5.1.1. The Five Components
💡 First Principle: Naming the five components — guiding principles, governance, value chain, management practices, continual improvement — gives you the parts list of the engine, and the exam expects the complete, exact set.
The five components of the ITIL Value System and their roles:
Guiding principles are recommendations that guide good decisions in any circumstance. Governance is the means by which the organization is directed and controlled. The value chain is the set of interconnected activities the organization performs to create value. Management practices are the organized sets of resources for doing work. Continual improvement is the recurring activity of aligning everything with changing needs. Together they take demand and produce value.
⚠️ Exam Trap: A "list" question may offer a tempting non-component — "the four dimensions," "the lifecycle," or "value streams" — among the five. They are related ITIL concepts but not components of the Value System. Memorize the exact five.
Reflection Question: Why are governance and continual improvement described as present throughout the system rather than as single stages?
