Thesis (M.S.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 2007. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (p. 47-50).

Techn. Universiẗat, Diss., 2002--Darmstadt.

Thesis (M.S.I.S.)--Baylor University, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 59-60).

Thesis (MScEng)--University of Stellenbosch, 2002. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT "The environment sets many new requirements and SMEs can reactively adapt or they can design themselves to affect and operate in the environment as effective as possible. " - Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin (2000). The objective of this thesis is to assess how applicable transformation methodologies (essentially a design process) are to South African small and medium manufacturing enterprises (SMEs). Enterprise Engineering was chosen as the reference discipline for this study. Enterprise Engineering is an emerging discipline that draws upon a wide variety of reference disciplines as a foundation. Transformation from an Enterprise Engineering perspective is considered as a rigorous engineering approach through careful planning to transform an enterprise from a current state to desired future state. Two methodologies from the Enterprise Engineering discipline were chosen, and their applicability to serve as transformation methodologies was assessed for South African manufacturing SMEs. The thesis starts by stating the thesis objective, problem statement, approach followed, limitations of the research and thesis outline. Global competitive trends for nations and manufacturing enterprises are then discussed. The current South African environment for manufacturing SMEs is reviewed in order to better understand the specific needs for transformation. Current literature on the reference disciplines of Enterprise Engineering is introduced to establish a sound foundation for understanding the transformation concepts. Transformation, Enterprise Engineering methodologies and the type of transformation that each methodology presents are defined, and some important concepts of the methodologies are discussed and evaluated against prevailing South African practices. A pre-transformation assessment method is established to help in the decision process of whether a SME should go ahead with transformation at all, and if so, what the extent and type of transformation approach should be. An application for each of the two transformation methodologies is done. The Transform Enterprise Methodology was applied at a small manufacturer of microwave components for the electronic warfare industry, and the Master Planning methodology was applied to a business unit that specialises in rapid product development. The results of the applications are included in this report. Lessons learnt and conclusions drawn are presented in the sections following. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: "Die omgewing stel baie nuwe vereistes en klein en medium ondernemings kan reaktief aanpas of hulle self herontwerp om die omgewing te beinvloed en om so effektief as moontlik daarin te werk. " - Handel en Nywerheid Minister Alec Erwin (2000). Die doewit van die tesis is om te bepaal hoe toepasbaar transformasie metodologië is tot Suid Afrikaanse klein en medium vervaardiging ondernemings. Ondernemings Ingenieurswese is gekies as verwysings disipline vir hierdie studie. Ondernemings Ingenieurswese is 'n opkomende disipline wat gebaseer is op 'n wye verskeidenheid verwysings disiplines. Transformasie vanuit 'n Ondernemings Ingenieurswese oogpunt kan beskou word as 'n werksintensiewe ingenieurs benadering om 'n onderneming te transformeer van 'n huidige tot 'n toekomstige begeerlike toestand in ooreenstemming met 'n plan. Twee metedologië vanuit die Ondernemings Ingenieurswese disipline is gekies, en hulle toepasbaarheid om as transformasie metedologië gebruik te word is bepaal vir Suid Afrikaanse klein en medium vervaardiging ondernemings. Die tesis begin deur die tesis doelwit, probleem stelling, benadering gevolg, begrensing van die navorsing en oorsigtelike skema te gee. Globale kompeterende tendensies vir nasies en vervaardinging ondernemings word daarna bespreek. Die huidige omgewing vir klein en medium vervaardiging ondernemings in Suid Afrika word dan beskou. Dit word gedoen om beter te verstaan wat die spesifieke behoeftes vir transformasie is. Huidige literatuur oor Ondernemings Ingenieurswese verwysmgs disiplines word bekend gestelom 'n goeie fondasie daar te stel vir begrip van transformasie konsepte. Transformasie word gedefinieer en twee tipes transformasie metedologië word bekendgestel. Die belangrikste konsepte van die twee metedologië word dan bespreek en geevalueer teen algemene Suid Afrikaanse werkpraktyke. 'n Pro-transformasie evalueerings metode is opgestel om te help met die besluitneming of daar voortgegaan moet word met transformasie in 'n onderneming, en indien wel, watter tipe metedologie gebruik moet word en wat die omvang van transformasie moet wees. Toepassings van beide metedologië is gedoen. Die Transformeer Onderneming Metedologie is toegepas op 'n klein vervaardiger van mikrogolf komponente vir die elektroniese oorlog industrie, en die Meester Plan metedologie is toegepas op a besigheids eenheid wat spesialiseer in pas komponent vervaardiging.

Around 2.5 million utility works (street works) occurred in England in 2016 with a construction cost of approximately £2 billion. Comparative figures for highway works (road works) are not readily available, but are expected to be similarly significant. Unsurprisingly, the volume of road works and street works (RWSW) activity in urban areas is considered to have a negative impact on the road network causing disruption and premature deterioration, blighting the street scene, damaging local business trade, and significantly increasing social, economic and environmental costs. Indeed the social costs of street works alone are estimated to be around £5.1 billion annually. Despite the economic significance of highway infrastructure, the subject of road works and street works management is under-researched, with greater research emphasis on technology-based, as opposed to policy-based management approaches. Consequently, the aim of this study was to investigate the efficiency and effectiveness of managing the business process of RWSW. Due to limited academic literature in the subject domain, earlier research focused on identifying the industry actors, their motivations, as well as drivers and barriers to RWSW management. Semi-structured interviews with industry stakeholders highlighted the industry s complexity and revealed that several issues contributed to ineffective RWSW management. Principal problems included Street Authorities (SA) failing to take enough ownership of the RWSW coordination process, highway legislation not encouraging joint working due to inherent challenges arising from reinstatement guarantees, and entrenched attitudes and adversarial practices in the construction industry encouraging silo working. The Derby Permit Scheme (legislative tool) was intended to improve RWSW management through giving SAs greater control of highway works. Accordingly, RWSW activity was tested through a statistical time series intervention analysis to separately examine the impacts of the Highway Authority (HA) led works and utility industry led works over 6.5 years. The Permit Scheme was found to reduce utility works durations by around 5.4%; equivalent to 727 days, saving between £2.1 - £7.4 million in construction and societal costs annually. Conversely, the Permit Scheme did not noticeable reduce the HA led works. Instead, the introduction of a works order management system (WOMS) to automate some of the back office road works process was found to reduce works durations by 34%; equivalent to 6519 days and saving between £8.3 - £48.3m per annum. This case study highlighted that more considered practices were required by the HA to reduce RWSW. The stakeholder study and the automated WOMS technology found that well-managed business processes tended to lead to better executed highway works on-site. Informed by these experiences, the sponsor was keen to re-engineer its internal business processes. Business process mapping was adopted to identify inefficient practices and improved coordinated working opportunities on three key internal teams involved in the road works process. Findings revealed that silo working was inherent and that processes were built around fragmented and outdated Information Technology (IT) systems, creating inefficiencies. A subsequent validation exercise found that certain practices, such as restricted data access and hierarchal management styles were culturally embedded and also common across other local authorities. Peer reviewed recommendations to improve working practices were made, such as adopting an integrated Highways Management IT system, vertical integration between the customer relationship management IT system and the Highways IT systems, and the provision of regulatory training. In conclusion, based on the finding of this study, a generic logic map was created with potential to transfer the learning to other local authorities and for their use when evaluating road works administrative processes.

In this thesis project, a company’s continuously evolved service-oriented software architecture was studied for signs of architectural erosion. The architecture has been continuously developed over some time and the company have experienced a reduction in architectural quality and felt that it no longer fulfilled its design goals and therefore decided to start working on a replacement architecture based on the microservice archi-tectural style. This thesis project therefore aimed to study how the current architectures quality have changed during its evolution, find the causes of these changes in quality, andestimate how the planned microservice migration will effect these changes in quality. This study was performed in three steps. First, a suite of suitable quality metrics where gathered based on the stated architectural design goals and what information can be ex-tracted from the history of the implemented architecture. A tool was developed to model the architecture and to gather the quality metrics from the current architecture and how ithas changed over one year’s worth of development and evolution. Secondly, the causes ofthese changes in architectural quality was investigated through developer interviews with a wide range of developers that had worked on the architecture and the web application that it provides the structure for. The interviews focused on the topics of architectural knowledge, what consideration is taken to its design during component development, maintenance of existing components and architecture, as well as questions regardingspecific components and anomalies. Thirdly and finally, the migration to a microserviceand its effects on the quality of the current architecture is estimated through performing microservice reengineering on the model used to evaluate the current architecture. The tools developed during this thesis allowed for an analysis of the architecture didshow an increase in consistency violations, structural problems and level the of coupling have substantially increased over the version history that the model tracked. It was discov-ered by the developer interviews that some of the causes of this erosion was due to among other reasons an abandonment of some architectural deign decisions, lack of architectural knowledge on certain topics, and none-optimal development conditions and priorities. The microservice reengineering showed how the migration could be used to improve themeasured quality metrics and that a migration alongside some other architectural erosionprevention and repair methods could create an architecture that are more modular and erosion tolerant.

This thesis deals with mapping and reengineering of existing wifi network. The goal is an analysis of the measured characteristics with the program Ekahau Site Survey. On its basis is designed new solution. Own work is also an financial assessment of the solution.

Thesis (MTech (Business Administration))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2010.). / Change has become a normal occurrence within organisations in South Africa, more so in telecommunication organisations due to the rapid technological advances. In a competitive global economy, organisations are forced to stay abreast with technological changes in order to survive. The South African telecommunication industry is no exception as global changes will ultimately result in local changes. Harker (1996: 1) maintains that “a tidal wave of change is headed towards the telecommunication industry”. He mentions that the change experienced within the telecommunications industry will transform the economic, social and political environment for nearly every person in the world. The change taking place is affected by the rapid advancement in technology and convergence of computing, communication and information. Therefore only organisations that are ready for these changes will survive. The research was conducted in a large telecommunication organisation in South Africa (Company A) with over 20 000 employees currently employed in the organisation. Company A is embarking on organisational restructuring initiatives that will involve a number of organisational change processes. Organisational change processes may cause resistance to change as feelings of fear, uncertainty, reduced levels of trust in management and an increase in employee resignations may result (Bovey & Hede, 2001: 372, Coch & French, 1948: 512-548). The purpose of this research was to determine the levels of employee commitment to Company A and employee perceptions of the planned organisational changes at Company A

Thesis (MTech (Business Information Systems))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2016. / The global business environment has for a number of years been changing progressively faster and as a result, organisations are concentrating on becoming more agile to survive the contemporary business environment. The educational institutions are un-spared from the fast, progressive change. This change is making it difficult for educational institutions to cope with the competitive environment, thereby affecting business agility and the implementation of Business Process Management (BPM). This study seeks to explore what factors are affecting the agility and implementation of Business Process Management at a Further Education and Training (FET) college. The researcher of this dissertation’s view of the world or ontology is that of subjectivism. The research design utilises an interpretivist approach with a qualitative paradigm orientation. Additionally, the study adopts an inductive approach or argument which upholds that true statements, one after the other, can lead to a probable accurate conclusion or theory. This research uses a case study where data is gathered from key management staff and IT experts at the FET College (FETC), using semi-structured questionnaires by means of interviews. An overview of the findings indicates a lack of resources, lack of conduciveness to the teaching and learning environment, lack of collaboration, outdated curriculum, and resistance to change as factors impeding the FETC’s ability to respond to the competitive environment and implementation of Business Process Management. The lack of capabilities, incorrect risk management, culture of change as well as non-alignment of business processes (BPs) with the vision of the FETC, are factors preventing the College from being more agile and creating value for its clients. Furthermore, there is a high misuse of the registration and bursary processes by students. To conclude, the FETC needs to find alternative means besides the main source—government—to source resources. The FETC needs to be more agile and flexible in order to retain clients and remain sustainable in the industry. Furthermore, the FETC needs to improve on its business processes (BPs) and physical security. It is recommended that the FETC manages the correct risks in order to change and remain competitive in the industry. The FET environment necessitates interconnected registration and bursary processes to optimise the use of resources. The registration processes need to be re-engineered in order to facilitate early registration. Security needs to be improved and effective strategic management put in place.

Despite the process management is young, there´s many kinds of methods to analyse the firm conditions and implement the process management to the life. At the same time is possible to use some methods of value management. Some this methods were used in the firm Zeelandia, s.r.o. Zeelandia is czech-holland business firm and there was analysed the process model with all core processes and all reciprocally links. Then were choosed two most important processes (marketing, business and distribution) and it was made the redesign of it. It was made a new process called TCS (Total Customer Satisfaction) which make better situation of costumers relationship and organization of business processes. It´s very important to know it was a partial change and it must be took into the consideration. The managers must change their minds and leave the old assumptions, because this is the way to be more succesful in the future. The process management is this way.