Am I a CI?
Phislosphical answer: The question is put wrongly. I am a human being, woman, mother, sportswoman, worker, confguration management specialist… The same is true for servers: a server is a server is a server is a server. It does never transform in a kind of metamorphose process into a CI-thing, doesn’t it? So, why don’t we ask the question this way: “Does metadata of me (e.g. personal record) can be looked at as a CI? ”
ITIL answer: Service Asset and Configuration Management Documentation talks about ”CIs” like this: Any component that needs to be managed in order to deliver an IT Service. Information about each CI, including its relations, is recorded in the Configuration Management System and is maintained throughout its Lifecycle by Configuration Management. CIs are under the control of Change Management. CIs typically include IT Services, hardware, software, buildings, people, and formal documentation such as Process documentation and SLAs.
With this definition I could answer the question: “”Does metadata of me (e.g. personal record) can be looked at as a CI? “ with yes, do you agree? But are you satisfied? Below more argumentation.
Answer to work with: After four years of (Service Asset and) Configuration Management and its processes we came to a simple definition. A CI is a “thing” (with relations) which is managed with the three operational Service Asset and Configuration Management Processes (in total there are 5 processes in SACM, but the other two are more set up SACM and integration into SACM related) . That means,
a) if you maintain the “thing and its relations” according to your standardized configuration control process (which normally is attached to a change management process)
b) if all reports delivered for the “thing and its relations” comply with the standardized configuration status accounting process
c) if you guarantee quality for the “thing and its relations” with the standardized configuration verification and audit process
Then we name it CI. If it is ”discovered” with a discovery tool but not under control, we name it “discovered” IT Object.
Back to the question: ” Does metadata of me (e.g. personal record) can be looked at as a CI? ” Do you expect your company to apply the standardized Service Asset and Configuration Management processes to personal data? I hope that my company applies standardized processes on these data B U T I suppose its far more complex. I know that in my company inventory data of people is managed with a distinct HR application including control, reporting and quality assurance but I suppose not only according to the standardized ITIL Service Asset and Configuration Management Processes but according to other far more complex (regulatory) requirements and the data is stored somewhere else. What would be the benefit if this data were at least integrated into the Configuration Management System. And now we come to the point! That is going to deliver added value: person as owner of Ci’s , person as user of CI’s , person as being impacted when CI fails, etc etc etc. So with all that in mind, I thing I can argue and say. YES it makes sense to look at metadata of a person like a CI, but I have to accept that it will always be managed a bit differently, not like all the other IT-CIs.
Tags: CI, Definition