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.