Transforming Design Science Research into Practical Application: Experiences from Two ECM Teaching Cases

Reference

vom Brocke, J., Simons, A., & Schenk, B. (2008). Transforming Design Science Research into Practical Application: Experiences from Two ECM Teaching Cases. Paper presented at the 19th Australasian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS 2008), Christchurch, New Zealand, pp. 1049-1058.

Publication type

Paper in Conference Proceedings

Abstract

Research - not only in the discipline of Information Systems (IS) - must address the tasks faced by practitioners. The goal must always be to transform the ideas and findings into real-life business solutions. In IS research, this entitlement is particularly acknowledged by the design science research paradigm. Whereas the goal of behavioural science is truth, design science generally aims at developing an "IT artefact" highly useful for practitioners. Utility is commonly evaluated on the basis of case studies or simulations, for example. We argue that such evaluation methods must not necessarily be applied by the researchers themselves: Teaching cases represent a suitable alternative by also providing new potentials for refining the artefact. As an example of application, we refer to a newly emerging field in IS research, Enterprise Content Management (ECM). We present the results and experiences from two ECM project seminars that have been set up on the basis of workshops and interviews with a large-scale international enterprise. The teaching cases are based on firsthand accounts from our research in the field of ECM - a framework for content analyses. Accordingly, the focus of both courses was the analysis of the company's content situation. The company highly valued the results gained in the seminars and has since applied our framework within additional application areas.

Research

Persons

• Prof. Dr. Jan vom Brocke
• Dr. Bernd Schenk

Organizational Units

• Institute of Information Systems
• Hilti Chair of Business Process Management