Abstract We argue for combining the forces of Design Science Research (DSR) and the critical research traditions. In Information Systems (IS) research, design science research (DSR) has gained momentum during the past decade, while critical research has characterized IS research thorough the years, in the margins at least. However, critical DSR remains a blind-spot in IS research. Critical research provides invaluable insights into and critiques of power, politics, oppression, and domination in IS development and use as well as advocates the empowerment of the oppressed, while critical DSR could distinctively contribute to the critical agenda through design and technology. Inspired by the developments in Human Computer Interaction research, we introduce critical DSR into the IS discourse. We show there is more diversity to DSR than currently acknowledged and identify various fascinating — and critical — DSR approaches. A categorization showing this variety is proposed and a research agenda for critical DSR outlined.
Most eHealth systems are cyber-physical systems (CPSs) making safety-critical decisions based on information from other systems not known during development. In this design science research, a conceptual resilience governance framework for eHealth CPSs is built utilizing 1) cybersecurity initiatives, standards and frameworks, 2) science of design for software-intensive systems and 3) empowering cyber trust and resilience. According to our study, a resilient CPS consists of two sub-systems: the proper resilient system and the situational awareness system. In a system of CPSs, three networks are composed: platform, software and social network. The resilient platform network is the basis on which information sharing between stakeholders could be created via software layers. However, the trust inside social networks quantifies the pieces of information that will be shared - and with whom. From citizens' point of view, eHealth is wholeness in which requirements of information security hold true. Present procedures emphasize confidentiality at the expense of integrity and availability, and regulations/instructions are used as an excuse not to change even vital information. The mental-picture of cybersecurity should turn from "threat, crime, attack" to "trust" and "resilience". Creating confidence in safe digital future is truly needed in the integration of the digital and physical world's leading to a new digital revolution. The precondition for the exchange of information "trust" must be systematically built at every CPS' level. In health sector, increasingly interconnected social, technical and economic networks create large complex CPSs, and risk assessment of many individual components becomes cost and time prohibitive. When no-one can control all aspects of CPSs, protection-based risk management is not enough to help prepare for and prevent consequences of foreseeable events, but resilience must be built into systems to help them quickly recover and adapt when adverse events do occur.
In: Knowledge and process management: the journal of corporate transformation ; the official journal of the Institute of Business Process Re-engineering, Band 27, Heft 3, S. 197-210
Knowledge management (KM) dynamics have caused a lack of traceability and loss of explicit and tacit knowledge during a project's lifecycle. In addition, individuals desire ease of use and accessibility, suggesting that social media (SM) should be integrated. For this purpose, this research analyzed a solution with a technical instrument, through a design science research approach, with the intention of answering the research question: How well does knowledge project management work with the integrated use of project management tools? The Social Media for Project Management (SM4PM), a prescriptive framework for guiding the integrated use of SM in project management (PM), was instantiated to evaluate KM in PM in a public security organization. Data collection was done through interviews, direct observations, document analysis, and focus group. These data were analyzed using MaxQdaPlus. After the implementation, SM4PM was refined and redesigned. Results showed that SM support KM in activities related to PM, giving strong evidence that SM4PM can be generalized to solve a class of problems, such as collecting lessons learned naturally during the project lifecycle, managing the knowledge in PM, and understanding the relationship between processes and their integration. As a contribution, the study empirically applied "theory to practice" by instantiating a technical instrument based on the "theory of doing well" and applied "theory from practice" to refine this technical instrument. This applied research solves a class of problems involving KM in PM during the whole project lifecycle with a unique artifact.
Purpose – The knowledge of artefact design in design science research can have an important application in the improvement of decision support systems (DSS) development research. Recent DSS literature has identified a significant need to develop user-centric DSS method for greater relevance with respect to context of use. The purpose of this paper is to develop a collective DSS design artefact as method in a practical industry context.
Design/methodology/approach – Under the influence of goal-directed interaction design principles the study outlines the innovative DSS artefact based on design science methodology to deliver a cutting-edge decision support solution, which provides user-centric provisions through the use of design environment and ontology techniques.
Findings – The DSS artefact as collective information technology applications through the application of design science knowledge can effectively be designed to meet decision makers' contextual needs in an agricultural industry context.
Research limitations/implications – The study has limitations in that it was developed in a case study context and remains to be fully tested in a real business context. It is also assumed that the domain decisions can be parameterised and represented using a constraint programming language.
Practical implications – The paper concludes that the DSS artefact design and this development successfully overcomes some of the limitations of traditional DSS such as low-user uptake, system obsolescence, low returns on investment and a requirement for continual re-engineering effort.
Social implications – The design artefact has the potential of increasing user uptake in an industry that has had relevancy problems with past DSS implementation and has experienced associated poor uptake.
Originality/value – The design science paradigm provides structural guidance throughout the defined process, helping ensure fidelity both to best industry knowledge and to changing user contexts.
Anastasiadou, M., Santos, V., & Montargil, F. (2021). Which technology to which challenge in democratic governance? An approach using design science research. Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy, 15(4), 512-531. https://doi.org/10.1108/TG-03-2020-0045 ; Purpose: Information systems (IS) play an important role in contemporary society, but critical questions remain on their potential use and impact on democracy. This study aims to contribute to the discussion on which technology can be adequate to which major challenge of democratic governance, through the identification and pairing of challenges of democratic governance with specific information technologies with the potential to be used in applications related to this challenge. This perspective can be considered positioned in the confluence between IS, political science and public administration. Design/methodology/approach: Design science research, a research approach in IS, was used. The suggestion of a conceptual framework with pairs of challenges in democratic governance and information technologies was initially developed. In a subsequent phase, this framework was discussed and assessed through interviews with a panel of selected experts in e-government and IS, reaching a revised conceptual framework. Findings: Results suggest that the conceptual pairing of challenges in democratic governance with IS's solutions such as artificial intelligence, systems integration or blockchain technologies, for instance, if used in a critical, transparent and accountable way, can play a role in capacitating the delivery of better public services and contribute to encouraging citizen trust and political participation. These results may contribute to open a methodological agenda dedicated to the selection of adequate IS resources to address specific challenges of democratic governance, as well as to help in the development of public policies in the area. Originality/value: Previous studies on digital government offer important insights on the impact of information and communication technologies-enabled public governance tools for government openness, public service efficiency and user-friendliness, and for citizen political participation and societal mobilization. But the literature still lacks a systematic conceptual framework mapping and assessing the role of distinctive IS instruments in democratic challenge-solving and specifying functional relationships between specific technology and democratic outcomes. This paper aims to contribute to filling this analytical gap. ; authorsversion ; published
This study uses a design science research methodology to develop and evaluate the Pi-Mind agent, an information technology artefact that acts as a responsible, resilient, ubiquitous cognitive clone – or a digital copy – and an autonomous representative of a human decision-maker. Pi-Mind agents can learn the decision-making capabilities of their "donors" in a specific training environment based on generative adversarial networks. A trained clone can be used by a decision-maker as an additional resource for one's own cognitive enhancement, as an autonomous representative, or even as a replacement when appropriate. The assumption regarding this approach is as follows: when someone was forced to leave a critical process because of, for example, sickness, or wanted to take care of several simultaneously running processes, then they would be more confident knowing that their autonomous digital representatives were as capable and predictable as their exact personal "copy". The Pi-Mind agent was evaluated in a Ukrainian higher education environment and a military logistics laboratory. In this paper, in addition to describing the artefact, its expected utility, and its design process within different contexts, we include the corresponding proof of concept, proof of value, and proof of use. ; peerReviewed
[full article, abstract in English; abstract in Lithuanian]
The article examines the modern computer-based educational environment and the requirements of the possible cognitive interface that enables the learner's cognitive grounding by incorporating abductive reasoning into the educational process. Although the main emphasis is on cognitive and physiological aspects, the practical tools for enabling computational thinking in a modern constructionist educational environment are discussed. The presented analytical material and developed solutions are aimed at education with computers. However, the proposed solutions can be generalized in order to create a computer-free educational environment. The generalized paradigm here is pragmatism, considered as a philosophical assumption. By designing and creating a pragmatist educational environment, a common way of organizing computational thinking that enables constructionist educational solutions can be found.
[full article, abstract in English; abstract in Lithuanian]
The article examines the modern computer-based educational environment and the requirements of the possible cognitive interface that enables the learner's cognitive grounding by incorporating abductive reasoning into the educational process. Although the main emphasis is on cognitive and physiological aspects, the practical tools for enabling computational thinking in a modern constructionist educational environment are discussed. The presented analytical material and developed solutions are aimed at education with computers. However, the proposed solutions can be generalized in order to create a computer-free educational environment. The generalized paradigm here is pragmatism, considered as a philosophical assumption. By designing and creating a pragmatist educational environment, a common way of organizing computational thinking that enables constructionist educational solutions can be found.
Purpose Information systems (IS) play an important role in contemporary society, but critical questions remain on their potential use and impact on democracy. This study aims to contribute to the discussion on which technology can be adequate to which major challenge of democratic governance, through the identification and pairing of challenges of democratic governance with specific information technologies with the potential to be used in applications related to this challenge. This perspective can be considered positioned in the confluence between IS, political science and public administration.
Design/methodology/approach Design science research, a research approach in IS, was used. The suggestion of a conceptual framework with pairs of challenges in democratic governance and information technologies was initially developed. In a subsequent phase, this framework was discussed and assessed through interviews with a panel of selected experts in e-government and IS, reaching a revised conceptual framework.
Findings Results suggest that the conceptual pairing of challenges in democratic governance with IS's solutions such as artificial intelligence, systems integration or blockchain technologies, for instance, if used in a critical, transparent and accountable way, can play a role in capacitating the delivery of better public services and contribute to encouraging citizen trust and political participation. These results may contribute to open a methodological agenda dedicated to the selection of adequate IS resources to address specific challenges of democratic governance, as well as to help in the development of public policies in the area.
Originality/value Previous studies on digital government offer important insights on the impact of information and communication technologies-enabled public governance tools for government openness, public service efficiency and user-friendliness, and for citizen political participation and societal mobilization. But the literature still lacks a systematic conceptual framework mapping and assessing the role of distinctive IS instruments in democratic challenge-solving and specifying functional relationships between specific technology and democratic outcomes. This paper aims to contribute to filling this analytical gap.
