Even by 1980 it was observed that software for construction management comprised many independent packages with different programming languages and hardware. By and large, not only were these packages stand alone systems but they were also not suitable for their individual functions. Not only do construction projects increase in complexity but competition and volatile markets also generate pressures for better management and that requires integrated and effective systems. The hypothesis of this research has been that computer technology and systems concepts can be used to develop the necessary tools that will make integration possible and effective. To that end, the following research has been undertaken: * an investigation of the causes of the lack of integration, *a survey of the operations of the management functions, * the specification, development and testing of a computer-based system called PLUS VAL to demonstrate the viability of integration, * an assessment of PLUS VAL. Causes of lack of integration revealed include: * segregated education, training and working of functional groups, * development of software by people without the relevant expertise, * inadequate research and failure to apply research findings due to the structure of the construction industry. A survey of the operations showed: * the various methods of carrying them out, * the flow of data among them, * their interdependencies. The major features of PLUS VAL are: * it assists valuations, purchasing management and cost control, * it can be linked to estimating, planninq and accounting, * it allows quick access to contract information. Its assessment which involved demonstrating it to and interviewing potential users, and comparisons with similar packages commercially available showed that: * It provides all the facilities that the users wanted * It covers all the methods of operations of companies contacted - * It is more comprehensive than those surveyed - * Integration is possible and provides such benefits as: . reduced costs of data capture, . better use of computer storage, . reduced turn around times of data processing, increased data consistency. The results of the research show that the application of computer technology and systems concepts can produce effective integrated systems which not only assists contractors in carrying out their obligations but also provide reliable information for decision-making.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D. in Computer Science)--Vanderbilt University, Aug. 2008. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S. in Software Engineering)--Naval Postgraduate School, March 2009. / Thesis Advisors: Michael, James B. ; Shing, Man-Tak. "March 2009." Description based on title screen as viewed on April 23, 2009. Author subject terms: Software Metrics, Safety Metrics, Validation Metrics, Metrics Framework, Validation, Safety-Critical Software, Software Engineering, Goal Question Metric, Goal Structuring Notation. Includes bibliographical references (p. 119-121). Also available in print.

Report (M.S.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. M.S. 1993. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 63-64). Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (M.A.(Information Science))--University of Pretoria, 2001.

Success for many businesses depends on their information software systems. Keeping these systems operational is critical, as failure in these systems is costly. Such systems are in many cases sophisticated, distributed and dynamically composed. To ensure high availability and correct operation, it is essential that failures be detected promptly, their causes diagnosed and remedial actions taken. Although automated recovery approaches exists for specific problem domains, the problem-resolution process is in many cases manual and painstaking. Computer support personnel put a great deal of effort into resolving the reported failures. The growing size and complexity of these systems creates the need to automate this process. The primary focus of our research is on automated fault diagnosis and recovery using discrete monitoring data such as log files and notifications. Our goal is to quickly pinpoint the root-cause of a failure. Our contributions are: Modelling discrete monitoring data for automated analysis, automatically leveraging common symptoms of failures from historic monitoring data using such models to pinpoint faults, and providing a model for decision-making under uncertainty such that appropriate recovery actions are chosen. Failures in such systems are caused by software defects, human error, hardware failures, environmental conditions and malicious behaviour. Our primary focus in this thesis is on software defects and misconfiguration.

Success for many businesses depends on their information software systems. Keeping these systems operational is critical, as failure in these systems is costly. Such systems are in many cases sophisticated, distributed and dynamically composed. To ensure high availability and correct operation, it is essential that failures be detected promptly, their causes diagnosed and remedial actions taken. Although automated recovery approaches exists for specific problem domains, the problem-resolution process is in many cases manual and painstaking. Computer support personnel put a great deal of effort into resolving the reported failures. The growing size and complexity of these systems creates the need to automate this process. The primary focus of our research is on automated fault diagnosis and recovery using discrete monitoring data such as log files and notifications. Our goal is to quickly pinpoint the root-cause of a failure. Our contributions are: Modelling discrete monitoring data for automated analysis, automatically leveraging common symptoms of failures from historic monitoring data using such models to pinpoint faults, and providing a model for decision-making under uncertainty such that appropriate recovery actions are chosen. Failures in such systems are caused by software defects, human error, hardware failures, environmental conditions and malicious behaviour. Our primary focus in this thesis is on software defects and misconfiguration.

The goal of runtime verifi cation is to inspect the well-being of a system by employing a monitor during its execution. Such monitoring imposes cost in terms of resource utilization. Memory usage and predictability of monitor invocations are the key indicators of the quality of a monitoring solution, especially in the context of embedded systems. In this work, we propose a novel control-theoretic approach for coordinating time predictability and memory utilization in runtime monitoring of real-time embedded systems. In particular, we design a PID controller and four fuzzy controllers with di erent optimization control objectives. Our approach controls the frequency of monitor invocations by incorporating a bounded memory bu er that stores events which need to be monitored. The controllers attempt to improve time predictability, and maximize memory utilization, while ensuring the soundness of the monitor. Unlike existing approaches based on static analysis, our approach is scalable and well-suited for reactive systems that are required to react to stimuli from the environment in a timely fashion. Our experiments using two case studies (a laser beam stabilizer for aircraft tracking, and a Bluetooth mobile payment system) demonstrate the advantages of using controllers to achieve low variation in the frequency of monitor invocations, while maintaining maximum memory utilization in highly non-linear environments. In addition to this problem, the thesis presents a brief overview of our preceding work on runtime verifi cation.

Thesis (M.S. in Electrical Engineering)--Naval Postgraduate School, December 2009. / Thesis Advisor(s): Kragh, Frank E.; Loomis, Herschel. "December 2009." Description based on title screen as viewed on January 27, 2010. Author(s) subject terms: data compression, signal analysis, Software Defined Radio (SDR), system generator, Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), Xilinx, Virtex (TM), error detection, parity, space-based computing. Includes bibliographical references (p. 101-102). Also available in print.