No / Transportation infrastructure projects are prone to cost and schedule overruns. At the time of contract award, a construction contingency budget is often used to accommodate for unplanned events such as scope changes. Recent empirical research has shown that rework during construction as a result of design changes, errors and omission are the major contributors of overruns in projects. The statistical characteristics of rework, and cost and schedule overruns that are experienced from a project's contract award for 58 Australian transportation infrastructure projects are analysed. Theoretical probability distributions are fitted to the rework, cost and schedule overrun data. Goodness of fit tests are used in conjunction with probability-probability (P-P) plots to compare the sample distribution from the known theoretical distribution. A Generalised Logistic probability density function is found to describe the behaviour of cost-overruns and provides the best overall distribution fit. The best fitting distribution for schedule overruns and rework data were the Four Parameter Burr and a Johnson SB distribution, respectively. The distributions are used to calculate the probability of rework, cost and schedule overruns being experienced. A case illustration is presented and discussed to demonstrate how the derived probabilities may be utilised in practice.

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Social Sciences

Il est nécessaire qu'une signature électronique garde ses propriétés de sécurité durant sa période archivage légale. La première partie de ce mémoire adresse cette problématique en formalisant la validation de signature à long terme. On utilise notre modèle pour définir la sémantique d'une règle de résolution de litige et pour formaliser plusieurs notions tels que la preuve de jugement, son expiration et son renouvellement. La révocation est l'un des principaux aspects formalisés par le modèle. La gestion de la révocation est particulièrement critique pour une Autorité de Certification. Dans un premier temps, on investigue différent niveaux de compromission et de révocations. Ensuite, on adresse la sécurité de l'application de signature de certificats. On propose une solution qui permet au module cryptographique de l'AC de déléguer les vérifications sur les requêtes de signature de certificats, à un environnement moins sécurisé mais avec une puissance de calcul plus importante. / Nowadays digital signature schemes and infrastructures have time limitations. This situation is disturbing considering that there are many cases, such as government records, where the signatures are required to be kept valid for a long period of time. In this thesis, we address this issue by modeling signature validation in the scope of a dispute between a verifier and a signer. The model is accompanied with a formal calculus to formalize several important concepts in the scope of long-term validation, such as judgment proof, proof expiration and renewal. Certificate revocation is one of the main issues considered by the model. Revocation is particularly critical for a Certification Authority (CA). We investigate this issue in the scope of the revocation settings allowed in X.509 and we show that some settings permit efficient countermeasures to prevent the revocation of the CA. For the same objective, we investigate approaches allowing to combine hardware protection with fine-tuned control on the usage of the CA's key. We propose a general solution which allows the execution of the of CA's certification policies at a processor which runs in an insecure environment under the control of the CA's secure module.

<div>The practice of project bundling, which involves combining multiple projects into a single multi-project contract, is in increased use at infrastructure agencies. Researchers have shown that this practice potentially reduces project cost but could cause undesirable consequences such as reduced market competition. For this reason, bundling policy needs to be guided by a determination of whether specific projects should be bundled, the bundling strategy in terms of bundle size, bundling combinations, geographical locations, and project scheduling, and the resulting outcome of each strategy in the terms of contract performance (overall cost and time duration, and cost and time overrun). Practitioners seeking answers to these questions continue to be stymied by the lack of quantified relationships between bundling alternatives and the resulting contract performance.</div><div>This dissertation addresses these questions by analyzing empirical data including the costs and durations of highway contracts and projects over a ten-year period. Using a variety of modeling approaches, the dissertation developed models to quantify the effects of bundling-related factors on the key contract performance measures (CPMs). The bundling related factors are contract size, bundle size, project combinations, project similarity and spatial proximity between bundled projects, and the CPMs are project cost and time performance, market competition, and the risks of cost overrun and project delay. Through the modeling process, the dissertation measured the effects of project similarity, economies of scale, economies of bundling, and economies of competition on bundling, and developed a novel technique to measure similarities between projects. Using the developed models, the dissertation then established an optimization framework to identify cost-effective bundling strategies. A greedy approach that minimizes the overall cost in a polynomial time was proposed to obtain heuristic solutions. The outcomes of this dissertation are twofold: first, it provides highway agencies with a quick, convenient and robust tool to design long-term cost-effective bundling strategies for any given pool of candidate projects; secondly, it provides guidelines and directions for future bundling policy formulation or evaluation. </div>

Dans ma thèse, j'utilise des méthodes récentes de microéconométrie appliquée pour évaluer les impacts des événements majeurs (catastrophe de Fukushima Daiichi, Jeux Olympiques), de l'infrastructure (utilisation des terrains urbains, éoliennes) et des institutions dans les systèmes éducatifs) sur le bien-être individuel, la santé et le comportement. Tout au long de mes articles, j'utilise des données longitudinales sur les ménages, en partie fusionnées avec des données spatiales très détaillées, tout en accordant une attention particulière à l'identification des effets causaux. / In my dissertation, I am using recent methods in applied microeconometrics for policy and programme evaluation to evaluate the impacts of major events (the Fukushima Daiichi disaster, the Olympic Games), infrastructure (urban land use, wind turbines), and institutions (instructional time in education systems) on individual well-being, health, and behaviour. Throughout my papers, I am using longitudinal household data, partly merged with highly detailed spatial data, while paying particular attention at identifying causal effects.

Abstract This thesis deals with the process of server consolidation, which is tightly connected to IT infrastructure of virtually any organization. Moreover it is dealt in some respect with the way the organization runs and with linking these two particular areas together. The goal of this thesis is to identify consequences or impacts of server consolidation process on the way the organization functions and on methods how to measure these impacts. One of the steps towards this goal is unmistakably analyzing the planning and deployment of server consolidation including virtualization technology. Server consolidation is characterized as a process leading to simplified and more effective IT infrastructure of an organization. To analyze the IT infrastructure in complete and systematic way it is used framework called IT Infrastructure Library respectively part of it called ICT Infrastructure Management. Because of that linking of the server consolidation process progress to organization's global goals is granted. Contribution of this thesis can be seen in complex analysis of the consequences of the server consolidation process to the functioning of an organization. Especially in areas that are usually not being considered in connection with server consolidation, which is considered to be IT matter, such as human resources and social enviroment. Key words: server consolidation, server consolidation consequences, ICT Infrastructure Management, Virtualization

Thesis (Ph. D. (Administration Development Planning and Management)) -- University of LImpopo, 2017 / Whilst previous research has largely blamed inadequate finance as the cause of insufficient water provision and concomitant development implications such as poverty and food production; this thesis, took a slightly different turn and engaged on a critical deconstruction of the relationship between water infrastructure financing and water provision in South Africa. Archival data on South Africa between 1994 and 2014 were collected on water provision, water-asset finance, governance effectiveness, corruption, violence, accountancy and voice. Data were analysed using the OLS regression fixed effect. Findings from the analysis showed that against popular belief, there was lack of significant relationship between water asset finance and water provision. However, nonfinancial variables namely corruption, social violence, accountability and voice of citizens in development decisions showed a significant relationship with water provision. In addition, the analysis showed that water provision is significantly related to cereal production and incidence of poverty. Therefore, the thesis emphasized that rural development could be enhanced through an improved effort on water provision, which would increase cereal production and reduce the incidence of poverty. It stressed however, that provision of water asset finance without attention and control of nonfinancial variables might have the tendency to derail water provision initiatives in South Africa. The thesis made an original contribution by proposing a conceptual framework for employing and researching the catalyst for water provision in South Africa. It also developed three novel research models for future research. Key words: Infrastructure financing, water infrastructure, water provision, water and development, governance, accountability, poverty reduction

<p>This minithesis seeks to understand why infrastructure projects fail to contribute effectively to poverty (rural) reduction. The thesis assumes that though infrastructure provision can impact positively on rural poverty reduction, the same infrastructure provision has worsened or put people in worse conditions of poverty. Therefore it is not automatic that infrastructure provision would reduce rural poverty as often held. The thesis goes on to postulate that a positive relationship between infrastructure and rural poverty reduction is best achieved within a broad or generic policy which provides the framework for providing such infrastructure. The thesis assesses these assertions empirically by first, testing the relationships between infrastructure and rural poverty reduction. Here a large scale infrastructure project in Ghana known as the Keta sea defence project serves as the case study. Secondly the thesis assesses Ghana&rsquo / s infrastructure provision policy environment and its implications on rural poverty reduction in the affected communities of the Keta sea defence project.</p>

This thesis provides a case study of the Government of Canada's former Office of Critical Infrastructure Protection and Emergency Preparedness (OCIPEP) through the lens of horizontal management (part of New Public Management theory). This study demonstrates that the effective use of horizontal management (horizontality) may reduce fragmentation occurring when the goal of critical infrastructure protection requires organizations to work cross-jurisdictionally and in partnerships. This need to collaborate is due to the ownership problem: over 85 per cent of Canada's critical infrastructure is owned by organizations other than the federal government. Research methods include a background survey of literature on critical infrastructure protection, horizontal management and horizontality, and new public management; and interviews using a snowball sample of eight subjects who held various positions within OCIPEP to better understand what the organizational structure appeared to be from within the organization. The research concludes that OCIPEP was not given the resources necessary to successfully fulfil its mandate. Results include the need for administrative and managerial support for horizontal endeavours, to encourage a "cultural context" of horizontality, as there are many organizational barriers to successfully using horizontality and collaborative methods. There were areas of success for OCIPEP, but more areas of weakness. Recommendations include additional study of the organization, a shift into a better-supported organization (which was accomplished with OCIPEP's inclusion into Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada), and clear delineation of roles between the Government of Canada and the owners of the critical infrastructure. / October 2005