Does enterprise architecture support the digital transformation endeavors ? Questioning the old concepts in light of new findings

Digital transformation commonly refers to a disruptive process that changes significally the way organizations evolve, compete, interact and create value. Therefore, it is critical for companies to hadle with the business potential of innovative digital capabilities, to update their operational and decision making processes and to develop new strategic business models. In this complex endeavor, the evolution of firm's information system is an important facet that brings together technology, organization and human actors. Enterprise Architecture (EA) methods and frameworks are proposed as essential techniques to handle such evolutions. However, the complex and disruptive nature of the underlying transformations raise multiple questions concerning the adequacy of EA for digital transformation projects. Therefore, this paper aims to examine the extent to which existing EA approaches support such projects. It presents an analysis of interviews with both IT and business projects managers from five different companies. We asked about concrete projects, both about the project goals and the EA methods used, but also about the difficulties and challenges they face in their daily work when using EA frameworks. The analysis show that although existing EA frameworks are essential tools to sup-port and drive digital transformation projects, some important contextual and organizational characteristics are missing. These characteristics are discussed and a research agenda is suggested to fill this gap.