This thesis reports on the research undertaken to develop a method for organisations to assess human communication between their business and IT personnel as part of business–IT alignment. The research described in this thesis involves (i) a literature review in business–IT alignment and related fields, such as management studies and communication science; (ii) a Delphi study conducted among industry members, practitioners, and academics operating in the IT advisory, auditing and communication disciplines; and (iii) a case study of a public sector organisation in South Africa. By adopting a system-theoretic perspective on communication, this thesis proposes that communication in business–IT alignment can be seen as coordinating behaviour and a series of learning and reflection events, consequently culminating in increased mutual understanding. Various conceptualisations of communication are explored and, together with several industry elicited factors that influence communication in business–IT alignment, are incorporated into a conceptual model informing the assessment method. This research developed, applied, and tested a method whereby organisations can assess the quality of the human communication between their business and IT personnel as part of the business–IT alignment endeavour. The aim of this method is to trigger reflection on communication by considering communication philosophy and practices in business–IT alignment. The method, termed the ‘Business-IT Communication Alignment Maturity Improvement Communication Alignment Maturity Improvement (CAMI) method’, is based on a maturity grid-based approach, which stems originally from process improvement in software development and quality management. This thesis is most closely aligned with the research performed by Maier, Eckert, and Clarkson (2004, 2006), who successfully applied the maturity grid-based approach to investigate, audit and assess communication within the engineering design process. The question addressed in this thesis is whether this approach can be successfully extrapolated to the business–IT alignment context and whether it would yield similar benefits. Furthermore, the issue of whether it would offer a practical method for use in organisations is also addressed. Having applied the CAMI method at a public sector organisation, this thesis proposes that the maturity grid-based approach can indeed be extrapolated to iv the business–IT alignment context, consequently offering a viable and practical method for assessing communication in organisations. In particular, the CAMI method allows organisations to capture both their current and their desired communication situations and to expose discrepancies between the perceptions held by their business and IT personnel. These results form a basis for action planning, strategizing, and, ultimately, interventions for improvement. In conclusion, the thesis discusses further application and extension possibilities for the assessment method.

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Science in Industrial Engineering to the Faculty of Science, School of Mechanical, Industrial and Aeronautical Engineering, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2018 / It is a requirement of the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) that all tertiary education institutions ascertain whether their current courses meet the ECSA Exit Level Outcomes (ELO), as identified by the institution themselves. The course project for MECN4020 – Systems Engineering and Management – at the University of the Witwatersrand is required to meet the requirement of the ECSA ELO 8, as prescribed. Students are instructed to reflect on the experience. Qualitative research is used to both induct emergent themes from the student reflections, as well as deduct, whether the ECSA ELO 8 requirements are met by the project. Emergent themes from inductive analysis result in emergent themes, which are then compared to the pilot study conducted. Deductive analysis identifies the inference that may be placed on the student population, so that the ECSA ELO 8 requirements are identified as met or not met. ECSA ELO 8 requirements that are considered to be met by the group project for MECN4020 are “The Candidate Makes Individual Contributions”, “The Candidate Enhances the Work of Fellow Team Members”, “The Candidate Benefits from the Support of Team Members”, “The Candidate Communicates Effectively With Team Members”, “The Candidate Acquires a Working Knowledge of a Co-Workers Discipline”, “The Candidate Communicates Across a Disciplinary Boundary” and “The Candidate Uses a Systems Approach”. Emergent themes and extant literature as used to develop recommendations, so that the MECN4020 project may meet the ECSA ELO 8 requirement. Suggestions for improvement are given using a framework consistent with the design of multidisciplinary education design. / MT 2018

<p>REQUIREMENTS ANALYSIS FOR A CONTEXT-AWARE MULTI-AGENCY EMERGENCY RESPONSE SYSTEM</p> / <p>Society faces many natural and man-made disasters which can have a large impact in terms of deaths, injuries, monetary losses, psychological distress, and economic effects. Society needs to find ways to prevent or reduce the negative impact of these disasters as much as possible. Information systems have been used to assist emergency response to a certain degree in some cases. However, there is still a lack of understanding on how to build an effective emergence response system. To identify the basic requirements of such systems, a grounded theory research method is used for data collection and analysis. Data from firsthand interviews and observations was combined with literature and analyzed to discover several emergent issues and concepts regarding disaster response. The issues and concepts were organized into four categories: i) context-awareness; ii) multi-party relationships; iii) task-based coordination; and iv) information technology support, which together identified the needs of disaster response coordination. Using evidence from the data, these factors were related to one another to develop a framework for context-aware multi-party coordination systems (CAMPCS). This study contributes to the field of emergency management as the framework represents a comprehensive theory for disaster response coordination that can guide future research on emergency management coordination.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Information System development involves various activities; the process of developing information systems is considered to be the production of a series of documents. The information derived from the activities of the life cycle needs to be stored in a way that will facilitate the carrying out of subsequent activities. That is, information must be stored with a consistent, semantically rich, flexible, and efficient structure that will make it accessible for use by various tools employed in carrying out the development process. In this research, knowledge base management system (KBMS) to manage the information created by the information system development process was designed and implemented. Several contemporary popular knowledge representation schemes can be managed conveniently by this KBMS, which utilized efficient database techniques to facilitate fast retrieval and traversal of the underlying semantic inheritance net and frame knowledge structure. Inference and logic deduction capability was made a part of the static knowledge structure to further extend the functionality of the KBMS. Furthermore, a specially designed relational database management system was implemented and interfaced with the KBMS to alleviate the possibility of a storage saturation problem and to facilitate the storage of detailed exclusive information of terms defined in the knowledge base. Models that are applicable to various information system development activities were identified and stored in the knowledge base. The aggregation of those models is, in fact, a conceptual non-procedural language that provides a concise descriptive framework to help the user gather and manage information derived from various activities during the information system development process. The knowledge base, the language, and several knowledge-base related tools were used by more than seventy graduate students in a case study for a system analysis and design course. An information system methodology specifically tailored for this knowledge base supported environment was proposed and applied in a simplified case to illustrate the process of how a database-centered information system can be derived from the initial strategic planning phase. The methodology explored and made use of the storage structure of the closely coupled knowledge base and database. Finally, future research direction was identified.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Ensuring the delivery of an investment is crucial for organisations as significant amounts of operating and capital expenditure is spent on information systems. Regrettably, many organisations today have no accurate techniques for forecasting and warranting the success of information system projects and many rely on the traditional project management triple constraint criteria alone, which encapsulate time, cost, and quality. Many chief executive officers (CEOs), chief information officers (CIOs) and other executives have difficulty in justifying their investments and return on investment (ROI) in information systems. Since the 1970s many articles have been written and much research conducted on the topic of information system project success. However, there is still no consensus on an agreed upon definition and robust methodology to measure the success of information system projects (ISPs). This research attempted to determine if organisations measure the success of their ISPs. In addition, the researcher aimed to pinpoint what key success factors and critical success criteria organisations use, and how these are applied to measure information system project success (ISPS). To reach these objectives, qualitative research was conducted by means of a study of the literature on the topic, a pilot survey, and semi-structured interviews in order to gather expert opinions and information pertaining to the measurement of ISPS in industry. It was found that most project managers and companies still rely on the traditional triple constraint to determine the success of their information system projects. Moreover, this phenomenon exists due to a lack of knowledge on the topic, top management buy-in, time and resources, and a perception that the costs to get a measurement system in place outweigh the benefits to be gained from it.

This dissertation provides a foundation for electronic information management in organizations. It focuses on the relationships among communication, control, and information flows of the organization. The main thesis addresses the question of how electronic mail messages may be managed according to their contents, ensuring at the same time, the preservation of organizational and social relationships. A taxonomy for the management of unstructured electronic information relevance based on the treatment of information is derived from current research. Among the three paradigms, the information processing, the information distribution, and the information sharing paradigms, the inadequacy of the first two is recognized, and the treatment of information in its active mode is proposed. This taxonomy can be used to quickly differentiate one research from another and evaluate its adequacy. Three concepts, four cornerstones, and an architecture constitute our framework of information relevance management. The cornerstones are knowledge of the organization, knowledge of the individual, information construction, and information interpretation. Through knowledge of the organization and the individual, the machine production systems are able to distribute and manage information according to the logic of human production systems. The other two cornerstones together improve the unity of interpretation among the organizational members. The physical architecture can adapt a number of applications, each of which, may not only have different knowledge presentations and inference mothods, but also may co-exist in the system simultaneously. An integrated knowledge-based electronic messaging system, the AI-MAIL system, is built, tested, and evaluated through a case study to demonstrate the feasibility of the architecture and its applicability to the real-world environment. The three operating levels, interorganizational, intraorganizational, and individual, are illustrated through a study of the U.S. Army. From three large scale field studies, the existing AUTODIN I system, a backbone of the Army's communications, is analyzed and evaluated to illustrate the applicability and benefits of the three operating levels. This dissertation contributes to the field of Management Information Systems by offering a methodology, a taxonomy, a new paradigm, a framework, and a system for information management and a method of adaptive organizational design. In addition, it points toward future research directions. Among them are research to deal with ethical issues, organizational research, knowledge engineering, multi-processor configuration, and internal protocols for applications.

As the number of information system users increases, we are witnessing a related increase in the complexity and the diversity of their applications. The increasing functional complexity amplifies the degree of functional and technical understanding required of the user to make productive use of the application tools. Emerging technologies, increased and varied user interests and radical changes in the nature of applications give rise to the opportunity and necessity to re-examine the proper apportionment of cognitive responsibilities in human-system interaction. We present a framework for the examination of the allocation of cognitive responsibilities in information systems. These cognitive tasks involve skills associated with the models and tools that are provided by information systems and the domain knowledge and problem knowledge that are associated with the user. The term cognitor is introduced to refer to a cognitive capacity for assuming such responsibilities. These capacities are resident in the human user and they are now feasible in information system architectures. Illustrations are given of how this framework can be used in understanding and assessing the apportionment of responsibilities. Implications of shifting and redistributing cognitive task from the system-user environment to the system environment are discussed. Metrics are provided to assess the degree of change under alternative architectures. An architecture for the design of alternative responsibility allocations, named Reapportionment of Cognitive Activities, (RCA), is presented. The architecture describes knowledge and responsibilities associated with facilitating dynamic allocation of cognitive responsibilities. Knowledge bases are used to support and describe alternative apportionments. RCA illustrates how knowledge representations, search techniques and dialogue management can be combined to accommodate multiple cooperating cognitors, each assuming unique roles, in an effort to share the responsibilities associated with the use of an information system. A design process for responsibility allocation is outlined. Examples of alternative responsibility allocation feasible within this architecture are provided. Cases implementing the architecture are described. We advocate treating the allocation of cognitive responsibilities as a design variable and illustrate through the architecture and the cases the elements necessary in reapportioning these responsibilities in information systems dialogues.

M.Com. (Business Economics) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

This thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Commerce in the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. / Managers are increasingly aware that they need to leverage their company's resources in order to deal with the challenges of the changing business world in the 90' s and the coming millennium. The aim of this research is to evaluate how organisations are utilising enterprise wide packaged software applications in order to achieve strategic and transformational benefits for their organisations. The relentless change in the business landscape has meant that organisations have needed to respond in increasingly innovative ways to stay in business. This has been more so for South African organisations which have now been accepted back into the world community after years of isolation due the country's political policy of apartheid. The watershed years of the early 1990's opened up once forbidden markets to South African organisations and in doing so launched these organisations into a global competitive environment. To compete effectively in these newly opened and changed markets, companies have sought to reposition themselves. Since information technology is clearly embedded in many of these organisations they are increasingly turning to infonnetion technology to underpin their new businesses strategies. The relevance of the information architecture an organisation chooses will also be explored in this research, as the flexibility and structure of the architecture will determine what strategic options are available to the company. Many organisations are implementing software packages as opposed to writing their own software to fit unique processes. This trend is strengthened by advancements on the technological front, the disappointment of cost overruns with previously in-house written applications, and the critical shortage of experienced IT (information technology) skills ill the country. Business can no longer wait years for a system to be developed. The implementation of enterprise wide packaged software applications facilitates integration and process transformation which many organisations see as fundamental to their new strategies to remain competitive. This research showed that the implementation of enterprise wide packaged software applications forces change on an organisation in that a number of domains within the organisation are challenged. Processes need revisiting, human resources undergo a change and teamwork is facilitated. There is a new sharing of knowledge and information within the organisation, and such information systems are deployed rapidly and with the business objectives firmly in place. Whilst there were strategic and transformational benefits, there were also a number of unexpected benefits. The changes brought about by such implementations were largely underestimated by managers within these organisations. / Andrew Chakane 2018

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