it3010 lecture 4 design and creation
DESCRIPTION
This lecture is dedicated to research that aims to create new computer systems. You will learn about what is important in order to increase the rigor of your design-oriented research.TRANSCRIPT
IT3010 / TDT39Research Methodology
Week 4: Design and creation
Name, title of the presentation
Figure 3.1 in: B. J. Oates, Researching Information Systems and Computing. London: Sage Publications, 2006.
The research process
Types of contributions
• Constructs: Vocabulary for an IT-related domain.
• Models: Description of phenomena using the vocabulary.
• Instantiations: Working systems that are used as proof-of-concept to illustrate that produced constructs, models and methods are useful.
• Methods: Processes and steps to follow in order to solve problems in the domain.
Entity
Relationship
PizzaCustomerOrders
DB
Agile
ProperPizza.com
Research, not Development
• If you make some IT-related artefact, how do you make sure you are doing research and not only development?
Big decision to make
• What is the role of the IT system in my research?– The main focus of the research
• E.g. a novel online Pizza order application.• Research domain: Computer science.
– A vehicle for something else• E.g. learning about pizza eating habits of a population.• Research domain: Information systems
– A tangible outcome of a process, where the process is my focus• E.g. learning about how good agile methods are for developing this kind
of applications.• Research domain: (Empirical) software engineering
• In any case: if you build a system, you need to document the process and what you learned from it.
Types of research activities
Types of research activities: Example
• ProperPizza.com– Build: Create a novel user
interface concept based on a theory from psychology.
– Evaluate: Observe users and interview them after they have used the system.
– Theorize: Describe how your system can be said to support the underlying theory.
– Justify: Explain how the results of your evaluation supports or refutes the underlying theory.
Methodology confusions!
• First confusion: Design and creation should be the only strategy I use in my research.
• Second confusion: Development methodology is the same as research methodology.
How to increase the quality of your work?
(aka "How to get an A")• Focus on improving rigor and
relevance• Rigor: E.g. am I showing
relation to state-of-the-art in models, theories, technology? Am I novel?
• Relevance: Do I manage to motivate? Have I chosen a specific user group and have I planned evaluations with this user group?
Next week
• Interview, observation.• Deliver assignment 2.• Group 4 presents paper 4.