We distinguish several design knowledge types in IS research and examine different modes of utilizing and contributing design knowledge that can take place during design science research (DSR) projects. DSR projects produce project design knowledge, which is project-specific, possibly untested, conjectural, and temporary; thus, distinct from the more stable contributions to the propositional and prescriptive human knowledge bases. We also identify solution design knowledge as distinct from solution design entities in the prescriptive knowledge base. Each of the six modes of utilizing or contributing knowledge (i.e. design theorizing modes) we examine draws on different knowledge types in a different way to inform the production of project design knowledge (including artifact design) in a DSR project or to grow the human knowledge bases in return. Design science researchers can draw on our design theorizing modes and design knowledge perspectives to utilize the different extant knowledge types more consciously and explicitly to inform their build and evaluation activities, and to better identify and explicate their research's contribution potential to the human knowledge bases.

No abstract

In this paper, we outline inherent tensions in Agile environments, which lead to paradoxes that Agile teams and organizations have to navigate. By taking a critical perspective on Agile frameworks and Agile organizational settings the authors are familiar with, we contribute an initial problematization of paradoxes for the Agile context. For instance, Agile teams face the continuous paradox of ‘doing Agile’ (= following an established Agile way of working) versus ‘being Agile’ (= changing an established Agile way of working). One of the paradoxes that organizations face is whether to start their Agile journey with a directed top-down (and therefore quite un-Agile) ‘big bang’ or to allow an emergent bottom-up transformation (which may be more in-line with the Agile spirit but perhaps not be able to overcome organizational inertia). Future research can draw on our initial problematization as a foundation for subsequent in-depth investigations of these Agile paradoxes. Agile teams and organizations can draw on our initial problematization of Agile paradoxes to inform their learning and change processes.

© 2019 by the Association for Information Systems. Posing research questions represents a fundamental step to guide and direct how researchers develop knowledge in research. In design science research (DSR), researchers need to pose research questions to define the scope and the modes of inquiry, characterize the artifacts, and communicate the contributions. Despite the importance of research questions, research provides few guidelines on how to construct suitable DSR research questions. We fill this gap by exploring ways of constructing DSR research questions and analyzing the research questions in a sample of 104 DSR publications. We found that about two-thirds of the analyzed DSR publications actually used research questions to link their problem statements to research approaches and that most questions focused on solving problems. Based on our analysis, we derive a typology of DSR question formulation to provide guidelines and patterns that help researchers formulate research questions when conducting their DSR projects.