Identifying and Addressing Stakeholder Interests in Design Science Research: An Analysis Using Critical Systems Heuristics

Abst r a ct This paper ut ilises t he Crit ical Syst em s Heur ist ics (CSH) fram ew ork dev eloped by Werner Ulrich t o crit ically consider t he st akeholder s and design goals t hat should be consider ed as r elevant by researchers conducing Design Science Resear ch (DSR). CSH provides a philosophically and t heoret ically gr ounded fram ework and m eans for crit ical considerat ion of t he choices of st akeholder s considered t o be r elevant t o any syst em under design considerat ion. The paper recom m ends t hat legit im at ely undert aken DSR should include wit nesses t o represent t he int er est s of t he fut ure consum er s of t he out com es of DSR, i.e., t he fut ure client s, decision m akers, professionals, and ot her non-included st ak eholder s in t he fut ur e use of t he solut ion t echnologies t o be inv ent ed in DSR. The paper furt her discusses opt ions for how wit nesses m ight be included, who should be wit nessed for and obst acles t o im plem ent ing t he recom m endat ions. Design Science Research (DSR) has r ecent ly received m uch at t ent ion in t he I nform at ion Syst em s lit erat ur e. MI S Quart erly, t he I S field's flagship publicat ion, has published a sem inal art icle (Hevner et al, 2004) and a special issue on DSR. Thr ee int ernat ional conferences on t he t opic have now been held focusing on t he t opic (Hevner and Chat t erj ee, 2006, Chat t erj ee and Rossi, 2007, Baskerville and Vaishnavi, 2008) wit h a fourt h t o be held soon. Web pages on t he t opic have been cr eat ed and incorporat ed int o I S World Net (Vaishnavi and Kuechler, 2005). DSR is a paradigm or st r eam of I S research t hat aim s t o help solve im port ant hum an, organisat ional, and business problem s t hrough t he invent ion, design, and dev elopm ent of new " solut ion t …