Business Commons^™

A Proposed Theoretical Foundation For The Information Systems Discipline (Version 1. 1), Steven Alter

Business Analytics and Information Systems

“Rethink the theoretical foundations of the IS discipline” is one of the grand challenges for IS research identified in a Delphi study in Business Information Systems Engineering (Becker et al., 2015). This draft addresses that challenge directly through an integrated approach to the operation and evolution of systems. Almost any attempt to articulate a theoretical foundation for IS (a TFIS) would need to cover that topic although other attempts might emphasize other topics and other viewpoints.

The proposed Theoretical Foundation for IS (TFIS) has three main goals:

1) Integration. Build outward from an integrated core. Do not accept the excuse …

Satisfying Four Requirements For More Flexible Modeling Methods: Theory And Test Case, Steven Alter

Business Analytics and Information Systems

Recent research in conceptual modeling and enterprise modeling calls for relaxing common assumptions about the nature of modeling methods and related modeling languages and metamodels. This paper pursues that goal by proposing a new vision of modeling methods that overcomes some of the limitations identified in the literature by satisfying four requirements for more flexible modeling methods. That vision builds upon the integration of multiple modeling techniques that are related to an overarching metaphor. Those techniques may address heterogeneous purposes such as specifying a system’s capabilities or specifying which resources are used by specific activities. This paper presents design characteristics …

How Facets Of Work Illuminate Sociotechnical Challenges Of Industry 5.0, Steven Alter

Business Analytics and Information Systems

This conceptual contribution explains how the idea of “facets of work” can refocus traditional sociotechnical concerns to increase their relevance in increasingly automated and digitalized workplaces far removed from situations studied by early sociotechnical researchers. A background section summarizes how the sociotechnical approach seems pervasive but possibly outdated in some ways. It explains how the idea of “facets of work” emerged from attempting to bring richer, more evocative ide-as to systems analysis and design. Focusing on facets of work during initial discussions of requirements could provide guidance without jumping prematurely to precision and notation needed for producing technical artifacts. Tables …

Using A Work System Perspective To Expand Bpm Use Cases For Research, Steven Alter, Jan Recker

Business Analytics and Information Systems

Business Process Management (BPM) has developed as a research field centered within the computer and information systems sciences – but also touching other fields as well. Recently, van der Aalst (2013) analyzed the results of some of these research efforts and identified a set of research topics in the form of a series of BPM use cases that primarily emphasize technological and computational challenges and solutions in BPM academia. Ideally, however, BPM should also address managerial and organizational challenges that are not fully reflected in the existing use cases identified by van der Aalst (2013). We propose drawing on work …

Nothing Is More Practical Than A Good Conceptual Artifact... Which May Be A Theory, Framework, Model, Metaphor, Paradigm Or Perhaps Some Other Abstraction, Steven Alter

Business Analytics and Information Systems

This research commentary proposes a way to make progress in the IS discipline’s inconclusive discussion about the nature and role of theory. In some ways, the creation and testing of theory seems to be the primary goal of IS research. Despite that, there are persistent questions whether theory has become a fetish in the IS discipline and whether the routinized production and testing of mid-range theories is little more than an uninspired script that reduces the value and interest of IS research. This paper reframes the discussion around the idea of ‘conceptual artifact’ that has been discussed widely in educational …

Overcoming Silo Thinking In The Is Discipline By Thinking Differently About Is And It, Steven Alter

Business Analytics and Information Systems

This essay challenges fundamental, silo-oriented assumptions about the IS discipline. It shows how work system theory and its extensions form a potential basis for overcoming that silo-orientation and finding and exploiting areas of overlap with other disciplines. Within the IS discipline, this paper shows how WST and extensions provide a basis for thinking differently about fundamental topics including the following: IS as a system-related discipline, system usage, sociotechnical systems, planned and emergent change in systems, system development and systems analysis and design, user participation and IS/IT projects, attaining value from IS and IT, IS success, business/IT alignment, and IS theories …

Sociotechnical Systems Through A Work System Lens :A Possible Path For Reconciling System Conceptualizations, Business Realities, And Humanist Values In Is Development, Steven Alter

Business Analytics and Information Systems

This position paper describes an approach that might increase the likelihood that the sociotechnical perspective will take its proper place in today’s world. This paper questions the clarity of the traditional STS notion of joint optimization of a social system and technical system. It explains how the integrated system view in work system theory (WST) and the work system method (WSM) might provide a more straightforward way to describe, discuss, and negotiate about sociotechnical systems. Using WST/WSM to bypass the effort of separately describing and jointly optimizing social and technical systems might make it easier to engage effectively in discussions …

Potentially Valuable Overlaps Between Work System Theory, Demo, And Enterprise Engineering, Steven Alter

Business Analytics and Information Systems

This paper explores how work system theory (WST) and related core ideas in various versions of the work system method (WSM) overlap with enterprise engineering and with the DEMO methodology. Based on the definition of work system, an enterprise can be viewed as a set of interacting work systems. A work system can be summarized at various levels of detail. The simplest level is basically a verb phrase. The next level is a “work system snapshot.” More detailed descriptions are based on a work system metamodel.

This paper’s contribution is in two areas, 1) establishing links between WST/WSM and enterprise …

Knowledge-Supported Design Thinking About Systems In Organizations: An Application Of Work System Theory, Steven Alter

Business Analytics and Information Systems

This paper explains a type of knowledge-supported design thinking related to systems in organizations. It shows how work system theory (WST) provides the basis for the work system method (WSM), various versions of which have been used by many hundreds of MBA and Executive MBA students. Design thinking occurs throughout WSM and is especially prominent at the point where WST/WSM users apply their analysis and develop recommendations for improving an existing work system or creating a new work system. Knowledge support for that design thinking has been provided through the knowledge built into WSM, and can be provided in a …

Is Work System Theory A Practical Theory Of Practice?, Steven Alter

Business Analytics and Information Systems

This paper describes an exploration of whether ideas related to pragmatism, practical theory, and practice theory provide potentially useful directions for extending work system theory (WST), which is an outgrowth of an attempt to develop the work system method (WSM), a flexible systems analysis method for business professionals. After summarizing WST’s basic premises and its two central frameworks, this paper uses a positioning map to explain reasons for considering relationships between WST and a number of topics related to practical issues and practice theory. Based on that positioning map, the subsequent sections discuss relation-ships between WST and UML, Goldkuhl’s workpractice …

Exploring The Temporal Nature Of Sociomateriality From A Work System Perspective, Steven Alter

Business Analytics and Information Systems

This paper uses work system theory (WST) to explore the temporal nature of sociomateriality. It summarizes concepts related to WST and sociomateriality, and notes sociomaterial aspects of WST. It uses static and dynamic views of a work system toexamine six examples that can be classified in one of three time frames, minutes-to-hours, days-to-weeks, and months-to years. The result is a straightforward interpretation of systems and related events across all of the time frames, which exhibit different types of phenomena related to adaptations, workarounds, emergence of informal work patterns, and sequences of formal projects. After approaching sociomateriality from a perspective not …

Genuinely Service-Oriented Enterprises: Using Work System Theory To See Beyond The Promise Of Efficient Software, Steven Alter

Business Analytics and Information Systems

The concept of service-oriented enterprise has great potential. Taken literally, however, it raises many issues, including practical difficulties of creating a service-oriented enterprise in the computer science sense and the huge leap from flexible IT infrastructure to an enterprise that is genuinely oriented toward providing services for customers and employees. This paper is a conceptual contribution showing how work system theory can help in seeing analysis and design issues beyond technical architectures that have dominated research to date. After summarizing background concepts related to service, service systems, and the vision of service-oriented enterprises, this paper explains how work system theory …

A Work System Front End For Object-Oriented Analysis And Des, Steven Alter

Business Analytics and Information Systems

This paper proposes that basic ideas from the work system theory (WST) and the work system method (WSM) might become a front end to object-oriented analysis and design (OOAD). After describing the background motivation and summarizing work system concepts, it uses a hiring system example to show how two tools from WSM can be used as a front end for OOAD, in effect, a step before creating use case diagrams. Potential benefits of this approach stem from a business-oriented question, "how can we improve this work system's performance," rather than an IT-oriented question, "how can we create an IT artifact …

Using Work System Theory To Achieve Greater Business Value From Erp By Exploring Alternative Design Spaces, Steven Alter

Business Analytics and Information Systems

This paper explains how various aspects of work system theory (WST) can be applied to achieve greater business value from ERP by assuming that the underlying "design spaces" encompass much more than the features, configuration, and limitations of ERP software. It uses WST concepts to identify directions for achieving business value that might not be considered thoroughly in ERP implementations that focus primarily on converting from legacy software to ERP software.

This paper starts by summarizing basic premises concerning the relationship between work systems and ERP. Focusing on the context of ERP usage, it explains the elements of the two …