ITIL 5 and the DVMS -Delivering Resilient, Assured, and Accountable Digital Value Outcomes
Rick Lemieux – Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of the DVMS Institute
Introduction: The Need for Assured and Accountable Digital Value
In an era where organizations depend on digital capabilities for competitiveness, resilience, and growth, the challenge is no longer simply delivering IT services efficiently. The real challenge is ensuring that digital investments consistently create measurable value, are protected from disruption and risk, and are delivered with accountability across the enterprise.
The Digital Value Management System (DVMS) and ITIL 5 address this challenge from complementary perspectives. DVMS provides a governance-driven, value-centric overlay governance system that aligns digital initiatives with business outcomes, while ITIL 5 offers an operational and service management model focused on effective value co-creation.
Together, they form a cohesive system that enables organizations to create, protect, and deliver assured digital value in a transparent and auditable way.
DVMS: Governing Digital Value from Strategy to Outcomes
DVMS is designed to ensure that digital value is intentional, measurable, and governed throughout its lifecycle. It establishes a structured approach to defining what digital value means for an organization, linking strategy, investment decisions, risk tolerance, and performance expectations.
Unlike traditional IT governance models that emphasize control and compliance in isolation, DVMS focuses on accountability for outcomes. It ensures that every digital initiative has a clearly defined value hypothesis, success criteria, and an assigned owner. By framing digital work in terms of value streams, benefits realization, and assurance objectives, DVMS provides leadership with confidence that digital efforts are aligned with enterprise priorities and are delivering what was promised.
ITIL 5: Operationalizing Value Through Service Management
ITIL 5 builds on the evolution of IT service management by emphasizing value co-creation, flexibility, and continual improvement. It provides practical guidance for designing, transitioning, delivering, and improving digital and IT-enabled services. Through its service value system and practices, ITIL 5 ensures that digital services are reliable, efficient, and responsive to changing business needs. While ITIL 5 excels at operational execution, it does not attempt to define enterprise value or strategic-level governance structures. This is where DVMS becomes essential, as it supplies the value context and accountability framework within which ITIL 5 practices operate.
Creating Digital Value: Strategic Alignment and Design
The creation of digital value begins with intentional design. DVMS ensures that digital initiatives are rooted in business strategy, with explicit value objectives tied to revenue growth, customer experience, resilience, or regulatory compliance. ITIL 5 complements this by translating those value objectives into well-designed services and value streams. Practices such as service design, architecture management, and portfolio management operate more effectively when guided by DVMS-defined value priorities. Together, DVMS and ITIL 5 ensure that digital solutions are not just technically sound but purpose-built to deliver specific, measurable business outcomes.
Protecting Digital Value: Risk, Resilience, and Assurance
Protecting digital value is as important as creating it. DVMS provides a governance layer that integrates risk management, assurance, and performance oversight into digital decision-making. It defines acceptable risk thresholds, assurance requirements, and accountability mechanisms for digital assets and services.
ITIL 5 operationalizes this protection through practices such as information security management, service continuity management, incident management, and change enablement. When aligned with DVMS, these practices move beyond reactive controls and become proactive safeguards for enterprise value. The result is a resilient digital environment where risks are understood, managed, and transparently reported to stakeholders.
Delivering Digital Value: From Operations to Outcomes
Delivery is where digital value becomes real. ITIL 5 provides the operational discipline required to consistently deliver services that meet agreed expectations for quality, cost, and performance. Practices such as service level management, monitoring and event management, and release management ensure stability and predictability.
DVMS ensures that delivery performance is continuously evaluated against value outcomes rather than just operational metrics. This alignment shifts organizational focus from activity-based reporting to outcome-based accountability. Digital teams are no longer measured solely on uptime or throughput, but on their contribution to enterprise value realization.
Assurance and Accountability Across the Value Lifecycle
One of the most powerful aspects of combining DVMS and ITIL 5 is the creation of end-to-end assurance. DVMS establishes accountability by clearly defining ownership for value realization, risk management, and performance assurance.
ITIL 5 supplies the evidence through operational data, service metrics, and continual improvement insights. Together, they enable traceability from strategic intent to operational execution and realized outcomes. This traceability is critical for executive confidence, regulatory compliance, and stakeholder trust. It allows organizations to demonstrate not only that digital services are delivered effectively, but also that they deliver the right value in the right way.
Continual Improvement and Sustainable Value
Sustainable digital value requires continual learning and adaptation. ITIL 5 embeds continual improvement into everyday operations, encouraging organizations to refine services based on performance data and stakeholder feedback.
DVMS ensures that improvement efforts remain aligned with strategic value objectives and enterprise priorities. By integrating improvement initiatives into the broader value governance framework, organizations avoid fragmented optimization and instead drive coherent, enterprise-wide value enhancement. This synergy ensures that digital value evolves as business needs change, without losing accountability or assurance.
Conclusion: A Unified System for Assured Digital Value
DVMS and ITIL 5 are not competing frameworks; they are complementary components of a unified digital value system. DVMS provides the strategic, governance, and assurance foundation required to define, protect, and measure digital value. ITIL 5 delivers the operational capabilities needed to design, manage, and improve digital services effectively.
Together, they enable organizations to move beyond traditional IT management toward a model of assured and accountable digital value delivery. By aligning strategy, governance, operations, and continual improvement, DVMS and ITIL 5 empower organizations to confidently invest in digital capabilities that deliver lasting, measurable business outcomes.
About the Author
Rick Lemieux
Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of the DVMS Institute
Rick has 40+ years of passion and experience creating solutions to give organizations a competitive edge in their service markets. In 2015, Rick was identified as one of the top five IT Entrepreneurs in the State of Rhode Island by the TECH 10 awards for developing innovative training and mentoring solutions for boards, senior executives, and operational stakeholders.
Digital Value Management System® (DVMS)
Governing Operational Cyber-Resilience Through an Evidence-Based System for Assured and Accountable Digital Value Outcomes (GRAA)
Despite abundant frameworks and dashboards, leadership still struggles to see how their digital value streams actually perform under stress.
Leadership intent, structure, and day-to-day behavior are viewed separately, creating fragmented, flat perspectives that hide how real decisions and human responses interact within their living digital system and its digital value streams.
As a result, organizations can look well-governed on paper while still experiencing performance or catastrophic events in their living digital system. Without an integrated view, leaders end up managing isolated components and controls rather than governing the living system as a whole.
The Digital Value Management System® (DVMS) training programs teach leadership, practitioners, and employees how to integrate fragmented frameworks and systems such as NISTCSF, GRC, ITSM, and AI into a unified, culture-driven, living management system that:
- Enables Adaptive Governance through risk-informed decision-making
- Sustains Operational Resilience through a proactive and adaptive culture
- Measures Performance Assurance through evidence-based outcomes
- Ensures Transparent Accountability by making intent, execution, and evidence inseparable
At its core, the DVMS is a simple but powerful integration of:
- Governance Intent – shared expectations and accountabilities
- Operational Capabilities – how the digital business actually performs
- Assurance Evidence – proof that outcomes are achieved and accountable
Through its MVC, CPD, 3D Knowledge, and FastTrack Models, a DVMS turns this integration into three distinctive capabilities:
A Governance Overlay that replaces fragmentation with unity. The DVMS provides organizations with a structured way to connect strategy with day-to-day execution. Leaders gain a consistent mechanism to direct, measure, and validate performance—across every system responsible for digital value.
A Behavioral Engine that drives high-trust, high-velocity decision-making. The DVMS embeds decision models and behavioral patterns that help teams think clearly and act confidently, even in uncertain situations. It is engineered to reduce friction, prevent blame-based cultures, and strengthen organizational reliability.
A Learning System that makes culture measurable, adaptable, and scalable. Culture becomes a managed asset—not an abstract concept. The DVMS provides a repeatable way to observe behavior, collect evidence, learn from outcomes, and evolve faster than threats, disruptions, or market shifts.
DVMS Organizational Benefits
Instead of replacing existing operational frameworks, the DVMS elevates them—connecting and contextualizing their data into actionable intelligence that validates performance and exposes the reasons behind unmet 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 Leadership Benefits
The Digital Value Management System (DVMS) provides leaders with a unified, evidence-based approach to governing and enhancing their digital enterprise, aligning with regulatory requirements and stakeholder expectations.
For the CEO, the DVMS provides a clear line of sight between digital operations, business performance, and strategic outcomes—turning governance and resilience into enablers of growth and innovation rather than cost centers.
For the Board of Directors, the DVMS provides ongoing assurance that the organization’s digital assets, operations, and ecosystem are governed, protected, and resilient—supported by evidence-based reporting that directly links operational integrity to enterprise value and stakeholder trust.
For the CIO, CRO, CISO, and Auditors: an integrated, adaptive, and culture-driven governance and assurance management system that enhances digital business performance, resilience, trust, and accountability
DVMS White Papers
The whitepapers below present a coherent progression that shifts organizations from compliance-driven thinking to a modern system of Governance, Resilience, Assurance, and Accountability (GRAA). Collectively, the three papers define a comprehensive system for building and governing resilient digital enterprises, grounded in evidence rather than assumptions.
The Assurance Mandate Paper sets the stage by showing why traditional GRC artifacts provide only reassurance—not evidence—and calls boards to demand forward-looking proof that their organizations can continue to create, protect, and deliver value under stress.
The Assurance in Action Paper elevates the conversation from leadership intent to managerial execution, demonstrating how the DVMS operationalizes resilience by translating outcomes into Minimum Viable Capabilities, connecting frameworks through the Create–Protect–Deliver model, and generating measurable assurance evidence that managers can use to demonstrate real performance rather than activity.
The Governing by Assurance Paper elevates the approach to the policy and regulatory level, showing how DVMS functions as a learning overlay system that links governance intent, operational capability, and verifiable evidence into a continuous loop—enabling regulators, agencies, and enterprises to govern by outcomes rather than checklists and to prove capability with measurable, auditable performance data.
DVMS Cyber Resilience Certified Training Programs
The DVMS Institute’s certification training programs and publications equip leaders, practitioners, and organizations to govern operational cyber-resilience through an evidence-based system that assures and accounts for digital value outcomes.
Grounded in real-world governance challenges and aligned to NIST CSF 2.0, DVMS Institute offerings go beyond frameworks and compliance checklists to build measurable capability, clear accountability, and defensible confidence in decision-making.
Through structured learning, applied certification, and authoritative publications, the Institute advances a disciplined, outcome-driven approach to managing digital risk, performance, and resilience as an integrated system.
DVMS Cyber Resilience Awareness Training
The DVMS Cyber Resilience Awareness course and its accompanying body of knowledge publication educate all employees on the fundamentals of digital business, its associated risks, the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, and their role within a shared model of governance, resilience, assurance, and accountability for creating, protecting, and delivering digital value.
This investment fosters a culture that is prepared to operate within a system capable of transforming systemic cyber risks into operational resilience.
DVMS NISTCSF Foundation Certification Training
The DVMS NISTCSF Foundation certification training course and its accompanying body of knowledge publications provide ITSM, GRC, Cybersecurity, and Business professionals with a detailed understanding of the NIST Cybersecurity Framework and its role in a shared model of governance, resilience, assurance, and accountability for creating, protecting, and delivering digital value.
This investment fosters IT, GRC, Cybersecurity, and Business professionals with the skills to operate within a system capable of transforming systemic cyber risks into operational resilience.
DVMS Cyber Resilience Practitioner Certification Training
The DVMS Practitioner certification training course and its accompanying body of knowledge publications teach ITSM, GRC, Cybersecurity, and Business practitioners how to elevate investments in ITSM, GRC, Cybersecurity, and AI business systems by integrating them into a unified governance, resilience, assurance, and accountability system designed to proactively identify and mitigate the cyber risks that could disrupt operations, erode resilience, or diminish client trust.
This investment fosters IT, GRC, Cybersecurity, and Business practitioners with the skills to assess, design, implement, operationalize, and continually innovate a Digital Value Management System® program that operationalizes a shared model of governance, resilience, assurance, and accountability for creating, protecting, and delivering digital value.
Company Brochures and Presentation
Explainer Videos
- DVMS Architecture Video: David Moskowitz explains the DVMS System
- DVMS Case Study Video: Dr. Joseph Baugh Shares His DVMS Story.
- DVMS Overlay Model – What is an Overlay Model
- DVMS MVC ZX Model – Powers the CPD
- DVMS CPD Model – Powers DVMS Operations
- DVMS 3D Knowledge Model – Powers the DVMS Culture
- DVMS FastTrack Model – Enables A Phased DVMS Adoption
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