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sourceDocument: Brazil ServiceNow AI Platform Capabilities
sourceDocumentLink: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/servicenow-platform

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ft:publication_title :

    - Brazil ServiceNow AI Platform Capabilities

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# Design \& Planning domain

# Design \& Planning domain in the CSDM model {#ariaid-title1}

Release version: Brazil  
Updated September 10, 2026  
![](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ico-clock) 5 minutes to read
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## Summary of Design \& Planning domain in the CSDM model

The Design \& Planning domain in the Common Service Data Model (CSDM) supports enterprise architects and digital product owners in designing and planning digital products, whether purchased or internally developed.
This domain focuses on high-level business capabilities and applications that enable these capabilities.
It does not include operational Configuration Items (CIs) and therefore cannot be used directly in Incident, Problem, or Change Management processes.
Show full answer Show less  
The domain is integral to Application Portfolio Management (APM), which helps rationalize and manage business applications, though APM usage is optional to benefit from the data.

## Key Components

* **Business Capability \[cmdbcibusinesscapability\]**: Represents high-level organizational capabilities essential for executing business models, offering design guidance for applications.
* **Business Application \[cmdbcibusinessapp\]**: Purchased or internally developed applications that support business capabilities and relate to Application Services rather than other service types.
* **Information Object \[cmdbciinformationobject\]**: Describes the data types exchanged between business applications and their associated databases, including sensitive data such as PII, PCI DSS, and HIPAA-related information.

## Relationships and Their Importance

Accurate relationships between CIs in this domain enable strategic architectural decisions by linking business capabilities, applications, and services. Key relationships include:

* **Business Capability Provided By Business Application:** Visualizes which applications support specific business capabilities, aiding prioritization and cost rationalization.
* **Business Application Consumes Service Instances:** Connects planning/design records to operational service instances, tracking multiple deployments across environments (development, test, production) and geographies.
* **Business Application Uses Information Object:** Maps data usage, supporting data governance and compliance considerations.

## Business Capability Hierarchies

Business capabilities can be organized hierarchically with a parent capability and multiple child (leaf) capabilities, numbered systematically. Updates to these hierarchies require careful level adjustments to maintain consistency, with a maximum of six levels recommended. Circular relationships are prohibited to preserve hierarchy integrity.

## Managing Business Applications

Business applications are manually managed CIs requiring explicit relationship creation with service instances and infrastructure components (e.g., databases, web servers). They can span multiple environments, geographies, and regions.

Applications can be added via spreadsheet or third-party imports using data sources and transform maps, or manually through the Business Application form.

## Information Objects and Data Governance

Information objects identify and classify the data types used by business applications, helping organizations track and protect sensitive information within their application portfolio.

## Practical Impact for ServiceNow Customers

* Enables strategic alignment of IT architecture with business objectives by clearly mapping capabilities to applications and services.
* Supports application portfolio rationalization, cost management, and risk assessment through structured relationships.
* Improves data governance by linking sensitive data types to applications.
* Facilitates planning and design activities distinct from operational management, ensuring clarity between strategic and operational elements.  
Enterprise architects and digital product owners work on the design and planning of digital products that your organization can either buy or build.

## Tables in the Design \& Planning domain {#design-domain__section_zkx_zb3_qfc}

CIs in the Design \& Planning domain aren't operational, so you can't select them for Incident Management, Problem Management, or Change Management.  
The Design \& Planning domain includes the tables used by Application Portfolio Management (APM). You use APM to rationalize and manage your business applications, but you're not required to use APM to benefit from the data in these tables. The Design \& Planning domain includes the following tables:

* Business Capability \[cmdb_ci_business_capability\] table. Business Capability: A business capability is a high-level capability required by the organization to execute its business model. A business capability provides design guidance for implementing applications.
* Business Application \[cmdb_ci_business_app\] table. A business application is a purchased or internally-developed application that supports a business capability. A Business Application, ultimately, relates to an Application Service table and not any other type of Service Instance. For more information, see [CI relationships in the CSDM](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/xwvM7Y4XKAKeeH_ewg3SqQ "For configuration management to be most effective, establish relationships between the objects and CIs in the conceptual CSDM.").
* Information Object \[cmdb_ci_information_object\] table. An information object describes the type of data that is being interchanged between the business application and the database that serves it.
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Note:  
CIs in the Design \& Planning domain aren't operational, so you can't select them for Incident Management, Problem Management, or Change Management.

## Tables used during the Design \& Planning phase of the service life cycle {#design-domain__section-design-plan-active-tables}

## Relationships between CIs that support decision making {#design-domain__section_m2h_53m_55b}

An accurate service model that includes the following relationships can serve as the foundation for strategically aligned architectural decisions. The relationships enable you to determine the risks involved in using particular business capabilities. In addition, they enable you to assess services based on their relationships to business capabilities and business applications.

* Business capability Provided By::Provides Business application
* Business capability Provided By::Provides Business service (Service Consumption domain)
* Business application Uses::Used By Information object
* Business application (reference attribute) Business application
* Business application Contains::Contained By Agile development component (optional) (Build \& Integration domain)
* Business application Consumes::Consumed By Service instance (Service Delivery domain)

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Relationship between a business capability and its supporting business applications
:   This relationship supports visualization and reporting.

    * A business capability has the Provided By::Provides relationship with its supporting business applications
    * A business capability is a high-level capability that supports a business model or fulfills a mission for your organization.

      A business capability typically describes a specific task that achieves one or more business outcomes. Business capabilities are often listed as verbs (for example, Manage HR, Manage financial data, or Provide IT support services). You can use business capabilities to rationalize and prioritize the cost of business applications and business services.
    * A business application represents the software and infrastructure that provides a business function (for example, the titles catalog). Business applications are not strictly required, but they are strongly recommended because they increase productivity and perform other business functions such as accounts payables, accounts receivables, and general ledger. You can use APM to add any business application for which you must track costs, usage, business value, functionality, and risks.
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Relationship between a business application and the service instances

:   A business application has Consumes::Consumed By relationships with service instances.

    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 service instances. The
    relationship accounts for each use of a business application in the development, test, and production environments (dev, test, and prod 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 service instance --- one per store --- for that one business application. [See the "CSDM in a nutshell" video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnlhMhP2FsM&list=PLkGSnjw5y2U7QNr9jL6TAgwQvYBI_LEtK&index=34) for additional discussion of the relationship.

## Business capabilities represented in a hierarchy {#design-domain__section_ugg_bfq_5mb}

You can represent business capabilities in a hierarchy of a parent business capability and one or more lower-level (child) capabilities. Child capabilities (leaf nodes) are represented by numeric values: 1.0 for the parent and
2.0 through 6.0 for the leaf nodes. If you add, update, or delete a capability at a leaf node, be sure to update the levels of all the capabilities for the leaf nodes in that hierarchy, as applicable. If a business capability
hierarchy requires more than six levels, divide the structure into multiple business capabilities.

Use the Business Capability form to create, modify, and extend business capabilities.

To update capabilities, select the Update Capability Level and HierarchyID related link. Follow these guidelines when you update capabilities to confirm that the capability map reflects the change:

* If the parent capability is updated in the hierarchy, the levels of all its leaf node capabilities are recalculated.
* The total number of leaf node levels in a hierarchy can't exceed six.
* When adding a capability, the hierarchy level is automatically assigned based on the parent capability level.
* You can delete only leaf node-level capabilities or capabilities without leaf node levels.
* Don't create circular relationships. For instance, when creating a parent capability, a leaf node capability can't be its parent.
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## Adding a Business application {#design-domain__section_zn5_hc2_mjb}

A business application is a manually managed CI class that has a Consumes :: Consumed By relationship with a service instance. You must therefore manually create required relationships to CIs (for example, with
instances of the service instances in use). Creating relationships also enables you to relate business applications to infrastructure CIs such as databases and web servers. If needed, you can integrate or connect two or more
business applications to establish their relationship.  
A business application can span the following entities:

* Environments (for example, Development, Test, or Production).
* Geographies (for example, the Americas or the Asia Pacific Japan \[APJ\])
* Regions (for example, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa \[EMEA\]).
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Use either of the following methods to add a business application:

* Import the list of applications from a spreadsheet or third-party tool. To import data, define a data source and a transform map and then run or schedule an import.

* Use the Business Application form.

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## Information object {#design-domain__section_sxd_xjg_dmb}

* An information object is a CI that displays and describes the information (or type of data) that the application receives from the database. Information objects are part of the information portfolio and are referenced by the business application. An information object has a Used By::Uses with a business application.
* Information objects are mapped to the information object \[cmdb_ci_information_object\] table.
* You can use the information object table to identify the types of data that a business application uses, including highly sensitive data such as:
  * Personally Identifiable Information (PII)
  * Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) data
  * Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) data
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## CSDM videos in the ServiceNow Community {#design-domain__section_ljb_mww_mwb}

[Playlist of all CSDM videos](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkGSnjw5y2U7QNr9jL6TAgwQvYBI_LEtK)
**Related concepts**   

* [CI relationships in the CMDB](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/7L_YXwUd7ZHDB5K0LttG8g "The CMDB, in contrast to a static asset list, helps you track not only the configuration items (CIs) within your system, but also the relationships between those items.")