Background: Communicating software engineering research to industry practitioners and to other researchers can be challenging due to its context dependent nature. Design science is recognized as a pragmatic research paradigm, addressing this and other characteristics of applied and prescriptive research. Applying the design science lens to software engineering research may improve the communication of research contributions. Aim: The aim of this study is to 1) evaluate how well the design science lens helps frame software engineering research contributions, and 2) identify and characterize different types of design science contributions in the software engineering literature. Method: In previous research we developed a visual abstract template, summarizing the core constructs of the design science paradigm. In this study, we use this template in a review of a selected set of 38 top software engineering publications to extract and analyze their design science contributions. Results: We identified five clusters of papers, classified based on their alignment to the design science paradigm. Conclusions: The design science lens helps to pinpoint the theoretical contribution of a research output, which in turn is the core for assessing the practical relevance and novelty of the prescribed rule as well as the rigor of applied empirical methods in support of the rule.
In the area of Information Systems, several literature reviews were conducted of design science research. Indulska and Recker @cite_46 analyzed design science articles from 2005--07 from well-known Information Systems conferences. They identified 142 articles, which they divided into groups, such as methodology- and discussion-oriented papers and papers presenting implementations of the design science approach. They found an increasing number of design science papers over the studied years.
@cite_46
1686689482 2904138048 431380525 2735117255
The publication of the work on design science by Alan Hevner and his colleagues has fostered much discussion on what is and what is not considered to be design science in Information Systems (IS) research. Anecdotal evidence suggests that some authors claim design science as a methodology in their work, without much consideration of theoretical or methodological aspects, or the appropriateness of their artefact. Also it would appear that design science papers have been proliferating rapidly of late. Accordingly, we were interested to identify the proliferation, nature and quality of design science research in Information Systems conference publications since the publication of ’s work in 2004. We examine design science articles published at five major IS conferences over the last three years. We subject 83 articles, identified as relevant via a rigorous analysis process, to three types of analysis - statistical, thematic and methodological. The results of these analyses indicate that design science appears to be a growing stream of research in IS. We also found design science research to be strongly prevalent in the research domains of process, knowledge and information management. The most interesting results stem out of our methodological analysis, which suggests that only a small percentage of the papers discuss a concise and consistent implementation of the design science methodology suggested by Design science research is a research paradigm focusing on problem-solving. It is increasingly accepted and adopted by Information Systems (IS) researchers as a legitimate research paradigm because of its capability in balancing research relevance and rigor. In the last fifteen years, many design science research has been published in top IS journals and has received a lot of attentions from IS researchers. However, current confusion and misunderstandings of DSR’s central ideas (e.g., definition, philosophical foundation, research outcomes, etc.) are obstructing it from having a more striking influence on the IS field. The purpose of this paper is to present a comprehensive and critical review of existing DSR literature. In total, 119 papers, published in top IS journals and conference proceedings, were included in the review. The results of this study portray a big picture of current DSR in IS field and build a comprehensive theoretical knowledge base in terms of DSR-related issues. This study also identifies many research issues which can be examined by future DSR. This book is an introductory text on design science, intended to support both graduate students and researchers in structuring, undertaking and presenting design science work. It builds on established design science methods as well as recent work on presenting design science studies and ethical principles for design science, and also offers novel instruments for visualizing the results, both in the form of process diagrams and through a canvas format. While the book does not presume any prior knowledge of design science, it provides readers with a thorough understanding of the subject and enables them to delve into much deeper detail, thanks to extensive sections on further reading. Design science in information systems and technology aims to create novel artifacts in the form of models, methods, and systems that support people in developing, using and maintaining IT solutions. This work focuses on design science as applied to information systems and technology, but it also includes examples from, and perspectives of, other fields of human practice. Chapter 1 provides an overview of design science and outlines its ties with empirical research. Chapter 2 discusses the various types and forms of knowledge that can be used and produced by design science research, while Chapter 3 presents a brief overview of common empirical research strategies and methods. Chapter 4 introduces a methodological framework for supporting researchers in doing design science research as well as in presenting their results. This framework includes five core activities, which are described in detail in Chapters 5 to 9. Chapter 10 discusses how to communicate design science results, while Chapter 11 compares the proposed methodological framework with methods for systems development and shows how they can be combined. Chapter 12 discusses how design science relates to research paradigms, in particular to positivism and interpretivism. Lastly, Chapter 13 discusses ethical issues and principles for design science research. In the last few years, design science research has received wide attention within the IS community. It is increasingly recognized as an equal companion to IS behavioral science research and being applied to address IS topics. With the aim of providing an overview of its current state, this paper presents a systematic literature review on design science research in IS field. The results of this paper reveal the focuses of previous theoretical and empirical design science research and provide some directions for future IS design science research.