Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 66-70).

Thesis (MCom(Informatics))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 118-127).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2004. / Document formatted into pages; contains 179 p. Includes bibliographical references. Abstract available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center; full text release delayed at author's request until 17 Aug. 2005.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (B.A.)--Haverford College, Dept. of Computer Science, 2005. Thesis (B.A.)--Haverford College, Dept. of Economics, 2005 / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available in electronic version.

M.Tech. / Project and programme management have become important organisational developments in today’s business environment. The growth in projects across different sectors and industries, and their capability to enable organisations to cope with change in order to remain in business has emphasised the importance of project, programme and portfolio activities. Although project management has provided a means of achieving goals that could not be achieved in traditional ways, the single project model has failed to address issues that arise when multiple and related projects are undertaken within an organisation. Programme management has then provided a means through which organisations achieve almost everything they undertake. It has been perceived as the strategy implementation vehicle that links the overall strategy of the organisation with the portfolio of projects. While the use of programmes and programme management has grown in organisations, its capability to secure the investment of corporation has not been proven. Numerous failure stories with dramatic consequences for the corporation as a whole have been reported. With the pace of new regulations that require the appropriate and responsible management of company affairs, considering the huge investment that corporations place in programmes, it has become important to devise an efficient and effective mechanism of overseeing these investments. This research addresses the need to improve programme performance and ensure compliance with corporate policies. It focus on the governance side to determine how IT programmes can be governed while making sure that there is enough established control responsibility and accountability to ensure the achievement of the programme strategic objectives. This has been addressed by identifying corporate, information technology and project governance requirements that have implications for IT programme management. This had led to the consolidation of implications identified from the Sarbanes Oxley Act, Control Objective for Information and Related Technology and the Guide to Governance of Project Management in order to provide an integrated view of overseeing the management of programmes. The value of the research is that it has devised a conceptual framework for IT programme management governance that provides a means to ensure both programme performance and compliance to governance requirements that pertain to corporations. The value of the framework is that it contains governance requirements that ensure an efficient and effective decision-making and delivery management, focused on achieving programme goals in a consistent manner while addressing appropriate risks, issues and events that can impede the programme outcome.

The research focused on dissatisfaction with explanations of Information Technology (IT) value. IT’s business potential and the high levels of IT investment have put IT under the management spotlight. Management typically asks: “What is the contribution of our IT investments to improving our corporate strategy and business leverage?” or “How can we monitor the progress and performance of investments, in order to identify improvement actions?” Managers are, however, dissatisfied with explanations of IT value, because attempts to demonstrate the link between IT investments and business performance have produced mixed results. The research objective required the development of a framework as a step towards understanding dissatisfaction with IT value. Three case studies were used that resulted in a concluding theory consisting of a framework, a set of hypotheses describing the relationships between the elements of the framework and a pattern of conditions under which there is dissatisfaction with explanations of IT value. The theory clarifies dissatisfaction with explanations of IT value: IT is on management’s agenda due to its track record; high spending on IT; the need to exploit IT and dissatisfaction with available explanations of IT value. An outcome of this is a concern about IT’s value. Management’s concern is conditioned by factors such as their levels of comfort with IT; the business/IT relationship and management’s mindset about IT as a business resource. The concern becomes a need to control IT which requires an effective IT evaluation process in turn. Steps to ensure an effective IT evaluation process need to address the availability of alternative IT evaluation methods; the mindset about IT evaluation; flaws in IT evaluation methods; problems with defining IT value as well as IT benefits and costs complications. As a result, explanations of IT value may not be satisfactory. IT will then remain on the management agenda and management will continue to be concerned about IT value. The theory indicates two broad strategies to overcome or avoid dissatisfaction with explanations of IT value. The first strategy is to fully understand the reasons for management’s concern about IT value as well as to recognize those conditions that could influence concerns about the value of IT. The second strategy is to ensure an effective IT evaluation process by specifically addressing those factors or conditions that could impact on the effectiveness of the IT evaluation process. / Thesis (DCom (Informatics))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Informatics / unrestricted