Implementation of a CMDB

The implementation of a CMDB is crucial for the success of all ITIL implementations. There is no good ITIL implementation without a CMDB.

The implementation of a CMDB has to be structured into several smaller parts which are:

  1. Bring the audience together and capture their requirements
  2. Create processes according to the ITIL Framework
  3. Implement the CMDB

The implementation of a Configuration Management Database isn’t finished after those three steps but they should give you an idea of how it works. Depending on your needs and situation there might be additional steps – I’m pretty sure, there are! But if you keep track of your audience’s needs, you are on the right way!

The Employee comes first

The first and most important point is: Bringing the audience together and target their needs. There is nothing worse than creating processes and force people to act upon those processes. You have to gather your team – your resources and get to know them. By identifying the skills and competences of the employees it is very easy to create processes according to the ITIL framework which suits best your requirements and your teams abilities and skills. Always create the process WITH your team and not AROUND your team. If you do not follow this advice, you might lose employees or your employees might lose motivation and this mostly results in worse work quality.

The audience of each ITIL implementation includes:

  • IT Staff
    The IT Staff is in charge for all kind of processes. Furthermore during an ITIL implementation, there are some roles which need to be recruited – best choice is to take someone who knows the environment.
  • Users
    They need to act according the processes. Most employees understand that some processes may take longer, but their tolerance is mostly very small.
  • Junior Management
    Junior Management is needed for the implementation due to Process creation.
  • Senior Management
    Senior Management should be the sponsor of each ITIL implementation as they have the budget and competences to do so.

Identify Processes

After gathering information about your employees – the audience of your ITIL implementation you have to think about the different processes. I’m not going to give you a full list of those, as this doesn’t exist as it is different for each customer.

Although the processes are not limited to Configuration Management, they also include:

  • Change Management
  • Incident Management
  • Problem Management
  • Capacity Management
  • …

As you can see, the CMDB is the target of most of the processes you have to implement therefor a solid Configuration Management Database is crucial for the success of your ITIL implementation!

Implementation of a CMDB

There is no 100% finished, out of the box CMDB software as every implementation is very different. After the first two steps it should be clear to you, what you have to implement and what is important for your own ITIL and CMDB implementation. Most of the time the gathering of information and cleaning of those data takes up the most time of the 3rd step.

 

As you can see, there is no real guide about the Implementation of a CMDB as it depends a lot on your company, your employees and your needs. But one thing that isn’t debatable is that a CMDB is necessary for a healthy IT Infrastructure and a healthy IT-Business relationship.