| When Designers Are Not in Control -- Experiences from Using Action Research to Improve Researcher-Developer Collaboration in Design Science Research | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 1-15 | |
| Anders Hjalmarsson; Daniel Rudmark; Mikael Lind | |||
| Design science research (DSR) has received much attention in the past few
years from the field of information systems. This paper argues that control in
researcher-developer collaboration during artefact development has not yet
received enough attention in design science research even though control is
necessary for successful artefact instantiation. Experiences are presented from
improving researcher-developer collaboration during DSR by using action
research (AR) as means. These experiences are driven from the need to achieve
meta-design control throughout the development of artefacts by non-researching
system developers when DSR is performed in an authentic setting. The paper
shows that the use of AR to both diagnose uncertainty and actively improve
building activities may lead to sustainable improvements in
researcher-developer collaboration, and hence achieve meta-design control in
DSR performed in authentic development environments, as well as enhance
progress in DSR methodology development. Keywords: Design science research; action research; researcher-developer
collaboration; meta-design control; authentic setting | |||
| Relevance through Consortium Research? Findings from an Expert Interview Study | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 16-30 | |
| Boris Otto; Hubert Österle | |||
| The Information Systems (IS) community is discussing the relevance of its
research. Design-oriented IS research is considered a promising approach since
it combines practical relevance and scientific rigor. Only limited guidance,
however, is available for the researcher to gain access to and exchange
knowledge from the practitioners' domain. This is surprising insofar as the IS
"ecosystem" is under change and research and innovation largely takes place in
the practitioners' community. Consortium research addresses the issue of
getting access to and exchanging knowledge from the practitioners' community.
It supports the development of artifacts and is characterized by close
cooperation between the university and its partners in all stages of the
design-oriented research process, practical validation of research results with
partner companies, and a focus on the practical benefits of the research, with
all research activities being funded by the consortium partners. The research
question posed in this paper is what consortium research contributes to
design-oriented IS research against the background of the aforementioned
phenomena. The paper presents the findings from an expert interview study among
professors of the German-speaking IS community in Europe. Keywords: Consortium Research; Design Science Research in IS; Research Relevance;
Expert Interviews | |||
| Taking a Project Management Perspective on Design Science Research | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 31-44 | |
| Jan vom Brocke; Sonia Lippe | |||
| In this paper we develop a project management (PM) perspective on design
science research (DSR). We account for the increasing amount of DSR projects
that are emerging in public-private research collaborations and that align both
business needs and research rigor. In addition to the application of sound
research methodologies, the successful management of the work relations
constitutes an important success factor for DSR projects. Hence the need
emerges for professional project management. However, certain features such as
creativity, uncertainty in terms of the research method and outcome, and
research rigor complicate the application of standard PM approaches and make
certain adaptations necessary. The goal of this paper is to identify a set of
characteristics specific to DSR projects and to analyse their implications for
selecting and adapting established project management standards. For evaluation
purposes, we are using the PMBOK® Guide by the Project Management Institute
which is commonly accepted and widely used in practice and academia. Keywords: Design Science Research Project; Project Management; Contingency Frameworks | |||
| A Multi-Grounded Design Research Process | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 45-60 | |
| Göran Goldkuhl; Mikael Lind | |||
| There has been a growing interest in the philosophy and constituents of
design research by a vast amount of IS-scholars. There are several unresolved
concerns and issues in design research (DR). Some examples are the outcomes of
design research, the role of theorizing in DR, how to conduct evaluation and
validation, and the need for different grounding processes to generate valid
knowledge from design research endeavors. This paper describes a multi-grounded
approach for design research; consisting of three types of grounding processes
(theoretical, empirical and internal grounding). The purpose is to investigate
DR-based design knowledge and its roles during design research and design
practice. A key feature in this approach is the division between the
meta-design (within design research) producing abstract design knowledge and
the empirical design practice producing situational knowledge and artefacts.
The multi-grounding approach to design research will be illustrated by the
support of two design cases. Keywords: Design research; multi-grounded knowledge development | |||
| Relevance and Problem Choice in Design Science | | BIBA | Full-Text | 61-76 | |
| Roel Wieringa | |||
| The supposed opposition of rigor versus relevance is based on the mistaken
idea that rigor consists of linear technology transfer combined with
positivistic science, and ignores the context-dependence of relevance as well
as the incorporation of conditions of practice necessary for applicability of
knowledge. Historical insights from the history of science and technology show
that technology is not transferred linearly from research to practice, and that
technical science has more in common with social science than a superficial
comparison would reveal. In both fields, (1) practical problems are often
solved without input from research, and (2) researchers often investigate past
innovations rather than prepare future ones. And in both fields, (3) relevance
is context-dependent, because it depends on changeable goals of stakeholders.
Applicability is a more important requirement than relevance to a goal, where
applicability is the match between theory and the condition of practice of a
concrete case.
This paper summarizes insights from the history of science and technology to substantiate these points and provides an extended framework for design science to incorporate these insights. Since relevance depends on problem choice, the paper also summarizes what is known about classes of relevant practical problems and research questions in technical design science and discusses the relevance of this for IS design science. We finally discuss implications for research methods, research strategy, and knowledge transfer in IS design science. | |||
| Artifact Types in Information Systems Design Science -- A Literature Review | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 77-92 | |
| Philipp Offermann; Sören Blom; Marten Schönherr; Udo Bub | |||
| Many information systems researchers designate their work as design science
referring to the term "IT artifact" and the categorization systems that have
emerged under this label. Alas, there is no consensus at this point as to what
the research output in design science is and what types of artifacts exist.
Using a widely accepted artifact typology would strengthen the scientific
discussion and ease the categorization of contributions. Based on a literature
review of all DESRIST publications and a special MISQ issue on design science,
we derived such a typology. We identified eight relevant artifact types and
related our typology to existing ones. With this contribution, we hope to
enable a discussion about what legitimate design science outputs and their main
types are. Keywords: Design science; research output; IT artifact; typology; literature review | |||
| Quo Vadis, Design Science? -- A Survey of Literature | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 93-108 | |
| Kalle Piirainen; Rafael A. Gonzalez; Gwendolyn Kolfschoten | |||
| Design science (DS) is increasingly a popular approach for research with a
problem-solving perspective. The literature on DS has exploded in the past few
years creating a lively discussion emphasizing the balance between rigor and
relevance in research, particularly within the information systems field.
However, there is still inconsistency with regards to the terminology, the
underlying philosophy and the strategy to follow when doing DS. The field(s)
into which DS can contribute or in which it can be placed is also an open
issue. The advent of special issues, tracks and conferences on the subject is a
sign of this and perhaps a suggestion that it constitutes a field on its own.
This paper reports a survey on the most influential literature on DS and
provides an analysis of it in order to facilitate the discussion, clarify the
terminology and contribute to making DS more actionable for researchers. Keywords: Design science; design research; information systems research; bibliometrics | |||
| Design Science Research Post Hevner et al.: Criteria, Standards, Guidelines, and Expectations | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 109-123 | |
| John R. Venable | |||
| There is ongoing debate about how the quality (rigour and relevance) of
Design Science Research (DSR) should be judged. This research investigates the
state of the debate by surveying the opinions of IS scholars who write, review,
edit, and publish DSR papers. The survey respondents rated the relative
importance of the seven guidelines (often used as evaluation criteria) laid out
in Hevner et al. (2004) [6], more specific criteria about the evaluation
activity in DSR, criteria concerning IS Design Theories, and miscellaneous
other criteria, and made general open-ended comments. The findings indicate a
lack of consensus, with much variability in ratings. The Hevner et al. [6]
guidelines are largely endorsed, but caution is also raised to apply them less
mechanistically than at present. Some criteria/guidelines are seen to be less
important at earlier stages of research. Caution is also urged not to expect
single papers to fit all criteria/guidelines. Keywords: Design Science Research; Research Method; Research Standards; Evaluation; IS
Design Theory | |||
| Meta-analysis of Design Science Research within the IS Community: Trends, Patterns, and Outcomes | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 124-138 | |
| Olusola Samuel-Ojo; Doris Shimabukuro; Samir Chatterjee; Musangi Muthui; Tom Babineau; Pimpaka Prasertsilp; Shaimaa Ewais; Mark Young | |||
| The knowledge of design problem and solution is obtained in the building and
application of an artifact, which is the end-goals of the design science
research. Our objective in this paper is to conduct meta-analysis of the
research being published by DESRIST to date to better understand the paradigm
of design science research, and to sense the direction that research
undertakings are headed. We present a meta-analysis model and detailed analysis
of applications, IT artifact types, multi-disciplinary teams, and impact
results. Our findings show that the majority of the papers are negatively
skewed, systematically clustering more IT artifacts for IS development problem
domain. The most cited papers clustered around those that featured better
design theories. We concur that researchers need to equally focus on areas with
less research including organization and market domains, as well as causal
theories of design through a rigorous formative or summative evaluation of
artifacts. Keywords: design science research; meta-analysis; problem domain; IT artifact;
evaluation method; multi-disciplinary; impact | |||
| Comparing Two Software Design Process Theories | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 139-153 | |
| Paul Ralph | |||
| This paper explores an ongoing conflict concerning the nature of software
design. This conflict manifests itself as antagonism between managers and
developers, debates about agile vs. plan-driven methodologies and aspiring
developers' dissatisfaction with their courses. One side views design as a
plan-driven information processing task involving rational decision-making (the
Reason-Centric Perspective), while the other views design as an improvised,
creative task involving naturalized decision-making (Action-Centric
Perspective). Each perspective includes an epistemology, theory of human action
and a software design process theory (an explanation of how software is created
in practice). This paper reports the results of an exploratory questionnaire
study that comparatively and empirically evaluated the two process theories.
Results clearly favor the Action-Centric process theory: the
Sensemaking-Coevolution-Implementation Framework. Keywords: Design Science; Process Theory; Software Design; Questionnaire | |||
| The Ecology of Learning-by-Building: Bridging Design Science and Natural History of Knowledge | | BIBA | Full-Text | 154-166 | |
| Marco De Marco; Renato Fiocca; Francesca Ricciardi | |||
| A growing stream of research in Information Systems -- Organizational Studies is focusing on Design Sciences, not only because a deep understanding of design processes is perceived as fundamental in order to enhance artifacts quality, but also because design activity is more and more understood as a powerful opportunity to create new knowledge. But what are the relationships between design as a pragmatic, problem-solving activity, and design as a learning activity? Moreover, what are the relationships between design as a learning activity, and "proper" scientific research? Even more importantly, under what conditions does successful learning-by-building more probably take place? Natural sciences, and Konrad Lorenz in particular, have given important contributions to answer these questions. This paper seeks to demonstrate how eco-evolutionary thought, which has been quite overlooked in our disciplinary field so far, could be useful to build an effective, multi-disciplinary, epistemologically sound basis to Design Sciences. | |||
| On Computer Simulation as a Component in Information Systems Research | | BIBA | Full-Text | 167-179 | |
| Sebastian Hudert; Christoph Niemann; Torsten Eymann | |||
| Computer simulation is widely regarded as a useful activity during various phases of research. However, depending on its context, the meaning, definition, and focus of the term can vary: While in traffic planning, for example, simulation is used to determine useful configurations of a road network and thus focuses on the environment, there is an entirely different perspective of simulations when used within multi-agent systems. In such settings, the environment of the agents remains static, while the interesting research questions concern the behavior of the agents themselves. The research focuses on the microscopic level and resulting emergent behavior. This article addresses the different meanings of simulation and puts them in the context of a research process that treats descriptive and prescriptive research as two sides of the same coin. Building on this abstract research process, we develop a framework to classify different types of simulation, based on the actual research activity they are intended to be used for. This framework can thus serve subsequently as a guideline on the usage of computer simulation as a research tool. | |||
| Design Logic and the Ambiguity Operator | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 180-193 | |
| Richard Baskerville; Jan Pries-Heje | |||
| Technological rules are one form of expressing management design activities
like organizational design, decision design, and information systems design.
However, the notion of a "rule" can imply an unintended over-specification of
premises and outcomes. We propose a design logic using the concept of an
ambiguity operator in the predicate logic format. To test the validity of the
ambiguity operator, we used it to express the theory under test in a field
experiment. The field experiment demonstrated that the ambiguity operator is
both useful and valid in logically capturing the field reality when applying
designs expressed in the form of technological rules. Keywords: Design science; design theory; design logic; technological rules; ambiguity;
field experiment | |||
| Information Model-Based Configuration of Situational Methods -- A Foundation for Design Research Applying Situational Method Configuration | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 194-209 | |
| René Fitterer | |||
| Design research as an information systems research paradigm aims for the
construction and evaluation of innovative artifacts for relevant problems.
Design science reflects the design research process aiming to create standards
for its rigor. Design science produces guidelines and metrics for the
construction and evaluation of artifacts. In the field of method engineering
design science established situational method engineering as a means to
maintain rigor of artifacts, while at the same time integrating
situation-specific adaptation mechanisms to increase applicability and thus
improve relevance. The design science knowledge base on situational method
engineering however lacks a systematic integration between the semantics of a
method and the semantics of the situations it is adapted for. The work
presented in this paper applies ontological meta modeling to address a better
representation of the interdependencies between method elements and
configuration rules in situational method configuration and demonstrates its
exemplary application on an existing artifact. Keywords: Design science; situational method engineering; adaptation mechanisms;
method configuration | |||
| A Methodology for Content-Centered Design of Ambient Environments | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 210-225 | |
| Sabine Janzen; Tobias Kowatsch; Wolfgang Maass | |||
| The design of ambient environments does not depend on technical issues
exclusively but also on social aspects. There are several design specifications
for ambient environments as well as development principles for the design of
such systems, a design method should address. In this paper, we survey design
methodologies considering the fulfilling of the design principles and their
applicability for ambient environments. Because unprecedented, we introduce a
methodology for Content-Centered Design of Ambient Environments (CoDesA) and
apply this method in parts to an ambient bath environment. Keywords: Design Method; Ambient Environment; Pre-Artifact; Narrative | |||
| Extending the Design and Engineering Methodology for Organizations with the Generation Operationalization and Discontinuation Organization | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 226-241 | |
| David Aveiro; A. Rito Silva; José Tribolet | |||
| We propose an extension for the Design and Engineering Methodology for
Organizations -- DEMO -- to support organization and model change dynamics: the
ontological model of the generic G.O.D. organization, considered to exist in
every organization and being responsible for the Generation, Operationalization
and Discontinuation of organization artifacts -- e.g., actor role pizza
deliverer -- as a consequence of the process of handling unexpected exceptions
causing dysfunctions in the organization's activity. The G.O.D. organization
keeps a thorough trace of all acts regarding the diagnosis of problems
(dysfunctions) and the design and operationalization of their respective
solutions. Such an historical trace provides useful information to each
organizational engineering process (OEP) handling unexpected exceptions.
Another benefit is to provide a base for a constantly updated model of
organizational reality, useful to guide the general activity of organization
agents and to provide up to date information of current organizational reality
to each OEP. Keywords: organizational design; organizational engineering; model; dysfunction;
unexpected exception | |||
| Towards Deterministically Constructing Organizations Based on the Normalized Systems Approach | | BIBA | Full-Text | 242-257 | |
| Dieter Van Nuffel; Philip Huysmans; David Bellens; Kris Ven | |||
| Contemporary organizations need to be more agile to keep up with the swiftly changing business environment. This means that their organizational structure, business processes and information systems should evolve at the same pace. This proves to be quite a challenge due to the invasive nature of these changes and a lack of alignment between these artefacts. It has therefore been argued that more determinism is needed when engineering these artefacts. Recently, the normalized systems approach has been proposed to design information systems exhibiting proven evolvability. In this paper, we extend the approach's basic principles to the related fields of Enterprise Architecture (EA) and Business Process Management (BPM). This study is part of ongoing design science research to incorporate determinism in the construction of an organization's artefacts. Our results show that such approach is feasible and could increase traceability from the organizational level to the information systems. | |||
| Harness Mobility: Managing the Off-Task Property | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 258-269 | |
| Bo Andersson; Christina Keller | |||
| Technological advancements in mobile computing and wireless networks open up
to new applications and new user-groups in the mobile workforce. However, a
considerable part of the mobile workforce, such as e.g. drivers or healthcare
staff, is chiefly performing other tasks than interacting with their computers.
As a result, they are not able to pay attention to computer interaction, making
them mainly off computer tasks. The aim of the paper is to develop a design
theory to manage off-task situations in mobile computing. Interviews were
performed with developers of an information system comprising mobile devices
for drivers. From the interviews, a design of an artifact and a design theory
based on a strategy to automate routine administration task using place
awareness is presented. The eight components of IS design theory by Gregor and
Jones is applied as a theoretical framework. Keywords: Mobile Information Systems; Off-Task; On-Task; Design Theory; Mobile Users;
Location Awareness | |||
| Dynamically Generating Context-Relevant Sub-Webs | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 270-285 | |
| Art Vandenberg; Vijay K. Vaishnavi; Saravanaraj Duraisamy; Tianjie Deng | |||
| There is unprecedented growth of Web information but challenges on mining
this vast information resource remain. This paper addresses designing an
effective prototype tool that dynamically generates sub-webs of information
from a web-based resource (World Wide Web or a subset). Sub-webs present
context-relevant results to individuals or groups. Given that the prototype
tool is technically implemented from multiple components, each of which has
efficacy, there still remains the challenge of devising an appropriate
evaluation of the complete model. This is difficult when the search scope is
the entire World Wide Web and a vast number of result pages are technically
good on Recall but low on Precision. This paper describes an iterative approach
to finding an effective technical prototype using an evaluation method that can
a) reasonably model the search environment of the World Wide Web and b) provide
convincing metrics for evaluating efficacy of solutions. Keywords: Context; Sub-Web; Web Mining; Evaluation; Metrics | |||
| Designing Business-Intelligence Tools with Value-Driven Recommendations | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 286-301 | |
| Adir Even; Yoav Kolodner; Roy Varshavsky | |||
| Business-intelligence (BI) tools are broadly adopted today, supporting
activities such as data analysis, decision making, and performance measurement.
This study investigates a new approach for designing BI tools -- the
integration of feedback and recommendation mechanisms (FRM), defined as
embedded visual cues that provide the end-user with usage and navigation
guidelines. The study focuses on FRM that are based on assessment of previous
usage, and introduce the concept of value-driven usage metadata -- a novel
methodology for linking the use of data resources to the value gained. A
laboratory experiment, which tested the design of FR-enhanced BI with 200
participants, confirmed that FRM integration will improve the usability of BI
tools and increase the benefits that can be gained from using data resources.
Further, the experiment highlighted the potential benefits of collecting
value-driven usage metadata and using it for generating usage recommendations. Keywords: Business Intelligence; Decision Support Systems; Recommender Systems; Data
Warehouse; Metadata | |||
| Process Performance Management -- Identifying Stereotype Problem Situations as a Basis for Effective and Efficient Design Research | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 302-316 | |
| Anne Cleven; Felix Wortmann; Robert Winter | |||
| Just recently many organisations get involved with process performance
management (PPM). It appears, however, that PPM initiatives confront
organisations with multi-faceted and complex challenges that call for a
detailed problem analysis before any solution is developed. In this paper we
introduce two patterns for identifying stereotype problem situations in design
research (DR) and apply one to the field of PPM. The application gives detailed
insights into typical PPM problem situations and illustrates the usefulness of
our approach. Keywords: Design Research; Design Science; Process Performance Management; Problem
Definition | |||
| The Design of Focus Area Maturity Models | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 317-332 | |
| Marlies van Steenbergen; Rik Bos; Sjaak Brinkkemper; Inge van de Weerd; Willem Bekkers | |||
| Maturity models are a well-known instrument to support the improvement of
functional domains in IS, like software development or testing. While maturity
models may share a common structure, they have to be developed anew for each
functional domain. Focus area maturity models are distinguished from
fixed-level maturity models, like CMM, in that they are especially suited to
the incremental improvement of functional domains. In this paper we present a
generic method for developing focus area maturity models based on both
extensive industrial experience and scientific investigation. In doing so, we
show two examples of focus area maturity models, one for enterprise
architecture and one for software product management. We used a design science
research process to develop the method presented. Keywords: Design Research Methodology; Design Science; Enterprise Architecture;
Software Product Management; Maturity Model; Maturity Matrix; Method
Engineering | |||
| Applying Design Research Artifacts for Building Design Research Artifacts: A Process Model for Enterprise Architecture Planning | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 333-348 | |
| Stephan Aier; Bettina Gleichauf | |||
| Enterprise architecture (EA) describes the fundamental structure of an
organization from business to IT. EA as a practice as well as a research topic
has been around for several years. However, existing methods largely neglect
the existence of time which is essential in order to systematically approach EA
planning. The article at hand builds a process model for EA planning as a
design research artifact. We therefore use another more general design research
artifact -- a method for process engineering -- in order to systematically
build our proposed planning process. From a design science research (DSR)
perspective we demonstrate how elements of the DSR knowledge base can be
applied to create new DSR artifacts and how DSR might build a toolbox as it is
available in other mature engineering disciplines. Keywords: enterprise architecture; planning; process design | |||
| Realization Approaches of Customer Relationship Management -- A Design Science Research Contribution to Support the Construction of Situational CRM Artifacts | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 349-364 | |
| Anke Gericke; Tobias Bucher | |||
| In this paper, customer relationship management (CRM) is focused as one
particular field of application for design science research (DSR). In
managerial practice, it can be observed that CRM is approached differently by
diverse organizations; moreover, the need for adaptable ("situational") models
and methods in support of CRM (so-called "CRM artifacts") is postulated both in
scientific theory and in practice. The paper at hand aims at contributing to
this field by reporting on the results of an exploratory analysis. Based on our
empirical evidence, we propose to differentiate between four distinct
realization approaches of CRM: (1) initial CRM; (2) IT-focused CRM; (3) mature
CRM; (4) selective CRM. Each of these approaches is characterized by a unique
vector of realization degrees with respect to four CRM design factors and
represents an exemplary, generalized way of how organizations deal with CRM.
These insights are particularly useful for the construction of situational CRM
artifacts within DSR. Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Design Science Research; Contingency
Approach; Situational Framework | |||
| The Instance-Based Multilevel Security Model | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 365-380 | |
| Jeffrey Parsons; Jianmin Su | |||
| Managing data securely is a critical issue in modern organizations.
Multilevel database systems offer one approach to security that assigns various
security levels or clearances to the data in a database and to users of a
database. The objective of multilevel databases is to share data that have been
assigned different security levels, while preventing unauthorized access to
data by a user with a given clearance level to data at a higher security
classification. Current models store information in different security levels
separately to prevent unauthorized access to data by users at different levels.
However, leakages could still occur in cases such as those involving null
values and those where sensitive data is included in the key field(s) of a
relation. In this research, we design a novel security model, the
instance-based multilevel security model, to solve problems associated with
existing security models. We define the model, propose data access and
integrity rules, and develop a two-layered access control method. Finally, we
prove that the model is secure and identify areas for future research. Keywords: Access control; confidentiality; instance-based security model; security;
multilevel security; polyinstantiation | |||
| A Negotiation Based Approach for Service Composition | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 381-393 | |
| Sherry X. Sun; Jing Zhao; Huaiqing Wang | |||
| In service oriented environments, complex applications can be constructed
from invoking a number of atomic service components. Given that many services
provide the same functionality and differ in quality of service (QoS), e.g.,
availability and execution time, the critical challenge in service composition
is to dynamically identify the available service components to meet the user's
QoS requirements and preference. In this paper, we propose to tackle this
challenge through incorporating the negotiation mechanism into service
composition. The negotiation mechanism allows for both service consumers and
providers to exchange proposals and counter proposals to reach agreements on
QoS attributes dynamically at runtime. Keywords: QoS; Service Composition; negotiation | |||
| Usability through System-User Collaboration | | BIBA | Full-Text | 394-409 | |
| Tamara Babaian; Wendy Lucas; Jennifer Xu; Heikki Topi | |||
| Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems have become essential in industry, yet the potential value created through system use can be illusive due to poor usability. Extensive interviews with users revealed that the underlying complexity of these systems manifests itself in unintuitive interfaces that are challenging to use. Given the lack of progress made with traditional design approaches, we propose a different tactic based on a system-user collaborative approach. This entails that the system acts as a collaborative partner by sharing knowledge, providing task-specific support, and adapting to user behaviors. Based on this collaborative view, we derive a set of principles for guiding the design of ERP systems and provide concrete examples demonstrating (1) how a lack of collaborativeness contributes to various usability problems, and (2) how our proposed design principles can be used to enhance the collaborativeness and, hence, the usability of ERP systems. | |||
| Instruction Manual Usage: A Comparison of Younger People, Older People and People with Cognitive Disabilities | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 410-425 | |
| Abdusselam Selami Cifter; Hua Dong | |||
| When people are faced with new products for the first time or require
assistance using features, the instruction manual is a key information source
and therefore the design of instruction manuals is as important as the design
of the product itself. There are often situations where the design embedded in
the product is not sufficient to express its usage to the user. In addition,
users differ significantly from each other in terms of their needs,
expectations and capabilities. The main question is "are instruction manuals
accessible enough and do they consider a variety of user groups?" This paper
investigates the differences between three user groups (i.e. younger people,
older people and people with cognitive disabilities) regarding their approach
to understanding of instruction manuals. An experimental study was carried out
testing thirty volunteer participants from the aforementioned user groups,
using two digital products from two different market segments and their
instruction manuals. Keywords: Instruction Manuals; Older People; Disabled People; User Characteristics | |||
| FASTS: FAcets Structured Tag Space -- A Novel Approach to Organize and Reuse Social Bookmarking Tags | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 426-438 | |
| Sudha Ram; Wei Wei | |||
| Social bookmarking tools are generating an enormous pool of metadata
describing and categorizing web resources. The value of these metadata in the
form of tags can be fully realized only when they are shared and reused for web
search and retrieval. The research described in this paper proposes a facet
classification mechanism, and a tag relationship ontology to organize tags into
a meaningful and intuitively useful structure. We have implemented a web-based
prototype system to effectively search and browse bookmarked web resources
using this approach. We collected real tag data from del.icio.us for a wide
range of popular domains. We analyzed, processed, and organized these tags to
demonstrate the effectiveness and utility of our approach for tag organization
and reuse. Keywords: tag; social bookmarking; facet; semantics; ontology; del.icio.us | |||
| Twitter Me: Using Micro-blogging to Motivate Teenagers to Exercise | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 439-448 | |
| Mark Mingyi Young | |||
| A micro-blogging site for the persuasive technology is developed along with
cell phone application that helps motivate teenage girls to exercise by
exploiting their social desire to stay connected with their peers. We choose
teenage girls because they are more responsive to health behavior interventions
and they think exercising is the easiest way to improve health. The purpose of
this study is to provide real-time information sharing in order to modify the
behaviors of girls and ultimately lead to improved health habits. Our study
investigated how collecting, sharing and comparing personal fitness information
impacts activity level and health awareness. Keywords: Persuasive technology; health improvement | |||
| Designing for Light-Weight Collaboration: The Case of Interactive Citizens' Advisory Services | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 449-460 | |
| Gerhard Schwabe; Claudia Bretscher; Birgit Schenk | |||
| This paper reports on the design of a collaborative system to support
citizens' advisory services. Recent research on the adoption of collaborative
technologies indicates that: a) successful collaborative technologies diffuse
from the private sector to the business sector and not vice versa, b)
collaborative processes evolve and therefore cannot be prestructured in detail,
and c) creative collaboration can be characterized as creating and sharing
mental models. We demonstrate how these insights informed our design of a
citizens' advisory system and provide data from an evaluation in a German city.
Implications for the design of our collaborative system are offered. Keywords: CSCW; Collaboration Information Technologies; CIT; E-Government; Advisory
Support; Citizenship Information | |||
| Design for Business Innovation: Linking the Value Chains of Logistics Service and Cargo Insurance Companies by Designing a Collaborative Service Infrastructure | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 461-474 | |
| Alexander C. H. Skorna; Christoph Bode; Oliver Baecker; Jan vom Brocke; Elgar Fleisch | |||
| Both, the logistics and insurance companies rely on software intensive
systems and IT-infrastructure to run their core business operational. In recent
years IT-improvements have resulted e.g. in better tracking and tracing
capabilities for the whole logistics industry. Designing an interface in this
case between the logistics and insurance value chain further enhances
visibility and transparency on transportation. Though, the design of a large
collaborative service infrastructure is a complex task. In this paper, we
investigate whether design science supports this. The research follows design
science guidelines creating a message hub based on sensor telematics
technologies, which physically links the two value chains. The described
IT-artefact enables logistics and insurance companies to improve their
respective products and solutions with e.g. integrated risk management or
active process control. This demonstrates how design science projects
eventually facilitate real business innovation within networked enterprises. Keywords: design science; business alignment; enterprise integration; service design;
supply chain risk management | |||
| A Requirements Engineering Method Designed for the Blind | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 475-489 | |
| Tuure Tuunanen; Ken Peffers; Simeon Hebler | |||
| This paper motivates, designs and demonstrates a method for requirements
engineering (RE) with blind users. We motivate the need for the method by
pointing out that, although much has been done to accommodate blind users'
accessibility to systems, little formal research has addressed the need to
include members of this large and growing population in RE activities. We
develop objectives for a method to address three problems that potentially
affect such participation. We design a method to address each of the problems
We demonstrate its use in a RE effort among users in New Zealand and Germany to
develop requirements for mobile service applications and features for blind
users and validate its use in a follow-up survey. Our theoretical evaluation of
the process shows that we were able meet most of the objectives for a blind
user RE method. The proposed method should be a beginning for research efforts. Keywords: requirements elicitation; requirement discovery; requirements engineering;
blind; design science research | |||
| Assessing Project Effort in Requirements Engineering: A Report on Design Research in Progress | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 490-505 | |
| Frank Zickert; Roman Beck | |||
| In this paper we report on our design research in progress, where we have
developed an artifact that assesses project effort resulting from requirements.
Based on models used in the goal-oriented requirements engineering method KAOS,
the artifact measures system size via function point analysis and analyzes
system complexity via structural analysis. In addition, we provide theoretical
explanations and empirically validate how size and structural complexity affect
project effort. Overall effort depends on counted functions that must be
transformed, since software development can be regarded as a transformation
process where size matters. Structural complexity matters as well, since
software development is also a complex problem, where effort spent depends on
the structure of the problem. Insights from empirical evaluation in three
software development projects are encouraging, wherefore we believe that the
artifact appropriately assesses project effort. Furthermore, our artifact
increases the utility of KAOS by providing additional information on project
effort. Keywords: Requirements Engineering; Project Effort; KAOS | |||
| Systematic Development of Business-Driven Requirements -- Using Next-Generation EIS Design as an Example | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 506-521 | |
| Jörg H. Mayer; Frederik Marx | |||
| Despite many improvements to IT support for executives, they still complain
that executive information systems (EIS) bear little relevance to their
management task and fail even more to accommodate their working style. This
indicates that business issues should more strongly drive requirements for
next-generation EIS. The article contributes to such an EIS design by
systematically developing requirements criteria that are more business driven
than the state-of-the-art. To do so, requirements lists of EIS, structural
models of user satisfaction and technology acceptance are evaluated with
criteria derived from the requirements engineering discipline. The findings
show a dual gap: as the rigor of the models increases, they become less
relevant for practice. In comparison, the requirements lists demonstrate
relevance, but do not evidence strong rigor. To bridge this gap, this article
applies the principle of economic efficiency to balance scientific rigor with
relevance for practice. A case demonstrates a first implementation and helps to
evaluate the results of this article by using the same criteria as for the
state-of-the-art reflection. The findings should lead to better next-generation
EIS design and should also be applicable to IS in general. Keywords: requirements engineering; next-generation executive information systems
(EIS); principle of economic efficiency | |||
| Systematization of Maturity Model Extensions | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 522-525 | |
| Gerrit Lahrmann; Frederik Marx | |||
| In order to identify and explore the strengths and weaknesses of particular
initiatives, managers in charge need to assess the maturity of their efforts.
For this, a wide range of maturity models has been developed, but there is no
detailed methodical guidance how to extend these models. Therefore, we present
a systematization of maturity model extensions. Keywords: maturity model; maturity model extension; systematization | |||
| Process Design as Basis for Comprehensive Process Modeling | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 526-529 | |
| Stefan Jablonski; Stephanie Meerkamm | |||
| Today, with process management generally established as a management tool,
there is a stringed interest in process modeling. Although there is a multitude
of standard process modeling techniques available, often the modeling results
are not satisfying. One of the reasons could be that the so called design
phases including a requirement analysis and the implementation in an
appropriate modeling language and tool is neglected. Thus, we want to offer a
framework which focus more on the design and gives the process modeler the
option to design an adequate process modeling language and tool. Keywords: process management; process design; process modeling; meta model hierarchy;
specification of process modeling languages | |||
| Design Science Research Engagement: Proposal for an Engagement Approach for Company Collaboration | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 530-533 | |
| Anita Friis Sommer; Charles Møller | |||
| Design science research is experiencing a comeback within IS research, as
there are movements towards more fashion setting and practitioner relevant
research. An engagement approach for design science research is proposed to
engage in practical collaboration with companies. The approach allows for
researchers to actively participate in artifact development and implementation
in case companies, which generates firsthand knowledge for following generation
of new theories. The proposed approach is relevant for potentially all design
science researchers within IS research and is based on generally accepted
design science research models. Keywords: Design science research; research paradigm; engagement approach | |||
| Design Science in Research Cooperations with the Industry: Findings from Three Prototyping Projects | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 534-537 | |
| Sven Weber; Roman Beck; Robert Gregory | |||
| A challenge that IS researchers face in general is to combine the goals of
generating new scientific knowledge while at the same time producing
practically relevant research results, e.g., in the form of IT artefacts. To
combine rigor and relevance, researchers and practitioners need to collaborate
to develop and employ methods that enable both the systematic generation of
scientific insights and the knowledge exchange between academia and industry.
In this paper, we present the findings of a research project where we entered
into an industry-academic collaboration with the financial services industry
involving three software development and implementation projects. We adopted a
design science research approach to accompany the project and to guide the
scientific discovery process. In the course of our research process we
developed an innovative research model that integrates our experiences from the
research project with existing design science research models. Keywords: Design Science Research; Prototyping; IT Artefact | |||
| Towards a Theory on Collaborative Decision Making in Enterprise Architecture | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 538-541 | |
| Agnes Nakakawa; Patrick van Bommel; Erik Proper | |||
| Several challenges in enterprise architecture development indicate the need
for collaborative decision making to be deployed during architecture creation.
However, how this should be achieved remains ad hoc. This paper, therefore,
presents an evolving theory that is currently being used to guide the
development of a method for supporting collaborative decision making during
enterprise architecture creation. The first iteration to evaluate the relevance
of the concepts in this theory was done using an exploratory survey, and the
findings are briefly presented. Keywords: Enterprise Architecture; Collaborative Decision Making | |||
| In Pursuit of IT Artifact Generality: The Case of Predictive Model for Electronic Negotiation Support | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 542-545 | |
| Rustam Vahidov; Réal André Carbonneau; Gregory E. Kersten | |||
| Electronic Negotiation Systems (ENS) allow conducting negotiations by
parties over the internet. When equipped with analytical tools they also
provide means of decision support for the negotiators in analyzing the offers
received and preparing new offers. One possibility to enhance the decision
support capabilities in ENS is by providing a model for prediction of the next
offer by a negotiator's counter-part. This paper describes the project aimed at
building such a predictive model. The model had been built initially based on a
specific negotiation case using the extensive database of past negotiations
conducted through the "Inspire" ENS. The findings supported our anticipation of
the effectiveness of offer prediction. Keywords: Electronic Negotiations; Artifact Generality; Offer Prediction; Neural
Networks | |||
| Use Cases for Business Metadata -- A Viewpoint-Based Approach to Structuring and Prioritizing Business Needs | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 546-549 | |
| Daniel Stock; Felix Wortmann; Jög H. Mayer | |||
| Business metadata plays a crucial role in increasing the data quality of
information systems. Despite its importance, business metadata is primarily
discussed from a technical perspective, while its business value is scarcely
addressed. Therefore, this article aims at contributing to the further
development of existing design approaches by explicitly accounting for the use
cases of business metadata. Keywords: Business metadata; requirements engineering; user acceptance | |||
| The IT-CMF: A Practical Application of Design Science | | BIBA | Full-Text | 550-553 | |
| Brian Donnellan; Markus Helfert | |||
| The IT-Capability Maturity Model [IT-CMF] is a high-level process capability maturity framework for managing the IT function within an organization. The purpose of this paper is to explore and explain the IT-CMF as a "method meta-model" for IT management, emphasizing the novel approach to addressing the application of design processes and design artifacts by means of a very structured use of engaged scholarship and open innovation techniques to the ongoing challenge of managing organization's IT capability. | |||
| Ontology Design for Strategies to Metrics Mapping | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 554-557 | |
| Fatemeh "Mariam" Zahedi; Atish P. Sinha | |||
| With the growth of enterprise resource planning technologies and automatic
data collection, businesses are flooded with data. But the wealth of data has
not translated into the knowledge required to articulate strategies at the top
levels of the decision hierarchy, because of the lack of connectivity between
business strategies and the underlying performance data. This has deprived
top-level executives of the ability to connect enterprise strategies to
objectives and performance metrics in a systematic fashion. In this paper, we
describe the design of an ontology that captures and connects a comprehensive
set of business strategies, objectives, and performance metrics by grounding
our work in design-science research. It reflects the involvement of a large
multi-national manufacturing company and a high-tech provider of services. The
ontology we have designed enables the development of strategy support systems
for tracking the implementation and assessment of business strategies. Keywords: Design science; ontology; OWL; Protégé; strategies; objectives | |||
| Naturalistic and Artificial Evaluations of Personas and Role-Based Enterprise Systems | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 558-562 | |
| Sven Carlsson; Björn Johansson | |||
| Scholars in design science research in Information Systems and Technology
(IS&T) argue that evaluation of developed and created artifacts is
critical. We describe the evaluations of: 1) the use of personas in the
development of ERPs (naturalistic evaluation), and 2) from an individual and
organizational effectiveness view what a role-based ERP supports (artificial
evaluation). Keywords: Design science research; evaluation; enterprise resource planning; persona;
role-based | |||