Editor’s note: Yoshimasa Masuda, Ph.D., CISM, CGEIT, is a teaching faculty and instructor at Carnegie Mellon University, a professor at Tokyo University of Science and Keio University, and has a senior role at the NTT Data Institute of Management Consulting in Japan. He recently visited with ISACA Now to discuss the history of his Adaptive Integrated Digital Architecture Framework (AIDAF) for digital transformation from innovative solution to practical framework, and its connections in areas including related industries, healthcare and academia. This framework has received an AIS Outreach Practice Publication and an ISACA Global Achievement Award for innovative solutions. The following is a transcript, edited for length and clarity.
ISACA Now: What is the Adaptive Integrated Digital Architecture Framework, and how did it become the practical framework for digital transformation?
The Adaptive Integrated Digital Architecture Framework (AIDAF) is our proposed and verified digital architecture framework that can address the digital agility elements for IT strategy and transformation that traditional enterprise architecture (EA) frameworks lack. There are digital IT professionals completing CMU education courses related to the AIDAF, and respective professors in each region (Americas, Pacific Asia and Europe) as well as the ISACA worldwide community have brought the AIDAF framework up on the practical stage in IT management field. The AIDAF framework is important and necessary for digital transformation.
The AIDAF framework covers models capable of developing innovative digital platforms involving artificial intelligence with digital IT technology and knowledge management, as published in multiple international journals. This approach can be adopted for accelerating digital transformation and innovations that lead to practical applications. Digital enterprise architecture courses based on the AIDAF have been held at Carnegie Mellon University in the US and in universities in Asia-Pacific for several years. My book, Enterprise Architecture for Global Companies in a Digital IT Era: Adaptive Integrated Digital Architecture Framework (AIDAF) from Springer Nature was rated among the three best new EA books for the first half of 2020 and has been ranked among the top 5-10 EA books (ebooks) of all time for several years.
ISACA Now: What kind of industries can the AIDAF potentially contribute to in terms of effective digital transformation and innovation?
At first, the AIDAF framework-based digital strategy and transformation was focused on healthcare industries because of preferences among professors in universities in the US and Japan. The AIDAF framework has been especially recognized in the healthcare fields; however, because the AIDAF moved forward to practical applications, the AIDAF-based digital transformation initiatives are being undertaken in various industries, such as manufacturing, telecommunications and finances, also including several governmental organizations.
ISACA Now: What is it about academia that has kept your consistent interest?
While leveraging this EA framework for digital transformation with Agility elements in the digital IT era, relationships between IT managers/CIOs and digital IT practitioners in Agile and DevOps can flourish, enabling synergetic effects and outcomes. By applying the AIDAF framework as ecosystem levels in societies, Industry 4.0 and Society 5.0 can be accelerated and supported efficiently and strategically, which can lead to various kinds of research opportunities. At the prestigious Springer Nature EDOC international conference, our workshop “Industry 4.0, Society 5.0 and the AIDAF Framework” has been included and can be held in collaboration with professors in Europe and Asia Pacific every year. There are opportunities for academics to publish their latest papers at global AIS conferences, the KES conference and in journals.
ISACA Now: What is the next step for the AIDAF Framework as both winner of an ISACA Global Innovative Solution Award and an AIS Outreach Practice Publication Award?
The workshops and panels in collaboration with international conferences (AIS) and ISACA are planned for several years, and the second edition of the AIDAF book from Springer Nature is also going to be published with more practical contents by early 2024.
