Constructive Research Timo Soininen, Casper Lassenius, Jari - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

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Constructive Research

Timo Soininen, Casper Lassenius, Jari Vanhanen

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Software Business and Engineering Institute

HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

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Contents

What is constructive research? Why constructive research? Phases of constructive research Evaluating constructive research Building blocks for constructive research in

Software Engineering

Philosophical musings Exercise

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W hat is Constructive Research?

Constructive research

Aims at producing novel solutions to practically and

theoretically relevant problems

Managerial problem solving through the construction of

models, diagrams, plans, organizations, etc.

Widely used in software engineering and computer science,

rarely in management and social sciences

The engineering research tradition Often involves other approaches (qual. & quant.) A.k.a. design research,

Construction

An entity, which produces a solution to an explicit problem

mathematical algorithm Morse alphabet activity-based costing (ABC)

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SoberIT

Software Business and Engineering Institute

HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

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Shaw, 2001

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SoberIT

Software Business and Engineering Institute

HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

S200110U-VI 5(21)

Shaw, 2001

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SoberIT

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HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

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Hevner et al. 2004

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SoberIT

Software Business and Engineering Institute

HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

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Hevner et al. 2004

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The Constructive Approach as a Methodology

Is a type of applied studies

production of new knowledge in the form of normative

applications

creates a new reality – does not try to understand, explain,

classify, etc. the existing one

Constructive approach vs.

basic studies have no explicit normative purposes development of techniques purely aim at improving skills and

means

analytic model building (applied studies) has unclear practical

adequacy

scientific problem solving may produce unique solutions consulting does not presuppose use of scientific methods

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Phases of the Constructive Research Process

Idealized model

• 1. Find a practically relevant problem
• 2. Obtain an understanding of the topic and the problem
• 3. Innovate, i.e., construct a solution idea

heuristic process theoretical justification and testing come later

• 4. Demonstrate that the solution works
• 5. Show theoretical connections and research contribution
• 6. Examine the scope of applicability
• In practice the steps do not follow each other in a simple

sequence - the process is both iterative and sometimes recursive

• Q: How long does this take?

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1 . Finding a relevant problem 2 . Preunderstanding

Finding the problem

Sources of problems

Literature Colleagues Own experience

The problem should be

practically relevant!

Preunderstanding

Practical

get your feet wet empirical work, e.g.,

interview study or

• bservation

(participation)

Theoretical

scan ”relevant” literature talk to other researchers get a big picture of

existing knowledge

ensure theoretical

relevance

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3 . I nnovate

Hevner et al. 2004

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4 . Test / Validate

Innovate and test phases

can be and often are intertwined

Validation is perhaps the

hardest part of constructive research

Validation should be

performed in industrial settings, whenever possible – to ensure practical relevance

Validation employs other

techniques, such as action research and case studies

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Market-based Validation of Managerial Constructions

Weak market test

a manager applies the construction in a company

Semi-strong market test

constructions becomes widely adopted by companies

Strong market test

systematic application produces better financial results

Semi-strong and strong market tests require statistical

analysis of a substantial amount of implementation data

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Shaw / Validation

Shaw, 2001

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Hevner et al. 2004

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5 . Show theoretical contribution & novelty 6 . Exam ine scope of applicability & generalize

• Novelty

crucial, but don’t be too hard

• n yourself

Lots of possibilities

entirely new idea (rare) cross-domain knowledge

sharing

improved idea /

implementation / solution

interesting research

approach

...

• Knowing the field &

positioning is crucial to novelty and theoretical contribution

• Generalize

broad = good? hypothesize as ground for

further testing

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Evaluation Criteria for Constructive Research

Construct

Relevance

Theoretical Relevance Practical Relevance

Novelty Practical utility

difficult to assess the practical adequacy of any new

construction prior to its implementation

difficult because of organizational factors technical success != practical success

Research process

rigor

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Software Business and Engineering Institute

HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

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Hevner et al. 2004

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SoberIT

Software Business and Engineering Institute

HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

S200110U-VI 19(21)

Shaw, 2001

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SoberIT

Software Business and Engineering Institute

HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

S200110U-VI 20(21)

Shaw, 2001

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SoberIT

Software Business and Engineering Institute

HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

S200110U-VI 21(21)

Shaw, 2001

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SoberIT

Software Business and Engineering Institute

HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

S200110U-VI 22(21)

Shaw, 2001

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SoberIT

Software Business and Engineering Institute

HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

S200110U-VI 23(21)

Shaw, 2001

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SoberIT

Software Business and Engineering Institute

HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

S200110U-VI 24(21)

Shaw, 2001

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I s the Constructive Approach Scientific?

Characteristic features of the constructive method

step-by-step procedure, where steps can be checked serves some definite purpose, is goal-driven

Objectivity, criticalness, autonomy

checking the steps

Progressiveness, criticalness

shows concretely, which solutions work, and don’t work working constructions tend to lead to new questions

Relevant, simple, easy to use

inadequate solutions become eliminated by users

• ften the simplest idea is the most adequate one

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The SoberMethod( ?)

The common methodological framework for SoberIT? Are we the ones embarking on the ”amalgamation”

movement (Glass et al., 2004) at HUT?

”Although historically [ computing] has evolved as several

stovepipes of knowledge—predominantly, as we have said, CS, SE, and IS—there is now some impetus for

• amalgamation. ... some integrated schools of computing have

already been formed, ...”

”There are problems on the amalgamation horizon, ... They

have not, in the past, communicated well with each other. ... In what may be the biggest problem of all, there is a tendency for each of the fields to disdain the work of the

• thers. ... These problems must be addressed before any

amalgamation could possibly be effective. ”

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Selected Reading

Glass RL. The Software Research Crisis. IEEE Software 1994; 11(6): 42-7. Alan R. Hevner, Salvatore T. March, Jinsoo Park, and Sudha Ram . 2 0 0 4 . Design science in inform ation system s research. MI S Quarterly Vol. 2 8 No. 1 , pp. 7 5 -1 0 5 / March 2 0 0 4 . Kasanen, Eero, Lukka Kari, and Arto Siitonen. 1993. The Constructive Approach in Management Accounting Research. Journal of Management Accounting Research, 5 (1), pp. 243-263. Shaw , M. 2 0 0 1 . The Com ing-of-Age of Softw are Architecture

• Research. Proceedings of I CSE-2 0 0 1 , pp. 6 5 7 -6 6 4 . Los Alam itos,

CA: I EEE Com puter Society Press. Shaw, M. 2002. What makes good research in software engineering? International Journal on Software Tools for Technology Transfer. (2002) 4: 1–7 Robert L. Glass, V. Ramesh, and Iris Vessey. An analysis of research in computing disciplines. Communications of the ACM Volume 47, Number 6 (2004), Pages 89-94.

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Software Business and Engineering Institute

HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

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Exercise

Read at overview level the section ”Guidelines

for Design Science in Information Systems Research” of Hevner et al., 2004

Study at surface level (abstract, intro, headings,

conclusions) the example articles. What elements of the research cycle do you identify, how are they carried out, how well?

Discussion

Hevner et al. 2004