'Digital transformation' has become a buzzword that means different things to different people, and that ambiguity has real consequences for how change is funded and governed. The post argues that treating transformation as a discrete project with a fixed start and end date is a poor fit for digital systems, which require continuous investment and adaptation. The transformation-vs-BAU binary creates perverse incentives to badge work as transformational just to access funding, while leaving operational systems starved of investment. A 'build, run, optimise' framing focused on enduring capabilities rather than one-off outcomes is proposed as a better model. The post also highlights how optimism bias inflates expected outcomes, and how framing transformation primarily as cost-cutting undermines staff engagement and produces the short-term behaviour that genuine change requires moving away from.
