This research examines pluralist practice, the combination of methodologies based in different paradigms. Two paradigms are discussed throughout this research, referred to as the hard and soft paradigms. The hard paradigm is commonly associated with positivism and quantitative data, while the soft paradigm is commonly associated with interpretivism and qualitative data. These two paradigms present considerably different perspectives on the world, and methodologies based on these paradigms tend to place different emphases on research and practice. The combination of methodologies from different paradigms presents a number of problems for practice. These include the problem of paradigmatic incommensurability and issues related to practitioner skill diversity, and difficulties in reconciling the different perspectives that are brought to a situation by different methodologies. This research explores pluralist practice through the combination of Project Management and Soft Systems Methodology, methodologies which are based on the hard and soft paradigms respectively. The combination of these methodologies is informed by aspects of the Critical Systems Thinking literature, and based on the Embedding model for pluralism. The combination of these methodologies is explored in the context of an IS / IT strategy development project, in the NSW public sector. This project was set within an environment typified by changing stakeholder relationships, abstractly defined and changing goals, and a variety of external influences which altered throughout the course of the project. A combination of Project Management and Soft Systems Methodology, based on the Embedding model for pluralism, was used in the management of this project, and resulted in a project which is demonstrated to have provided lasting benefit to the organisation. This is participative, practice based research, and Action Research has been used as the research methodology for this thesis. Action Research has been chosen as a way of linking theory and practice, allowing for the simultaneous development of theory and practice, through cycles of active reflection. The interpretation of research findings has been informed by hermeneutic philosophies. Learning outcomes resulting from this research predominantly relate to the combination of Project Management and Soft Systems Methodology, based on the Embedding model. Findings relate to how the problem of paradigmatic incommensurability affects pluralist practice, issues related to the use of tools and techniques governed by paradigms other than that for which they were designed, and specific adaptations that were made in suiting Project Management and Soft Systems Methodology to the needs of the project environment.

No description available.

This research examines pluralist practice, the combination of methodologies based in different paradigms. Two paradigms are discussed throughout this research, referred to as the hard and soft paradigms. The hard paradigm is commonly associated with positivism and quantitative data, while the soft paradigm is commonly associated with interpretivism and qualitative data. These two paradigms present considerably different perspectives on the world, and methodologies based on these paradigms tend to place different emphases on research and practice. The combination of methodologies from different paradigms presents a number of problems for practice. These include the problem of paradigmatic incommensurability and issues related to practitioner skill diversity, and difficulties in reconciling the different perspectives that are brought to a situation by different methodologies. This research explores pluralist practice through the combination of Project Management and Soft Systems Methodology, methodologies which are based on the hard and soft paradigms respectively. The combination of these methodologies is informed by aspects of the Critical Systems Thinking literature, and based on the Embedding model for pluralism. The combination of these methodologies is explored in the context of an IS / IT strategy development project, in the NSW public sector. This project was set within an environment typified by changing stakeholder relationships, abstractly defined and changing goals, and a variety of external influences which altered throughout the course of the project. A combination of Project Management and Soft Systems Methodology, based on the Embedding model for pluralism, was used in the management of this project, and resulted in a project which is demonstrated to have provided lasting benefit to the organisation. This is participative, practice based research, and Action Research has been used as the research methodology for this thesis. Action Research has been chosen as a way of linking theory and practice, allowing for the simultaneous development of theory and practice, through cycles of active reflection. The interpretation of research findings has been informed by hermeneutic philosophies. Learning outcomes resulting from this research predominantly relate to the combination of Project Management and Soft Systems Methodology, based on the Embedding model. Findings relate to how the problem of paradigmatic incommensurability affects pluralist practice, issues related to the use of tools and techniques governed by paradigms other than that for which they were designed, and specific adaptations that were made in suiting Project Management and Soft Systems Methodology to the needs of the project environment.

Programs are not only a tool for the simplification or automation of everyday tasks; they also represent a significant time and money investment. A program's life may span years, or even decades, which creates certain risks for the stakeholders involved. To mitigate the risks associated with these legacy systems, software renovation can be undertaken. Software renovation can be described as a series of processes and/or tools used to modernize a legacy system, thereby preserving and maintaining the investment it represents while decreasing the risks associated with it. In this thesis, the focus is on renovation of software created by in-house development. A series of case studies will be examined to demonstrate basic renovation strategies, including the formation of goals for a renovation and exploring trade-offs between robustness, performance, and usability.

No abstract available

[Abstract]: The vast majority of present legacy information systems were implemented using the traditional paradigm. The traditional paradigm consists of modeling techniques used by system analysts such as System Flow Charts and Data Flow Diagrams (DFD) to capture, during the analysis phase, the activities within a system.However, with recent developments, particularly trends towards e-Commerce applications, platform independence, reusability of pre-built components, capacity for reconfiguration and higher reliability, many organizations are realizing they will need to re-engineer their systems into new component based systems that meet thesetrends given the limitations of legacy systems to adapt to these new technical requirements.There is a high degree of interest and concern in establishing whether or not a full migration to a more portable and scalable component-based architecture will be able to represent the legacy business requirements in the underlying requirements model of the re-engineered information systems.As a result, this study poses the question: Is the resulting component-based requirements model ontological equivalent to the legacy requirements model whenshifting paradigms in the re-engineering process?After a literature review, the research study is justified given the differences in requirements modeling between component-based and traditional paradigms, whichgive an indication that the resulting component model might not represent the same business requirements represented in the legacy system requirements model.The study evaluated the requirements models generated by the component-based and traditional approaches when shifting paradigms in the re-engineering process inorder to verify that the re-engineered component-based requirements model was capable of representing the same business requirements of the legacy system. Design science and an ontological evaluation using the Bunge-Wand-Weber(BWW) model were the central research methodologies for this study.A legacy system was selected as part of the case study and re-engineered by using the component-based paradigm with the help of UML diagrams. The requirements model of the legacy system was recovered using reverse engineering and compared to the component-based requirements model using normalized reference models generated with the help of BWW transformation maps. These maps revealed that there-engineered requirements models were capable of representing the same business requirements of the legacy system. A set of rules was suggested when reengineeringlegacy into component-based information systems to ensure the same representation of legacy system’s requirements in the re-engineered requirements model.Finally, this research included directions of future research that put emphasis on the development of automated software tools for systems re-engineering that couldimplement the rules suggested in this study and the ontological methodology approach used.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Dept. of Sociology, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 292-307). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 292-307). Also available on the Internet.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Durban-Westville, 1986.