Nos tempos atuais, cada vez mais as organizações têm executado projetos, seja para solucionar problemas técnicos, seja para promover mudanças e direcionar seus esforços para melhores ou novos negócios. Tradicionalmente, metas de prazo, custo e qualidade, conhecidas como triângulo de ferro, são utilizadas como critérios para medição de sucesso de projetos. Nas últimas três décadas, muitos estudos foram publicados na tentativa de entender os fatores e variáveis que levam a projetos bem sucedidos ou fracassados. Na tentativa de contribuir com esses estudos, esta tese busca analisar as relações entre aspectos organizacionais e aspectos específicos dos projetos (internos) com o sucesso dos projetos executados por organizações brasileiras, avaliado por meio da visão tradicional: conformidade com orçamento (custo); cronograma (tempo); especificações técnicas (requisitos do produto/serviço); e atendimento às demandas dos clientes. Para confirmar ou refutar as proposições de pesquisa estabelecidas, esta pesquisa adotou uma abordagem quantitativa, com um levantamento (survey) junto a 336 (trezentos e trinta e seis) profissionais da área. Para a coleta de dados, foi elaborado um instrumento de pesquisa (questionário) com base na literatura acerca do tema. Os resultados apontam diferenças estatisticamente significativas para quatro variáveis que, quando presentes, influenciam positivamente o sucesso dos projetos nas empresas brasileiras. As variáveis são: recursos necessários para o projeto disponibilizados (pela alta administração); utilização de ferramentas de gerenciamento de projetos; aplicação de atividades de coordenação em projetos; e maturidade em gerenciamento de projetos. A conclusão da pesquisa revela que as proposições de estudo não se confirmaram de forma plena. Não foram encontradas variáveis ou equações explicativas que levassem ao sucesso total dos projetos (atendimento pleno do triângulo de ferro). Os resultados confirmaram apenas diferenças estatisticamente significativas que levam ao sucesso parcial. / In present days, many organizations have been conducing projects even to solve technical problems or even to deliver changes and focus their efforts towards better and new businesses. Time, cost and quality targets, known as \"iron triangle\", have been traditionally used as projects\' success measures. During the last three decades, many studies trying to understand the factors and variables that drive well succeeded or failed projects have been published. Attempting to contribute with these studies, this thesis analyses the relations between organizational and project specific (internal) aspects, with the success of projects developed by brazilian organizations, assessed through a traditional view: achieving budget (cost); scheduling (time); technical specifications (product/service requisites); and accomplishment of clients demands. In order to confirm or deny the propositions established, this research adopted a quantitative approach, through a survey conducted with 336 professionals in the field of projects. Data collection has been supported by a research instrument (questionnaire) based on the subject literature. The results point to significant statistical differences for four variables that positively influence project success when they exist on brazilian companies. Those variables are: required resources effectively available (by high administration); using project management tools; applying project coordination activities; and project management maturity. The conclusion of the research reveals that the propositions of the study were not completely confirmed. Explanatory variables or equations have not been found to justify total project success (completely achieving the \"iron triangle\"). The results confirm only the significant statistical differences that drive to partial success.

The need for information systems has increased to a point where virtually all business environments require some sort of software to aid in its daily operations. This study will address the need for quality information systems by examining techniques which can potentially aid in producing consistent high-quality information systems. Two techniques in particular, namely Process Maturity Models (PMMs) and Systems Development Methodologies (SDMs) are examined. Process Maturity Models such as the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) as well as the ISO-9000 standards aid in standardising and improving an organisation’s information systems development processes. These Process Maturity Models often require either the use of certain Systems Development Methodologies or at the very least techniques used within some Systems Development Methodologies. Systems Development Methodologies refer to a set of development processes, tools, techniques etc. which can be used during software development to standardise the entire development process by offering the use of modelling techniques, tools to analyse requirements, illustration of processes etc. These techniques differ from one Systems Development Methodology to the next. This study aims to identify the relationship between Process Maturity Models and Systems Development Methodologies. During the research process a questionnaire was sent out to people within the information technology business environment. The questionnaire contained questions used to determine and measure the usage of Systems Development Methodologies and how projects were affected. The questionnaire was also used to do an informal assessment of each respondent’s Capability Maturity Model level. Furthermore the data retrieved was statistically analysed and the results were interpreted. The results indicate that a relationship exists between the use of SDMs and the success of the respondent’s development processes and developed products. A total of 73% of respondents indicated that they do use SDMs to some extent, the most common being the Systems Development Lifecycle (SDLC). The majority of organizations implementing SDMs have been doing so for three years or more. Results also show that most of the respondents are not certified in some formal Process Maturity Model; however, they do implement some of the processes required by models such as the CMMI. An informal assessment performed indicated that 65% of respondents can be grouped into a perceived CMMI level 2 category. Project outcome was measured and the relationship between PMM implementation as well as SDM use was measured. Results show no statistical evidence which indicates that an organisation’s perceived CMMI level is influenced by SDM use, both vertically and horizontally. Results do, however, indicate that organizations which have been implementing SDMs for a longer period of time are more likely to apply CMMI level 4 activities. Results also indicate that the horizontal use (number of projects/people which implement SDM knowledge) of SDMs have a significant effect on the development process- and the developed product success. Lastly the results indicated that organizations which satisfy more of the CMMI’s level 4 activities experience a higher quality development process which leads to a more successful development process. / Thesis (MSc (Computer Science))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

The need for information systems has increased to a point where virtually all business environments require some sort of software to aid in its daily operations. This study will address the need for quality information systems by examining techniques which can potentially aid in producing consistent high-quality information systems. Two techniques in particular, namely Process Maturity Models (PMMs) and Systems Development Methodologies (SDMs) are examined. Process Maturity Models such as the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) as well as the ISO-9000 standards aid in standardising and improving an organisation’s information systems development processes. These Process Maturity Models often require either the use of certain Systems Development Methodologies or at the very least techniques used within some Systems Development Methodologies. Systems Development Methodologies refer to a set of development processes, tools, techniques etc. which can be used during software development to standardise the entire development process by offering the use of modelling techniques, tools to analyse requirements, illustration of processes etc. These techniques differ from one Systems Development Methodology to the next. This study aims to identify the relationship between Process Maturity Models and Systems Development Methodologies. During the research process a questionnaire was sent out to people within the information technology business environment. The questionnaire contained questions used to determine and measure the usage of Systems Development Methodologies and how projects were affected. The questionnaire was also used to do an informal assessment of each respondent’s Capability Maturity Model level. Furthermore the data retrieved was statistically analysed and the results were interpreted. The results indicate that a relationship exists between the use of SDMs and the success of the respondent’s development processes and developed products. A total of 73% of respondents indicated that they do use SDMs to some extent, the most common being the Systems Development Lifecycle (SDLC). The majority of organizations implementing SDMs have been doing so for three years or more. Results also show that most of the respondents are not certified in some formal Process Maturity Model; however, they do implement some of the processes required by models such as the CMMI. An informal assessment performed indicated that 65% of respondents can be grouped into a perceived CMMI level 2 category. Project outcome was measured and the relationship between PMM implementation as well as SDM use was measured. Results show no statistical evidence which indicates that an organisation’s perceived CMMI level is influenced by SDM use, both vertically and horizontally. Results do, however, indicate that organizations which have been implementing SDMs for a longer period of time are more likely to apply CMMI level 4 activities. Results also indicate that the horizontal use (number of projects/people which implement SDM knowledge) of SDMs have a significant effect on the development process- and the developed product success. Lastly the results indicated that organizations which satisfy more of the CMMI’s level 4 activities experience a higher quality development process which leads to a more successful development process. / Thesis (MSc (Computer Science))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

Purpose: Explore how historical data from a CMMS can be used in order to improve maintenance effectiveness and efficiency of activities, and investigate the possibilities for CBM in the manufacturing industry in the context of digitalization.  Research questions: RQ1: To what extent could condition-based maintenance or other maintenance types being used in order to predict, prevent or in other way eliminate historical breakdowns/faults?  RQ2: Which significance has an organization's degree of maturity to reduce the number of breakdowns?  Method: A case study was performed at Volvo Construction Equipment Operations in Eskilstuna, who manufactures machinery for the construction industry. The case study was compiled in two phases. Phase one was a quantitative study where raw data were collected from a CMMS and tabulated in order to later perform in-depth analysis. Phase two was designed to collect information that generated a wider understanding of the research area, by performing interviews and observations. A literature study was performed to compare the empirical findings with peer-reviewed information to ensure the quality of the study. The data is compiled and analyzed with an abductive approach. The analysis was followed by a discussion of how the research findings could support identifying possibilities of different maintenance types in the future.  Conclusion: The result showed that using historical breakdown data from a CMMS can be useful in order to identify organization’s current state and what possibilities different maintenance types have to decrease the number of breakdowns. To what extent the breakdowns can be decreased relies not only on the maintenance type but also an organizations maturity level. The case study´s result showed that by combining different maintenance types and increasing degree of maturity, Volvo could decrease the historical breakdowns with 86,5%. By only using CBM with current maturity level, 56% of the historical breakdowns could be predicted. However, to decide how many breakdowns that is cost-effective to prevent and precisely what maintenance type that should be used requires a cost analysis which this study is not covering.

Melhoria de processo de software (SPI) é uma prática de engenharia de software motivada pela necessidade de aumentar a qualidade e a produtividade no desenvolvimento de software. Um fato amplamente reconhecido é que a qualidade do produto de software pode ser, em grande parte, determinada pela qualidade do processo utilizado para desenvolvê-lo e mantê-lo. A avaliação do processo de software ajuda as organizações de software a amadurecerem seus processos, identificando problemas críticos para estabelecer prioridades de melhoria. Essa avaliação pode ser feita por meio da comparação do estado dos processos da organização em relação a um modelo de referência que estabeleça estágios de melhoria. Uma avaliação geralmente se baseia em um modelo de processo de software que fornece um roteiro para melhorias. Este trabalho tem como objetivo estabelecer uma abordagem que: (i) define um conjunto de modelos de abstração (metamodelos) de modelos de maturidade de processo de software para apoiar uma metodologia de avaliação/melhoria de processo de software com o objetivo de certificação; e (ii) permite avaliar os processos de uma organização em comparação com um modelo de maturidade por meio de transformações desses metamodelos. A abordagem é instanciada por meio de um estudo de caso utilizando os modelos MPS.Br e CMMI para exemplificar sua aplicação. Como resultado, é apresentado um comparativo entre as limitações encontradas nas metodologias encontradas na literatura e como a abordagem sugere superá-las. / Software process improvement (SPI) is a software engineering practice motivated by the need to increase the quality and productivity in software development. A fact widely recognized is that the quality of the software product can be largely determined by the quality of the process used to develop and maintain it. The assessment of software process helps software organizations to improve themselves, identifying their critical problems to establish priorities for improvement. This assessment can take place by comparing the state of the organization on their software processes to a reference model that shows stages of improvement in scales. An assessment is usually based on a software process model that provides a roadmap for improvement. This work aims to establish an approach that: (i) defines a set of abstraction models (metamodels) of software process maturity models to support an assessment/improvement methodology aiming software process certification; and (ii) evaluates the organization processes in comparison with the maturity models through transformations of those metamodels. The approach is instantiated through a case study using the MPS.Br and CMMI models to illustrate its application. As a result, a comparison between the limitations found in the methodologies identified in the literature and how the approach suggested overcome them is presented.

The scope of this thesis is the field of business process modeling and additionally the usability of business process models in areas like conceptual analysis of IS/ICT, business process reengineering and business process management. For the purpose of evaluation of the usability of current standards for business process modeling, an framework for comparison of various characteristics of these standards is proposed. This thesis has two aims. Primarily, to develop an approach for evaluation of business process modeling standards, and as a secondary aim, to apply this evaluation model onto a set of selected standards for business process modeling and thus perform a comparison of these standards. The evaluation model has two main components. The first part is to create a set of characteristics which represent two existing points of view onto the exploitability business process modeling (e.g. during the development of IS/ICT and during BPR/BPM1). During the identification of particular characteristics, a research into the related literature and other sources has been performed to provide a sufficient basis for this activity. The second part of the developed approach is to the application of PEMM (Process & Enterprise Maturity Model), which was developed by Dr. M. Hammer for the purpose os auditing the maturity of business processes. Both of these parts are then put together into one evaluation framework. Based on information gathered from the respective specifications of particular standards, related literature and articles, we've performed an application of this evaluation framework on three standards for business process modeling: EPC, BPMN and IDEF3. The benefits of this thesis could be seen as a creation of a very own approach for evaluation of business process modeling standards. Additionally by performing the comparison of these three standards for business process modeling we've created a guideline which could be there fore applied by the potential reader during the decision making of what standard to use for business process modeling (in the context of expected purpose of this modeling).

Die Globalisierung und digitale Transformation stellen wesentliche Treiber organisationaler Veränderungsprozesse von Unternehmen dar. Neue Möglichkeiten der Zusammenarbeit und Arbeitsgestaltung für geografisch unabhängige Arbeit innerhalb eines Unternehmens entstehen (Kock, 2008). Die COVID-19-Pandemie wirkt hierbei als Katalysator und beschleunigt die Veränderung der Art der Zusammenarbeit innerhalb von Unternehmen (Kniffin et al., 2021). Damit Unternehmen neue Arbeitsweisen, wie die kollaborative Arbeit über online Medien, erfolgreich umsetzen können, bedarf es geeigneter Instrumente zur Erfolgsbewertung und Steuerung (Möller et al., 2020). Ein geeignetes Instrument stellen Reifegradmodelle (RM) dar (Reeb et al., 2021), wobei bereits unterschiedliche Modelle zur Steuerung von online, kollaborativer Arbeit existieren (Alonso et al., 2010; Boughzala & Vreede, 2012; Su et al., 2017). ... [Aus: Einleitung]

В данной работе проводится разработка методических подходов и рекомендаций для повышения уровня зрелости компаний в области управления проектами. / In this paper, methodological approaches and recommendations are being developed to increase the level of maturity of companies in the field of project management.

Many low-income countries desire to implement and adopt digital government as a springboard for economic and social development but face many challenges. The United Nations identifies that Africa has especially lagged consistently in digital government development and adoption. Most scholars largely attribute the challenges to infrastructure and skills, and often rhetorically cite culture as playing a strong role. This study specifically examined the role of indigenous African culture (‘spirituality’, ‘communalism’ and ‘respect for authority and elders’) and internet access on the adoption of digital government services (e-filing and e-payment of taxes) by Small and Micro Enterprises (SMEs) in Zambia, with the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technologies (UTAUT) as the underpinning theoretical lens. Data analysis was done using Structural Equation Modelling with principal attention given to the moderating and mediating influence of indigenous African culture. The influence of internet access on the intention to adopt digital government was also examined. The findings from the cross sectional study of 401 tax registered SMEs suggests that ‘spirituality’, ‘African communalism’ and ‘respect for authority and elders’ have significant negative moderating effects on the adoption of e-filing but not on e-payment; and ‘spirituality’, ‘African communalism’ and ‘respect for authority and elders’ are all significant mediators of the intention to adopt both e-filing and e-payment. This means that indigenous African culture plays a significant role in explaining Africa’s position in digital government development and adoption. The findings also showed a negative influence of internet access on the intention to adopt digital government services despite the measures that government has put in place. These results make a novel contribution to Information Systems (IS) theory in identifying a critical yet often overlooked indigenous cultural influence on the adoption of digital innovations in low-income countries. The findings also calls for finding new or adapted IS theories that take into account such unique cultural constructs. The thesis recommends that the research is extended to other low-income countries as well as other contexts that exhibit strong indigenous cultural values. / School of Computing / Ph. D. (Information Systems)