As the needs and demands of the IT organization changes, industry analysts argue that perhaps the organization should change.
One instance in which this may be true is when planning, implementing and maintaining a configuration management database, or CMDB. Because CMDBs encompass configuration and relationship data from multiple components of IT and application infrastructure, they can quickly become unwieldy and fail to perform as intended.
A recent report from Forrester Research suggests IT shops assign the role of CMDB manager to the team member in charge of seeing the CMDB deployed from planning stages through to ongoing maintenance. Other suggest that assigning a project manager throughout the lifecycle of the CMDB would help IT to achieve its goals around the investment.
Forrester Research Senior Analyst Evelyn Hubbert, who served as lead author on the report mentioned above, writes: “To function effectively, a CMDB manager needs a variety of skills. The person owning the role should have some process and data modeling skills. Additionally, during the operational phase where many data ownership and process issues arise, it helps to have the ability to manage and resolve conflicts. The individual should possess project and people management skills, because many separate CMDB efforts need to be coordinated among the core CMDB management team and a broader virtual CMDB project team.”
What do you think? Should IT organizations carve out a separate role to ensure the CMDB is implemented and maintained up to set standards? Or would a project manager experienced with working with multiple IT groups serve better as the lead on a CMDB project? Let me know here.
