I'm try to implemend shadow mapping in my deferred shading and I was aquiring the best approach. Whether it would be forward passing mixed with the deferred rendering or if I can create a depth map in the deferred buffer. When i attempt to create a depth map in the deferred for a light in the deferrer buffer - the scene turns black. I believe it's my mistake in the shader part.

The deferred rendering is using DXGI_FORMAT_R16G16B16A_UNORM. Does the Depth Map have to be a certain texture format for the render target?

I don't remember what texture formats that depth buffers need, but if you're trying to create a texture for the depth buffer, and you're giving it the depth buffer binding flags, it should error out if it's an unsupported format.

I would go and check to see if there are any failures when creating the buffer first.