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Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Texas at Arlington, 2009.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 158-167).

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1964. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Bibliography: l. 149-156.

Thesis (M.S. in Manpower Systems Analysis)--Naval Postgraduate School, March 2010. / Thesis Advisor(s): Mehay, Stephen. ; Pema, Elda. "March 2010." Author(s) subject terms: Tuition Assistance (TA) Program, retention, performance, Distance Learning (DL), method of instruction, passing rates. Includes bibliographical references (p. 71-72). Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1985. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 300-309).

University of Macau / Faculty of Science and Technology / Department of Electromechanical Engineering

The development of information systems consumes an increasing share of economic resources. Over a trillion dollars worldwide is invested in information technology annually, and this investment is growing over $100 billion a year. This investment occurs despite failure rates for large information system development projects that are estimated as high as 75%. The large investment and high failure rates combine to create the potential for significant impact from information system development practices that are able to address these failure rates. Researchers, over the past thirty years, have studied factors that drive these high failure rates. One of the factors repeatedly mentioned in practitioner surveys is the importance of accurate communication in the "upstream" analysis and planning stage of a project. System development professionals are aided in their upstream planning through the use of information system development methods (ISDM's). ISDM's are modeling tools and techniques that are capable of representing information about an information system. Many alternative system analysis modeling techniques have been developed, yet few empirical comparisons of the alternative techniques have been completed. The lack of comparative empirical data has contributed to a proliferation of modeling methods and increased the confusion surrounding the adoption of system analysis methods by system development professionals and teachers. This study addresses the issue of empirical comparison of system analysis modeling techniques. A new instrument and empirical method is proposed for developing a comparison of the level of "understanding" that a participant is able to create by viewing a description of a particular domain. The level of "understanding" is addressed using three measures: comprehension, problem solving, and text reconstruction. The new measures of "problem solving", suggested by Mayer in the field of Education Psychology, and "text reconstruction" or "Cloze", suggested by Taylor in the field of Communications, extend empirical instruments previously used by system analysis researchers. To test the efficacy of the proposed instrument and method, two empirical studies were developed in this thesis. The first study used the new instrument to compare three development methods "grammars: Text descriptions; Structured Analysis (using Data Flow Diagrams and Entity Relationship Diagrams); and Object Oriented Diagrams. The study was labeled an "Intergrammar" comparison, as three grammars representing three fundamental approaches to developing an analysis model were compared. Two propositions, in regards to the intergrammar study, were tested. The first suggested that viewing descriptions created with diagrams would lead to a higher level of understanding than viewing a description based solely on text. This hypothesis was confirmed. The second hypothesis suggested that viewing a domain description created using an object oriented grammar would lead to a higher level of "understanding" than viewing a description created using the "Structured Analysis" approach. The results confirmed the hypothesis that the group of participants using the Object-Oriented grammar scored higher in "understanding" than participants using the Structured Analysis grammar. A follow-up protocol analysis was undertaken to illuminate why the participants using object methods scored. The analysis of these protocols indicated two things. First, participants using Structured Analysis made little use of the Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD). Second, participants seemed to favor the "object" concept when answering questions. These findings provide some empirical evidence that objects may be more "natural" cognitive constructs than those used in Structured Analysis. The second study revisited a study Bodart and Weber's study regarding alternative grammars for the Entity Relationship Diagram. A grammar using mandatory attributes and relationships with sub types, the other using optional attributes and relationships, were compared. The grammars shared a common primary grammar, therefore, the second study was labeled an "Intragrammar" comparison. The new instrument was again used in this study. The ontological constructs proposed in the Bunge-Wand-Weber (BWW) model were used to suggest the theoretical advantage of the grammar using mandatory attributes and relationships with subtypes. The results supported the theoretical advantage associated with mandatory attributes and relationships with subtypes. This intragammar study provided further evidence of the utility of the empirical instrument proposed in this thesis. This study has implications for future empirical research in system analysis. The empirical instrument described in this thesis extends previous empirical research instruments with the introduction of the problem solving and the Cloze task. In two studies, the new instrument has displayed the sensitivity to differentiate between treatment groups. The results from the two empirical studies suggest that object-oriented analysis may hold advantages over traditional structured analysis, and that mandatory attributes and relationships may be preferred to optional attributes and relationships in the entity relationship grammar. / Business, Sauder School of / Management Information Systems, Division of / Graduate

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Johannesburg, 2019 / Water resource systems management entails the coordination of hydrologic, infrastructural and human activities to plan, develop and supply water efficiently and sustainably. Hydrologic and human behaviour involve high levels of uncertainty and therefore pose unique challenges to water management. In reservoir yield and operation analysis, hydrologic uncertainties are usually incorporated in risk analysis using stochastically generated data but the impacts of human behaviour, although significant, are typically not incorporated. This study was therefore inspired by the need to quantitatively incorporate the impact of human behaviour into reservoir system performance thereby adding value to reservoir operational decision making. Unauthorised water abstraction is a significant human behaviour‐related activity and was therefore selected for this study. A socio‐hydrological model that simulates, couples and dynamically co‐evolves reservoir operation and human behaviour to assess the impact of unauthorised water abstractions on reservoir yield and operation was developed. The model quantitatively and stochastically relates fourstate drivers; hydrological state, users’ compliance, management competence and reservoir performance. Users’ compliance and management competence were modelled statistically by a 3‐parameter skew‐normal distribution and the propensity to unauthorised water abstraction (risk perception) was modelled as a function of users’ compliance, management competence and the hydrological state. The occurrence of unauthorised water abstraction was modelled stochastically by relating a sigmoidal function of risk perception to management competence. To assess the impact of human behaviour, nine scenarios derived from the different combinations of 3 categories of users’ compliance and management competence were developed and tested. The model was applied at a monthly time step to 2 hypothetical but realistic reservoir systems that were based on 90 years of hydrology and configuration of the Elands and the Olifants River reservoir systems in South Africa. Reservoir operation for maximizing yield was optimized by applying a simulation‐optimization approach that used 3 reservoir operating rule curves defined using trigonometric and simple linear functions. Shuffled complex evolution (SCE‐UA) was used for optimisation. The SCE‐UA was effective for the optimisation of the two reservoir systems when simple linear operating rules were applied. When trigonometric rule curves were applied, the SCE‐UA optimized the Elands system effectively but repeatedly terminated at a local optimum with 35% less yield for the larger Olifants system. It was therefore decided to mainly use the results from the linear rule curves to assess the effect of human behaviour on the performance of the two systems. Realistic time series of unauthorised water abstractions whose severity increased as users’ compliance and management competence declined were obtained. The losses in average yield for varying combinations of users’ compliance and management competence ranged from 2.3 to 9.2% and 5.3 to 11.5% for the Elands and Olifants systems respectively. The overall average loss in yield for all the nine scenarios were 5.8% and 8.9% for the Elands and Olifants River systems respectively. The losses in yield in individual years, however, varied considerably and during the drought years of the 90 year simulation period, they were much higher than the average losses. In one year, a 55% reduction in yield resulted from the scenario with the most adverse human behaviour. Optimised reservoir operating rule curves became more restrictive and lower reservoir storage trajectories were obtained as human behaviour declined. The modelling, therefore, revealed that yield reduced as human behaviour deteriorated and the losses obtained were reasonably close to the reported annual water loss due to unlawful uses of 6.4% in South Africa. The sensitive nature of the subject of study makes model verification on real‐life systems challenging. However, the research shows that practical reservoir system modelling that quantitatively incorporate the impact of human behaviour is a future possibility. / PH2020

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