Abstract
This paper aims to extend understanding of the nature of information systems and technology (IS/IT) artifacts and the manner in which information systems design theories address the mutable nature of these artifacts. The term ‘semizoa’ is introduced to refer to IS/IT artifacts as mutable systems that exhibit some of the characteristics of living creatures and that are only in part designable. It is shown that the mutability of semizoa can be both constrained and enabled in IS design theories, using concepts of homeostasis, situated action, autopoiesis, learning, evolution, emergence and redesign. Consideration of the range and nature of these characteristics provides a source of ideas for systems designers in designing for specific IS meta-requirements. In addition, we show that IS design theories should include a reflective structural component dealing with the mutability of not only the system state but also its structure (schema). The paper contributes by addressing the lack of attention to the distinctive characteristics of IS/IT artifacts and by extending current ideas of design theories and theorising.
Table of Contents
Information systems (IS) is increasingly represented as a discipline that is concerned with the design, construction and use of artifacts based on information technology (IT) (see Weber, 1987; March and Smith, 1995; Dahlbom, 1996; Orlikowski and Iacono, 2001; Benbasat and Zmud, 2003; Hevner et al., 2004). The term ‘artifact‘, however, tends to be used in a rather unreflective and undifferentiated manner and the distinctive characteristics of this class of artifact are not discussed. There is little critical examination of the assumptions that underlie different treatments of artifacts. One assumption we believe should be questioned is the view that an IS/IT artifact is a relatively immutable result of a design process — an ‘end state’ that is arrived at as a result of a search process (see March and Smith, 1995; Hevner at al., 2004). A fixed end state is more characteristic of the inorganic artifacts that result from other design disciplines such as engineering (for example, a bridge, railway or painting).
Our argument is that IS/IT artifacts differ in fundamental ways from these other products of human design activity and that we need to talk about them and theorise about them in different ways. IS/IT artifacts are inherently dynamic systems. It was recognised early on that they evolve and change and that their real use may differ from their intended use (see Keen and Scott Morton, 1978). Dynamic systems are studied in many contexts and under many labels, including cybernetics, general systems theory, system dynamics, the systems approach and complex adaptive systems. Parallel lines of thought can be detected in structuration theory. Yet there is little if any attention paid in these fields to how such systems are designed — most effort is devoted into studying their behaviour as existing objects, following the natural science paradigm. The time is ripe to take ideas from the study of complex systems and see how they can be melded with ideas from the design science paradigm to give a much richer picture of design theorising in IS/IT. To date the borrowing from theories of complex systems has tended to be piecemeal and outside an encompassing framework.
The aim of this paper is to extend our meta-theoretical understanding of the nature of IS/IT artifacts as growing, changing and dynamic systems and the manner in which information systems design theories (ISDTs) can address the mutable nature of these artifacts. We provide a high-level framework for thinking about design theories that provide for the mutability in IS/IT artifacts in different ways. The need to explicitly include a component dealing with the mutability of designed artifacts in ISDTs is argued for in Gregor and Jones (2004, 2006).
We claim that a new way of thinking is required to capture design conceptualisations of IS/IT artifacts as complex phenomena that change and adapt in varying ways and to varying degrees. The term we introduce here to capture a more encompassing view of organic-type artifacts in IS and IT is semizoa a word derived from the Greek for living creatures (zoa). We define semizoa as IS or IT artifacts that exhibit the characteristic of mutability to some degree, that is, they grow, change (or are changed), and exhibit adaptive behaviour. Further, semizoa have the potential to modify, transform or constrain their surrounding environment.
Our work has theoretical significance because of the lack of prior attention to artifact mutability in the formal specification of design theories (as in Walls, et al., 1992, 2004). The paper also potentially has considerable practical significance. We agree with van Aken (2004), who argues eloquently that one needs prescription-driven research that provides solutions for management problems in addition to description-driven research that enables us to understand the nature of problems, but leaves undone the task of developing interventions. Differing from van Aken, however, our focus lies in complex artifacts that require considerable design and development activity. A sounder and fuller basis for developing design theory for artifacts of this type offers opportunities for developing better theory to underpin design and development activities in practice.
Note that our investigation is meta-theoretical: it is not a specific theory but is a higher level analysis of a particular category of theorising — ‘design theorising’.
The composition of the paper is as follows. The following section reviews perspectives in IS on the IS/IT artifact and proposes a continuum between designed and natural artifacts and argues there is a need to recognise IS/IT artifacts as semizoa. We then proceed by considering a number of the ways in which designing for mutability occurs with semizoic artifacts. Our discussion leads to a number of suggestions as to how design theories and design theorising could benefit from our arguments. We conclude with some suggestions for further work.