don�t lose your mind or your job: what executives should know about cmdb projects

©2008 Enterprise Management Associates

Don’t Lose Your Mind or Your Job:

What Executives Should Know About CMDB Projects

Chris Matney

Consulting Director of IT Services

Enterprise Management Associates

[email protected]


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Agenda

• Putting the CMDB into context

• Definition and scope – WHAT?

• Process

• Value proposition – WHY?

• The cost of doing nothing – WHEN?

• What are your peers doing?

• What every IT executive should know about their CMDB project

• Top 10 Reasons CMDB Projects Fail

• 20 Things to do to Avoid Failure – HOW?

• Tales from the Trenches

• Wall of Metrics

• Metadata Disaster

• Questions and Answers


What is a CMDB system?


What is a CMDB system?

DynamicProactiveActiveReactive

1999-2005

2005-2008

2008-2010

2011-2013


Scope of the CMDB


Fitting the CMDB within the ITIL framework

Management Tools Business, Customers and Users

Service Desk

Incidents Queries Change Releases

IncidentManagement

ProblemManagement

ChangeManagement

ReleaseManagement

ConfigurationManagement

Service Reports

Incident Statistics

Audit Reports

Problem Statistics

Trend Analysis

Problem Reports

Problem Reviews

Diagnostic Aids

Audit Reports

Problems

Change Schedule

CAB Minutes

Change Statistics

Audit Reports

Release Schedule

Release Statistics

Release Reviews

Secure Library

Testing Standards

Audit Reports

CMDB Reports

CMDB Statistics

Policy/Standards

Audit Reports

Configuration Items

Incidents

Known Errors

Changes

Releases

Relationships


CMDB

Fitting the CMDB within the ITIL framework

Management Tools Business, Customers and Users

Service Desk

Incidents Queries Change Releases

IncidentManagement

ProblemManagement

ChangeManagement

ReleaseManagement

ConfigurationManagement

Service Reports

Incident Statistics

Audit Reports

Problem Statistics

Trend Analysis

Problem Reports

Problem Reviews

Diagnostic Aids

Audit Reports

Change Schedule

CAB Minutes

Change Statistics

Audit Reports

Release Schedule

Release Statistics

Release Reviews

Secure Library

Testing Standards

Audit Reports

CMDB Reports

CMDB Statistics

Policy/Standards

Audit Reports

Releases

Incidents

Problems

Known Errors

Changes

Releases

Configuration Items

Relationships


The Value Proposition - WHY?

Cost

Avoidance• Headcount

• Software and hardware

• Outages

• Compliance/Risk

Risk

AvoidanceIT Maturity

• Productivity

• Employee work-life balance

“A U.S. Healthcare Organization reduced

MTTR, downtime and outages by 40%,

realizing a 300% ROI over several years.”

“A US Financial Services Company provided a consistent and holistic services map with asset and inventories

updated nightly that greatly reduced domain expert pages and improved MTTR by 70%.”


Return on Investment

“Most IT organizations are willing to go forward with the

CMDB investment on softer grounds with respect to ROI.

This fits in with the CMDB’s role as a transformational

enabler for culture, process and organizational changes

which can show strong values, but for which the metrics are

more difficult to define.”

EMA research report, “CMDB Adoption in the Real World: Just How Real Is It?


The Cost of Doing Nothing – WHEN?

The Cost of Doing Nothing

IT Headcount




IT Headcount Business Growth




IT Headcount Business Growth IT Complexity




IT Headcount Business Growth IT Complexity CMDB




IT Headcount Business Growth IT Complexity CMDB Analytics


What Your Peers Are Doing?

Which of the following best describes your company’s current status for implementing a

Configuration Management Database (CMDB) to store your configuration information?


How Are Your Peers Doing?

If you had to rate the success of your company’s CMDB effort overall, how

would you rate it?


Agenda



• Process








• Wall of Metrics




Top 10 Reasons Projects Fail – HOW?

“More than 75% of IT projects fail, either by providing too little

functionality or overrunning cost and time estimates.”

“Major IT initiatives are risky and oftentimes put an executive’s

reputation on the line.”

“You can’t sit still, and you’re afraid of moving forward.”

Note: My Top 20 recommendations will be highlighted in green boxes.

4. Executive Management Support

5. Follow Through

6. Process

7. Managing Expectations

8. Resistance to Change

9. Integration

10. Auto Discovery

1. Staff Buy-In

2. Staffing and Budget

3. Detailed Requirements




5. Follow Through

6. Process



9. Integration

10. Auto Discovery

1. Staff Buy-In



“We are tactical, action-oriented people, and the CMDB is too strategic.”

“We live in the moment. We are very operations-oriented.”“Show me this isn’t a boondoggle.”“Most groups don’t respect what other groups do.”“I’m tired of getting paged out of a ballgame or

movie for information that is easy to find.”

“I am tired of being asked over and over for the same information about which servers my

application is using.”

“My plate is full. I need help automating routine tasks.”

IT Staff Profile

• Smart

• Problem Solvers

• Skeptical

IT Staff Challenges

• Overworked

• Siloed



IT Staff Profile

• Smart

• Problem Solvers

• Skeptical

IT Staff Challenges

• Overworked

• Siloed


5. Follow Through

6. Process



9. Integration

10. Auto Discovery

1. Staff Buy-In



1. Develop a clear action plan. Under promise. Over deliver.

3. If you don’t believe in the plan, neither will the staff.

2. Involve all technology silos and business units.



• A CMDB project is not a part-time effort within one domain silo

• You will need domain experts to make the project work

• Watch out for scope creep

• CMDB costs are not one-time, incremental expenses

4. An ideal CMDB “dream team” will have four primary roles.

6. Don’t include high-level analytics in your CMDB project budget.

5. Plan on backfilling positions to augment domain experts.


5. Follow Through

6. Process



9. Integration

10. Auto Discovery

1. Staff Buy-In



7. CMDB costs should be included in the base operating budget.


Detailed Requirements

• Detailed Requirements

clearly define your business

needs

• Most companies suffer from

a lack of focus on what the

value is at the ground level

for the CMDB

• Typical enterprises will have

several hundred detailed

requirements


5. Follow Through

6. Process



9. Integration

10. Auto Discovery

1. Staff Buy-In




Detailed Requirements

• Detailed Requirements

clearly define your business

needs

• Most companies suffer from a

lack of focus on what the

value is at the ground level

for the CMDB

• Typical enterprises will have

several hundred detailed

requirements


5. Follow Through

6. Process



9. Integration

10. Auto Discovery

1. Staff Buy-In



8. Develop Detailed Requirements.


Executive Management Support + Follow Through


5. Follow Through

6. Process



9. Integration

10. Auto Discovery

1. Staff Buy-In



“We are not good at first shot solutions. They turn negative quickly.”

• Management attention span is 6 months

• After this, project failures rise dramatically

• Short-term wins are critical to long-term success

• Many projects lose steam after a few months

“We need an iterative approach to our CMDB project.”

“We have a lack of political will and a reluctance to make it happen.”“We need to know the costs, scope

and have a solid strategic statement.”“The last big project like this failed

because the CTO left during the project.”“We are really bad at follow-up and training on new tools going into the infrastructure.”

“Our priorities change constantly. CMDB will be the hot topic this month with senior management.”


Executive Management Support + Follow Through


5. Follow Through

6. Process



9. Integration

10. Auto Discovery

1. Staff Buy-In



• Management attention span is 6 months

• After this, project failures rise dramatically

• Short-term wins are critical to long-term success

• Many projects lose steam after a few months

9. Break your CMDB project into six-month roadmaps.

11. Don’t tie your CMDB to yearly funding – it is a multi-year project.

10. Focus on small wins – big vision, baby steps.


Process


5. Follow Through

6. Process



9. Integration

10. Auto Discovery

1. Staff Buy-In



Which of the following best-practice frameworks is your company currently using?

12. Take a pragmatic approach to ITIL adoption.

13. Focus on core processes – Change, Configuration and Release.

We have talked about the

importance of process,

but what are your peers doing?

• ITIL Adoption is gaining

traction in the US

• A 2006 EMA research

survey showed only 35%

of IT execs had even

heard of ITIL


Managing Expectations + Resistance to Change

Expectations are managed through:

• Good detailed requirements

• Good communication

• Limiting scope creep/over-scoping

Change is good if it make life easier

• 90% can be brought by the “carrot”

• 10% will need the “stick”


5. Follow Through

6. Process



9. Integration

10. Auto Discovery

1. Staff Buy-In



14. Publish CMDB project information – website, RSS feed, town hall.

15. Continue making the CMDB an executive priority.

Important, but

not in scope.


Technical Issues

• Integration

• Auto-Discovery

• Reconciliation/Synchronization

• Promoting the Right CIs – “data for data’s sake”

16. Identify integration points – do your homework.

18. Auto-discovery and population of CIs is CRITICAL.

17. Make the difficult decisions about redundant tools and data.


5. Follow Through

6. Process



9. Integration

10. Auto Discovery

1. Staff Buy-In



19. Be pragmatic about data promotion – use detailed requirements.

20. Leverage the experience of your peers and experts.


Top 10 Reasons Projects Fail – Wrap-up

22%

16%

14%

12%

10%

7%

7%

6%

3%

3%


5. Follow Through

6. Process



9. Integration

10. Auto Discovery

1. Staff Buy-In




20 Things To Do To Avoid Failure – Wrap-up

1. Develop a clear action plan. Under promise. Over deliver.

2. Involve all technology silos and business units. If you don’t believe in the plan, neither will the staff.

3. If you don’t believe in the plan, neither will the staff.

4. An ideal CMDB “dream team” will have four primary roles.

5. Plan on backfilling positions to augment domain experts.

6. Don’t include high-level analytics in your CMDB project budget.

7. CMDB costs should be included in the base operating budget.

8. Develop Detailed Requirements.

9. Break your CMDB project into six-month roadmaps.

10. Focus on small wins – big vision, baby steps.

11. Don’t tie your CMDB to yearly funding – it is a multi-year project.

12. Take a pragmatic approach to ITIL adoption.

13. Focus on core processes – Change, Configuration and Release.

14. Publish CMDB project information – website, RSS feed, town hall.

15. Continue making the CMDB an executive priority.

16. Identify integration points – do your homework.

17. Make the difficult decisions about redundant tools and data.

18. Auto-discovery and population of CIs is CRITICAL.

19. Be pragmatic about data promotion – use detailed requirements.

20. Leverage the experience of your peers and experts.


Agenda



• Process








• Wall of Metrics




Wall of Metrics

• Large banking customer

• Implemented management

dashboard

• No underlying reconciled data

• No CMDB

• No automation processes

• Extensively used

• Software/hardware purchases

• Employee bonuses

• Wall of metrics was worse than no

data -- it was bad data!

• Commonly seen in scorecards

and Service Level Agreements


Metadata Disaster

• Large insurance customer

• Implemented metadata

management solution

• No CMDB

• No automation processes

• Poor synchronization

• Rarely used

• Data didn’t agree with domain

experts

• Technical staff lost confidence

• Metadata program undermined

CMDB efforts

• Automation processes needed --

only include what you can keep

current


Wrap-Up



• Process








• Wall of Metrics




Thank you for attending today’s presentation.

Questions and Answers

For more information on EMA, please contact:

Bruce Lehman at 303.543.9500 x112 or

[email protected]