Business-IT alignment has been a top research topic for three decades now and consistently ranks high on CIO priorities and concerns. In spite of its seeming advantages, sustainable business-IT alignment remains elusive in practice. This can be attributed to the language and knowledge gaps which impede mutual understanding between business and IT stakeholders. It can also be attributed to the limitations imposed by approaching alignment solely from a strategic perspective. This thesis argues for an ontology-based framework that bridges the language and knowledge gaps through closer interaction between business and IT stakeholders throughout the software development and project management lifecycles, especially at the requirements engineering stage. Attempts at achieving sustainable business-IT alignment predominantly focus on strategic alignment and have not been successful for various reasons. Firstly, driving down alignment initiatives to the operational and tactical levels is challenging. Secondly, it is difficult to operationalize the metrics used for evaluating alignment maturity at strategic levels. These limitations are less pronounced at the functional levels of an organization. It is at these levels that business strategies are executed and interaction between business and IT personnel is most frequent. The interaction between business and IT stakeholders in the execution of IT projects presents an opportunity that can be leveraged to drive alignment maturity. The proposed framework is discussed in terms of its underpinning hypotheses, workflows, tool design and implementation, its use with a third party framework and tool. Antecedents to operational and tactical alignment such as quality, reuse, communication, learning, and shared understanding, are proposed as a practical means of achieving sustainable alignment maturity. The framework is applied to real world, business-critical projects in a top global financial services organization and validated using descriptive statistical analysis and structural equation modelling techniques. Contributions made through the study are highlighted. This includes the Alignment Forces Model which unifies the proposed framework and its support tool within software development and project management lifecycles. The Alignment Forces model and how it can be applied in practice is presented. Results of the quantitative data analyses indicate support for the arguments for the framework towards improving business-IT alignment, however with some limitations. Results also indicate support for the hypotheses for the antecedents to sustainable alignment maturity at lower organizational levels put forward. Finally, suggestions on furthering the study, addressing its limitations, and refining the framework and tool are articulated.

Title – Incorporating Sustainability in The Strategic Management Process of The Business: A Case Study on Martin & Servera Purpose – In sustainability literature why a business should integrate sustainability in the strategies and activities has been well established, but the question of how is not yet widely explored. The purpose of the study is to investigate empirically, how companies can integrate sustainability into their core of the business through the strategic management process with the help of a case study. Design/methodology/approach – Qualitative research method has been used in this single case study using both primary and secondary data. Primary data was collected through semi-structured interviews with some of the key personnel of the case company. Findings – Empirical findings show that the company should follow a structured and systematic process to incorporate sustainability in the strategic management process of the company. This starts with defining the long-term sustainability goals which are shaped up by the corporate principles and internal and external factors. During the implementation of the strategies, strong polices and process helps companies to embed sustainability in the organizational culture and measuring sustainability performance against set KPIs guides company to evaluate its contribution towards sustainability. Research limitations/implications – Single case study and only qualitative data analysis are the major limitations of the study, furthermore, COVIC – 19  has severely impacted the planned data collection. Originality/value – This study presents a conceptual framework to incorporate sustainability in the strategies and activities through the strategic management process of the company and then tested that with empirical findings.

The purpose of my research is to contribute to the field of forecasting from a methodological perspective as well as to the field of crude oil as an application area to test the performance of my methodological contributions and assess their merits. In sum, two main methodological contributions are presented. The first contribution consists of proposing a mathematical programming based approach, commonly referred to as Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), as a multidimensional framework for relative performance evaluation of competing forecasting models or methods. As opposed to other performance measurement and evaluation frameworks, DEA allows one to identify the weaknesses of each model, as compared to the best one(s), and suggests ways to improve their overall performance. DEA is a generic framework and as such its implementation for a specific relative performance evaluation exercise requires a number of decisions to be made such as the choice of the units to be assessed, the choice of the relevant inputs and outputs to be used, and the choice of the appropriate models. In order to present and discuss how one might adapt this framework to measure and evaluate the relative performance of competing forecasting models, we first survey and classify the literature on performance criteria and their measures – including statistical tests – commonly used in evaluating and selecting forecasting models or methods. In sum, our classification will serve as a basis for the operationalisation of DEA. Finally, we test DEA performance in evaluating and selecting models to forecast crude oil prices. The second contribution consists of proposing a Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) based approach as a multidimensional framework for relative performance evaluation of the competing forecasting models or methods. In order to present and discuss how one might adapt such framework, we first revisit MCDA methodology, propose a revised methodological framework that consists of a sequential decision making process with feedback adjustment mechanisms, and provide guidelines as to how to operationalise it. Finally, we adapt such a methodological framework to address the problem of performance evaluation of competing forecasting models. For illustration purposes, we have chosen the forecasting of crude oil prices as an application area.

During the last decades, the dependency on software has increased. Many of today’s modern devices embed software to control their functions. The increasing dependency has also taken part in shaping the software development process to produce better quality software. Many researchers and practitioners have spent large investments to improve the software development process. A research area within software engineering that addresses the assessment and improvement issues in development processes is called Software Process Improvement (SPI). One of the essential aspects in software process improvement is measuring the outcome of the implemented changes. The measurement and evaluation of software process improvement provides the means for the organization to articulate the achievement level of their goals. Although the importance of measuring and evaluating the outcome of software process improvement is paramount, there exist no common guidelines or systematic methods of measuring and evaluating the improvement. This condition evokes difficulties for practitioners to implement software process improvement measurement programs. This issue has raised the challenge to develop and implement an effective framework for measuring and evaluating the outcome of software process improvement initiatives. This thesis presents a measurement and evaluation framework for software process improvement. SPI-MEF provides guidelines in the form of systematic steps to evaluate the outcome of software process improvement. The framework is based on key concepts which were elaborated in previous work. In this thesis, a validation of SPI-MEF is also conducted by involving representatives from academia and industry. The validation is aimed to judge the frameworks’ usability, applicability and usefulness. Finally, a refinement of the framework is carried out based on the input from the validation.

Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 184 pages. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: This experimental study used eight written vignettes to analyze the effects of professor gender, professor leadership style (democratic/autocratic), and type of situation (task/personal) and participant gender on evaluations of professors&softsign; competence, likeability and masculinity characteristics. Undergraduates from the College of Arts and Science (N=932; Males=464, Females=467), and the College of Education (N=722; Males=140, Females=582) were used. Results indicated that research participants rated democratic professors significantly more competent, likeable, and more feminine than autocratic professors. / ABSTRACT: Contrary to expectations derived from gender spill-over and gender congruency theories, male participants did not rate female professors more negatively than their male counterparts when they acted autocratically in a personal situation (i.e., gender incongruent manner.) Exploratory results revealed trends that are discussed along with theoretical and practical implications. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Aktionskräfte stellen wesentliche Risikofaktoren für die Entstehung von Erkrankungen im Finger-, Hand- und Armbereich dar. Daher ist die Erfassung und Analyse von Aktionskräften ein wichtiger Bestandteil der ergonomischen Bewertung von Arbeitsplätzen. Zur Erfassung von Aktionskräften, insbesondere in der Automobilproduktion, existiert bisher jedoch weder eine einheitliche noch eine systematische Vorgehensweise. Es mangelt an konkreten Forschungserkenntnissen über den Messaufbau, die Messdurchführung und die Messauswertung von Kraftfällen. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird deshalb ein erster Schritt unternommen, um die Erfassung von Aktionskräften auf Basis wissenschaftlich gestützter Erkenntnisse zu standardisieren. Hierzu werden insgesamt vier empirische Untersuchungen (zwei Vorstudien und zwei empirische Laborstudien) durchgeführt. In der ersten Studie (Kapitel 4) erfolgt eine Identifizierung der vorhandenen Arten von Kraftaufwendungen in verschiedenen Fertigungsbereichen der Automobilproduktion im Rahmen einer Dokumentenanalyse. In der zweiten Studie (Kapitel 5) wird der bedeutendste Fertigungsbereich ausgewählt, um darin eine Auszählung der Kraftaufwendungen anhand einer standardisierten Beobachtung definierter Arbeitsprozesse durchzuführen. Die dritte Untersuchung (Kapitel 6) ist als empirische Laborstudie konzipiert. Darin wird die technische Erfassung von Aktionskräften unter idealisierten Bedingungen ohne menschlichen Einfluss erprobt. In der vierten Untersuchung (Kapitel 7), ebenfalls als empirische Laborstudie konzipiert, werden spezifische Kraftaufwendungen im Labor systematisch durch Probanden nachgestellt und gemessen. Dabei wird das Vorgehen zur Durchführung und Auswertung von praxisnahen Kraftmessungen unter menschlichem Einfluss evaluiert. Die Erkenntnisse der Arbeit helfen dabei, bestehende Forschungsdefizite aufzuarbeiten und zu beheben. Sie stellen ferner eine Handlungshilfe für betriebliche Kraftanalysen sowie eine Orientierung für zukünftige Forschungsarbeiten dar. / Action forces have been identified as risk factors. Therefore, the collection and analysis of action forces is an essential part of the ergonomic evaluation. Up to now, there was a lack of a standardized and systematic approach to evaluate action forces, especially in the automotive production. Thus, in the present thesis a methodical approach is described to evaluate action forces systematically. The thesis is divided into four studies. The first study contains the identification of the variety of action forces in the different manufacturing areas of automotive production. The second study describes the detailed analysis of action forces in the assembly shop, which is the manufacturing area with the highest count of action forces in the automotive production. The third study describes the direct measurement of action forces in laboratory conditions. The action forces are applied by a testing machine. The fourth study consists of the direct measurement of action forces, which are applied by subjects. Thereby, the methodical approach to perform direct measurements has been evaluated. The findings of the thesis can be used as a guideline, to evaluate action forces in the automotive production. Also the findings highlight the potential for further research projects.

網路開放商業化以來，各式各樣的商機在網際網路上浮現，大小商家紛在網路上設立據點，或從事廣告、宣傳公司形象，或展示產品內容與產品功能，有的更進一步的設計能與消費者在網路上直接交易，我們概括性的稱之為電子商務。在電子商務的背後，各網站必須要有資料庫作支撐，才能有好的效率和服務。本研究以網際網路資料庫為探討主體，績效為探討目的。並主要以績效評估(Benchmark)理論為貫穿整個研究的基礎理論，一步步地建立適合網際網路資料庫及運算作績效評估的模型。並於模型完成後，予以程式化實作，並以所得數據作測試。 / A lot of business opportunity springs after commercial activities are officially allowed on Internet. The power and the potential of this market is represented by lots of web sites being set up. "Electronic Commerce" is coming to the whole world. However, it is the database supporting business web sites running that counts. Based upon the theory of benchmarking, we want to find out ways that we can know the performance of web database. After the model is set up and the workload is ready, an implementation is being made.

Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht die Leistungsfähigkeit von PV-Modulen in verschiedenen Fassadensystemen und beschreibt die Entwicklung eines Fassadenpaneels für Pfosten-Riegel-Fassaden, bei welchem die Modultemperatur durch die Integration von Phasenwechselmaterialien (PCM) reguliert wird, um einen höheren Wirkungsgrad zu erzielen.

Informationssäkerhet är ett ämnesområde som berör hur olika typer av information ska hanteras på ett säkert sätt. En av de större utmaningarna berör hur de individer som arbetar med informationssäkerhet ska förmås att följa de regler, riktlinjer och rutiner som etablerats. Studien syftar till att studera detta fenomen närmare, och framförallt undersöka det uppföljande arbetet som sker kring de insatser som görs. Det görs inom en kontext av offentliga organisationer. Forskningsfrågan är: Hur arbetar svenska offentliga organisationer med (1) efterlevnad av riktlinjer inom informationssäkerhet och (2) hur mäts eller utvärderas detta? Studiens empiri består av 10 semistrukturerade intervjuer med centralt placerade personer från olika offentliga organisationer, samtliga med ansvar för verksamhetens informationssäkerhet. Data har analyserats med hjälp av teoribildning om organisatoriska rutiner varvid tre övergripande teman har identifierats: säkerhetsarbete, förändring och utvärdering. Studiens diskussion klargör att eftersom arbetet med efterlevnad av informationssäkerhet till stor del handlar om att utveckla rutiner som svarar mot de organisatoriska behoven måste praktiken ges ett tydligt företräde framför teorin. Det är med andra ord nödvändigt att utvärderingar och mätningar utformas så att dessa ges möjlighet att fånga upp faktiska förhållanden och inte endast policyer och riktlinjer. / Information security is a field that describes how different types of information should be handled in a secure manner. One of the major challenges concerns how the individuals working with information security should be encouraged to follow the rules, guidelines and routines which have been established. The study aims to study this phenomenon more closely, and above all, to examine how the different efforts made are evaluated. This is done within the context of public organisations. The research question is: How do Swedish public organisations work with (1) compliance with information security guidelines and (2) how is this measured or evaluated? The study's empirical data consists of 10 semi-structured interviews with centrally located people from different public organisations, all of whom are responsible for the organisation's information security. The data has been analysed with the help of theory of organisational routines whereby three themes have been identified: security work, change, and evaluation.  The study's discussion clarifies that since information security compliance work is largely about developing routines that respond to organisational needs, practice must be given clear precedence over theory. In other words, it is essential that assessments and measurements are designed to capture actual conditions and not just policies and guidelines.

Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht die Leistungsfähigkeit von PV-Modulen in verschiedenen Fassadensystemen und beschreibt die Entwicklung eines Fassadenpaneels für Pfosten-Riegel-Fassaden, bei welchem die Modultemperatur durch die Integration von Phasenwechselmaterialien (PCM) reguliert wird, um einen höheren Wirkungsgrad zu erzielen.