Manage Technical Services domain of the CSDM framework

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated August 1, 2024
  • 7 minutes to read
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    Summary of Manage Technical Services domain of the CSDM framework

    The Manage Technical Services domain in the Common Service Data Model (CSDM) focuses on managing the technology components and services that support deployed digital products. It encompasses configuration items (CIs) such as installed applications, servers, and network components discovered primarily through IT Operations Management (ITOM) products like Service Mapping and Discovery. This domain represents the portfolio of operational technical services that can be selected for IT Service Management (ITSM) processes including Incident, Problem, and Change Management.

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    Typical users include application service owners (for applications and platforms) and technology service owners (for infrastructure and delivery). Technology consumers can request technical service offerings through the service catalog. While Service Mapping and Discovery are not mandatory, they greatly enhance accuracy and efficiency in populating and managing these services and their relationships.

    Key Features

    • Technical Services and Offerings: Technical services are linked to service owners and typically layered under business or application services. Each operational technical service should have one or more technical service offerings, which define service delivery commitments such as availability, performance, support, and pricing. These offerings are requestable through the service catalog and can include options like geographic location, environment, and support groups.
    • Dynamic CI Groups: These are query-based groups of CIs, such as "all web servers in Detroit," enabling efficient management of infrastructure components without manual relationship creation. They support tasks like patch management and enable flexible grouping for Change Management and Event Management.
    • Application Services: Represent deployed systems or application stacks consisting of interconnected applications and hosts. They serve as logical entry points for Service Mapping and help monitor service performance and health through Event Management. Application services are fundamental for integration with ITSM, ITOM, Strategic Portfolio Management, and Customer Service Management.
    • Applications: Defined as discoverable software components providing specific functions. Applications are infrastructure CIs that may support multiple application services but are distinct from managed application portfolio objects, which reside in the Design domain.
    • Infrastructure CIs: Physical and logical components such as servers, databases, and routers supporting business capabilities. Proper management involves collaboration with business relationship managers or enterprise architects to align infrastructure with business applications.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Enables comprehensive visibility and management of technical services and their relationships to business and application services.
    • Supports operational ITSM processes by providing accurate, discoverable CIs and service offerings that users can request and consume.
    • Improves service monitoring and health tracking through integration with Event Management, allowing proactive management of service performance and infrastructure health.
    • Simplifies infrastructure management with Dynamic CI Groups, reducing manual effort and improving accuracy in Change and Event Management.
    • Facilitates alignment between technical services and business outcomes by integrating technical service data within the Service Portfolio Management hierarchy.

    The Manage Technical Services domain involves the tables used by IT Operations Management (ITOM) products such as Service Mapping and Discovery. These are deployed instances of digital products and their related and discoverable components and documentation of the services that provide and support the deployed instances.

    The CIs in this domain are discovered items such as installed applications, servers, and network components. The Manage Technical Services domain also represents the portfolio of technical services in use. These services are operational, which means that you can select them for ITSM Incident Management, Problem Management, or Change Management.

    Typical users are application service owners (for the application and platform) and technology service owners (for the infrastructure and delivery). Technology consumers can request technical service offerings through the request catalog.

    Manage Technical Services domain.

    The tables in the Manage Technical Services domain represent the technology that your business sells or consumes in the provider view. While you aren’t required to use Service Mapping and Discovery to populate the tables, those products accelerate the process and minimize errors. They also enable you to manage CIs and their relationships. The domain includes the following tables:

    • Technical service table [cmdb_ci_service_technical]
    • Technical services in Event Management use the Dynamic CI group table [cmdb_ci_query_based_service].
    • Request catalog
    • Technical service offering table [service_offering]
    • Dynamic CI group table [cmdb_ci_query_based_service]
    • Mapped Application Service table [cmdb_ci_service_discovered] (included in the base system)

    Technical services

    A Technical services are associated with service owners and are typically layered under one or more business or application services. A technical service may have one or more technical service offerings.

    Technical service users can view and manage the technologies that you provide to the business. Event Management enables you to monitor service performance. You can also use Event Management to identify health issues for related infrastructure CIs and application services.

    Technical services can be managed as part of the Service Portfolio in the Sell/Consume domain (that is, a Service Portfolio hierarchy can be referenced from a Technical Service). This allows for a more complete hierarchy and management of both Technical Services and Business Services within the Service Portfolio Management workspace and related workspaces. You can make better decisions when you know how spend on technical services can improve performance and reliability of your business services.

    Note:
    Business services and technology management services connect to the spm_service_portfolio through the spm_taxonomy_node. See Service Portfolio Management taxonomy.

    Technical service offerings

    Technology consumers can request technical service offerings (SO) through the request catalog. Catalogs are described in detail in Service Catalog. The consumer can typically select the following features and options:
    • Level of performance
    • Location or geography
    • Environment
    • Pricing
    • Availability
    • Capability
    • Support group (for incident)
    • Technical approval group (for change)
    • Packaging options (commitments)
    Technical service offerings typically have the following components:
    One or more service commitments
    A service commitment defines the service delivery obligations agreed to between the consumer and the provider. Service commitments uniquely define the level of service in terms of availability, criticality, scope, pricing, and other factors. For example, an organization may offer two levels of support for an application service:
    • Support for a production-level offering: Provides a high level of availability and criticality for production instances. Includes a 24/7, 5-minute response time guarantee (24 hours per day seven days per week).
    • Support for a non-production-level offering: Limited availability and criticality for non-production instances. Includes a 60-minute response time guarantee between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.
    A service offering subscription that records which users have access to an offering

    Technical service offerings that are mapped to the [service_offering] table are classified as “technical service" and are derived from the service. The technical service offering is based on how the parent serves a specific technical need. Every operational technical service should have at least one technical service offering.

    Each CI associated through a Dynamic CI Group can be related to only one Technical Service or Technical Service Offering. Conflicts can result when one service includes multiple offerings with different SLAs, OLAs, Support Groups, and commitments.

    Dynamic CI groups

    A dynamic CI group is comprised of CIs that result from a CMDB Groups query. For example, you can create a dynamic CI group based on location: "all web servers in Detroit" or "all Oracle databases in Mumbai".
    Note:
    Dynamic CI groups contain only CIs and can't contain other CI groups.
    Dynamic CI group are mapped to the [cmdb_ci_query_based_service] table and are classified as either application service or technical service, as applicable. You might want to use dynamic CI groups in the following situations:
    Query-based application service

    You don’t have Service Mapping enabled yet, but you have 12 servers and three database instances in MyAppServiceProd. You can replace your spreadsheets with a dynamic CI group as an application service.

    See Populate an application service using the Dynamic CI Group method.

    Managed group of Infrastructure CIs
    The web servers in Detroit are managed by the DetroitRockCity Technical Service Offering. Instead of manually creating relationships from Technical Service Offerings to Infrastructure CIs, use a Dynamic CI group. A single relationship from your Technical Service Offering CI (DetroitRockCity) to your dynamic CI Group (web servers in Detroit) gives you the visibility you need.
    A way to manage patches for your CIs
    In Change Management, you can select the dynamic CI group for the CIs you need to update and use a business rule to auto-populate the Affected CI field.

    Application services

    An application service is a set of interconnected applications and hosts that are configured to offer a service. An application service is a logical representation of a deployed system or an application stack. Using application services, you can view maps and change history for services. For example, the Event Management application can monitor service performance and identify health issues for application services.

    Application services can be internal, like an organization's email system or customer-facing, like an organization's website. For example, creating financial reports through a web-based application requires a computer, web server, application server, databases, middleware, and network infrastructure. The applications and hosts are configured to offer the service of financial reporting. An application service represents an instance of such a business application or system in the development, test, or production environment.

    Application services are the entry points for the Service Mapping feature. Application services underpin a business or technical service and are mapped to the CMDB Application Service table [cmdb_ci_service_auto] for common reporting.

    Application services are key relationship entities for IT Service Management (ITSM), IT Operations Management (ITOM), Strategic Portfolio Management (SPM), and Customer Service Management (CSM).

    Application services include relationships between business applications, business services, technical services, applications, and infrastructure CIs. You can expose an application service by using the related business or technical service offering. For more information, see Monitor the health of application services on the Application Services dashboard.

    The table that an application service maps to depends on the method used to create it:
    Table 1. Methods mapped to tables
    Method used to create the application service Mapped to table
    Top Down Discovery (Service Mapping) cmdb_ci_service_discovered
    Dynamic CI Group (Query-based) cmdb_ci_query_based_service
    Tags cmdb_ci_service_tags
    Manual (using the Create an Application Service form) cmdb_ci_service_discovered

    Applications

    An application is any program or module that defines behavior and performs a specific function. Applications are typically discoverable instances and provide a specific set of functions for one or more services.

    • The application table and extended tables contain uniquely discovered instances of code in use on the host.
    • Applications are considered infrastructure CIs.
    • The instance is limited to the applications on a single host. This limitation ensures that applications are uniquely identified during discovery.
    • There's a one-to-many (and not a one-to-one) relationship between the application and the application service. A single installed application, such as a database instance, may support multiple application services depending on the configuration and the use of the applications.
    Note:
    The application table [cmdb_ci_appl] isn't an inventory or portfolio of your applications. Don't make the mistake of storing managed application details in the application table. Those details (inventory or application portfolio objects) belong in the business application table (as documented in Design domain of the CSDM framework).

    Infrastructure CIs

    Infrastructure CIs are managed physical and logical components. A CI can be a single module, such as a server, database, or a router or a complete system such as a web server, database, or infrastructure.

    The underlying infrastructure components or CIs can be complicated. The complexity increases as data structures are layered on top of physical CIs. For that reason, you should work with a business relationship manager or enterprise architect to define your business capabilities and business applications.

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