The people responsible for capturing the data into the CMDB will be the technical staff who will be using the CMDB as well. The technical team who is responsible for looking after the network infrastructure should in principle document their infrastructure. Instead of documenting it in Word or Visio, why not use the CMDB tool. The only people who can document the infrastructure which includes all Configuration Items and their relationships are the people who know it. They are also the people who will be doing changes in the infrastructure and thus the people who should update these changes in the CMDB. For each CI in the CMDB whether it is a server or a file share, there should be a record of an “owner” of that CI. This owner will be held responsible for the accuracy of the information of the specific CI in the CMDB.

By making the actual people who has the information that needs to go into the CMDB in their

A CMDB can be very beneficial to all IT staff by providing them with a high level overview and detailed information on how the whole IT infrastructure fits together. This makes troubleshooting easier, improves planning for changes etc. As a matter of fact it assist all other ITIL processes in analysis and planning.

The only problem is that the idea of creating such a database and keeping it up to date may seem like a very daunting task and too expensive for the benefits to deliver a proper return on investment. This does not have to be the case if a project to implement the CMDB is planned properly and the correct people structure to accomplish this and maintain this is put in place.

I think a lot of CMDB implementations fail as IT management just appoints a Configuration Manager who they make responsible for the accuracy of the CMDB. Then they buy an expensive tool to discover everything, sit back and hope it will all work out. Eventually they will only discover that their CMDB just consists of a bunch of useless and out of date information that nobody can benefit from.

A pragmatic way to implement a CMDB is as follows.

First of all we get all the stakeholders together in one room. They should include representatives from the Service Desk and all technical teams as these are the people who will use the CMDB and who will benefit from it. Use input from these people to compile a list of outputs that you want from the CMDB. For example as a technical team leader I would like to have the infrastructure I am responsible for to be documented in detail, so that when a new person starts in my team, I can refer that person to the CMDB to understand how everything fits together.

Once you know what you want out of the CMDB, you can start to list all the requirements.

What attributes of CI’s do we need to store? To what level of detail will we go? E.g. Do we need to track a keyboard’s serial nr?

Do we need to create an entry of a SQL database job as a CI in the CMDB? This level of detail might be necessary if that database job is in any way important to the correct operation of the IT infrastructure.

Once you know what you want, you can go and hunt for a tool. The tool must adhere to all you requirements or should be customizable to adhere to your requirements. It would be a good idea if your CMDB tool integrates with your Helpdesk and Change management tools.

A very important step that normally gets neglected and which I think is probably the most important factor when implementing the ITIL Configuration Management process and a CMDB is to have the right people in the right positions. These people need to be trained properly in Configuration Management and the CMDB tool. This Configuration Management team should consist of the following people.

The Configuration Manager who is ultimately accountable for the Configuration Management process and for the accuracy of the CMDB. Like any manager, this person should manage the process and should not be doing the groundwork like capturing the CI information into the CMDB. This position could be a full time or part time job depending on the size of the company.

The Configuration Manager should be assisted by a Configuration Librarian who could be one or more people who will be responsible for the Definitive Hardware Store and the Definitive Software Library. They need to make sure only authorized software and hardware is installed into the IT infrastructure.

The people responsible for capturing the data into the CMDB will be the technical staff who will be using the CMDB as well. The technical team who is responsible for looking after the network infrastructure should in principle document their infrastructure. Instead of documenting it in Word or Visio, why not use the CMDB tool. The only people who can document the infrastructure which includes all Configuration Items and their relationships are the people who know it. They are also the people who will be doing changes in the infrastructure and thus the people who should update these changes in the CMDB. For each CI in the CMDB whether it is a server or a file share, there should be a record of an “owner” of that CI. This owner will be held responsible for the accuracy of the information of the specific CI in the CMDB.

By making the actual people who has the information that needs to go into the CMDB in their h

I think a lot of CMDB implementations fail as IT management just appoints a Configuration Manager who they make responsible for the accuracy of the CMDB. Then they buy an expensive tool to discover everything, sit back and hope it will all work out. Eventually they will only discover that their CMDB just consists of a bunch of useless and out of date information that nobody can benefit from.

A pragmatic way to implement a CMDB is as follows.

First of all we get all the stakeholders together in one room. They should include representatives from the Service Desk and all technical teams as these are the people who will use the CMDB and who will benefit from it. Use input from these people to compile a list of outputs that you want from the CMDB. For example as a technical team leader I would like to have the infrastructure I am responsible for to be documented in detail, so that when a new person starts in my team, I can refer that person to the CMDB to understand how everything fits together.

Once you know what you want out of the CMDB, you can start to list all the requirements.

What attributes of CI’s do we need to store? To what level of detail will we go? E.g. Do we need to track a keyboard’s serial nr?

Do we need to create an entry of a SQL database job as a CI in the CMDB? This level of detail might be necessary if that database job is in any way important to the correct operation of the IT infrastructure.

Once you know what you want, you can go and hunt for a tool. The tool must adhere to all you requirements or should be customizable to adhere to your requirements. It would be a good idea if your CMDB tool integrates with your Helpdesk and Change management tools.

A very important step that normally gets neglected and which I think is probably the most important factor when implementing the ITIL Configuration Management process and a CMDB is to have the right people in the right positions. These people need to be trained properly in Configuration Management and the CMDB tool. This Configuration Management team should consist of the following people.

The Configuration Manager who is ultimately accountable for the Configuration Management process and for the accuracy of the CMDB. Like any manager, this person should manage the process and should not be doing the groundwork like capturing the CI information into the CMDB. This position could be a full time or part time job depending on the size of the company.

The Configuration Manager should be assisted by a Configuration Librarian who could be one or more people who will be responsible for the Definitive Hardware Store and the Definitive Software Library. They need to make sure only authorized software and hardware is installed into the IT infrastructure.

The people responsible for capturing the data into the CMDB will be the technical staff who will be using the CMDB as well. The technical team who is responsible for looking after the network infrastructure should in principle document their infrastructure. Instead of documenting it in Word or Visio, why not use the CMDB tool. The only people who can document the infrastructure which includes all Configuration Items and their relationships are the people who know it. They are also the people who will be doing changes in the infrastructure and thus the people who should update these changes in the CMDB. For each CI in the CMDB whether it is a server or a file share, there should be a record of an “owner” of that CI. This owner will be held responsible for the accuracy of the information of the specific CI in the CMDB.

By making the actual people who has the information that needs to go into the CMDB in their

Once you know what you want out of the CMDB, you can start to list all the requirements.

What attributes of CI’s do we need to store? To what level of detail will we go? E.g. Do we need to track a keyboard’s serial nr?

Do we need to create an entry of a SQL database job as a CI in the CMDB? This level of detail might be necessary if that database job is in any way important to the correct operation of the IT infrastructure.

Once you know what you want, you can go and hunt for a tool. The tool must adhere to all you requirements or should be customizable to adhere to your requirements. It would be a good idea if your CMDB tool integrates with your Helpdesk and Change management tools.

A very important step that normally gets neglected and which I think is probably the most important factor when implementing the ITIL Configuration Management process and a CMDB is to have the right people in the right positions. These people need to be trained properly in Configuration Management and the CMDB tool. This Configuration Management team should consist of the following people.

The Configuration Manager who is ultimately accountable for the Configuration Management process and for the accuracy of the CMDB. Like any manager, this person should manage the process and should not be doing the groundwork like capturing the CI information into the CMDB. This position could be a full time or part time job depending on the size of the company.

The Configuration Manager should be assisted by a Configuration Librarian who could be one or more people who will be responsible for the Definitive Hardware Store and the Definitive Software Library. They need to make sure only authorized software and hardware is installed into the IT infrastructure.

The people responsible for capturing the data into the CMDB will be the technical staff who will be using the CMDB as well. The technical team who is responsible for looking after the network infrastructure should in principle document their infrastructure. Instead of documenting it in Word or Visio, why not use the CMDB tool. The only people who can document the infrastructure which includes all Configuration Items and their relationships are the people who know it. They are also the people who will be doing changes in the infrastructure and thus the people who should update these changes in the CMDB. For each CI in the CMDB whether it is a server or a file share, there should be a record of an “owner” of that CI. This owner will be held responsible for the accuracy of the information of the specific CI in the CMDB.

By making the actual people who has the information that needs to go into the CMDB in their

The Configuration Manager who is ultimately accountable for the Configuration Management process and for the accuracy of the CMDB. Like any manager, this person should manage the process and should not be doing the groundwork like capturing the CI information into the CMDB. This position could be a full time or part time job depending on the size of the company.

The Configuration Manager should be assisted by a Configuration Librarian who could be one or more people who will be responsible for the Definitive Hardware Store and the Definitive Software Library. They need to make sure only authorized software and hardware is installed into the IT infrastructure.

The people responsible for capturing the data into the CMDB will be the technical staff who will be using the CMDB as well. The technical team who is responsible for looking after the network infrastructure should in principle document their infrastructure. Instead of documenting it in Word or Visio, why not use the CMDB tool. The only people who can document the infrastructure which includes all Configuration Items and their relationships are the people who know it. They are also the people who will be doing changes in the infrastructure and thus the people who should update these changes in the CMDB. For each CI in the CMDB whether it is a server or a file share, there should be a record of an “owner” of that CI. This owner will be held responsible for the accuracy of the information of the specific CI in the CMDB.

By making the actual people who has the information that needs to go into the CMDB in their

The people responsible for capturing the data into the CMDB will be the technical staff who will be using the CMDB as well. The technical team who is responsible for looking after the network infrastructure should in principle document their infrastructure. Instead of documenting it in Word or Visio, why not use the CMDB tool. The only people who can document the infrastructure which includes all Configuration Items and their relationships are the people who know it. They are also the people who will be doing changes in the infrastructure and thus the people who should update these changes in the CMDB. For each CI in the CMDB whether it is a server or a file share, there should be a record of an “owner” of that CI. This owner will be held responsible for the accuracy of the information of the specific CI in the CMDB.

By making the actual people who has the information that needs to go into the CMDB in their heads responsible for the accuracy of the information in the CMDB, the process becomes more manageable. Specific people are now held responsible and blame cannot be passed on to somebody else. These will also be the people who will benefit from the information in the CMDB, so making sure it is accurate is also an incentive to them.

The Configuration Manager should launch regular audits by third parties to verify the accuracy of the CMDB and whether the process works.

Making specific people responsible for specific CI’s in the CMDB, breaks this seemingly big and difficult task in to smaller more manageable tasks. If this is managed properly it should give you a valuable CMDB without breaking the IT budget.