplify a business’ approach to documenting and governing their application portfolio.
The relationship between CSDM and APM
In ServiceNow, the CSDM is closely related to APM by providing a structured framework for organizing and managing the relationships between applications, business services, and business capabilities. CSDM acts as the foundational data model that helps APM map, categorize, and analyze applications in the broader context of business strategy, service delivery, and technical architecture.
CSDM provides the framework to map applications to business capabilities, and defines and maintains the relationships between business capabilities and applications, ensuring they are categorized consistently. In APM, this relationship is critical because it allows organizations to evaluate whether their application portfolio is aligned with the business's strategic objectives.
CSDM links applications to business services and technical services. and provides the structure for linking applications to services, which is leveraged in APM for mapping applications to the business and technical services they support.
CSDM supports tracking application lifecycle stages (e.g., planning, development, retirement) in a structured manner, helping APM ensure applications are managed effectively throughout their lifecycle. By using the CSDM framework, APM can track applications from introduction to retirement, ensuring the application lifecycle aligns with business objectives and technical strategy.
CSDM helps identify overlapping or redundant applications by providing a structured view of how applications map to business and technical services, allowing APM to better optimize the portfolio. and provides the relationships between applications and other infrastructure or services, helping APM analyze application dependencies effectively.
The relationship Map
CSDM with APM: Ensures that applications are properly categorized, linked to business capabilities, and aligned with business services, helping to manage and optimize the application landscape.
CSDM and Digital Portfolio Management(DPM)
DPM is a feature that helps organizations manage their digital transformation initiatives by managing and maintaining all your solutions (services, service offerings, business applications, and application services) from a single location using the ServiceNow® Digital Portfolio Management (DPM) Workspace. It enables businesses to plan, prioritize, track, and measure the performance of their digital portfolios, ensuring alignment with strategic goals.
DPM Workspace is a unified environment to view all your services, service offerings, business applications, and application services. With the proper access, you can also view details and edit the solutions without having to leave the DPM experience.
The relationship between CSDM and DPM
The relationship between ServiceNow Digital Portfolio Management (DPM) and the Common Service Data Model (CSDM) lies in how they complement each other to provide structured, efficient management of digital products and services, with clear alignment to business goals and IT resources. DPM is focused on managing the lifecycle of digital services and products within an organization. CSDM provides the necessary structure to ensure that digital services are mapped and aligned with the underlying technology and business strategies.
- Service Mapping: CSDM links digital products and services to the underlying applications, infrastructure, and business services, giving DPM a clear view of how each digital product or service is supported by technology.
- Product Lifecycle Management: With CSDM, digital services can be tracked across their lifecycle—from planning to execution and retirement—allowing DPM to manage investments, costs, and performance in relation to business outcomes.
- Business and Technical Service Relationships: CSDM defines the relationship between digital services and both business and technical services, allowing DPM to assess the health, performance, and dependencies of each service.
Relationship Map between CSDM and DPM
We can see DPM clearly related to "Business Application, Application Service and Services and Service Offering" through CSDM Conceptual Model (Diagram 1).
You can also see their relationship through DPM Workspace (Welcome to the Digital Portfolio Management (DPM) Community series!)
Table level relationship
The following diagram show how CSDM and DPM be shared data in table level. We can see they share most tables, except business application data. CSDM will capture business app data in cmdb_ci_service_business table and DPM will capture business app data in cmdb_ci_service table, however we can still review both data in cmdb_ci_service due to “Service Classification” = Business Service.
Relationship map review
The relationship between both of CSDM and DPM are identical (see diagram below).
CSDM with DPM: Structures digital products and services by linking them to the underlying infrastructure and applications, enabling lifecycle management and alignment with strategic goals.
DPM relies on the CSDM framework to ensure that the digital products and services it manages are structured, aligned, and governed according to best practices, allowing for streamlined service delivery and clear alignment with business objectives.
CSDM provides the foundational data model for organizing all elements that Digital Portfolio Management works with, such as products, services, applications, and infrastructure. DPM relies on the data structure defined by CSDM to categorize and manage digital products and services, ensuring that all components (business services, application services, etc.) are correctly mapped and linked.
CSDM provides the data model that DPM can leverage to ensure consistency and clarity across all digital service offerings. CSDM helps ensure that the services and resources managed in DPM are aligned with business outcomes by using the service mapping and relationships CSDM defines. By using the structured approach from CSDM, DPM can effectively manage the lifecycle of digital services, reducing duplication and improving resource allocation. Both enable governance of digital products and services through consistent data practices, helping to ensure compliance, risk management, and strategic alignment.
CSDM and Service Portfolio Management(SPM)
ServiceNow Service Portfolio Management (SPM) is a solution designed to help organizations manage their services throughout their lifecycle. It offers a structured way to plan, design, deliver, and manage IT services and business services in alignment with organizational goals.
SPM helps organizations plan, prioritize, and execute strategic business initiatives. It manages portfolios of investments, projects, and applications to ensure alignment with business goals. It includes project and program management, demand management, application portfolio management (APM), and financial management.
In essence, CSDM provides the foundational data layer for service and application management, while SPM enables organizations to make strategic decisions based on that data, ensuring business outcomes are aligned with IT services.
Relationship between CSDM and SPM:
CSDM provides a structured way to represent services and their dependencies within the organization. SPM leverages this structured data to make informed decisions about investments, aligning services and applications with business strategy.
- With CSDM defining the services and business capabilities, SPM can use this data to prioritize projects and investments that support the most critical services or business functions. This ensures resources are allocated effectively.
- CSDM ensures accurate and consistent data about services and applications, while SPM provides insights into the strategic impact of this data through dashboards and reports. Together, they offer better visibility for executives and portfolio managers.
- In SPM, APM uses CSDM’s standardized data on business applications and services. This helps in assessing the value and cost of applications, leading to better management of the application lifecycle.
How CSDM can work with AMP, DPM and SPM together?
CSDM works as a framework that aligns and organizes data for service management and digital operations. When it comes to integrating with Application Portfolio Management (APM), Digital Portfolio Management (DPM), and Service Portfolio Management (SPM), CSDM plays a crucial role in ensuring data consistency, visibility, and alignment across these areas through its core components like Business Capabilities, Business Applications, Services, Technical Services, Application Services, and Service Offerings.
Here's how these concepts work together:
CSDM as a standardized framework to help organizations organize and align their data related to services, applications, infrastructure, and business operations. It provides structure to how business capabilities, services, and technical components are related, ensuring that different modules in ServiceNow are aligned.
APM helps organizations manage their portfolio of applications in terms of cost, technology risk, lifecycle, and value to the business. APM, a "Business Application" is a key object, which is directly tied to the Application Service , which are connected to Technical Services, forming the basis for analyzing application performance, cost, and usage across the enterprise.
DPM provides a way to manage digital transformation initiatives, products, and strategies. It focuses on ensuring that the digital products and services align with business goals and are tracked throughout their lifecycle. After integration with CSDM, CSDM ensures that the digital products managed in DPM are tied to business capabilities and business services, helping leaders understand how digital investments are impacting the organization's ability to deliver services.
SPM focuses on the management of the entire portfolio of services (business, technical, and application services) provided by the organization. It tracks the lifecycle, costs, and performance of services. CSDM structure ensures that services are connected to the right business applications and application services. This ensures that service lifecycle management, service offering cataloging, and performance tracking are consistent across the portfolio. SPM also uses the Service Offerings defined in CSDM to manage and organize different service options and their SLAs.
Summary
CSDM provides a common structure across APM, DPM, and SPM. By leveraging business capabilities, business applications, services, and technical services, it creates a unified view across applications, digital products, and services.
References:
- Ask the Experts -- Getting started with CSDM
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DPM Academy Session 7: DPM and the Common Services Data Model
- SPM Academy: Introducing ServiceNow Enterprise Architecture
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CSDM Service Migration Playbook and Use Case Examples
- Office Hour 52 - APM: CSDM v 4.0 and APM
- DPM Academy Session 7: DPM and the Common Services Data Model
- Digital Portfolio Management
- What is application portfolio management?
- Service Portfolio Management
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