Thesis (MTech (Public Management))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, [2017]. / The study is located within a Project Management paradigm. The South African national Department of Education’s (the DOE) approach to e-Education and its directive issued in 2004 to integrate Information and Communication Technologies (ICT’s) into teaching and learning forms the premise of this study. In 2009, the Western Cape Government adopted the Modernisation Programme to bring the provincial government on par with international best practice, to ensure that government officials are fit for their respective purposes. The challenge for the Western Cape Government was its ability to implement a project management approach to all activities performed by all stakeholders and role players in the project implementation process. The core objective of the study was to develop a theoretical framework to monitor and control projects and practices within selected provincial government departments in the Western Cape, with specific reference to the Department of the Premier (DotP) and the Western Cape Education Department, in order to achieve and provide an improved project management approach to monitor and control projects when implementing strategy and, in turn, enhance effective and efficient service delivery. A qualitative research approach was used, as the researchers were keen to hear verbal accounts around the experiences and perceptions of selected individuals within the Department of the Premier and Western Cape Education Department around the MSPiL Training Project in particular, and how it is monitored and controlled. Applicable literature was consulted which indicated the complexity of project management in the public sector as it relates to monitoring and control of projects. Methods/mechanisms, procedures and systems for defining, planning, scheduling, controlling, organising, monitoring and evaluating project activities to enhance service delivery, were forwarded. One of the core findings of the study was that an agile project management approach/methodology is best suited to an environment that has faster turnaround times with more streamlined, speedier approvals and processes, red tape reduction, as well as more direct communication channels. The aforementioned lacked in the South African public sector. A recommendation forwarded is that the Department of the Premier, Centre for e-Innovation’s (Directorate GITO: Education, Cultural Affairs and Sport) project office and a task team that specifically deal with the MSPiL project should clearly understand their department’s requirements whilst defining, planning and managing projects to improve project management maturity, as well as constantly communicate the roadmap, benefits and progress at both project/programme, departmental and provincial level by 2019, since this is when the Western Cape Provincial Strategic Plan reaches its end. This will assist the department and its MSPiL project team to improve project tasks and activities for future projects with similar characteristics.

Orientador: Maurício César Delamaro / Banca: Francisco Cristovão Lourenço de Melo / Banca: Virgílio César da Silva e Oliveira / Banca: Eduardo Gomes Salgado / Banca: José Xaides de Sampaio Alves / Resumo: Com a introdução de novas tecnologias nas empresas e instituições a partir da popularização e do barateamento dos recursos tecnológicos, uma parcela cada vez maior da população teve acesso a computadores e tecnologias da informação e comunicação. Em meio à crise fiscal da década de noventa, viu-se no governo eletrônico uma ferramenta importante para redução de custos, controle interno, transparência das ações dos gestores públicos e participação popular. Desta forma, o presente trabalho tem como objetivo principal caracterizar as práticas de governo eletrônico dos municípios sulmineiros e analisar como estas favorecem a transparência e a participação popular. O método de pesquisa empregado foi de natureza qualitativa baseada em múltiplos casos. Foram utilizados os instrumentos entrevista, observação não participante e análise documental na coleta de dados. A amostra adotada foram as trinta maiores cidades do sul de Minas Gerais, sendo que estas possuem mais de 20.000 habitantes, já que municípios com tal característica possam contar com estruturas administrativa e tecnológica que privilegiem ações de governo eletrônico. Foram entrevistados todos os secretários de governo dos municípios da amostra, além dos gestores de tecnologia da informação. Analisou-se os websites, todos com o emprego de instrumentos de pesquisa que se encontram no apêndice deste trabalho. Observou-se com a pesquisa que todos os municípios pesquisados estão investindo em tecnologia da informação, alguns de forma mais intensa, com recursos mais avançados, outros em estágio mais atrasado, buscando solucionar problemas mais emergenciais, mas, todos, de alguma forma, estão buscando se modernizar. Tal aspecto será analisado ao longo do trabalho. Sob o ponto de vista da promoção da transparência e da popular,... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: With the introduction of the new technologies in companies and institutions that became possible with popularization and cheapening of technological resources, an increasing share of the population had access to computers and other information and communication technologies. Amid the fiscal crisis of the nineties, electronic government was considered as an important tool for cost reduction, internal control, transparency of actions of public officials and public participation. Thus, the present study aims to characterize the main practices of e-government in several cities located at the South of Minas Gerais State and analyze how those promote transparency and popular participation. The research method employed was based on a qualitative multiple case study. Interviews were used as instruments, non-participant observation and document analysis in data collection. In data analysis, content analysis was employed and also thematic category analysis. The sample adopted were the southern towns of Minas Gerais with more than 20,000 inhabitants, that municipalities can rely on this characteristic structures technological and administrative actions that favor electronic government. All government secretaries of municipalities in the sample were interviewed, in addition to information technology managers. All the websites were analyzed with the use of the research tools that are attached to this work. Was observed with the research that all municipalities surveyed are investing in information technology, some more intensely, with more advanced features, others in later stage, seeking to solve emergency problems, but all of them, in some manner, are seeking to modernization. From the point of view of promoting transparency and popular participation, one of the subjects of this work, unfortunately, few have shown at this time that they are employing electronic government in their websites for ... (Complet abstract click electronic access below) / Doutor

Orientador: Leonardo de Souza Mendes / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Elétrica e de Computação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-20T09:29:04Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 GagoJunior_EvertonLuizdeAlmeida_M.pdf: 1416743 bytes, checksum: 43ebe58cf54d9cd46b1ceb50d5cb4b42 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012 / Resumo: Com as facilidades e resultados oferecidos pelos sistemas de gerenciamento automatizados, cada vez mais os municípios eliminam documentos físicos, e armazenam digitalmente suas informações. Uma das consequências diretas disso é a criação de um grande volume de dados. Em geral, estes dados são coletados por meio das Tecnologias da Informação e Comunicação (TIC) e armazenados em bases de dados transacionais. Nestes ambientes, os dados possuem relacionamentos complexos entre si, o que dificulta a identificação de padrões e comportamentos. Diversas instituições utilizam técnicas de mineração de dados para identificar padrões e comportamentos ocultos em seus dados operacionais. Estes padrões podem auxiliar no planejamento de ações futuras e melhorar a gestão dos recursos financeiros, humanos e tecnológicos. A análise inteligente dos dados operacionais de uma instituição pode ser realizada através das Ferramentas de Apoio e Suporte a Tomada de Decisão (FASTD). Estas ferramentas permitem analisar um grande volume de dados a partir de regras previamente estabelecidas. Estas regras são apresentadas para as FASTD na fase de treinamento, quando a ferramenta aprende sobre os padrões que deve buscar. Este trabalho apresenta um processo de suporte à tomada de decisão com base em mapas auto-organizáveis. Aplicado às ferramentas de governo eletrônico, este processo permite identificar padrões em um grande volume de dados de maneira autônoma, ou seja, dispensando o conjunto de regras para treinamento. Para realizar o estudo de caso, utilizaremos informações cedidas pela Prefeitura Municipal de Campinas, São Paulo, Brasil / Abstract: Due to the characteristics offered by automated management systems, municipal administrations are now attempting to store digital information instead of keeping their physical documents. One consequence of such fact is the generation of large volume of data. Usually, these data are collected by ICT technologies and then stored in transactional databases. In this environment, collected data might have complex internal relationships. This may be an issue to identify patterns and behaviors. Many institutions use data mining techniques for recognize hidden patterns and behaviors in their operational data. These patterns can assist to future activities planning and provide better management to financial resources. Intelligent analysis can be realized using the Support Tools and Support Decision Making (STSDM). These tools can analyze large volume of data through previously established rules. These rules are presented for STSDM in the training phase, and the tool learns about the patterns that should look. This work proposes a process to support decision making based on self-organized maps. This process, applied to electronic government tools, can recognize patterns in large volume of data without the set of rules for training. To perform our case study, we use data provided by the city of Campinas, Sao Paulo / Mestrado / Telecomunicações e Telemática / Mestre em Engenharia Elétrica

University of Macau / Faculty of Science and Technology / Department of Computer and Information Science

M.Comm. (Computer Auditing) / The internal auditors play an important role in any organisation, irrespective of the type of audit they perform. Metropolitan municipalities (Category A municipalities) in South Africa are established in terms of Section 155.1(a) of the South African Constitution as municipalities that execute all the functions of local government for a city and that have sufficient resources to perform municipal functions, as opposed to areas that are primarily rural, where the local government is divided into district municipalities and local municipalities. Recently, many weaknesses have been reported regarding these municipalities. This is evident when looking at the recent billing problems experienced within the City of Johannesburg metropolitan municipality, during which the city blamed its Project Phakama, an IT system intended to integrate municipal services accounts into one database for effective accounts management, for any deficiencies. The above considerations triggered the need to conduct this study. The study focuses on the types of internal IT audits that are conducted within these municipalities, the independence of the internal audit departments, the audit standards/guidelines/legislation followed, the roles and responsibilities of IT auditors, the knowledge expected from IT auditors, the IT audit skills (both core skills and soft skills) required to perform the audits and the IT audit tools and techniques that are applied while performing the internal audits. The study was therefore conducted to establish the functioning of the information technology internal audit departments at metropolitan municipalities in South Africa, given the above background. A quantitative research methodology was followed in the study, in which a detailed questionnaire was designed and sent to all heads of IT audits/Chief Audit Executives (CAE) in all eight metropolitan municipalities in order to find answers that would achieve the above-mentioned objectives. Seven out of the eight metropolitan municipalities in South Africa participated in the study. This study revealed the following key results, general controls reviews were the most performed type of audit, and municipalities were found to forward their internal audit reports to both municipal managers and audit committees. Computer knowledge is considered to be the main expected knowledge from the IT auditors, audit and technical skills are considered to be the most important core skills required from any IT auditor. The Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) is found to be used by all municipalities while conducting their internal audits. The detection role is singled out as the main role played by IT auditors in municipalities, followed by the oversight role. Ensuring that IT policies, procedures, laws and regulations are managed in accordance with standards, as well as identifying and evaluating IT risks are considered by internal auditors in municipalities as the most important responsibilities they perform on daily basis.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has evolved into a pervasive commodity in modern enterprises. ICT enables enterprises, regardless of sector, to achieve their strategic objectives. Similarly, ICT is regarded as a critical enabler in South African municipalities to reach their objectives and ultimately deliver sustainable services to their communities. This dependence on ICT, therefore, necessitates a resilient ICT environment where minimal disruption to ICT is a primary goal. Unfortunately, as reported by the Auditor-General of South Africa, the majority of South African municipalities are neglecting to address the continuity of their ICT services. Failing to implement adequate ICT continuity controls restrict these municipalities from achieving their strategic goals and, as a result, fulfilling their constitutional mandate of service delivery. It is, therefore, the objective of this study to devise a method, consisting of a theoretical foundation and a supporting tool-set, to assist municipalities in addressing a real-world ICT continuity problem. This method aims to be scalable and usable within different municipalities, and be simplistic and comprehensible enough to implement. The theoretical foundation will introduce the concept of ICT Readiness for Business Continuity, based on the recommendations of international best practices and standards, for example, the ISO 27031 (2011) standard. Furthermore, by considering various challenges within local government, the tool-set will ultimately help municipalities to help themselves in this regard.

Information Communication Technology (ICT) has become an integral part of conducting business within enterprises including the local government. Local government relies on the use of ICT to ensure that its objectives and goals are accomplished. The effective use of ICT within the context of local government is fundamental for the support, sustainability and growth of municipalities. Benefits associated with the effective use of ICT in local government include but are not limited to accelerated service delivery, efficiency and accountability. While these benefits cannot be disputed, it is important to realise that the use of ICT presents potential risks. Thus, good governance of ICT should be addressed in local government. However, in recent years, the Auditor-General of South Africa (AG) has identified lack of good governance of ICT in local government. Various issues have been identified as emanating from the lack of good governance of ICT and lack of adequate ICT risk assessment is a case in point. In an attempt to address the good governance of ICT local government, various documents have been formulated. However, none of these address how effective management of ICT risks can be achieved. As such, local government lacks the means to effectively address the management of ICT risk which is core to the good governance of ICT. Local government still requires urgent intervention with regard to addressing the activities of managing ICT risks, particularly ICT risk assessment. Moreover, it was revealed that the lack of adequate ICT skills and financial resources in local government elevates this problem. The above-mentioned problem is what has motivated this research study. This dissertation aims to produce an artefact in the form of an approach for ICT risk assessment in local government. It is believed that a customised approach to ICT risk assessment in local government will contribute towards solving the identified problem.

Globally, mobile technology use, particularly the use of mobile phones, is becoming increasingly widespread. One consequence of this growth is mounting interest in using mobile technologies in the public sector, particularly in developing countries, because it is seen as enabling better access to information and services for citizens. Mobile government (m-government), defined as the use of mobile technologies and applications for public sector services, promises to extend access to public services to marginalised sectors of the population and is emerging as a new focus in the ongoing challenge to provide efficient, effective and accessible public services. Though interest in m-government is emerging in the provincial Western Cape Government (WCG) of South Africa, few guidelines exist in the WCG to inform the development of public sector mobile services. This absence impacts on service delivery and the primary objective of this study was to propose a set of guidelines that could guide the prioritisation of citizen facing public sector services for mobile implementation in the Western Cape. The study considered two areas namely, government and user needs. The primary research question was to determine what public sector services citizens need and how these services should be prioritised for mobile delivery in the Western Cape. To address this, three research sub-questions were formulated. The first question aimed to examine conceptions of mobile government. To achieve this a literature study and documentation review was conducted, from which factors influencing service prioritisation emerged. The second research question aimed to identify citizen needs that could inform mobile public sector services in the Western Cape. Thus a survey and interviews were conducted with citizens using the WCG community ICT centres (e-Centres). The third research question aimed to identify factors that impact on the prioritisation of citizen facing public sectors for mobile delivery in the Western Cape. The findings from the literature study, survey and interviews conducted were used to address this research question. The results from the three research sub-questions were triangulated to address the main objective of the study and from this a set of guidelines for prioritising mobile public sector services in the Western Cape was proposed.

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