Design Science, the design of systems and Operational Research: back to the future&quest

R O'Keefe
Additional contact information
R O'Keefe: Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, UK

Journal of the Operational Research Society, 2014, vol. 65, issue 5, 673-684

Abstract: The relationship between the science of decision making and the design of systems that support or automate the decision-making process is vital to both academic and practical Operational Research (OR). There is a long-standing need to better understand how OR can be structured so as to contribute to the design of systems, rather than just the science of decisions. This paper articulates the notion of design-oriented OR, particularly within the context of IT-enabled systems, as one approach to addressing this issue. It proposes Design Science (DS) as one way of achieving design-oriented OR, and suggests a reference model for DS as a design-oriented approach to OR. The use and value of DS within the broader remit of management research, and differences with existing systems methodologies, are briefly considered. It concludes by noting that a DS approach would return OR, at least partially, to the values and approach of early OR practitioners, and hence back to the future.

Date: 2014
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.palgrave-journals.com/jors/journal/v65/n5/pdf/jors2012175a.pdf Link to full text PDF (application/pdf)
http://www.palgrave-journals.com/jors/journal/v65/n5/full/jors2012175a.html Link to full text HTML (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:jorsoc:v:65:y:2014:i:5:p:673-684

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... search/journal/41274

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of the Operational Research Society is currently edited by Tom Archibald and Jonathan Crook

More articles in Journal of the Operational Research Society from Palgrave Macmillan, The OR Society
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().