Digital Transformation

For some time I’ve been musing about one of the latest catch phrases “digital transformation”. The best definition of “digital transformation” that I’ve come across so far, is the one given by J-P de Clerck in: “Digital transformation: online guide to digital business transformation” (https://www.i-scoop.eu/digital-transformation):

“Digital transformation is the profound and accelerating transformation of business activities, [business] processes, [business] competencies and [business] models to fully leverage the changes and opportunities of digital technologies and their impact across society in a strategic and prioritized way, with present and future shifts in mind.”

So is “digital transformation” the resuscitation of Business Process Reengineering? Or is it an alternative term for enterprise architecture? J-P de Clerck’s definition clearly and justly positions “digital transformation” in the realm of business architecture. The problem with enterprise architecture is that it is perceived by many to belong to the realm of information technology.

In terminology, the difference between “digital transformation” and “enterprise architecture” is that while the former term implies a dynamic process, the latter term seems to denote a static description. With this interpretation, digital transformation can be seen as the path from the current enterprise architecture to the target enterprise architecture. I’ve never been comfortable with a static, descriptive approach to enterprise architecture, and in my view digital transformation needs prescriptive EA for guidance.

Due to the dynamic and static connotations, I’m tempted to drop the term EA altogether, and adopt the term “digital transformation” instead. However, with the current depredation of the term, reducing it to a management buzzword where everyone talks about it and few seem to know what it entails, I’ll stick to the slightly less ambiguous term “enterprise architecture”.