Unleash the power of Configuration Management

I'm a really big advocate of a good configuration management process and system but I'm always amazed at how many organisations I go in to see who either don't have a good CMS or don't see the potential or, worse still, both!

The basics of a configuration management system are really easy and even a simple CMDB can deliver huge benefits to all sorts of areas. The reason that some companies stumble is because they start complex and try to move forward from there. KISS is always the better approach. Start with a restricted scope (a single geographical location, a subset of configuration item types) and a simple structure (only the essential and easily controlled attributes and basic relationship types). This means that you can start recording the configuration information in something as simple as an Excel spreadsheet (although I've only ever seen that done successfully once and even then access to a wide audience of stakeholders didn't work well). You can certainly start with a simple set of SQL tables and a very basic Access front-end. One table containing the configuration items, one containing relationships ... easy yes?

So much for the basic version, I told you that this was about getting the power of configuration management. The true power comes from not trying to control everything yourself. It would be very useful if the CMS had a list of all users/employees wouldn't it? But, chances are, your organisation already has a database containing information about all employees ... the HR database. Connect or link to that. You'll also already have a system which records relationships between systems or applications and the users who use them ... Active Directory. Can you make use of that? Facilities Management will have information about the buildings, possibly even 'who-sits-where'. Finance have a list of all hardware and software assets bought, from whom, when, for how much. Procurement have a list of suppliers with contact information and the contracted services they deliver. Within yourselves as the service provider, chances are you'll have all sorts of small niche databases for things like telephone extensions, email distribution lists, shift rotas, etc. which can all be used as part of the whole richness.


That's the data sorted but the other major area that organisations come unstuck is managing and maintaining the information once you've captured it. I quite like the mnemonic I was taught to help remember the steps in the process: Perhaps I Can See A Vampire's Arm.

• Planning
  What am I going to record information about (what scope, what types of configuration item, what attributes of each type, what relationships, between what sort of configuration items, what statuses)?
• Identification
  How am I going to go about capturing new configuration items and the relationships between them of the type and within the scope I set in the previous step?
• Control
  During their life-cycle  each configuration item will change status as will relationships and attributes. How will I know about each of these changes? How quickly? From whom? What will I do about each?
• Status Accounting
  At various times I will need to be able to report on the information held; whether this be through a live interface for lookups and management/maintenance or through a reporting system. How will your provide the information needed for each audience or purpose?
• Verification and Audit
  Over time, there is the possibility that changes might be made to the production environment which are (shock horror) not adequately covered by a matching change control. This eventually leads to a situation where the CMS is out-of-sync with reality. To counter this effect, you need to, periodically, undertake a manual reconciliation of what there is against what you think there is and a) amend accordingly and b) seek to understand why the discrepancy occurred in the first place.

I guess that there is an argument that my interpretation of Configuration Management intersects a bit with Knowledge Management but, I don't care. I'd prefer for the service provider to have a powerful set of information/knowledge with which to make informed and accurate decisions but be unclear about which process this conforms to than stick rigidly to the ITIL process definitions and suffer reduce effectiveness.

So, hopefully you're almost as enthused now about Configuration Management as I am ... well, at least you can a) see the potential and b) see a simple way to start.

If you want to know more, please contact me and let's see how we can help you get the most out of this powerful process.