Picture courtesy: https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/word-cloud-configuration-management-related-items-697025140
In this blog, I am going to examine four specific areas
where poor data quality in CMDB can challenge the success and ROI of your ITSM endeavours
What is CMDB?
A Configuration Management Database (CMDB) is the central
repository of information describing all of the IT infrastructure components
used to deliver services to a business. In other words, CMDB is a database that
contains all relevant information about the hardware and software components
used in an organization's IT services and the relationships between those
components. A CMDB provides an organized view of configuration data and a means
of examining that data from any desired perspective.
What is a CI?
A Configuration Item (CI) means any component that is
managed to deliver an IT service. CIs include IT Services, hardware, software,
buildings, people, and links to documentation such as SLAs. CIs also include
databases; applications; operating systems; servers, laptops and other types of
computers; routers, firewalls, switches and other types of network components;
phones and other communication and handheld devices; network attached storage
and other types of storage; point of sale devices, printers and other
electronic devices; data centre environmentals (APC) or any components or
networked based elements that are monitored by the Software whether physical,
virtual (including virtual guests) or in a cloud environment. Networked based
elements will be counted as one CI for each IP address; provided; however, that
any such elements or components that are included as an attribute, event
definition or visual control for a CI, will be counted as a separate CI.
DIRTY DATA
While a CMDB is most often associated with IT Service
Management solution and ITIL requirements, the key to creating a solid and
valuable CMDB is having it populated with current, complete and accurate
information about the IT assets and users across the network. We’ve all heard
the saying before: “Garbage in, garbage
out.” Poor quality input will always result in poor quality output. This
adage is certainly true when it comes to the cleanliness of your CMDB. It’s
nearly impossible for an IT organization to make informed decisions, deliver
services efficiently, and provide a superior user experience without high
quality data flowing through its systems.
It’s no surprise then that IT data accuracy and the risk of
suspect data remains a key concern among IT leaders—especially when the stakes
are sky-high. From an ITAM/ITSM perspective, poor quality data can have major
impacts on costs, efficiency, governance, and security.
Below are the four specific areas where poor data quality
can challenge the success and ROI of your ITSM endeavours:
Incident/Problem Management
The existence of poor quality (or outright inaccurate) data
in your CMDB will lead to incorrect classification. I am not referring to how
everyone classifies a category for their incidents and problems in their ITSM
tool. I am referring to the second layer of classification, which outlines what
is affected by a particular incident or problem. When your CMDB is filled with
outdated data and misinformation, you have limited visibility of the impact,
and it’s extremely difficult to link issues together. Conversely, when you have
a CMDB with accurate data and links to additional information, it’s easy to
understand what the impact of an incident or problem is on the various systems
in your organization.
Potential errors include misleading relationships or poor
escalation due to Configuration Items (CIs) not being linked to the correct
SLA. This presents itself in the form of an inability to prioritize work effort
based on actual business impact.
Change Management
Like Incident and Problem Management, your teams will have
limited visibility into the impact of your changes without high quality data in
your CMDB. For example, perhaps you want to make a change and there’s a
possibility of conflict with someone else’s change. With an accurate CMDB,
you’ll be able to see the impacts of your change and whether or not you can
make both changes together. It will also make the tracking of changes on
equipment easier. You may want to know how many changes you’ve made to a
specific piece of equipment—for example, if it’s faulty and you want to see how
many repairs were made over its lifecycle. It’s crucial in this case to have
this information tracked by your CMDB.
Failed Requests for Change (RFCs) – These can be caused by
the CMDB containing out of date or missing version information. For example,
you may arrange a maintenance outage to update a server’s software version,
only to find that it is retired. This wastes time and disrupts service
availability.
Asset management
Poor quality data is a huge issue when it comes to IT Asset
Management for a number of reasons but especially when it comes to financial
impacts, asset refreshes, usage misunderstandings, and equipment loses. A CMDB
with incorrect data can’t provide you with the accurate financial impact from
your license usage. Additionally, not knowing what assets you have in the field
or how they are impacting each other will become a huge issue when it’s time to
replace equipment. Misunderstanding how your equipment is used or who’s using
what and when has a big impact when it comes to refreshes. Lastly, it’s shockingly
easy to lose track of expensive equipment when you’re lacking quality data and
a proper discovery tool.
Enterprise
There are significant organizational impacts related to poor
data quality as well. Unplanned downtime can occur when you are unintentionally
making conflicting changes. And that downtime often results in loss of revenue
whether directly or indirectly. In the manufacturing world, for example, one bad
change could turn into a nightmare in terms of production. Consequently,
unplanned downtime that impacts the business and revenue naturally fosters a
bad perception of IT.
A MATTER OF TRUST
The concept of the CMDB is that it should be a single source
of truth that is accessed by multiple systems and functions to power effective
processes and decision-making across IT and business functions.
However, when CMDB data is bad or dirty, trust in the
accuracy and value of the CMDB is quickly eroded, often leading to the failures
described above. Unfortunately, once SAM or ITSM provides dirty data to another
department or senior management, it is hard for the recipient to trust future
data. Even if the data quality is improved, it will still be received with skepticism
and an element of being untrustworthy.
The value of the data, the ITSM and SAM function to the
business decreases. Inconsistency with CMDB data will result in a user’s
unwillingness to use the data, or it will require manual effort and manipulation
that will also lead to poor data.
Having unreliable data can end up costing the organization a
lot more time and money than necessary. Organizations can up end up throwing
money and resources at trying to improve the quality of the data, instead of
trying to find the root cause.
No comments:
Post a Comment