Evaluation Patterns for Design Science Research Artefacts

Artefact evaluation is regarded as being crucial for Design Science Research (DSR) in order to rigorously proof an artefact’s relevance for practice. The availability of guidelines for structuring DSR processes notwithstanding, the current body of knowledge provides only rudimentary means for a design researcher to select and justify appropriate artefact evaluation strategies in a given situation. This paper proposes patterns that could be used to articulate and justify artefact evaluation strategies within DSR projects. These patterns have been synthesised from priorDSR literature concerned with evaluation strategies. They distinguish both ex ante as well as ex post evaluations and reflect current DSR approaches and evaluation criteria.