Date
Author
Silje Pedersen

The ORCHESTRA Research and Innovation Process

The Research and Innovation Process in ORCHESTRA is built on the three-cycle view of Design Science Research (Hevner, 2007) and provides an efficient evolution of the project.

The three cycles of the Design Science ensure the compliance with the environment and the relevance of the MTM system (Relevance cycle), design the system through learning and improvement iterations (Design cycle) and refine the existing knowledge thanks to intermediate results and lessons learned throughout the project (Refinement cycle).

The Design Science Research is presented in Figure 1 and consists of four main activities, described as follows:

  1. Environment – context: The current environment from which MTM will emerge and build upon is represented by CoP, stakeholders, Living Labs, existing traffic management, existing technologies, and ongoing initiatives. This environment provides input to the work on the artefacts on needs, requirements, opportunities, barriers, business potentials, etc.
  2. Design and Build: Artefacts are established, and their relevance is ensured through input from the environment/context.
  3. Demonstrate & Evaluate: The artefacts are piloted/tested and evaluated. The evaluation may be done in several ways and must be adapted to the artefact and the intended use of the artefact.
  4. Knowledge base: The research is based on existing knowledge on theories, methods, policies, strategies, and standards, and on existing research results. The knowledge base will be refined as new knowledge gained through the project and validated results will be shared and ready for further exploration and exploitation.
Figure 1: Design science research framework adapted to the development of
Multimodal Traffic Management (D6.2 Intermediate evaluation results from Living Labs) (based on Hevner, 2007).
Figure 2: Iterative establishment of artefact. (D6.2 Intermediate evaluation results from Living Labs) (based on Hevner, 2007).

Figure 2 illustrates the Design cyclic process where an artefact is designed, built, demonstrated, and evaluated, and where the evaluation results are used to improve this artefact.

Several of the results produced in ORCHESTRA are artefacts like methods, models, and instances (e.g., software). It is not possible to demonstrate and evaluate these artefacts in a real MTME environment. Instead, they are tested and demonstrated through simulations, living labs and involvement of relevant stakeholders, and the research data are collected.

Hevner, A. R. (2007). A Three Cycle View of Design Science Research Design. Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems, 19 (2) 87-92.