Second eADR Iteration: Solution Integration

The road to the development of effective managerial costing systems has several logical and systematically sound stages. Whereas the first iteration ensured that the problem was adequately understood, the current iteration aimed to ensure a sound design of a potential solution. This chapter formalizes the solution design process, again guided by the stages and principles of the action design research methodology. The primary focus, therefore, is on the object-centric design iteration of the elaborated action design research approach. In designing the envisaged process model components, the research team consisted of the same cohort as for the prior iteration, i.e., including senior managers with experience in manufacturing and manufacturing-related consulting. In executing the design activities, the team reassessed the actuality of the problem being investigated and integrated the earlier design process flows into a conceptual dimensional model cognizant of the costing processes, operational systems, and costing systems. Based on this model, an integrated process flow was conceptualized and ultimately formalized into a model of the contextual environment in which the managerial costing system operates. This model would provide a holistic understanding of the integrated nature of managerial costing system design.