Thesis (DTech (Information Technology))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2018. / The central thesis of this study is that a multi-factorial strategy model can be evolved to enable development agency to be an augmenter in the commercialisation of the mobile applications development SME sector through business model innovation in response to disruptive innovation. The concept of augmentation in the context of this study acknowledges that disruptive innovation is ubiquitous and that development agencies can help these SMEs to succeed through business model innovation. This can be achieved through the implementation of a multi-factorial strategy model. A multi-factorial strategy model in this context is regarded as a method or plan having stemmed or stemming from a number of different causes or influences detailing the logic and the key considerations on the path to defining an organisation’s strategy. The development agency can utilise it to determine the state of the business and what the appropriate response should be, by way of business model innovation in response to disruptive innovation. This study rests on three tenets, namely, the uncovering of the dimensions of business model innovation; the nature of disruption; and finally, the potential role of the development agency in supporting SMEs in the technology sector. The mobile application (app) economy has presented business potential for SMEs and this sector of the economy can be facilitated by development agencies. Governments make use of development agencies to assist, develop and support growth within a region through the provision of resources and assistance, usually from state organisations. The enterprise development strategy should ensure the viability of the business idea, which should lead to the creation of new business value. The fieldwork for this critical realist study consisted of five phases. Phase 1 involved interviews with academics from the four higher education institutions in the Western Cape; Phase 2 involved an interview with mobile application development SMEs; Phase 3 comprised a focused interview consisting of members from industry and the development agency; Phase 4 involved interviews with entrepreneurs within the innovation and technology sector; and Phase 5 involved interviews with development agencies supporting the development of SMEs. Despite their potential, mobile app development businesses in the Western Cape face difficulties in commercialising their applications. The study suggested that research is warranted around the establishment of a multi-factorial strategy model which could provide a strategy for enhanced commercialisation of mobile app development. This model would have to address a number of concerns, depending on the propensity of the business towards mobile app development. Research into what adjustments to the current business models of these businesses are required to enter into mobile app development was also recommended. The findings and interpretations of this critical realist study revealed a structured real world of the landscape of mobile application development in the Western Cape, South Africa, by identifying its key constructs. It then revealed that knowledge is socially produced by identifying the salient imperatives that inform the role of the development agent with respect to business model innovation and disruptive innovation. By means of critical discourse analysis of the views expressed by the respondents, it revealed the emancipation agenda of mobile application development in the Western Cape, South Africa. In doing so it also ultimately uncovered the generative mechanisms in understanding, amongst others, what the critical performance underpinnings are. It is recommended that the SME sector implement business model innovation to respond to disruptive innovation, defined as “emerging technology whose arrival in the marketplace signifies the eventual displacement of the dominant technology in that sector” (Ganguly, Nilchiani & Farr, 2010, p. 35). The proliferation of disruptive innovation has led to technological innovation and such innovation will impact on SMEs in South Africa. The concept of business model innovation suggests that SMEs should move to a progressive interdependent modality where they participate through their shared strengths. The collaboration with other mobile app development SMEs would allow for their independent weaknesses to be moderated. Through business model innovation, mobile app development SMEs should be able to respond to the disruptive innovation and ensure success and sustainability. The antidote to disruption should be progressive management by way of business model innovation. In this sense then, the antidote to disruptive innovation is a management response that should be understood across the sector in which the study is undertaken.

Thesis (DPhil (Informatics))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2018. / Increasingly, organisations in South African and across the world rely on software for various reasons, such as competitiveness and sustainability. The software are either developed in-house or purchased from the shelf. Irrespective of how the software was acquired, they do encounter challenges, from implementation to support, and use stages. The challenges sometimes hinder and are prohibitive to processes and activities that the software is intended to enable and support. Majority of the challenges that are encountered with software are attributed to the fact that they were not tested or appropriately tested before implementation. Some of the challenges has been costly to many organisations, particularly in South Africa. As a result, some organisations have been lacking in their efforts toward growth, competitiveness and sustainability. The challenges manifest from the fact that there are no testing tools and methods that can be easily customised for an organisation’s purposes. As a result, some organisations adopt more tools and methods for the same testing purposes, which has not solved the problem, as the challenges continue among South Africa organisations. Based on the challenges as stated above, this study was undertaken. The aim was to develop a decision support system framework, which can be used for software testing by any organisation, owing to its flexibility for customisation. The interpretivist and inductive approaches were employed. The qualitative methods and the case study design approach were applied. Three South African organisations, a private, public and small to medium enterprise (SME) were used as cases in this study. A set of criteria was used to select the organisations. The analysis of the data was guided by two sociotechnical theories, actor network theory (ANT) and diffusion of innovation (DOI). The theories were complementarily applied because of their different focuses. The actor network theory focuses on actors, which are both human and non-human, heterogeneity of networks, and the relationship between the actors within networks. This includes the interactions that happen at different moments as translated within the heterogeneous networks. Thus, ANT was employed to examine and gain better understanding of the factors that influence software testing in organisations. The DOI focuses on how new (fresh) ideas are diffused in an environment, with particular focus on innovation decision process, which constitute five stages: knowledge, persuasion, decision, implementation and confirmation. Findings from the data analysis of the three cases were further interpreted. Based on the interpretation, a decision support system framework was developed. The framework is intended to be of interest to software developers, software project managers and other stakeholders, most importantly, to provide guide to software testers in their tasks of testing software. Thus, this research is intended to be of interest and benefit to organisations and academic through its theoretical, practical and methodological contribution as detailed in the chapter seven (conclusion). In conclusion, even though this research is rigorous, comprehensive and holistic, there are room for future studies. I would like to propose that future research should be in the areas of measurement of software testing. Also, sociotechnical theories like structuration theory and technology acceptance model should be considered in the analysis of such studies.

The interactive nature of web applications or “web apps” makes it an excellent medium for conveying complex scientific concepts to lay audiences and creating decision support tools that harness cutting edge modeling techniques. However, the technical expertise required to develop them represents a barrier for would-be developers. The barrier can be characterized by the following hurdles that developers must overcome: (1) identify, select, and install software that meet the spatial and computational capabilities commonly required for water resources modeling; (2) orchestrate the use of multiple FOSS and FOSS4G projects and navigate their differing application programming interfaces (APIs); (3) learn the multi-language programming skills required for modern web development; and (4) develop a web-safe and fully featured web site to host the app. This research has resulted in two primary products that effectively lower the barrier to water resources web app development: (1) a literature review of free and open source software (i.e. software review) and (2) Tethys Platform. The software review included earth science web apps that were published in the peer-reviewed literature in the last decade and it was performed to determine which FOSS4G and FOSS web software has been used to develop such web apps. The review highlights 11 FOSS4G software projects and 9 FOSS projects for web development that were used to develop 45 earth sciences web apps, which constitutes a significantly reduced list of possible software projects that could be used to meet the needs of water resources web app development—greatly lowering the barrier for entry to water resources web development. While the software review addresses the hurdle of identifying FOSS software to provide a web framework and spatial data capabilities for water resources web apps, there are still other hurdles that needed to be overcome to make development more viable. Tethys Platform was developed to address these other hurdles and streamline the development of water resources web apps. It includes (1) a suite of free and open source software that address the unique data and computational needs common to water resources web app development, (2) a Python software development kit for incorporating the functionality of each software element into web apps and streamlining their development, and (3) a customizable web portal that is used to deploy the completed web apps. Tethys Platform has been used to develop a broad array of web apps for water resources modeling and decision support.

Information Technology project managers have found that collective turnover of consultants lowers code quality, increases knowledge loss and negatively impacts team performance. Within the last decade, companies have begun to see that offshore consultants have a turnover rate greater than 26%, more than double the rates for the rest of the IT consulting industry. Collective turnover also puts additional pressure on the project team, causing work exhaustion and thus additional turnover. The purpose of this single case study was to explore strategies that 6 successful project managers utilized to limit and reduce the impact of collective turnover of their hybrid sourced project teams. Participants were selected through purposeful sampling, based on career experiences and history of successful project execution. Data collection was completed through semi structured face to face interviews, acquisition of company documents including knowledge transfer plans, onboarding documents and turnover statistics. Data were analyzed using coding and key word analysis. Three themes emerged from data collection on the impact collective turnover has on hybrid sourced project teams. First, collective turnover of consultants decreased team performance. Second, improving global team dynamics reduced the negative impact of collective turnover. Last using knowledge transfer tools and project documentation practices reduced the negative impact of collective turnover. This research may contribute to effectively social change by providing managers information and techniques to improve global team dynamics and remove cultural barriers from the workplace.

Researchers have found that a positive correlation exists between information technology (IT) flexibility, IT effectiveness, and strategic alignment in organizations. It has been determined that within inflexible IT environments maintainability is reduced and key business factors become at risk. An IT flexibility measurement matrix was developed to assess IT flexibility however leadership characteristics were not identified for measurement with that model. Determining the leadership characteristics needed for IT flexibility was the purpose of this multiple case study. Leveraging the empowerment, situational leadership, IT-business equilibrium, and complexity change theories, the research questions were focused on the leadership characteristics exhibited by organizational and project team leadership. A purposeful sample of 20 IT nonmanagers participated in in-depth interviews and provided insights into leadership characteristics that were observed and practiced in flexible IT environments. Using deductive a priori coding and inductive data analysis, communication was identified as the leadership characteristic required by both organizational and team leadership. Other emergent leadership characteristics were having a vision, managing change, and servant leadership. The implications for positive social change are for organizations to use the results to develop leaders and teams to successfully manage flexible IT environments, enabling improved IT-business alignment. Academic institutions can provide structured training and cooperative education programs, partnering with IT organizations to develop and retain top IT talent. In addition, individuals can build knowledge and gain experience in these areas to strengthen personal and professional skills, thus increasing career potential.

Abstract not available

In December 2004, at the SoDIS® (Software Development Impact Statements) symposium in Auckland, an industry certification as a method of credentialing teachers and analysis of SoDIS was mooted. SoDIS, a process of ethics-based risk assessment and analysis of downstream risk to project and software stakeholders, including the public, is currently in the process of progressing from prototype to commercial product. Certification was proposed to ensure the integrity of the process and the quality of service to stakeholders.Certification sponsored by industry, commercial organisation, or professional association (collectively referred to as industry certification, or certification) has been a form of credentialing for over half a century. Industry certification was adopted by the IT industry when Novell, Inc. began testing and certifying IT industry and IT network professionals in 1986 (Cosgrove, 2004; Novell, 1996). Global certification testing centres were established in 1990 by Drake International (now Thomson Prometric) (Foster, 2005).During the 1990s, industry certification became a veritable juggernaut: a "multi-billion dollar business" (Cosgrove, 2004, p. 486), an industry that has arisen in its own right (Adelman, 2000) and driven by several dynamics (Hitchcock, 2005). In 2000 there were over 300 discrete IT certifications with approximately 1.6 million individuals holding approximately 2.4 million IT certifications (Aldelman, 2000). The total number of available certifications is impossible to quantify (Knapp & Gallery, 2003). Many academic institutions both at tertiary and secondary level are integrating industry certification, especially IT certification, into their curricula.Is industry certification, however, a pedagogically robust form of credentialing? Does it have value to its stakeholders? Is it an appropriate form of credentialing for the SoDIS process? This research, using both Phenomenography and Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) as a joint methodology, focuses on the experiences of actors with the phenomenon of industry certification and extracts both the essence of the understanding and perceptions of the value and validity of industry certification, and the essence of industry certification itself.Due to the vast amount of literature found describing industry actors' perceptions of and experiences within the phenomenon, the research is predominantly literature-based. Further data was collected from interviews with a small, purposive sample of industry certification holders and employers, with the research further informed by my own experiences within the domain which is the focus of the research. The methodology paradigm is interpretive: the research aims to interpret the social construction that is the phenomenon of industry certification.While this research does not attempt to single out specific industry certifications to determine their value or pedagogical robustness, the findings suggest that, in general, well designed and well administered certifications with integrity and rigour of assessment processes, are indeed pedagogically sound, with significant value. The research identifies both benefit and criticism elements of typical certifications, along with elements of the various certification programmes categorised into standard (typical), and more rigorous (less typical) certification programmes.The research develops and presents a paradigm for building an appropriate vendor specific or vendor neutral certification programme that is pedagogically sound with value for its stakeholders. The contrasts and complementary aspects of industry certification and academic qualifications are highlighted. It is therefore concluded, and supported by data from the interviews, that such a credential is indeed appropriate for teachers and analysts of SoDIS.

This study defines the systems development methodologies named agile methods and investigates the environmental conditions where agile methods are most suitable. A definition of agile methods was developed using an analytical comparativeframework to investigate five of the earliest published agile methods; Dynamic SystemsDevelopment Method, Extreme Programming, Scrum, Adaptive Software Development,and Crystal Methods. The framework decomposed each method into its componentparts; philosophy, models, techniques, tools, scope, outputs, practice, and the extent towhich the method may be adapted to a situation. Based on this analysis and a literaturereview, a theoretical model of the target environment for agile methods was developed.This theoretical model is a proposed set of organisation, people, project, technology,and domain factors that relate to the successful use of an agile method.A mixed method research methodology was used. A qualitative design, consisting ofpositivist case studies, was used to test the theoretical model. Data was gathered fromnine software development projects, both agile and non-agile, using questionnaires andinterviews of project leaders. Then cross-case analysis was carried out on each projectfactor in the theoretical model. The relationship between environmental factors andagile method usage was investigated using non-parametric quantitative data analysis.This led to a revised model of the target environment for agile methods. The empiricaldata showed that specific organisational culture factors correlate with effective use of anagile method. These include the organisational characteristics of feedback and learning,teamwork, empowerment of people, collaboration, leadership, loyalty, and a resultsorientedculture that values entrepreneurship, innovation and risk taking.This research is significant for method users, those carrying out empirical research into agile methods, and those carrying out studies of systems development methodologies.

It is demonstrated that by using a miniature chemical reaction vessel under adaptive mechatronic control, it is possible to design and construct a low-cost carbon dioxide measurement system. With further development such a system would be potentially suitable for low-cost commercial application, in particular as sacrificial, single-mission instrumentation packages in horticultural cargo monitoring. Current instrumentation systems for carbon dioxide (CO2) gas measurement are reviewed and their limitations with respect to low cost commercial applications determined. These utilise technology intended for laboratory measurements. In particular the optical energy absorbance of CO2 in the infra-red electromagnetic spectrum. These systems require large optical paths (typically 10cm) in order to measure small CO2 concentrations. This in turn has a large impact on the physical size of the sensing system. Of the many applications requiring online CO2 sensing packages (such as medical, petroleum, environmental and water treatment)the horticultural industry is the primary focus for this research. CO2 sensing systems are primarily used in horticulture to monitor the produce environment and help extend storage time. For these applications CO2 concentrations are typically low (in the range 0 to 1%) and the paramount need is for low-cost (and possibly disposable) sensing packages. The basis of the measurement technique is the use of bulk (but small volume) aqueous chemical reaction under mechatronic control. Unlike thin film technologies where very thin membranes are passively exposed to the gaseous sample, here a small volume (approximately 2mL) of simple and very cheap liquid chemical indicator (calcium hydroxide solution) is used to produce an opaque precipitate. CO2 concentration is then assessed by low-cost optical attenuation measurements of the developing opacity of the solution. The instrumentation package comprises pumps, flowmeter, reaction cell and infra-red optics for the turbidity measurement, plus reagent and waste vessels, pipelines and electronics. During each measurement cycle, the reaction cell is flushed, with fresh chemical indicator and a sample of gas admitted. The indicator and the sample gas are then vigorously mixed and the change in the indicators optical properties measured at regular intervals. An embedded 8-bit microcontroller performs the necessary analysis to deduce the CO2 concentration (as percentage by volume) for the sample gas by reference to one or more of five ``Time-To-Threshold'' calibration models. These models evaluate the trend in turbidity development as precipitate is formed. First and second prototypes of the measurement system have been constructed and their (low-cost) components and overall performance evaluated, the first a `proof-of-concept' and the second to investigate methodology shortcomings. As a result the design of a third prototype is outlined. The measurement systems have been shown to work adequately well within expected limitations, resulting in a usable low-cost measurement technique. The current prototypes have a useful range of at least 5% to 100% CO2 with a discrimination of typically +-6%. Deficiencies, particularly performance at low concentrations, are identified and potential enhancements for future prototypes proposed.

<p>Software projects are known for their failure rate, where many are being delivered late, over budget or being canceled while in development. The reason to it is changing requirements and intangibility of the software. Being so abstract it is difficult to imaging all the aspects of the software at the requirements stage. Also technology is playing a major role since processing power, storage space, and data transfer speeds are improving from year to year.</p><p>Agile methodologies are addressing projects with unclear requirements making process of implementing new specifications along the project much easier and less costly. However the success rate of the software projects did not improve much since the introduction of Agile methodologies. This thesis is looking at what type of projects fit different methodologies and what are factors which practitioners should take into account when selecting methodology for a particular project,</p><p>The thesis opens up with introduction which sets the research question and provides a brief background to the research topic. In subsequent chapter literature review is conducted to find out what does literature and other researchers have said on the same topic. Third chapter discusses underlying research philosophy and discusses the data collection tools. Next chapter discusses the findings of the research. Interviews has been conducted with project management professionals from Sweden, US, UK and Canada. It was identified through the analysis of patters that Agile methodologies are not well suited for projects involving databases, embedded development and computationally complex projects. Through the analysis of the questionnaire several project characteristics were identified which suit Agile methodologies better than traditional ones: unclear requirements, high risk of failure etc… In the last chapter the thesis concludes the findings and its theoretical and practical implications.</p>