Percentage of Custom Status Values for CI Lifecycle Stages Get Well Playbook Percentage of Custom Status Values for CI Life Cycle Stages A step-by-step guide to analyze and remediate CMDB Data Table of Contents Summary Goal of this Playbook Audience Problem Overview Executive Summary How this playbook can help you achieve business goals How this playbook is structured Problem Analysis Upstream Causes Downstream Consequences Impact on Your Business Engagement Questions Remediation Plays Summary Play 1: Analysis Play 2: Fix Play- Update Status Choice Lists Data Governance Summary Goal of this Playbook Details about this playbook Author Scott Lemm Date 03/14/2021 Addresses HSD # HSD0009414 Applicable ServiceNow Releases All Releases Prerequisites CMDB and CSDM Data Foundations Dashboards Version 1.3.0 or above Time Required Approximately 1 to 4 hours (depending on your environment) Audience Configuration Manager or Configuration Management teamCI OwnerServiceNow Administrator or Discovery Administrator Problem Overview The various status choice lists on a configuration item are utilized by various process within the ServiceNow Platform. Dependency on these status objects and their choices are critical for platform functionality provided by ServiceNow. These Status attributes within the CMDB are as follows:- Operational Status - Install Status (general and Business Application) - Hardware Status - Hardware Substatus The Status attributes are choice lists. Common customizations include adding new choices in the choice lists, changing the Label of an existing choice, and changing the Value of an existing choice. As a highly configurable platform, customizations to these status choice lists are simple to perform but the consequence are not always immediately apparent. Current and future capabilities relay on standardization and consistency in the values provides within the status attributes. Some customizations maybe be deliberate and appropriate, while others may be unknown or unneeded. This playbook helps you identify where custom status values exist for configuration item statuses and helps you correct the customizations where appropriate. Executive Summary How this playbook can help you achieve business goals CI life cycle status objects provide the ability to identify where a configuration item lies within its life cycle process as well as actioning various workflows based on identified status values. How this playbook is structured This Playbook will guide you through 3 plays. Play 1 (an analysis play) helps you identify customizations within the configuration item status objects.Play 2 (a fix play) tells you how revert customizations.Play 3 (a Data Governance play) lists the guidelines and processes for management of customizations within configuration item status objects. Use these guidelines to maintain effective data in your CMDB. Problem Analysis Upstream Causes Transforms are loading custom status choices that do not exist as base choices provided by ServiceNowSome admins may have manually added new choices in the status choice listsSome admins may have manually changed the Label of an existing status choice which modifies the original intent of ServiceNow provided choicesSome admins may have manually changed the Value of an existing status choice which modifies the original intent of ServiceNow provided choicesSome custom choices within status choice lists are not life cycle values and should live outside of the status choice listIntegrations to 3rd party solutions may create custom status choices that do not exist as base choices provided by ServiceNowYou may not be aware that customizations in status attributes may have an adverse affect on capabilities within the platformProcesses may not exist to identify and review customizations to status attributes within the CMDB. Note: new custom choices are often necissary but any custom choices that are not utilized should be decommissioned. Downstream Consequences Data Consequence Data alignment with Asset may result in inaccurate data in either Asset or CMDBData alignment between status attributes may result in inaccurate data in either Asset or CMDBBusiness decisions made based on incorrect data Operation Consequence Erodes trust in the accuracy of the CMDB. Results in a poor user-experiencePolicies that update status choices may be unaware of custom values resulting in broken workflowsReporting will lack correct data, unable to associate the correct status of a configuration item Service Management Consequence Configuration items may not reflect appropriate operational status for inclusion / exclusion within various workflowsMMTR may be impacted by configuration items within incorrect status values Impact on Your Business Custom data in a Status choice list may affect the following areas of your business A poor User Experience (internal & external) making Work harder than it needs to be.Erosion of CMDB trust accompanied with a general lack of adoption & enthusiasm.Reduced MMTR when depending on operational values within status choicesAudit compliance - Unable to properly reflect life cycle management of configuration items Engagement Questions: Consider answers to these questions: What are the major sources of status data in your repository?Which CMDB status attributes do you utilize on configuration items: Install Status, Operational Status, Hardware Status, Hardware Substatus?Are status customizations that reflect new choices within the existing status attributes being utilized or can any be decommissioned? Note: new custom choices are often necissary but any custom choices that are not utilized should be decommissioned.Are any status values blue in color when viewed?Are 3rd party integrations populating your statuses?Are configuration items you expect to be visible/invisible not reflected properly when searching from Incident and/or Change?Do you import data manually? If so, what process do you use? Does your process include populating status on configuration items? Remediation Plays SummaryThe table below lists and summarizes each of the remediation plays in the playbook. Details are included later. Play Name Play 1: Analysis What is this play about Identify custom configuration item status values Play Steps Run report to help identify target status values Play 2: Fix Existing Data What is this play about Revert customizations Play Steps Correct custom status choices where appropriate Play 3: Data Governance What is this play about Helps you establish standard operating procedures, as well as periodic data certification Play Steps Provides detailed advice, best practices and data audit instructions Play 1 - Analysis What this Play is about Identify which common configuration item status attributes have customizations Required tasks Install CMDB and CSDM Data Foundations Dashboard from the ServiceNow App Store.Navigate to the CSDM Data Foundations Dashboard module in the left navigation menu.Select the Foundation tab.Locate the Custom Configuration Item Status Values report to view a list of custom status values The report for Custom Configuration Item Status Values is organized by the common configuration item status values found within the CMDB.If a common configuration item status attribute has customizations, then it will be reflected as a vertical bar within the report. Select one of the bars if present.A list of Custom Status Values within the selected status attribute is then displayed NOTE: The Custom Status Values in the Custom Configuration Item Status Values report are a copy of the custom values in your instance. Editing these report values will not be reflected in your instance. Play 2 – Fix Play- Update Status Choice Lists What this Play is about This play tells you how to correct custom status choices where appropriate Required tasks Open a configuration item status with customizations from the Custom Configuration Item Status Values report. A list of Custom Status Values within the selected status attribute is then displayed NOTE: The Custom Status Values in the Custom Configuration Item Status Values report are a copy of the custom values in your instance. Editing these report values will not be reflected in your instance. Compare the Custom Status Values to base values that ship with ServiceNow. Use the below charts for the comparison Identify which of your Custom Status Values need to be corrected. It is important to consider the following: New Custom Status Values – a new choice in the status choice list that was not provided by ServiceNow. New custom choices are often necissary but any custom choices that are not utilized should be decommissioned.Changing the Label of an Existing Choice – the choice came from ServiceNow but the Label has been modified. This is bad, return the label to the original label.Changing the Value of an Existing Choice – the choice came from ServiceNow but the Value has been modified. This is really bad, return the value to the original value. Open a second browser window to your ServiceNow instance (or record the results in the list of Custom Status Values) Navigate to Choice Lists as part of System Definition NOTE: this may require System Administrator to perform Search Choice List for entries that match the custom choices previously displayed in the Custom Configuration Item Status Values report Make the appropriate corrections based on your analysis in Step 4 from above. Modifying Status values provided by ServiceNow are simple to perform but can have consequences that are not always immediately apparent. Only make modifications where appropriate such as adding new choices. Never modify existing labels or values. Data Governance What this Play is about This play lists the best practices and processes for managing custom choices within configuration item status Required tasks Periodically review the CSDM Data Foundation dashboard report to see if there are any inappropriate customizations to configuration item statuses.Establish a system oversight that discourages inappropriate customizations to status attributes while enabling Data Stewards to ensure data integrity for core data. Congratulations You have completed this Get Well Playbook.