CSDM life-cycle terms
Summarize
Summary of CSDM life-cycle terms
The Common Service Data Model (CSDM) life-cycle terms are standardized across most ServiceNow products and AI Platform applications to describe the stages and statuses that Configuration Items (CIs), assets, and Install Base Items (IBIs) go through during their life cycles. These definitions help unify how product instances are tracked, managed, and integrated within ServiceNow applications and workflows.
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Key Concepts
- Configuration Item (CI): A record in the CMDB [cmdbci] table representing a managed element.
- Life-cycle value pair: A combination of a life cycle stage and a life cycle stage status that fully describes the current state of a CI, asset, or IBI throughout its product life cycle.
- Life cycle stage: Broad phases a CI passes through (e.g., Inception, Procurement, Operation, End of Life).
- Life cycle stage status: Specific status within a stage (e.g., In Use, In Maintenance, End of Support).
- Legacy values: Previous status fields (install status, operational status, hardware status, etc.) used before CSDM life-cycle values were implemented.
- Asset: A record in the asset [almasset] table representing a physical or logical asset.
- Install Base Item (IBI): A record in the install base item [sninstallbaseitem] table representing any item provided as a service or sold to customers.
- Product Instance (PI): A logical grouping of an Asset, CI, and IBI that represents a product instance (goods or services) across its life cycle. Variations include Asset+CI+IBI, Asset+CI, or Asset+IBI.
- Life cycle mapping table: The [lifecyclemapping] table maps legacy status values to their equivalent CSDM life cycle stage and stage status value pairs. It contains prioritized mapping rules to ensure consistent and accurate translation from legacy statuses to CSDM terms.
Practical Use for ServiceNow Customers
Understanding and utilizing these life-cycle terms enables customers to:
- Standardize life cycle tracking of configuration items, assets, and install base items across ServiceNow applications.
- Accurately represent the status and stage of product instances for improved reporting, automation, and lifecycle management.
- Leverage the life cycle mapping table to transition from legacy status fields to the CSDM life-cycle framework, ensuring data consistency and integration.
- Integrate product instance data logically, facilitating better asset management, service delivery, and customer service processes.
By adopting these standardized terms and mappings, organizations can enhance their configuration management database (CMDB) accuracy and align their IT and business services more effectively with product life cycles.
Most ServiceNow products and ServiceNow AI Platform applications align closely with the Common Service Data Model. This table defines terms as they are used across the ServiceNow AI Platform.
Terms related to life cycle
- CI
- Configuration item: Record in the CMDB CI [cmdb_ci] table.
- life-cycle value pair
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A life-cycle value pair is the combination life cycle stage and life cycle stage status values for a CI, asset, or IBI over the life cycle of a product instance. The pair of values fully describe the life-cycle state of the product instance.
The standard CSDM life-cycle value pair covers all phases of a product instance life cycle.- A life cycle stage is one of the broad phases that a CI moves through, for example from inception or procurement to operation and then perhaps to end of life.
- life cycle stage status is the particular status of a CI within its current life cycle stage.
- CI legacy values
- Value types that were in place before CSDM life-cycle values were implemented:
- install status
- operational status
- hardware status
- hardware substatus
- asset
- Production asset: Record in the asset [alm_asset] table.
- install base item (IBI)
- Install-Base-Item: Record in the install base item [sn_install_base_item] table. Any item that is provided as a service or sold to your customer is tracked as an Install Base Item (IBI). The Model category table associates Asset, CI, and IBI for the item.
- product instance
- A product instance (PI) is comprised of an operational asset (asset), an install-base-item (IBI), and a configuration item (CI). A PI is a logical grouping of the [Asset/CI/IBI] that represents instances of products (goods and
services) throughout their life cycles in ServiceNow applications and workflows. Possible formulations:
- Asset+CI+IBI
- Asset+CI
- Asset+IBI
Life cycle mapping table
The base system includes the life cycle mapping [life_cycle_mapping] table. The table is prepopulated with mappings between widely used legacy status values and the equivalent CSDM life cycle stage and life cycle stage status values. Each record in the table (called a mapping rule) specifies how to map a legacy status value, based on its table, to the best-fit CSDM life-cycle value pair.
The table typically contains multiple record entries per class, each entry that maps a specific legacy status to a life-cycle value pair. When there are multiple record entries for a class, the entries are prioritized by importance and likelihood for containing meaningful values for the mapping process. The highest priority rule is used when multiple candidate rules apply.
See Map legacy status values to CSDM life-cycle values and How life-cycle values for Asset, CI, and IBI are synced.