The DIVO Programme: A Swift, Lean and Agile Model for Digital Innovation

10 pages•Published: November 6, 2025

Abstract

Due to the “accelerating technological change and hyperconnectivity” we are living through and the increasingly VUCA context for all organisations, universities need to integrate and manage not only a technology strategy embedded throughout their strategic plan, but also a digital innovation or digital transformation function to manage the risks and grasp the opportunities of the constant flow of new technologies (such as Generative AI and Extended Reality) and new ways of working.
Universities need to understand the new technologies, develop policies for their safe use, manage the related risks, and where appropriate, seize the opportunities. This calls for a function that combines research, development, innovation and business knowledge, dovetailed with service delivery. The challenge is how to create and enable such a function at relatively low cost and with the necessary agility, speed and effectiveness to deliver value and complement/enhance existing services. The Digital Innovation Virtual Organisation (DIVO) at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore is one such function; it manages a programme of digital innovation pilot projects and work hypotheses. This paper explores how DIVO is constituted and its purpose and objectives, focussing on the innovation methodology deployed and the activities supported. The DIVO model is proposed as a good practice for digital transformation and innovation in university information services.

Keyphrases: digital innovation, digital transformation, new technologies, programme management, stage gate innovation process, virtual organisations

In: Laurence Desnos, Raimund Vogl, Lazaros Merakos, Carmen Diaz, Janina Mincer-Daszkiewicz and Stuart Mclellan (editors). Proceedings of EUNIS 2025 annual congress in Belfast, vol 107, pages 206-215.

Links:	https://easychair.org/publications/paper/lsvh
	https://doi.org/10.29007/5j1w

BibTeX entry

@inproceedings{EUNIS2025:DIVO_Programme_Swift_Lean,
  author    = {Simon Whittemore},
  title     = {The DIVO Programme: A Swift, Lean and Agile Model for Digital Innovation},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of EUNIS 2025 annual congress in Belfast},
  editor    = {Laurence Desnos and Raimund Vogl and Lazaros Merakos and Carmen Diaz and Janina Mincer-Daszkiewicz and Stuart Mclellan},
  series    = {EPiC Series in Computing},
  volume    = {107},
  publisher = {EasyChair},
  bibsource = {EasyChair, https://easychair.org},
  issn      = {2398-7340},
  url       = {/publications/paper/lsvh},
  doi       = {10.29007/5j1w},
  pages     = {206-215},
  year      = {2025}}

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