Which ITIL practice is focused on maintaining accurate configuration information and asset inventory?

Which ITIL practice is focused on maintaining accurate configuration information and asset inventory?

• A. Change management
• B. Service asset and configuration management
• C. Problem management
• D. Incident management

Answer: (B)

Maintaining accurate configuration information and asset inventory is the work of service asset and configuration management. This practice creates and maintains the Configuration Management System (CMS) or CMDB, where configuration items (CIs) such as hardware, software, licenses, and their attributes and relationships are recorded and kept up to date. Having this single, reliable source of truth lets you see what assets exist, how they’re connected, and their current state, which is essential for understanding the impact of any change, incident, or problem. This data supports change management by enabling safe planning and impact analysis, and it helps incident and problem management by providing quick visibility into affected components and dependencies. In contrast, change management is about approving and coordinating changes, incident management focuses on restoring service, and problem management concentrates on root causes and workarounds—none of which primarily aim to maintain the asset and configuration data itself.

Maintaining accurate configuration information and asset inventory is the work of service asset and configuration management. This practice creates and maintains the Configuration Management System (CMS) or CMDB, where configuration items (CIs) such as hardware, software, licenses, and their attributes and relationships are recorded and kept up to date. Having this single, reliable source of truth lets you see what assets exist, how they’re connected, and their current state, which is essential for understanding the impact of any change, incident, or problem.

This data supports change management by enabling safe planning and impact analysis, and it helps incident and problem management by providing quick visibility into affected components and dependencies. In contrast, change management is about approving and coordinating changes, incident management focuses on restoring service, and problem management concentrates on root causes and workarounds—none of which primarily aim to maintain the asset and configuration data itself.