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Webinar: How to Tackle Data Ownership Issues in ServiceNow
Data Content Manager
Overview
This webinar addresses the critical issue of data ownership within ServiceNow, highlighting common pitfalls and offering practical strategies for resolution. It introduces a framework for defining roles like consumers, owners, and providers, emphasizing the importance of clear responsibilities and communication. The session demonstrates how the Data Content Manager (DCM) tool can be used to establish data models, conduct audits, and generate reports to ensure data accuracy and accountability, ultimately helping organizations maintain better control over their data assets.
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Chapters
- Data ownership is a recurring and often underestimated challenge in ServiceNow implementations.
- Many organizations assume data ownership is in place due to systems or processes, but it's often lacking upon closer inspection.
- A common scenario is losing ownership of business applications when an employee leaves, leading to data gaps.
- The webinar aims to identify common pitfalls, present strategies, and demonstrate a tool for resolution.
Understanding these common issues is the first step to proactively addressing them and preventing data inaccuracies and governance failures.
When an employee leaves, their associated business applications in ServiceNow may lose their designated owner, creating a data governance gap.
- Missing Ownership: It's difficult to find willing owners, especially for abstract items like business services, due to organizational silos.
- Misunderstood Roles: Data ownership is often confused with owning the asset itself; a business application owner is different from the owner of the data about that application.
- Vague Responsibilities: Assigned responsibilities may not align with daily operational realities, with high-level executives listed as owners but not actively involved.
These pitfalls lead to a lack of accountability, poor data quality, and an inability to effectively manage and leverage data within ServiceNow.
A senior executive might be listed as the 'owner' of a business application on paper, but they may not log into ServiceNow weekly or actively manage its associated data.
- Consumers: Use the data and provide feedback or requirements based on their needs.
- Owners: Are responsible for the data models and overall data quality, monitoring and providing instructions.
- Providers: Maintain the data, often business application owners who are required to update specific information in ServiceNow, even if it's not their primary tool.
This model clarifies distinct roles and responsibilities, facilitating better communication and data maintenance by assigning specific tasks to appropriate individuals.
An application owner (provider) is responsible for maintaining the details of their specific applications in ServiceNow, guided by the data owner who sets the standards and monitors quality.
- Platform Owner: Accountable for creating data governance policies and ensuring overall control.
- Domain-Based Ownership: Splitting the ServiceNow platform into domains (e.g., CMDB, foundation data) allows for more granular ownership.
- CSDM Model Application: Using the Common Service Data Model (CSDM) to define domains and CI classes provides a structured approach to assigning ownership at the CI class or table level.
- Concrete Roles: Assigning ownership to specific roles like 'IT Application Owner' or 'Enterprise Architect' for a defined domain ensures clarity.
A structured approach to defining ownership, from the platform level down to specific data domains, ensures that responsibilities are clear, actionable, and manageable.
Assigning the 'Business Applications' domain to an Enterprise Architect or a team of architects, who then delegate specific application maintenance to application managers.
- Blueprint Designer: Define data models and specify ownership requirements, including mandatory active users for roles like 'IT Application Owner'.
- Auditing: Run regular audits against blueprints to identify compliance issues, such as missing owners or inactive users.
- Detailed Audit Results: Pinpoint specific deviations, like missing 'managed by' groups or outdated records.
- Dashboard Reporting: Visualize compliance trends, problem areas, and individual provider performance for domain owners and management.
DCM provides the tools to operationalize data ownership by defining standards, detecting violations, and reporting on progress, enabling continuous improvement.
An audit reveals seven applications where the designated owner is no longer active, prompting the creation of tasks to reassign ownership.
- Regular Audits: Schedule frequent audits (e.g., weekly) to stay updated on data quality and ownership changes.
- Task Creation: Automatically generate tasks from audit findings for specific owners or domain managers to address issues promptly.
- Actionable Reporting: Dashboards provide clear insights into compliance status, trends, and individual/group responsibilities, enabling targeted interventions.
- Clear Responsibilities for Providers: Ensure providers understand their specific data quality tasks and how they contribute to overall goals.
Continuous monitoring and clear reporting mechanisms foster a culture of accountability and ensure that data ownership remains effective over time.
A domain owner reviews a dashboard showing that Olga's applications are improving in compliance but still have some missing relationships, indicating specific areas for her to address.
Key takeaways
- Data ownership in ServiceNow is crucial but often overlooked, leading to significant data quality issues.
- Clearly distinguishing between data consumers, owners, and providers is essential for effective data governance.
- Assigning ownership at a granular level, often aligned with CSDM domains, makes responsibilities concrete and actionable.
- Regularly auditing data against defined blueprints is key to identifying and rectifying ownership gaps.
- Tools like DCM automate the process of defining standards, detecting violations, and reporting on data quality.
- Proactive task management based on audit findings ensures that data issues are resolved quickly after they arise.
- Effective data ownership requires clear communication of expectations and continuous monitoring of compliance.
Key terms
Data OwnershipServiceNowData GovernanceConsumer-Owner-Provider ModelData ProviderData OwnerData ConsumerCMDBCSDM (Common Service Data Model)Data Content Manager (DCM)BlueprintAudit
Test your understanding
- What are the three primary roles in the Consumer-Owner-Provider model and what is the main responsibility of each?
- Why is it important to distinguish between owning an asset and owning the data related to that asset in ServiceNow?
- How can breaking down the ServiceNow platform into domains, using models like CSDM, help in assigning data ownership?
- What is the function of a 'blueprint' within the Data Content Manager tool, and how does it relate to data ownership?
- How do regular audits and task creation contribute to maintaining data ownership and quality over time?