Toward user-centric management of organizational information systems

We identify the essential action domains for effective user-oriented management of organizational information systems.The study extrapolates the analytic findings from a large-scale information system of knowledge-intensive organization.The observations outline the actionable knowledge indispensable for usability improvements of information portals.The initial step is a wide deployment of behavioral analytics, in order to identify vital user characteristics.This knowledge empowers re-engineering of the existing business processes and design of new ones.The development should account for the essential elements of human interactions in digital environments.The information systems should employ user assistance services and adaptive personalization features

Criticality Analysis for Network Utilities Asset Management

The proposed work describes the main part of asset criticality analysis for Distribution Network Services Providers (DNSP), also known as Network Utilities, the severity-value factors definition. The methodology is based on the risk-based evaluation of assets, considering potential impacts of their failures on network value. Thus, it provides the capability to take maintenance management decision in terms of value and risk, considering the whole network under unique and homogeneous criteria. A hierarchy of assets ranked according to with value and risk will come out of this process, which represents a fundamental result serving as input of the subsequent steps of the asset management process. Specific attention is paid to network utilities issues, characterizing assets in these companies, and the services that they provide. In addition to this, high requirements established by the Service Level Agreements (SLA), that are characteristics of network services contracts, make this methodology especially suitable in this application. In order to illustrate method applicability, an example extracted from a real electrical network use case is included.Unión Europea 64573

Gestão Avançada do Ciclo de Vida de Unidades de Produção

Esta dissertação foi desenvolvida no âmbito dos Sistemas de Manutenção e o seu objetivo foi criar uma ferramenta que permita aferir sobre “Qual a melhor estratégia de manutenção a utilizar de modo a obter o menor custo possível?”. Para desenvolver o algoritmo era necessário ter uma amostra para testes e, por isso, foi desenvolvido um simulador para gerar dados. Estes dados basearam-se na produtividade, custos e nas falhas que iam ocorrendo ao longo do tempo. Foi necessário desenhar um modelo para as máquinas e introduzir ruído de modo a torná-las o mais reais possível. A ferramenta desenhada recebeu dados das máquinas e através de um Algoritmo Genético gerou as estratégias a serem aplicadas durante os testes. Para aferir qual a estratégia mínima associada ao menor custo, foi aplicado o Método dos Mínimos Quadrados. Após obter o resultado da ferramenta criada, este foi comparado com outras duas Estratégias de Manutenção, Run-To-Failure e Manutenção Baseada em Condições. Este passo foi importante para verificar que o algoritmo estava a funcionar corretamente e quais os benefícios de o utilizar. Foram comparados quatro Indicadores de Desempenho: Tempo Médio entre Avarias (MTBF), o Tempo Médio entre Manutenções (MTBM), Taxa de Avaria (FR) e a Disponibilidade (A), para além dos custos entre as três estratégias e verificou-se que o algoritmo estava de acordo com as expectativas. O projeto desenvolvido é útil não só a nível da ferramenta implementada que dá uma estratégia aproximada do ideal, como o simulador desenhado permite fazer simulações individuais para qualquer caso que se queira testar.This dissertation was developed in the scope of Maintenance Systems. Its goal was to create a tool that could answer the question: “What is the best maintenance strategy to use that generates the lowest possible cost?”. A test dataset was required to build the algorithm, so a simulator that generates data was created. The data was based on productivity, costs and appearing failures over time. A model to represent the machines was built, white-noise was considered in the model to make it a trustworthy representation of reality. The conceived tool received data from the machines and through a Genetic Algorithm it presented strategies to be applied during the tests. The Least Squares Method was applied in order to find out which strategy has the lowest cost. After obtaining the result from the created tool, it was compared to two other maintenance strategies, Run-To-Failure and Condition-Based Maintenance. This step was important to validate the algorithm performance and the benefits of using the chosen algorithm. Four Performance Indicators: Mean Time Between Failere (MTBF), Mean Time Between Maintenance (MTBM), Taxe Failure (TF) and Availability (A), besides the cost, were compared among the three selected strategies and the algorithm performance was, once again, validated. This project is meaningful due to the created tool, that will generate an almost ideal strategy, but also because of the conceived simulator which allows to run individual simulations to any given case

Kerangka budaya penyenggaraan aset tak alih pihak berkuasa tempatan

Infrastructure development is fundamental to the success of a country to achieve the status of developed nation. However, the development made is deemed to be unsuccessful without a strong culture of maintenance to maintain the existing infrastructure. Nevertheless, the effort is unworthy since the performance level for maintaining immovable assets in Malaysia, especially those that belongs to Local Authorities is still at unsatisfactory level. This problem arises due to the poor maintenance culture that resulted to the immovable assets were not properly maintained. Thus, this research was conducted to achieve four objectives. The objectives are: (i) to identify the main factors that influence the development of maintenance culture; (ii) to identify the good practice for each main factor that influence the development of maintenance culture; (iii) to identify the indicators of positive maintenance culture; (iv) to determine the relationship between the main factors of maintenance culture with positive maintenance culture. The research involves 22 PBT in Peninsular Malaysia which consist City Council/City Hall and Municipal Council. This research was implemented using two approaches, which are distribution of questionnaires (questionnaires 1 and 2) and interview with experts in order to validate and verify the research findings. The data were analyzed using descriptive analysis, calculation on relative important index (RII), and structural equation modeling-partial least squares (PLS-SEM) analysis. The research found that almost all respondents among the Local Authorities in the opinion that factors such as leadership, teamwork, involvement, motivation, training and education, communication, maintenance policies, reward and recognition, empowerment, and organization structure are important factors that influence the development of maintenance culture. Six out of ten factors were identified as the key factors influencing the development of maintenance culture. The six factors is leadership, teamwork, communication, involvement, maintenance policies and training and education. Meanwhile, 26 practices have been identified as the good practices for the six key factors in developing of maintenance culture. This research has proven that there is a significant relationship between communication, maintenance policies, involvement, teamwork and, training and education factors with positive maintenance culture. However, leadership factor has no significant relationship with positive maintenance culture

Evaluation of Information Security in a Corporate Division Producing Internet Services

Tässä tutkimuksessa keskityttiin tietoturvallisuuden aihepiiriin. Tutkimuksen teoreettisena tavoitteena oli selvittää, minkälaisista tekijöistä organisaation tietoturvallisuus muodostuu ja miten sitä voidaan hallita. Käytännön tavoitteena oli kartoittaa kohdeorganisaation tietoturvallisuuden nykytaso ja luoda kartoituksen perusteella suunnitelma organisaation tietoturvallisuuden kehittämiseksi. Tutkimuksen teoriaosassa avattiin tietoturvallisuuden käsitteistöä ja pohdittiin tietoturvallisuuden merkitystä organisaatioille. Katsauksessa eriteltiin organisaation toimijoiden tehtäviä ja vastuita ja tutustuttiin ISO 17799 -standardiin, joka määrittelee yleisiä toimintaperiaatteita organisaation tietoturvallisuuden hallintaan. Tietoturvallisuuden hallintaa tarkasteltiin prosessina, jossa organisaation tietoturvastrategia ja riskienhallinta ohjaavat toiminnan kehittämistä. Lopuksi tutkittiin erilaisia tietoturvallisuuden kontrolleja tietoverkkojen, tietoaineiston ja saavutettavuuden suojaamiseksi. Tutkimuksen käytännön osassa tehtiin kohdeorganisaatiolle tietoturvakartoitus, jonka pohjana käytettiin ISO 17799 -standardia. Kartoituksessa havaittiin runsaasti tietoturvallisuuden kannalta hyvin toteutettuja asioita: muun muassa tekniset suojaukset, jokapäiväinen toiminta ja erikoistilanteiden hallinta on hoidettu hyvin ja etenkin tiedon saavutettavuuteen on panostettu. Organisaation tietoturvallisuuteen liittyvät suurimmat ongelmakohdat kohdistuvat pääasiassa hallinnolliselle puolelle. Selkeitä puutteita havaittiin erityisesti tietoturvatyön organisoimisessa ja vastuunjaossa, strategisessa suunnittelussa ja dokumentoinnissa sekä tietoturvahäiriöiden ja parannuskohteiden hallinnan organisoimisessa. Kartoituksen tulosten pohjalta kohdeorganisaatiolle tehtiin kehityssuunnitelma, jonka avulla organisaatio voi lähteä kehittämään omaa tietoturvallisuuttaan ja korjata suurimmat havaitut puutteet. Kehitystyön myötä organisaatio pystyy tulevaisuudessa ylläpitämään riittävää tietoturvallisuuden tasoa ja siten vastaamaan liiketoiminnan edellyttämiin vaatimuksiin.This study concentrates on information security. In the theoretical part of the study the goal was to find out in an organizational context what kinds of elements does information security consist of and how it can be managed. The goal of the hands-on part of the study was to conduct an information security assessment as a case study for a specific organization, and based on the evaluation to create a plan how to improve the state of the organization's information security. The theoretical part of this study introduced the basic terms and concepts of information security and discussed the significance and need for information security in an organization. The study reviewed the tasks and responsibilities for different roles in an organization and presented the ISO 17799 standard, which defines common principles for managing information security in organizations. Information security management was studied as a process, in which the improvement actions are driven by the organization's strategy for information security and risk management. Finally, information security control mechanisms for securing computer networks and information assets where discussed, and mechanisms for assuring the availability of information were studied. The case study involved in conducting an evaluation of information security for the target organization. The evaluation was based on the ISO 17799 standard. The results of the evaluation showed that a good part of the organization's information security is well implemented. For example, technical controls for information security, daily operations, and incident management are in good shape, and effort has been made on assuring the availability of information. On the other hand, the evaluation revealed that the largest problems in information security were focused in the administrative actions of the organization. Clear deficiencies were found especially in organization of and responsibilities in the actions on information security, strategic planning and documentation, and in the management of information security incidents and improvements. Based on the results of the evaluation an improvement plan was created for the case organization. Using the plan, the organization may start the process of improving information security and correct the most important problems found in the evaluation. With the actions of improvement the organization is able to maintain an adequate level of information security and to insure that business requirements are met

Highway maintenance management : a study of Lebuhraya Damansara-Puchong (LDP)

Practical and effective highways have been known to enhance the movement of people as well as products to boost the economy of a country. Without a proper maintenance system, highways can rapidly tumble into depreciation which in the end will affect the highways patron in terms of vehicle operation, time, reliability, and safety. The purpose of the present research was to evaluate the effectiveness of the highway maintenance management system of Lebuhraya Damansara-Puchong (LDP). The selection of LDP was related to some issues such as the high number of accidents, road congestion, flash floods and noise problem indicate that LDP has major concern to be addressed in relation to its practices in terms of the effectiveness of the maintenance management system. The study also attempted to propose improvements in policies and regulations of highway maintenance management system for LDP and the flow of communication in the Highway Maintenance Department. The study applied the qualitative case study approach in which the research explained the effectiveness of maintenance management system practices at LDP to overcome problems in maintenance work and improve the information management process which is critical in preparing a high quality work report. The study revealed the problems of effectiveness in the LDP highway maintenance system, the importance of the policies and regulations for work execution, observation and surveillance, and the significance of the flow of communication in the application of highway maintenance management system particularly in the preparation of high quality work report. Recommendations for future study are offered to provide opportunities for future researchers to continue this research, focusing specifically on the highway environment