Data Foundations (CMDB and CSDM) key terms

A repository that stores records of the components an organization uses to deliver services, along with the descriptive attributes and relationships that connect those components to one another.

Any component under configuration control that is tracked as a discrete record, such as a server, application, database, or service, together with its attributes and links to other components.

The category or type assigned to a configuration item that determines which attributes it carries and which relationships it may have, for example server, database, or business service.

The parent-child arrangement of CI classes in which a child class inherits the attributes of its parent while adding its own, keeping the data model consistent and extensible.

The broader set of tools, processes, data, and people that together manage configuration records throughout their lifecycle, of which the CMDB is one component.

The discipline of identifying, recording, controlling, and verifying the components of an IT environment and the relationships among them so that accurate information is available when needed.

The sequence of states a configuration item passes through, typically from planned and installed through in-service and maintenance to retired or disposed.

Automated scanning that finds devices, software, and services on the network and creates or updates CI records based on what it observes.

A technique that traces the actual infrastructure and application components supporting a service and builds a relationship model showing how the service is delivered end to end.

An approach that begins with a service entry point and follows traffic and connections downward to identify the components the service depends on.

An approach that starts from discovered infrastructure components and works upward to infer which services they support, often used where entry-point tracing is impractical.

A visual or data representation of how CIs relate to and rely on one another, used to understand impact and support troubleshooting.

A defined connection between two configuration items that records how they are associated, such as depends on, runs on, or connects to.

The named category that describes the nature of a connection between two CIs and defines the direction and meaning of that link.

The practice of using relationship data to determine which services and users are affected when a CI fails or changes, supporting risk and change decisions.

A standardized, prescriptive data model that defines how services, their components, and their relationships should be represented so that data is consistent and reusable across processes.

One of the major areas of the common service data model, such as foundation, design, build, manage, and sell, each covering a distinct part of how services are planned and delivered.

A horizontal level within the common service data model that groups data by abstraction, for example the foundation layer holding base reference data and higher layers holding business and technical service detail.

The lowest CSDM layer that holds shared reference data such as companies, locations, users, groups, and core CI classes on which the other layers depend.

Stable, shared values used across many records, such as location codes, company names, or category lists, that keep data consistent and reduce duplication.

A service defined from the perspective of the customer or business, describing an outcome the business consumes rather than the technology that delivers it.

A service described in technology terms that supports one or more business services, typically owned and operated by an IT team.

A specific, deployed occurrence of a service that is available to consumers and is tied to particular components, environments, and support groups.

A description of what a service provides to consumers, including its scope, commitments, and availability, used to present the service in a catalog.

A CSDM concept describing a logical grouping of application components that together deliver functionality, sitting between technical infrastructure and business services.

The policies, roles, and controls that define who may create, change, and approve configuration data and how quality is enforced over time.

The accountable role for a defined set of configuration data, responsible for approving standards, resolving disputes, and ensuring the data meets business needs.

The role that maintains configuration data day to day, reviewing records, correcting errors, and applying the standards set by the data owner.

A periodic review in which accountable owners confirm that CI records and their relationships are still accurate and complete, or flag them for correction.

A set of measurable indicators, such as completeness, correctness, and compliance, that show how trustworthy and well maintained the configuration data is.

The process of standardizing values and formats across records so that similar items are recorded consistently and can be compared and reported reliably.

The rules and logic that decide which source of data wins when multiple sources report on the same CI, preventing conflicting or duplicate records.

Two or more records that describe the same real-world component, usually caused by overlapping discovery sources or manual entry without matching rules.

A configuration item that has no meaningful relationship to a service or other component, leaving it disconnected from the service model and hard to justify.

The difference between finding components on the network and understanding how they combine to deliver a service, which determines whether relationship data is trustworthy.

The measurable benefits an organization gains from trustworthy configuration data, such as faster incident resolution, better change risk decisions, and reduced audit effort.

A quantifiable measure used to track whether configuration management and the service model are delivering the intended outcomes over time.

A published collection of service offerings that consumers can request, built on consistent service data so that what is offered matches what is actually delivered.