End-to-End logic of service charging based on CSDM 5.0

[Daniel Kahler P]

Question(s 🙄)

• Is there a recommendation / best practice, where to start / to define the different kinds and levels of costs?

The Big Goal / Use Case:

• You have a Service orientated organisation based on CSDM 5.0 and you want to define / track all the  costs within your services in a E2E perspective (CI to Business Service)

Which modules & plugins are used: 

• SPM ... for instance to define all the Services End-to-End
• Cost Management ... for instance to set all the different costs at the correct object / level within the Service

MY THOUGHTS

1. Start with collecting basic information
   1. Identify and group the costs by type ... Infrastructure Costs , License & Contract Costs, Personnal Costs, Operational Costs and Service-Specific Costs
   2. Rate the cost types based on
      • Impact on transparency and business value
      • Start with costs that are easiest to trace and have the highest visibility for stakeholders.
      • Data Availability & Quality
        • Begin with cost types where data is already structured and reliable
      • Complexity (later) vs. Quick Wins (first)
      • Alignment with CSDM Hierarchy
        • Start bottom-up:
          • Asset / CI level → Infrastructure costs
          • Business Application level → Licensing costs
          • Technical Service level → Shared platform costs
          • Service Offering level → End-user pricing
2. Set Up a strategy
   1. step by step
   2. easy to complex
3. Based on CSDM Maturity Levels and Object Prioritization
   1. Level 1 – Crawl (Foundation & Basic Service Mapping)
      Focus on objects that establish the core data model and enable basic service visibility:
      • Must Include:
        • CI (Configuration Item) → Core for linking infrastructure to services.
        • Asset → For CapEx and lifecycle tracking.
        • Business Application → Represents critical applications used by the business.
      • Optional / Ignore for now:
        • Dynamic CI Group → Adds complexity; skip until CI data is stable.
        • Service Instance → Not needed until you manage per-user or per-instance costs.
        • Technical Management Offering → Can wait until you define operational services.
        • Business Offering → Skip until catalog and chargeback are in scope.
   2. Level 2 – Walk (Service Orientation & Cost Transparency)
      Add objects that enable service-based costing and allocation:
      • Include:
        • Technical Management Offering → Links technical services to cost pools.
        • Business Offering → Supports catalog pricing and chargeback/showback.
        • Dynamic CI Group → Useful for grouping shared resources (clusters, pools).
      • Still Optional:
        • Service Instance → Introduce later for granular per-user billing.