Enterprise Architecture and CSDM tables
Summarize
Summary of Enterprise Architecture and CSDM tables
Enterprise Architecture in ServiceNow manages and utilizes Common Service Data Model (CSDM) tables to connect business capabilities, applications, and information objects with operational and infrastructure details. This integration supports comprehensive planning, design, and operational understanding across multiple environments such as development, testing, and production.
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Key Features
- CSDM Tables Managed by Enterprise Architecture:
- Business Capability [cmdbcibusinesscapability]: Defines the business capabilities supported.
- Business Application [cmdbcibusinessapp]: Tracks business applications, including their relationships to underlying application services via Platform and Platform App fields.
- Information Object [cmdbciinformationobject]: Captures relevant information objects tied to business applications.
- Relationship Management: Enterprise Architecture manages the Platform Host/Platform App relationship through a reference on the Enterprise Architecture form rather than a CI relationship, allowing detailed representation of multiple application service instances (e.g., production deployments across many locations).
- Integration with ServiceNow Products to Enhance Enterprise Architecture Value:
- Discovery: Provides detailed hardware and software CI information.
- Service Mapping: Maps application instance services and relates infrastructure and application CIs.
- Asset Management, Software Asset Management (SAM Foundation), Hardware Asset Management (HAM): Supply lifecycle data for technology portfolio management.
- Project Portfolio Management: Offers views of business application roadmaps including demands, projects, sprints, and epics.
- Agile Development: Integrates backlog stories and epics with business applications in roadmaps.
- Products Benefiting from Enterprise Architecture:
- IT Service Management (ITSM): Gains business and application context for service management.
- Information Technology Operations Management (ITOM): Understands business context for application services and underlying infrastructure.
- Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC): Utilizes business applications and information objects to scope audits, measure risks, and manage audit activities.
- Asset Management: Manages software and hardware lifecycle in relation to business applications and services.
Key Outcomes
By leveraging Enterprise Architecture together with relevant ServiceNow products and CSDM tables, customers gain a holistic and operationally accurate view of business capabilities, applications, and the underlying services and infrastructure. This enables improved planning, risk management, compliance auditing, asset lifecycle management, and alignment between business needs and IT operations across multiple environments and deployments.
Enterprise Architecture manages and uses CSDM tables. Several ServiceNow products benefit from and add value to Enterprise Architecture.
CSDM tables managed by Enterprise Architecture
- Business Capability table [cmdb_ci_business_capability]
- Business Application table [cmdb_ci_business_app]. Note:
Enterprise Architecture uses the Platform and Platform App fields on the Business Application table to establish the relationship between a business application and the underlying application service. Enterprise Architecture manages the Platform Host / Platform App relationship using a reference on the Enterprise Architecture form, not through a CI relationship.
The relationship connects the record of the business application that is used in planning and design with where and how it’s realized operationally, represented by application services. The relationship accounts for each use of a business application in the development, test, and production environments (dev, test, and prod application service instances). Often there are multiple production deployments. For example, a large retailer uses a business application that runs a cash register in each of its 1,000 stores. There are therefore 1,000 production instances of the application service — one per store — for that one business application. See the "CSDM in a nutshell" video for additional discussion of the relationship.
- Information Object table [cmdb_ci_information_object]
Products that add value to Enterprise Architecture
- Discovery provides details about the hardware and software CIs you are using.
- Service Mapping provides details about the application instance service in the [cmdb_ci_service_discovered] table, relating infrastructure and application [cmdb_ci_appl] CIs.
- Asset Management provides the related product model. Software Asset Management (SAM Foundation) and Hardware Asset Management (HAM) provide life-cycle data for Technology Portfolio Management.
- Project Portfolio Management views the business application roadmaps. Includes demands, projects, sprints and epics.
- Agile Development views the backlog stories and epics of each business application in the application roadmap.
Products that benefit from Enterprise Architecture
- IT Service Management (ITSM): Services have the context of the business and applications, along with the information and technologies layered beneath them.
- Information Technology Operations Management (ITOM): Understands the business context for the application services along with the hardware and software being managed.
- Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC): Auditors can leverage the business applications and related information objects. This helps auditors understand the design-time data sensitivity for scoping audits, measuring risks, and managing audit activities.
- Asset Management: Manages the software and hardware life cycles for business applications and business services.