Title: The cost/benefit strategic grid approach: a decision support method for design and improvement of configuration management databases

Authors: Ming-Shian Wu; Nan-Hsing Chiu; Kai-Yi Chin

Addresses: Department of Digital Humanities, Aletheia University, No. 32, Chen-Li Street, Tamsui, New Taipei City, 251, Taiwan ' Department of Information Management, Chien Hsin University of Science and Technology, No. 229, Jianxing Rd., Zhongli City, Taoyuan County 32097, Taiwan ' Department of Data Science, Soochow University, No. 70, Linhsi Road, Shihlin District, Taipei City 111, Taiwan

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to propose an approach to measure the costs and benefits of attributes in configuration items (CIs) to assist in the design and continual improvement of CIs in configuration management databases (CMDB). A cost/benefit strategic grid method was proposed. Based on the usefulness and induced costs of each attribute, the degree of benefits and costs of each attribute are calculated. With a defined acceptance level of cost and an expected level of benefits, all attributes can be portrayed on a strategic grid divided into four quadrants accompanied with four suggested actions on improving the configuration attribute. The case study demonstrates that the method can effectively provide guidelines for practitioners to design and improve CIs and CMDBs.

Keywords: IT service management; ITSM; configuration database; configuration management databases; CMDB; cost benefit analysis; decision support; strategic grid; information technology infrastructure library; ITIL; ISO 20000; configuration management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJISCM.2022.129249

International Journal of Information Systems and Change Management, 2022 Vol.13 No.2, pp.95 - 113

Received: 11 Dec 2021
Received in revised form: 26 Sep 2022
Accepted: 21 Oct 2022
Published online: 01 Mar 2023 *

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