Step-by-Step Guide toBuilding a CMDB - RightStar

Stage 1. Assemble the Project Team and Define the Project
You should be specific about the potential hard and soft benefits, so you can create a crisp
picture of the future state of the organization if the CMDB project is implemented. You need
to figure out what will change in the organization with the CMDB in place, and estimate the
impact by identifying improvements to key measures.
Your hard benefit estimates will turn into cost-reduction estimates in the ROI analysis. Your soft
benefit estimates will help sell the CMDB project to all affected IT services and build enthusiasm
for the project.
Your estimates don’t have to be perfect. But they do need to make sense to all key stakeholders,
the PEB, and the project sponsor who will approve funding and resources for the project.
To create the logic that ties goals to benefits, and then to key measures, you may need to
interview service and process owners for their reaction and support. At the end of this task,
you should clearly link their problems to project goals, link the goals to the specific benefits,
and link the benefits to the quantifiable impact that you will include in a business case.
For those benefits that you cannot easily quantify the impact, you must include as much relevant
information and data as you can, such as:
»» Endorsements from staff and managers
»» Examples from other companies
»» Events reported in the press
»» Examples of the problems or cost of the current state
»» Potential impact of an incident or event if a CMDB does not exist
»» Results of surveys and interviews
»» Forward projections of key trends and rates
For each goal identified in step 3, “Create and Agree on CMDB Goals and Mission Statement,”
you should complete an impact estimate assessment that identifies the goal, the hard and soft
benefits, and the impact. (See figure 4.2.)
Goal Benefits Impact
• Hard benefits: improve process
integration, communication,
decision making, and compliance
• Hard benefits: experience fewer
failed changes, increase
availability, reduce incident rate,
and improve first-fix rate
• Soft benefit: improve
customer satisfaction
Provide accurate information
on configurations and their
documentation to support all other
service management processes
Figure 4.2. Example impact estimate assessment
• 30% cost savings as a result of reduction in
failed changes; 20% cost savings as a result
of increased availability; 35% reduction in
incidents; 40% cost savings realized by
incidents solved by first level support staff
• IT perceived as supporting and enabling
business
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