Improve data quality in ServiceNow

 

Improve Data Quality in SN

Intro

Imagine you’re asked to improve the data quality in SN at your work...

I see you scratching your head already. How on earth can you improve the data quality?? What does that uberhaupt even mean?

Well, you were not alone in struggling to understand this work. I too sat in the same position - with doubts and whatnot.

Fortunately, after some investigation and persistence, I figured out how to distill this mystery for you.

So, let's start!

What is Data Quality

When it comes to improving the data quality in the context of SN, we must first understand what data means.

In the context of SN, data refers to either the product suites (i.e., CMDB, ITSM, CSM, etc.) or the foundation data. The latter is what we are going to focus on in this article.

What is Foundation Data

Foundation data is the foundation of the CSDM model. Concretely, foundation data is all the background data related to users, groups, locations, company structures, etc. This is the critical data reference you have in the background related to the company’s processes and configuration items.

So, the foundation data is the fundamental common data elements shared between different processes and workflows.

Some consider CIs also as foundation data because it’s a kind of common reference data.

Foundation Data is critical referential data.

In the CSDM framework, the foundation data is at the bottom:

The foundation data relates to everything. So, it doesn’t make sense to draw with relationships in the CSDM model. Note that the data of the product suites (i.e., CMDB, ITSM, CSM, etc.) lies within the four blocks of the model.

CMDB / Business Application form:

This is one example of the CSDM or business application class. As you can see in the form, the highlighted attributes are all references to Foundation Data. So, there are business processes, models, departments, users, user groups, etc.

Foundation Data is embedded into everything. You cannot differentiate it as a separate thing. It’s the foundation with references to everything.

In essence, you need to have your foundation data in place before you can utilize any SN products.

In other words, you cannot build a good house without a solid foundation.

ITSM / Incident Management form:

Another example where foundation data comes along is within the ITSM or incident management product, i.e., users, and groups.

At first, it doesn’t look much. But if you take a look at the references of the Service offering, then you can see that you have plenty of data references to users and groups. On the Caller, you have references to the company, departments, managers, and possibly other foundation data as well.

Why is Foundation Data important

Foundation Data makes a big difference if you have reference data that you use on the form compared to free text fields. Of course, you could have an incident form or business application where you can assign someone as the owner of the business app. But if that doesn’t refer to a user, then you can’t use it for reporting on anything else.

Some of the main use cases for foundation data:

• Reporting - everything you need to report relies on foundation data
• Auto-Assignments
• For example, if you have an INC related to a service or CI, then you’ll most probably get the assignment group through the service or CI. So, you can use that group to assign the ticket to the correct group
• Another example is you have on-site support requests and you want to assign those to the local on-site support group. For that, you need to know the location of the requester
• Approvals
• Example: Approvals Flow

• Service Subscriptions
• With service subscriptions, you can have a more automated Service Portal where you know which services are related to the current user. Then you can relate the tickets to those services only.

For more insights and concrete examples, refer to this article

Audit Foundation Data

Auditing foundation data is crucial for having and maintaining accurate data in your CMDB. This will help you to address the missing foundation data (i.e., users, groups, departments, locations, etc.). Only by having good foundation data, people will work better and more efficiently.

One of the tools that's doing a good job for this particular task is the: Data Content Manager

Refer to this article for concrete examples of how to audit foundation data.

Key takeaways

• Foundation Data is crucial for having a solid platform
• If you have bad input data, your regular tasks will take 10x to complete

That's a wrap.

Don't worry. In part 2, we will go through some approaches and tools on how to improve the data quality within your organization.

References:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtFBNCUCAqg&ab_channel=DataContentManager