HP PPM and your uCMDB
Posted by
Jason Wier on Thu, Jun 14, 2012 @ 01:59 PM
Ok, so you have discovered some or all of your network components, servers, databases, applications, etc. into your uCMDB. Countless hours have been spent validating this data and even mapping the dependencies between CIs...hopefully!
Now what?
Now you get to realize the benefits! If you are using HP PPM (Portfolio and Project Management) to manage your Change Management Process, you should consider integration with your uCMDB.
What this entails:
- When a Change is in progress, Configuration Items (CIs) of any type can be easily linked to this Change. It is typically no extra work for the user, but it opens the door to a dearth of information for your management teams.
The benefits:
- Changes no longer have free text fields for "affected systems" or "servers affected". Even if this data used to be valided, the list of values was probably maintained by hand or in an error-prone way. This list can now be pulled from a view out of your uCMDB.
- It is easy to see the cascading reprecussions of a change. Changing code in application A, can affect application B, servers C/D/E, and database F. All the data is there for your Change Board to make intelligent decisions regarding which changes are a "go" for a release window (you are controlling production releases, right?).
- Owners of applications/systems (application B, for example) that might not otherwise have known a change was in the works that could affect one of their systems.
- Seeing full change reprecussions proactively can be crucial in avoiding unexpected downtime or other SLA-impacting activities.
Good Luck!