CSDM implementation stage — Walk

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of CSDM implementation stage — Walk

    The Walk stage in the CSDM implementation focuses on identifying and populating network infrastructure Configuration Items (CIs) and applications supported by your organization's technical teams. This stage is essential for managing discovered infrastructure CIs effectively and establishing accurate support structures.

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    Key Features

    • Managing discovered infrastructure CIs: Enables manual management of CI metadata such as support groups and technical approval groups. Supports synchronization of metadata onto related child objects, reducing manual maintenance effort across thousands of CIs.
    • View supported CIs: Provides clear visibility of CIs your technical teams support, allowing adjustments based on support structure, operational-level agreements, and commitments. Helps formalize support processes for applications and technology owners.
    • Preparation for Service Portfolio Management: Establishes foundational service data placement to accelerate adoption of Service Portfolio Management.
    • Use of request catalog: Enables ordering of technology service offerings via the request catalog, with options to automate ordering workflows and update or create related CIs. (Note: The request catalog is separate from CMDB tables.)
    • Preparation for IT Operations Management (ITOM) products: Lays the groundwork for implementing ITOM solutions like Service Mapping and Discovery.
    • Enable Automation: Supports automated grouping and management of CIs through Technology Management Offerings.

    Key Tables and Concepts Used During Walk Stage

    This stage involves working with core CMDB tables that identify technology providers and enable product-centric management:

    • Technology Management Service ([cmdbciservicetechnical]): Contains technical services with a classification of "technical service", identifying technology providers consumed by the business.
    • Technology Management Offering ([serviceoffering]): Represents service offerings classified as "technical service". These can be segmented by location, environment (production/non-production), pricing, availability, support and approval groups, and packaging options. Each technology management service must link to at least one offering. Managed Service Providers can also supply these offerings.
    • Dynamic CI Group ([cmdbciquerybasedservice]): Defines collections of CIs based on saved queries or manual entries, facilitating flexible CI grouping for management purposes.

    Logical CIs: Some classes implemented in this stage are logical CIs, which are not created by Discovery and may lack direct product model links. It is recommended to associate logical CIs with product models to support a product-centric management approach.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Reduces manual effort in maintaining CI metadata and support assignments.
    • Improves visibility and formalization of support responsibilities across infrastructure and applications.
    • Prepares your CMDB data and processes for advanced ServiceNow capabilities like Service Portfolio Management and ITOM products.
    • Enables automated workflows for service offering requests and CI updates to streamline operational efficiency.
    • Supports flexible, query-based grouping of CIs to align with organizational management and reporting needs.

    In the Walk stage, you identify and populate the network infrastructure CIs and applications that your organization's technical teams support.

    Benefits of the operations that you perform in the Walk stage

    Managing discovered infrastructure CIs
    The operations facilitate managing the discovered infrastructure CIs. You might manually managing the metadata on these CIs, such as support group and technical approval group. By identifying the technology management offering that manages the CIs, you can perform the following operations:
    • Configure the instance to populate and synchronize this metadata onto the related child objects.
    • Eliminate the manual effort of maintaining the metadata on thousands of CIs.
    View supported CIs
    The operations establish a view of the CIs that your organization's technical teams support.

    You can see the specific support assignments, which you can change as needed based on your support structure, operational-level agreements (OLAs), and commitments.

    Also, this view enables you to formalize for your process for supporting applications and technology owners.

    Prepare for Service Portfolio Management
    The operations build the foundation for using Service Portfolio Management (Service Portfolio Management).

    You can start using Service Portfolio Management more quickly because your service data are in the right place.

    Use the request catalog
    The operations enable you to order technology service offerings through the request catalog. You can also automate ordering some offerings to enhance the request workflow and update or create related CIs. Catalogs are described in detail in Service Catalog.
    Note:
    The request catalog is not a CMDB table.
    Prepare for ITOM products
    The operations build the foundation for Information Technology Operations Management (ITOM) products, such as Service Mapping and Discovery.
    Enable Automation
    The operations enable more automated methods of grouping CIs for identification and management by Technology management offerings.

    Tables that you work on during the Walk stage

    The walk stage includes base-system CMDB tables that identify the technology provider.
    Note:
    Some of the classes that you implement in this stage are logical CIs. Logical CIs aren’t created through Discovery, so their Model ID values might not refer to product model (application model, service model, or software model) records. To help you to migrate to a product-centric management paradigm, each instance of a logical CI should be associated with a product model. See Auto-generate product models for logical CIs.

    Tables that you work on during the Walk stage.

    Technology management service [cmdb_ci_service_technical] table (formerly Technical service), or [cmdb_query_based_services] for Event Management
    The cmdb_ci_service_technical table has a service classification of "technical service". This base-system CMDB table identifies the provider of the technology that your business consumes.
    Technology management offering [service_offering] table
    A technology management offering is a service offering with a service classification of "technical service". Technology management offerings may be further divided as follows:
    • Location and geography
    • Environment (production or non-production)
    • Pricing
    • Availability
    • Support group (for Incident Management)
    • Technical approval group (for Change Management)
    • Packaging options (commitments)
    The technology management offering comes from the service, based on how the parent serves a specific technical need. Every operational technology management service must be associated with at least one technology management offering.
    Note:
    Not all technology management offerings have to be related to applications or infrastructure CIs. Managed Service Providers can provide technology management offerings.
    Dynamic CI group [cmdb_ci_query_based_service] table

    A dynamic CI group is a collection of CIs based on the results of saved Query Builder queries, encoded queries, or manual entries. Query Builder is described in Exploring CMDB Query Builder. For more information about dynamic CI groups and how you can use them, see Manage Portfolio domain in the CSDM model.