Design Science Research (DSR) is concerned with demonstrating design principles. In order to prove the utility of these principles, design ideas are materialized into artifacts and put into an environment sufficient to host the testing of these principles. When DSR is used in combination with action research, constraints in the environment may restrain researchers to fully inscribe or test such principles. In this paper it is argued that scholars pursuing DSR has paid insufficient attention to the type of change necessary in the local practice. We draw upon theories on IS change as punctuated equilibrium to illustrate when DSR demonstrators can be used to make substantial contributions to local practice as well as to the scientific body of knowledge.
This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Service-Oriented Perspectives in Design Science Research, DERIST 2011, held in Milwaukee, WI, USA, in May 2011.