Tool-Support for Design Science Research: Design Principles and Instantiation

Design Science Research (DSR) is now an accepted research paradigm in the Information Systems (IS) field, aiming at developing purposeful IT artifacts and knowledge about the design of IT artifacts. A rich body of knowledge on approaches, methods, and frameworks supports researchers in conducting DSR projects. While methodological guidance is abundant, there is little support and guidance for documenting and effectively managing DSR processes. In this article, we present a set of design principles for tool support for DSR processes along with a prototypical implementation (MyDesignProcess.com). We argue that tool support for DSR should enable researchers and teams of researchers to structure, document, maintain, and present DSR, including the resulting design knowledge and artifacts. Such tool support can increase traceability, collaboration, and quality in DSR. We illustrate the use of our prototypical implementation by applying it to published cases, and we suggest guidelines for using tools to effectively manage design-oriented research.