Understanding Context through a Comprehensive Prototyping Experience: A Testbed Research Strategy for Emerging Technologies

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are rapidly changing and new technologies, processes, and skills are constantly emerging. An important challenge for the research community is to gain knowledge about these emergent technologies in specific contexts, sometimes before they are actually implemented. This paper draws on our experience in the use of comprehensive prototyping as a methodology for building understanding of emerging technologies in new contexts. A Testbed research strategy combines various prototyping, business analysis, team work, and training techniques to understand the specific characteristics of a technology and the context in which it is going to be embedded. The paper presents three cases of Testbed research approaches developed within a 10 year period and presents some insights based on those experiences to inform the efforts of both practitioners and researchers

[1]  C. H. Kriebel.  Management information systems , 1970, ACM '70.

[2]  Rob Kling,et al.  The Web of Computing: Computer Technology as Social Organization , 1982, Adv. Comput..

[3]  Gary W. Muller,et al.  Designing Effective Organizations: The Sociotechnical Systems Perspective , 1988 .

[4]  John Mingers,et al.  Combining IS Research Methods: Towards a Pluralist Methodology , 2001, Inf. Syst. Res..

[5]  Kenneth A. Kozar,et al.  Management's Role in Information System Development Failures: A Case Study , 1978, MIS Q..

[6]  Rob Kling,et al.  Social Informatics in Information Science: An Introduction , 1998, J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci..

[7]  Kori Inkpen Quinn,et al.  Evaluating early prototypes in context: trade-offs, challenges, and successes , 2005, IEEE Pervasive Computing.

[8]  Jane E. Fountain,et al.  Enacting Technology: An Institutional Perspective , 1995 .

[9]  L. Douglas Smith,et al.  Prototyping for Systems Development: A Critical Appraisal , 1985, MIS Q..

[10]  Cathie Hammond,et al.  The Wider Benefits of Adult Learning: An Illustration of the Advantages of Multi‐method Research , 2005 .

[11]  Bernard H. Boar,et al.  Application prototyping: a requirements definition strategy for the 80s , 1984 .

[12]  Jia Zhang,et al.  Mockup‐driven fast‐prototyping methodology for Web application development , 2003, Softw. Pract. Exp..

[13]  Daniel Robey,et al.  A Social Process Model of User-Analyst Relationships , 1992, MIS Q..

[14]  Fabrice Kordon,et al.  An Introduction to Rapid System Prototyping , 2002, IEEE Trans. Software Eng..

[15]  Abbas Tashakkori,et al.  Mixed Methodology: Combining Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches , 1998 .

[16]  Gerardine DeSanctis,et al.  Capturing the Complexity in Advanced Technology Use: Adaptive Structuration Theory , 1994 .

[17]  Rob Kling,et al.  Learning About Information Technologies and Social Change: The Contribution of Social Informatics , 2000, Inf. Soc..

[18]  Henk Sol,et al.  Proceedings of the 54th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences , 1997, HICSS 2015.

[19]  James A. Senn.  A Management View of Systems Analysts: Failures and Shortcomings , 1978, MIS Q..

[20]  Zhichang Zhu,et al.  WSR: A systems approach for information systems development , 2000 .

[21]  P BostromRobert,et al.  MIS Problems and failures a socio-technical perspective part II , 1977 .

[22]  Wanda J. Orlikowski,et al.  Information Technology and the Structuring of Organizations , 2011 .

[23]  Rob Kling,et al.  IT and organizational change in digital economies: a socio-technical approach , 1999, CSOC.

[24]  Wanda J. Orlikowski,et al.  Research Commentary: Desperately Seeking the "IT" in IT Research - A Call to Theorizing the IT Artifact , 2001, Inf. Syst. Res..

[25]  Michele H. Jackson,et al.  Alignment of system and structure in the implementation of group decision support systems , 1998 .

[26]  Enid Mumford,et al.  A Socio-Technical Approach to Systems Design , 2000, Requirements Engineering.

[27]  Jason L. Dedrick,et al.  Computing and Public Organizations , 1986 .

[28]  Theresa A. Pardo,et al.  Multi-Method Approaches to Digital Government Research: Value Lessons and Implementation Challenges , 2006, Proceedings of the 39th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS'06).

[29]  Maryam Alavi,et al.  An assessment of the prototyping approach to information systems development , 1984, CACM.

[30]  Raya Fidel,et al.  Interdisciplinary analysis of digital government work , 2006, DG.O.

[31]  Justus D. Naumann,et al.  Prototyping: the new paradigm for systems development , 1982 .

[32]  Theresa A. Pardo,et al.  E-government success factors: Mapping practical tools to theoretical foundations , 2005, Gov. Inf. Q..

[33]  J. Fountain.  Building the Virtual State: Information Technology and Institutional Change , 2001 .

[34]  Jane Fulton Suri,et al.  Experience prototyping , 2000, DIS '00.

[35]  M. Drake.  Management of Information , 1989 .

[36]  Anthony M. Cresswell,et al.  Making Smart IT Choices Understanding Value and Risk in Government IT Investments , 2004 .