REALIZE Blog series Terminology
Introduction
This blog is part of a series of posting on our Realize approach to digital transformation. In the first post of the series, we claimed that architecture is an enabler for digital transformation. Architecture-thinking is the foundation on which the Realize approach is built. However, I did not define my terms/terminology.
This blog post is intended to clarify the concepts of digital transformation and architecture. In my view, words are important and precision is key for ensuring that our story is conveyed correctly. One can argue that a full-blown critical literature review (CLR) is in order. I do not disagree with this in principle. However, for a blog post it may be a bit much.
I will attempt to strike a between readability of this blog post on the one hand and sufficient grounding in literature, on the other.
Digital transformation
In the past, I have published various articles and book chapters on digital transformation (e.g. (E. Proper et al., 2023)). There, we defined digital transformation as “the deliberate effort to change the architecture of the enterprise with a significant impact on its digital capabilities.” I can still stand by this definition (which makes more sense after I define the term architecture in the next section). For this blog post, I wanted to see what has been written about digital transformation (sometimes also known as business transformation) in literature in the last few years. Therefore, I searched Web of Science with the following strategy:
- Query: ("digital" or "business") and "transformation" and "definition" => 330 documents
- Filter on publications after 2020 => 246 documents
- Select only articles => 159 documents
- Reduce to English articles only => 142 documents
I scanned the titles/abstracts of these articles and came up with a limited set of articles that may have a clear definition or a perspective that is useful for synthesizing a definition. I will (briefly) discuss each in turn in the following table:
| Reference | Definition |
| (Baslyman, 2022) | Referring to another source, digital transformation is defined as “Digital transformation (DT) refers to the utilization of disruptive technologies to transform business digitally that is, to optimize provided services and products, sustain economic growth, and enhance the user experience.” |
| (Rojas-Segura et al., 2023) | Using semantic decomposition method to systematically decompose the extant definitions collected from the business literature, this study proposes the following formal conceptual definition of digital transformation: “a process that aims to improve society by triggering significant changes to the enterprise business model using digital technologies.” |
| (Hitham et al., 2023) | Based on a document study and text mining, the authors conclude that “the results […] showed that: digitaltechnology, digital, businessmodel, businessprocess and change are common elements across all DT definitioncategories.” |
| (Riedl et al., 2024) | This article uses a literature review and extensive survey to discuss the perspective of decision makers on digital transformation. One conclusion is “the main finding of our study is that there is a significant discrepancy between the scientific literature and practice in terms of the conceptual understanding of DT.” Even more “we conclude that practitioners’ decisions regarding whether a DT definition is suitable […] is evidently influenced by mentions of buzzwords related to digital technologies.” |
| (Kao et al., 2024) | Based on mixed-method research (literature, a focus group, and survey), the authors state that “this study proposes a redefinition of digital transformation and posits that it should encompass the following four key attributes: (a) Digital transformation is not solely a response to industry competition and the pursuit of sustainable growth; it is fundamentally a data-driven strategy; (b) Digital transformation involves the utilization of digital technology to gather and analyze data for the enhancement of both internal and external enterprise operations as well as decision- making processes; (c) Digital transformation represents a cross-organizational and continuous reform that fosters the creation of ecosystems, drives innovation in business models, and initiates transformative shifts in organizational culture, value chains, value propositions, and customer experiences; and (d) The ultimate objective of digital transformation is the enhancement of enterprise business performance. |
A working definition of digital transformation emerges based on this brief exploration of literature:
Digital transformation is a process that uses (digital) technologies to fundamentally change the business model of an organization, its processes, and resources in order to improve business performance.
There is a lot more to say about this, but as a working definition this will suffice.
Architecture
Along the same lines, I will also define the term architecture. I have written about this in the past (e.g. (E. Proper et al., 2023; Van Gils, 2009, 2017)). Typically, I rely on the ISO/IEC definition which essentially states that the architecture of a system consists of (1) the fundamental properties of that system, and (2) the principles guiding design and evolution. As before, I will do a short literature review and explore what has been written recently. Note that I tend to avoid a qualifier in front of the term architecture. Every qualifier limits the scope of what an architect does, and I believe that to be a Bad Idea. However, to exclude building/city architecture, I will use qualifiers in the literature search:
- Query: ("enterprise" or "business" or “IT”) and "architecture" => 2735 documents
- Filter on publications after 2020 => 541 documents
- Select only articles => 301 documents
- Reduce to English articles only => 293 documents
I scanned the titles/abstracts of these articles and came up with a limited set of articles that may have a clear definition or a perspective that is useful for synthesizing a definition. I added a recent dissertation to this list. I will (briefly) discuss each work in turn in the following table:
| Reference | Definition |
| (Kurnia et al., 2021) | Studying the practice of enterprise architecture, it is stated that “enterprise architecture (EA) is a collection of artifacts that describe an organization from an integrated business and IT perspective intended to improve business and IT alignment.” |
| (Kotusev et al., 2022) | This study zooms in on architecture artifacts and states that “enterprise architecture (EA) is a description of an enterprise from an integrated business and IT perspective. EA is typically defined as a comprehensive blueprint of an organization covering its business, data, applications and technology domains and consisting of diverse EA artifacts. EA has numerous potential stakeholders and usage scenarios in organizations.” |
| (H. A. Proper et al., 2023) | The paper reports on 15 years of experience with the GEA approach and states that “GEA [General Enterprise Architecture] considers enterprise architecture to involve a set of guiding statements, processes, products, people, and means that are used to direct the development of an enterprise, with a focus on coherence.” |
| (Kotusev et al., 2024) | This study zooms in on the architecture function and states that “enterprise architecture (EA) practice is a complex set of organizational activities enabling well-coordinated business and IT planning.” |
| (Pattij, 2025) | This study discusses, among other things, the relationship between enterprise architecture and enterprise architecture management, and states that “hence, a clear distinction can be made between EA, which represents the various parts of an organization from different viewpoints, and EAM processes that enable the continuous development and implementation of EA.” |
From these definitions, we can see that we should distinguish between architecture itself, its representation artefacts, processes / capabilities for creating these arterfacts, and managing the realization of these artefacts. Therefore, our working definition is as follows:
Architecture is a conceptualization of the fundamental organization of a system and the principles guiding its design and evolution. It can be represented as a set of artifacts are intended to help achieve some level of coherence in the system. The artefacts are created by an architecture capability. The architecture, as expressed through artifacts, can be implemented.
Again, there is a lot more to say about this, but this does capture the essense of how I see architecture.
Conclusion
In this blog post, I set out to explore the two key terms and come up with definitions: digital transformation and architecture. The post is somewhat long. It also relies rather heavily on literature. Since we, at Strategy Alliance, believe in balancing academic rigor with practical relevance and since there is nothing more practical than a good theory, I felt that this was justified for such a foundational blog post. Future blog posts will be somewhat “light” on the literature.
Last but not least, the main/corresponding author for the Realize series is Bas van Gils. He can be reached at bas.vangils@strategy-alliance.com. If you have thoughts of questions, then feel free to reach out.
References
- Baslyman, M. (2022). Digital Transformation From the Industry Perspective: Definitions, Goals, Conceptual Model, and Processes. IEEE Access, 10, 42961–42970.
- Hitham, M. H. M., Elkadi, H., & El Tazi, N. (2023). Consolidated Definition of Digital Transformation by using Text Mining. International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications, 14(3).
- Kao, L.-J., Chiu, C.-C., Lin, H.-T., Hung, Y.-W., & Lu, C.-C. (2024). Unveiling the dimensions of digital transformation: A comprehensive taxonomy and assessment model for business. Journal of Business Research, 176.
- Kotusev, S., Kurnia, S., & Dilnutt, R. (2022). The practical roles of enterprise architecture artifacts: A classification and relationship. Information and Software Technology, 147.
- Kotusev, S., Kurnia, S., Dilnutt, R., & Van De Wetering, R. (2024). The Structuring of Enterprise Architecture Functions in Organizations: Towards a Systematic Theory. Business & Information Systems Engineering, 66(4), 465–488.
- Kurnia, S., Kotusev, S., Shanks, G., Dilnutt, R., Taylor, P., & Milton, S. K. (2021). Enterprise Architecture Practice under a Magnifying Glass: Linking Artifacts, Activities, Benefits, and Blockers. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 49(1), 668–698.
- Pattij, M. (2025). Understanding enterprise architecture management in the context of today’s dynamic and digital world [PhD]. Open University.
- Proper, E., van Gils, B., & Haki, K. (Eds.). (2023). Digital Enterprises: Service-Focused, Digitally-Powered, Data-Fueled (1st ed.). Springer.
- Proper, H. A., Wagter, R., & Bekel, J. (2023). On enterprise coherence governance with GEA: A 15-year co-evolution of practice and theory. Software and Systems Modeling, 22(2), 551–571.
- Riedl, R., Stieninger, M., Muehlburger, M., Koch, S., & Hess, T. (2024). What is digital transformation? A survey on the perceptions of decision-makers in business. Information Systems and E-Business Management, 22(1), 61–95.
- Rojas-Segura, J., Faith-Vargas, M., & Martinez-Villavicencio, J. (2023). Conceptualizing digital transformation using semantic decomposition. Tec Empresarial, 17(3), 63–75.
- Van Gils, B. (2009). Strategy and Architecture – Reconciling Worldviews. In H. A. Proper, F. Harmsen, & J. L. G. Dietz (Eds.), Advances in Enterprise Engineering II (Vol. 28, pp. 181–196). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
- Van Gils, B. (2017). SciFi architecture. Organizational Design and Enterprise Engineering, 1(1).