South Africa has shown an increased interest and awareness of Open Source Software (OSS) in the past decade. One of the reasons for this was the support from the Shuttleworth Foundation for Open Source initiatives. Migrating to OSS is a difficult and time consuming activity that should not be underestimated by the migration team. Careful planning and roll-out procedures should be in place before one commence on this journey. Process reference models are used in different fields to capture the generic process flow of activities. For the OSS domain, no process reference models could be found for migration purposes. Therefore, this study has as aim the suggestion of an initial set of process reference models for an organisational OSS migration. These process reference models were identified by capturing the process models for a case study that entailed the migration of the CSIR software systems and desktops from proprietary to OSS. From this set of process models, the migration processes were identified and refined to a set of suggested process reference models for organisational OSS migrations. This set of process reference models are useful to determine the processes necessary for organisations considering migrating to OSS. The study is divided into four research questions, where the first focusses on use and value of process reference models and the second on what is already known about OSS migration processes. The third deals with key processes within an organisational open source migration (OOSM) and the last with process reference models for an OOSM. For the first research question, the use and value of process reference models and the usefulness of utilising process reference models is discussed as well as using process models as a modelling tool to identify and capture processes. For the second research question, a summary is provided of what we know about OSS migration processes and a description about what the researcher and others have learnt about OSS, OSS migrations, process reference models, the process and its structure. For the third research question, the key processes within an OOSM is discussed as well as all the processes that took place during the OSS migration project from basic administrative processes to complex processes, from the beginning of the project until its completion. Lastly, for the fourth research question, process reference models that are essential for an OOSM and possible generic migration process models bound to reoccur are identified by the researcher and validated using a focus group discussion. / M.Tech. (Information Technology)

In order to stay competitive and to create value to their clients, manufacturing companies are engaging in a process called servitization, which consists in transforming their existing physical product offerings into integrated bundles of products and services, called Product-Service Systems (PSS). Servitization compels manufacturing companies to change their business models. One of the main challenges of servitization is to redesign the business processes dimension of their business model in order to operate middle of life (MOL) and end of life (EOL) phases of PSS. Despite the existence of decades-long successful PSS cases, operational difficulties are still reported. This is associated to gaps in existing PSS business model design methodologies, which are focused on the development of new PSS and lack the required level of details for servitization. The goal of this study is to propose a method to support manufacturing companies during the servitization process in developing a PSS Business Process Architecture (PSS BPA), which is the basis for redesigning their business processes. The method was developed with the support of the Design Research Methodology (DRM), which comprises four research stages. In the first and second stages, a literature review was conducted to generate theoretical requirements for guiding the proposition of the PSS BPA Development Method. Action research approach was applied in the third stage to propose the PSS BPA Development Method empirically. Action research was carried in a large multinational manufacturing company from the healthcare sector, which intended to transform a diagnostic imaging product into a use-oriented PSS. In the last stage, the method received a preliminary assessment with the intent of being prepared for further applications in case studies. The results indicate that the PSS BPA Development Method has a potential for supporting companies in defining their PSS BPA. Other key contributions of the research were the proposition of a business process reference model for PSS based on the Process Classification Framework (PCF), and insights and findings obtained with the real case of servitization. / Para se manterem competitivas e criarem valor para seus clientes, empresas de manufatura estão passando pelo processo da servitização, que é a transformação de suas ofertas baseadas em produtos físicos em soluções integradas de produtos e serviços, chamadas Sistemas Produto-Serviço (PSS). A servitização requer transformações nos modelos de negócio das empresas. Um dos principais desafios da servitização é redesenhar a dimensão de processos de negócio do modelo de negócios da empresa de maneira a operar as fases de meio de vida e final de vida de um PSS. Apesar de existirem casos de sucesso de PSS implementados há décadas, dificuldades operacionais ainda são citadas. Isto está associado com lacunas nas metodologias para desenvolvimento de modelos de negócio de PSS, as quais são focadas no desenvolvimento de novos PSS e carecem do nível de detalhes necessário para servitização. O objetivo desta pesquisa é propor um método para apoiar as empresas de manufatura no desenvolvimento da Arquitetura de Processos de Negócio do PSS durante a servitização, o que é base para o redesenho de processos destas organizações. Este método foi desenvolvido com o apoio da Metodologia de Pesquisa em Design, que contém quatro estágios. No primeiro e segundo estágios, uma revisão da literatura foi realizada para determinar os requisitos teóricos que guiaram a proposição do método. No terceiro estágio, a pesquisa ação foi utilizada para propor empiricamente o método. A pesquisa ação foi realizada em uma empresa multinacional do setor de saúde, que pretendia transformar um equipamento de diagnóstico por imagens em PSS orientado ao uso. No estágio final, o método passou por uma avaliação preliminar a fim de ser preparado para estudos de caso. Os resultados indicam que o método proposto tem potencial para apoiar as empresas na definição de arquiteturas de processos para PSS. Outras contribuições foram a proposição de um modelo de referência de processos para PSS baseado no Framework de Classificação de Processo e descobertas do caso real de servitização.

In order to stay competitive and to create value to their clients, manufacturing companies are engaging in a process called servitization, which consists in transforming their existing physical product offerings into integrated bundles of products and services, called Product-Service Systems (PSS). Servitization compels manufacturing companies to change their business models. One of the main challenges of servitization is to redesign the business processes dimension of their business model in order to operate middle of life (MOL) and end of life (EOL) phases of PSS. Despite the existence of decades-long successful PSS cases, operational difficulties are still reported. This is associated to gaps in existing PSS business model design methodologies, which are focused on the development of new PSS and lack the required level of details for servitization. The goal of this study is to propose a method to support manufacturing companies during the servitization process in developing a PSS Business Process Architecture (PSS BPA), which is the basis for redesigning their business processes. The method was developed with the support of the Design Research Methodology (DRM), which comprises four research stages. In the first and second stages, a literature review was conducted to generate theoretical requirements for guiding the proposition of the PSS BPA Development Method. Action research approach was applied in the third stage to propose the PSS BPA Development Method empirically. Action research was carried in a large multinational manufacturing company from the healthcare sector, which intended to transform a diagnostic imaging product into a use-oriented PSS. In the last stage, the method received a preliminary assessment with the intent of being prepared for further applications in case studies. The results indicate that the PSS BPA Development Method has a potential for supporting companies in defining their PSS BPA. Other key contributions of the research were the proposition of a business process reference model for PSS based on the Process Classification Framework (PCF), and insights and findings obtained with the real case of servitization. / Para se manterem competitivas e criarem valor para seus clientes, empresas de manufatura estão passando pelo processo da servitização, que é a transformação de suas ofertas baseadas em produtos físicos em soluções integradas de produtos e serviços, chamadas Sistemas Produto-Serviço (PSS). A servitização requer transformações nos modelos de negócio das empresas. Um dos principais desafios da servitização é redesenhar a dimensão de processos de negócio do modelo de negócios da empresa de maneira a operar as fases de meio de vida e final de vida de um PSS. Apesar de existirem casos de sucesso de PSS implementados há décadas, dificuldades operacionais ainda são citadas. Isto está associado com lacunas nas metodologias para desenvolvimento de modelos de negócio de PSS, as quais são focadas no desenvolvimento de novos PSS e carecem do nível de detalhes necessário para servitização. O objetivo desta pesquisa é propor um método para apoiar as empresas de manufatura no desenvolvimento da Arquitetura de Processos de Negócio do PSS durante a servitização, o que é base para o redesenho de processos destas organizações. Este método foi desenvolvido com o apoio da Metodologia de Pesquisa em Design, que contém quatro estágios. No primeiro e segundo estágios, uma revisão da literatura foi realizada para determinar os requisitos teóricos que guiaram a proposição do método. No terceiro estágio, a pesquisa ação foi utilizada para propor empiricamente o método. A pesquisa ação foi realizada em uma empresa multinacional do setor de saúde, que pretendia transformar um equipamento de diagnóstico por imagens em PSS orientado ao uso. No estágio final, o método passou por uma avaliação preliminar a fim de ser preparado para estudos de caso. Os resultados indicam que o método proposto tem potencial para apoiar as empresas na definição de arquiteturas de processos para PSS. Outras contribuições foram a proposição de um modelo de referência de processos para PSS baseado no Framework de Classificação de Processo e descobertas do caso real de servitização.

South Africa has shown an increased interest and awareness of Open Source Software (OSS) in the past decade. One of the reasons for this was the support from the Shuttleworth Foundation for Open Source initiatives. Migrating to OSS is a difficult and time consuming activity that should not be underestimated by the migration team. Careful planning and roll-out procedures should be in place before one commence on this journey. Process reference models are used in different fields to capture the generic process flow of activities. For the OSS domain, no process reference models could be found for migration purposes. Therefore, this study has as aim the suggestion of an initial set of process reference models for an organisational OSS migration. These process reference models were identified by capturing the process models for a case study that entailed the migration of the CSIR software systems and desktops from proprietary to OSS. From this set of process models, the migration processes were identified and refined to a set of suggested process reference models for organisational OSS migrations. This set of process reference models are useful to determine the processes necessary for organisations considering migrating to OSS. The study is divided into four research questions, where the first focusses on use and value of process reference models and the second on what is already known about OSS migration processes. The third deals with key processes within an organisational open source migration (OOSM) and the last with process reference models for an OOSM. For the first research question, the use and value of process reference models and the usefulness of utilising process reference models is discussed as well as using process models as a modelling tool to identify and capture processes. For the second research question, a summary is provided of what we know about OSS migration processes and a description about what the researcher and others have learnt about OSS, OSS migrations, process reference models, the process and its structure. For the third research question, the key processes within an OOSM is discussed as well as all the processes that took place during the OSS migration project from basic administrative processes to complex processes, from the beginning of the project until its completion. Lastly, for the fourth research question, process reference models that are essential for an OOSM and possible generic migration process models bound to reoccur are identified by the researcher and validated using a focus group discussion. / M.Tech. (Information Technology)