Research has shown that data warehouses potentially offer great investment opportunities to business. To benefit from this, business needs to invest large sums of money. Such investments are very risky, as no guarantee of the success of these ventures can be given. Object-oriented development has proved successful for developing operational systems in industry. This study researches object-oriented techniques to discover whether these techniques could be used successfully in data warehousing. A literature study focuses on the definition of an information systems development methodology and defines the components of such methodology. A further literature study on four popular object-oriented methodologies determines the commonalities of these methodologies. In conclusion, a literature study on data warehouse methodologies is done to discover the phases and techniques used in developing data warehouses. Based on the literature, a method is proposed to build a data warehouse harnessing object-oriented phases and techniques. The proposed method is applied as an interpretive experiment, followed by an evaluation of the data warehouse implemented. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Computer Science))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

Research has shown that data warehouses potentially offer great investment opportunities to business. To benefit from this, business needs to invest large sums of money. Such investments are very risky, as no guarantee of the success of these ventures can be given. Object-oriented development has proved successful for developing operational systems in industry. This study researches object-oriented techniques to discover whether these techniques could be used successfully in data warehousing. A literature study focuses on the definition of an information systems development methodology and defines the components of such methodology. A further literature study on four popular object-oriented methodologies determines the commonalities of these methodologies. In conclusion, a literature study on data warehouse methodologies is done to discover the phases and techniques used in developing data warehouses. Based on the literature, a method is proposed to build a data warehouse harnessing object-oriented phases and techniques. The proposed method is applied as an interpretive experiment, followed by an evaluation of the data warehouse implemented. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Computer Science))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

Agile methods for Information Systems Development (ISD) projects are claimed to encourage developers to be more flexible and efficient by means of arrangements in the development team’s physical and social environment. Research has, however, not yet answered the questions of how, why, and in what contexts agile methods work. ISD can be understood as a highly complex undertaking, which requires the developers’ creativity. The creative process is susceptible to the individual’s task motivation, which in turn is affected by the physical and social environment. In view of this, I argue that theories of motivation, such as the Self-Determination Theory, and theories of creativity could be usefully applied in such research. This study analyses Scrum, one of the most popular agile methods. Empirical data were collected through focused interviews with developers who had extensive experience of working in projects using various agile methods. Narratives of work episodes with perceived high and low motivation were analyzed in terms of motivation theory. Interview data were classified according to the type of motivation experienced and analyzed in relation to the agile method arrangement involved. The results of the investigation demonstrate how agile methods affect developers’ motivation in ways that are conducive to creative performance. The most pronounced effects are related to the individuals’ perceived work-related competence, autonomy, and sense of belonging to the team. Several agile arrangements in combination affect motivation in the positive direction, the single most influential factor being the team’s daily stand-up meetings. The agile arrangement that seems most difficult to implement without causing episodes of low motivation is the product owner role. The analytical approach taken in this study contributes to a better understanding of the aspects that are critical to the successful implementation of agile methods. / Agila metoder för systemutvecklingsprojekt syftar till att öka utvecklarnas flexibilitet och effektivitet genom arrangemang av utvecklarnas fysiska och psykosociala arbetsmiljö. Forskning om hur, varför och i vilka sammanhang agila metoder fungerar är dock ännu otillräcklig. Systemutveckling kan beskrivas som en komplex uppgift som fordrar utvecklarnas kreativitet. Individens kreativa process påverkas av individens uppgiftsmotivation, vilken i sin tur påverkas av faktorer i den fysiska och psykosociala arbetsmiljön. Mot den bakgrunden framhålls psykologisk teori om motivation, som Self-Determination Theory, och teori om kreativitet, som relevant för forskning om agila metoder. I avhandlingen analyseras Scrum, en av de mest populära agila metoderna. Empiriska data har hämtats från fokusintervjuer med utvecklare med lång erfarenhet av arbete i agila projektmiljöer. Deras berättelser om episoder med starka motivationsupplevelser har analyserats med stöd av teorin. Intervjudata har klassificerats avseende motivationstyp och i relation till inverkande agila arrangemang. Resultaten visar hur agila metoder inverkar på utvecklares motivation i avseenden med relevans för kreativa prestationer. Starkast var inverkan relaterad till utvecklarnas upplevelse av arbetsrelaterad kompetens, autonomi och samhörighet med utvecklingsteamet. Flera samverkande agila arrangemang inverkade positivt på motivationen; allra starkast inverkan hade teamets dagliga stå-upp-möte. Det agila arrangemang som var svårast att implementera utan att bidra till uppkomsten av negativt inverkande episoder var rollen produktägare. Studien bidrar med kunskap relevant för implementering av agila metoder i systemutvecklingsprojekt.

Continued increase in population and escalating environmental degradation have changed the priorities of agricultural development projects in developing and emerging countries towards both increasing production or productivity and improving sustainability. The long-term success of these development projects, especially in terms of improving sustainability, depends on how widely those improved practices which are shown to be effective in achieving the technical objectives, are adopted/adapted by farmers in the targeted region. In these terms, many projects in recent years may be considered to be relatively unsuccessful. This study aimed to investigate the factors contributing to the effectiveness of agricultural technology research and development projects in improving the sustainability of cropping systems in upland areas of China, together with the factors that might limit their effectiveness. This has involved both a review of recent projects carried out in the region and detailed monitoring and evaluation of one such project carried out in South West China – the SHASEA project. The SHASEA Project was implemented in Wang Jia catchment in Yunnan Province using holistic and multi-disciplinary approaches to address the twin objectives of increasing productivity of maize, wheat and soybean in a more sustainable and environmentally-friendly way. It introduced into the catchment a range of novel or modified cropping practices, which had been evaluated in plot studies over the preceding six years, together with biological and engineering measures designed to stabilise large scale soil movements in lateral gullies and the main stream. The SHASEA Project was successful in achieving its short-term scientific and technical objectives, but was too short to determine the level of adoption by farmers in the locality. The present study has used a range of approaches to evaluate the effectiveness of this Project, to monitor the biological, environmental and socio-economic impacts and investigate the perceptions of the farmers about the Project and the likelihood of their adoption of the recommended practices. Participatory approaches were used wherever possible, including detailed household surveys, PRA workshops and discussions with Key Informants. Field surveys and direct observations were also made, together with a limited economic analysis of the modified cropping practices introduced into the catchment. It was found that the farmers had different perceptions about the range of practices introduced into the catchment. Some were clearly preferred, such as contour cultivation and were likely to be adopted, while others were seen as inappropriate, such as straw mulching and intercropping, and were unlikely to be adopted. The benefits of an innovative, integrated cropping system, INCOPLAST, were not fully appreciated by the farmers. Other practices would only be adopted if the financial returns were favourable, such as the use of polythene mulch. Longer-term measures, such as tree planting schemes, were regarded favourably, but adoption would still depend on economic returns and related issues such as land security. An irrigation scheme was suggested by the farmers, but after installation it was not used extensively for the staple crops in the catchment. It was found that farmers planned to use the irrigation for higher value crops such as tobacco, after the end of the Project. It has been concluded that, despite the technical and scientific success of the Project, long-term adoption of many of the practices introduced into the catchment will be low, unless considerable incentives are used or much more effective dissemination techniques employed. It is considered that the outcomes would have improved considerably if participatory approaches had been used from the outset, to engage farmers more fully with the project, to ensure that the practices introduced were as appropriate as possible, to achieve greater ownership of the objectives and outcomes, leading to higher adoption rates. More emphasis should have been given to the dissemination of the outcomes at farmer level outside the catchment of study and there should have been more involvement with the regional policy makers and extension officials throughout the programme. Longer-term improvements in sustainability at the catchment level have not yet been demonstrated. These outcomes are discussed within the context of other agricultural projects carried out in South East Asia and other developing regions. Based on the outcomes and conclusions from this study, a series of recommendations are made which are presented as good practices for future agricultural development projects in South East Asia.

While the focus of this work is on turbo equalization, there is also an examination of equalization techniques including MMSE linear and DFE equalizers and Precoding. The losses and capacity associated with the ISI channel are also examined. Iterative decoding of concatenated codes is briefly reviewed and the MAP algorithm is explained.

Free energy techniques provide the basis for an analysis of aspects of the liquid-vapour interface undertaken in this study. The main focus of this work is an extensive theoretical investigation into properties of the surface tension, including curvature dependence and supersaturation effects, using Monte Carlo computer simulation techniques.

Integration is one of the driving themes in database and applied computing research. Starting with the development of Federated Information Systems and passing over to Enterprise Application Integration, the integration of distributed systems receives a lot of attention with the development of Web services these days. Integration on an architecture independent level can be cast to the integration of autonomous object oriented systems which requires the integration of object structure and object behaviour. Past research has mainly addressed the structural aspects meaning the integration of class attributes and relations. This thesis is addressing the integration of object behaviour and proposes a structured, model-driven approach for the integration of business processes specifying software application behaviour. It consists of the identification of correspondences between business processes on different levels of abstraction and associates the correspondences with integration patterns that lead to a specific technical integration. One advantage of the approach is that correspondences and patterns are defined separately, which enhances the re-usability of patterns in different integration scenarios. Integration scenarios can be distinguished between horizontal and vertical integration, and within or across enterprise borders. Within an enterprise, horizontal integration consists of integrating systems on the same level of abstraction and vertical integration consists of integrating systems on different levels of abstractions, whereas across enterprise borders, horizontal integration consists of determining the most appropriate systems, from among a set of functionally equivalent ones, and vertical integration consists of defining an appropriate combination of systems to create a new one. So far, there exist no approach that attempts to support all integration scenarios within a framework. This thesis proposes an integration approach that is able to support all integration scenarios mentioned before. The approach is built on a meta-meta layer architecture and provides generic methods and techniques for the logical integration of object behaviour based on a domain independent framework. The thesis proposes two alternative outcomes of an integration. First one creates a new global behaviour that integrates local behaviour and can be supported by a service oriented architecture. Second alternative outcome are synchronisation points between business process, so-called inter-process dependencies, that can be supported by an event-driven architecture. The advantages and disadvantages of both are discussed in detail.

Enligt Standish Group är det endast cirka 35 % av alla systemutvecklingsprojekt som avslutas på ett lyckat sätt när det gäller tid, budget och resurser. Inom systemutveckling är fastprisprojekt, där systemets kostnad är förbestämd, allt mer populärt. Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM) är en modell för utveckling som fokuserar på fasta resurser och tid med funktionalitet som den flexibla variabeln. Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att se om man kan driva fastprisprojekt med en modell som DSDM på ett sätt som gör det till en bra lösning för både beställare och leverantör. Min slutsats är att det största problemet med DSDM är att få beställaren att godkänna den som projektmodell. Ett annat stort problem är att många projekt med DSDM blir stressiga eftersom tiden är fast. Flexibiliteten med funktionaliteten räcker med andra ord inte till. Önskvärda förbättringar inom DSDM är att ge mer underlag för hur man skall få en ny beställare att godkänna modellen. Dessutom att tillhandahålla guidelines för hur man kan hantera ett projekt med många och detaljerade krav. En annan viktig faktor som måste förbättras är hur man får projekt med DSDM att bli mindre stressiga. DSDM är en modell som uppskattas av dem som har erfarenhet av den och som anses resultera i lyckade projekt, för både beställare och leverantör. Mina slutsatser är därför att DSDM kan fungera bra men att det ställer höga krav på projektet. Både beställare och leverantör måste vara engagerade. Beställaren måste kunna prioritera sina krav och räkna med att en del funktionalitet inte kommer med. Dessutom måste det finnas stor användarinvolvering och projektgruppen måste ha beslutsmandat.

As a means of addressing the failure rate of information systems Aggestam (2001) proposes a framework which aims to guide organisations in the development of this type of software system. Software is a common concept today and can therefore be anticipated in contexts other than organisations. Examples of such contexts can be given as: embedded software, scientific software and personal computer software. The literature informs that 20% of these software projects are failures and 46% experience cost and schedule overruns. In an attempt to address this failure rate the aim of this report will be to investigate if the framework proposed by Aggestam (2001) can also be applied in this type of software project. Through a comprehensive literature study success factors pertaining to software projects where an organisational information system has not been built have been identified. These factors have then provided the foundation for a deeper interview study. It has been shown that the framework displays promising potential for use in this type of software project. A stable groundwork has also been laid for continued research in this area.

In the information systems development process there are important success factors. By doing an extensive literature survey we have found that these factors emerge mainly from organisational issues concerning the objective of the process and the stakeholders.One factor - to discuss the system, its subsystems and to define the system's boundary - is a prerequisite for all the others. Factors emerging from the objective are mainly about the objective being well analysed and defined, being accepted among the stakeholders and meeting business objectives. Factors emerging from stakeholders are mainly about involving the right stakeholders in the process, achieving a positive attitude and taking care of their needs about knowledge and confidence. Based on this we have developed a framework aiming to guide organisations in what considerations they should make before the project begins. As a result of our framework there will be both a clear objective, which support the business mission, as well as positive stakeholders to support the information systems development process.