Software engineers currently rely on lengthy source code reviews, testing, and static analysis tools to attempt identification of software vulnerabilities. While these are sometimes effective, the methods used are limited and don't catch all security vulnerabilities.Work has been done in identifying areas of software prone to failure through a design metrics approach, and with success. This study aims to extend this idea to software security. The premise of this thesis is that the set of security vulnerabilities overlaps (or may be a subset of) the overall set of software bugs and failures. It is postulated that a good, reliable design should also be a secure design. This thesis identifies design issues which may lead to security vulnerabilities and proposes possible design metric enhancements to capture these design properties. / Department of Computer Science

The development of a software package is a complex and time consuming process. Computer Assisted Software Engineering (CASE) tools, such as Excelerator, DesignAid and SA Tools have offered an alternative to the traditional methods of system design. While the use of these design tools can lessen the burden of project management, there currently exists no systematic method for describing or evaluating existing products.This study identifies criteria for software development tools by examining three products used in a PC-based computing environment. The three software development tools studied are DesignAid version 4.0 by Nastec Corporation, SA Tools by Tekcase Corporation, and Excelerator version 1.7 by Index Technology Corporation. In order to give the "look and feel" of the products, the same design project is implemented on each of the tools. Then each product is evaluated with respect to a given set of criteria. / Department of Computer Science

Metrics calculated during the design phase of a software life-cycle can be used to predict the errors in the software project at an early stage, improve the overall software quality, and increase the efficiency of the software life-cycle.In this thesis, a design metric D(G) for the structure design G is presented. The need and importance of the design metric is shown, the metric is explained in detail, results are given and the solutions are presented to improve the design quality based on the results. A strategy is explained to implement the design metric into a company-wide program. The limitations of the metrics model are also given. A complete model of the software development life-cycle, incorporating the metrics is also presented. / Department of Computer Science

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.

M.Sc. (Computer Science) / The process that involves creating and altering software systems can be defined as the software development lifecycle. People often use methodologies and methods in order to develop these systems with success factors such as people, processes and technology. The lifecycle is comprised of the following stages: • Planning • Requirements definition • Design • Development • Integration and testing • Installation • Acceptance. The underlying issue in such a lifecycle is that project defects are identified late within the lifecycle and therefore, the process of rectifying these problems becomes costly. Ultimately, an ideal product is one with minimal or zero defects which can be achieved with a software project that prevents or detects defects earlier within the cycle. Release management can be described as the process involving decision-­‐making regarding the implementation and releasing of a software product. A conceptual framework exists which stipulates the stages involved in the development process of a software application. Several models exist that describe the SDLC in different approaches. A philosophy is adopted within the RAD model, known as Agile and is beneficial since it minimises future scope creep and scope changes. Development occurs in shorter intervals. Over and above the stages and values in this methodology, the Agile methodology includes incremental changes which are then captured in the scheduled software releases. The purpose of the research presented in this dissertation is to incorporate findings where large companies with global IT projects can adopt the Agile conceptual framework and to testify whether all types of IT projects will benefit from a frequent release approach to the delivery of the project. Three different projects across a large South African financial institution that specialises in corporate organisation banking and core-­‐banking functionality will be studied and presented as case studies. Release management will also be studied from an organisational perspective with the following banking institution in context. Data will be retrieved by carrying out interviews and surveys with appropriate stakeholders, and therefore, analysed to generate a valid conclusion.