The Normal Operations Safety Survey (NOSS) is an observational methodology to collect safety data during normal Air Traffic Control (ATC) operations. It aims to inform organizations about safety matters by using trained ATC staff to take a structured look at everyday operations. By monitoring normal operations through the use of direct over-the-shoulder observations, it is believed that safety deficiencies can be identified in a proactive manner prior to the occurrence of accidents or incidents. NOSS was developed as a collaborative effort between the International Civil Aviation Organization, ATC providers, controller representatives, government regulators, and academics to fill a gap in available ATC safety information. System designers consider three basic assumptions: the technology needed to achieve the system production goals, the training necessary for people to operate the technology, and the regulations that dictate system behavior. These assumptions represent the expected performance. When systems are deployed, however, particularly in realms as complex as ATC, they do not perform quite as designed. NOSS aims to capture the operational drift that invariably occurs upon system deployment. NOSS captures how the ATC system operates in reality, as opposed to how it was intended to operate. NOSS is premised on the Threat and Error Management (TEM) framework. TEM frames human performance in complex and dynamic settings from an operational perspective by simultaneously focusing on the environment and how operators respond to that environment. TEM posits that threats and errors are a part of everyday operations in ATC and must be managed in order to maintain safety margins. This dissertation describes NOSS and its contributions to ATC safety management systems. It addresses the validity and reliability of NOSS data and presents case studies from field trials conducted by a number of ATC providers. / text

System deployment projects are extremely complex and with more and more organisations now choosing to configure and deploy off-the-shelf systems, the project teams are presented with new challenges. The aim of this study was to gain an understanding of the issues faced during such configuration and deployment projects and see if support could be provided. A year long observational study of one of these projects was carried. While it was initially assumed that it would be technical issues related to the system’s configuration that would be the primary problems, the study revealed communication issues to be at the heart of a large number of the issues. Online social networks such as Facebook are extremely popular, allowing users to stay in touch with large numbers of distributed people. Private social network sites were applied to projects to see if they could replicate the benefits the sites provide and support project communications. A social network site was created for both a distributed research project and an administrative systems project and their use observed. Statistical data on the use of the sites and qualitative feedback from users is presented to assess the viability of the approach. The experiments showed social network sites to have many benefits when used as a complementary mechanism to traditional channels for project communications. It is clear however, that social network sites cannot solve all the problems projects may encounter. If the use of a site is to be a success it is vital it gains a critical mass of users. The approach taken to the site’s configuration and introduction will be hugely influential in its success. In order to choose the right approach a clear understanding of what the project’s communication needs are and the possible uses of the site is needed. A process of configuration and development with a small group of potential users is recommended to ensure it is as user friendly as possible before going live to a large user base.

Dissertation (Ph.D. in Software Engineering)--Naval Postgraduate School, March 2007.D / Dissertation supervisor: Berzins, Valdis. "March 2007." Description based on title screen as viewed on April 14, 2010. DTIC Descriptors: Software Engineering, Cognition, Learning Machines, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Programming, Simulation, Military Training, Vision, User Needs, Patterns, Employment, Command And Control Systems, Humans. DTIC Identifier(s): Software Engineering, Cognitive Systems, Machine Learning, Simulation, System Deployment, Artificial Intelligence, System Evaluation, Software Evaluation. Author(s) subject terms: Software Engineering, Cognitive Systems, Machine Learning, Simulation, System Deployment, Artificial Intelligence, System Evaluation, Software Evaluation. Includes bibliographical references (p. 395-399). Also available in print.

Decisions to deploy IT systems on public Infrastructure-as-a-Service clouds can be complicated as evaluating the benefits, risks and costs of using such clouds is not straightforward. The aim of this project was to investigate the challenges that enterprises face when making system deployment decisions in public clouds, and to develop vendor-neutral tools to inform decision makers during this process. Three tools were developed to support decision makers: 1. Cloud Suitability Checklist: a simple list of questions to provide a rapid assessment of the suitability of public IaaS clouds for a specific IT system. 2. Benefits and Risks Assessment tool: a spreadsheet that includes the general benefits and risks of using public clouds; this provides a starting point for risk assessment and helps organisations start discussions about cloud adoption. 3. Elastic Cost Modelling: a tool that enables decision makers to model their system deployment options in public clouds and forecast their costs. These three tools collectively enable decision makers to investigate the benefits, risks and costs of using public clouds, and effectively support them in making system deployment decisions. Data was collected from five case studies and hundreds of users to evaluate the effectiveness of the tools. This data showed that the cost effectiveness of using public clouds is situation dependent rather than universally less expensive than traditional forms of IT provisioning. Running systems on the cloud using a traditional 'always on' approach can be less cost effective than on-premise servers, and the elastic nature of the cloud has to be considered if costs are to be reduced. Decision makers have to model the variations in resource usage and their systems' deployment options to obtain accurate cost estimates. Performing upfront cost modelling is beneficial as there can be significant cost differences between different cloud providers, and different deployment options within a single cloud. During such modelling exercises, the variations in a system's load (over time) must be taken into account to produce more accurate cost estimates, and the notion of elasticity patterns that is presented in this thesis provides one simple way to do this.

小型化革命已經造成了企業資訊系統的典範轉移，不久之前以大型主機為基礎的集中架構仍然是企業之重要資訊系統的唯一選擇，時至今日為數眾多的重要企業資訊系統採用了以個人運算裝置為基礎的主從架構。另外一方面，視窗主從企業資訊系統是目前最常見的主從架構企業資訊系統類型，此類企業資訊系統必需將每一支客戶端程式都安裝到每一位使用者的電腦上，這種客戶端程式的人工部署作業一直是資訊管理從業人員的沈重負擔，亦是資訊管理產學界持續戮力解決的重要研究課題。其實ActiveX元件技術的妥善應用將可以有效解決這個部署問題，並且這種解決方案將遠比其它解決方案更具成本效益。研究以此發現為基礎，目的在於克服ActiveX元件技術在企業資訊系統應用上一直無法解決的三項缺點：能力強大所衍生的不安全、技術龐雜所衍生的學習與使用困難，以及元件體積龐大所衍生的網路應用瓶頸，並提出一個以ActiveX元件為基礎的解決方案來自動化暨有之視窗主從企業資訊系統的客戶端程式部署作業。報告的重點內容有四：(一)ActiveX元件技術的缺點克服之道；(二) 所提解決方案的第一個部份，也就是下載架構，採用下載架構開發的企業資訊系統將具備自動化部署客戶端程式的特性；(三)所提解決方案的第二個部份，也就是架構轉換程序，藉由這個程序的指引，暨有的視窗主從企業資訊系統將可以輕鬆轉換成為下載架構，有效解決其客戶端程式的部署問題；(四)兩個研究個案，用來示範下載架構與架構轉換程序的使用，並提供證據來支持下載架構與架構轉換程序的可行性。 / The downsizing revolution has created a deep paradigmatic shift in business information systems (BISs). Not very long ago, large-scale mission-critical BISs were the exclusive province of massive mainframe computers. That is changing rapidly. Today, increasingly large and complex BISs are being built as client/server (C/S) applications. Unfortunately, for the most common C/S BISs, that is, the Windows-based C/S BISs (WinBISs), client programs must be manually deployed to each end-user machine bringing about a heavy BIS maintenance load. ActiveX component technology, if used properly, is more cost-effective than other alternatives in improving the deployment of existing WinBISs. Nevertheless, ActiveX component technology is no magic solution, and thus still has three shortcomings, namely insecurity, complexity, and bulkiness. The purpose of the study presented in this paper is to overcome the shortcomings of ActiveX component technology, and then develop an ActiveX component-based solution to automate the deployment of existing WinBISs. This paper has four main parts: (a) the answers to the shortcomings of ActiveX component technology; (b) the downloadable architecture, which supports the development of automatically-deployed BISs; (c) the architecture transformation process, which transforms existing WinBISs into the downloadable architecture; and (d) two examples of how to use the downloadable architecture and the architecture transformation process. The examples also provide evidence to support the feasibility of such architecture and process.

The master’s thesis deals with the design of a management information system, which is represented by a set of dashboards and reports. The main purpose of the system is to provide technological and information support to the management of company in terms of managing strategic goals and business performance. The information obtained by analyzing the company and its surroundings are subsequently used for draft creation. The thesis draft contains a project plan for the design and implementation of the system, the design of the system itself - its content and technical aspects, furthermore, we also deal with the implementation of the system and the management of this change.