Authors: Steven Alter
Tags: 2008
The term “service” appears in the IS field in contexts ranging from visible business activities performed for customers through invisible computerized responses to computerized requests deep within IT infrastructures. Leading technology companies are promoting the development of “services science” because technical and nontechnical services are very important to their operation and their future.
This paper frames a possible debate about where services fit in SA&D. Skipping background topics and issues about various definitions of service that would be included in a more complete paper, it distinguishes between four lenses for understanding and analyzing services. Each lens is directly applicable to many situations, and less applicable elsewhere. There are two questions for SA&D:
1) Should SA&D address services in any direct way, as opposed to viewing services as essentially similar to other systems?
2) If SA&D should address services in any direct way, which of the four lenses (or any other lenses) would be applicable, and how could any of them become more useful for SA&D?
Cite as:
Alter S. (2008). “Where Do Services Fit in SA&D?,” in AIS SIGSAND, Provo, Utah, United States, May 23-24, 2008.
