Top 6 Pitfalls to Avoid When Implementing a CMDB

Therefore, it is critical to secure the support of key stakeholders at the beginning of your CMDB initiative. By demonstrating that the CMDB will enable stakeholders to continually improve their relevant metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs), you will be able to achieve the requisite buy-in from all appropriate parties. In gaining this support you must ensure that these stakeholders understand that controlling these CIs in the infrastructure will lead to a decrease in incidents within the environment as well as a significantly improved change process.

Pitfall 5: Attempting too broad an implementation.

Starting out with a controlled pilot project such as the implementation of a single clearly defined business service is key. Determine the CIs that support that business service first, such as the application servers, Web servers, routers, databases and database servers. Next, determine what types of relationships that exist between these CIs such as “runs on”, “hosts”, “connects to”, “relies on”, “fails over to”, or “manages”. These relationships improve understanding and mitigate the risk associated with changes to any of the CIs that make up the service.

Once the CMDB is successfully implemented with this first service, you and your organization can make decisions on extending the scope of the initiative, and managing more and more CIs in an effective and efficient manner. This incremental approach allows your organization to realize value quickly, while gaining the experience needed to successfully tackle a broader implementation.

Pitfall 6: Skimping on process and training.

A CMDB is only as good as the people who use and maintain it. If people aren’t trained in proper use and maintenance procedures the CMDB will be under-utilized and the contents will quickly become out-of-date and inaccurate. Proper training also helps to ensure a successful implementation and a well-spent investment.

Organizations that avoid these six pitfalls will safeguard their CMDB implementations and improve the likelihood of successful outcomes. Ultimately, that means that they will be better able to cost-effectively provide the business with the services it needs while keeping those services running at required levels of performance.

Randal Locke is senior technical specialist at CA.