A Review of Design Science in Information Systems

This paper gives an appraisal of recent writings on design science in the information systems discipline. The authors believe that the new emphasis on design could be an insightful way to look at the discipline as long as the focus and emphasis of design science is broadened from a technical software engineering perspective to include and embrace the necessary social and organizational considerations. In addition, some potential confusions that surface in the recent design science publications are discussed, including conflating design activity with research. We argue that a reappraisal of some issues of concern may be required to ensure that design science fulfills its promise of building knowledge of design and improving practice in information systems