CSDM
CSDM (Common Service Data Model) is ServiceNow's prescriptive blueprint for how to model services, applications and infrastructure so every product on the platform reads the same data the same way.
Also searched as: common service data model, CSDM framework.
In practice
It is organised in domains — Foundation, Design, Build, Manage Technical Services, Manage Business Services (Sell/Consume) — and each domain is a stage of maturity rather than a plugin you install. Following it keeps ITSM, ITOM, SecOps and reporting aligned on one hierarchy.
Example
Foundation data (companies, locations, users) comes first; only then are Business Applications mapped to Application Services and their supporting CIs.
What interviewers check
Being able to name the domains matters less than explaining why a shared model prevents each team from inventing its own service hierarchy.
Practise this topic
Related CMDB terms
- Configuration Item (CI)A Configuration Item is any component you need to manage in order to deliver an IT service — a server, an application, a laptop, a service — stored on cmdb_ci or one of its extended class tables.
- CMDBThe CMDB (Configuration Management Database) is the set of related tables that record the CIs in your environment and the relationships between them, acting as the single source of truth for service context.
- DiscoveryDiscovery is ServiceNow's agentless process that scans networks through a MID Server, identifies devices and applications, and creates or updates the matching CIs in the CMDB.