Abstract
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.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Hevner, A.R., March, S.T., Park, J., Ram, S.: Design Science in Information Systems Research. MIS QUART 28, 75–105 (2004)
March, S.T., Smith, G.F.: Design and natural science research on information technology. Decision Support Systems 15, 251–266 (1995)
Orlikowski, W.J.: Using Technology and Constituting Structures: A Practice Lens for Studying Technology in Organizations. Organization Science 11, 404–428 (2000)
Orlikowski, W.J., Iacono, C.S.: Research Commentary: Desperately Seeking the “IT” in IT Research—A Call to Theorizing the IT Artifact. Information Systems Research 12, 121–134 (2001)
Benbasat, I., Zmud, R.W.: The Identity Crisis Within the IS Discipline: Defining and Communicating the Discipline’s Core Proporties. MIS QUART 27, 183–194 (2003)
Agarwal, R., Lucas Jr., H.C.: The Information Systems Identity Crisis: Focusing on High-Visibility and High-Impact Research. MIS QUART 29, 381–398 (2005)
Alter, S.: Sidestepping the it artifact, scrapping the is silo, and laying claim to “systems in organizations”. Communications of AIS 12, 494–526 (2002)
Alter, S.: 18 reasons why it-reliant work systems should replace “the it artifact” as the core subject matter of the is field. Communications of AIS 12, 365–394 (2003)
Alter, S.: The is core – xi sorting out issues about the core, scope, and identity of the is field. Communications of AIS 12, 607–628 (2003)
Davis, G.B.: Information Systems Conceptual Foundations: Looking Backward and Forward. In: IFIP TC9 WG9.3 International Conference on Home Oriented Informatics and Telematics, pp. 61–82. Kluwer, B.V., Deventer (2000)
Benbunan-Fich, R., Mohan, K.: Information technology and systems - iii research publications in systems development during 2000-2004. Communications of AIS 17, 2–33 (2006)
Alter, S.: Work systems and it artifacts – does the definition matter? Communications of AIS 17 (2006)
Snodgrass, A., Coyne, R.: Is Designing Hermeneutical? Architectural Theory Review. Journal of the Department of Architecture 1, 65–97 (1997)
Vaishnavi, V.K., Kuechler Jr., W.: Design Science Research Methods and Patterns: Innovating Information and Communication Technology. Auerbach (2007)
Purao, S.: Design Research in the Technology of Information Systems: Truth or Dare. Information Systems, Atlanta (2002)
Gregg, D.G., Kulkarni, U.R., Vinzé, A.S.: Understanding the Philosophical Underpinnings of Software Engineering Research in Information Systems. Information Systems Frontiers 3, 169–183 (2001)
Winter, R.: Design science research in Europe. European Journal of Information Systems 17, 470–475 (2008)
Bucher, T., Winter, R.: Dissemination and Importance of the “Method” Artifact in the Context of Design Research for Information Systems. In: DESRIST 2008, Atlanta, Georgia (2008)
Walls, J.G., Widmeyer, G.R., El Sawy, O.A.: Building an Information System Design Theory for Vigilant EIS. Information Systems Research 3, 36–59 (1992)
Vahidov, R.: Design Researcher’s IS Artifact: a Representational Framework. In: DESRIST 2006, CGU, Claremont, CA (2006)
Carlsson, S.A.: Towards an Information Systems Design Research Framework: A Critical Realist Perspective. In: DESRIST 2006. CGU, Claremont (2006)
van Aken, J.E.: Management Research Based on the Paradigm of the Design Sciences: The Quest for Field-Tested and Grounded Technological Rules. Journal of Management Studies 41, 219–246 (2004)
Webster, J., Watson, R.T.: Analyzing the Past to Prepare for the Future: Writing a Literature Review. MIS QUART 26, xiii–xxiii (2002)
Creswell, J.W.: Research Design - Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches. SAGE Publications, Thousend Oaks (2009)
Stelzer, D.: Enterprise Architecture Principles: Literature Review and Research Directions. In: TEAR 2009, pp. 21–36 (2009)
Gregor, S.: The Nature of Theory in Information Systems. MIS QUART. 30, 611–642 (2006)
Bryant, W.: Mixer Selection in Peer-to-Peer Ad hoc Collaboration: A Design Science Approach. In: DESRIST 2007, CGU, Pasadena, CA (2007)
Li, S., Lee, R., Lang, S.-D.: Mining Distance-based Outliers from Categorical Data. In: DESRIST 2007, CGU, Pasadena, CA (2007)
Huang, W., Stohr, E.: Design and Implementation of a Business Process Rules Engine. In: DESRIST 2007, CGU, Pasadena, CA (2007)
Carlsson, S.A., Henningsson, S., Hrastinski, S., Keller, C.: An Approach for Designing Management Support Systems: The Design Science Research Process and its Outcomes. In: DESRIST 2009. ACM, Malvern (2009)
Li, L., Vashnavi, V.K., Vandenberg, A., Metikurke, S.: Generating Dynamic and Adaptive Knowledge Models for Web-Based Resources. In: DESRIST 2006, CGU, Claremont, CA (2006)
Erenkrantz, J., Gorlick, M., Taylor, R.N.: Rethinking Web Services from First Principles. In: DESRIST 2007, CGU, Pasadena, CA (2007)
Abhichandani, T., Kosaka, K., Chatterjee, S.: Designing a P2P Ad-hoc Secured Collaboration Tool. In: DESRIST 2006, CGU, Claremont, CA (2006)
Nguyen, V., Lee, R., Dutta, K.: An Aspect Architecture for Modeling Organizational Controls in Workflow Systems. In: DESRIST 2006, CGU, Claremont, CA (2006)
Woodard, J.: Modeling Architectural Strategy Using Design Structure Networks. In: DESRIST 2007, CGU, Pasadena, CA (2007)
Berente, N., Lyytinen, K.: The Iterating Artifact as a Fundamental Construct in Information System Design. In: DESRIST 2006, CGU, Claremont, CA (2006)
D’Aubeterre, F., Singh, R., Iyer, L.: Secure Activity Resource Coordination: A Method to Design Secure Business Processes. In: DESRIST 2008, Atlanta, Georgia (2008)
Umapathy, K., Purao, S., Barton, R.R.: Designing Enterprise Integration Solutions - Effectively. In: DESRIST 2008, Atlanta, Georgia (2008)
Gurzick, D., Lutters, W.G.: Towards a Design Theory for Online Communities. In: DESRIST 2009. ACM, Malvern (2009)
Roussinov, D., Chau, M.C.-L.: Web Fact Seeking For Business Intelligence: a Meta Engine Approach. In: DESRIST 2006, CGU, Claremont, CA (2006)
Keller, C., Gäre, K., Edenius, M., Lindblad, S.: Designing for Complex Innovations in Health Care: Design Theory and Realist Evaluation Combined. In: DESRIST 2009. ACM, Malvern (2009)
Tremblay, M.C., Berndt, D.J., Hevner, A.R.: Measuring Information Volatility in a Health Care Information Supply Chain. In: DESRIST 2009. ACM, Malvern (2009)
Vaishnavi, V.K., Vandenberg, A., Zhang, Y., Duraisamy, S.: Towards Design Principles for Effective Context- and Perspective-Based Web Mining. In: DESRIST 2009. ACM, Malvern (2009)
Pries-Heje, J., Baskerville, R.: Designing Organizational Change in IT: A Theory Nexus. In: DESRIST 2006, CGU, Claremont, CA (2006)
Gericke, A., Fill, H.-G., Karagiannis, D., Winter, R.: Situational Method Engineering for Governance, Risk and Compliance Information Systems. In: DESRIST 2009. ACM, Malvern (2009)
van Steenbergen, M., Bos, R., Brinkkemper, S.: The application of a prescriptive and a constructive perspective to design-science research. In: DESRIST 2008, Atlanta, Georgia (2008)
Kunene, K.N., Weistroffer, H.R.: Design of a Method to Integrate Knowledge Discovery Techniques with Prior Domain Knowledge for Better Decision Support. In: DESRIST 2006, CGU, Claremont, CA (2006)
Chung, W.: Designing Web-based Business Intelligence Systems: A Framework and Case Studies. In: DESRIST 2006, CGU, Claremont, CA (2006)
Even, A., Shankaranarayanan, G., Berger, P.D.: Economics-Driven Design of a Data Warehouse. In: DESRIST 2007, CGU, Pasadena, CA (2007)
Eden, H., Fischer, G., Giaccardi, E., Ye, Y.: Report on NSF Science of Design Team Project: “A Meta-Design Framework for Participative Software Systems. In: DESRIST 2007, CGU, Pasadena, CA (2007)
Lee, J., Wyner, G.M., Pentland, B.T.: Process grammar as a tool for business process design. MIS QUART. 32, 757–778 (2008)
An, Y., Dalrymple, P.W., Rogers, M., Gerrity, P., Horkoff, J., Yu, E.: Collaborative Social Modeling for Designing a Patient Wellness Tracking System in a Nurse-Managed Health Care Center. In: DESRIST 2009. ACM, Malvern (2009)
Garrett, N., Thoms, B., Soffer, M., Ryan, T.: Extending the Elgg Social Networking System to Enhance the Campus Conversation. In: DESRIST 2007, CGU, Pasadena, CA (2007)
Pries-Heje, J., Baskerville, R.: The design theory nexus. MIS QUART. 32, 731–755 (2008)
Judge, R.: A Design Language for Developing and Simulating Implementation Strategies for Knowledge Management Systems (KMS) in Small to Mid-size Enterprises (SME). In: DESRIST 2007, CGU, Pasadena, CA (2007)
Miller, T., Leroy, G., Huang, J., Chuang, S., Charlop-Christy, M.H.: Using a Digital Library of Images for Communication: Comparison of a Card-Based System to PDA Software. In: DESRIST 2006, CGU, Claremont, CA (2006)
Zheng, G., Vaishnavi, V., Vandenberg, A.: A Multidimensional and Visual Exploration Approach to Project Prioritization. In: DESRIST 2008, Atlanta, Georgia (2008)
Ramaprasad, A., Papagari, S.S.: Ontological Design. In: DESRIST 2009. ACM, Malvern (2009)
Liu, X.M., Wyner, G.M.: Coordination Analysis: A Method for Deriving Use Cases from Process Dependencies. In: DESRIST 2009. ACM, Malvern (2009)
Johnstone, M.N., Venable, J.R.: Enacting Design Science with Action Research: An Illustrative Case Study in Methodology Development. In: DESRIST 2008, Atlanta, Georgia (2008)
Chou, C.-h., Sinha, A.P., Zhao, H.: Designing Web Page Classifiers as Alternatives to Commercial Internet Filters. In: DESRIST 2008, Atlanta, Georgia (2008)
Ghaisas, S., Venkatesh, R., Kanhere, A., Kumar, A., Kumar, M., Rose, P.: Identifying unobvious requirements — an exemplar of the Design Science approach. In: DESRIST 2008, Atlanta, Georgia (2008)
Athenikos, S.J., Song, I.-Y.: A Framework of Ontology-based Modeling Patterns. In: DESRIST 2008, Atlanta, Georgia (2008)
Baloh, P., Desouza, K.C.: Towards knowledge needs-technology fit model for knowledge management systems. In: DESRIST 2009. ACM, Malvern (2009)
Mettler, T., Rohner, P.: Situational Maturity Models as Instrumental Artifacts for Organizational Design. In: DESRIST 2009. ACM, Malvern (2009)
Su, J., Parsons, J.: Analysis of Data Structures to Support the Instance-based Database Model. In: DESRIST 2006, CGU, Claremont, CA (2006)
Dutta, A.K., Molle, M., Phatak, T.: Protocol Alchemy: Designing a TCP-Based Approach to Support Large-Scale Deployment of VoIP on the Internet. In: DESRIST 2006, CGU, Claremont, CA (2006)
Murphy, J.D., Petter, S., Cheng, K., Briggs, R.O.: Hitting the Collaboration Target: Computer-Guided thinkLet Selection. In: DESRIST 2008, Atlanta, Georgia (2008)
Vandenberg, A., Vaishnavi, V.K., Li, L., Pandya, M.: LAIDBACK: A Workbench for User-Driven Dynamic Web Mining. In: DESRIST 2007, CGU, Pasadena, CA (2007)
Parsons, J., Wand, Y.: Using Cognitive Principles to Guide Classification in Information Systems Modeling. MIS QUART. 32, 839–868 (2008)
Oh, D., Shih-Fen, C., Dan, M., Bapna, R.: Designing an Experimental Gaming Platform for Trading Grid Resources. In: DESRIST 2007, CGU, Pasadena, CA (2007)
Vahidov, R., He, X.: Design for Situated Decision Support: Application to Personal Finance. In: DESRIST 2008, Atlanta, Georgia, pp. 1–6 (2008)
Reynoso, J.M.G., Olfman, L., Ryan, T., Horan, T.: An Information Systems Design Theory for an Expert System for Training. In: DESRIST 2006, CGU, Claremont, CA (2006)
Abbasi, A., Hsinchun, C.: CyberGate: A Design Framework and System for Text Analysis of Computer-Mediated Communication. MIS QUART. 32, 811–837 (2008)
Reiss, S.P.: Designing Internet-Based Software. In: DESRIST 2007, CGU, Pasadena, CA (2007)
Parsons, J., Ralph, P.: Generating Effective Recommendations by Exploiting Viewing Time and Item Attributes. In: DESRIST 2007, CGU, Pasadena, CA (2007)
Etezadi, J.: iMade (Internet Multi-Attribute Decision Expert): A system for analysis of multi-attribute decision problems. In: DESRIST 2008, Atlanta, Georgia (2008)
Burkhard, R.J., Horan, T.A.: A Design Theory Approach to Incorporating Emotional Intelligence into Group Support Systems. In: DESRIST 2006, CGU, Claremont, CA (2006)
Gregor, S., Jones, D.: The formulation of an Information Systems Design Theory for e-learning. In: DESRIST 2006, CGU, Claremont, CA (2006)
Park, Y., El Sawy, O.A.: Towards a Design Theory for Hedonic Systems: Delivering Superior User Experience in the Digital Home Entertainment Context. In: DESRIST 2008, Atlanta, Georgia (2008)
Singh, R., D’Aubeterre, F., Iyer, L., Salam, A.F., Ehrhardt, R.: Secure Semantic eBusiness Processes: A Design Theoretic Approach to Secure Semantic Systems. In: DESRIST 2007, CGU, Pasadena, CA (2007)
Green, K.E., Gugerty, L.J., Witte, J.C., Walker, I.D., Houayek, H., Rubinstein, J., Daniels, R., Turchi, J., Kwoka, M., Dunlop, I., Johnson, J.: The Animated Work Environment: A Design-Research Exemplar Supporting Social and Virtual Collaboration in an Increasingly Digital Society. In: DESRIST 2008, Atlanta, Georgia (2008)
Amoussou, G.-A., Cashman, E., Steinberg, S.: Building an Interdisciplinary Community to Learn and Teach Creativity and Design. In: DESRIST 2007, CGU, Pasadena, CA (2007)
Petter, S., Khazanchi, D., Murphy, J.D.: A design science based evaluation framework for patterns. In: DESRIST 2008, Atlanta, Georgia (2008)
Gregor, S., Jones, D.: The Anatomy of a Design Theory. Journal of the AIS 8, 312–335 (2007)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Offermann, P., Blom, S., Schönherr, M., Bub, U. (2010). Artifact Types in Information Systems Design Science – A Literature Review. In: Winter, R., Zhao, J.L., Aier, S. (eds) Global Perspectives on Design Science Research. DESRIST 2010. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 6105. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-13335-0_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-13335-0_6
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-13334-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-13335-0
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)