Assurance in Action White Paper - Turning Policy into Capability

Assurance in Action –  Turning Policy into Capability is a practical companion to The Assurance Mandate. The previous paper argued for shifting from Governance, Risk, and Compliance to Governance, Resilience, and Assurance. This paper continues from where that left off. It addresses managers who operate between strategy and operations, who must turn policy into capabilities and demonstrate performance with evidence.

The paper assumes a working knowledge of the Digital Value Management System (DVMS) and familiarity with common frameworks, such as the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, COBIT, ITIL, and the ISO/IEC 27001 series. It does not replace those frameworks; instead, it demonstrates how to adopt and adapt them within DVMS, enabling them to generate assurance evidence that leaders can trust.

Scope is intentionally narrow, transforming intent into action, action into capability, and capability into evidence. You will see how the Create, Protect, Deliver model aligns work with business value, how Minimum Viable Capabilities reveal gaps and guide improvements, and how the QO–QM approach links board outcomes with operational metrics. The paper also treats culture as a measurable capability and demonstrates how automation and AI lessen the burden of assurance without replacing human judgment.