Design Science Research

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© Know-Center GmbH, www.know-center.at
Design Science Research in
Information Systems
Dipl.-Ing. Angela Fessl
UPC-Team – Research Methods

© Know-Center GmbH • Research Center for Data-Driven Business and Big Data Analytics
Design
• Design means „to invent and to bring into being“
(Websters Dictionary and Thesaurus, 1992)
• Design is…
• when creating new artifacts that do not exist.
• Design is routine…
• If the knowledge required for creating the artifact exists
• Design is innovative …
• If the knoweldge for creating the artifact does not exist
• Innovative design
• call for research (design science research) to fill the knowledge
gaps and result in research publication(s) or patent(s).
(Vaishnavi et al., 2004)
2

DESIGN SCIENCE
RESEARCH CYCLE
3

Design Science Research
„The goal is to enhance our understanding
of what it means to do
high quality design research
in information systems….“
4
(Hevner et al. 2004; Hevner 2007; Hevner, 2010; )

Design Science Research Guidelines
Guideline Description
Guideline 1: Design as
Artifact
Design-science research must produce a viable artifact in the form of
a construct, a model, a method or an instantiation.
Guideline 2: Problem
Relevance
The objective of design-science research is to develop technology-
based solutions to important and relevant business problems.
Guideline 3: Design
Evaluation
The utility, quality and efficacy of a design artifact must be rigorously
demonstrated via well-executed evaluation methods.
Guideline 4: Research
Contribution
Effective design-science research must provide clear and verifiable
contributions in the areas of the design artifact, design foundations
and/or design methodologies.
Guideline 5: Research
Rigor
Design-science research relies upon the application of rigorous
methods in both the construction and evaluation of the design
artifact.
Guideline 6: Design as a
Search Process
The search for an effective artifact requires utilizing available means
to reach desired ends while satisfying laws in the problem
environment.
Guideline 7:
Communication of
Research
Design-science research must be presented effectively both to
technology-oriented as well as management-oriented audiences.
5

Checklist for Design Science Research
• 1. What is the research question (design requirements)?
• 2. What is the artifact? How is the artifact represented?
• 3. What design processes (search heuristics) will be used
to build the artifact?
• 4. How are the artifact and the design processes grounded
by the knowledge base? What, if any, theories support the
artifact design and the design process?
6

Checklist for Design Science Research
• 5. What evaluations are performed during the internal design
cycles? What design improvements are identified during each
design cycle?
• 6. How is the artifact introduced into the application evironment
and how is it field tested? What metrics are used to demonstrate
artifact utility and improvement over previous artifacts?
• 7. What new knowledge is added to the knowledge base and in
what form?
• 8. Has the research question been satisfactorily addressed?
7

Relevance Cycle Design
Cycle
Rigor Cycle
Design Science Research Cycle

Relevance Cycle
• Provides the application environment
• Users, organisational and technical systems
• Problems and Opportunities
• Goal: improvement of the application environment with
• The development of new and innovative artefacts
• Processes for building these artefacts
• Relevance Cycle
• Provides the requirements for research
• Defines acceptance criteria for the ultimate evaluation of the research
results
• Field studies show
• Deficiencies in functionality of the artefact
• Adapt requirements to the artefact
9

Application Domain
• People
• Organisational
Systems
• Technical Systems
• Problems &
Opportunities
Relevance Cycle
Requirements
Field Testing
Design
Cycle
Rigor Cycle

Rigor Cycle
• Adds past knowledge to the research project
• Knowledge base consists of
• Experiences and expertise defining the state-of-the-art
• Existing artifacts and processes found in the applicaton domain
• Researchers need to research and reference the
existing knowledge base to guarantee that the designs
produced are new research contributions.
11

Rigor Cycle
• Researchers have to
• select appropriate theories and methods for constructing and
evaluating the artifact.
• Contribute to the knowledge base (e.g. new methods, theories)
• Essential to selling the research to an academic
audience
• Attract other practitioner audiences (not only the original
environment)
12

Foundations
• Scientific Theories &
Methods
• Experience
& Expertise
• Meta-Artifacts (Design
Products & Design
Processes)
Application Domain
• People
• Organisational Systems
• Problems &
Opportunities
Relevance Cycle
Requirements
Field Testing
Design
Cycle
Rigor Cycle
Grounding
Additions to KB

Design Cycle
• Heart of any design science research project.
• It iterates between
• the construction of an artefact,
• its evaluation and
• subsequent feedback to refine the design further.
• Input:
• Requirements come from the Relevance Cycle
• Design, evaluation theories and methods come from the Rigor
Cycle
14

Design Cycle
• Performance of the design cycle
• Maintaining the balance between construction and evaluation
• Both must be based on relevance and rigor
• Artifacts must be
• Thoroughly tested in laboratory and experimental settings
• before being released in a field test
• Output:
• Contribution to the relevance cycle
• Contribution to the rigor cycle
„The essence of Information Systems as design science lies in the
scientific evaluation of artifacts.“ (Juhani, 2007)
15

Evaluate
Foundations
• Scientific Theories &
Methods
• Experience
& Expertise
• Meta-Artifacts (Design
Products & Design
Processes)
Build Design
Artifacts &
Processes
Application Domain
• People
• Organisational Systems
• Problems &
Opportunities
Relevance Cycle
• Requirements
• Field Testing
Design
Cycle
Rigor Cycle
• Grounding
• Additions to
KB

DESIGN SCIENCE
RESEARCH PROCESS
MODEL
17

Design Science Research Process Model
18
(Vaishnavi and Kuechler, 2004)

DSRP Model: Awareness of Problem
• Interesting research problem from
multiple sources e.g. new developments
• Reading research publications (e.g. allied fields)
• Opportunity for appliation of new findings in own research area
• Outcome: Proposal for new research effort
19

DSRP Model: Suggestion
• Suggestion phase is closely connected
to proposal and tentative design
• Creative step
• Envision new functionality on new or new and existing elements
• Outcome: Input for Development
20

DSRP Model: Development
• Tentative Design is further developed
and implemented
• The implementation need not involve
novelty beyond the state-of-practice for the given artifact
• Novelty is primary in the design (not in the construction)
• Outcome: Input for Evaluation
21

DSRP Model: Evaluation
• Evaluation of the artifact already
defined in the proposal
• Hypothesis were made about the
behaviour of the artifact.
• Deviations from expectations, (qualitative and quantitative),
must be tetatively explained.
• Analysis confirms or contradicts hypothesis -> things are
getting interesting
• Evaluation results and additional information gained in
construction and running of the artifact are brought together
and fed back to another round of suggetion.
22

DSRP Model: Conclusion
• End of research cycle or final of a
specific research effort -> results
are „good enough“
• Results: Knowledge gained is either
• „firm“ – facts have been learng and can be repeated
• „loose ends“ – anomalous behaviour that needs further
explanation
• Communication is important
• Knowledge Contribution
23

Design Science Research Process Model
24
(Vaishnavi and Kuechler, 2004)

References
• Vaishnavi, V., & Kuechler, W. (2004). Design science research
in information systems.
• Hevner, Alan, R., March, Salvatore, T., Park, J., and Ram, S.
Design science in information research. MIS Quarterly 28, 1
(March 2004), 75–1005.
• Hevner, Alan, R. A three cycle view of design science
research. Scandinavian Journal of Information Science. 19, 2
(2007).
• Hevner, Alan, R., and Chatterjee, S. Design science research
in information systems. Integrated Series in Information
Systems 22 (2010), 9–22.

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