Question Regarding CIS-DF as a Prerequisite for CIS-ITSM

[tkarora]

Dear Team,

I would appreciate some clarification from the ServiceNow community regarding the rationale behind making the CIS-DF exam a prerequisite for obtaining the CIS-ITSM certification.

I understand the importance of CMDB/CSDM and data foundations within the ServiceNow platform. However, I would like to understand whether having in-depth knowledge of CMDB/CSDM is considered essential for professionals working primarily in ITSM or other functional domains.

The current certification path also has a significant cost impact:

• CIS-DF exam: USD 450
• CIS-ITSM exam: USD 450
• Total: USD 900

This means that candidates who are specifically interested in pursuing CIS-ITSM now need to invest USD 900 and pass two exams, even when their primary area of expertise or career focus is ITSM.

Could someone from the ServiceNow community or ServiceNow certification team please share the rationale behind this prerequisite and how CIS-DF is expected to benefit ITSM professionals?

I would also be interested to hear from others who have recently pursued CIS-ITSM—particularly whether you feel the CIS-DF knowledge is directly relevant to your day-to-day ITSM responsibilities.

Thank you in advance for sharing your thoughts and experiences.

[Dr Atul G- LNG]

Hi @tkarora 

Yes, that’s correct, buddy. For ITSM, DF is pre now

https://learning.servicenow.com/lxp/en/credentials/why-the-cis-data-foundations-cmdb-and-csdm-exam-a...

Implementation specialist certifications within the ITAM, ITOM, ITSM, and SecOps domains: 

• CIS – Discovery (DISCO) 
• CIS – Hardware Asset Management (HAM) 
• CIS – IT Service Management (ITSM) 
• CIS – Service Mapping (SM) 
• CIS – Security Incident Response (SIR) 
• CIS – Software Asset Management (SAM) 
• CIS – Vulnerability Response (VR)