Tesi sul tema "Business presentations – Computer programs"

The primary objective of this study was to determine which presentation format leads to better decision performance when the decision maker solving a problem of certain complexity is experiencing a certain level of time pressure.

This study was designed to determine the general volume of multi-image production in Dallas County, Texas from 1979 through 1981 as categorized by: the presentation, number of projectors utilized, and by relevant aspects of presentation with analysis of 85 respondents. The questionnaire yielded 633 variables in the computer analysis. The study revealed significant growth in multi-image production with the 1981 total being more than twice the 1979 total. 1988 consensus indicates that the multi-image use is dictated by the business climate. Having been adopted initially, it is retained by those who find it effective and a suitable medium for larger screens.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2002.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: After many years of speculation about the possible introduction of a capital gains tax in South Africa, the tax is finally with us. Coming on top of the move to a residence basis of taxation, the introduction of the capital gains tax will impose a massive burden on the limited, skilled administrative recourses available to taxpayers and the SARS alike. Amongst investors and even some professional financial advisors such as auditors and attorneys there still is confusion and not a lack of knowledge on CGT. Appropriate planning and structuring is seldom performed. The potential CGT liability escalates every year depending on the growth rate of the particular asset. CGT will therefor be an unavoidable and growing problem for investors. Planning for the CGT goes hand in hand with estate planning and requires decisions to be taken now. The purpose is to position and structure your portfolio to avoid or reduce future tax liability (CGT and estate duty). In this study an Excel program was developed in order to calculate CGT. The model (Estate Advisor) also has a decision function and can calculate and predict future CGT liability. The purpose of the model is to test the result of a range of decisions and assumptions quickly and accurately. This enables the investor to decide on entities and structures that would best suit his situation given the assets under his control. The Estate Advisor is a tool for producing different scenarios of future situations regarding CGT and estate duty. It helps the investor to investigate and consider different options regarding his investments with regard to CGT.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Na baie jare van onsekerheid en gissings omtrent die moontlike implementering van Kapitaalwinsbelasting in Suid-Afrika, is hierdie belasting finaal geïmplementeer deur die SAID. Die implementering van KWB val saam met die verskuiwing na "verblyf' as "bron" van inkomstebelasting. Tesame sal dit groot druk uitoefen op die beperkte administratiewe bronne wat aan die belasingbetaler en die SAID beskikbaar is. Tussen gewone beleggers en selfs ook tussen sommige professionele finansiële adviseurs (ouditeure en prokureurs) heers daar in 'n groot mate onsekerheid en onkundigheid met betrekking tot KWB. Die probleem is dat 'n ferm basis van kennis van KWB benodig word om in staat te wees om die berekeninge te doen. 'n Gevolg van hierdie situasie is dat dringend benodigde aandag nie altyd aan beleggers geskenk word nie. Die potensiële KWB aanspreeklikheid eskaleer elke jaar met die betrokke groeikoers van die onderliggende bate. KWB is dus 'n onafwendbare en groeiende realiteit vir beleggers. Die beplanning vir toekomstige KWB gaan hand aan hand met beplanning vir boedelbelasting doeleindes. Die doel is om die belegger se portefeulje te posisioneer en struktureer sodat toekomstige belastingaanspreeklikheid (KWB en boedelbelasting) beperk kan word. In hierdie tesis is 'n eenvoudige Excel model ontwerp om KWB en boedelbelasting te bereken. Die model doen al die berekeninge en haal dus die las van die belegger af om oor detail kennis van KWB te beskik. Die model (Estate Advisor) het ook 'n besluitnemingsfunksie waar die belegger verskillende opsies kan oorweeg en toets. Die model word gebruik om toekomstige KWB te voorspel en bereken. Dit stel die belegger in staat om besluite te maak omtrent entiteite en strukture wat in sy situasie die gepaste antwoord sal wees. Die model moet nie gesien word as 'n instrument om beleggingsbesluite te neem nie en dit kan nie keuses uitoefen tussen verskillende beleggingsbates nie. Die doel van die model is uitsluitlik om die effek van verskillende besluite en aannames te vinnig en akkuraat te bereken. Dit dien as hulpmiddel vir die beplan van KWB en boedelbelasting wat in die toekoms betaal moet word. Die Estate Advisor is 'n instrument vir die produsering van verskillende scenarios van toekomstige situasies met betrekking tot KWB en boedelbelasting. Dit help die belegger om verskillende opsies te oorweeg en die beste beleggingsbesluit te maak.

The travel and tourism industries are today facing unprecedented challenges in coping with emerging technology paradigms. Consequently, reengineering traditional travel business models is necessary. Internet technologies coupled with increasingly complex software applications and information structures are distracting travel companies from the strategic elements of providing values to travelers.

"Currently, the largest barrier to any given market usually involves capital. If a company does not have enough investment capital to start with, it could fail before it even gets started. However, there is a new component that affects some of the largest corporations in the world. The problem relates to being able to sustain current internal processing, as well as adapt and grow in new markets with higher volumes. There are systems out there today that claim to address these issues along with e-commerce and other electronic sharing of information."

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2002.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Technology and especially Internet has advanced rapidly during the last ten years. Universities have been in the forefront with access to Internet, but are only now beginning to wake up to the opportunities that exist within the technological arena. Unfortunately Universities have been slow to accept the possibilities of the World Wide Web and its uses within the classroom. Student demographics are changing and their requirements are changing. The Students of today are no longer studying full time and in their early twenties. They are older, are working part-time and need to arrange their study-time to accommodate their work schedules. Universities have to adapt some of their courses or lose out to the competition, which has become global due to technological advances. Web based learning is a perfect answer to the problems working students face, but the mindset of lecturers and even students need to be changed to accept this new form of learning. Many universities have already started distance-learning projects, which are perfect for certain parts of the world and certain students, generally in the Western world. The best ways to start changing perceptions is by combining webbased learning and traditional classroom education and then gradually move on to a full online virtual classroom scenario. In this project a software package called WebeT was used to move a People Management MBA course, which was previously only presented via a traditional classroom into the realm of a virtual classroom. This was achieved by giving the students online access to all information they would traditionally get physically, such as course information. The move of classroom information onto WebCT resulted in file downloads, questionnaires and other information becoming available online. As a direct result the traditional classroom contact for the People Management course was shortened from twelve sessions to seven sessions. The course is close to becoming a complete online course.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Tegnologiese ontwikkeling en veral die gebruik van die Internet het gedurende die afgelope tien jaar baie gevorder. Universiteite het reeds 'n geruime tyd toegang tot die Internet, maar begin nou eers besef watter voordele hierdie tegnologiese era vir hulle inhou. Ongelukkig was Universiteite stadig om die potensiaal van die 'World Wide Web" binne die tradisionele klaskamer te ontgin. Die demografiese profiel van studente het in die laaste paar jaar baie verander. Die hedendaagse student is nie meer 'n voltydse student in sy vroeë twintigs nie. Studente is nou ouer, werk deeltyds en hul studietyd moet kan aanpas by hul werkskedules. Universiteite sal of hul kursusse hierby moet aanpas, of studente aan die kompetisie verloor, wat weens die tegnologie nou globaal is. Web gebaseerde onderrig is die perfekte antwoord vir die probleme wat werkende studente ervaar. Die persepsie van die lektor en ook die student moet egter verander om hierdie nuwe vorm van onderrig te aanvaar. Universiteite het alreeds met afstand onderrig begin, wat baie goed werk in sekere lande en met sekere studente. Die doeltreffendste manier om persepsies te verander, is.deur web gebaseerde onderrig en tradisionele klaskamer onderrig te begin kombineer. Hierna kan daar stelselmatig beweeg word na 'n volle virtuele klaskamer scenario. In hierdie projek is 'n sagteware program WebCT gebruik om 'n MBA-kursus in Mensebestuur, wat tradisioneel 'n klaskamer gebaseerde kursus is, te omskep in 'n virtuele klaskamer kursus. Dit is bewerkstellig deur die kursus informasie, wat tradisioneel in fisiese notas aan die studente oorgedra is, direk aanlyn beskikbaar te stel. Die gebruik van WebCT het tot gevolg gehad dat studente nou informasie kon aflaai en vraestelle beantwoord op die Internet. Die tradisionele klaskamer sessies van die Mensebestuurkursus is hierdeur verkort van twaalf sessies na sewe sessies. Hierdie verandering het veroorsaak dat hierdie kursus bykans geheel en al in 'n virtuele klaskamer kursus omskep is.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 1988.
INTRODUCTION: The object of this technical report is to enhance an already existing computer program which calculates the possible growth rate under certain given conditions. These enhancements would make the program more applicable to a variety of situations and possibly a more true indication of what would happen in real life. The existing program was initially written in the FORTRAN-77 language by J C d Bruin in 1982 and translated to the TRUE BASIC language in 1985. The main objective of the program is to determine the maximum growth % of a business subject to certain given parameters or constraints.

The purpose of the thesis was to propose one set of solutions to some of the challenges that are delaying the adoption of utility computing on a wider scale. These components enable effective deployment of utility computing, efficient look-up, and comparison of service offerings of different utility computing resource centers connected to the utility computing network.

The purpose of this project was to analyze six companies in various industries that are currently using systems, applications, and products in data processing (SAP)'s R/3. It outlines the history of SAP and gives background on the companies including what they used before R/3, why they chose R/3, and some of the challenges involved with the changing over to R/3. The companies that were analyzed are Allegran Pharmaceuticals, Pacific Communications, Varian Incorporated, Northop-Grumman, Sempra Energy, and Goodrich. A comparison of the companies is done along with analysis on strategic motivators behind the change to R/3.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2012.
Governance Risk and Compliance (GRC) software applications are designed to facilitate the GRC process. GRC software inherently faces the same implementation challenges as any other Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software. The design and usability of GRC software contribute substantially to how much value is added to the GRC process and as GRC is still in its infancy; it is likely to keep evolving as this process matures. Due to the inconstant nature of the GRC process, GRC software applications require a large amount of customisation to meet the special requirements of each organisation. The objective of this research was to establish the extent to which GRC software applications add value to the GRC process. The researcher also tried to establish whether organisations, that are currently using GRC software applications, gain more value from the GRC process than before they implemented GRC software applications. He conducted the research by presenting research questions, in the form of a questionnaire, to the risk executives of three Western Cape companies. The author of this research paper collected the responses from each company by conducting one-on-one interviews with each of the executives concerned and then reviewed and analysed the interview results of each company. Finally, the author completed a cross case analysis, by comparing GRC software application dimensions and characteristic ratings across the three companies concerned. The research indicated that there is not a great difference in importance between the five GRC design dimensions because they all received high performance ratings. There were some differences, however, in the perceived performance of each dimension, when analysing the dimension characteristics ratings. The research showed that the greatest benefit, of the use of GRC software applications, is the ability to add structure and consistency to the GRC process.

Agent-based simulations are an effective simulation technique that can flexibly be applied to real-world business problems. By integrating such simulations into business games, they become a widely accepted educational instrument in the context of business training. Not only can they be used to train standard behaviour in training scenarios but they can also be used for open experimentation to discover structure in complex contexts (e.g. complex adaptive systems) and to verify behaviours that have been predicted on the basis of theoretical considerations. Traditional modelling techniques are built on mathematical models consisting of differential or difference equations (e.g. the well-known system dynamics approach). However, individual behaviour is not visible in these equations. This problem is addressed by using software agents to simulate individuals and to model their actions in response to external stimuli. To be effective, business training tools have to provide sufficiently realistic models of real-world aspects. Ideally, system effects on a macroscopic level are caused by behaviour of system components on a more microscopic level. For instance, in modelling market mechanisms market participants can explicitly be modelled as agents with individual behaviour and personal goals. Agents can communicate and act on the basis of what they know and which communication acts they perform. The evolution of the market then depends on the actions of the participants directly and not on abstract mathematical expressions. Generally, agent-based modelling is a challenging task, when modelling knowledge and behaviour. With the rise of the so-called semantic web ontologies have become popular, allowing the representation of knowledge using standardised formal languages which can be made available to agents acting in a simulation. However, the combination of agent-based systems with ontologies has not yet been researched sufficiently, because both concepts (web ontology languages and agent oriented programming languages) have been developed independently and the link has not yet been built adequately. Using ontologies as a knowledge base allows access to powerful standardised inference engines that offer leverage for the decision process of the agent. Agents can then determine their actions in accordance with this knowledge. To model agents using ontologies creates a new perspective for multi-agent simulation scenarios as programming details are reduced and a separation of modelling aspects from coding details is promising as business simulation scenarios can be set up with a reduced development effort. This thesis focuses on how ontologies can be integrated utilising the agent framework Jadex. A basic architecture with layered ontologies and its integration into the belief-desire-intention (BDI) agent model is presented. The abstract level of the approach guarantees applicability to different simulation scenarios which can be modelled by creating appropriate ontologies. Examples are based upon the simulation of market mechanisms within the context of different industries. The approach is implemented in the integrated simulation environment AGADE which incorporates agent-based and semantic technologies. Simulations for different scenarios that model typical market scenarios are presented.

The purpose of this project is to demonstrate an integration of real world, real time e-commerce with the knowledge and experience gained in participating in the Masters of Business Administration -- Information Management program at California State University, San Bernardino. It is this knowledge and experience that is used to create a Business-To-Consumer (B2C) electronic commerce application (ECA) using available Internet and information management technology. This project presents all aspects of the simulation beginning with the background research of the canine services and supplies industry and ending with an e-commerce simulation and post implementation audit.

Chinese Restaurant Online System was designed to allow customers to view information about the restaurant over the Web and order some dishes online. It allows employees to login to do their work, depending on their sponsored rights.

Thesis (MTech (Business Information Systems))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2018.
Many software organisations using iterative software development approach use practices that relate to quality management. However, the quality management process has been inadequate. Despite many research studies conducted on quality management in iterative software product development none have adequately addressed the challenges and mitigation techniques to have an adequate process that leads to a quality software product. The objective of this study was to determine factors that affect the quality management process in iterative software development. The research followed a qualitative approach, a case of software organisation SasTech in Cape Town, South Africa. 22 interviews were conducted on three roles actively involved in the software product development process. These are product management, quality assurance and software developers. Themes were drawn from results and were tabulated. The duality of technology theory was used as a theoretical lens to data analysis. Several factors were identified to influence the software quality management process. These include planning, documentation, process ownership, technologies, testing, timelines and management support. Through the general proposed framework, facilities (human resources and technologies), interpretive schemes (architecture) and norms (practices) of software quality management can be institutionalised leading to adequate and effective quality management in iterative development for SasTech as well as other organisations in the same industry.

For large organizations, updating instructional programs presents a challenge to keep abreast of constantly changing business processes and policies. Each time a process or policy changes, significant resources are required to locate and modify the training materials that convey the new content. Moreover, without the ability to track learning objects to processes and policies, training managers cannot conduct an effective training gap analysis in these areas. As a result, the corporate training picture is unclear and instructional needs cannot be accurately determined. The research addressed these problems by recognizing the need for linkages between an organization's business processes, its policies, and the learning objects that package the corresponding training content and deliver it to the workforce. The overall investigation was completed in three parts. In the first study, a thorough examination of the literature was conducted to determine the extent of the research problem and to provide a theoretical foundation for a solution. In the second study an expert panel was used to elicit user needs for a knowledge management system that addresses training management shortcomings in a large law enforcement agency. Another expert panel from that agency validated and prioritized the user needs during the third study. Through a combination of research-based elicitation and validation techniques, an accurate list of natural language software requirements emerged to represent the collective needs of the law enforcement training experts. The software requirements may now serve to analyze the capabilities of existing information technology systems or to form the basis for a request for proposal (RFP) to build the envisioned knowledge management system.

With the widespread use of the Internet and its associated technologies, enterprises have to evolve in the way they are conducting business. 'e-business applications' refer to a new class of distributed applications that involves the Internet as a communication platform. Each e-business application supports the full automation of business processes that can span across multiple enterprises. For a given application domain that involves e-business application development, a number of design decisions that best fullfil stakeholders requirements have to be made. One important issue is the reuse of functionality which exists within legacy systems that can belong to one or more enterprises within the same domain. Most existing design approaches are inadequate in supporting the exploration of all design combinations. Moreover, there is little work on how to identify the best design decisions systematically for a given application domain. In this thesis we present a pattern-based approach that addresses the architectural design of e-business applications. We identify a number of architectural patterns whose instantiation on a given design problem correspond to different architectural design alternatives. We also identify models that enable the estimation of quality attributes for such alternatives. Then we investigate and utilise methods to select the best pattern for a given design problem. We also describe the process of generating the alternative architectures, estimating their qualities, and then ranking them with respect to any quality attribute or a combination of quality attributes. We validate this approach on a real life case study in the area of capital markets. The case study concerns realistic e-business applications that rely on existing legacy applications. The validation exercise has produced predictions which have been compared with actual design decisions that have been made. The thesis also proposes a framework for the systematic identification of architectural patterns. An additional set of architectural patterns and their impact on the case study are discussed. The main contribution of this thesis is in the identification of patterns and quality attributes models for the architectural design of e-business applications that aid in the systematic selection of the most appropriate architectural pattern for a given problem context.

The purpose of this research is to propose metrics to evaluate the user interface factors that impact on the user experience of Software Accounting Applications (SAAs) used to support the accounting business activities in Small Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) operating in developing countries. The research commences by outlining the conceptual background that introduces the study. In the introductory chapter, the problems together with the objectives that motivate the significance of the study are presented. In the same chapter, the overall research focus and how each of the research questions are treated to accomplish the intended goals are defined. In Chapter 2, the typical accounting business activities for SMMEs operating in developing countries are investigated. Findings from the preliminary survey revealed that Pastel accounting is the commonly used SMME accounting application used in developing countries. Inventory management, cash book processing, preparation of financial statements, customer and supplier documents processing are revealed as the most prevalent SMME accounting activities. This chapter highlights the problems that inhibit the implementation and the delivery of full benefits of using these SAAs. After indentifying the SAA problems, user experience aspects of the SAA are addressed in Chapter 3. User experience (UX) is defined and existing UX evaluation criteria are discussed. The findings form the basis for choosing the applicable criteria for evaluating the User Interface (UI) factors impacting on the UX of Pastel accounting. The proposed user experience evaluation metrics are described in Chapter 4. A discussion on how the metrics are implemented and what UI aspect they measure is presented. The research design and methodology followed is discussed in Chapter 5. The chapter outlines the possible research philosophy, strategy, methods and data collecting methods. A choice is made about the appropriate approach to answer the stated research questions to satisfy the intended overall research objective. A phenomenologist, qualitative inductive approach is adopted in the study. A contextual inquiry case-study strategy is chosen as applicable to this research. Data is collected using expert reviews, user observation and subjective questionnaires. After the choice of the research techniques, the case study results are presented and analysed in Chapter 6. It is found that Pastel UI is attractive and the users are happy with the visual design of the application. The major factors that impact on Pastel accounting are its lack of 4 feedback and its complexity which makes it difficult for first time users to use the application and the paucity of the help function. After the observed findings, the conclusions and recommendations of the research are presented in Chapter 7. It has been concluded that Pastel accounting UI fails to captivate a positive user experience for first-time users; the users do not find the expected help from the Help function and are often left wondering about the status of the system and the outcome of their actions on a task. Recommendations on how designers would make Pastel user interface more helpful, easy to use, and provide adequate feedback are presented in Chapter 7.

Thesis (MTech (Business Administration))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2016.
This mixed methods study examined specific influences on low usage of analytics among level 4 managers in a selected public sector organisation, based on SAP Business Intelligence (SAP BI) log on statistics collected between July 2012 and June 2016. Analytics provides an organisation the ability to enable its management team to make decisions based on facts, rather than assumption. The aim of this interpretivist research, grounded in a subjectivist epistemological position, was to gain an in-depth understanding of the manager’s environment and how it influences the usage and adoption of analytics in strategic decision making. Human beings change all the time and the environment in which they find themselves constantly influences them. The main research question was: what specific factors inhibit managers’ use of analytics in organisations? A case study approach was deemed the most appropriate for this kind of study because specific environmental factors influence analytics usage. Themes identified as possible factors influencing different dimensions included: individual characteristics, business intelligence systems quality, organisational factors, macro-environment factors, behavioural beliefs and attitudes, effort perceptions, social influence, facilitating conditions and other. For the qualitative component, eight level 4 public sector managers within the selected organisation were interviewed in order to experience the work environment and their interactions with colleagues, while an electronic survey questionnaire yielded data from 211 level 4 managers. The rationale for selecting this category of managers was that they not only manage staff, but also control a budget, and would find it useful to utilise analytics to aid the decision making process. Qualitative and quantitative data analysis methods were used to analyse the data. Dominant themes that emerged from interviews with eight level 4 managers were: organisational factors and system quality characteristics. Daily log on statistics collected from the electronic survey questionnaire yielded quantitative results on usage of analytics within the organisation. Overall, it was found that managers’ use of analytics is low. Given the importance of analytics for informed decision-making, recommendations are made to increase usage.

The purpose of this research was to determine whether changes in the presentation format of items in a computer display could be used to alter the impact of specific cognitive biases, and to add to the knowledge needed to construct theory-based guidelines for output design. The problem motivating this study is twofold. The first part of the problem is the sub-optimal decision making caused by the use of heuristics and their associated cognitive biases. The second part of the problem is the lack of a theoretical basis to guide the design of information presentation formats to counter the effects of such biases. An availability model of the impact of changes in presentation format on biases and heuristics was constructed based on the findings of a literature review. A six-part laboratory experiment was conducted utilizing a sample of 205 student subjects from the college of business. The independent variable was presentation format which was manipulated by altering the visual salience or visual recency of items of information in a visual computer display. The dependent variables included recall, perceived importance, and the subjects' responses to three judgment tasks. The results clearly demonstrate that changes in presentation format can be used to alter the impact of cognitive biases on human decision making. The results also provide support for the availability model, with the exception of the proposed influence of learning style. Learning style was found to have no significant impact on decision making whether alone or in combination with changes in presentation format. The results of this investigation demonstrate that by using our knowledge of cognitive processes (e.g., the visual salience effect, the visual recency effect, and the availability heuristic), presentation formats can be altered in order to moderate the effects of certain biases and heuristics in human decision making. An understanding of these results may be useful in improving DSS design.

Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) need to use Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to enhance their business processes to become competitive in the global economy. When an information system is introduced to an organisation it changes the original business environment thus changing the original requirements. This in turn will change the processes that are supported by the information system. Also when users get familiar with the system they ask for more functionality. This gives rise to a cycle of changes known as co-evolution. In addition, SMEs have budget constraints which make the problem associated with co-evolution worse. One solution to overcome this situation is to empower end-users to develop and maintain the information systems. Within the above context the work presented addresses the following research question: “How to support SME end-users to develop and / or maintain Web applications to support their business processes?” There are two main components to this question: What are the requirements of a suitable end-user development approach for SMEs and how to create the Web applications based on the requirements. The requirements of a suitable end-user development approach can be established by identifying the different types of Web applications required by SMEs, the capabilities of end-users in relation to developing and / or maintaining Web applications and how they conceptualise the Web applications. The literature review is conducted to discover different types of Web applications required by SMEs and to identify a suitable end-user development approach and tools that can support the development of these various types of Web applications. According to the literature survey, the main types of Web applications required by SMEs can be categorised as information centric Web applications (Simple Web sites which focus on effective presentation of unstructured information), data intensive Web applications (the focus is on efficient presentation and management of structured data such as product catalogue) and workflow intensive Web applications (The focus is on efficient automation of business processes such as an order processing system). The literature on end-user development shows that the existing end-user development approaches are focused on specific types of Web applications. The frameworks and tools in the Web development discipline mainly target experienced Web developers. Therefore a gap is identified as “there are limited end-user development approaches for developments of different types of Web applications which are required by SMEs to IT enable their businesses’”. The capabilities of SMEs in relation to Web application development were identified based on a study conducted with a group of SMEs. This study first surveyed the SMEs experience and knowledge in relation to Web application development and their attitude towards end-user development. Then their capabilities relating to Web application development were studied in a hands-on session to develop a Web site. The second study is conducted with administrative staff members involved in development of a Web application. This study helps to establish the requirements of a suitable end-user development approach from the point of view of the end-user developers. This study on end-user development observed the different activities carried out by end-users. Then the end-user was interviewed to identify the issues and benefits of end-user development in the project. Following that, a set of requirements for the end-user development approach was derived based on the findings from these two studies and the related literature: 1) A need to support different types of Web applications required by SMEs; 2) A need to support the specification of Web applications at the conceptual level; 3) A need for a common data repository to store the data used in different applications within the organisation; 4) Providing a common login to all applications within the organisation; 5) Striping a balance between Do it Yourself (DIY) and a professional developer that allows end-users to do the activities they are capable of while getting help from a professional developer to do the difficult tasks. The conceptual aspects of different types of Web applications (information centric, data intensive and process intensive) were identified based on a literature survey of existing conceptual modelling approaches. This set of aspects was refined by modelling selected Web applications for each type of Web application. The aspects needed to specify different types of Web applications are: presentation, data, task, workflow, access control, navigation, and personalisation. Then the usage of these aspects in a set of end-user specifications was analysed. This study reveals that end-users only focus on some of these aspects such as data and process to specify the applications. Therefore, another requirement for the development approach was identified – a need to support development of Web applications with minimum aspects. A meta-design paradigm based on the meta-model of Web applications is proposed to support the identified requirements. A meta-model of Web applications is developed based on the patterns of different types of Web applications. A component based Web application development framework called CBEADS (Component based eApplication Development and Deployment Shell) was extended to support the meta-model based development approach. Web applications can be created by populating the values for the attributes of the meta-model which are related to the attributes of different aspects of the Web applications at the conceptual level. The meta-model is organised into three levels: shell level, application level, and function level. Aspects common to many web applications are modelled at the shell level. The data model and user model are stored and managed at the shell level. This supports the requirements of common data repository and the common login to all applications. The aspects common to a web application are modelled at the application level. The function specific aspects required to implement the functionality of the Web application are modelled at the function level. The metamodel has two properties called overriding and inheritance. Inheritance property allows developing Web applications with minimum aspects. The activities required to develop the Web applications in a framework supporting the meta-model are grouped into three levels based on the complexity of these tasks named routine level, logical level and programming level.These different levels together with the overriding property help to balance between DIY and a professional developer. The meta-design paradigm is practically evaluated with a group of users including SMEs and students. The studies establish strategies for the success of the meta-design paradigm such as characteristics of individuals, facilitation and infrastructure. The original contributions of this thesis enhance the field of end-user development by providing a new end-user development approach that can be used by business end-users to develop web applications. More importantly the major contributions of this research provide a practical approach that can be used particularly by SME end-users with little or no previous experience in web application development. Significant research contributions are made in the following four areas: 1) Establishing requirements for an end-user development approach suitable for business users. 2) Identifying a set of aspects required to model different types of Web applications at the conceptual level. 3) Developing a meta-design paradigm based on the meta-model of different types of Web applications 4) Developing the strategies for successful use of the meta-design paradigm.

The purpose of this project is to use Java technology to create an instant messenger application that could be used by any person who has the basic knowledge of working with a graphical user interface. The goal here is to develop an application that provides communication to users running different operating systems.

Document describes foundation and development of computer training center. It introduces the reader to the development process and the structure of business plan in the beginning. The process starts with SLEPTE analysis, customer research and simple financial analysis. The result of previous three analyses is SWOT analysis. SWOT analysis recommends author to continue in the business plan development. Therefore, documents describe more accurate and detailed analyses specialized to computer professional courses in the region of Brno and surrounding cities. Next, it describes company strategy according to the results of analyses. Marketing and financial parts of the strategy are the most stressed ones. The reader is very deeply familiarized with company product and their price policy. The last pages of document present steps required to successfully implement company strategy.

The purpose of this project is to analyze whether i3 Strategy of Applied Digital Solutions (ADS) was necessary to meet the fast-moving IT industry. i3 Services Strategy is an integrated corporate strategy to reengineer the organizational structure of ADS.

Requirements Engineering (ER) has an important role in Software Engineering for being an early stage of the software development process. ER serves as the basis for implementation of other activities, contributing decisively to the quality of the final software product. Requirements Elicitation process is among the main concerns of ER. It involves the recognition and description of customer needs, in such a way that it is possible to reflect the business accurately and consistent. Moreover, in general, most problems that occur during the process of software development are caused by failures in the early stages. In this context, emerging approaches such as Model-Driven Developement (MDD) and Business Process Modeling (MPN). Such approaches seek to understand and describe business processes and enable a closer look of the domain. As well, especially when backed by support tools, using approaches such as MDD and MPN can contribute to improving the quality of the requirements and the requirements Elicitation process. This work presents ModelER approach, which seeks to promote improvements in Requirements Elicitation process, through the use of concepts and practices of the MDD and the MPN for identifying software requirements.
A Engenharia de Requisitos (ER) possui um importante papel na Engenharia de Software pelo fato de compreender uma fase inicial do processo de desenvolvimento de software. Ela serve de base para a realização das demais atividades, contribuindo decisivamente para a qualidade do produto de software final. O processo de Elicitação de Requisitos está entre as principais preocupações da ER. Ele envolve o reconhecimento e a descrição das necessidades dos clientes, de tal forma que seja possível refletir o negócio de forma precisa e coerente. Além disso, de maneira geral, a maior parte dos problemas que ocorrem durante o processo de desenvolvimento de software é causada por falhas nas fases iniciais. Diante desse contexto, surgem abordagens tais como o Desenvolvimento Orientado por Modelos (Model-Driven Developement MDD) e a Modelagem de Processos de Negócio (Business Process Modeling MPN1). Tais abordagens tanto buscam compreender e descrever os processos de negócio, quanto permitem uma visão mais próxima do domínio. Assim, sobretudo quando apoiadas por ferramentas de suporte, o uso de abordagens como MDD e MPN pode contribuir para a melhoria da qualidade dos requisitos e do processo de Elicitação de Requisitos. Este trabalho apresenta a abordagem ModelER, a qual busca promover melhorias no processo de Elicitação de Requisitos, através da utilização de conceitos e práticas do MDD e da MPN para identificação de requisitos de software.

This study set out to ascertain whether or not Telkom's SAP Rl3! process modification adaptation strategy resulted in improved supply chain performance. For Telkom who have struggled, at great expense and with great frustration, with incompatible information systems and inconsistent operating practices, the promise of an off-the-shelf solution, in the form of SAP R3, to solve its problem of supply chain integration was too great to resist. There are two alternative approaches to implementation of packaged software: Package adaptation to organisational needs and organisational adaptation to the package. This research revealed that typically, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) vendors recommend process adaptation and discourage ERP adaptations for the fear of potential performance and integrity degradation as well as maintenance and future upgrade difficulties - however, enterprises often find reasons to stray from that directive. Telkom decided to use the process modification and enhancement ERP adaptation strategy for its SAP Rl3 implementation, because management believes that by enhancing the speed and effectiveness of business processes before implementing SAP Rl3, the full benefits SAP Rl3 will be realised. Telkom redesigned 489 processes to take full advantage of the new system's capabilities, in particular its ability to simplify the flow of information. Taking a broad look at the results and comments made regarding Telkom's SAP Rl3 implementation, it was found that Telkom's SAP Rl3 implementation strategy resulted in quick achievements of a positive return on investment (ROI) when comparing pre- and postimplementation performance. Inventory levels, receivables, operating costs, order cycle times, stock turns, labour and distribution expenditures have all improved. On the other hand, fifty percent of the peer group benchmark baselines were not matched or exceeded by Telkom's measured post-implementation performance. It was found that Telkom's supply chain performance is tightly related to three areas of concern identified in this research: Problems with SAP and c-commerce integration, SAP's forecasting ability remains at a disadvantage, and the issue of Telkom not benchmarking their supply chain performance. It was also found that process improvement emerged as the principal element that enabled Telkom to realise the measured benefits of its ERP implementation. I SAP Rl3 stands for Systems, Applications and Products, Real time, 3-tier architecture.
Thesis (M.B.A. -University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2003.

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Technology: Information Technology, Durban University of Technology, Durban, 2015.
Agile approaches have proliferated within the software development arena over the past decade. Derived mainly from Lean manufacturing principles, agile planning and control mechanisms appear minimal and fluid when compared to more traditional software engineering approaches. Scrum ranks among the more popular permutations of agile. Contemporary literature represents a rich source of contributions for agile in areas such as practice guidelines, experience reports, and methodology tailoring; but the vast majority of these publications focus on the individual project level only, leaving much uncertainty and persistent questions in the multi-project space. Questions have recently been raised, by both academics and practitioners alike, concerning the ability of Scrum to scale from the individual project level to the multi-project space. Program management is an area encompassing practice and research areas concerned mainly with harmonizing the existence of competing simultaneous projects. Existing literature on program management essentially perceives projects as endeavours that can be carefully planned at the outset, and controlled in accordance with strong emphasis placed on economic and schedule considerations. This complexion seems to be mostly a result of well-established and ingrained management frameworks like Project Management Institute (PMI), and is largely at odds with emerging practices like Scrum. This disparity represents a gap in the literature and supports the need for deeper exploration. The conduit for this exploration was found in two South African software development small to medium sized enterprises (SMMEs) practicing Scrum. The practical realities and constraints faced by these SMMEs elicited the need for more dynamic program management practices in support of their quest to maximize usage of limited resources. This thesis examines these practices with the aim of providing new insights into the program management discourse in the context of Scrum software development environments. The research approach is qualitative and interpretive in nature. The in-depth exploratory case study research employed the two software SMMEs as units of analysis. Traditional ethnographic techniques were commissioned alongside minimal researcher participation in project activities. Activity Theory honed the data analysis effort and helped to unearth the interrelationships between SMME characteristics, program management practices, and Scrum software development. The results of the data analysis are further refined and fashioned into eleven knowledge areas that represent containers of program management practices. This is the product of thematic analysis of literature and data generated from fieldwork. Seeing as the observed practices were highly dynamic in nature, concept analysis provided a mechanism by which to depict them as snapshots in time. As a theoretical contribution, proposed frameworks were crafted to show how program management practices might be understood in the context of organizations striving towards agile implementation. Furthermore, representations of the mutually influential interfaces of SMME characteristics and Scrum techniques that initiate the observed fluid nature of program management practices, are brought to the fore.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
There are many advantages of mobile agent such as delegation of tasks, asynchronous processing, adaptable service in interfaces, and code shipping. Mobile agents can be utilized in many areas such as electronic commerce, information retrieval, network management, etc. The main problem with mobile agents is security. The three basic security design goals of a system are confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The goal of this thesis concerns the property of secure purchasing by mobile agents. First present Jalal's anonymous authentication protocol. Next, we construct our single mobile agent protocol based on Jalal's authentication technique. Also, we add some addition cryptography techniques to make the data more secure during its migration. Lastly, we build a multiple mobile agent protocol based on the single mobile agent protocol. Here, the multiple mobile agents are capable to make the decision and purchase the item for user.

Business Intelligence (BI) applications are consulted by their users on a daily basis. BI information obtained assist users to make business decisions and allow for a deeper understanding of the business and its driving forces. In a mining environment companies need to derive maximum benefit from BI applications, therefore these applications need to be used optimally. Optimal use depends on various factors including the usability of the product. The documented lack of usability evaluation guidelines provides the rationale for this study. The purpose is to investigate the usability evaluation of BI applications in the context of a coal mining organization. The research is guided by the question: What guidelines should be used to evaluate the usability of BI applications. The research design included the identification of BI usability issues based on the observation of BI users at the coal mining organization. The usability criteria extracted from the usability issues were compared and then merged with general usability criteria from literature to form an initial set of BI usability evaluation criteria. These criteria were used as the basis for a heuristic evaluation of the BI application used at the coal mining organization. The same application was also evaluated using the Software Usability Measurement Inventory (SUMI) standardised questionnaire. The results from the two evaluations were triangulated to provide a refined set of criteria. The main contribution of the study is the heuristic evaluation guidelines for BI applications (based on these criteria). These guidelines are grouped in the following functional areas: visibility, flexibility, cognition, application behaviour, error control and help, affect and BI elements.
Information Science
M.Sc. (Information Systems)

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
The author employs Hoffman and Ford’s method for analyzing organizational rhetoric to examine the discourse of Google, Inc. Employing a hybrid method, built on rhetorical criticism which incorporates elements of organizational communication theory, the analysis examines identity rhetoric present in Google’s discourse regarding its operations in China. Using this approach, the author leverages the method to critically examine hegemonic aspects of the discourse in order to examine how Google constructs its Western consumer based audience regarding online privacy and free speech.

The primary aim of this study was to determine the Internet applications being adopted within local sporting clubs and to determine the adoption factors that affect both local sporting clubs and their members. Within this primary aim, the study examined, *The areas where Internet applications are being employed; *The factors that drive the adoption of these Internet applications; and *An assessment of the impact of these Internet applications on local sporting clubs and their members.