We’ve all been there: two people are using the same word, different ways. Or two different words, the same way. They might both make sense in context but misunderstandings can get really out of control.

When this happens in the CMDB it can cause problems with everything from reporting to getting incidents sent to the right place. The classic examples are points of contact like Managed by, Owned by, and Support group.

Here are a couple of steps to get you started on a dictionary for your CMDB:

1. Decide who is responsible for creating and keeping the dictionary up to date

This may be one person or a small team, but editing must be restricted or you’ll get people changing the definition instead of following it

2. Gather up the stakeholders (or at least the use cases)

Find out how different areas in your business are using this term now

3. Determine who else might have definitions

Do you use ITIL? Agile? A ServiceNow training that defined the term?

4. Once you have the options combine the definitions and attach them to the right label/word

If one department uses Owned by and another department uses Billing contact you might choose one and include the other in the definition i.e., Owned by: (aka billing contact) Person accountable for the use of the Configuration Item

Depending on your organization this might be something a small group can decide, or it might be a project or require an approval process

5. When intaking a new source or adding a new department to ServiceNow use the dictionary definitions to map the information or create reports

Yes, sometimes this means people need to be trained on the new terminology or adjust

6. Add new terms to the dictionary (or amend definitions) as needed

Please note: The more things that are in your CMDB the riskier it is to not have definitions or to try to change the definitions in place

There’s no one right answer or definitive list out there, but having a dictionary for your organization can save you a lot of trouble in the future.

Addendum: One of the first questions I got about this was ‘could you give me an example?’

My personal preference: The columns on my data dictionary include Field/Label, Description, Source/type, and Field Name. You can get the field name and reference from your Data Dictionary in ServiceNow (sys_dictionary) if you have access. (screenshot also attached)