Computer Simulation as Evaluation Tool of Information Systems: Identifying Quality Factors of Simulation Modeling

With an increasing complexity and scale, sufficient evaluation of Information Systems (IS) becomes a challenging and difficult task. Simulation modeling has proven as suitable and efficient methodology for evaluating IS and IS artifacts, presupposed it meets certain quality demands. However, existing research on simulation modeling quality solely focuses on quality in terms of accuracy and credibility, disregarding the role of additional quality aspects. Therefore, this paper proposes two design artifacts in order to ensure a holistic quality view on simulation quality. First, associated literature is reviewed in order to extract relevant quality factors in the context of simulation modeling, which can be used to evaluate the overall quality of a simulated solution before, during or after a given project. Secondly, the deduced quality factors are integrated in a quality assessment framework to provide structural guidance on the quality assessment procedure for simulation. In line with a Design Science Research (DSR) approach, we demonstrate the eligibility of both design artifacts by means of prototyping as well as an example case. Moreover, the assessment framework is evaluated and iteratively adjusted with the help of expert feedback.