Information Systems Foundations: The role of design science Information Systems Foundations: The role of design science Dennis N. Hart and Shirley D. Gregor (Editors) THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY E P R E S S E P R E S S Published by ANU E Press The Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200, Australia Email: [email protected] This title is also available online at: http://epress.anu.edu.au/is_foundations_citation.html National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Author: Information Systems Foundations (‘The role of design science’) Workshop (2008 : Canberra, A.C.T.) Title: Information systems foundations : the role of design science / edited by Shirley D. Gregor and Dennis N. Hart. ISBN: 9781921666346 (pbk.) ISBN: 9781921666353 (eBook) Notes: Workshop held at the Australian National University in Canberra from 2-3 October, 2008. Includes bibliographical references. Subjects: Management information systems--Congresses. Information resources management--Congresses. System design--Congresses. Other Authors/Contributors: Gregor, Shirley Diane. Hart, Dennis N. Dewey Number: 658.4038 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. Cover design by Teresa Prowse Cover ilustration by Jackson Gable Printed by Griffin Press This edition © 2010 ANU E Press Contents Preface . ix Philosophical Foundations 1 . Identification-interaction-innovation: a phenomenological basis for an information services view . 3 Dirk Hovorka, Matt Germonprez 2 . How critical realism clarifies validity issues in theory- testing research: analysis and case . 21 Robert B. Johnston, Stephen P. Smith Theory and Method 3 . Building theory in a practical science . 51 Shirley Gregor 4 . Incommensurability in design science: which comes first—theory or artefact? . 75 Michael Davern, Alison Parkes 5 . An exploration of the concept of design in information systems . 91 Judy McKay, Peter Marshall, Greg Heath 6 . Evaluating information systems: an appropriation perspective . 121 Justin Fidock, Jennie Carroll, Anita Rynne Applications 7 . On using materiality in information systems development: a research brief . 145 Andrea Carugati v Information Systems Foundations: The Role of Design Science 8 . How IS design can contribute to a major climate change mitigation project . 165 Walter Fernández, Birgitta Bergvall-Kåreborn, Michael Djordjevic, Keith Lovegrove, Javier Fernández-Velasco, Mishka Talent 9 . An intelligent agent-assisted logistics exception management decision support system: a design-science approach . 189 Shijia Gao, Dongming Xu 10 . Thinking beyond means–ends analysis: the role of impulse-driven human creativity in the design of artificially intelligent systems . 213 Dongming Xu, Yonggui Wang, Sukanto Bhattacharya 11 . An information systems design theory for an RFID university-based laboratory . 233 Samuel Fosso Wamba, Katina Michael Design Science in IS 12 . An assessment of DSS design science using the Hevner, March, Park and Ram guidelines . 255 David Arnott, Graham Pervan 13 . Design science in IS research: a literature analysis . 285 Marta Indulska, Jan Recker vi Workshop Chair Shirley D. Gregor, ANU Program Chairs Shirley D. Gregor, ANU Susanna Ho, ANU Program Committee Jörg Becker, University of Münster, Germany Andrea Carugati, University of Aarhus, Denmark Joseph Davis, University of Sydney, Australia Walter Fernandez, Australian National University, Australia Erwin Fielt, Telematica Instituut, Enschede, Netherlands Steven Fraser, Australian National University, Australia Eleanor Gates-Stuart, Australian National University, Australia Tom Gedeon, Australian National University, Australia Sigi Goode, Australian National University, Australia Peter Green, University of Queensland, Australia Dennis Hart, Australian National University, Australia Pertti Järvinen, University of Tampere, Finland Robert Johnston, University College Dublin, Ireland Nigel Martin, Australian National University, Australia Craig McDonald, University of Canberra, Australia Peter Marshall, University of Tasmania, Australia Liam O’Brien, National ICT Australia (NICTA), Canberra, Australia Nicholas Pratt, ESSEC Business School, France Michael Rosemann, Queensland University of Technology, Australia John Venable, Curtin University, Australia Xiaofang Zhou, University of Queensland, Australia vii Preface This volume contains the papers presented at the Information Systems Foundations Workshop, 2-3 October, 2008. This workshop was the fourth in the ANU series of biennial workshops, originally inspired by one held in 1999 by Kit Dampney at Macquarie University, and focussing on the theoretical foundations of the discipline of information systems. The theme of the 2008 Workshop was ‘Answering the Unanswered Questions about Design Research’ and it once again allowed researchers and practitioners in the field of Information Systems to come together to discuss some of the fundamental issues relating to our discipline. Information Systems is still a quite young field of study that, perhaps uniquely, is a peculiar juxtaposition of the technological, in the form of computing and communication technology, and the non-technological, in the form of the humans and organisations that design, implement and use systems built with that technology. Indeed, it is this fact of “design” that was the focus of the 2008 workshop and which tempts one to put information systems into the same sort of category as disciplines such as, for example, architecture, accounting or engineering where artefacts (which may be physical or conceptual) destined specifically for human use and activities are envisaged and created ex nihilo, as it were. But even so, it may be argued that information systems remains different from these and other similar areas in at least one important sense for, once an architectural, engineering or accounting artefact is completed it is typically just that – complete. But most information systems are never “complete”. They are instead usually dynamic by being modified, adjusted, extended or otherwise changed over the course of their existence in continuing response to altered needs and circumstances. This has and still does present a problem, for how does one go about successfully designing an artefact of this nature? Moreover, on what theoretical foundations should such design be based? Design sciences are not, as are the natural and most other human sciences, aimed at understanding and explaining the phenomena of the world as presented to our senses but rather enabling intervention in the world through the designed artefact in such a way as to achieve certain desired outcomes. Accordingly, it is to be expected that the principles as well as the practices of the design sciences in general and information systems in particular will differ from those of other sciences, and it was towards these issues that the 2008 workshop was directed. Typically the information systems foundations workshops give authors an opportunity to present papers and get feedback on ideas that might be regarded ix Information Systems Foundations: The Role of Design Science as too new or risky for publication in conventional outlets. There have been some good outcomes from this approach, with revised papers going on to find a wider audience in mainstream journals. As the workshop is deliberately kept small, and there is only one stream of papers, all paper presentations are typically attended by all participants, which often leads to ongoing and vigorous discussion. The papers presented here were accepted after a double-blind review process and we thank our program committee and reviewers for their assistance. We also acknowledge and thank the sponsors of the workshop: The National Centre for Information Systems Research (NCISR), the School of Accounting and Business Information Systems at the ANU and the Enterprise Information Infrastructure Network of the Australian Research Council. Finally, we would like to thank the keynote speakers at the workshop – Richard Baskerville, Juhani Iivari and Alan Hevner – whose presence, expertise and participation added greatly to the value of the event for all concerned. All in all, therefore, the Workshop provided a stimulating and productive as well as an enjoyable couple of days for both the authors and attendees, and we hope that the papers that form this volume will provide similar stimulation, provoke similar productive outcomes, and perhaps provide some enjoyable reading as well, for a wider audience than those who were able to attend the Workshop itself. Dennis Hart Shirley Gregor x Preface The Papers The papers in this book are organised into four sections entitled ‘Philosophical Foundations, ‘Theory and Method’, ‘Applications’ and ‘Design Science in IS’, reflecting the wide range of topics relating to Design Science that were addressed in the 2008 Workshop. The philosophical foundations section contains two papers, each of which puts forward a different and challenging new perspective to the Information Systems discipline. The first, by Hovorka and Germonprez, essentially argues that service-based information systems in fact do (and should) undergo not only the usual design stage (or stages) recognized by traditional systems development methods but also potentially multiple “secondary” design phases where their users identify, through a continuous evolutionary