The purpose of this study has been to examine how mature eight Swedish companies are in regards of IT- and agile maturity. Furthermore, how they can improve upon their IT- and agile maturity. The research objects of this study has been eight different organizations who all hired the same IT-consultancy. Information has been gathered through semi-structured interviews with respondents from each organization. The interviews were built upon a theoretical framework consisting of Ragowsky et al. (2012) IT-maturity model and Sidky et al. (2007) Agile Measurement Index (SAMI). We have attempted to combine the models into a matrix model that takes both types of maturity into account. The results have shown a greater level of IT-maturity than expected. Agile maturity on the other hand have been a contributing factor to failures in some of the projects. Although we have found that being mature in only one of the factors has been unusual. In conclusion, the organizations in our sample have shown high IT-maturity so the next challenge for Swedish organizations seems to be to acquire greater agile maturity.

The case study described in this thesis involves a process improvement project in the Tax Department of a Certified Public Accounting firm. A process map was created by interviewing employees involved in the process. A process analysis identified problems and possible solutions. The Partners in the firm decided to streamline the process for simple tax returns in order to make them more profitable. This study examined what impact, if any, the process improvement intervention had on key financial and operational measures. Results indicated that the tax returns prepared in the new process were faster, cheaper, and more profitable. This study indicates that organizations conducting process improvement interventions can beneficially affect key financial and operational measures.

Business Process (BP) design reflects managerial needs and may directly influence business performance. A good design could substantially increase managerial performance, while a bad one would be inefficient, lack of flexibility, mess cost effective and eventually miss the business strategy. The widespread of information technology has raised the need to redesign or modify business processes in order to fit the trend of automation and computerization. As a result, business process reengineering (BPR) has gained much attention in 1990s. In recent years, a new paradigm, called Service Science, Management and Engineering (SSME), becomes a new management innovation. Service process design becomes a new science that can be applied to support service innovation and management. Previous research on BPR includes two major directions: one focuses on managerial aspects of business processes, including the planning, implementation, and critical factors of BPR; the other focuses on the design aspects pf business processes with a target of making processes more efficient. For research on process design, most deal with the syntactic structure of the process. They analyze the syntax structure of a process. This can help find design errors such as deadlocks, livelocks, and even infinite loops in a process. Not many studies have investigated whether a process design meets its managerial goals. This research presents a knowledge-based approach to dealing with the managerial issue of whether a process design matches specific managerial goals. This thesis contains a new business process modeling method that allows a business process to be diagnosed by knowledge-based rules. We have defined three managerial goals in process design: effectiveness, efficiency, and flexibility. Each activity in a business process has its goal. Through the analysis of activities and their associated goals, we can determine whether a business process is properly designed. In order to show the feasibility of the proposed approach, we have implemented a JAVA-based prototype expert system and used it to check two sample business processes. The contributions of the study are two-fold. Academically, it proposed a new approach for business process diagnosis, which can help determine whether a process meets its managerial goal. In practice, businesses can use the concepts developed in the thesis to make their business processes more effective by matching activities with intended managerial goals.

The impact of globalisation and advanced information technology on service and knowledgebased industries in South Africa contributes to these workplaces becoming increasingly virtual. Virtual teams can be seen as a mechanism that organisations could use to increase their orientation for change through enhancing and integrating key organisational resources such as people, space and information technology to deliver greater business value. The findings of several studies suggest that the implementation of virtual teams is associated with benefits such as cost and time saving, increased employee productivity and employee empowerment. There are however salient barriers to effective virtual teamwork that organisations need to address before engaging in the transformational process towards virtual teamwork. The literature review identified ineffective leadership practices, factors relating to virtual team development, inadequate use of information technology and a paucity of social and organisational cultural integration, as the most salient features that impede effective virtual teamwork. The objective of this research was to develop a basic theoretical framework for the implementation of virtual teams. Since virtual teams emanate from a relatively new area of research an inductive methodology, based on a literature review, was used to achieve the research objective. Several theoretical models on virtual teams and their effectiveness thereon were explored to conceptualise the dynamic nature of virtual teams and the requirements for implementing them in the workplace. The results of the study indicated that an emergent approach to change be followed and that the following factors be addressed to determine an organisation's readiness for the implementation of virtual teams, namely: the degree of interdependence between tasks, structural requirements, technological requirements, process redesign and the selection of appropriate people. A methodology for work transformation towards virtual teamwork was suggested based on an integration of these factors. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.

The impact of globalisation and advanced information technology on service and knowledgebased industries in South Africa contributes to these workplaces becoming increasingly virtual. Virtual teams can be seen as a mechanism that organisations could use to increase their orientation for change through enhancing and integrating key organisational resources such as people, space and information technology to deliver greater business value. The findings of several studies suggest that the implementation of virtual teams is associated with benefits such as cost and time saving, increased employee productivity and employee empowerment. There are however salient barriers to effective virtual teamwork that organisations need to address before engaging in the transformational process towards virtual teamwork. The literature review identified ineffective leadership practices, factors relating to virtual team development, inadequate use of information technology and a paucity of social and organisational cultural integration, as the most salient features that impede effective virtual teamwork. The objective of this research was to develop a basic theoretical framework for the implementation of virtual teams. Since virtual teams emanate from a relatively new area of research an inductive methodology, based on a literature review, was used to achieve the research objective. Several theoretical models on virtual teams and their effectiveness thereon were explored to conceptualise the dynamic nature of virtual teams and the requirements for implementing them in the workplace. The results of the study indicated that an emergent approach to change be followed and that the following factors be addressed to determine an organisation's readiness for the implementation of virtual teams, namely: the degree of interdependence between tasks, structural requirements, technological requirements, process redesign and the selection of appropriate people. A methodology for work transformation towards virtual teamwork was suggested based on an integration of these factors. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.

The main goal of this work is to create some kind of simple methodology that can help to improve effectiveness of public organizations. There're a lot of theories and methodologies focused on this topic and there is a good chance many new ones will be presented in the future. These came mainly from management field and sometimes from other fields as well. This work focuses mainly on Business Process Reengineering and combines it with other methodologies hoping, it will help in a process improvements in the public sector. Focus is on Czech Republic but this work should be useful to other countries as well, if necessary changes are made in order to shape things that are different between the countries. In this work, a whole project cycle of the public organization processes improvement project can be found, but some project phases will be explained in more detail then the other. Focus is on the analytic parts of the project (strategy creation, use of UML, BSC and other models and methodologies like that) rather than the project management parts of the project. All the practical examples are from public sector organization -- namely the administrative office of one of the city districts of Prague. After reading this work, reader should have moderate understanding of the application of a BPR methodology in the public sector and how it can be supported by other methodologies. There is also big portion of models and diagrams in this work showing pieces of reality from chosen public organization. Their meaning is to show what is usually done in this kind of project and how to understand the models. This works goal isn't creation of a guideline to UML or any other modeling principles.

Actualmente, el espacio vial de las calles de Lima Metropolitana es diseñado de una manera poco eficiente con respecto a la inclusión de todos los usuarios del transporte urbano. La movilidad urbana presenta problemas que dan lugar a una conexión inadecuada entre los ciudadanos. Por esta razón, el presente tema de investigación consiste en realizar un rediseño geométrico de la Av. Primavera desde la Av. San Luis hasta la Av. De los precursores en el que se incluirá un nuevo carril exclusivo para bicicletas. En primer lugar, se realizan encuestas en determinada área para conocer el interés de la población por la propuesta, posteriormente determinando la demanda futura a fin de obtener la población que haría uso de la bicicleta después de una determinada cantidad de años. Posterior a ello, se propone el diseño de una ciclovía dentro del tramo analizado a través de un rediseño geométrico del espacio vial existente con el uso de los programas de diseño Autocad y Sketch-up. Además, se realiza una comparación del espacio asignado para áreas verdes, autos, ciclistas y peatones por áreas y secciones del escenario actual y el escenario propuesto con el propósito de garantizar un mejoramiento en el espacio vial. Finalmente, se realiza la validación de la propuesta mediante un análisis del tiempo de viaje y del área de arborización urbana, de modo tal que se puede verificar que no exista ningún efecto negativo a causa del rediseño geométrico. / Currently, the road space of the streets of Metropolitan Lima is designed in an inefficient way with respect to the inclusion of all users of urban transport. Urban mobility presents problems that lead to an inadequate connection between citizens. For this reason, the present research topic consists of carrying out a geometric redesign of Av. Primavera from Av. San Luis to Av. De los precursors, which will include a new exclusive lane for bicycles. In the first place, surveys are carried out in a certain area to find out the interest of the population in the proposal, later determining the future demand in order to obtain the population that would use the bicycle after a certain number of years. Subsequently, the design of a bicycle lane within the analyzed section is proposed through a geometric redesign of the existing road space with the use of the Autocad and Sketch-up design programs. In addition, a comparison is made of the space allocated for green areas, cars, cyclists and pedestrians by areas and sections of the current scenario and the proposed scenario in order to guarantee an improvement in the road space. Finally, the proposal is validated through an analysis of the travel time and the urban tree area, so that it can be verified that there is no negative effect due to the geometric redesign. / Tesis

Actualmente, existe una demanda creciente en relación al número de reclamos por diversos productos y servicios; y el sector financiero no es ajeno a esto, ya que aproximadamente representa el 45% de reclamos al año en comparación de las demás actividades económica y la gran parte de estos reclamos van ligados a la atención del cliente. En relación a ello, indicadores clave como el tiempo medio de atención y el tiempo medio de espera en cola son vitales para evaluar la calidad del servicio brindado y encontrar puntos de mejora. En este contexto, se ha propuesto un modelo de mejora continua (PDCA) integrado con herramientas como la estandarización de trabajo, que reduce la variabilidad del proceso de atención; y la teoría de colas, que nos permite identificar la distribución correcta de operaciones y servidores que nos garantice un equilibro entre los costos y la capacidad de servicio brindada. Esta aplicación del modelo propuesto tuvo resultados como la reducción de 73% en el tiempo de espera, incremento del nivel de atención en 8% y la reducción del tiempo de operación de 35% aproximadamente. / Nowadays, there is a growing demand for the number of claims for various products and services; and the financial sector is no stranger to this, as it accounts for approximately 45% of claims per year compared to other economic activities and most of these claims are tied to customer service. In this regard, key indicators such as average attention time and average queue waiting time are vital for assessing the quality of service provided and finding points for improvement. In this context, an integrated continuous improvement model (PDCA) is proposed with tools such as work study, which reduces the variability of the care process; and queue theory, which allows us to identify the correct distribution of operations and servers that ensures a balance between costs and the service capacity provided. This application of the proposed model had results such as a 73% reduction in waiting time, an increase in the level of care by 8% and the reduction in operating time of approximately 35%. / Trabajo de investigación

Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.