Generating and justifying design theory
- 1. GENERATING AND JUSTIFYING DESIGN THEORY (MANDVIWALLA, 2015) Muhammad Nauman Shahid Zhu Cungen
- 2. OBJECTIVES ▹ Introduction ▹ Herbert Simon-The Sciences of the Artificial ▹ Generating Design Theory ▹ Example: Proposed Structure to Design DS Theory ▹ Proposed Structure to Design DS Theory ▹ Main Contributions ▹ Summary ▹ Implications ▹ Questions 2
- 3. INTRODUCTION ▹ Develop design theory and justificatory knowledge in existing DSR methods. ▹ Answer “how”—the steps needed to produce theories and practical insights instead of “what” and the overall meta-cycle of DSR. ▹ Explicit and precise design theory is a science of the artificial (Simon, 1996). ▹ It is important to express design knowledge as theory (Gregor and Jones, 2007). ▹ This paper contributes to the literature by providing a set of processes and structures for developing design theory. 3
- 4. INTRODUCTION ▹ The IS literature has addressed many of the methodological challenges facing DSR. ▹ Researchers question the role of design theory and its importance (e.g., March & Smith, 1995; Hooker, 2004; Venable, 2013), especially the design theory construction, representation, and application which is unclear and difficult to achieve (e.g., Alturki et al. 2013, Lukyaneko & Parsons, 2013; Hovorka & Pries-Heje, 2013). ▹ The unresolved questions in developing design theory are attributed under Kernel theory, Design theory, Evaluation, Relevance and rigor. 4
- 5. INTRODUCTION ▹ Therefore, this research focus on how can we develop design theory in DSR for interactive digital artifacts, and especially how can we develop new and interesting theories that illustrate the digital innovation inherent in new and interesting artifacts. ▹ Artifact here refers to a thing that has, or can be transformed into, a material existence as an artificially made object (e.g., model, instantiation) or process (method, software)” (Gregor & Hevner, 2013, p. 341). This definition is consistent with Simon (1996). 5
- 6. ▹ The Sciences of the Artificial, Simon (1996) attempts to make design theory explicit and precise so that it can match natural science theory. ▹ Formalize the process of generating design theory; ▹ 1. Systematic and observable process ▹ 2. Representing the results including the design and the design theory. HERBERT SIMON-THE SCIENCES OF THE ARTIFICIAL ▹ How to enhance the design theory? ▹ 1. Sustaining quasi independence between the design and problem context ▹ 2. Leveraging insights from previous versions ▹ 3. Evaluation 6
- 7. GENERATING DESIGN THEORY ▹ Goals, existing artifacts, and existing kernel theory constrain and support the prototyping cycle, which, through inter-related activities of design, evaluation, and appropriation/generation, balances the inner and outer environments and goes through a constrained cycle of search and iteration. 7
- 8. GENERATING DESIGN THEORY Part of the outer environment Provides relevance to measures and constructs from the outer environment Artifacts represent existing, feasible, and relevant knowledge about the inner environment Prototyping cycle Design involves quickly creating prototypes that, in each iteration, get closer to meeting the goals. In other words, it is analogous to the act of sculpting. Evaluation is integral to generating design theory and eventually producing “justificatory knowledge”. Appropriate/generate is the last of the three inter-related activities of the “generate-test” cycle of Simon (1996)—what Simon calls assembling and searching. This involves searching and assembling—appropriating— existing designs and kernel theories Gregor and Jones (2007) argue that the formal knowledge that follows from specifying and elaborating a design theory is important because it (a) raises the IS field above a craft, (b) adds to rigor and legitimacy, and (c) supports the cumulative building of knowledge that can only come if new insights and ideas are elaborated as knowledge that can then be classified and compared.
- 9. Structure to Design DS Theory 1. SH: Peer review is transactional in nature and the focus was on improving the efficiency of transactions. 2. SH: Peer review was really about facilitating communication. 3. A complete change to the entire process of publishing based on dis-intermediating the knowledge producers and consumers from the publishers. 4. SH: “Structured communication process” user interface and management techniques to constrain and direct the communication among and between authors, reviewers, and editors. GENERATING DESIGN THEORY
- 10. PROPOSED STRUCTURE TO DESIGN DS THEORY ▹ Extended kernel theories to explain the underlying phenomena. ▹ Produced a design theory. 10 The project considered existing artifacts and kernel theory and leveraged the prototyping cycle to formally search for and create a series of artifacts that; ▹ Created a new artifact.
- 11. MAIN CONTRIBUTIONS ▹ Formalization ▹ Categorization ▹ Chain of evidence ▹ Structured dependency ▹ Apply iteration ▹ Apply Knowledgebase 11 ▹ Leverage relationships ▹ Use constraints ▹ Focus on strategic ▹ Integrate evaluation ▹ Over-specification ▹ Represent
- 12. SUMMARY ▹ Identifying DSR project types to provide signposts for starting and ending the cycle. ▹ Conceptualizing artifact and evaluation archives. ▹ Arranging design, explanation, evaluation, and decisions into a structure that represents and leverages the iterations of design theory development. 12 The paper develops an understanding to design theory in DSR by introducing a set of processes and structures for developing design theory based on The Sciences of the Artificial (Simon, 1996) for contemporary interactive digital artifacts. The paper introduces a parsimonious and easy-to-understand approach to generate design theory. The structures includes; ▹ Showing how goals, kernel theory, artifacts feed design, evaluation, and appropriation/gene ration, which leads to design theory; ▹ Structuring design, evaluation, and appropriation/gene ration into an inter- related cycle.
- 13. IMPLICATIONS ▹ Representation: Representation schemas and their standardization. ▹ Modeling design theory construction: Lack of empirical analysis of model requirements for different DSR projects. ▹ Retrospective design theory: Bridging boundaries by creating retrospective design in the evolution of the project. ▹ Design theory generation for all types of DSR: Delineate the role and form of design theory construction for additional types of DSR. ▹ Strategic hypothesis and the stopping rule: No guidelines for the best number of iterations. 13
- 15. QUESTIONS 1. When do the iterations shall stop? Under what conditions? 2. Do you think the original goal will change with the number of iterations? Why? 3. What is the relationship between design theory and organizational theory? 15