Browsing by Author "Marimuthu, Mudaray."

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A model for DevOps implementation in South Africa.
(2024) Marimuthu, Mudaray.; Govender, Irene.; Ranjeeth, Sanjay.
Software is a vital component of a digital economy. Organisations use software for operational efficiency, to gain competitive advantage and to retain customers. Software systems have become the focal point for competitive advantage and organisations have embraced software development methodologies that have the capacity to handle changing user requirements in a quick and nondisruptive manner. The advent of agile methodologies ensured that there was a universally endorsed software development methodology that could deliver on the promise of speedy development while maintaining sufficient quality standards to ensure end-user satisfaction. However, the euphoria that surrounded the perception of success with regard to agile methodology was soon dispelled because of challenges related to the phases of software release and deployment into the functional (“live/operational”) environment. Hence, the intended benefits of agile methodology became somewhat limited thereby compromising the methodology’s acceptance on a universal platform. To overcome this impediment, the DevOps approach was introduced to obviate the disconnect between the development and deployment teams so that software features can be rapidly deployed. The DevOps approach did, however, come with its own set of challenges. Software practitioners were challenged to acquire an understanding of the factors that achieve acceptance and enable DevOps success. Although these factors have been extensively researched in the context of agile methodology, there is a lack of empirical evidence that attests to the acceptance and success factors for DevOps implementation. The current study was undertaken to provide a resolution to this gap that has been identified in the body of knowledge pertaining to software development methodology. The study leverages comprehensive empirical evidence from the professional software development community in South Africa to enable the researcher to converge the study’s analysis and discussion to a cogent model of DevOps acceptance and success factors. From a research design perspective, a sequential exploratory research method consisting of qualitative and quantitative phases of research was employed in this study. The qualitative method used a phenomenological approach to examine DevOps professionals' lived experience of DevOps to validate success and acceptance factors that have been identified in the academic literature. The outputs from the qualitative phase of the study were integrated with existing literature to create a conceptual model that was then subjected to quantitative inquiry using the technique of structural equation modelling. The results from the quantitative inquiry identified the factors of automation, Devops tools and technology and organisational culture as being critical to DevOps success. From a methodology acceptance perspective, performance expectancy, effort expectancy and social influence were identified as crucial determinants of the behavioural intention to use DevOps. The outcome of this study is the generation of a concise list of factors that are structured along the dimensions of DevOps success and DevOps acceptance. These factors have been empirically validated from the academic and practitioner perspectives thereby providing practitioners with an ideal resource to understand DevOps usage and enhance DevOps adoption in the professional sector. It also provides sufficient academic content to enable researchers to use the knowledge generated in the study as a platform from which to sustain the evolution of agile methodology and DevOps knowledge.
Acceptance of mobile money technology by retailers in Accra, Ghana.
(2022) Cato, Valentine Nii Lante.; Marimuthu, Mudaray.
Mobile Money technologies have become part and parcel of people's daily lives in developing countries, especially Africa. Much effort has been made in making Mobile Money technologies available, safe, reliable, and effective amongst people in Africa. One area where the technology seems to be gradually diffusing into is the business world. More and more businesses seem to be adopting the technology. However, little is known about the dynamics involved in retailers' acceptance and usage of Mobile Money. Hence, this study sought to explore the acceptance of Mobile Money in the retail business sector while also finding out factors that influence the acceptance. The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) was selected as a theoretical framework for this study. Using a quantitative survey approach, retailers in the business area of Accra, Ghana, were sampled using convenience sampling. Findings revealed that all retail businesses were aware of Mobile Money supporting businesses. Most retail businesses are using Mobile Money in different ways to support their business. Basic transactions such as receiving payments from customers and payment payments or remittances were common. Factors such as performance expectancy, effort expectancy, price value, hedonic motivation, and habit were seen to impact the use of Mobile Money by retailers. Therefore, designers of Mobile Money services must consider these factors when developing these applications by ensuring it has functionality that is useful and easy to use. Furthermore, telecommunication companies that make Mobile Money services available to retailers and the government need to work together to decrease commission and transaction costs. These measures will results in increased acceptance of Mobile Money by retailers.
An analysis of factors affecting implementation of SAP in South Africa public sector.
(2019) Muyambi, Obert.; Marimuthu, Mudaray.
SAP enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementations in the South African public sector have faced many challenges and the majority of them have failed to achieve their intended purposes. They have failed to be finished within the project plan, and within the budgeted time, and are largely unable to meet the expectations of the users to the extent that the real value and returns on the IT investments have not been realised. SAP ERP implementation failure is defined in many ways; a project that is abandoned is a clear example of a failed project, a system implementation that has been delivered exceeding its budget and planned time is also classified as a failed project as it can lead to serious financial consequences for the company. A SAP ERP project that does not deliver the intended benefits to the users is also defined as failed. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore impacts of success factors on SAP ERP implementation in KwaZulu-Natal. The Technology-Organisational-Environment (TOE) framework was used and nine success factors were classified into these three domains and measured against the dependent variable, Implementation Success. A quantitative, cross-sectional survey was carried out and data was gathered data from forty-seven SAP-system users from three state-owned entities in KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. Tests of reliability and validity were done, and the data analysis was carried out using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), version 22. The findings of the research showed that technological factors have a significant influence on implementation success. Lack of thorough data migration through various iterations of cleansed master and transactional data will lead to a new system with incorrect data. The degree of ERP flexibility was identified as a measure of implementation success, the higher the flexibility the higher the level of success. Systems that are largely inflexible and which require a high degree of customisation cause a lot of inefficiencies. Organisational factors such as change management, training, or business-process re-engineering showed a significant influence on the successful implementation of SAP systems. Respondents indicated that these factors are critical in ensuring that the SAP ERP system implementation is successful. The research findings for environmental factors showed that there is a positive relationship between vendor support and implementation success. Experienced vendors who have deep and specific knowledge of their systems, and are continuously involved with their clients, have evidenced successful implementations. However, top management support and project governance did not show any significant influence on the success of an SAP ERP implementation.
Critical success factors that influence the performance of agile software development methodologies in organisations.
(2020) Peters, Yeshmeeta Deodutt.; Marimuthu, Mudaray.
The agile manifesto was brought into existence in 2001 and agile as a methodology was derived in the 1990s. The reason for the formulation of this methodology was to create methods to produce software in a better manner that could fulfill the customer’s needs in an environment that was iterative and controlled. The types of agile methodologies being followed are Scrum, extreme project management, adaptive project management, and dynamic project management method and scrum is the most widely utilized. There is insufficient research into the hierarchy of importance of the critical success factors that affect agile projects. Critical success factors of organisational structure, people, process, technical and, project factors have been identified in previous studies, however, the ranking of these factors in terms of the level of importance for agile success has not been studied enough. These critical factors are classified as Technical, Organisational, Process, Project, and People categories. There were suggestions from researchers that test automation and cloud computing can also positively affect the success of a project using agile. Since these two factors were not studied in conjunction with the other critical factors mentioned previously, this study extended previous studies by incorporating these factors. This study expanded the factors by including cloud computing and test automation as possible critical factors to the successful implementation of agile software development. The research method chosen for this study was the quantitative method. The data was collected using questionnaires and was analyzed via descriptive and inferential statistics. To achieve an acceptable statistical power, a sample size of 200 agile practitioners was targeted, but the researcher was able to obtain 110 responses. SPSS version 27.0 was used for the descriptive and inferential data analysis and the statistical tests. The main findings indicated that people, technical factors, and test automation were the top three critical success factors in terms of importance. The project, people, and organisational structure were the top three critical success factors in terms of performance. Cloud computing was found to be less important whereas test automation was found to be an important factor for agile success. Significant gaps were identified between the critical success factors and their performance in organisations. The study recommends that organisations place additional emphasis on the critical success factors that affect agile success and the performance of these factors to close the gap identified in this study. Further recommendations are to provide adequate training in agile processes.
Factors affecting the adoption of green data centres in Nigeria.
(2020) Ojediran, Oluwatosin Akinyele.; Marimuthu, Mudaray.
Green technology adoption is a reasonable effort that organisations, which are into data centres, should endorse due to the environmental crisis in the world concerning electronic waste and emission of harmful gasses, amongst other environmental concerns. Countries worldwide, especially the developed countries like the United States of America, have improved their data centres for environmental sustainability. However, most organisations in developing countries are yet to improve the level of environmental sustainability in the area of Information Technology. The adoption of green data centres in Nigeria is essential because it influences the environment. Anecdotal evidence suggests that most organisations in developing countries lack efforts to go green; this may be attributed to a lack of knowledge on reducing land space and technological components, ultimately affecting productivity. Various factors influence the adoption of green technology, and this study aims to determine these factors in the context of green data centres. This study discovered factors that affect the adoption of green data centres in Nigeria using a descriptive qualitative research approach. Interview questions were aligned to the technology organisational and environmental (TOE) framework. Thematic data analysis using NVivo software was used to find themes that show the factors affecting the adoption of green data centres in Nigeria. Results indicate a lack of awareness, technical difficultly, lack of management support and inadequate policies for green data centres, as predominant factors affecting green data centre adoption.
Factors of user interface design that influence usage of e-banking websites.
(2016) Ogutu, Ravi.; Marimuthu, Mudaray.
The aim of this research is to investigate factors of users’ interface design that influence the usage of e-banking websites in South Africa. The advent of electronic banking (e-banking) has brought about a change in which both the banking institution and customers do their transactions. In most cases, customers are no longer required to be at the physical premises of banking institutions to receive some services as banking institutions’ online presence has become as important as their physical location. Therefore, the study onto the usage of e-banking websites warrants a systematic approach that compares customers’ perceptions of e-banking websites against what banking institutions are actually offering through such medium. A literature search reveals that there are a number of studies that deals with IT adoption factors pertaining to user’s perception, perceived ease of use and usability of information systems for business-related purposes. This research specifically analyses how the current e-banking websites is aligned with the 7Cs of E-Commerce customer interface theoretical framework (Rayport and Jaworski, 2000), how users perceive the current user interface design of the banking websites and also how the perception of the user matches the theoretical framework constructs. A 10-factor checklist was designed to compare the various design elements of the different South African banks’ websites, specifically the elements that pertain to user interface design. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was also adopted in this study to ascertain the relationship between the 7 theoretical framework constructs and Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) and Perceived Usefulness of banking websites. The research adopted a quantitative methodology which involves the use of questionnaire as the instrument for data collection. Findings reveal that elements of the 7Cs framework and TAM help in the designing of the user interface and if present they help the customer to be more at ease with the website. This subsequently leads to customer satisfaction. It was also found that there were some elements of the 7Cs of e-Commerce Customer Interface framework that were under-represented, and in some cases left out altogether, when the design of some of the e-banking websites was being done. This in turn led to some of the features needed by customers not being available. The insight offered therein, will hopefully, contribute substantially to the overall user satisfaction in the complex and challenging world of e-commerce.
Information systems performance : a study of individual and group social cognitive predictors.
(2017) Achmad, Dean Alain.; Marimuthu, Mudaray.
Over the past decades, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have changed the way that businesses and individuals operate, live and learn. The Information Systems (ISs) that drive these technologies have transformed the business and education environment in which they are applied and have become the key to the success of the ICTs. The IS development process is essentially a social activity where people engage to accomplish the evolution of an IS artefact. Information System Development (ISD) projects are the approach by which business delivers IS solutions and are often regarded as a mammoth undertaking executed by a group of people who are hired for their effective skills and experience with the focus on performance. Industry has been experiencing problems in the delivery of successful information systems where the evidence of the existence of the problem areas is widespread; however, there is a scarcity of appropriate solutions. Theoretical and empirical research is deficient in the context of performance improvement and prediction for information systems development project work. With academia being the training ground for industry, this is the appropriate setting to work towards practical achievable solutions and to later apply these to real-world situations for success. Hence the overall aim of this study is to investigate how to enhance student performance on both the individual and a group level from a social cognitive perspective and to derive knowledge and to develop tools and techniques to assist IS educators to better prepare graduates for the field with the necessary interaction characteristics and skills for success. This quantitative study intends to gather primary data and to interpret the findings using social cognitive predictor factors to improve student performance. The participants of this study, students (n = 140) were self-assigned to groups (n=26) on two campuses for an IS project-based course, who voluntarily completed a questionnaire. The responses were self-reported perceptions of their efficacy, individual group behaviour and observations of peer behaviour during group interactions. The nature of the problem and the supporting literature has made it necessary for the construction of a framework that incorporates the foundations of individual and group efficacy and group behaviour theories. The study revealed that IS Efficacy theory constructs do not strongly predict SD performance but do contribute valuable knowledge towards effective solutions for academia and the field.
Internet adoption among small and micro enterprises in the business-services sector.
(2010) Subbaye, Reshma.; Marimuthu, Mudaray.
SMEs' are important in any economy, because they are the key drivers of innovation, employment and economic growth. Harnessing the Internet for business purposes improves SMEs‟ operational efficiency and competitiveness in an increasingly global economy. While there are many studies which provide insights about factors influencing Internet adoption among SMEs, there is little data about Internet adoption in African countries. Therefore this study highlights a relatively unexplored research context, namely SMEs in the business-services sector in an emerging economy. The aim of the study was to explore the factors that either inhibited or facilitated Internet adoption, and to describe the uses of the Internet by SMEs in the business-services sector. The study provided evidence that SMEs are aware of the advantages provided by the Internet. However, the short-term benefits were not apparent enough to SME owners for them to plan to make any significant investment in adopting Internet technologies. The results also showed that, while the majority of SMEs in the business-services sector are engaging in Internet activities, these activities are mainly e-mail and web browsing. E-commerce (use of the Internet for trading purposes) is limited. Furthermore, this study showed that external pressure, from customers, suppliers and competitors is the most significant driver of Internet adoption among SMEs in the business-services. While most SMEs acknowledged that the Internet is becoming increasingly relevant to their businesses, they identify the main barriers to Internet adoption as concerns about the costs and complexity, and issues around security and lack of support when it comes to using the Internet. The recommendations of the study are that the government should give businesses more incentives to adopt and utilise the Internet and, SME owners/managers need to realise that as businesses increasingly engage in e-commerce, their SMEs will have more opportunities to compete in the global marketplace.