Research

My research deals with the design, evolution and management of techno-organizational systems blending research methods from organizational science and software engineering.

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publications

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presentations

software

Themes that repeatedly surface, in different guises, in my research agenda include the following:

Theme 1: Knowledge codification for Designing and Evolving Complex IT Systems in Organizations

Key Challenge: understand the content and form of design knowledge, understand and improve design processes and outcomes:
- What is the content and form of knowledge that can be codified, disseminated and taught that can deal with the complexities of building integrated IT systems in organizations? What are the fundamental laws governing the design and re-design of complex IT systems in organizations?
- Component areas: reuse, domain models, body of knowledge, service-oriented computing, process management, modeling
- Audience: IT designers, developers, maintainers, software architects, IT organizations, IT project managers, standards bodies
- Theoretical bases: ontology, heueristics, cognitive science, open systems, language-action

Theme 2: Alternative paradigms for researching Complex, Integrated IT systems - Design Sciences

Key Challenge: devise and evaluate interventionist and empirical research to study design of IT and organizations:
- What are the key philosophical underpinnings of designing as research, and how do they intersect with related research approaches at the boundaries of IT and organizations? What are the approaches for empirical analysis of large-scale and abstract IT artifacts? How are information technologies standardized?
- Component areas: epistemology, philosophy of science, research methods, philosophy of technology, design science, action research, process models
- Audience: researchers, organizations, standards bodies
- Theoretical bases: epistemology, philosophy of science, research methods, sense-making, actor networks

Theme 3: Managing the Implementation and Deployment of Complex, Techno-Organizational Systems

Key challenge: understand and improve deployment efforts integrated systems within and across organizations:
- What are the fundamental properties of efforts aimed at implementation and deployment of IT-organizational systems? How should they be managed to mitigate risks?
- Audience: IT project managers, Tactical managers
- Key areas: risk management, project management, complex adaptive systems, risk society
- Theoretical bases: open systems, complex adaptive systems, attention-shaping

Edited: January 2009