Governance vs. Agility
A global manufacturing company has a CMDB that is managed by a central IT team. The CMDB contains 80,000 CIs. Business units frequently complain that it takes too long to add new CIs or update relationships because they must go through a central approval process. As a result, some business units have started maintaining their own spreadsheets of CIs, leading to data duplication and inconsistency. The CIO wants to improve data governance while allowing business units more autonomy. The company has adopted CSDM to standardize data definitions.
1. What governance model would you recommend to balance central control with business unit agility? Explain how CSDM supports this model.
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Recommend a federated governance model: central IT defines standards, policies, and the CSDM data model, while business units are responsible for managing their own CIs within those standards. CSDM provides a common taxonomy and relationship definitions, ensuring consistency across business units. Central IT can provide a self-service portal for CI registration and updates, with automated validation against CSDM. This reduces bottlenecks while maintaining data integrity.
2. How would you address the spreadsheet problem and ensure business units adhere to the CMDB? Propose two concrete measures.
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Two measures: (1) Implement a data certification process where business units must certify their CIs quarterly; non-certified CIs are flagged and eventually retired. (2) Integrate CMDB with other systems (e.g., asset management, monitoring) so that business units see value in maintaining accurate CMDB data, reducing the need for spreadsheets. Additionally, provide training and tools to make it easy to update the CMDB.