Automatic determination of relationships When new CIs are added, automatic determination of all relationships that can automatically be discovered may be desirable.
On the other hand, easily discoverable relationships may lack appropriate demand to be added into a CMS in the first place. Automatic identification of other affected CIs ... when any CI is the subject of an incident report/record, problem record, known error record or RFC Automatic updating and recording of the version number ... of a CI if the version number of any component CI is changed Automatic validation of input data e.g. does the name conform to naming conventions, is the ID unique, are mandatory attributes filled in? Ease of interrogation of the CMS ... and good reporting facilities, including trend analysis (e.g. the ability to identify the number of RFCs affecting particular CIs) Ease of reporting of the CI inventory ... so as to facilitate configuration audits Easy addition of new CIs, modification of existing and deletion of old CIs Updating CI records may be the single most frequent activity which is performed by users in any ITSM tool. It is therefore important for the cultural acceptance and finally for the success of any CMDB / CMS / SKMS tool, that frequently
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Flexible reporting tools to facilitate impact analyses Graphical Models and Maps the ability to show graphically the configuration models and maps of interconnected CIs, and to input information about new CIs via such maps Integration of problem management data ... or an interface from the Configuration Management System to any separate problem management databases that may exist Maintenance of a history of all CIs both a historical record of the current version – such as installation date, records of Changes, previous locations, etc. – and of previous versions Relationships between CIs by holding information on the relationships between CIs, Configuration Management tools facilitate the impact assessment of RFCs Sufficient security controls ... to limit access on a need-to-know basis Support for CIs of varying complexity e.g. entire systems, releases, single hardware items, software modules Support for CIs with different model numbers, version numbers, and copy numbers Support for the management and use of configuration baselines corresponding to definitive copies, versions etc., including support for reversion to trusted versions The ability to show hierarchy the ability to show the hierarchy of relationships between ‘parent’ CIs and ‘child’ CIs;
However, it is not mandatory that each and every CI must be part of a hierarchy | 
