Benefits and relevance of International Standards in a design science research project for process assessments

One critical challenge in IT Service Management (ITSM) process assessment is the issue of transparency in the way ITSM processes are assessed. A Design Science Research (DSR) project was executed to design, develop and evaluate an artefact in order to conduct software-mediated process assessments in ITSM. International Standards were used to validate the design, development and evaluation of the research artefact in order to demonstrate that the artefact is relevant to practice. Studies relating to the use of International Standards to validate DSR artefacts are scant regardless of broader adoption of the DSR studies and acceptance of the International Standards in practice. DSR studies in particular are required to maintain a balance between research rigor and relevance by reporting artefacts that solve a class of problems based on scientific justification and practical evidence. International Standards provide bodies of knowledge that ensure products, services and processes are of acceptable quality and relevant to practice. Our DSR project confirmed that the external validity of an artefact can be improved with the use of International Standards. Using three International Standards, process assessment ISO/IEC 15504-330xx series, IT Service Management ISO/IEC 20000 series, and System and Software Quality Models from ISO/IEC 25010, this manuscript presents an account of a DSR project with three evaluation sites where the artefact was tested in real organizational contexts. The project demonstrated the significant role of International Standards to confirm research relevance during artefact design, development and evaluation.