Thesis (M.S.)--University of Nevada, Reno, 2005. / "August, 2005." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 40-41). Online version available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis--Auburn University, 2009. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 73-75).

Thesis (MSc(Computer Science))--University of Pretoria, 2003. / Summary in English and Afrikaans. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.C.I.T.)--Regis University, Denver, Colo., 2006. / "December 2005"--T.p. Title from PDF title page (viewed on Aug. 30, 2006). Includes bibliographical references.

M.B.A. / The aim of this research was to determine why information technology software projects fail in South Africa in order to determine whether there is a cause and cost similarity between international first world and South African IT Software Project failures. This research topic was primarily chosen because there is a lack of research on IT Software project failure in South Africa. The following objectives were defined to support the aim of the research: To ascertain project cost failure statistics sources internationally from relevant literature. To ascertain from literature what has been said about causes/reasons of project failure internationally. To ascertain South African IT Software Project failure statistics and reasons by means of a questionnaire. To determine whether the literature on international IT software project failure and South African IT software project failure compare. The research project was conducted amongst members of the Project Management Institute of South Africa (PMISA). In addition, companies that are not members of PMISA were also contacted and requested to respond to an e-mail questionnaire. It is interesting to note that one of the reasons for projects being challenged and cancelled, deals with, or is related to, requirements. Changing and / unclear user requirements was always listed in the top three reasons for projects being challenged and cancelled. The top three reasons listed by The Standish Group also lists changing and / unclear user requirements in the top three. This research would therefore suggest that effectively dealing with changing and / unclear user requirements would significantly increase project success. In conclusion, the comparison between South African companies and International companies revealed that the causes are for the most part the same, and the costs appear to be vastly different, but similar in trend. As is evident from the research literature, this research topic rarely studied, and therefore additional research can be done to explore this topic.

M.Ing. / The competitive world of commercial software development exacts unremitting regeneration, innovation and adjustment from each and every company that chooses to perform this function. The said regeneration, innovation and adjustment could result either from the proactive decisions of a company, or from its reaction to certain changes, such as changes in the market place and changes in available technologies. Should the business model fundamental to the software development of a company, however, fail to be adjusted for technological innovation (for example, object-orientated development), the chances of such innovations culminating in actual improvements in productivity are, however, greatly diminished. The principal aim of the present research study is to investigate the project-management and product-development processes within a specific organization selected as a case study, and, if possible, to propose improvements to these processes. Rubico, the selected company, has decided on account of observed marketing opportunities to focus on the development of software components and patterns for the financial-services sector. In order to realise the said focus, some of the current and envisaged activities of the company, for example, marketing and project delivery, have been outsourced to third parties. The Rubico Products Company (hereafter called Products) and Rubico Delivery Services (hereafter called Delivery Services) utilise a formalised methodology of interaction in order to find software solutions for their clients. Products is responsible for developing software components and software solutions, whilst Delivery Services specifies the said components and solutions with the client, in addition to reselling them to other clients. Products has entrusted the management of software products and patterns to product architects, whilst Delivery Services have employed project managers to manage the delivery of the said products and patterns. The golden thread that ties together the activities and roles of these two divisions is the product-delivery methodology to which both divisions subscribe. Proposals for the improvement of project management and product architecture are made not only in terms of a new definition for and in terms of the execution of the said processes, but also in terms of the responsibilities implied by these two roles. The present dissertation, however, contains merely the author’s opinions and conclusions in this connection, and does not necessarily reflect the vision and opinions of Rubico Company.

The purpose of this project was to try to investigate one approach to the problem of automatically generating programs from some specification. Rather than following the approach which requires the user to define his problem using some formulation, it was decided to look at a class of problems that have similar solutions, but have many variations, and to try to design a system capable of obtaining user requirements and generating solutions tailored to these requirements. The aim was to design the system in such a way that it could be extended to cater for other classes of problems, so that eventually a system which could automatically generate program solutions for a range of problems might be developed. Intro. p. 1.

M.Ing. / An optimization system, consisting of a water office database, monitoring stations, communication system and simulation model is described. The main objective of the optimization system is to minimize management related distribution losses in irrigation canals. The optimization system can be implemented in parts, or as a whole, depending on the requirements of the user. This property makes it flexible and facilitates systematic implementation on an irrigation scheme. The water office database which was developed on an IBM-PC promotes computerization of the water register and facilitates compilation of water accounts. Input hydrographs can also be recalculated on short notice. The monitoring stations consist mainly of waterloggers and sensors which record waterdepth as a function of time. These stations can be telemetrically connected to a computer in the water office. The telemetric connection makes it possible to monitor canal operation from the water office and can _be used as an aid in water loss control. The recording stations play an important roll in the calibration of the simulation model. The simulation model was also developed on an IBM-PC and simulates unsteady non-uniform flow of water in irrigation canals. The simulation of unsteady non-uniform flow of water in irrigation canals consists of the solution of the St Venant equations which were discretized with the aid of the Preissmann scheme. The model can simulate a number of watertakeoffs and is only restricted to a maximum of 1300 takeoffs per canal. Changing slope, changing roughness, manual and upstream controlled sluices, pressure controlled and manual turnouts, weirs, transition losses, discharge and waterdepth as a function of time at the end of the canal, free overflows, any .change in cross section and any losses in the form of seepage and evaporation can also be taken into account. The five different types of sections which can be handled are trapeziodal, rectangular, circular, triangular and parabolic sections. Flow in irregular cross sections of rivers can be simulated by storing cross section properties in table format. Waterflow in pipelines and rectangular culverts can also be simulated over short distances. The output of the computer program at each node is available in the form of hydrographs, with a choice of output to a printer or screen. The time dependant variables that can be examined are discharge, waterdepth, velocity and cross sectional area of flow.

Software development methodologies provide guidelines and practices for developing information systems. They have evolved over time from traditional plan-driven methodologies to incremental and iterative software development methodologies. The Agile Manifesto was released in 2001, which provides values and principles for agile software development. Over the last few years, agile software development has become popular because its values and principles focus on addressing the needs of contemporary software development. IT and Business teams need agility to deal with changes that can emerge during software development due to changing business needs. Agile software development practices claim to provide the ability to deal with such changes. Various research studies have identified many factors/variables that are important for agile software development such as team autonomy, communication, and organizational culture. Most of these empirical studies on agile software development focus on just a few variables. The relationships among the variables is still not understood. The dimensions of agility and the relationship between agility and other variables have not been studied quantitatively in the literature. Also, there is no comprehensive framework to explain agile software development. This research study addresses these research gaps. This study analyzed a comprehensive research model that included antecedent variables (team autonomy, team competence), process variables (collaborative decision making, iterative development, communication), delivery capability, agility, and project outcomes (change satisfaction, customer satisfaction). It presents key dimensions of agility and quantitatively analyzes the relationship between agility and other variables. The PLS analysis of one hundred and sixty survey responses show that process variables mediate the relationship between antecedent variables and delivery capability and agility. The findings show that the delivery capability of the teams contributes to agility, antecedents and process variables contribute to agility, and delivery capability for better customer satisfaction. These results will help IS practitioners to understand the variables that are necessary to achieve agility for better project outcomes. Also, these quantitative findings provide better conceptual clarity about the relationship between various key variables related to agile software development.

M.Ing. (Engineering Management) / The Bull survey of 1998 [1]; conducted by Spike Cavell in the UK was used to identify major causes of IT project failures. The survey showed that failures due to missed deadlines accounted for 75% and the inability to meet project requirements accounted for 37% of the failures. The failures were mainly due to requirement changes during the project. Project requirements are laid out during scope planning phase of project management life cycle and all risks are assumed to be known during the planning phase of the project [2], [3], [13]. The project management process involves a finite number of key life cycle management phases from initiation to closure [2]. The project management body of knowledge (PMBoK) states that every project is managed by the project management triangle the relationship between scope, time and cost [43]. Changes in the project management triangle may cause failure to the project [15]. Projects are considered to be unique endeavours [43]; and using a “one size fits all” approach to find a solution to solve project failure will be impossible [39]. This presents a significant challenge; developing a framework to limit project failures which will widely be applicable to projects. The research study will apply a well-developed concept of agile project management to an organisation that is experiencing high project failure rates to determine if agile principles may be used to reduce project failures. The research will also look at the factors affecting the adoption of agile principles in large organisations. Specifically the research will look at the effects of the environment that the organisation operates in and the effects of the organisational structure. Action research is chosen as the research methodology in order to understand and improve the inefficiencies within the organisation. This gives a practical account for any organisation and adds to the project management body of knowledge.