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4 ERICKSON AND SIAU
VARIOUS CLASSIFICATION SCHEMES FOR SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND
DESIGN RESEARCH

One issue the editors of this volume needed to resolve was the classification of the chapters. Several
perspectives or dimensions were considered, and these are briefly reviewed below.
Iivari, Hirschheim, and Klein (2001) used a framework consisting of paradigms, approaches,
methodologies, and techniques. In the social sciences, the term “paradigm” is usually used to
describe the basic assumptions underlying coexistent theories (Burrell and Morgan, 1979). An
approach can be viewed as the basic principles, goals, and concepts that anchor the way systems
development is understood and developed. Examples are the object-oriented approach and the
structured approach (e.g., data flow diagram). Methodologies, which are composed of specific
procedures, are closely related to the more general and goal-driven approaches. An example is the
unified process. The methodologies are used to guide information systems development. Finally,
techniques can be seen as “well-defined sequence(s) of basic operations.” Examples of techniques
are class diagram and use case diagram. If the techniques are properly completed, they can lead
to specific (and measurable) results.
One common classification of research is pure research versus applied research. Pure research
aims at expanding human knowledge, but does not necessarily find immediate application in
practice or the real world. Development of new techniques or methodologies in systems analysis
and design fall under this category. Applied research not only expands the knowledge base, but
also can be applied to problems in the real world. Examples are the fine-tuning of an existing
methodology and technique for use in an organization. With the goal of obtaining new knowl-
edge, pure research can move in any direction and is not constrained by the issue of whether the
result is immediately useful or not. Later events may show that pure research becomes useful in
unexpected places and unexpected ways. For example, while SIMULA I and Simula 67, the first
two object-oriented languages, were developed in the 1960s, object-oriented programming only
became popular in the 1980s.
Another way to classify research is to look at the underlying philosophies of the approaches,
methodologies, or techniques. Hirschheim, Klein, and Lyytinen (1995) distinguished between the
ontology and epistemology perspectives. Ontologies are ways to classify the world in terms of
its unchangeable, foundational, and universal structures. The world of ontologies can be further
decomposed into two separate perspectives, realism and nominalism. Whereas realism proposes
that a set of absolute laws and structures underlies the universe, the nominalism perspective posits
that there is no absolute set of law and structures, and that those that exist are created by humans
via social networks and structures. The epistemology perspective of the world proposes to set a
basis for what constitutes knowledge, how new knowledge is acquired, and what investigations
into the world may be and how they should be conducted. The two endpoints of the epistemol-
ogy dimension are positivism and interpretivism. Positivism proposes that the scientific method
can be used to explain relationships between entities in terms of their causes, and to discover the
universal truth underlying the world. Interpretivism, on the other hand, assumes that no absolute
truths, if they exist at all, can be scientifically proved or disproved.
Avison and Fitzgerald (2003) classified systems development methodologies into time-based
eras, in which popular methodologies reflected the state of the art in terms of systems development
in the general time frame or era. They described the 1960s and 1970s as the Pre-Methodology
Era, during which the attention was focused mostly on the technical and hardware limitations.
Examining the business needs underlying development was nearly always secondary. The Early
Methodology Era was the time period between the late 1970s and early 1980s. The Systems