research-article

Design science as nested problem solving

Author:

Roel WieringaAuthors Info & Claims

DESRIST '09: Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Design Science Research in Information Systems and Technology

Article No.: 8, Pages 1 - 12

https://doi.org/10.1145/1555619.1555630

Published: 07 May 2009 Publication History

Abstract

Design science emphasizes the connection between knowledge and practice by showing that we can produce scientific knowledge by designing useful things. However, without further guidelines, aspiring design science researchers tend to identify practical problems with knowledge questions, which may lead to methodologically unsound research designs. To solve a practical problem, the real world is changed to suit human purposes, but to solve a knowledge problem, we acquire knowledge about the world without necessarily changing it. In design science, these two kinds of problems are mutually nested, but this nesting should not blind us for the fact that their problem-solving and solution justification methods are different. This paper analyzes the mutual nesting of practical problems and knowledge problems, derives some methodological guidelines from this for design science researchers, and gives an example of a design science project following this problem nesting.

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Index Terms

Design science as nested problem solving
1. Information systems
  1. Information systems applications

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DESRIST '09: Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Design Science Research in Information Systems and Technology

May 2009

288 pages

ISBN:9781605584089

DOI:10.1145/1555619

Conference Chair:
Vijay Vaishanvi,
Program Chair:
Sandeep Purao

Copyright © 2009 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Published: 07 May 2009

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DESRIST '09

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DESRIST '09: Design Science Research in Information Systems and Technologies

May 7 - 8, 2009

Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

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