ABSTRACT
Agility is the ability to respond to (and ideally benefit from) unexpected change. We must distinguish between agility and flexibility: flexibility is scheduled or planned adaptation to unforeseen yet expected external circumstances, while agility is unplanned and unscheduled adaption to unforeseen and unexpected external circumstances. The enterprises that can best respond to the frequently and fast-changing markets, will have better competitive advantages than those that fail to sustain the pace dictated by the process of globalization. And, this can be realized through enterprises acquiring better control and efficiency in their ability to manage the changes in their enterprise models, architectures and processes. Accordingly, after exploring the VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity) nature of the business ecosystem, the chapter looks at the characteristics and the significant social, organizational, business and technology trends in the market. The last part of the chapter discusses the requirements and characteristics of agile enterprises and proposes that this can be achieved through digital transformation of enterprises which is in turn obtainable through the digital transformation of enterprise architecture (EA) or in other words, through EA’s attributes, namely, interoperability, scalability, availability, mobility, ubiquity, security, analyticity, and usability.
