CSDM Implementation Scope
A healthcare provider is implementing the Common Service Data Model (CSDM) to improve service reporting. They have a complex environment with 500 business services, 2,000 application services, and 10,000 servers. The IT team is overwhelmed by the number of CIs and wants to start by modeling all servers and applications in CSDM. However, the CIO insists that they first define the business services and their relationships to application services, because the main goal is to show the cost and health of business services to executives. The team has limited experience with CSDM and is concerned about the time required to model everything.
1. Which CSDM layer should the team focus on first, and why? What are the risks of starting with the server layer instead?
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The team should focus on the Business Service layer (CSDM layer 1) and the Application Service layer (layer 2), because the CIO's goal is to report on business services. Starting with the server layer (layer 3) would be a bottom-up approach that delays value and may not align with business services. Risks of starting with servers: (1) High effort with little business value; (2) Difficulty in mapping servers to business services later, leading to rework; (3) Loss of executive support due to delayed results. Instead, define business services and their supporting application services, then map servers as needed.
2. How can the team use CSDM to reduce the modeling effort while still meeting the CIO's requirement? Describe a phased approach.
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A phased approach: Phase 1: Identify and model the top 10-20 business services that are most critical or visible to executives. For each, define the application services they depend on. Use CSDM's foundational data (e.g., business service, application service, service offering) to structure. Phase 2: Map the application services to the underlying infrastructure (servers, databases) only for those critical services. Phase 3: Expand to remaining business services incrementally. This reduces initial effort by focusing on high-value services and avoids modeling all 10,000 servers upfront. Use CSDM's guidance on service instance and service family to avoid duplication.