CMDBOwner

CMDBOwner is a role within configuration management practices responsible for the governance and stewardship of configuration items in an organization's configuration management database (CMDB). The CMDBOwner ensures that the data describing CIs, such as hardware, software, networks, services, and relationships, are accurate, complete, and up to date, and that the CMDB reflects the current state of the IT environment. The owner may be assigned to one or more CI classes or individual CIs and acts as the primary point of accountability for the data under their domain.

Responsibilities include establishing data ownership and accountability; defining data standards and attributes; approving new CI records and changes; maintaining relationships between CIs; monitoring data quality metrics; coordinating with service owners, process owners, and the change management process; and ensuring CMDB policies, access controls, and audit requirements are followed.

The CMDBOwner collaborates with the CMDB Manager or Configuration Manager and may oversee data governance activities such as deduplication, normalization, and lifecycle management. They help ensure the CMDB supports IT service management processes including incident, problem, change, and availability management, as well as impact analysis and risk assessment.

Qualifications typically include experience in IT operations or service management, familiarity with CMDB tools and data models, ITIL or ITSM process knowledge, and strong communication and stakeholder-management skills. The specific scope and authority of a CMDBOwner are defined by organizational governance.

Best practices include establishing clear ownership, maintaining a lightweight but complete data model, automating data collection where possible, conducting periodic reconciliation and validation, and documenting procedures for updates and exceptions.