The Creation of a Framework for a Focused Research Problem Development in Information Systems.

One of the goals of Information Systems (IS) is to solve business related problem with the appropriate use of relevant technologies. However, to solve the problem, people must be able to identify and articulate the problem. In the context of Governmental Agencies, for example, Ministers try to champion some type of technology change. They for example issue directives to their agency to implement particular systems within a defined time period (usually attached to their term of office). The Information Technology (IT) personal, who do not want to disappoint the Minister, hastily try to develop solutions. The current researcher sees a fundamental flaw with this approach. The proposed problem may have not been well defined and articulated. From the current IS literature there is currently no acceptable framework for identifying and articulating 'business' related problem. A survey of the current Information Systems literature shows that there is very little written about problem-based research (PBR). There exists no frameworks, guidelines or theoretical models. In the business context, practitioners may be using PBR tools and techniques, but are not aware of it. Ellis and Levy (2008) propose a framework for problem-based research. They, however, fall short of defining problem-based research. The current researcher conceptualize problem-based research in systems as 'an approach/methodology/mode that is engaging a business environment, focused/rooted on a particular even/problem, is practice focused and attempts to provide a practical solution.' The current researcher postulates that most IS projects fail or go over budget because the actual problems that the IS projects is meant to address in essence has never been well describes and well defined. The researcher further argues that problem-based research will reduce that gap between research and practice. There is a perception that people may not be aware that they use PBR, it is important that people are led through all four of the phases of the levels of competency (Klopper, Lubbe, & Rugbeer, 2007) (i.e. from unconscious incompetence, to conscious incompetence, then to conscious competence and finally to unconscious competence). This is to ensure that people follow a proper PBR approach. It is important to distinguish the mind set, managers always look for a solution to a problem were as scientists have a solution and then look for a problem they can use it on. The researcher argues that by following the PBR approach, the documentation of the research project will be shortened, more precise and focused. The researcher further argues that problem-based research techniques are being used in industry, it is at an unconscious incompetence (Klopper et al., 2007) (Unconscious incompetence: being unaware of something, its relationship to other things, and how it can be used in conjunction with other things.) Practitioners use a 'gut feeling' approach or it is based on sparks of commercial insight. The researcher further argues that the time factor (Saunders, 2007), complexity, uncertainty and ambiguity influence the timing of PBR. PBR in industry may be a satisfying approach and not an optimizing approach. In order to unpack and address these problems the current researcher proposes using a grounded theory approach to investigate the problems. Grounded theory allows one to build theory around the data that has been gathered form knowledgeable informants. The purpose of this paper is to outline the proposed approach that the current researcher will use to develop a framework for focused PBR in information systems development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]