POE-$Δ$: a framework for change engineering

Abstract: Many organisational problems are addressed through systemic change and re-engineering of existing Information Systems rather than radical new design. In the face of widespread IT project failure, devising effective ways to tackle this type of change remains an open challenge. This work discusses the motivation, theoretical foundation, characteristics and evaluation of a novel framework - referred to as POE-$\Delta$, which is rooted in design and engineering and is aimed at providing systematic support for representing, structuring and exploring change problems of a socio-technical nature, including implementing their solutions when they exist. We generalise an existing framework of greenfield design as problem solving for application to change problems. From a theoretical perspective,POE-$\Delta$ is a strict extension to its parent framework, allowing the seamless integration of greenfield and brownfield design to tackle change problems. A Design Science Research methodology was applied over a decade to define and evaluate POE-$\Delta$, with significant case study research conducted to evaluate the framework in its application to real-world change problems of varying criticality and complexity. The results show that POE-$\Delta$ exhibits desirable characteristics of a design approach to organisational change and can bring tangible benefits when applied in practice as a holistic and systematic approach to change in socio-technical contexts.