Thesis (Ph. D.)--Michigan State University. Dept. of Business Information Systems, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed July 31, 2009). Includes bibliographical references (p. 100-114). Also issued in print.

Architecture-Engineering-Construction industry has recently been altering the ways of managing its resources. Knowledge is considered to be among the most precious of these resources. Knowledge is a critical factor in choosing the right projects, preparing the winning bids and successfully realizing the projects. It is also a critical factor for organizations because of the fact that - due to its nature that it exists as tacit or explicit, or in between - it is hard to record and reuse. This study investigates the knowledge management issue in the practice of architecture. Face-to-face interviews have been carried out with 15 architectural offices in &Ccedil / ankaya district of Ankara. The subject domain is assumed to be experiencing problems such as managing knowledge at a strategic level. This is due to the facts that the amount and importance of tacit knowledge is significant and communication of this knowledge to other parties is the responsibility of the architectural partners. The survey found out that management of architectural knowledge is considered to be beneficial for the overall productivity of architectural offices. However, challenges such as lack of standard procedures and low profit margins in the AEC industry render this activity to be less effective on profit and innovation in design.

Thesis (MBus) -- Auckland University of Technology, 2005. / Also held in print (xii, 150 leaves, 30 cm.) in Wellesley Theses Collection. (T 664.00688 WEI)

This is a study of the relationship between information technology (IT) dimensions and three organizational properties: leadership philosophies, organisational context and IT strategic choice. Six hypotheses were formulated and tested using data collected from a sample of 750 senior civil servants across the Australian Public Service (APS). Attempts are made to show that a direct relationship exists between respondents’ perception of leadership philosophies, organisational context, IT strategic choice and IT dimensions. Results suggest that organisational IT is defined by four dimensions: IT deployment, IT skills, IT training and IT impact on the organisation, and that all four dimensions are necessary for the effective adoption of IT. Leadership philosophy emerges as the most influential determinant for effective IT adoption, whilst only certain aspects of organisational context and strategic choice variables show a significant influence of effective IT adoption. It is concluded that the respondents’ precaution about the effective adoption of IT in the organisation is strongly influenced by the leadership philosophies held by senior APS managers and to some extent by organisational context and IT strategic choice / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

A capacidade de identificar clientes potenciais, conquistar mercados e garantir fidelidade dos clientes sÃo fatores determinantes do sucesso das organizaÃÃes modernas. No entanto, a comoditizaÃÃo dos produtos, facilmente copiados e reproduzidos pelas indÃstrias vem demonstrando um aspecto de equivalÃncia dos produtos e serviÃos das empresas frente ao mercado consumidor. A diferenciaÃÃo nÃo se resume mais Ãs caracterÃsticas dos produtos, e sim na forma com a qual as organizaÃÃes se relacionam com os clientes, lhes oferecendo serviÃos e estabelecendo relaÃÃes duradouras e lucrativas atravÃs dos diversos canais de relacionamento existentes. A Tecnologia da InformaÃÃo quando combinada com as estratÃgias de integraÃÃo de relacionamento da organizaÃÃo com seus clientes possibilita ampliar a diferenciaÃÃo da empresas frente à concorrÃncia, tornando a empresa mais valorosa e atrativa aos seus clientes. O objetivo desse trabalho à verificar quais ferramentas de Tecnologia da InformaÃÃo (TI) sÃo utilizadas e como estas ferramentas efetivamente auxiliam na melhoria da gestÃo de relacionamento com clientes. O trabalho buscou ainda verificar os resultados positivos agregados pelas ferramentas de TI ao processo decisÃrio da organizaÃÃo. O referencial teÃrico se estrutura na investigaÃÃo preliminar das ferramentas mundialmente disponÃveis que, cientificamente, apresentam caracterÃsticas que as qualificam como ferramentas de apoio ao CRM ou GestÃo de Relacionamento com Clientes. O mÃtodo de pesquisa utilizado foi o estudo de caso em uma grande empresa do segmento industrial, com sede em Fortaleza, CearÃ. A metodologia utilizada envolveu a aplicaÃÃo de questionÃrio, entrevistas, observaÃÃo direta e a anÃlise de informaÃÃes complementares como manuais e procedimentos executados nos processos internos da organizaÃÃo. As anÃlises dos dados se basearam no modelo de camadas do CRM proposto por Peppers e Rogers, que prevà a classificaÃÃo das ferramentas de TI nas camadas operacional, analÃtica e colaborativa. Os resultados permitiram traÃar um diagnÃstico de como a TI vem dando suporte Ãs estratÃgias de CRM utilizadas pela OrganizaÃÃo. Concluiu-se que algumas Ãreas de negÃcios apresentam estado evolutivo bastante desenvolvimento em relaÃÃo à gestÃo de relacionamentos com seus clientes, enquanto outras Ãreas de negÃcios se encontram com baixo nÃvel ou nenhum suporte de TI. As camadas de CRM Operacional e AnalÃtico apresentam elevado grau de desenvolvimento dentro da organizaÃÃo, enquanto que o CRM colaborativo nÃo à extensivamente utilizado pelas Ãreas de negÃcios investigadas. Ferramentas como automaÃÃo de forÃa de vendas, EDI e data warehouse, apresentaram-se muito presentes e eficazes no apoio ao CRM. Finalmente verificou-se que a utilizaÃÃo de ferramentas de TI para CRM operacional garante a qualidade e confiabilidade dos dados para anÃlise pelas Ãreas de negÃcios. A utilizaÃÃo das ferramentas analÃticas gera ganhos relevantes para a elaboraÃÃo dos planos da organizaÃÃo, bem como constatou-se um alto grau de percepÃÃo da organizaÃÃo sobre a relevÃncia do CRM para resultados financeiros e tomada de decisÃo.

As project management (PM) and information technology (IT) evolved over the last decades, an increasing number of project management software products have emerged. Project managers in IT consulting can improve the success of projects through the utilization of such software. However, the diversity of software available cannot sensibly be grasped by a single individual. Based on this context, the study aims to examine the key considerations in the selectionof project management software in IT consulting from the project managers' perspective. A literature review identifies key aspects of IT consulting projects that may be relevant to the software selection. No evidence was found that provided a view on the process of the selection of PM software in IT consulting itself. The review also unveils the lack of common terminology in regard to PM software. The study addresses these gaps by utilizing interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to understand the experiences made by project managers. To gather data, 17 semistructured interviews were conducted with experienced project managers. Thematic analysis was used to develop an understanding of the process employed by project managers in the software selection and the considerations they make along the way. The findings were synthesized to create a process guide, supported by a checklist and the working definition of key terminology. This study adds a broader perspective to the field of PM software through the application of qualitative methodology in an otherwise quantitatively dominated field of research. It addresses the lack of existing knowledge on the perspective of the project manager in the selection process through the generation of a 6-staged process guide. The detailed considerations of project managers were compiled into a checklist of selection criteria. These two also contribute to practice by providing a structured approach to PM selection for practitioners. The third output is a working definition of project management software as used in practice, which simplifies an exchange of knowledge between theory and practice.

IT projects are temporary organizations of strategic importance. Companies invest large amounts of money, time, and resources into business-embedded IT projects in order to change and gain a competitive advantage. Extreme cases of failures were previously only analyzed as case studies, e.g., Denver Airport, London Stock Exchange Taurus, London Ambulance Service. The research poses an important question: What is the risk of these outliers, that is markedly deviant observations of IT project performance? What causes outliers in IT project performance? Only very few studies problematized the frequency of outliers directly. Reported numbers range from 33% to as low as 0.2%. The variation has been explained through biases in planning processes of organizations and as artefact of data collection. An alternative explanation is that the true nature of IT projects contains more variation than commonly assumed. A rich body of organizational, project management, and IT project management literature offers antecedents of outliers. The extant literature falls broadly into three schools of thought: (1) system-centric, (2) event-centric, and (3) process-centric theories of why outliers occurred. System-centric explanations focus on the question of system design, based on theories of normal accidents and high reliability organizations. Event-centric explanations focus on how organizations respond to rare events that impact the organization, based on theories of crisis management, management of organizational turbulence, and strategic surprises. Process-centric explanations focus on the role of managing uncertainty and risk over time, based on theories of man-made disasters, escalation of commitment to a failing course of action, and the normalization of deviance. The study is based on the archival research of 4,307 IT projects from 190 organizations. The findings show that the tail of the cost, schedule, and effort performance distributions is best fitted by a power law, with overwhelming goodness of fit. Moreover, the findings show that system-centric explanations and process-centric theories offer explanations for the thickness of the tail and the odds of an outlier occurring. In particular five variables were associated with outliers: estimated cost and duration, perceived uniqueness of the project, the qualification and motivation of the project team, and the effectiveness of monitoring and controlling. The results show that outliers are not chance events; they follow patterns that are describable. The study showed how design factors, that are often conceptualized as system complexities, and execution factors, that are often conceptualized as the effectiveness of project processes, explain project outliers. Lastly, the thesis draws implications for research and practice.

The government of Yemen has been developing government offered services designed to improve the quality of education management. Yemen's managers of education and managers of higher education in the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) have sought to improve quality of education, reduce costs, and provide timely information for decision-making processes by implementing an integrated management information system (IMIS). The problem was the lack of understanding the barriers that hinder successful IMIS implementation by the MOE and MOHE, and the role that lack of collaboration has played in prior unsuccessful attempts. The purpose of this case study was to identify barriers and success factors related to previous attempts to implement an IMIS in Yemen's MOE and MOHE. Diffusion of innovation (DOI) theory and the technology acceptance model (TAM) provided the conceptual framework. A purposeful sampling was used to select participants for semistructured interviews. The interviews were conducted with 3 ministry personnel, 8 managers, and 4 administrators from various governorates who are currently working or have worked in the Yemen MOE or MOHE. Open coding was used to identify themes and patterns. Themes were related to insufficient human and material resources, lack of understanding and acceptance of IMIS, inadequate IMIS education and training, incompetent program managers, and fear of change. These findings may contribute to positive social change by improving the management of education, thereby the overall quality of education in Yemen. Improving management in education could increase the quality of life by contributing to increase of prosperity through a better-educated society, an active citizenry, and a reduction in the level of societal violence.

The purpose of this diploma is to describe the IT server infrastructure and map out ways in which it may be find. In addition, aims to clarify the concept of management of infrastructure and describe the processes and activities required to manage server infrastructure. Subsequently, examine options and software features to support the management and benefits of their use. On the basis of these findings are developed and described models of effective managements for the particular states of server infrastructure. In detail are also explained the concepts, which can be achieved by changes in infrastructure. Models of effective management is established with regard to the need and level of implementation of various management activities, in different stages of maturity infrastructure. Some of the requirements arising from the level and condition of infrastructure must be support by the appropriate software. Models, therefore, also contain requirements for software at various levels of infrastructure maturity. Described and discussed are also other influences, which are the size of infrastructure, skills of managers and environmental influences. Part of this work is also a practical demonstration of software for managing server infrastructure, and a description of its properties.