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Faculty of Accounting and Informatics

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2002 - 200927

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Start date: 2002End date: 2009

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 27
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    An investigation into performance testing for e-commerce web-based applications
    (2005) Mhlabane, Michael J.; Petkov, Doncho
    This thesis investigates the applicability of certain software testing methodologies as the basis from which the new field of Web-based application testing can arise. In particular, it concentrates on performance testing issues and Web application testing, as these are responsible for ensuring the survival of a business organization in the new global competitive age presented by the Web and Internet technology.
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    A systematic framework for the evaluation of rural telecommunications infrastructure
    (2002) Nepal, Thiruthlall; Petkov, Doncho
    The evaluation of telecommunications infrastructure in rural areas is a complex and messy problem that involves many tangible and intangible factors. Some of them are technical in nature while others are soft, involving social, cultural and political aspects of the problem. The evaluation requires, inter alia, societal intervention, and since societies reflect a multiplicity and diversity of values and goals, the intervention should confront these realities
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    A modelling approach to elephant and tree population dynamics for a small game farm
    (2005) Stretch, Anne-Marie
    Throughout Africa, growing human populations and resulting loss of wildlife habitat is a critical issue for most animal species. It is more and more common for privately owned small or medium sized farms to reintroduce wildlife on their land and such protected areas are fast becoming the only refuges available to wild animals. However a comprehensive understanding of the complex ecological processes taking place is vital for the effective management of restricted areas and the conservation of biodiversity. Due to the enormous complexity of an ecological system and the long periods of the related dynamics, it is very difficult to analyse the interaction between animals and plant populations without suitable computer models. In this thesis, the dynamics between elephant and trees (a major food source) are considered using computer simulations.
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    An investigation into the nature and extent of the adoption of RFID in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa
    (2008) Thakur, Surendra
    Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) allows for the wireless transfer of data between a small electronic transmitting tag and a reader without the necessity of line-of-sight. A feature of RFID, is that this read operation may occur over long distances and that multiple reads may occur. The aim of this study is to analyse the nature and extent of RFID adoption in the KwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa. The study fits within the theory of innovation diffusion and is concerned with issues around technology diffusion, adoption rates, and its associated critical success factors. The estimation of RFID diffusion rate in the study is based on a telephonic survey of 140 companies. The respondents were chosen from a marketing database that had extensive information on South African companies. Size was determined to be the selection criterion as the literature indicates that size is the most compelling concomitant to innovativeness. In this study, size was deemed to be companies that had more than 50 PC’s in one geographic unit, of the company, in KwaZulu-Natal. The key research result locates the RFID diffusion rate in KwaZulu-Natal to be around 19% which corresponds to points beyond the “chasm” as defined by innovation diffusion theory. The second phase of the study comprised the administration of a questionnaire to two groups of IT professionals with the aim of comparing perceptions and other characteristics between the two groups. The 140 respondents were asked to submit as many professional staff as they could for an in-depth interview. The result was that 21 companies submitted 30 candidates. This yielded the two groups: the Adopter sample with 14 respondents, and the non-adopter sample with 16 respondents. The analysis of results shows the two groups have similar views on many strategic factors such as privacy, security, cost and standards etc. Adopters perceive that the following factors impacts RFID adopting decisions more (than non-adopters): Turnover, Having labour cost savings, RFID ubiquity, It will take as long for my company to adopt RFID as it did for barcode, RFID cost awareness. On the other hand non-adopters felt that the following factor impacts non-adoption of RFID Technology unproven or immature, Human skills non-availability, Implementation costs, Corporate resistance, and, Support Concerns.
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    Membership of the Library and Information Association of South Africa (LIASA) among library and information science workers in KwaZulu-Natal
    (Forum Press, 2009) Khomo, Musawenkosi Phumelelo; Raju, Jayarani
    A study was undertaken in 2007 among library and information service (LIS) workers in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) to investigate LIASA membership trends. The objectives of the study were to investigate: 1) the extent to which workers in library and information services in KwaZulu-Natal are members of LIASA; and 2) the reasons for non-membership, if there are substantial numbers of LIS workers who are not members. The purpose of this paper is to report on the main findings of this study. The study surveyed three types of library services in KwaZulu-Natal, namely, academic, public and special libraries with 330 LIS workers participating in the study. A census was done of LIS workers in special libraries and in academic libraries of public higher education institutions in KZN. Simple random sampling was used to select public libraries in KZN for participation in the study. All staff in the selected sample of public libraries were surveyed. A self-administered questionnaire was used to gather the required data from the target population. It was established that a significant number of LIS workers in all three types of libraries surveyed in KZN are not members of LIASA for various reasons. LIASA has been unable to draw significant membership from the support staff category in LIS services despite its constitution claiming to embrace all LIS workers. The study recommends that LIASA market itself more aggressively to increase membership levels particularly in the public library sector and among support staff in all LIS services. It also recommends that LIASA should consider involving itself in the industrial concerns of the LIS sector.
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    Liberal arts and LIS paraprofessional education in the knowledge context : the cases of South Africa and Quebec, Canada
    (2009) Raju, Jayarani; Jacobs, Christine
    Liberal arts or general education provides students with knowledge, skills and values that enhance their ability to use their minds effectively and to participate in society with critical discretion. In many jurisdictions, however, paraprofessional education has not included any significant component of general education; programmes are, for the most part, focused on technical ‘know how’, despite increasing complexities in the roles of the library technicians brought about by the evolving knowledge context. Such tasks as reference services, cataloguing and systems maintenance require exactly the types of knowledge and abilities that general education fosters. Via a comparison of programmes in South Africa and Quѐbec, Canada, this paper invites discussion on the necessity for, and the modalities of, including substantial liberal arts components within library and information science paraprofessional curricular.
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    Crafting a research paper
    (2009) Raju, Jayarani
    Since the inception of the Faculty of Accounting and Informatics about three years ago, we have made significant inroads in terms of registration, of faculty staff particularly, for research degrees. A university context, however, also demands publication of research particularly in scholarly journals. Research is regarded as being complete only when it is published. You should not allow your work to sit in the university library and bend the shelf over the years. Writing up your research and getting it published in academic and professional journals allows others the opportunity to see your work and enables them to engage with and challenge it. Hence you must insert your work, via publication, into the slipstream of scholarly debate. Writing for publication is no doubt an intimidating task. Have no illusions. It is not simple and straightforward, especially for the novice research writer. However, you can overcome feelings of vulnerability and lack of confidence by doing your research well and writing it up well so that it can stand up to public scrutiny. Hence the purpose of this presentation is to provide an overview of what is involved in crafting a research paper for publication in journals. While there are other forms of research publication, this presentation will focus on journal publication as this is the medium via which many of us, as academics and researchers, cut our teeth in research writing. Some of the areas this presentation will touch on include: Why the need to publish in journals? What can be published? What characteristics make a paper publishable? Understanding the journals market and Stages in getting a paper published.
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    A comparative study of the job functions of university and university of technology graduates and diplomates in special libraries and engineering firms
    (2008) Rajagopaul, Athena; Raju, Jayarani
    This study investigated the job functions of university and university of technology graduates and diplomates in the staff structures of special libraries and engineering firms in KwaZulu-Natal. The objective of the study was to draw on possible trends and best practices in the latter for the Library and Information Services (LIS) work environment, as engineering like LIS draws its personnel from both traditional universities and universities of technology (UoT). Hence, the main target population for the study was university and UoT graduates and diplomates in special libraries and engineering firms in KZN. Graduates and diplomates were chosen for inclusion in the study using a census because of the smallness of the staff complements in these organizations. Two sets of self-administered questionnaires were distributed, one to graduates/diplomates and the other to employers in the selected organizations. Data collected was analysed using descriptive statistics and content analysis. Findings of the study revealed inconsistencies with the National Diploma: Library and Information Studies (ND: LIS) where these diplomates occupy paraprofessional as well as professional positions in special libraries whilst engineering graduates and diplomates tend to occupy job titles according to their highest academic qualifications. In both special libraries as well as in the engineering environment there is much task overlap and downshifting of job functions between paraprofessional and professional university and UoT graduates and diplomates. This study has revealed a valuable best practice from the engineering discipline for the LIS profession, which is that of professional registration. Professional registration of engineering staff with the Engineering Council of South Africa is a statutory requirement in the engineering profession and allows for the growth and development of those in the profession. It is recommended that the LIS profession, and the Library and Information Association of South Africa (LIASA) specifically, investigate a mechanism for professional registration of library and information workers.
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    Validating cohesion metrics by mining open source software data with association rules
    (2008) Singh, Pariksha; Eyono Obono, Seraphin Desire; Petkov, Doncho
    Competitive pressure on the software industry encourages organizations to examine the effectiveness of their software development and evolutionary processes. Therefore it is important that software is measured in order to improve the quality. The question is not whether we should measure software but how it should be measured. Software measurement has been in existence for over three decades and it is still in the process of becoming a mature science. The many influences of new software development technologies have led to a diverse growth in software measurement technologies which have resulted in various definitions and validation techniques. An important aspect of software measurement is the measurement of the design, which nowadays often means the measurement of object oriented design. Chidamer and Kemerer (1994) designed a metric suite for object oriented design, which has provided a new foundation for metrics and acts as a starting point for further development of the software measurement science. This study documents theoretical object oriented cohesion metrics and calculates those metrics for classes extracted from a sample of open source software packages. For each open source software package, the following data is recorded: software size, age, domain, number of developers, number of bugs, support requests, feature requests, etc. The study then tests by means of association rules which theoretical cohesion metrics are validated hypothesis: that older software is more cohesive than younger software, bigger packages is less cohesive than smaller packages, and the smaller the software program the more maintainable it is. This study attempts to validate existing theoretical object oriented cohesion metrics by mining open source software data with association rules.
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    LIS education and training in South Africa: a historical review
    (2005) Raju, Jayarani
    The article aims to provide a more complete historical review of LIS education and training in South Africa, particularly the involvement of technikons as well as how changes in the post-1990 era in South African society generally and in the higher education sector specifically, have impacted on LIS education and training.