Both total quality management (TQM) and the use of information technology (IT) have been widely researched over recent years. However, there has been no well-founded empirical research on the two together - on how IT can support TQM practices. A scarcity of empirical studies on the role of IT in TQM, especially in the non-manufacturing sector, which can illustrate the importance or otherwise of IT for TQM, has prompted this study. Thus the study sought to provide such an empirical base. This study investigated the extent to which IT has been used to support TQM among selected Malaysian public agencies. It also identified the external, organisational and technological factors that may influence the use of IT in TQM. A framework based on the literature of TQM has been derived and used as the conceptual base for the creation of a questionnaire to determine the use of IT in TQM. The questionnaire was sent to 110 Malaysian public agencies that have implemented TQM. The results presented were based on the responses from 47 agencies. The study reveals that IT is helpful for implementing TQM but its usage varies across the nine aspects of TQM processes. 'Important Innovations' exhibits the highest level of IT usage followed closely by 'Information and Analysis'. 'Supplier Quality Assurance', on the other hand, shows the lowest level of IT usage. Regression analysis showed that four independent variables have a significant effect on the use of IT. They are IT experience, top management support, public accountability and IT structure (in order of importance). The responding agencies were then classified into three distinctive IT-usage groups (i. e. low, moderate, and high) according to their IT-usage level. Contextual influences (external, organisational and technological) were then explored using regression analysis. The results revealed that when the IT-usage level is high, technological factors play an important role. However, when the usage level is low, organisational factors become more influential. For the moderate group, both technological and organisational factors affect the usage level.

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The cloning of code is controversial as a development practice. Empirical studies on the long-term effects of cloning on software quality and maintainability have produced mixed results. Some studies have found that cloning has a negative impact on code readability, bug propagation, and the presence of cloning may indicate wider problems in software design and management. At the same time, other studies have found that cloned code is less likely to have defects, and thus is arguably more stable, better designed, and better maintained. These results suggest that the effect of cloning on software quality and maintainability may be determinable only on a case-by-case basis, and this only aggravates the challenge of establishing a principled framework of clone management and understanding. This thesis aims to improve the understanding and management of clones within software systems. There are two main contributions. First, we have conducted an empirical study on cloning in one of the major device drivers families of the Linux kernel. Different from many previous empirical studies on cloning, we incorporate the knowledge about the development style, and the architecture of the subject system into our study; our findings address the evolution of clones; we have also found that the presence of cloning is a strong predictor (87\% accuracy) of one aspect of underlying hardware similarity when compared to a vendor-based model (55\% accuracy) and a randomly chosen model (9\% accuracy). The effectiveness of using the presence of cloning to infer high-level similarity suggests a new perspective of using cloning information to assist program comprehension, aspect mining, and software product-line engineering. Second, we have devised a triage-oriented taxonomy of clones to aid developers in prioritizing which kinds of clones are most likely to be problematic and require attention; a preliminary validation of the utility of this taxonomy has been performed against a large open source system. The cloning-based software quality assurance (QA) framework based on our taxonomy adds a new dimension to traditional software QA processes; by exploiting the clone detection results within a guided framework, the developer is able to evaluate which instances of cloning are most likely to require urgent attention.

Globalisation has led to the 'commodification' of higher education and the concern over the quality of higher education has exerted considerable pressure on educational institutions to improve their performance substantially. However, the efforts on how to enhance and evaluate the quality of higher education have been hindered by the lack of agreed models for quality improvement of higher education. The development of TQM models for institutions of higher learning has provided the background for this study and its scope was confined to two private higher learning institutions in Malaysia. / Thesis (DBA(DoctorateofBusinessAdministration))--University of South Australia, 2006.

The purpose of this research is to investigate into the client perceptions and expectations of quality legal service offered by local service providers i.e. the law firms. The study is to determine how effective Singapore law firms have been providing legal services from the client perspective, and to reconcile the law firms' perception of quality services with that of the consumers of legal services. The first study is targeted at the commercial business corporations, the main end-users and recipients of legal services provided by the law firms. The supplementary study involves obtaining a simple feedback from local law practices in Singapore on the implementation of formal quality service management or client care programmes in the legal organisations covered in the survey. / The research is based on the concepts of quality management theory, theoretical contributions from the service quality and legal service literature. The literature review suggests that consumers make satisfaction evaluations based on service provider's delivery performance. Despite increasing importance of the services sector of the economy, very little independent research has been published regarding the service delivery performance of legal professional services providers within the context of Singapore to determine the satisfaction level as perceived by their corporate clients. / From the literature review five service dimensions are identified that appear to be common to legal service firms: understanding the organisation's needs, technical legal skills, quality of service, overall value for money and general satisfaction. The descriptive study is conducted in a non-contrived environment and consists of three phases, namely, pre-tests, mail questionnaire, and semi-structured interviews with business consumers of the legal services. The wide-spectrum of industries covered in the research includes: professional services (management, IT and HR consultants), manufacturing, communication, transportation, wholesale and retail organizations. The data from the 84 business entities, representing some of the top 1,000 companies and top 500 Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), were collected through return mail and online surveys, secondary sources, and semi-structured interviews with the corporate executives who are responsible for the selection and the working relationships with external legal service professionals. The essential aspects of the service quality dynamics explored in the study relate to client expectations and perceptions of the legal services provided. The findings provide application opportunities particularly in the management of quality in legal services, client relationships, and professional practice in business-to-business contexts. / An evaluation model emerged from the extensive literature review, responses from the mail and online surveys, and interviews. It integrates the Eight Stages in the service quality-profit chain. The conceptual framework is dynamic in that it is evolutional, integrative and flexible. The model is subject to influencing factors such as the nature of the service, the nature of the contract as well as the personal characteristics of the professionals and the respondents. Expanding from the existing literature on satisfaction in the service industry, this research offers legal service providers a generic framework to better manage their business relationships and thus preserve their existing clients and possibly attract new ones, which in turn sustain long-term profitability. / Key words: Service Quality; Quality Management; Quality Gaps; Legal Service Delivery; Client Perceptions; Client Expectations; Client Satisfaction; Technical Legal Skills; Client Care; Client Management; Total Quality Management; Quality Service-Profit Chain; Service Encounters; Professional Services; Legal Profession; Legal Marketplace. / Thesis (PhDBusinessandManagement)--University of South Australia, 2004.

Thesis (DBA(DoctorateofBusinessAdministration))--University of South Australia, 2002.

Thesis (PhDBusinessAdministration)--University of South Australia, 2003.

Thesis (MAppSc Project Man) -- University of South Australia, 1993

This research makes a significant contribution to existing information quality management theory by identifying a large number of relevant maturity indicators and mapping them to a staged evolutionary capability maturity model. The final product is a set of evaluation tools and methodologies, which are intended to assist with the identification of problems in information management as well as information quality management practices. Thus, IQM-CMM may provide organisations with a measure of their maturity in information quality management, along with recommendations for increasing the level of maturity. This may result in enhanced information quality, organisational learning and decision making.

The applications of geographic information systems (GIS) in various areas have highlighted the importance of data quality. Data quality research has been given a priority by GIS academics for three decades. However, the outcomes of data quality research have not been sufficiently translated into practical applications. Users still need a GIS capable of storing, managing and manipulating data quality information. To fill this gap, this research aims to investigate how we can develop a tool that effectively and efficiently manages data quality information to aid data users to better understand and assess the quality of their GIS outputs. Specifically, this thesis aims: 1. To develop a framework for establishing a systematic linkage between data quality indicators and appropriate uncertainty models; 2. To propose an object-oriented data quality model for organising and documenting data quality information; 3. To create data quality schemas for defining and storing the contents of metadata databases; 4. To develop a new conceptual model of data quality management; 5. To develop and implement a prototype system for enhancing the capability of data quality management in commercial GIS. Based on reviews of error and uncertainty modelling in the literature, a conceptual framework has been developed to establish the systematic linkage between data quality elements and appropriate error and uncertainty models. To overcome the limitations identified in the review and satisfy a series of requirements for representing data quality, a new object-oriented data quality model has been proposed. It enables data quality information to be documented and stored in a multi-level structure and to be integrally linked with spatial data to allow access, processing and graphic visualisation. The conceptual model for data quality management is proposed where a data quality storage model, uncertainty models and visualisation methods are three basic components. This model establishes the processes involved when managing data quality, emphasising on the integration of uncertainty modelling and visualisation techniques. The above studies lay the theoretical foundations for the development of a prototype system with the ability to manage data quality. Object-oriented approach, database technology and programming technology have been integrated to design and implement the prototype system within the ESRI ArcGIS software. The object-oriented approach allows the prototype to be developed in a more flexible and easily maintained manner. The prototype allows users to browse and access data quality information at different levels. Moreover, a set of error and uncertainty models are embedded within the system. With the prototype, data quality elements can be extracted from the database and automatically linked with the appropriate error and uncertainty models, as well as with their implications in the form of simple maps. This function results in proposing a set of different uncertainty models for users to choose for assessing how uncertainty inherent in the data can affect their specific application. It will significantly increase the users' confidence in using data for a particular situation. To demonstrate the enhanced capability of the prototype, the system has been tested against the real data. The implementation has shown that the prototype can efficiently assist data users, especially non-expert users, to better understand data quality and utilise it in a more practical way. The methodologies and approaches for managing quality information presented in this thesis should serve as an impetus for supporting further research.