Remotely piloted aircraft and the people that control them are changing how the US military operates aircraft and those who fly, yet few know what "drone" operators actually do, why they do what they do, or how they shape and reflect remote air warfare and human-machine relationships. What do the remote operators and intelligence personnel know during missions to "protect and avenge" coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and how do they go about knowing what they know? In an ethnographic and historical analysis of the Air Force's preeminent weapon system for the counterinsurgencies in the two countries, this study describes how social, technical, and cognitive factors mutually constitute remote air operations in war. Armed with perspectives and methods developed in the fields of the history of technology, sociology of technology, and cognitive anthropology, the author, an Air Force fighter pilot, describes how distributed crews represent, transform, and propagate information to find and kill targets and traces the observed human and machine interactions to policy assumptions, professional identities, employment concepts, and technical tools. In doing so, he shows how the people, practices, and machines associated with remotely piloted aircraft have been oriented to and conditioned by trust in automation, experience, skill, and social interactions and how they have influenced and reflected the evolving operational environment, encompassing organizations, and communities of practice. / by Timothy M. Cullen. / Thesis (Ph. D. in Technology, Management, and Policy)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology, Management, and Policy Program, 2011. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 290-298).

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The scope of requirements engineering must include high-level business objectives and strategies to achieve traceability between IT and business needs in order to ensure alignment. B-SCP handles this issue effectively. However, we must also deal with the evolution of business strategy operationlised in business processes and supporting it. MAP, goal/strategy modelling technique handles such evolution effectively. Integration of MAP with B-SCP can help us to address deficiency of addressing requirements evolution in the B-SCP framework. This thesis presents the first steps in a research project that integrates the requirements engineering methodologies, B-SCP and MAP, in order to manage evolution of strategic IT. Semantic similarities between B-SCP and MAP motivate us to combine both techniques. The integration theory results in three alternative mechanisms through which we can connect MAP with B-SCP. The usefulness of the three mechanisms is tested on two exemplars -- small one and detailed one. These mechanisms have advantages and disadvantages depending upon the complexity of the business system. MAP has a Gap Analysis process inbuilt so this saves on the overhead of inventing a new approach. In addition, MAP also extends B-SCP's capability by the addition of non-deterministic process modelling which allows B-SCP framework to offer multiple views of requirements. During the integration process, we encountered a number of issues. One important was that B-SCP identifies goals as a snapshot in time which are aligned hierarchically from higher level model to lower level model, however MAP identifies processes that strive to achieve goals and do not provide alignment between different levels of MAPs. This was a challenging issue to deal with during the integration.

Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Auburn University, 2006. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographic references (p.140-150).

D. Ing. / The key objective of this thesis is clearly stated in its comprehensive title. In today’s fast moving, turbulent and highly competitive world, high tech companies and engineering-based organizations struggle possibly more than other businesses with the seemingly irrational, analogical events when most people in such organizations are rational, highly analytical persons. Value creation is one of the key objectives of modern high tech companies. Hence, the achievement of this ideal within the constraints and consideration of a myriad of factors requires a different approach and implies an ongoing transformation process which is not always based on rational aspects alone. If such a transformation is to be sustainable and takes place in a globally competitive framework, the approach has to be holistic and it has to consider many additional factors which tend to be considered as soft in the analytical world of high tech. The thesis formulates a management and leadership model which includes both the soft and hard factors in a comprehensive and collaborative manner. The model lends itself to understand and judiciously manipulate the dynamics of the high tech global business environment for sustained competitive advantage. The model recognizes and enables the manager and leader to address the many issues confronting them daily by giving a new strategic perspective with the help of sub-models. These sub-models form the anchors whereby a complex situation can be managed reasonably, effectively and hopefully wisely too. The suggested model is to a large degree independent of time and industry-space and is considered valid for a long time to come. Although aimed at providing a guideline at executive level of management in the high tech environment the suggested model is by no means limited to engineering nor is it limited to high tech companies. The framework and model anchors developed, are equally valid in other complexity-prone industries as can be confirmed by the author’s wide international practical experience in a number of industries, from Banking, Service provides, Health Systems, e-commerce, Petro-Chemical and others.

M.Tech. / Project and programme management have become important organisational developments in today’s business environment. The growth in projects across different sectors and industries, and their capability to enable organisations to cope with change in order to remain in business has emphasised the importance of project, programme and portfolio activities. Although project management has provided a means of achieving goals that could not be achieved in traditional ways, the single project model has failed to address issues that arise when multiple and related projects are undertaken within an organisation. Programme management has then provided a means through which organisations achieve almost everything they undertake. It has been perceived as the strategy implementation vehicle that links the overall strategy of the organisation with the portfolio of projects. While the use of programmes and programme management has grown in organisations, its capability to secure the investment of corporation has not been proven. Numerous failure stories with dramatic consequences for the corporation as a whole have been reported. With the pace of new regulations that require the appropriate and responsible management of company affairs, considering the huge investment that corporations place in programmes, it has become important to devise an efficient and effective mechanism of overseeing these investments. This research addresses the need to improve programme performance and ensure compliance with corporate policies. It focus on the governance side to determine how IT programmes can be governed while making sure that there is enough established control responsibility and accountability to ensure the achievement of the programme strategic objectives. This has been addressed by identifying corporate, information technology and project governance requirements that have implications for IT programme management. This had led to the consolidation of implications identified from the Sarbanes Oxley Act, Control Objective for Information and Related Technology and the Guide to Governance of Project Management in order to provide an integrated view of overseeing the management of programmes. The value of the research is that it has devised a conceptual framework for IT programme management governance that provides a means to ensure both programme performance and compliance to governance requirements that pertain to corporations. The value of the framework is that it contains governance requirements that ensure an efficient and effective decision-making and delivery management, focused on achieving programme goals in a consistent manner while addressing appropriate risks, issues and events that can impede the programme outcome.

Today, organisations rely on IT systems which are constantly expected to improve return on investment without an increase in costs. These expectations have resulted in greater importance of the use and management of IT resources. In light of this increased importance of IT management, organisations turned towards frameworks, such as COBIT and ITIL, to better manage their IT resources. Although both frameworks have gained remarkable popularity, there is a lack of detailed information regarding their interrelation within an organisation. This creates a problem where an organisation that has implemented ITIL is unable to determine the level of COBIT compliance. Without being able to determine the level of compliance, it is not possible to ensure that the business requirements for information are being met therefore preventing an organisation from ensuring that their business objectives are achieved. The goal of this dissertation is to establish, from a security perspective, a Model that links COBIT and ITIL together on a detailed level to show their interrelation within an organisation and to provide a means of determining COBIT compliance through the use of the ITIL framework. This will effectively bridge the gap between IT Governance and IT Service Management. Before being able to develop such a Model, it was necessary to first link the COBIT and ITIL frameworks to show that such a Model can be developed. It was possible to establish such a link between COBIT and ITIL as both frameworks are based on a similar process. This is followed by determining the overlap between the security components of COBIT and ITIL. The results indicate that ITIL is insufficient to address all the security aspects of COBIT and additional control measures were required. These control measures werefound in an external framework and integrated into ITIL to complete the overlap. The completed overlap allowed for full COBIT compliance through the use of the ITIL with the additional control measures. The complete overlap between COBIT and ITIL allowed for the development of a framework that showed the interrelation between the security aspects of COBIT and ITIL within an organisation. This framework was then used as a foundation to develop a process of determining COBIT compliance using ITIL. This process of determining COBIT compliance was validated through the development of a software prototype. The framework and the process of determining COBIT compliance constitute the required Model which can be used to solve the identified problem. This dissertation also provides a strong platform for further research involving the areas of IT Governance and IT Service Management. It provides research topics into linking other parts of COBIT and ITIL that are not security related. The process of determining COBIT compliance can also be extended to function with other operational frameworks. This dissertation has also discovered an interesting relationship that exists within the COBIT frameworks. / Prof. Labuschagne

M.Tech. / The question whether risk management contributes to project success is considered relevant considering the long history and high rates of failure in Information Technology (IT) projects. Much work and research has been done to investigate the relationship between risk management and project success but very few studies provide empirical evidence to substantiate the claims made on the relationship between these two concepts. Poor risk management has been associated with project failure while the question whether good risk management results in project success still cannot be unequivocally answered. The goal of this study is therefore to investigate the implications of project risk management maturity on project success in the South African telecommunications industry. To achieve the goal of this research a literature review was carried out to unearth the research questions relevant to this study. A survey questionnaire was compiled and sent out to IT project managers in the telecommunications industry in Gauteng, South Africa. The questionnaire gathered quantitative data from a purposive sample large enough to produce the results needed for this research. The questionnaire evaluated the risk management maturity of organisations in the telecommunications industry. It also determined definitions of project success that are prevalent in the industry and ranked factors that influence project outcomes. Furthermore, the questionnaire set out to establish current IT project success and failure rates in the telecommunications industry. This data was then analysed and conclusions drawn about risk management maturity and project success. Recommendations to the telecommunications industry were made based on the findings of the data analysis. The purpose of a literature study in this research was to provide clarity and focus for the research problem. It also broadened the researcher’s knowledge about the specific research area, thus allowing the researcher to become acquainted with the available body of knowledge regarding why and how risk management is associated with project success or failure. The quantitative research approach was used as it is on the basis of quantitative data that a correlation between risk management maturity and project success can be determined. A survey questionnaire was used as it provided anonymity, confidentiality and ease of administration. The findings of the research indicate that risk management maturity in the telecommunications industry is low. Organisations that claim higher levels of risk management maturity also have higher rates of IT project success. However this correlation is not significant when the responses are considered out of the organisational context. This is an indication that the organisational environment plays a role in determining project outcomes. The delivery of business benefits and customer satisfaction are more important than the traditional view of measuring project success by time, budget and scope/quality. Furthermore, communication within the project team and between team members and the customer has been found to be necessary for the delivery of successful IT projects. The improvement of risk management practices increases the chances of project success. Organisational effort in improving risk management practices does yield positive project outcomes. This research highlights areas for further investigation in the study of the relationship between risk management and project success.

The research focused on dissatisfaction with explanations of Information Technology (IT) value. IT’s business potential and the high levels of IT investment have put IT under the management spotlight. Management typically asks: “What is the contribution of our IT investments to improving our corporate strategy and business leverage?” or “How can we monitor the progress and performance of investments, in order to identify improvement actions?” Managers are, however, dissatisfied with explanations of IT value, because attempts to demonstrate the link between IT investments and business performance have produced mixed results. The research objective required the development of a framework as a step towards understanding dissatisfaction with IT value. Three case studies were used that resulted in a concluding theory consisting of a framework, a set of hypotheses describing the relationships between the elements of the framework and a pattern of conditions under which there is dissatisfaction with explanations of IT value. The theory clarifies dissatisfaction with explanations of IT value: IT is on management’s agenda due to its track record; high spending on IT; the need to exploit IT and dissatisfaction with available explanations of IT value. An outcome of this is a concern about IT’s value. Management’s concern is conditioned by factors such as their levels of comfort with IT; the business/IT relationship and management’s mindset about IT as a business resource. The concern becomes a need to control IT which requires an effective IT evaluation process in turn. Steps to ensure an effective IT evaluation process need to address the availability of alternative IT evaluation methods; the mindset about IT evaluation; flaws in IT evaluation methods; problems with defining IT value as well as IT benefits and costs complications. As a result, explanations of IT value may not be satisfactory. IT will then remain on the management agenda and management will continue to be concerned about IT value. The theory indicates two broad strategies to overcome or avoid dissatisfaction with explanations of IT value. The first strategy is to fully understand the reasons for management’s concern about IT value as well as to recognize those conditions that could influence concerns about the value of IT. The second strategy is to ensure an effective IT evaluation process by specifically addressing those factors or conditions that could impact on the effectiveness of the IT evaluation process. / Thesis (DCom (Informatics))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Informatics / unrestricted

No abstract provided. Chapter one (10 pages) will be helpful for an overview / Dissertation (MCom (Business Management))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Business Management / unrestricted