<p> The purpose of this study was to examine the factors affecting the use of information from business intelligence systems (BIS) on decision-making culture. The relationship between analytical decision-making culture and BIS success factors was measured by data integration, analytic capabilities, information content quality, information access quality, and use of information in business processes. A quantitative statistical analysis approach was utilized to answer one research question. The construct of critical success factors was measured using a predefined model developed by Popovic, Hackney, Coelho, and Jaklic (2012). Survey responses were collected from 227 participants who were decision makers. The responses to the survey indicated a high degree of data integration, analytical capabilities, information content quality, information access quality, use of information in business processes, and analytical decision-making culture within organizations. Notably, the uploaded data reflected that data integration, analytical capabilities, and information content quality were not significantly related to analytical decision-making culture. However, information access quality and use of information in business processes were significantly and positively related to the analytical decision-making culture. With the exponential growth of business intelligence, managers are facing extreme challenges with rapid analytical decision making. Therefore, this study is not only significant to practitioners and the scholarly literature, but it also provided crucial information on BIS success factors for organizations in the Midwestern state. </p><p>

<p> Some independent software vendors might not endure the reduction in revenue and increased costs associated when they switch software license models. The lack of identified and prioritized complexities might lead to potential increased revenue loss or prevent small and medium-sized independent software vendors within the United States from migrating from perpetual software licensing to subscription-based models. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore, document, and describe organizational complexities and their prioritization in contributing to the failure or success of software license model migration. The research questions for this qualitative case study included a Primary Research Question: What complexities can senior management of small and medium-sized independent software vendors (ISV) encounter when migrating from a perpetual license model to a subscription-based licensing model? Supporting Research Question 1: What is the prioritization of the complexities determined to be a factor in the migration of software licensing models? Supporting Research Question 2: How do identifying and prioritizing complexities affect decision-making to mitigate potential initial revenue loss? For this study, eight managers were recruited from a small to medium sized independent software vendor. Specifically, participants in the sample were managers who have worked within the software industry for at least four years, had knowledge of the company&rsquo;s existing software license model, and were involved in the consideration of migrating from a perpetual license model to a subscription-based licensing model. The data collection methods for this research were face-to-face interviews, a focus group, and direct observations. The multi-criteria decision analysis theory and diffusion of influence theory served as the conceptual framework for this research. The framework provided a model for software vendor executives to identify and prioritize complexities and reduce the initial loss of revenue during license migration. Eight themes emerged: financial, go-to-market, infrastructure, reorganization, security, training, and unknown strategy. There was a consistency between the themes and literature. The data was consistent with the multi-criteria decision and diffusion of influence theories. The results indicated four key findings: support functions were less aware of complexities, no evidence of a clear strategic plan was present, the most significant complexity anticipated was the go-to-market complexity, and there was a direct effect on decision-making in identifying and prioritizing complexities. Exploring and understanding the totality of complexities an independent software vendor may encounter, the prioritization of those complexities, and adjusting decision-making to compensate for those complexities, while establishing and following a communicated strategic plan may significantly reduce the potential for financial loss, increase market positioning and competitive advantage. The results and limitations may provide areas for future research. Future studies should seek to conduct similar studies with multiple independent software vendors to provide additional levels of validation and reliability. Such studies should include independent software vendors who have successfully and unsuccessfully migrated license models.</p><p>

<p> Scientists widely accept that modern agriculture is unsustainable, but the best methods for addressing unsustainability are still contested (Constance, Konefal, and Hatanaka 2018). Grassroots sustainable agriculture communities have long participated in the exploration of solutions for agriculture unsustainability, and their momentum continues to grow in the technical age. Practitioners of grassroots sustainable agriculture use many information systems that were not originally built to support the design of agricultural systems. Based on ethnographic research with two grassroots sustainable agriculture communities, I show that participants&rsquo; personal and community values frequently clashed with those embedded in information systems, including ones used to look for and manage plant information. Furthermore, I demonstrate a range of information challenges that participants faced in the absence of tools designed to support their specific work. I argue that practitioners of grassroots sustainable agriculture need information systems tailored to their goals and values in order to productively address barriers to designing and building agroecosystems for their communities. </p><p> This dissertation provides an example of how to involve communities in the development of information technology artifacts and strengthen efforts to support sustainability via technological interventions. First, I engaged in two grassroots sustainable agriculture communities as a participant, experiencing their practices, values, and information challenges first hand. Then, I worked with the communities to create a plant database web application (SAGE Plant Database) that supports agroecosystem design in local contexts. Members of the communities participated in the design, development, and data population stages so that the SAGE Plant Database supports their design context and upholds their technological and holistic sustainability values. At the foundation of the database is a plant ontology grounded in the participants&rsquo; practice of designing agroecosystems. My comparative analysis of the design of the SAGE Plant Database to other databases demonstrates its relevance due to its emphasis on agroecological relationships among plants and between plants and the environment, the inclusion of ethnobotanical data, and the embedded community values. By engaging in this research, I seek to make progress towards transforming the technology-supported food system into one that furthers food security, food sovereignty, and holistic sustainability.</p><p>

Choi Wai Ming. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 101-103). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter Chapter 1. --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter Chapter 2. --- Analysis of Workers --- p.6 / Chapter 2.1 --- Input-Process-Output of Workers --- p.6 / Chapter 2.2 --- A Spectrum of Works --- p.9 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- Programmed Workers --- p.10 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- Knowledge Workers --- p.13 / Chapter 2.3 --- The Winning Characteristics of Knowledge Workers --- p.15 / Chapter 2.3.1 --- Adaptive Efficiency and Allocative Efficiency --- p.16 / Chapter 2.3.2 --- Management and Leadership --- p.16 / Chapter 2.3.3 --- "Our Proposal: to Know, to Navigate, to Accumulate and to Process (KNAP)" --- p.17 / Chapter Chapter 3. --- Literature Review on Candidate Selection Instruments --- p.21 / Chapter 3.1 --- Evaluation Criteria --- p.21 / Chapter 3.1.1 --- Result Usefulness --- p.22 / Chapter 3.1.2 --- Expense Efficiency --- p.23 / Chapter 3.1.3 --- Organizational Attractiveness --- p.23 / Chapter 3.2 --- Instruments for Knowledge Workers --- p.25 / Chapter 3.2.1 --- Biodata --- p.25 / Chapter 3.2.2 --- Cognitive Ability Tests --- p.26 / Chapter 3.2.3 --- Personality Tests --- p.28 / Chapter 3.2.4 --- Job-related Tests --- p.29 / Chapter 3.2.5 --- Employment Interviews --- p.31 / Chapter 3.3 --- Summary --- p.32 / Chapter Chapter 4. --- Problem Formulation and Proposed Approach --- p.36 / Chapter 4.1 --- A Computerized Interactive Game Approach (CIG) --- p.38 / Chapter 4.2 --- Pilot Study --- p.40 / Chapter 4.3 --- Implementation: a Revised ERP Game --- p.44 / Chapter 4.4 --- Mechanism of Candidate Selection --- p.49 / Chapter Chapter 5. --- Experiment Design --- p.51 / Chapter 5.1 --- Aims --- p.51 / Chapter 5.2 --- Experiment Procedures --- p.53 / Chapter 5.3 --- Contents --- p.54 / Chapter Chapter 6. --- Experiment Results and Data Analysis --- p.60 / Chapter 6.1 --- Candidate Selection in the Problem Solving Test --- p.60 / Chapter 6.2 --- Candidate Selection in the Personality Tests --- p.62 / Chapter 6.3 --- Candidate Selection in the Game --- p.64 / Chapter 6.4 --- Combined Candidate Selection --- p.70 / Chapter 6.5 --- Questionnaire --- p.71 / Chapter 6.5.1 --- General Discussion --- p.72 / Chapter 6.5.2 --- Hypothesis 1: Face Validity vs. Perceived Predictive Validity --- p.87 / Chapter 6.5.3 --- Hypothesis 2: Organizational Attractiveness --- p.89 / Chapter 6.5.4 --- Hypothesis 3: the Game with Better Perceived Job Relatedness --- p.92 / Chapter 6.5.5 --- Hypothesis 4: the Game with Better Organizational Attractiveness. --- p.93 / Chapter 6.5.6 --- Others --- p.93 / Chapter 6.5.7 --- Summary of Findings --- p.95 / Chapter Chapter 7. --- Conclusion and Further Research --- p.98 / Reference --- p.101

Na atualidade, o cenário globalizado altamente competitivo e as novas regulamentações (lei Sarbanes-Oxley e Acordo da Basiléia 2), estão exigindo das empresas a utilização de mecanismos de gestão de TI cada vez melhores. Em função disto, a discussão sobre modelos de gestão de TI para satisfazer esta necessidade tem estado permanentemente em pauta. Dentre estes modelos, destacam-se o COBIT para governança de TI e o ITIL para gerenciamento de serviços, este último, totalmente alinhado com norma ISO/IEC 20000 para gerenciamento de serviços de TI, recentemente publicada. Considerando este contexto e que, o ITIL possui foco na execução dos processos, e o COBIT possui foco no controle de processos, este trabalho, alia estes dois modelos para criar o modelo GSS-COBITIL, ferramenta valiosa para auxiliar na implantação mais consistente do gerenciamento de suporte de serviços de TI, com foco na eficiência e na eficácia. Este modelo adota como alicerce os processos de gerenciamento de suporte de serviços do ITIL e agrega os componentes do COBIT alinhados com esta abrangência. A utilização do ITIL como alicerce, faz com que, o GSS-COBITIL esteja naturalmente alinhado com a norma ISO/IEC 20000. Além disto, tendo em vista que, o papel de TI na estratégia das organizações, difere de empresa para empresa, de acordo com suas metas de negócio, o trabalho também apresenta o método de especialização do GSS-COBITIL. Este método foi desenvolvido a partir dascaracterísticas da grade de impacto estratégico de TI, mapeando-as em um subconjunto de metas de negócio do COBIT 4.0 relacionadas aos processos do GSS-COBITIL. Como produto final, o método gera um conjunto de diretrizes para a implantação do GSS-COBITIL, específicas para a empresa, de acordo com o papel de TI em sua estratégia. O método de especialização do GSS-COBITIL foi aplicado em um conjunto de empresas que se dispuseram a responder uma pesquisa para esta finalidade. / Nowadays, the highly global competition between organizations and the new regulations (Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Basel 2 Accord) are requiring that organizations use better mechanisms for IT management. The discussion about IT management models to satisfy this need is permanently going on. Between these models, stand out COBIT for IT governance, and ITIL for IT service management. This last one is totally aligned with ISO/IEC 20000 standard for IT service management, recently published. Considering this context and that, ITIL is focused on process execution and COBIT is focused on process control, this work makes the alliance of these models to create the GSS-COBITIL model, a valuable tool to aid in a more consistent implementation of service support management, focused on efficiency and effectiveness. This model adopts the ITIL services support management processes as basis and adds the COBIT components aligned with this scope. The utilization of ITIL as basis implies that GSS-COBITIL is naturally aligned to ISO/IEC 20000 standard. Moreover, considering that the role of IT organizations strategies differs from one enterprise to another depending on their business goals, this work also presents the specialization method of GSS-COBITIL. This method was developed mapping the characteristics of IT strategic impact grid into a subset of business goals of COBIT 4.0 related with GSS-COBITIL processes. As final product, the method generates a set of directives forGSS-COBITIL implementation, specific to the organization, according the role of IT in his strategy. The specialization method of GSS-COBITIL was applied in a set of organizations that participated in a survey for this purpose.

Almost without exception organisations have become reliant on Information Systems (IS) and Information Technology (IT) applications. Although competitive advantage, task efficiency and effective information management are considered to be among the major drivers for investing in IS/IT, recognising, valuing and realising these expected business benefits from their investments has proved to be a complex task for organisations. The track record of the IS/IT industry shows that there are high rates of project failures, budget overruns and cancellations, resulting in the so-called IT productivity paradox. Researchers argue that the current evaluation techniques (primarily financial) are insufficient to identify, track and evaluate benefits obtained through IS/IT projects. Therefore they encourage organisations to employ non-financial techniques that are apparently more suitable for IS/IT investments. There is still much debate, however, concerning the efficiency and effectiveness of the current evaluation techniques in terms of satisfying the IS/IT investment evaluation criteria.Benefit realisation (BR) approaches are among the non-financial techniques suggested by some in order to facilitate organisations to track, identify, measure and optimise business benefits from IS/IT projects. It appears, however, that most organisations worldwide have failed to change their practices, in part due to managerial perspectives and uncertainty of the effectiveness of BR models.The situation in New Zealand in relation to BR is unknown. This research therefore focuses on analysing the perspectives of IT and business/finance managers' towards their current IS/IT practices. Thereby to investigate the influence of three key factors, awareness, use and effectiveness of BR models those were identified from past studies, in New Zealand business context.In order to assess these factors, this exploratory study employed a positivist cross-sectional survey approach and selected five hundred IT-enabled New Zealand organisations across a variety of industry sectors, sizes and localities as the main sample. The results describe local perspectives on current IS/IT evaluation practices and on formal BR models in use. The report further compares and contrasts IT and finance managers' views towards organisations' current IS/IT practices and BR approaches. Finally concludes with recommendations for practice and implications for further research.Although the survey received relatively low levels of response, some preliminary outcomes are evident. The main insight obtained through this study is that among the responding organisations, awareness of formal benefit realisation and use of formal BR models are fairly low. In spite of this low awareness, there is some evidence of the presence of BR practice among nearly one-third of IT respondents and almost half of finance respondents, who indicated the use of in-house developed models. Some of the in-house models encompass important aspects of formal BR approaches. However the extent of their use varies significantly.Many of the responding organisations, in acknowledging their limited awareness of BR, indicated a desire to know more about the formal methods available. Moreover this research's findings are consistent with the similar studies conducted in Australia and UK. Therefore this study emphasises the need for improvement of NZ organisations' current IS/IT practice by incorporating a BR approach in order to better optimise business benefits from IS/IT. This study recommends that organisations identify the missing links in their current practices through a conceptual framework suggested here and to improve their awareness (and likely adoption) of BR in order to better optimise their business benefits and justify their investments in IS/IT.

University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Information Technology. / As IT environments grow in complexity and diversity, their strategic management becomes a critical business issue. Enterprise architectures (EA’s) provide support by ensuring that there is alignment between an enterprise’s business objectives and the IT systems that it deploys to achieve these objectives. While EA is a relatively new discipline, it has already found widespread commercial application. It is likely that EA will receive even more focus as IT environments continue to grow in complexity and heterogeneity. Despite this widespread acceptance of EA as a valuable IT discipline, there are several serious challenges that contemporary EA approaches are yet to overcome. These arise from the fact that currently, there is no unified EA modelling language that is also easy to use. A unified EA modelling language is one that is able to describe a wide range of IT domains using a single modelling notation. Without a unified, easy to use EA modelling language, it is impossible to create integrated models of the enterprise. Instead, a variety of modelling languages must be used to create an EA, leading to enterprise models that are inconsistent, incomplete and difficult to understand. The need to use multiple modelling languages also places a high cognitive load on modellers and excludes non-IT specialists from developing or using these models, even though such people may be the most important stakeholders in an EA program. The research presented in this thesis tackles these problems by developing a metaphor-based approach to the construction of unified EA modelling languages. Contemporary approaches to the understanding of metaphor are surveyed, and it is noted that one way to understand metaphor is to view it as part of a dynamic type hierarchy. This understanding of metaphor is related to the development of enterprise models and it is shown that highly abstract metaphors can be used to provide conceptually unified models of a range of enterprises and their component structures. This approach is operationalised as methodology that can be used to generate any number of unified EA modelling languages. This methodology is then applied to generate a new, unified EA modelling language called ‘LEAN’ (Lightweight Enterprise Architecture Notation). LEAN is evaluated using a mixed-methods research approach. This evaluation demonstrates that LEAN can be used to model a wide range of domains and that it is easy to learn and simple to understand. The application of the theoretical principles and methodology presented in this thesis can be expected to improve the understandability and consistency of EA’s significantly. This, in turn, can be expected to deliver significant tangible business benefits through improved strategic change management that more closely aligns the delivery of IT services with business drivers. The findings in this research also provide fertile ground for further research. This includes the development and comparative evaluation of alternative unified languages, further research into the use of the methodology presented to align architectures at various levels of abstraction, and the investigation of the applicability of this theoretical approach to other, non-IT disciplines.

This research explores the nature and importance of leadership in technical projects. It contends that there is a need to develop a leadership model incorporating the unique personality and occupational characteristics of technical professionals and their project environment. Increasing attention is now being paid to the non-technical aspects, such as leadership, in the execution of technical projects; but there is a dearth of empirical research justifying their importance as critical success factors. Using Bass and Avolio�s (1990) model and its measurement instrument, this study tested the suitability of transformational leadership, considered a cornerstone of post-industrial school of leadership, in the successful execution of information systems projects. In addition, a separate technical leadership scale, derived from the meta analysis of the technical leadership literature, was also tested, compared and contrasted with Bass and Avolio�s model. The conceptual framework postulated that a combination of transformational and technical leadership styles augment transactional leadership leading to high project success with the additional support of other contingency factors, such as clarity of project mission, top management support and availability of technical resources. The population for the research was information systems projects in Australian organisations. The participating organisations were part of the top 100 computer using organisations, top 50 software companies and members of the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA). Of the 111 organisations which were invited and found suitable, 36 participated in the research, yielding a response rate of 32%. Each participating organisation involved two project teams in the survey, one considered more successful and another less successful, on specified parameters. The sample consisted of the IT project managers (n = 70) and their subordinates (n = 228) who described the leadership behaviours of self/manager in terms of transformational, transactional, and technical leadership scales and their perceived effectiveness. In addition, senior IT managers (n = 18) were interviewed to obtain a three dimensional (superiors, self and subordinates) perspective of project leadership. The results were consistent with the hypothesis that managers of more successful projects exhibit transformational and technical leadership behaviours to a greater extent than managers of less successful projects. They also exhibited more of transactional contingent reward behaviour, thus, supporting the augmentation effect. Management-by-exception passive behaviour showed a strong but negative correlation with leadership outcome. As hypothesised, transformational and technical leadership scales were more strongly correlated with leadership outcome scales in more successful projects than in less successful projects. These results were in line with the previous findings on Bass and Avolio�s model. The more successful projects also exhibited stronger presence of the contingency factors considered in the study i.e., better clarity of project mission to team members, top management support and greater availability of technical resources. There was a broad agreement between the managers and their subordinates on leadership, outcome and contingency scales. The factor analysis of leadership scales resulted in one transformational scale (combination of intellectual stimulation and idealised influence), one technical scale (organisational catalyst), and three transactional scales (contingent reward, management-by-exception active and passive). The modified leadership scales were used to propose a technical leadership model, laying the foundation for a technical leadership theory. The results demonstrate the importance of leadership as a critical success factor in technical projects and provide valuable clues on a 'role model' for aspiring project managers which include the key elements of transformational and technical leadership. While there may be no one leadership style that is effective in all project situations, the study recommends an underlying yet flexible style characterised by organisational catalyst, intellectual stimulation, behavioural charisma and contingent reward behaviours for enhanced leadership effectiveness.

No description available.

<p>Insikter är en viktig del utav designprocessen. I användarcentreraddesign involveras just användaren i själva processen för att få ett slutresultat som är välanpassat till målgruppen och användaren. För att detta ska bli så bra som möjligt krävs ofta en bra förståelse för användarna och kontexten kring dessa. All information som samlas in måste i sin tur organiseras och tolkas. Insikter om hur situationen, kontexten och vad som är viktigt växer så småningom fram. Hur arbetar då designers med att ta fram insikter och behålla dessa genom hela designprocessen?</p><p>Syftet med denna uppsats var att undersöka hur personer som arbetar med tjänstedesign själva uppfattar hur de jobbar med att ta fram insikter i designprocessen. Samt hur de uppfattar att insikter behålls genom hela hela processen.</p><p>Detta undersöktes genom att fem personer som jobbar med tjänstedesign intervjuades. Detta material har sedan analyserats med utgångspunkt från syfte och frågeställningar.</p><p>Insikter uppfattas generellt av dessa personer som något större än information, insikter kommer utifrån bearbetad information, och tillskillnad från idéer anses de inte utvecklas eller förfinas genom designprocessen. De behålls främst genom designprocessen genom att de ligger som grund till idéer samt att den slutliga tjänsten avvägs och utvärderas mot dessa insikter. De faktorer som framför allt påverkar uppkomsten av insikter är information, tid, erfarenhet samt kommunikation och samarbete. Information ses som grund till insikter. Tid är ett måste både för att göra ett bra grundarbete som ger bättre insikter samt att in­sikterna behöver tid för inkubation. Erfarenhet gör att designern vågar lita på sin magkänsla och kommunikation och samarbete är dels vik­tiga för att sätta ord på den intuition och magkänsla som oftast beskrivs som den första initiala delen av en insikt, men även för att förmedla insikterna i projektet samt en förutsättning för ett bra projekt.</p>