CSDM Fundamentals · Topic 2 of 2
Adopting CSDM and Its Benefits
CSDM adoption for the CIS-DF exam: Foundation, Crawl, Walk, Run and Fly stages, what each delivers, migrating into CSDM and the benefits of the model.
- 5 min
- Includes a diagram
- Stages run Foundation, Crawl, Walk, Run, Fly; do not implement everything at once.
- Crawl is the minimum for incident, problem and change.
- Walk adds technology management services, their offerings and dynamic CI groups.
What it is
ServiceNow does not recommend implementing the whole CSDM at once. The recommended approach is staged: Foundation, Crawl, Walk, Run, Fly. Each stage adds a small set of out of box tables and delivers a specific benefit before the next stage starts.
Abiding by CSDM also means using the prescribed tables and relationships, governing the data, and moving off custom or nonconforming tables. The payoff is a common language, less technical debt and full value from products that expect data where CSDM says it lives.
How it works
The five stages
| Stage | Tables added | Value delivered |
|---|---|---|
| Foundation | Company, business unit, department, location, groups, users, CMDB group, product models, contracts | Reference data every product and report depends on; less rework later |
| Crawl | Business application, application service, application, server or host | Minimum CMDB data for incident, problem and change; ready for EA, DevOps and Service Mapping |
| Walk | Technology management service, technology management service offering, dynamic CI group | Support and approval groups managed through offerings; support structure aligned to OLAs and commitments |
| Run | Business service portfolio, business service, business service offering | Impact assessment of business services in incident, problem and change; service owner views |
| Fly | Business capability, information object, request catalog with offerings | Rationalization of applications and services; insight into the data applications hold |
SDLC components are optional in Crawl. Organizations that do not break applications into components can add them in Fly. The information object may be needed earlier when compliance requires it; business requirements decide.
What each stage really means
Foundation comes first because reporting, workflows and AI agents depend on reference data such as locations and groups. Plan it early, with trusted sources.
Crawl gives quick wins by modeling applications properly. The business application is the portfolio entry, the application service is each deployment, and the application CI is discovered.
Walk lets a technology management service offering carry the support group and technical approval group for the CIs it manages. The platform can then populate those values on many CIs instead of teams maintaining them one by one.
Run connects technology to the business that consumes it, so an incident on a CI can show the business services and offerings affected. Fly completes CSDM 5 with capabilities and information objects.
Abiding by CSDM
| Principle | In practice |
|---|---|
| Use out of box tables | Put data in the CSDM table, not a custom class with a similar purpose |
| Use prescribed relationships | Link entities with the documented relationships, such as a business application related to its application services |
| Integrate consistently | Bring external data in through the prescribed technologies so integrity is kept |
| Govern the data | Data has little value without ownership and process to keep it accurate |
| Measure progress | Use the CSDM Data Foundations Dashboard tabs, which follow the five stages |
When products depend on a relationship that is missing, their features stop working. For example, technology portfolio risk assessment relies on business applications being related to application services.
Migrating into CSDM
Customers with custom or nonconforming tables should migrate carefully. The early migration steps are:
| Step | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Back up the data | Export all attributes before moving anything |
| Map attributes | Match old fields to target tables; drop low use custom attributes |
| Find table dependencies | Locate reports, business rules, scripts and references that use the old table |
Attribute mapping sorts custom fields into Best Practice, Keep, Refactor and Do Not Need. Moving CIs is easy; the hidden work is everything that still points at the old table.
Benefits of implementing CSDM
- Common language: people with different roles and tools share one model and one set of definitions.
- Less technical debt: no custom data model and custom functionality to maintain.
- Greater out of box use: ServiceNow products are built to create and read data the way CSDM describes.
- Future-proof: new products and features extend CSDM, so aligned data is ready for them.
- Reporting and impact: consistent services and relationships support service level reporting and impact analysis.
How the exam asks about this
- "A customer wants to start CSDM. What should come first?" The Foundation stage: reference data such as companies, locations, groups and users.
- "A customer at the Walk stage asks what the CMDB now gives them." Support structure stratified along OLAs and commitments, with support data managed through technology management service offerings.
- "A team moved CIs from a custom class to a CSDM class and reports broke." They skipped the table dependency step of the migration.
What to remember for the exam
- Stages run Foundation, Crawl, Walk, Run, Fly; do not implement everything at once.
- Crawl is the minimum for incident, problem and change.
- Walk adds technology management services, their offerings and dynamic CI groups.
- Run adds business services and offerings for business impact assessment.
- Fly adds business capabilities and information objects.
- Benefits: common language, less technical debt, greater out of box use, future-proof.
Business service impact is a Run stage outcome, not Walk. Walk is about how technical teams support CIs; Run links technology to the business.
Common mistakes
Starting with services. Teams eager for service views skip foundation data. Without trusted locations, groups and users, every later stage reports on bad references.
Keeping a custom class "for now". Products increasingly expect CSDM tables. Each custom table reduces out of box value and adds migration work later.
Migrating without checking dependencies. Moving data is quick. Reports, business rules and scripts on the old table do not follow automatically.
Check yourself
Which CSDM stage adds technology management services and their offerings?
The Walk stage, together with dynamic CI groups. It aligns technical support structures with OLAs and commitments.
What is the minimum stage that supports incident, problem and change?
The Crawl stage, with business applications, application services, applications and servers in place on top of foundation data.
Name two benefits of following CSDM instead of a custom model.
A common language across roles and tools, and less technical debt. Products also work out of box because they expect data in CSDM tables.
Topic 2 of 2 in CSDM Fundamentals
Test yourself on CSDM Fundamentals
The full ServiceNow CIS-DF question bank has 769 questions, with timed practice exams and an explanation for every answer.
This study guide is independent and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by ServiceNow. Vendor names, certification names and exam codes are trademarks of their respective owners and are used for identification only.