Re-Visiting IS Design Science Artifacts: Making a Case for Critical Realism

Abstract

In this paper critical realism is suggested as a \ suitable philosophical assumption to guide a \ separate, stand-alone retrospective evaluation of \ design science projects and artifacts. A main \ contribution of the paper is to argue that knowledge \ can be gained in retrospective evaluations of design \ science projects regardless of the success or nonsuccess \ of the project itself. Thereby, retrospective \ evaluation complements current evaluations that are \ mostly means-end focused. The argumentation is \ supported through re-visiting two e-government \ design science projects, which can be considered \ both as failures and successes depending on the \ framing. Critical realism puts focus on knowing \ through making and widens the use of design science \ in areas where utility is not the main goal. Future \ research should focus on providing more details on \ how a critical realism retrospective in design science \ should be carried out.