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Background: There are numerous studies in the Information Technology (IT) field on IT project success and/or failure and reasons thereof. There is much discussion about what constitutes IT project success and the main determinants are generally a subjective matter. Several studies address critical success factors and some address success criteria about IT projects. However, the combination of mechanisms, success criteria, and critical success factors has not been adequately researched or widely addressed and hence the need to conduct this study which seeks to examine the aforementioned relationships and propose a modified model to explain the links among them. Objectives: The main objectives of this study are: 1) To identify and discuss the role played by success factors (input variables) in an IT project; 2) To identify and discuss the role played by success criteria (output variables) in an IT project; 3) To identify and discuss the role played by mechanisms (mediating variables) and impact thereof on an IT project; and 4) To identify, investigate and explore the interrelationships between the aforementioned constructs and how they impact the success of an IT project. Research Methodology/Approach: A modified model of the Black Box of IS Project Success Mechanisms was utilised to guide the data collection process. The model was based on three fundamental constructs developed from various sources of literature viz. success criteria, critical success factors, and mechanisms. The study made use of a single case study based on a data migration project which one of the major corporates in South Africa executed. The data migration project provides for a distinct type of IT project suitable to meet the study objectives. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews, and a thematic analysis was conducted to identify success factors, mechanisms, and IT project success criteria. Findings: The findings revealed that there are several success criteria measures viz. the traditional project management triangle (cost, scope and time), non-functional requirements, customer satisfaction, other stakeholders' requirements, quality assurance, organisational benefits, and learning and growth. Further, there are several critical success factors including project management factors, team-related factors, organisational factors, business process factors, and governance and risk factors. There are core mechanisms that are pivotal to the success of the IT project which includes project visibility, teamwork, and effective communication.

Climate change has been a topic for discussion in the IT industry. The IT (information technology) sector has been regarded as one of the contributing sectors towards climate change due to carbon emissions from IT equipment such as computers and servers. Environmental concerns are gaining incremental attention from organisations across the globe. Green IT is seen as part of the solution to this problem and has been defined and discussed by many researchers. The purpose of this study was to investigate Green IT practices that have been adopted in the NWPG (North West Provincial Government). The study focused on the three departments which fall under one central IT section in the department of the provincial treasury. A quantitative study was conducted in Mafikeng and questionnaires were distributed to collect the data and it was found that although end-users in the government sector are aware of Green IT, many still needed a lot of training on Green IT. The research concludes by suggesting strategies that might be adopted to improve IT use in the government sector. / Thesis (M.Com.(Information Systems) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2014

I have explored spaces, where negotiations of border transgressions take place and where issues of technology and politics mingle. We meet a diversity of actors in the world of information technology (IT): political texts, people and technology participating in numerous sociomaterial relations. Time is the end of the 1990s and the beginning of the new millennium, 2000. Years, when IT occupied the western world and created its own fuzzy discourse. Years, when IT stole the biggest newspaper headlines and years, when IT became a mundane everyday part of our work practices. Years, when we learned to live in heterogeneous worlds. Actor-Network Theory (ANT) and Actor-Network Theory and After (ANTa) provide analytical and methodological perspectives when working with the empirical material. I present a chronological exposé of some of the key concepts of ANT and ANTa. I also discuss how the classical ANT perspective has changed during the last few years from being a theory of networks to become a methodological and analytical approach to other kinds of spaces such as fluid and fire. The heart of the thesis consists of six empirical cases. My aim of writing stories of information technology has been to investigate the black box of information technology. Investigating includes also efforts of opening. Concepts that are taken for granted, such as the very notion of information technology in my case, can be explored, questioned, transgressed, blurred and opened up. Each of the diffracted stories is specific and unique, with its own actors, context, location and situatedness. But the stories are also connected through ANT, and feminist technology and technoscience studies. Case number one, ‘Discourses and Cracks – A Case Study of Information Technology and Writing Women in a Regional Context ’, is about a project, where questions concerning discourses of information society with a special focus on citizenship are discussed and where global and national politics are translated to local and situated practices. Case number two, ‘Translating and Negotiating Information Technology ’, consists of two main parts. The fi rst one is about a regional library project. The analysis of the project is based on the classical Actor Network Theory (ANT) approach that invites the study of the heterogeneous and negotiable shaping of IT. The second part is about librarians developing web-based services. The analysis is inspired by the later development of ANT (called ANTa in the thesis) in order to include more invisible actors, relations and negotiations. Case number three, ‘Negotiating Information Technology: Politics and Practices of The Public Sector Web Production’, is about work practices of a municipal web developer, through which creation of sociotechnical relations of everyday information technology practices is analysed and also mirrored to national and local IT politics. Case number four, ‘Making e-Government Happen – Everyday Co-Development of Services, Citizenship and Technology’, is presenting the same web developer as in the third case, but now his everyday practices are connected with an expanded and wider circuit of co-constructors of information technology. The text is a co-production of a multidisciplinary research group aiming to describe, analyse and problematise connections when creating practices, where technology and society collaborate. Case number fi ve, ‘Citizenship at the Crossroads of Multiple Layers of Sociotechnical Relations’, enrols technology as an active actor in the construction of citizenship in an IT context in Sweden. The perspective emphasising the active agency of non-humans both enhances and challenges the Scandinavian approach of systems development by suggesting a direction towards a cyborgian approach towards technology design. Case number six, ‘Between Stability and Instability – a Project about e-Democracy ’, takes its point of departure from a small-scale project having as its goal the development of e-democracy in a municipal context. In the text the focus is on the stabilisation processes in shaping the technology (‘e’) and democracy parts of the project. I also discuss what kinds of spaces exist in between (the hyphen in e-democracy) and ask if integration between technology and democracy is possible as a whole. Finally, my intention is to step further into stories and practices not yet existing. Inspired by the French philosopher Michel Serres, I introduce the fi guration of an angel as a cartographer, intermediator and (co-) constructor of sociomaterial relations. Angels are needed to sew the separate fi elds of technology, politics and everyday practices to a rich seamless tapestry. They are the ‘artful integrators’ (Suchman).

Thesis (MAcc)--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Due to the integration of IT into all aspects of modern-day businesses, it is vital that the risks associated with IT are governed as an integral element of enterprise-wide corporate governance. The Third King Report on Corporate Governance (King III) was issued by the South African Chapter of the Institute of Directors in September 2009 and becomes operational on 1 March 2010. This marks the first time that the King Report has specifically addressed IT governance. King III will apply to all corporate entities. Such entities could benefit from applying an IT governance framework to ensure that they adequately address all aspects of IT governance, as required by King III. One of the comprehensive frameworks available is COBIT (Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology) issued by ISACA (previously known as the Information Systems Audit and Control Association). King III mentions the fact that COBIT could be used to assess and implement IT governance within an entity. The aim of this research is to determine whether the use of COBIT ensures compliance with King III’s requirements relating to IT governance. It was found that the main requirements in King III relating to IT governance and the processes of COBIT are well aligned, and, as a result, COBIT could be used effectively to ensure compliance with King III in relation to IT governance. However, an entity would still have to pay attention to certain King III-specific requirements. Furthermore, it was found that the application of the principles in COBIT could further strengthen the IT governance of an entity, as COBIT also addresses the more detailed activities, such as the implementation and operation of the IT system, which is not specifically addressed by King III.

Information technology (IT) plays an important role in contemporary organisations and this role continues to expand in scope and complexity and affects business operations dramatically. Advances in the IT industry have caused major changes in every industry sector. The banking industry is no exception and it has undergone a dramatic change over the past few decades. With the coming of the information age, IS investments are becoming increasingly important to banks` survival, growth and prosperity. IS managers are under increasing pressure to justify the value and contribution of IS expenditure to the productivity, quality and competitiveness of the organisation. This study aims to propose a model which investigates the success of information systems in the banking industry in order to help bank managers to evaluate the success of their IS, to be able to develop these systems and to improve the performance of bank managers and employees. Given that the ultimate dependent variable for this research is individual impacts, DeLone and McLean (2003) updated IS success model is leveraged and extended in this research. The study proposes a research model which is guided by the decision to select a suitable number of key potential demographic and situational variables, in addition to the adoption of DeLone and McLean (2003) updated model. This model proposes that a variety of factors were found to affect IS success in general, however, from the socio-technical viewpoint, IS success should capture both technological and human elements. Therefore, an effective Banking Information System (BIS) typically requires an appropriate combination of both. As such, Thus, the technological dimensions (i.e. system, service and information quality) and the human dimensions (e.g. user satisfaction, perceived system benefits, user involvement, user training, age, education and system use) can be a good starting point when considering suitable constructs for measuring BIS success. The research methodology of this study involved interviews with BIS practitioners and professionals to shape and refine the research model. Further, questionnaire survey was employed to collect data from bank managers in Egyptian banks. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) using Partial Least Square (PLS) was used to test the research model. Three research models were proposed according to age groups and initial results from PLS analysis reported different results in each research model. Findings indicated that system, information and service quality, level of training, age, length of system use, user involvement and top management support were the main predictors (success constructs) of user satisfaction and individual impacts in the three proposed research models. However, the relationships between these constructs varied according to each age group of managers. The study offers important academic and practical contributions. Firstly, as a contribution to research, the study serves to extend the DeLone and McLean (2003) IS success model by introducing some key human and situational dimensions and confirming certain links in that model with the context of banking industry. The contribution to practice is especially relevant for bank CIOs, software designers and developers looking for ways to improve BIS developments by providing them with directions regarding the BIS success dimensions that should be considered to encourage bank managers to adopt and be more satisfied with BIS which in turn influence their job performance.

Information technology (IT) plays an important role in the daily operation of the modem business organization. The implications for, and influences on organizational structure from the deployment of IT have long been recognized. One of the most important, recent innovations, in the world of information technology, has been the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. Because of its wide reach, sophistication and highly integrated nature, it is potentially far more powerful and advanced than any of its predecessors, and thus has the potential to greatly influence organizational practices and design. However, the understanding of the organizational impact of IT in general, and ERP in particular, is rather limited. Due to the shortcomings of past studies, no clear consensus has been reached with respects to the structural impact of IT Moreover, though there 4ave been a large number of studies focusing on the implementation of EPR, very few empirical works have explicitly and systematically explored the influence of ERP on a range of different structural dimensions. This study aims to fill these gaps in the literature, and in so doing, generate a more comprehensive understanding of the organizational impacts of ERP To this end, it adopted a mixed method in order to deliver a more balanced and richer set of conclusions. The outcomes of the quantitative data analysis confirmed the general influences of ERP on a range of different structural dimensions. More specifically, it has been shown that the deployment of ERP can lead to a flatter, more decentralized, more standardized and a more tightly integrated organizational structure. Furthermore, the qualitative data provided meaningful insight into the structural impact of ERP, in Chinese context. In addition,, the various analyses found important associations amongst the corporate strategy, organizational structure, ERP deployment and organizational flexibility constructs, and in so doing, demonstrated that the relationship between ERP deployment and organizational structure is not independent of its organizational context. Indeed, it is shown that the results of this study provide support for the 'configurational' view of organizational strategy and behaviour. Finally, this study's results have been strengthened by modelling the technological artefact using a more balanced set of measures than had been employed in previous studies. Indeed, it was demonstrated that the use of ERP success, rather than the scale of its adoption, to model the independent variable, was a more effective indicator of changes to structural design, and ultimately also to the realization of organizational flexibility.

Comment et pourquoi les médias de masse peuvent-ils contribuer à secourir et à interroger l’oralité propre aux sociétés africaines ? Pour répondre à cette interrogation, il conviendra à coup sûr d’effectuer une sorte d’état des lieux sur la parole et les actes de langages qui participent aux modes de communication et d’information. Le champ d’investigation privilégié concerne les pays du Sahel et de manière spécifique les populations Bwa du Mali. C’est dans cette aire géographique que nous chercherons à assurer l’hypothèse selon laquelle la radio participe à la conservation et à la valorisation du patrimoine immatériel ; elle constitue une des passerelles du développement social, culturel, économique et politique des pays africains et des publics qui la reçoivent. Il s’agit ainsi de mettre en lumière les manières dont les sociétés de tradition orale s’approprient les médias de médias. En prenant l’exemple des contes à la radio, on peut découvrir des modes d’appropriation spécifiques. À partir d’entretiens avec les conteurs-teuses, les acteurs des médias, la consultation des rapports de l’Unesco et de textes législatifs au Mali, des ouvrages en sciences de l’information et de la communication, mais également d’anthropologie, de linguistique, l’enjeu consiste à comprendre que davantage de communication médiatique peut aussi engendrer du commun entre les hommes. / How and why mass media can contribute to help and to question the orality that belongs to African societies? To answer this question, we are bound to carry out some sort of survey of speaking and language activities pertaining to modes of communication and information. The chosen field of investigation concerns the countries of Sahel, specifically the Bwa populations of Mali. It is in this geographical area that we try to check the hypothesis according to which the radio contributes to valorise and to save the oral, immaterial patrimony and constitutes one of the bridges of social, cultural, economic and political development of the African countries that receive it. The aim is to shed light on the ways in which mass media can invest societies characterised by oral tradition. Taking the example of tales which are told on the radio we can discover specific modes of appropriation. By interviewing storytellers, feeling of how media actors perform and questioning the way local radios work, by consulting reports from UNESCO and other associations, documents in information and communication sciences, but also anthropological and linguistic documents, it is at stake to understand that more media communication may lead to more common ground between human beings.

[pt] Inseridas em um ambiente turbulento, as organizações necessitam conhecer suas competências essenciais e capacidades organizacionais, e o seu papel no ambiente externo para sobreviver. Enquanto os ganhos da organização e sua demanda por TI aumentam, o investimento nos recursos de TI não cresce na mesma proporção, justificando a busca pela eficiência e a eficácia na sua utilização. O processo de Planejamento Estratégico deve considerar essa dinâmica e complexidade e, por isso, deve ser capaz de detectar os sinais fortes e fracos desse ambiente. A estratégia deve funcionar como diretriz para a governança de TI. Esse alinhamento deve ser estabelecido por meio de algumas iniciativas para estruturação que garantirão a gestão eficaz e eficiente desses recursos de TI. Para analisar esse alinhamento, discute-se aqui a estratégia e o planejamento estratégico nas organizações. São também apresentados os alicerces que devem ser construídos para o alinhamento da governança de TI com a estratégia. Com o intuito de analisar as observações feitas nessa fundamentação teórica sobre estruturação organizacional, um estudo de caso foi realizado em uma empresa prestadora de serviços de TI da região Sudeste do Brasil, resultado da fusão de outras duas. Após analisar a situação da organização em abril de 2006, um ano após a fusão, algumas iniciativas são planejadas e executadas com o objetivo de estruturar a organização para promover o alinhamento. O andamento de cada iniciativa e as mudanças estruturais que aconteceram até fevereiro de 2007 são analisados. De acordo com os resultados obtidos, as próximas etapas da estruturação são sugeridas. / [en] Inserted in a turbulent environment, organizations need to know not only their core competencies and organizational capacities, but also their role in the external environment to survive. While revenue growth and the demand for IT are increasing, the IT budget increases in a lower rate, justifying the pursuit for effectiveness and efficiency. The strategic planning process must consider this dynamics and complexity and, therefore, must pay attention to the strong and weak signals from the environment. The strategy should work as a line of direction to the IT governance. This alignment must be established by some initiatives to build the organizational structure that will guarantee the effectiveness and efficiency pursued. To analyze this alignment, the organizational strategy and the organizational strategic planning are discussed. The foundations that must be built to establish the alignment between the IT governance and the organizational strategy are also discussed. To analyze the observations from the theoretical framework about the construction of the organizational structure, a case study was conducted in an information technology service provider which was created from the merger of two other information technology service providers from the southeast region of Brazil. After analyzing the organization´s situation in April of 2006, some actions are planned and executed to structure the organization for the alignment. The follow-up of each initiative and the structural changes that happened until February 2007 are also discussed. Considering these, the following steps to build the organizational structure are suggested.