Design science research (DSR) aims to generate knowledge about innovative solutions to real-world problems. DSR studies usually involve inductive, deductive or abductive inference strategies to generate design knowledge. However, applying these strategies has often remained implicit, which means that the transparency of the research processes could be questioned (e.g. openness, honesty). This study focuses on abductive DSR, which is often regarded as a combination of inductive and deductive strategies. Based on our literature review, we can conclude that there is a lack of prescriptive support for how to conduct abductive DSR. We have also identified that the concept of abduction is omitted in well- known DSR frameworks/methods. To address this research gap, our study applies a qualitative content analysis to analyse two abductive DSR PhD theses. The analysis outcome is a conceptual model describing central relationships and an abductive DSR process model illustrating movements between the theoretical and empirical domains. 

One essential characteristic of the Action Design Research (ADR) method is researcher-practitioner collaboration (RPC). The purpose of this paper is to present theoretical models for RPC collaboration in ADR projects. The models involve conditions, actions, and consequences concerning RPC challenges. A grounded theory approach was applied to identify the RPC challenges. The challenges were identified in a collaborative ADR project consisting of four researchers and nine organizations from the industry sector. The identified main challenges are: researcher intervention in practitioner contexts, reciprocal shaping between artifacts and design principles emerged from theory and practice, and researcher and practitioner learning. The contribution to practice, which consists of future ADR projects involving collaboration between researchers and practitioners, involves specific actions to be taken.

Purpose Action design research (ADR) has become widely accepted as a prominent research method within information systems when managing design-oriented research projects. One purpose of the ADR method is to provide methodological guidance for the building of IT artefacts. However, several scholars have reported a lack of guidance of method support at the micro level. This article aims to complement the macro level of the ADR method by integrating prescriptive method support at the micro level. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative approach including direct content analysis. An empirical ADR project was analysed in order to identify method support that could be integrated into the ADR method. Findings Method support at the micro level was identified for all the stages of the ADR method. The method support consists of procedural support, guiding concepts, and various techniques for the documentation of project tasks stated in the ADR method. Research limitations/implications The contribution to theory consists of aspects concerning the integration of macro and micro levels: relationships between normative and prescriptive support, continuous focus shifts, and method completeness. Practical implications The contribution to practice consists of explicit suggestions for method support that could be integrated into the ADR method. Originality/value This study extends previously provided knowledge by offering empirical evidence concerning theoretical constructions consisting of explicit relationships between ADR tasks and integrated method support, and elaboration on the integration of macro and micro levels.

Advancements within artificial intelligence (AI) enable organisations to reformulate strategies forexploiting data in order to refine their business models, make better decisions and maintain acompetitive advantage. We recognise the technical advantages of AI. However, our view is that thetechnical perspective as a base for decision-making is necessary but insufficient. Several studies inhuman science report that essential human knowledge and competencies that affect decision making arenot represented in AI systems. Based on this observation, we have developed design principles fordeveloping decision-support systems (DSS) that combine human intelligence (HI) with AI. The designprinciples are: design for amplified decision-making, design for unbiased decision-making and designfor human and AI learning. The design principles constitute the scientific contribution to the emergentfield of Human-Centred AI. The contribution to practice consists of a DSS (a digital prototype) thatsupports the combination of HI and AI.

Aim/Purpose: The concept of lifelong learning has attracted a lot of interest for several years. One reason is the rapid development of digital technology. The purpose of this paper is to create knowledge supporting the development of education for lifelong learning. 

Background: On meeting the growing demand for lifelong learning, universities face several challenges. One challenge is that the curriculum seldom is designed for lifelong learning. At the same time, several universities want to be attractive education partners for adult students with work experiences. There is a lack of normative and prescriptive support that can guide the development of education concerning lifelong learning.

Methodology: Design science research, interviews, grounded theory and root-cause analysis.

Contribution: Contribution to practice: A master program in Information Systems that supports lifelong learning. Contribution to theory: Advancements on design knowledge that can guide the development of education programs concerning rapid advancements in digital technology.

Findings: Five design principles: consider rapid development of digital technology, balance time-consuming bureaucratic procedures with companies’ demands for speedy access to new modern courses, simplify procedures for students applying with work experience qualifications, implement plans for competence development of teachers, and base courses on rigour and relevance. The main conclusion is that the rapid technological development causes universities to face a strategic imperative to broaden access to lifelong learning. We can also conclude that close academic-practitioner collaboration will support the design of lifelong learning.

Impact on Society: Lifelong learning improves social inclusion, active citizenship, personal development, competitiveness, and employability.

Future Research: Further validation of the design principles in order to create knowledge that can support the development of education for lifelong learning.

Aim/Purpose

Due to the rapid development of digital technology, create knowledge to support the development of education for lifelong learning.

Background

There is a lack of normative and prescriptive support that can guide the development of education concerning lifelong learning.

Methodology

Design science research, interviews, grounded theory and root-cause analysis.

Contribution

Contribution to practice: A master program in Information Systems that supports lifelong learning. Contribution to theory: Advancements on design knowledge that can guide the development of education programs concerning rapid advancements in digital technology.

Findings

Five design principles: consider rapid development of digital technology, balance time-consuming bureaucratic procedures with companies’ demands for speedy access to modern courses, simplify procedures for students applying with work experience qualifications, implement plans for competence development of teachers, and base courses on rigour and relevance.

Recommendations for Practitioners

Companies could enter the whole education program or select interesting courses or course modules.

Recommendation for Researchers

The design principles should be considered when research on guidance concerning lifelong learning for adult learners is conducted.

Impact on Society

Lifelong learning enhances social inclusion, active citizenship and personal development, as well as competitiveness and employability.

Future Research

Further validation of the design principles in order to create knowledge that can support the development of education for lifelong learning.

The increased recognition of the benefits of Service-Dominant (S-D Logic) has encouraged IT organizations to adopt an S-D Logic perspective. In order to streamline the service transformation process, a majority of them are using the best practice ITIL. However, the development of several ITIL books lacks a solid theoretical grounding based on  S-D Logic. This is problematic because it hinders IT-organizations to efficiently adopt a service perspective. The purpose of this paper is to present knowledge concerning how ITIL complies with the service perspective of S-D logic. The findings consist of knowledge about areas in ITIL which comply with S-D logic and areas where there is room for improvement. To increase compliance with a service-oriented perspective, ITIL needs to adopt contemporary definitions of service and value, including a stronger emphasis on value co-creation and abandoning a language that corresponds to traditional goods-dominant logic. The findings contribute to an improved understanding of shortcomings of ITIL regarding service-orientation. Based on the findings, this paper suggests some actions that can be applied as a remedy in cases where ITIL has low compliance with S-D logic. Moreover, the knowledge presented is essential for organizations that are using ITIL to transform their service processes to digital formats. 

The research approach of multi-grounded action research (MGAR) is presented and analyzed. This is based on a review of issues and concerns in information systems action research. MGAR builds on the epistemological principles of multi-grounding. This combines empirical, theoretical and internal grounding. The multi-grounded approach builds on elements from grounded theory; i.e. building theory inductively from data through coding procedures, but it also comprises an abductive use of extant theory. MGAR is described through six knowledge contributions: (1) the MGAR process model, (2) the MGAR knowledge model, (3) the MGAR theory model, (4) the principle of the multi-grounded change outcome, (5) the principle of the multi-grounded theory outcome and (6) the principle of mutuality of purposes. MGAR has been applied in an IT service management (ITSM) case, which serves an illustration and a validation of MGAR. In this MGAR case, the improvement of ITSM has been conducted and studied through a multi-organizational setting. In the case, there was a special focus on the service quality of IT services and the relations between service providers and customers.

Data-driven innovation (DDI) has attracted a lot of attention during recent years. Data is regarded as a key resource; the process of turning data into value is an activity, and products or services as value propositions are key objectives. However, few organizations are successful in their efforts to establish process models that support DDI. Several scholars report a lack of knowledge regarding how to manage data-driven processes. Against this background, the purpose of this paper is to fulfill this research gap by identifying and generating knowledge about DDI from a process perspective. A thorough literature review has been used to identify issues related to the DDI. The knowledge is articulated and implemented in a process model supporting organizations to exploit data in order to develop value propositions. The suggested process model consists of three integrated components: data strategy, value cycle, and data management. We can conclude that the process model extends previous models by presenting a detailed process model, applying a socio-technical perspective, offering both normative and prescriptive guidance supporting a systematic approach to data-driven innovation, and using data analytics as a generic tool for several actions in the DDI process. 

The proposal describes an ongoing research project called Data-Driven Innovation which comprises 14 researchers and 13 business partners. The project is characterized by partnership, collaboration, and interaction between the involved researchers and the business partners. The purpose of the project is to identify tools that can support the business partners in their efforts to exploit data in order to enhance service delivery and to create competitive advantage. The project is applying a socio-technical perspective in order to avoid a too one-sided technical focus. The proposal ends with presenting a number of challenges due to the increased complexity concerning the management of multiple business partners and researchers. The challenges are: maintaining the balance between competing interests, managing the problem of generalization, mutual learning, and ensure partnership throughout the project.

Design science research (DSR) has become an accepted as well as legitimated research paradigm within the IS discipline. DSR has had a significant impact on IS research and it has the potential to become even more successful.One reason for not being fully adopted is due to gaps in the understanding of DSR constructs. Our literature review has revealed that constructs often are:abstract, synonymous, overlapping, offering slightly different definitions, and difficult to grasp. One implication of these problems is that it might be hard to communicate research results not only to other researchers within the DSR community but also to other disciplines. Consequently, the purpose of this study has been to suggest a conceptual model that includes key DSR constructs and their relationships that can contribute to the understanding and communication of the DSR phenomenon.

Purpose –Over the past several decades, we have witnessed a transformation from an industrial product-oriented economy to a service economy in the IT-sector. The goal of the organizations is to increase their digital organizational capability by implementing digital service transformations. However, adopting a service perspective in the management of digital services continues to be a challenging process for many organizations (Brown et al. 2016). The adoption of a service perspective is not about a minor change of attitude; it is a paradigm shift for the whole IT-sector. One contemporary service perspective is service-dominant logic (SDL). In our literature analysis, we identified that the development of SDL is primarily based on theoretical insights gained from previous prior work by several scholars. We can conclude that theoretical grounding of SDL is firm, but that SDL lacks empirical evidence concerning experiences from applying SDL in the IT-projects. Consequently, the purpose of our study is to present empirical evidence from the use of SDL in an IT-project. The IT-project included the design of a digital tool for service assessment and service innovation.

Design/Methodology/approach – Our study has unfolded by means of a four-stage process: 1) Literature review of prior applications and evaluations of SDL, 2) Implementation of an IT-project concerning the development of a digital tool supporting service assessment and service innovation, guided by service-dominant logic, 3) Evaluation of SDL based on empirical experiences gained from the IT-project, 4) Formulation of complementing prescriptive guidance that overcomes the identified challenges in the IT-project. 

Findings – The findings consist of three challenges:

Challenge 1: The understanding of central conceptualizations in SDL.Challenge 2: The generic nature of SDL.Challenge 3: The lack of prescriptive guidance on how to use SDL in IT-projects.

Research limitations/implications (if applicable) – Contribution to the knowledge of how to adopt SDL in IT-projects. 

Practical implications (if applicable) – Prescriptive guidance that can support organizations in their efforts to transforming their business to become digital service oriented and increase their digital organizational capability.

Originality/value – The main discourse about SDL has been largely theoretical. Little attention has been given to how empirical evidence gained from IT-projects can be used to inform the further theoretical development and the practical use of SDL.

Design science research (DSR) is a legitimate research paradigm in the discipline of information systems (IS). One prominent DSR method is Action Design Research (ADR). The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the ADR method based on empirical experiences from a research project. We have found that the ADR method is highly relevant to an applied discipline such as IS. It creates a bridge between the organisational perspective and the technical perspective of the IT artefact. Moreover, the ADR method supports the dual mission of developing theory and producing knowledge that supports IS practitioners. The findings also include empirical evidence pointing towards a lack of prescriptive guidance with respect to the challenges such as: how to identify appropriate evaluation strategies, how to identify the abstraction mechanisms required to move from the specific-and-unique to the generic-and-abstract, and how to formulate design principles. Although we found adequate support at the macro level, the ADR method needs more detailed support for operationalisation in practice. To address this issue, we propose a number of guidelines that either seek to improve the ADR method or support those who apply ADR.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a general model for assessing the capabilities of organizations to collaborate on the provision of IT services. Especially, we focused on the relationship between the major units of IT departments or organizations that are called Development and Operations. We combined relevant theories in this area with empirical evidence to arrive at five capabilities and three maturity levels.  The capabilities and the maturity levels were organized as a matrix. The matrix was then filled with capability indicators based on both literature sources and empirical findings. The capability indicators serve as signs for having reached a certain maturity level in a given capability. The resulting model has been empirically tested and consolidated in several rounds with seven organizations.

Design principles represent design knowledge and constitute a prescriptive component that is included in design theory. In design science research, the formulation of generalised and intelligible design principles that can be reused in new contexts is regarded as an important outcome. Our study has revealed that existing design principles vary in terms of structure, content, and level of abstraction. This variation and inconsistency may obstruct the reusability of the design principles. The purpose of this study is to suggest support for the formulation of design principles. In order to enhance the support for the formulation of design principles, we have suggested three guidelines, which are based on analyses of theoretical statements, existing guidelines, and existing design principles. The guidelines are illustrated by using material from a design science research project.

To manage IT services continues to be a challenging process for many organizations. IT service providers are under constant pressure to deliver IT services both at a low cost and high quality, in order to maximize benefits and value for their customers. Obviously, IT service providers find that solving this equation is almost impossible. Thus, there is a need to find new principles or guidance which support satisficing and acceptable IT service delivery. Improvement of IT services delivery are often related to the concept of IT Service Management (ITSM). ITSM focuses on service delivery and can be regarded as an umbrella term including frameworks, models, and methodologies. Our review of the ITSM literature has revealed that best practices and standards have been considered as expensive to implement and maintain, have caused high expectations that are seldom fulfilled, are viewed as too complex, and have high learning thresholds which mean that learning is time-consuming. The purpose of this paper is to suggest principles concerning good enough IT service management which should be seen as a complement to established best practices and standards such as ITIL or ISO/IEC 20000 IT Service Management Standard. Our study has generated four principles: 1) focus on core processes, 2) design for co-creation of value, 3) recognize situation-specific attributes, and 4) avoid over-engineering. The purpose of the principles is to support the assessment of IT service delivery and to promote service management, with respect to costs, effort, and customer value. The principles have been implemented in a digital tool for the assessment and management of IT service delivery. The tool has been used to test and verify the principles in real empirical settings. The principles have also been collaboratively formulated by service practitioners and researchers. We claim that the principles advance theory concerning service management, by providing normative knowledge with respect to the concept of good enough. 

Digital transformation is highly relevant to most organisations in the business and the government sectors. One important aspect of digital transformation is the capability to exploit data in order to develop new services. For a number of businesses, this capability has become an imperative to their survival in an ever more competitive market. Today, data exploitation is of vital importance for innovation and economic growth. However, there is a lack of consolidated knowledge about the challenges of managing processes for data-driven innovation. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to elaborate on challenges concerning data-driven innovation. We have used the Grounded Theory approach to identify such challenges which are: lack of a systematic process, problems with data access, distrust of data, lack of appropriate digital tools and insufficient competence. Our conclusions reveal that data is rarely used as a strategic resource in data-driven innovation and that there is a lack of data management.

Purpose

No doubt, Service-Dominant (S-D) Logic has had considerable implications for research, practice, and society at large. The overall purpose of S-D Logic is to argue for the adoption of a service-oriented perspective and that service is the fundamental base for exchange. In order to establish a framework for a service-oriented perspective, 11 normative foundational premises have been suggested.

In the IT sector, a service-oriented perspective is encompassed in the widespread field of IT Service Management (ITSM). However, while ITSM practitioners have started to adopt a service-oriented perspective, and to a certain degree are becoming aware of the benefits of S-D Logic, the predominant market view still adheres to Goods-Dominant Logic. Consequently, we argue that the suggested foundational premises of S-D Logic lack embodiment in the context of ITSM. We argue that one reason is the lack of normative and prescriptive guidelines in S-D Logic. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to present normative and prescriptive S-D Logic guidelines for the ITSM context. The purpose of the guidelines is to support ITSM managers to adhere to S-D Logic in order to collaborate around service and new value propositions.

Design/Methodology/approach

In order to fulfil the purpose, researchers and practitioners have jointly applied the Action Design Research (ADR) methodology.

Findings

We present three empirically grounded normative and prescriptive guidelines, derived from three of the foundational premises and evaluated in an ITSM context. The findings show that the investigated foundational premises are valid within an ITSM context, and that they could be extended with normative and prescriptive guidelines.

Research limitations/implications

Although the study is conducted with actors existing in several service ecosystems, our study is limited to the context of ITSM.

Practical implications

The contribution supports ITSM practitioners to adhere to an S-D Logic perspective, and with a fully functional digital tool.

Originality/value

The paper provides prescriptive and normative knowledge by inscribing, applying and analysing FPs in real ITSM contexts, using a digital tool.

Key words: S-D Logic, ITSM, digital tools, service innovation

Paper type: Research paper

The application of a service-oriented perspective in the IT sector has become the paradigm, making managers highly aware of the importance of being service oriented and customer focused. In the IT sector, a service-oriented perspective is encompassed in the widespread field of IT Service Management (ITSM). However, while ITSM practitioners are, to a certain degree, becoming aware of the benefits of the contemporary Service-Dominant Logic perspective, the primary market view still adheres to Goods-Dominant Logic. The majority of IT organisations around the globe rely on the ITSM framework ITIL in order to adopt and adapt a service perspective. The purpose of this paper is to examine how the ITIL® Practitioner Guidance (the latest ITIL book) aligns with Service-Dominant Logic. The paper discusses findings in relation to four codes: Definition of service, The role of the service provider, Value and value propositions, and Co-creation.

This paper focuses on the management of IT services and especially on best practices in the IT sector. Successful organizations must continuously improve their business management, including their IT management, in order to retain competitive advantages, and thus they need to reflect upon and improve their ways of working. One important aspect of this is usage of best practices. Best practices are toolsets or frameworks for the management of business and IT alignment, and their purpose is to improve the quality of IT services through delivering superior results compared to other frameworks, time after time. The most cited, globally recognized and adopted best practice is Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL). The problem we address is that there exist contradictory claims concerning the usefulness of best practices. Due to these contradictory claims, the purpose of this paper is to learn more about the strengths and weaknesses of ITIL. To fulfill the purpose of this paper, we have conducted a qualitative study where we have collected empirical experiences from use of ITIL. We have interviewed 15 IT managers and IT consultants about their experiences of using ITIL.

We can conclude that previous findings are fragmented and thus we have presented a coherent and structured collection of empirical experiences categorized as strengths and weaknesses. The identified strengths are: high reliability, improved cost efficiency, a tool for communication and support for structured work. The identified weaknesses are: lack of concretion, adaptation difficulties, being too comprehensive and having high costs. These strengths and weaknesses have to be managed in accordance with the situation at hand. We believe that our findings can contribute in two ways: 1) they consist of a coherent and structured overview informing about both strengths and weaknesses, and 2) the weaknesses can be used as requirements for a redesign of ITIL. Our study has in a cumulative way advanced the state-of-the-art by adding new knowledge based on empirical data.

This paper focuses on the management of IT services and especially on best practices in the IT sector. Successful organizations must continuously improve their business management, including their IT management, in order to retain competitive advantages, and thus they need to reflect upon and improve their ways of working. One important aspect of this is usage of best practices. Best practices are toolsets or frameworks for the management of business and IT alignment, and their purpose is to improve the quality of IT services through delivering superior results compared to other frameworks, time after time. The most cited, globally recognized and adopted best practice is Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL). The problem we address is that there exist contradictory claims concerning the usefulness of best practices. Due to these contradictory claims, the purpose of this paper is to learn more about the strengths and weaknesses of ITIL. To fulfill the purpose of this paper, we have conducted a qualitative study where we have collected empirical experiences from use of ITIL. We have interviewed 15 IT managers and IT consultants about their experiences of using ITIL. We can conclude that previous findings are fragmented and thus we have presented a coherent and structured collection of empirical experiences categorized as strengths and weaknesses. The identified strengths are: high reliability, improved cost efficiency, a tool for communication and support for structured work. The identified weaknesses are: lack of concretion, adaptation difficulties, being too comprehensive and having high costs. These strengths and weaknesses have to be managed in accordance with the situation at hand. We believe that our findings can contribute in two ways: 1) they consist of a coherent and structured overview informing about both strengths and weaknesses, and 2) the weaknesses can be used as requirements for a redesign of ITIL. Our study has in a cumulative way advanced the state-of-the-art by adding new knowledge based on empirical data.

The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical evidence that the design science framework Information System Research (ISR) works in practice. More than ten years has passed since ISR was published in the well-cited article ‘Design Science in Information Systems Research’. However, there is no thoroughly documented evaluation of ISR based on primary data. That is, existing evaluations are based on reconstructions of prior studies conducted for other purposes. To use an existing data set to answer new or extended research questions means to conduct a secondary analysis. We point to several risks related to secondary analyses and claim that popular design science research frameworks should be based on primary data. In this paper, we present an evaluation consisting of empirical experiences based on primary data. We have systematically collected experiences from a three-year research project and we present ting of both strengths and weaknesses are presented. The main strengths are: the bridging of the contextual environment with the design science activities and the rigorousness of testing IT artefacts. The main weaknesses are: imbalance in support for making contributions to both theory and practice, and ambiguity concerning the practitioners’ role in design and evaluation of artefacts. We claim that the identified weaknesses can be used for further development of frameworks or methods concerning design science research. 

Information technology implementation continues to be a challenging process for many organisations and one of the challenges is the transition to service orientation. To apply a service perspective is not a minor change of attitude; it is a paradigm shift for the whole IT sector. Providers of IT services can no longer afford to focus on solving technical problems, they now have to consider the quality of the services and focus on the relationship with customers. The purpose of this paper is to examine how the popular ITIL frameworks comply with a service perspective. We have used service-dominant logic as an analysis model to find out how ITIL corresponds to a service perspective. The findings show that while ITIL highly corresponds to the service perspective in some aspects it fails in others, such as recognising the customers as value co-creators and that products are a distribution mechanism for services.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically ground design science research methodology. We claim that popular design science research methodologies lack empirical grounding based on primary data. That is, the empirical grounding is based on reconstructions of studies conducted for other purposes. To use an existing data set to answer new or extended research questions means to conduct a secondary analysis. We point at several risks related to secondary analyses and we claim that popular design science research methodologies should be based on primary data. Thus, we have systematically collected methodology users’ empirical experiences and reflections from DSR projects and structured them according to the Three Cycle View [23].  The overall findings show that the experiences are mainly positive. However, there are negative experiences such as the guidelines’ granularity, lack of rigorousness concerning evaluation of new knowledge, and support for collaboration.

The problem we address is that researchers have insufficiently investigated the processes and nuances of Business and IT alignment. One attempt to tackle Business and IT alignment in a process-oriented way is to adopt the concept of IT Service Management (ITSM). However, identified challenges entails that ITSM is hard to define and that existing ITSM frameworks sometimes are considered as overly complex containing an extensive process scope, making it costly and hard to implement. The purpose of this workshop paper is to understand in what way are ITSM core processes supporting business and IT alignment? Our qualitative research approach embraced a two-phase method based on empirical studies where identified core processes were mapped using the Strategic Alignment Model. The result shows that the core of ITSM consists of five processes and that these processes somewhat constitute the bridges and interfaces that aligns Business and IT.

Purpose: In order to reduce or eliminate different organizational problems, the sector of manufacturing often makes use of the two popular concepts: Agile and Lean. Lean as well as Agile have been proven to contribute with significant benefits such as responding to changing environments and to reduce costs. A literature review reveals that researchers have advanced the idea of Lean and Agile concepts coexisting through the development of a theory of “LeAgile” manufacturing. However, the state-of-art shows that Lean and Agile still are separately discussed in a shared context and that they are not yet clearly and fully integrated. Furthermore the existing LeAgile theories are only studied within the industry concerning manufacturing and production systems and the empiric evaluations are vague. The main purpose of this paper is to study Lean and Agile concepts within an IT Service Management (ITSM) context in order to understand how they could be fully integrated and what the expected value is. Methodology: In order to find an answer to the research question, we have applied a qualitative research approach. The research approach embraced three phases in a three year project where researchers studied several ITSM organizations. Findings: Our study shows that it is possible to fully integrate components of Lean and Agile concepts within the ITSM sector. The decoupling point previously defined in Leagile theory have become blurred. We have also shown that embracing “LeAgile IT Service Management” leads to positive effects such as: higher customer satisfaction, better communication between service providers and consumers, increased efficiency (and effectiveness), reduced costs and improved quality. Originality: The originality is justified by the scope of application (ITSM) in combination of the empirical sources used. The scientific contribution is motivated by the debate on how Lean and Agile philosophies can co-exist within organizations. The contribution consists of improved knowledge to each of the Lean and Agile fields separately as well as to the LeAgile theory and ITSM. The practical contribution is motivated by the identification of existing problems within the ITSM sector and how the LeAgile concepts can reduce them.

Purpose – IT service management (ITSM) is a discipline for management and maintenance of IT-systems and is claimed to play a critical role in supporting and satisfying business requirements. However, from a customer perspective, ITSM is considered as being costly and the outcome is not always satisfactory. Measurements used to monitor and evaluate ITSM-processes are mainly suggested from a service provider perspective. The purpose of this paper is to suggest measurements for ITSM based on a customer perspective that can be used for improving questionnaires. Design/methodology/approach – The SERVQUAL scale has been used as a base for suggesting customer-oriented measurements for the ITSM-field. The gathered qualitative empirical data consisted of customer feedback, in questionnaires, to five IT service providers in Sweden. Based on these empirical data, the SERVQUAL scale has been modified according to ITSM-specific customer requirements. The service providers represent the sectors: car construction, forest management, IT consultants, public sector and logistics. Findings – The paper demonstrates three types of findings: confirmation of original SERVQUAL determinants that could be reused in the ITSM-field, modification of attributes of the SERVQUAL determinants to better fit in the ITSM-field, and development of new categories and new attributes. Moreover, the analysis of SERVQUAL in relation to the empirical data revealed that the SERVQUAL’s original conceptual structure needed to be improved. The authors have added a third hierarchical level that supports a conceptual understanding. Originality/value – The knowledge contribution consists of a developed SERVQUAL, adjusted to fit the ITSM-field, and a suggested new conceptual structure of SERVQUAL consisting of three concepts: determinant, category and attribute.

Design Science Research (DSR) has been practiced for decades and is an accepted and wide spread research approach in the discipline of Information Systems (IS). DSR is The huge popularity of DSR has lead to that DSR has become the research paradigm within the IS discipline. One purpose of DSR is to guide design and evaluation of artifacts. However, popular DSR methodologies lack empirical evidence based on primary data. This lack is also recognized by several authors of DSR methodologies. Using secondary data for answering new questions implies an analytic expansion which means that methodological issues have to be considered. The purpose of this work-in-progress paper is to justify the need of empirically grounded DSR methodologies by using primary data.

The purpose is to suggest guidelines for supporting the transfer of design and evaluation methods from one organization/field/sector to another. There exist a variety of methods for designing and evaluating interactive socio-technical systems. Many of them have been developed for dedicated purposes, such as heuristic evaluation, referring to specific situations and artifacts. Due to the recent diversification of devices and the continuing diffusion of society with interactive systems, applying design and evaluation methods in an effective and efficient way has become crucial, in particular when operating under tight economic conditions and demanding user constraints. Learning from other projects, cases, disciplines or sectors seems to be one way to effectively apply methods in design and evaluation. In order to validate the suggested guidelines, the guidelines are theoretically informed and empirically supported by the use of a case study. The results consist of a set of seven guidelines for method transfer. The guidelines are described in terms of questions to ask, expected input and expected output and how they relate to the other guidelines. Transferring methods require an informed procedure, reflecting the rationale of methods, application-specific factors and experience of use. In this paper, some conceptual foundations are given when exploring transferability of methods and implemented in the field of IT cross-sector developments. The developed guidelines allow developers to identify situation-specific elements and design an effective learning experience for a case at hand. The introduced content structure and interactive features show an effective way of developer support.

Universal access development procedures refer to the systematic effort to proactively apply principles and tools applicable to universal design, in order to construct accessible and usable interactive systems in various domains. They rely on principles, methods, and tools from accessibility engineering, usability engineering, and user experience.

Detta dokument , som primärt riktas till deltagande organisationer i projektet, ska ses som ett komplement till presentationer och diskussion vid de gemensamma möten där deltagande organisationer och forskare träffats.

Information systems as an artefact-oriented discipline require a strong interaction between researchers, developers and users regarding design of, development of, and the study of the use of digital artefacts in social settings. During recent years, performing research in a design science research spirit has gained increasing interest. In larger scale design research endeavours, access to systems development capabilities becomes necessary. Such a unit, InnovationLab, was established in 2006 in a university setting in Sweden. In this paper we are investigating the 5 years’ experience of running this InnovationLab. Our findings point to an innovation lab being valuable for research in general and especially for design science research. However, in order to balance the business of an innovation lab, it will be necessary to provide services for other stakeholders (such as administrative units, teachers, and students) as a means for developing systems development capability aimed at supporting researchers.

IT Service Management (ITSM) is an expensive field where small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) need to become more efficient in their ITSM related work in order to cut costs and improve quality. The focus of this paper is to suggest a solution to the scarcity of process improvement methods dedicated to ITSM-processes in SMEs. The solution consists of an agile self-assessment method designed and evaluated in accordance with Design Science Research. The aim of the method is to support SMEs in their attempt to evaluate and improve their quality of ITSM processes. The findings show that the method creates opportunities for organizations to improve their ITSM processes. The method can be used to identify process gaps in comparison to standards for ITSM. It can also be used for benchmarking purposes within an organization as well as it can guide an organization’s improvement efforts. The method also depicts a standard that is easy for SMEs to understand and to use as guidance (with ITSM specific examples). Finally, the method enables SMEs to implement standards for ITSM in a resource-efficient way. Based on empirical evidence from applying the method the conclusion is that the method is useful for the intended target group and that the method agrees well with theories within the field.

In this paper we have analyzed design science research (DSR) from a process perspective. Our analysis is mainly based on the paper, “Design science in information systems research” (Hevner et al., 2004) and an empirical study embracing seven organizations. In Hevner et al., (2004) there are two major contributions: 1) an information systems research framework and 2) seven design guidelines. In this paper, we have chosen to focus on the latter contribution. The purpose of the suggested seven design guidelines is to “… assist researchers, reviewers, editors, and readers to understand the requirements for effective design-science research”. However, there is no explicit information in which order the guidelines are supposed to be conducted and if there is an order of sub-activities (sub-processes) within each guideline. Hence, we are challenging the recommendations of how design science research should be conducted by applying a process perspective. Our research contribution consists of a suggestion for improved guidelines for DSR presented as a process model. We have analyzed each guideline according to required input, recommended activities and expected output. The process model demonstrates relationships between the seven guidelines and outlines activities that are supposed to be conducted within each guideline.

This paper addresses collaborative research as an action research approach. Many times action research is described as embracing one research organisation and one business organisation. We are challenging this view by introducing the concept of collaborative practice. A collaborative practice can be seen as a cluster of local practices and researchers working together. In this way, a collaborative practice should enable joint learning between, and joint development efforts for, several business practices as well as contributing to general practice and the scientific body of knowledge. Based on a case study within efficient IT Service Management (ITSM), the concept of collaborative practice and its relation to other adjacent concepts (such as local practice, general practice and scientific body of knowledge) have been characterized. Our results should be viewed as preliminary since they are gathered from an ongoing project.

The purpose of this paper is to challenge some of the cornerstones of the grounded theory approach and propose an extended and alternative approach for data analysis and theory development, which the authors call multi-grounded theory (MGT). A multi-grounded theory is not only empirically grounded; it is also grounded in other ways. Three different grounding processes are acknowledged: theoretical, empirical, and internal grounding. The authors go beyond the pure inductivist approach in GT and add the explicit use of external theories. A working procedure of theory development in MGT is presented, which can be seen as an extension of the grounded theory approach.

Today we are primarily using computers for communication. We communicate via computers as professionals and at our spare time. One growing context of computer use is when we as citizens communicating with authorities. This paper suggests communication criteria for evaluation of public e- services. The suggested criteria are derived from a communication perspective and applied in a case study for evaluation of an e-service. Communication between authorities and citizens are often communication intensive and consequently conditions and consequences of communication should be evaluated. The aim of the suggested communication criteria is to be a complement to established traditional usability criteria.

Abstract: This study is about course evaluation in Swedish higher education. Performing course evaluation is regulated in Swedish law. Despite this, only half of the courses are evaluated. The aim of this study is to understand why satisfactory course evaluations not are performed. Problems are identified from a student perspective and the paper provides proposals for reducing the problems. In order to tackle the problems an evaluation process model consisting of five phases is proposed. A main message is that there is need for an increased government from the university’s management levels to revise the incentives for performing a satisfactory course evaluation.

This paper is about the knowledge transferring between IT-consultants. IT-consultants are involved in many complex and challenging situations. They need to manage organisational, semantic and technical issues. Managing this complexity requires a high and a variety of competences. Examples of competences needed are business development, project management, information system development methods and techniques. An IT-consultant often makes continuous movements between different assignments and clients. The competence developed is often individually based. Individually based knowledge is not sufficient since the IT-consultants have to carry organisational working procedures. Furthermore, the competence needed is not static; it is something that should evolve dynamically. In this paper we are proposing a collective competence development approach. The collective competence development approach consists of a process model and a conceptual model. The aim of both these models is to make individual based knowledge as subject to collective reflection.

Projektets mål har varit att utveckla co-designbegreppet samt att identifiera nya innovativa samarbetsformer mellan inhyrare och uthyrare (bemanningsföretag) av temporär arbetskraft. Co-design har av flera forskare rapporterats som framgångsrikt Co-design kan ses som en multi- intressentmodell där intressenter stimuleras att tänka ”outside the box” för att hitta nya hållbara lösningar. Syftet är identifiera och diskutera relevanta perspektiv för att skapa en gemensam förståelse av både problemet och den mest tilltalande lösningen. Tillämpandet av co-design innebär en ständig växling mellan ett gemensamt skapande och en gemensam reflektion. Att uppnå en progression genom artikulering ses som viktigt. Vår analys av begreppet co-design har lett till att vi identifierat flera styrkor som är relaterade till innovationsprocessen, verksamhetsdesign, IT-design och samarbete. Vår analys har också identifierat ett antal brister. T ex är det oklart hur överenskommelser ska träffas när konflikterande perspektiv möts. En annan brist är att co-design är väl beskrivet som teori men behöver utvecklas som metod. Dvs, det är oklart hur ett konkret tillvägagångssättet ser ut. Vi har särskilt studerat och baserat resultat utifrån att användning av workshop som arbetsform i ett co-designperspektiv. Vi har genomfört en förstudie av ett co-design-projekt med ett flertal medverkande aktörer. Medverkande i projektet har varit inhyrare av arbetskraft, uthyrare av arbetskraft (tre bemanningsföretag), en facklig organisation samt forskare. De resultat som projektet tagit fram kan indelas i två huvudkategorier. Det ena huvudkategorin är ett tentativt resultat som handlar om workshops som en innovativ arbetsform. Den andra huvudkategorin handlar om förslag på samarbetsområden mellan inhyrare och bemanningsföretag. De identifierade områdena är både sådana som har en förbättringspotential och sådana som innebär helt nya samarbetsmöjligheter.

Information systems as an artefact-oriented discipline require a strong interaction between researches, developers and users regarding, design of, development of, and the study of the use of digital artefacts in social settings. During latter years performing research in a design science research spirit has gained increasing interest. In larger scale design research endeavours access to systems development capabilities becomes necessary. Such a unit, an InnovationLab, was established in 2006 in a university setting in Sweden. In this paper we are investigating the five years of experience from running this InnovationLab. Our findings point to an innovation lab being valuable for research in general and especially for design science research. However, in order to balance the business of an innovation lab it will be necessary to provide services for other stakeholders (such as administrative units, teachers, and students) as means for developing systems development capability aimed for supporting researchers.

Vindtjänsten är en e-tjänst för analys av vindkraftsförhållande om ansökan om tillstånd för konstruktion av vindkraftverk. Vindtjänsten har utvecklats med finansiellt stöd av VINNOVA och med Boverket som ursprunglig huvudman. Huvudmannaskapet för fortsatt utveckling och drift innehas av Energimyndigheten. Vindtjänsten utvecklades inom ramen för projektet Planeringsportalen som startade 2006 och avslutades under sommaren 2009. Syftet med att utveckla Vindtjänsten är att skapa en e-tjänst för en samlad planeringsinformation. Vindtjänsten skall stödja både vindkraftsentreprenörer och myndigheter i vindkraftsutbyggnadsprocessen och bidra till en snabbare och effektivare hantering. Två utvärderingsansatser har använts för att granska Vindtjänsten: målbaserad och kriteriebaserad utvärdering. Den målbaserade utvärderingen har resulterat i att flera överordnade mål har infriats. Den huvudsakliga karaktären på det stöd som erbjuds är texter för läsning. Information finns både internt i Vindtjänsten men är också externt åtkomlig vi länkar. Det interaktiva stöd som erbjuds motsvaras av den del som kallas för Kartvisaren. Den kriteriebaserade utvärderingen har fokuserat mer användbarhetsfrågor som t ex enkelhet, begripligt språk, handlingstransparens, feedback och informationsstrukturering. Utvärderingen har resulterat i att uppfattningen att Vindtjänsten (inklusive Kartvisaren) är enkel att använda även om en förbättringspotential finns. Studier av de arbetsdokument som framtagits under utvecklingsarbetet visar att projektet haft höga ambitioner inledningsvis som successivt reviderats. Vindtjänsten ger ett gott stöd för att få en samlad planeringsinformation men samtidigt finns en förbättringspotential. Den utvecklingsinriktning som rekommenderas för att ytterligare förbättra Vindtjänstens 1 2010-06-02 användbarhet är: interaktivt stöd för ansökan om tillstånd av vindkraftsetableringar, införande av interaktiva blanketter samt förbättrad pedagogisk uppbyggnad av informationsstrukturer genom en förbättrad kategorisering av information och menyindelning.

This paper is about the knowledge transferring between IT-consultants. IT-consultants are involved in many complex and challenging situations. They need to manage organisational, semantic and technical issues. Managing this complexity requires a high and a variety of competences. Examples of competences needed are business development, project management, information system development methods and techniques. An IT-consultant often makes continuous movements between different assignments and clients. The competence developed is often individually based. Individually based knowledge is not sufficient since the IT-consultants have to carry organisational working procedures. Furthermore, the competence needed is not static; it is something that should evolve dynamically. In this paper we are proposing a collective competence development approach. The collective competence development approach consists of a process model and a conceptual model. The aim of both these models is to make individual based knowledge as subject to collective reflection.

This paper is challenging the usability of traditional usability guidelines. The claim is that guideline descriptions and explanations are not satisfactory. Analysis results demonstrate vagueness and are ambiguous in explanation. The aim of the paper is to propose a set of principles (meta-guidelines) to be used for improving the usability of guidelines.

Abstract: This paper outlines nine key principles to consider when designing a study program. Design principles are essential when revising education programs in the field of information systems due to the rapid changes in business technique. These principles are generated from an em-pirical study concerning the development of a modified study program. The principles identi-fied are: Vision; Traceability; Progression and Integration; Manning the development project and anchoring decisions; Pedagogy; Mandatory vs. free choice of courses; Implementation; Evaluation and Marketing. These are compared to a list of criteria generated by the Swedish National Agency for Higher Education and the outcome of this comparison is that several of the principles can also be used for the evaluation of study programs. The research has been carried out as action research. This means that there has been an intervention in the process of the designing the study program. The target groups of this paper are study boards, faculty members, teachers and students that are active in different student associations.

This paper evaluates how semi-randomly formed project groups, compared to forming groups at free will, affect students’ learning in a project-oriented setting. The findings are based on empirical data. We have analyzed students’ experiences by taking a course in the subject of Information Systems. The identified experiences are considered to be either a strength or a problem. We can conclude that how we form project groups has an effect on learning. We can also conclude that several of the experiences from semi-randomly formed project groups are of both a positive and negative nature. In the concluding chapter, we give some explanations in order to understand the differences in students’ experiences.

This paper challenges traditional grounded theory. Both theoretical and empirical grounding is proposed as claims of validity for theory generation. This paper builds on a framework about multi-grounded theory (MGT) presented in Goldkuhl & Cronholm (2003). In that paper the framework is presented on a conceptual and procedural level. The aim of this paper is to support the use of multi-grounded theory. This paper also takes a critical stand towards MGT.

All around the world there is a huge amount of money invested in IT. It is therefore important to evaluate the return on the investment. Evaluation is complicated and consequently there are a lot of proposals for how to evaluate IT-systems. Several of these proposals reside on the theoretical level. The aim of this paper is to be more concrete and discuss evaluation in terms of “how to do”. This paper builds on a evaluation framework presented by Cronholm & Goldkuhl (2003). In that paper, six generic types for evaluation are presented on an ideal typical level. In this paper, evaluation processes are suggested for how the generic types can be carried out in order to support the use of that framework.

This paper evaluates students' experiences from learning and examination when using a project oriented work approach in an undergraduate information systems development course. The result in this paper shows that students' has an overall positive attitude towards project oriented work. It provides students with an arena for discussing different perspectives, peer-to-peer learning, social interaction and a dynamic work setting. Motivating factors are that the work is authentic, prepare students for working life and last but not least considered as fun. There is however an anxiety about unfair grading that needs to be dealt with. The individual performance must be measured and be a central part of examination and grading. The students must be provided with opportunities to demonstrate what they are able to do on a course, and get genuine feedback on that. This is a way of reducing the free rider syndrome.

Abstract.The issue at stake is how to conceive user interfaces of IT artefacts in an organisational and semiotic perspective. Different communicative functions of user interfaces are investigated and the sequencing of user-system interaction. Two earlier models in the information systems actability approach are investigated and integrated: The Elementary InterAction Loop (EIAL) and the communicative model of user interfaces. Three new EIAL models are created dependent on three interaction modes (reading, formulation and navigation mode). A small example from eldercare is used for illustration. The foundations of the different interaction models in socio-instrumental pragmatism are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to challenge some of the cornerstones of Grounded theory and propose an extended alternative approach for data analysis and theory development, which we call multi-grounded theory (MGT). A multi-grounded theory is not only empirically grounded. Three different grounding processes are acknowledged: Theoretical, empirical and internal grounding. We go beyond the pure inductivist approach in GT and add the explicit use of external theories. A working structure of MGT is presented, which can be seen as an extension of Grounded theory.

The problem we are approaching is that the actions offered by computerized information systems (IS) often seem to disharmonize with the actions performed in work practice. In this paper, we have analysed a representative usability-oriented checklist supporting design and evaluation of computer-based systems. The analysis has been made from an action perspective. One result is that the checklist is more oriented towards cognitive aspects. Action oriented improvements are suggested.

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the decision of how to perform evaluation depending on the evaluation context. Three general strategies of how to perform evaluation are identified: Goal-free evaluation, goal-based and criteria-based evaluation. Two general strategies of what to evaluate are identified: IT-system as such and IT-system in use. From the three “how-strategies” and the two “what-strategies” we derive a matrix consisting of six generic types of evaluation. Each one of the six types are categorised on a ideal typical level. For each type there is suggested evaluation process model.

This paper evaluates experiences from novice use of the qualitative analysis methodology grounded theory. The methodology can be understood as a reaction against more traditional scientific approaches such as hypothesis testing and quantitative analysis. The paper tries to answer the question: What problems and strengths arise from the practical use of grounded theory? In order to answer the question a list of problems and strengths, categorised into the methodology phases open coding, axial coding, selective coding and theoretical sampling, is presented. Some findings of a more general nature are also presented.

The paper presents an approach to the evaluation of information systems based on the concept of information systems actability, which is suggested as an important alternative way to understand the role and pragmatic use of IT-systems within organizations. the reults, empirically informed byt two case studies, show that the suggested approach can effectivly be used to direct evaluators' attention to import aspects of an IT-system related to the social actions performed by its use within a business context.

In this chapter, we discuss an evaluation of a computerized information system in an elderly care unit. The evaluation is based on the concept of actability, which is a combination of theories from Human-Computer Interaction and the Language Action Perspective. The reason for uniting different theories is to obtain a more holistic evaluation model. The findings show that the evaluated system has a low degree of actability, and the users had a positive attitude towards the system. One explanation could be that we, as evaluators, reviewed both structure and content, whereas the users saw only the content of the information system (i.e., its functions) as the most important aspect.

System development methods are often used as aids during the development of information systems. This paper examines the concept of method and other related notions in order to achieve a better understanding of their meaning and structure. The motivation for this paper is the emerging flora of different and related concepts and thus a need to sort things out. The main contribution of the paper is a conceptual model describing how the method concept and other related notions relate.

This thesis describes usability goals for method tools. Method tools are a type of CASE-tool aiming to support computer- and method-based information systems development. The aim of the thesis is to develop knowledge in order to suggest recommendations for achieving more usable method tools. The thesis takes an action perspective. An important starting-point in identifying usability goals are the existing modelling acts in the system development process specifying requirements for how method tools shall be developed.The thesis is performed as a prototyping approach embracing three steps. Output from a previous step is used as input to the following step. Further the thesis is based on studies of real cases where actors have interacted with method tools. In order to gain data I have used questionnaires, interviews and observations. The thesis embraces 12 usability goals for method tools. These goals are empirically generated and theoretically grounded. The identified usability goals are primary oriented towards the use situation system developer, method tool and task. Several usability goals can be characterised as more general and therefore are valid in areas beyond this use situation.The main contributions of this thesis are recommendations for developing method tools, a goal-means hierarchy presenting a composite description of usability attributes for method tools, characterising knowledge in a taxonomic form and a model which describes how modelling acts are related to usability goals.