
74 ◾ Design Science Research Methods and Patterns
knowledge has to be used—in this case as part of a working design—in order to
clarify the implications of the theory in a given circumstance. is is not due to
a misunderstanding of the theory, but due to the necessarily incomplete nature
of any knowledge base. e design process, when interrupted and forced back
into an earlier phase in this way, contributes valuable constraint knowledge to the
understanding of the always-incomplete-theories that abductively motivated the
original design.
Figure 4.3 is especially helpful in grounding levels of theory in DSR-IS project
activities or phases that ...