The thesis is focused on cooperation between academic and corporate sector, especially on participation of companies in classes and courses at universities through involvement of their employees in teaching. The aim of this thesis is to analyze current ways of corporate sector involvement in practical parts of courses and to design proposals for possible improvements to the current practices used at The Faculty of Informatics and Statistics of The University of Economics, Prague. Analysis was conducted by application of Theory of systems (General System Theory), Soft System Methodology and business process modeling (using BPMN). Based on the conclusions of the analysis three alternatives for possible improvement in the field are specified, two of them are recommended for implementation. Alternatives recommended for implementation are described in greater detail including process design and description and specification of requirements for technical, financial and human resources.

Hamad Medical Corporation, the main healthcare provider in the state of Qatar, sponsored this study to investigate the use of electronic records management as the basis for a novel information management system in its Nursing Department. To assess the viability of an electronic records management system a questionnaire survey of a representative sample of the staff and interviews with key post holders were under taken. Results obtained indicated a wide spread dissatisfaction with the existing manual system. However, introduction of any computer-based technology requires great care. To assist with identifying any issues with this technological change, Soft System Methodology (SSM) was employed to discern what changes could be made to improve the current problematic situation found in the Nursing Department. In fact the change archetypes uncovered (procedural, attitudinal, structural and cultural) formed an innovative input into obtaining a roadmap for development of the electronic staff records system. This roadmap was facilitated by the use of Nominal Group Technique (NGT) and Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM): In fact the roadmap was an ISM intent structure. The roadmap suggested that change could be affected by having written policy documents and the top goal to be achieved reflected an improvement in manpower placing and budgetary forecasts. The use of a multi-methods approach meant that as well as this study's main objectives being reached, the process encompassed some methodological innovations. This study is the first to use the output of SSM to facilitate the NGT and ISM interactions. Equally, it is the first study of its sort to be applied to the Nursing Department at HMC, Qatar, which is an example of a cross-cultural eastern philosophical tradition. The methods used here revealed some significant findings, and have helped in the development of an electronic records management system for use at HMC, Qatar.

Hospital Information Systems (HIS) are considering a significant aspect for supporting health care professionals in their work. However, a large number of them are often poor to provide the needed information for accomplishing various work activities in the oriented environment. The aim of this research is to address users’-Administrators and Clinicians- perceptions in order to gain a deeper knowledge about problems they encounter with daily work performed through IS. Additionally, the scope is extended into formulating suggestions through the employment of Soft System Methodology (SSM) that could bring improvements. A qualitative interpretive method with an inductive analysis was followed. Data collection completed through focus group interview sessions and the adoption of SSM three activities in order to acquire the complexity of the problem situation.   Research findings revealed that despite IS Lisora serves as a tool for supporting users work operations, it causes significant problems in their daily operations since the information flow are not feasible. Thus, the research study suggests five feasible and desirable improvements that could improve the overall processes followed by the hospital’s users and bring improvements. In all, SSM was proved to be very efficient in identifying problems that exist. In this way proposed solutions to the problems were enlightened. The general hospital of Preveza shall benefit from the higher efficiency offered by the system, which in turn shall improve the quality of health-care services offered.

This diploma thesis applies the principles of systemic thinking to the current web design process. It focuses on dealing with the issues related to conflicts and diversity of opinions among individual members of the team working on web design. In the theoretical part, this thesis deals with topic areas and activities relevant for modern approach to web design and the overall role of the user during the design process. In the practical part, the team responsible for web design is viewed as a soft complex system, to which Checklands soft system methodology is applied as a problem-solving tool.

This study explores stakeholder analysis and requirements engineering within an agile project at a system development company requesting a case management system. Stakeholder analysis is commonly explored in traditional project planning studies, such as the waterfall model. In agile projects, on the other hand, it is not common to have a project-planning phase or to carry out a stakeholder analysis, often due to that a stakeholder analysis entail a long and extensive documentation. Our study explores how Soft Systems Methodology can be used in an agile project-planning phase as well as how rich pictures from the SSM support requirements engineering. The study is based on an agile method in which the project-planning phase is expected to deliver a product log, and hence a requirements list. Requirements are collected, modelled and validated together with users in the form of user stories where role, goals and purpose are expressed in a sentence. Stakeholders and roles are identified and analyzed using methods in Soft Systems Methodology, like "finding-out" analyses. The result is then presented in so called rich pictures of the current situation and in a future desired situation. The data collection is carried out together with informants at the case company in the form of observations and semi-structured interviews. The result of the study indicates how rich pictures from SSM can support the start-up of an agile project. / Denna studie utforskar intressentanalys och kravinsamling inom ett agilt projekt på ett systemutvecklingsföretag som efterfrågar ett ärendehanteringssystem. Intressentanalyser är vanligt förekommande och utforskade i traditionella förstudier så som enligt vattenfallsmodellen. I agila projekt är det däremot vanligt att en förstudie inte utförs eller att förstudien inte innehåller en intressentanalys, ofta på grund av att intressentanalyser innebär lång och omfattande dokumentation. Vår studie utforskar hur Soft Systems Methodology kan användas i en agil förstudie samt hur rika bilder från SSM stöttar kravhantering. Studien utgår från an agil metod där förstudien förväntas leverera en produktlogg, där studiens fysiska bidrag blir en kravlista. Krav samlas in, modelleras samt valideras tillsammans med användare i formen av användarhistorier där roll, mål och syfte uttrycks i en mening. Intressenter och roller identifieras och analyseras med hjälp av metoder inom Soft Systems Methodology, som exempelvis ”finding out”-analys. Resultatet presenteras därefter i så kallade rika bilder över nuvarande situation samt i en framtida önskad situation. Datainsamlingen görs tillsammans med informanter på ett fallföretag i form av observationer och semistrukturerade intervjuer. Utfallet av studien visar hur den rika bilden från SSM kan stödja uppstarten av ett agilt projekt.

Záměrem předložené disertační práce je porozumět tomu, jak investoři v konkrétním společenském kontextu vnímají význam kvality informačních systémů. Ze studia literatury zabývající se přístupy a rámci hodnocení kvality informačních systémů vyplývá, že tato kvalita je obecně hodnocena z hlediska striktního přístupu. V této práci je ukázáno, že kvalitu informačního systému lze smysluplně pochopit použitím interpretačního paradigmatu a že kvalita informačního systému je definována společensky a ovlivňována kontextem tohoto systému. Studie byla zahájena průzkumem dvaceti libyjských organizací. Podrobnější data byla získána z případové studie dvou vybraných libyjských organizací působících ve veřejném sektoru. Při empirické analýze nashromážděných dat bylo využito rámce mnohočetné perspektivy, který zahrnuje hlediska teorie strukturalizace, pojem mnohočetných perspektiv a metodologii měkkých systémů. V práci se dospělo ke zjištění, že: a) kvalita informačních systémů je pojata šíře, než je tomu u tradiční definice kvality, b) mnohočetné perspektivy kvality informačních systémů jsou ovlivněny opakovanou interakcí mezi investorem a institucionálními vlastnostmi kontextu informačního systému a že c) rozdílné hodnoty v kulturním prostředí a vnějším kontextu ovlivňují rozsah působnosti investora a interakce v kontextu informačního systému. Ze závěru práce vyplývá, že společenská skladba mnohočetných perspektiv kvality informačního systému je ovlivněna strukturalizačními procesy mezi investory a vlastnostmi v kontextu informačního systému.