Configuration Management overview

ITSMA Service Management Configuration Management identifies, defines, and tracks organizational assets by creating and managing records for those items. Other Service Management applications can then access these records from a central repository. For example, when you create an incident record, Incident Management can access the hardware component details from the database and populate the new record with that information. This significantly reduces the time spent to resolve the incident, as well as alerts you to other potential incidents due to component relationships and dependencies defined in the database. Configuration Management enables you to achieve the following results:

• Accommodate changes to and reuse of standards and best practices
• Significantly reduce incident resolution time by using a central repository for critical infrastructure data that can be accessed by other applications
• Map configuration grouping and business relationships
• Meet business and customer control objectives and requirements
• Authorize changes and releases or resolve incidents and problems faster
• Minimize the number of quality and compliance issues caused by improper configuration of services and assets
• Optimize the use of service assets, IT configurations, capabilities, and resources

By using Configuration Management to manage IT assets, users and administrators or auditors can perform the following tasks:

User (Access based on User role)

• Add, edit, and save asset (CI) records to the Configuration Management database, such as software, hardware, office electronics, telecommunication devices, and furnishings
• Manage CIs using predefined views to find your workload
• View and modify software installation information
• View the maintenance schedule for a CI
• View and modify service level agreement (SLA) information
• Add CIs to a contract and manage existing contracts

Administrator or Auditor

• Identify, control, record, report, audit and verify service assets and Configuration Items, including versions, baselines, constituent components, and their attributes and relationships.
• Account for, manage, and protect the integrity of service assets and Configuration Items throughout the service life cycle by ensuring that only authorized components are used and only authorized changes are made.
• Ensure the integrity of the assets and configurations required to control services and IT infrastructure by establishing and maintaining an accurate and complete Configuration Management System (CMS).