Benefits and relevance of International Standards in a design science research project for process assessments

Abstract

One critical challenge in IT Service Management (ITSM) process assessment is the issue of transparency in theway ITSM processes are assessed. A Design Science Research (DSR) project was executed to design, develop andevaluate an artefact in order to conduct software-mediated process assessments in ITSM. International Standardswere used to validate the design, development and evaluation of the research artefact in order to demonstratethat the artefact is relevant to practice. Studies relating to the use of International Standards to validate DSRartefacts are scant regardless of broader adoption of the DSR studies and acceptance of the InternationalStandards in practice. DSR studies in particular are required to maintain a balance between research rigor andrelevance by reporting artefacts that solve a class of problems based on scientific justification and practicalevidence. International Standards provide bodies of knowledge that ensure products, services and processes areof acceptable quality and relevant to practice. Our DSR project confirmed that the external validity of an artefactcan be improved with the use of International Standards. Using three International Standards, process assess-ment ISO/IEC 15504-330xx series, IT Service Management ISO/IEC 20000 series, and System and SoftwareQuality Models from ISO/IEC 25010, this manuscript presents an account of a DSR project with three evaluationsites where the artefact was tested in real organizational contexts. The project demonstrated the significant roleof International Standards to confirm research relevance during artefact design, development and evaluation.