This book provides guidelines for practicing design science in the fields of information systems and software engineering research. A design process usually iterates over two activities: first designing an artifact that improves something for stakeholders and subsequently empirically investigating the performance of that artifact in its context. This "validation in context" is a key feature of the book - since an artifact is designed for a context, it should also be validated in this context. The book is divided into five parts. Part I discusses the fundamental nature of design science and its artifacts, as well as related design research questions and goals. Part II deals with the design cycle, i.e. the creation, design and validation of artifacts based on requirements and stakeholder goals. To elaborate this further, Part III presents the role of conceptual frameworks and theories in design science. Part IV continues with the empirical cycle to investigate artifacts in context, and presents the different elements of research problem analysis, research setup and data analysis. Finally, Part V deals with the practical application of the empirical cycle by presenting in detail various research methods, including observational case studies, case-based and sample-based experiments and technical action research. These main sections are complemented by two generic checklists, one for the design cycle and one for the empirical cycle. The book is written for students as well as academic and industrial researchers in software engineering or information systems. It provides guidelines on how to effectively structure research goals, how to analyze research problems concerning design goals and knowledge questions, how to validate artifact designs and how to empirically investigate artifacts in context - and finally how to present the results of the design cycle as a whole.

Starting in the late 1980s, the CAiSE series of conferences has established a platform for presenting and exchanging results of design-oriented research in - formation systems. In addition to the presentation of new information systems techniques, recent years have seen the rise of empirical validation of such te- niques. There is also increasing attention for industry participation. The 21st CAiSE conference, held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, during June 8-12, 2009, continued this tradition. The theme of CAiSE 2009 was "Information Systems for Business Innova- on." Due to the widespread use of the Web, businesses innovate their propo- tions to customers and come up with new IT-enabled services. Such innovation requires understanding of business and technology in an integrated way. Mul- disciplinary research areas such as service science, networked enterprises, and social networking are paying attention to IT and business innovation. This t- me wasevidentbothinthe pre-conferenceworkshopsandinthe invitedspeakers of the conference. The ?rst two days consisted of pre-conference workshops on business process modelling, modelling methods, requirements engineering, organizational mod- ling, interoperabilityandcooperation, the knowledgeindustry, ontologies, gov- nance, Web information systems, business-IT alignment, legal aspects, systems of things and domain engineering. The conference proper was combined with a doctoralconsortiumwherePhDstudentscouldpresentanddiscusstheirresearch plans and with an industrial event with presentations and exhibitions. Four invited speakers shed light on the role of ontologies in business, p- cess mining, business networking and IT entrepeneurship. Highlights of the conference included a concert and dinner in the world-famous Concertgebouw building and a reception in the Muziekgebouw aan het IJ in Amsterdam harbor.

This book provides guidelines for practicing design science in the fields of information systems and software engineering research. A design process usually iterates over two activities: first designing an artifact that improves something for stakeholders and subsequently empirically investigating the performance of that artifact in its context. This "validation in context" is a key feature of the book - since an artifact is designed for a context, it should also be validated in this context. The book is divided into five parts. Part I discusses the fundamental nature of design science and its artifacts, as well as related design research questions and goals. Part II deals with the design cycle, i.e. the creation, design and validation of artifacts based on requirements and stakeholder goals. To elaborate this further, Part III presents the role of conceptual frameworks and theories in design science. Part IV continues with the empirical cycle to investigate artifacts in context, and presents the different elements of research problem analysis, research setup and data analysis. Finally, Part V deals with the practical application of the empirical cycle by presenting in detail various research methods, including observational case studies, case-based and sample-based experiments and technical action research. These main sections are complemented by two generic checklists, one for the design cycle and one for the empirical cycle. The book is written for students as well as academic and industrial researchers in software engineering or information systems. It provides guidelines on how to effectively structure research goals, how to analyze research problems concerning design goals and knowledge questions, how to validate artifact designs and how to empirically investigate artifacts in context - and finally how to present the results of the design cycle as a whole.