Browsing by Author "Price, Catherine Susan."
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Item Software development project success: perspectives of project managers and developers in a South African bank.(2020) Seerpath, Aruna.; Price, Catherine Susan.Many researchers have attempted to define software development project success. While common factors have been found, the success of software projects in all industries cannot be judged by the same factors. Success is complex and means different things to different people. This study investigated what factors project managers and software developers, in a South African Bank, believed contributed to software development project success. The reasons why software developers and project managers were investigated were because software developers have a technical background whilst project managers have a business background. There were 41 respondents consisting of six project managers and 35 software developers that answered the questionnaire. Six participants were interviewed: four developers and two project managers. A case study research was adopted for this study. The results showed that there are many significant factors that contribute to success and failure. The study was divided into four categories to investigate the different success factors. These categories were individual, team, organisational and project. The most critical success factor from this study was the projects being strictly according to the on brief. This showed the software being built must fulfil the requirements that were defined in the project brief. The least important success factor was employees having more than ten years of experience. This showed that this group of respondents do not believe that such a high level of experience is directly related to project success. Respondents were also asked what they thought would lead to software project failure. The factor that was considered most significant was not understanding requirements. An individual factor that stood out was the level of skill of the staff. Both groups of employees believe that having the appropriate skills to do one’s job, contributes significantly to the success of a project. The only factors where project managers and developers responded significantly differently were when they were asked about work life balance and job satisfaction. Developers seemed to consider these factors more important than project managers. Project managers and software developers considered the scope and size of a project critical to project success as it ranked as the second most critical factor. Other critical success factors that appeared in the top five were the level of skill of staff, clearly defined business objectives and understanding requirements. This study contributes to existing literature as it shows that success factors that other researchers found cannot be generalized to all individuals, teams, organisations and projects. This study investigated what factors, project managers and software developers in this digital banking business unit considered to contribute to the success of a project. It concluded that there are many factors that contribute to success however, projects being on brief was the most important factor. Even though this study only investigated the views of project managers and software developers, there are other IT professionals that could offer different insights as to what success means to them. This study could therefore be expanded to include business analysts, system analysts and testers.Item Specifying a forest harvest scheduling system which includes wood properties.(2009) Price, Catherine Susan.; Tapamo, Jules-Raymond.; Blakeway, Felicity Clare.This dissertation aims to specify a forest harvest scheduling system which includes wood properties in the harvesting decisions for the long-term (strategic) planning horizon. This system will be used by plantation forestry companies which supply wood to pulp manufacturers, who desire a more uniform raw material entering pulp mills so that a more uniform product results. Vertically integrated forestry companies would benefit particularly, as the allocation of timber to mills, as well as the timber transport costs, are included in the system. It has been found from literature that only one forest harvest scheduling system exists which includes wood properties in the harvesting decision; however, this system was a short-term (operational) system. To our knowledge, no other system which includes wood properties in the harvesting decision has been reported. As the forest harvest scheduling system is affected by the forest, transport, mill and forest planning domains, their procedures and constraints, these domains were described first, and the forest harvest scheduling system described next. The system and the environments (or domains) were specified with two techniques: semi-formal and formal methods. The semi-formal method used the Zachman framework to structure the specification. The Business owner’s view of the system was used. This framework uses complementary models such as entity-relationship diagrams, business process diagrams and state charts to describe aspects of the same thing. The formal method specification used the Z notation which is based on set theory and predicate logic. The semi-formal and formal specifications together form a complementary specification. The semi-formal specification is more understandable by clients, but could contain inconsistencies. The formal specification is more precise, but because it uses mathematical notation, is not as well understood. The semi-formal specification describes more features, while the formal specification describes the features in depth. The forest harvest scheduling system specified uses wood properties in the harvesting and timber allocation decisions over the strategic planning horizon. When the system is implemented, wood having more uniform properties will be delivered to the mill, ensuring a more uniform pulp product.Item UKZN Westville students’ use of on-campus Wi-Fi and their perceptions of quality of service.(2019) Mbonye, Vicent.; Price, Catherine Susan.As Higher Learning Institutions set up Wi-Fi infrastructure in different locations on-campus, they need to provide high quality services to support students’ learning. However, there has been little effort to ascertain how students use Wi-Fi on-campus, and how they perceive the quality of Wi-Fi in specific campus locations. Most research provides general information which makes it hard for Wi-Fi implementers to pinpoint the exact locations where services may need to be improved. This study follows a mixed method approach to present quantitative results from a representative sample of 373 students on UKZN Westville campus to understand how they use of Wi-Fi and their perceptions of service quality in different locations on-campus. It also presents qualitative information from interviews with two ICS administrators to understand Wi-Fi deployment strategies adopted on-campus and what Wi-Fi related problems students report. The most-used Wi-Fi locations were the on-campus residences (29.2%), the library (24.1%), computer LANs (17.4%) and lecture venues (17.2%). The worst Wi-Fi quality was reported in the Cafeteria (36.3%), the library (20.6%), and the Quad (15.4%). The best Wi-Fi quality was found in the computer LANs (34.2%), lecture venues (21.8%) and on-campus residences (11.8%). The Wi-Fi usage patterns are described according to the students’ accommodation type, as these patterns are very different. Best and worst times for using Wi-Fi in various locations is also given. The study showed that while students used various Wi-Fi devices to access Wi-Fi services on campus, the majority of them did not know the Wi-Fi standards, memory and speeds supported by their devices. When students faced difficulties, they stopped using Wi-Fi (38.6%), changed location (25.4%) or changed position in the same location (14.9%). Very few (8.6%) reported it to ICS. 86.3% did not know how to log a call with ICS. On-campus residence students reported Wi-Fi difficulties the most to ICS and they experienced the least difficulties in their residences. This shows that the ICS training for these students has paid off. The study bases its conceptual framework on the Brady & Cronin Jr. (2001) service quality model, which includes factors of outcome quality, physical environment quality and interaction quality. Outcome quality was used to understand students’ perception of the stability, availability reliability and timeliness of Wi-Fi services. Physical environment quality was used to understand the ambient conditions, social factors and design of the locations in which Wi-Fi is used. Interaction quality was used to understand the students’ perceptions of the behaviour, attitude and expertise quality of their interactions with ICS administrators. Overall, students rated the perceived Wi-Fi quality at just over 4.5 on a 7 point Likert scale. While this is greater than neutral, it can be improved. In a regression analysis of the constructs as a whole, the constructs account for 59.5% (R2 = .595) of the variance of service quality, F (3, 369) = 180.527, p<.0005. Outcome quality (β=.667, p<.0005), and interaction quality (β=.402, p=<.0005) are both significant predictors of service quality. However, physical environment quality is not. When regression models were generated for individual locations, for the most part, the R2 value improved. This study can be used by ICS to improve the Wi-Fi quality of service on campus, especially in areas where students use it the most, like in the library. ICS can also improve awareness of call logging amongst students, and how their choice of devices could affect their perceived Wi-Fi quality. The model could be used iteratively in future to test and monitor the quality of Wi-Fi services on campus, as well as in other environments, e.g. hospitals, hotels and airports.