Making the CMDB work requires more than buzz-words, says Michele Hudnall of Managed Objects.

The ability to understand relationships and dependencies across IT components, applications and services has long been desirable for IT organizations and it is the promise of configuration management database (CMDB) projects. The accuracy of data that application dependency mapping tools provide, in combination with the need for higher quality configuration data to improve ITIL processes of incident, problem and change, are part of a collection of reasons why CMDBs grew so explosively. The business case for a CMDB project is compelling, however the implementation can be a bit more challenging. To that end, Michele Hudnall lists 10 tips for a successful CMDB project