What are the top 10 mistakes when building a CMDB

By ITIL® from Experience ©

Here are the top 10 errors made when starting a Configuration Management Database (CMDB).

Many organizations launch themselves into a CMDB implementation without a clear business goal simply because it is a fundamental enabler to ITIL® processes. Numerous organizations pour hours upon hours of sweat and effort trying to deliver the elusive benefits a rose-coloured vision of CMDB to eventually give up. Several could have been successful by starting on the right foot and avoiding the following mistakes.



  1. Only relying on ITL® Foundation knowledge

  2. Not reading the ITIL® Service Definition section 4.3 Service Assets and Configuration Management (page 89 in the 2011 Edition) - or- at least reading Chapter 7 on Configuration Management ITIL® version 2 (page 121).

  3. Not using the Internet to find ITIL® Configuration Management lessons learned like the articles at www.ITILfromExperience.com

  4. Failure to understand that building a Configuration Management Database simply to have a CMDB has no value since the real value of the CMDB is realized by making each process more effective.

  5. Not understanding that the scope and the content of the CMDB must be determined by the information each ITIL® processes needs.

  6. Loading data because it is simply available and that it can be loaded easily.

  7. Not identifying an owner for every Configuration Item (CI) before it is loaded.

  8. Not having a process to maintain data once loaded (see Why is the CMDB inaccurate).

  9. Thinking that automation is the secret to a successful CMDB (see Should we automatically import auto-discovered CIs in the CMDB).

  10. Thinking that automation is the silver bullet that will solve the CMDB problem and forgetting that the CMDB is not a technology project and that the process and people elements are key to its success (see How many Configuration Librarian(s) do we need).

And as a bonus:



Published on: 2018-02-25

"You don't want to rely upon Auto Discovery as your only mean to manage the accuracy of the CMDB." Gary Case, Pink Elephant

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