From Adoption to Advantage – Integrating ITIL into the DVMS Approach
From Adoption to Advantage – Integrating ITIL into the DVMS Approach – A Leadership Call to Action – Part Three
David Nichols – Co-Founder and Executive Director of the DVMS Institute
From Insight to Action
In Part One of this series, we faced the harsh reality: ITIL® and other frameworks, while useful, rarely give the strategic advantage that leadership expects from their investments. They stabilize, standardize, and cut through the noise—but they don’t answer the boardroom question of whether those investments have resulted in resilience, adaptability, and trust in the market.
Part Two of this series emphasized the leadership need: a paradigm shift. Instead of seeing ITIL and similar frameworks as final goals, leaders should view them as drivers for something much larger—the ability to create, protect, and deliver (CPD) value. This change shifts the focus of the enterprise from viewing governance as mere control and compliance as the ultimate goal to seeing governance as purposeful, resilience as the primary measure, and assurance as the outcome.
In Part Three, we move to the practical next step: integration. Leaders who recognize the gap and accept responsibility must decide how to connect their existing frameworks, processes, and silos into a system that delivers the outcomes promised by shifting their paradigm to create, protect, and deliver business value. This is where the Digital Value Management System (DVMS) elevates your investments in frameworks like ITIL, NIST-CSF, ISO, Agile, and COBIT into strategic assets—not as another framework but as a management overlay that transforms adoption into an advantage.
The DVMS as a Management Overlay
Leaders must first recognize that DVMS is not “another framework.” In fact, it is the opposite. Frameworks like ITIL, NIST-CSF, ISO, COBIT, and Agile are essential but provide only a limited view. They focus on specific operational issues or outline specific best practices. They lack a unifying system that connects them to the enterprise’s strategic goals—and to each other.
DVMS bridges that gap by serving as a management overlay—an approach to viewing and overseeing the organization. Its primary function is to identify capability gaps across the three value dimensions: creation, protection, and delivery, along with the culture required to embed those capabilities within the organization and sustain change. Instead of leaving leaders unaware of strengths and vulnerabilities, DVMS shows where the organization is strong, vulnerable, and adaptable to meet stakeholder expectations.
For executives, this is essential. It shifts the conversation from “Are we following ITIL properly?” to “Do we have the capabilities to create, protect, and deliver digital business value at the scale and speed our environment demands?” ITIL becomes part of the solution, but never the entire answer. The DVMS perspective incorporates it into the broader landscape of enterprise value.
Preserving and Enhancing Existing Investments
One of the most common concerns voiced by leadership teams is the fear that adopting something new means abandoning what has already been established. Years of investment in ITIL, security frameworks, project management strategies, and regulatory compliance models can seem wasted if the organization switches to a different approach.
DVMS eliminates that fear by acting as an overlay that preserves and amplifies what you already have. ITIL stabilizes service management, while NIST-CSF and ISO continue to provide security and risk frameworks. Agile and DevOps keep speeding up delivery. Each remains unchanged, but DVMS aligns them to ensure their strengths support each other instead of competing or working in silos.
This is where leaders gain leverage. Instead of questioning why different frameworks feel disconnected, DVMS helps them unify into a single value system. Silos that once caused redundancy or conflict now strengthen resilience. Investments that once seemed limited in usefulness now become part of a comprehensive strategy. In short, nothing is wasted; everything is elevated.
Enabling Continual Innovation through CPD
The third insight for leaders is that DVMS does more than align frameworks—it promotes continuous innovation across the organization. Innovation isn’t a luxury in today’s unpredictable environment; it’s a crucial survival skill. However, many organizations struggle to stay stable while urgently needing to adapt.
This is where the DVMS CPD approach stands out. Structuring the organization around creating, protecting, and delivering value naturally supports the four types of innovation: incremental, sustaining, adaptive, and disruptive. Each has a role. Incremental innovation improves efficiency; sustaining innovation preserves competitiveness; adaptive innovation responds to environmental changes; and disruptive innovation transforms markets.
DVMS provides the structure that allows all four to coexist without chaos. ITIL stabilizes operations, forming a foundation for gradual improvements—Agile and DevOps accelerate adaptive responses. Governance frameworks ensure disruptive innovations are assessed, aligned, and responsibly implemented. Leaders no longer need to choose between stability and innovation— the DVMS approach offers both in harmony.
For executives, this signifies a fundamental shift. Innovation is no longer confined to labs or side projects; it becomes a core part of the organizational DNA, working alongside protection and delivery. Resilience and adaptability shift from aspirational goals to tangible results.
Shifting from GRC to GRA
In Part Two, we described the difference between GRC (governance, risk, and compliance) and GRA (governance, resilience, and assurance). DVMS is the system that makes this change practical.
Under GRC, success is often judged by compliance. Passing audits, avoiding fines, and documenting processes become the primary focus. These are important but reactive and look backward. GRC confirms that past rules were followed, but offers little insight into future risks.
With DVMS, the focus shifts. Governance becomes meaningful, aligning decisions and investments with the overall strategy. Resilience takes precedence over simple compliance, ensuring the organization can handle shocks and generate value. Assurance naturally arises as stakeholders—customers, regulators, and investors—see that the enterprise is reliable and resilient, not just because of a report, but because of demonstrable outcomes.
This shift is unmistakable. It redefines what it means to govern. Compliance becomes a footnote—a vital consequence but not the primary focus. The real story is about resilience, trust, and adaptability—the key assets determining success in a volatile world.
The Byproduct: Operational Resilience
Perhaps the most crucial understanding for leaders is that resilience isn’t a project to oversee or a department to staff. Resilience isn’t a program you implement; it’s the enterprise you evolve into.
When governance is intentional, resilience is embedded, and assurance is transparent, the organization naturally becomes more adaptable. Compliance is achieved not because it is the primary goal, but because the systems for creating, protecting, and delivering value are so well connected that compliance happens as a natural byproduct.
This is the leadership opportunity. Rather than chasing compliance or bolting on resilience programs, leaders can guide the organization into a state where resilience simply is. It becomes the inevitable outcome of how the enterprise creates, protects, and delivers value.
The Leadership Imperative
This series started with a simple question: Has your ITIL investment given your organization a strategic advantage? For most organizations, the answer was no. Part One encouraged leaders to accept that fact. Part Two challenged them to adopt a new approach: create, protect, and deliver value, backed by governance, resilience, and assurance.
Part Three links vision to action. The DVMS approach allows leaders to build on what they already have within a system that naturally encourages resilience, trust, and adaptability. It doesn’t dismiss existing frameworks; it reinforces them. It doesn’t require discarding past investments; it enhances them.
The message is clear: following rules may prevent problems, but only resilience ensures long-term success. ITIL adoption isn’t pointless—it’s just not complete. With the DVMS approach, it becomes the core of something much larger: an adaptive, trusted, resilient enterprise.
So, leaders must ask themselves: Has the comfort of the status quo become more dangerous than the discomfort of change? And more importantly, are you prepared to decide what will define your legacy as a transformative leader?
About the Author
Dave is the Executive Director of the DVMS Institute.
Dave spent his “formative years” on US Navy submarines. There, he learned complex systems, functioning in high-performance teams, and what it takes to be an exceptional leader. He took those skills into civilian life and built a successful career leading high-performance teams in software development and information service delivery.
Traditional best-practice approaches to IT Service Management (ITSM), Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC), and Cybersecurity are insufficient to manage today’s complex digital ecosystems’ resilience, compliance, and trust requirements.
The DVMS Institute Certified Training programs and publications provide detailed guidance on transforming best-practice programs into a Digital Value Management System® (DVMS) that drives adaptive governance, operational resilience, and performance assurance across complex, digital supply chains.
The DVMS seamlessly aligns organizational digital Strategy, Governance, Operations, and Culture into an integrated, adaptive, and forward-looking overlay system capable of governing and assuring the delivery of resilient, compliant, and trusted digital business outcomes.
By adopting a DVMS, organizations are positioned to:
- Maintain Operational Stability Amidst Constant Digital Disruption
- Deliver Digital Value and Trust Across A Digital Ecosystem
- Satisfy Critical Regulatory and Certification Requirements
- Leverage Cyber Resilience as a Competitive Advantage
DVMS Explainer Videos
- Architecture Video: David Moskowitz explains the DVMS System
- Case Study Video: Dr. Joseph Baugh Shares His DVMS Story.
- Overlay Model – What is an Overlay Model
- MVC ZX Model – Powers the CPD
- CPD Model – Powers DVMS Operations
- 3D Knowledge Model – Powers the DVMS Culture
- FastTrack Model – Enables A Phased DVMS Adoption
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