Information systems (IS) development represents a significant area of research interest in the IS discipline. Despite this interest, IS development projects consistently fall short in delivering anticipated outcomes within time, quality and cost constraints. Attempts by researchers to uncover contributors to high failure rates are complicated by fragmented views of the nature of the problem. These range from challenges to the validity of performance reports to contesting the conceptualization of success. Furthermore, there is a tendency in practice to address immediate symptomatic problems of IS project failure rather than resolve the fundamental issues. Consequently, recent measures indicate that 48% of IS projects fail to meet time commitments, 33% exceed their budget, 32% don’t achieve their business objectives and 15% fail outright. This PhD thesis presents research to explore and offer explanatory theory of how culture and leadership are implicated in the performance of IS development projects. Importantly, IS development is positioned as a form of social interaction. Thus, an understanding of the social context and the situated meanings that arise through social interaction are necessary conditions to effectively explore this research topic. Within this context the study reveals the performative nature of IS development work and offers explanations for the actions of organizational leaders and IS technical specialists involved in IS development. An interpretive research paradigm and inductive reasoning were adopted for this research and understanding is developed through a hermeneutic mode of inquiry. Two IS projects responsible for delivering strategic benefit to an organization in the financial services sector are the two cases in this study. Qualitative data were collected through interviews, observation and documentary evidence between January 2017 and June 2017. The nature of the relationships between culture, leadership and performance in the course of IS development work was revealed through two analytical iterations. The first iteration used the theory of Cultural Implications in Information Systems Development as a structural framework to support a thematic analysis of the data. A second iteration used frame analysis as a theoretical foundation to examine the interplay of culture, leadership and performance through a within-case and cross-case analysis of the two cases. Key contributions from this research include the development of a conceptual model explaining cultural implications in IS development, the development of an explanatory theory of the entangled nature of culture and leadership and the performance of IS projects, and 11 propositions that offer a basis for testing the emergent theory in future empirical studies. The findings from the research also reveal the performative nature of IS development work and identify concepts important to organizational managers and IS technical specialists. While the theory emerged in the context of IS development projects and the concepts in the emergent theory are central to the practice of IS development, each could be equally relevant to other IS phenomena where culture, leadership and performance are implicated, such as IS management and offshoring. The grounding of theoretical concepts to empirical data enabled the application of the theory to practice; practical guidelines are offered in respect of the influences of culture and leadership on the performance of IS development projects. This research supports the suitability of the Cultural Dynamics Model as a sensitizing lens for data collection in interpretive studies where culture is implicated.

Information Systems (IS) are being developed and used in organizations to achieve their business goals and to enhance organizational effectiveness. The rate of systems success is questionable. One of the causes of IS failures might be user dissatisfaction with the systems. The success of an Information System is difficult to measure directly, so user satisfaction and system usage are frequently used as surrogate measures of system success. User participation in IS development has been advocated to achieve user satisfaction with the system and consequently system success. Past research findings about the effect of user participation on user satisfaction leading to system success are mixed and inconclusive. Past research has not been successful in showing whether user participation in IS development is necessary or not. So further research in this respect is justifiable. This thesis investigated the effect of user participation/involvement on user satisfaction. The effect of user expectations, and user-developer effective communications on user satisfaction has also been explored. A research model was proposed to proceed with this research. Meta-Analysis was carried out to investigate the relationship between user participation, user expectations and user-developer effective communication each with user satisfaction respectively. This thesis found some relationship of these factors with user satisfaction. The strength of the relationship (i. e. correlation 'r') was found to be 'medium' but not large'. The results also show that user involvement has a larger correlation with user satisfaction as opposed to user participation. The findings not only lead to the conclusions that user participation/involvement, user expectations, and user-developer effective communication have positive relationship with user satisfaction, but also contribute to the existing alternative views among IS researchers. The relationship between system usage and user satisfaction was found to be positive and of 'medium' strength and contrasts with the prevailing view that no correlation exists between them. So research findings are not only useful to resolve controversies that exists in past research but also lead to conclusions that user participation may contribute towards successful IS development and consequently user satisfaction with IS. Further, the causes of the emergence of unrealistic user expectations are explored and suggestions for future research are made.

This thesis deals with the creation of individual information system for small business dealing with rental properties. The goal is to obtain a system that would meet the needs of the company. The paper focuses on information system design and development in its own by using the Grails web framework.

The central research problem of this study was the challenges that occur with the United States Joint Warfighters Center's (JWFC) implementation of information systems (IS) requirements-gathering process. Thus, this study investigated the contribution of perceived security clearance (PSC), developer perceived user involvement (DPUI), and computer self-efficacy (CSE) to efficiency of the perceived requirements-gathering process (PERGP). Due to the perceived efficiency of IS development, the U.S. Department of Defense statutory document called the Joint Capability Integration and Development System (JCIDS), mandated that as an IS development requirement, the rapid development of IS was needed to sustain U.S. warfighters. As a result, the central aim of this study was to look at several variables that may predict the efficiency to the IS requirements-gathering process at JWFC. The central research question behind this study was: What are the contributions of PSC, DPUI, and CSE to the PERGP at the JWFC? This study proposed a theoretical model, and two statistical methods were used to formulate models and test predictive power: Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) and Ordinal Logistic Regression (OLR). The sample size of this study included 61 IS developers from JWFC. The results of this study indicated a strong reliability for the measures of all variables (PSC, DPUI, CSE, and PERGP). Moreover, results of both models developed indicated that DPUI is a significant contributor to PEGRP, while CSE was demonstrated to be significant contributor to PEGRP only via the OLR model providing the indication that the relationships among the measured variables was non-linear. Additionally, results demonstrated that DPUI was the most significant contributor to PEGRP in both models, while PSC had little or no contribution to the dependent variable, PEGRP. This study also identified two key implications for practice and research. The first impaction of this study is the investigation of unique factors such as PSC and PEGRP in the context of military-based IS development within DOD organizations. Results of this study can help managers in government organizations that are faced with security clearance issues to identify contributors in the early phase of IS development that could possibly hinder PEGRP. The second implication of this study is the non-significant results related to PSC in this investigation. For researchers, such results may need future validation in other governmental and military-based organization. Moreover, such results may indicate to managers in government organizations that are faced with security clearance issues that security clearance, at least as indicated by the results of this study, has no major hindering on the PEGRP. These results maybe profound in their implications and, as such, needed additional validations.

Diploma work is focused on implementation Business Intelligence applications in medium software company in order to support Corporate Performance Management. It creates suitable metrics portfolio according to Balanced Scorecard methodology. Implementation part presents development of the reporting system on the Cognos 8 BI platform in the current software company environment. The system evaluates the metrics every month. Metrics values are based on current data in transactional system. Diploma work has two parts: theory and reporting project. Theoretical part deals with BI system architecture in general. It is focused on reporting issues. It analyses typical usage and expected benefits of BI applications used for Corporate Performance Management in order to specify applications that are suitable for implementation in the company environment. Next issue of the theoretical part deals with IS development methodology that can be used in Business Intelligence projects. According to chosen criteria and weights with regard to this project it evaluates the best methodology for this project. It will be used in the next part. Practical part reporting project is both about development issues and usage the BI application from the end user view. This example provides information about activities, which are necessary for this development from initial study to testing phase. Project scope includes analysis of the environment, analysis of used metrics, design new metrics, metrics selection and implementation on Cognos platform. This example presents analytical usage of the Metric Studio tool and dymamical reports usage from the manager's view. The final part brings together critical success factors (CSF), which appear in this project.

Informacijos sistemų (IS) kūrimo procesas turi gan nusistovėjusią struktūrą, tačiau ji neužtikrina aukštos kuriamų sistemų kokybės ir optimalaus atitikimo vartotojų poreikiams. Paprastai IS kūrimas susideda iš šių etapų: reikalavimų surinkimo, analizės ir specifikavimo, projektavimo, realizavimo, testavimo, diegimo ir sistemos palaikymo. Būtent išsamus ir teisingas reikalavimų specifikacijos sudarymas užtikrina tolimesnę projekto sėkmę. Tai inicijuoja naujų metodų kūrimą, kurie akcentuoja veiklos taisyklių (VT) koncepciją. Pagal šią koncepciją IS kūrimo metu taisyklės atskiriamos nuo kitų sistemą sudarančių objektų, taip sukuriant prielaidas tikslesniam reikalavimų fiksavimui. Šio darbo tikslas išnagrinėti KTU Informacijos sistemų katedroje sukurtą veiklos taisyklėmis grindžiamos reikalavimų specifikacijos sudarymo metodą ir pagerinti tiriamo metodo pritaikomumą sistemos projektavimo stadijoje. Pagal minėtą metodą, baigus reikalavimų specifikavimo procesą, visi surinkti ir struktūrizuoti reikalavimai fiksuojami saugykloje. Analizuojant šiuos duomenis siekiama turimus reikalavimus transformuoti į UML kalbos diagramas. / Information system (IS) development process has a relatively consistent structure, although it does not guarantee that all user requirements are represented correctly in the final system. Typically IS development consists of the following phases: requirements capture, analysis and specification, design, development, testing, installation and system support. The complete and correct requirement specification facilitates the further success of the project, therefore it is extremely important. This simple fact is one of the reasons why new approaches, such as those based on the business rules (BR) concept, keep on emerging. According to the BR concept, the business rules are separated from other system constitutive objects, thus creating an environment for a more accurate requirement capture. The main goal of this work was to examine the business rules based requirements specification method developed at KTU Department of Information system and come up with the ways of how to use the specified requirements during the system design phase. The decision was made to create the requirements-to-UML diagrams transformation methodology, which is presented in this document. The methodology was evaluated using a partial prototype implementation showing it can be applied in practice.

This study investigated the use of systems development methodologies in Web-based application development in South Africa. Web-based systems differ from traditional information systems by integrating different media for knowledge representation and utilizing hypertext functionality. By doing this, Web-based systems not only support creation, integration, analysis, and distribution but also storage and transfer of knowledge of business transactions within a structured information system. There are numerous methodologies available to develop Web-based systems. In this study five of these methodologies were discussed. The methodologies include Web IS Development Methodology (WISOM), Internet Commerce Development Methodology (ICOM), Web Engineering, Extreme Programming and the Relationship Management Methodology (RMM). In this study a qualitative research approach was followed. Case studies were done on three different organizations in the South African marketplace. Semi-structured interviews were used for data collection at each organization. The interviews were transcribed, and the data were analysed using content analysis and cross-case analysis. One of the main goals of this research was to determine "how" system development methodologies are used in practice to develop Web-based systems, and to what extent it is used. The research pointed out that those organizations who participated in this study in South Africa mainly use in-house developed methodologies to develop Web-based systems, and that these organizations adhere strictly to their methodology. The main reasons organizations choose to use methodologies are that methodologies aid in the delivery of a better quality Web-based system, and also act as a good project management mechanism within the organization. / Thesis (M.Com. (Computer Science))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007

Thesis (M.Com. (Computer Science))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

This study investigated the use of systems development methodologies in Web-based application development in South Africa. Web-based systems differ from traditional information systems by integrating different media for knowledge representation and utilizing hypertext functionality. By doing this, Web-based systems not only support creation, integration, analysis, and distribution but also storage and transfer of knowledge of business transactions within a structured information system. There are numerous methodologies available to develop Web-based systems. In this study five of these methodologies were discussed. The methodologies include Web IS Development Methodology (WISOM), Internet Commerce Development Methodology (ICOM), Web Engineering, Extreme Programming and the Relationship Management Methodology (RMM). In this study a qualitative research approach was followed. Case studies were done on three different organizations in the South African marketplace. Semi-structured interviews were used for data collection at each organization. The interviews were transcribed, and the data were analysed using content analysis and cross-case analysis. One of the main goals of this research was to determine "how" system development methodologies are used in practice to develop Web-based systems, and to what extent it is used. The research pointed out that those organizations who participated in this study in South Africa mainly use in-house developed methodologies to develop Web-based systems, and that these organizations adhere strictly to their methodology. The main reasons organizations choose to use methodologies are that methodologies aid in the delivery of a better quality Web-based system, and also act as a good project management mechanism within the organization. / Thesis (M.Com. (Computer Science))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007

The thesis deals with the development of an information system in terms of small and medium-sized process-driven organizations. The main objectives of the study is to analyze the requirements of IS process-driven SMEs, further analyze the problems in the creation of this IS, generalize the obtained conclusions and formulate methodical recommendations for the creation of the information process-driven SMEs. The thesis consists of the first, more theoretical part and the second more practical part, which is based on the knowledge formulated in the first part. The thesis builds on experience gained by author in the project of reengineering processes and information system design in a small process-driven organization. All procedures are illustrated for better understanding and verified on specific company from the project. The thesis is written in sufficiently general, however, that its conclusions and recommendations are applicable to the greatest number of process-driven SMEs. The first part presents the basic principles of process management, improvement and reengineering business processes and examines the relationship of information system and business of organization. The contribution of this part is mainly to clarify the role of IS in the process-driven organization, which must be respected in the development of IS. The second part of the thesis analyze the requirements of the IS process-driven SMEs which are necessary to ensure support of business described in the previous section. It also describes ways to acquire and formulate requirements. Then lists the problems that accompany the creation of the IS in an effort to meet the previous requirements. The thesis ends with the formulation of methodological recommendations for each phase of the creating IS and summary conclusions. Especially is accented the importance of BPR and SOA for the final form of the IS.