The Use of Design-science to Define Information Content Requirements for IT Service Catalogs

An information technology (IT) service catalog is a knowledge management system that provides information about IT services to both customers and service providers. When designing and implementing an IT service catalog as part of the IT service management, firms often struggle with defining the scope of the information content required for such a knowledge management system. Whereas information is an expensive resource, scholars did not determine how the information content of an IT service catalog can be determined to fit the expected use of the service catalog. This study explores the use of design science methods to define and evaluate requirements for the information content of IT service catalogs. The use of this method in the early stage of the IT service catalog design process led to a justification of design objectives and a proactive reduction of the scope of the IT service catalog.