A Framework for Identifying Design Science Research Objectives for Building and Evaluating IT Artifacts

Even though many types of Design Science Research (DSR) frameworks and methods exist, little effort has been made to examine and little attention has been paid to investigate objectives identification in DSR. We believe that it is worthwhile to draw attention to the role that DSR objectives play in building and evaluating designed artifacts. Thus, this study developed a framework to answer two research questions: (1) What kinds of objective dimensions can be identified and used for different information technology (IT) artifacts? (2) How can these objectives be linked to the process of building and evaluating IT artifacts? The framework was demonstrated and evaluated by a case study and expert interviews. Our aim was to assist current and future Design Science researchers in the information systems (IS) discipline in identifying research/project objectives.