2009.10.09 Design Science

Design Science

Agenda

ERCIS Summer School

Design Science

Historical roots

In Information Systems

Concepts

Design theory

Reflections

Design Science Summer School

Chaired by:

Prof. Karlheinz Kautz (Copenhagen Business School, Denmark)

Dr. Dr. Björn Niehaves (ERCIS, University of Münster, Germany)

Partipants:

13 PhD Students (Germany, Austria, Sweden)

Design Science Summer School

Workload:

Sailing!

Review, presentation and critical discussion of literature.

Reflection on how Design Science relates to our work.

Literature

Historical roots:

March, S. T., & Smith, G. F. (1995). Design and natural science research on information technology. Decision Support Systems, 15 (4), 251-266.

Simon, H. A. (1996). The Science of Design: Creating the Artificial. In The Science of the Artificial (3rd ed., pp. 111-138). Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press

The resurrection of Design Science in IS/IT:

Hevner, A. R., March, S. T., Park, J., & Ram, S. (2004). Design Science In Information Systems Research. MIS Quarterly, 28 (1), 75-105.

Walls, J. G., Widmeyer, G. R., & El Sawy, O. A. (2004). Assessing Information System DesignTheory in Perspective: How Useful Was Our 1992 Initial Rendition? JITTA : Journal of InformationTechnology Theory and Application, 6 (2), 43-58..

The concept of design theory:

S. Gregor. D. Jones (2007). The Anatomy of a Design Theory, JAIS, Vol. 8, pp. 312-335.

The concept of design science:

Iivari, J. (2007). A paradigmatic analysis of Information Systems as a design science. Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems, 19 (2), pp.39-64.

Literature

Building a design Theory:

Kuechler, B., & Vaishnavi, V. (2008). Theory Development in Design Science Research: Anatomy of a Research Project. In V. Vaishnavi & R. Baskerville (Eds.), Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Design Science Research in Information Systems and Technology (pp. 1-15). Atlanta: Georgia State University.

Markus, M. L., Majchrzak, A., & Gasser, L. (2002). A design theory for systems that support emergent knowledge processes. MIS Quarterly, 26 (3), 179-212.

Pries-Heje, J., & Baskerville, R. (2008). The design theory nexus. MIS Quarterly, 32 :4, pp. 731-756.

C. Hardless, R. Lindgren, U. Schultze Technology-Mediated Learning Systems For Project Work – A Design Theory, SJIS, 19:2, pp. 3-36.

K. Peffers, T. Tuunamen, M. A. Rothenberger, S. Chatterjee (2008), A Design Science Research Methodology for Information Systems research, Journal of Management Information Systems, 24:3, pp. 45-78.

Critical Voices:

B. Niehaves, On epistemological diversity in Design Science – new vistas for a design-oriented is research?, ICIS 2007 Proceedings. Paper 133. http://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2007/133.

Hooker, J. N. (2004). Is design theory possible? Journal of Information Technology Theory and Application, 5 (2), 73-82.

Lead questions

What is design science (research)?

What is not design science?

What is an artifact? (within design science)

What are the philosophical assumptions of design science?

What is a/the design science research process?

What is (a) design theory?

What is design science?

” Design Science is an outcome based information technology research methodology , which offers specific guidelines for evaluation and iteration within research projects” (wikipedia)

Intends to improve the functional performance of artifacts (focus on development and performance).

Categories of artifacts where Design Science is applied include (but not limited to) algorithms, human/computer interfaces, design methodologies (including process models) and languages, etc.

Historical roots

Simon (1996)

Natural science: intellectually tough, analytic, formalizable, teachable.

Artificial science: intellectually soft, intuitive, informal.

Need of a Theory of design covering:

The evaluation of designs

The formal logic of design

The search for alternatives

Theory of structure and design organization

Representation of design problems

To design: „to devise courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones“.

Design science: „a body of intellectually tough, analytic, partly formalizable, partly empirical, teachable doctrine about the design process“.

Historical roots

March & Smith (1995)

Natural science: understanding and explaining phenomena ; how and why things are .

theorize & justify.

Design science: developing ways to achieve human goals; devise effective artifacts to attain goals .

build and evaluate.

Design science:

types of product.

Constructs

Models

Methods

Implementations

more applied than basic,

prescriptive than descriptive

Provides

Artifacts that can be targets of natural science research

Substantive tests of the claims of natural science research; Justification of natural science claims

Historical roots

Design Science in IS/IT

Hevner (2004)

Design science:

Is a problem solving paradigm

Relies on existing kernel theories

Focuses on utility

” creates and evaluates IT artifacts intended to solve identified organizational problems.”

constructing and exercising innovative IT artifacts enables the understanding of the problem addressed by the artifact.

Design Science in IS/IT

Concepts of design science

Iivari (2007)

paradigmatic framework applied for design science research

Ontology

Epistemology

Methodology

Ethics

Focus on building IT meta-artifacts as knowledge; thus dependant on what is called constructive methods

Prescriptive orientation incorporating the process of building the artifact.

Distinction between design science research and action research (not exclusion) (the truth value important factor)

A Design science research methodology

Peffers (2008)

A methodology is „a system of principles, practices and procedures applied to a specific branch of knowledge.“ DMReview. Glossary. SourcheMedia, Brookfield, WI, 2007

Principles: define Design Science Research

Practices: define rules for Design Science Research

Procedures: define a process model

A Design science research methodology

Principles: ”Design science … creates and evaluates IT artifacts intended to solve identified organizational problems.“ ( Hevner 2004 )

Practices:

Research must produce an artifact created to address the problem.

The artifact should be relevant to the solution of an „heretofore

unsolved and important business problem“.

Utility, quality and efficacy must be rigorously evaluated.

Research should represent a verifiable contribution […].

Development of the artifact should be a search process that draws from existing theories and knowledge […].

The research must be effectively communicated to appropriate audiences.

Rules are understood as guidelines.

Characteristics describe well carried out research.

Procedures:

Lead questions

Design theory concepts

Design theory (Walls 1992):

Aims at guiding artifact creation

Should have testable hypotheses

Design theory concepts

Building a design theory

Kuechler (2008)

can be confirmed by can be revised to accord with Evidence Artifact Evaluation (leads to) Mid-range Theories Explanatory statement Kernel Theories Cause Effect might lead to Prescriptive statement Design Theories Prescribed action Goal is intended to lead to can be transformed to corresponds to corresponds to

Lead questions

Reflections