Ernest Mnkandla | University of South Africa (original) (raw)

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Papers by Ernest Mnkandla

CRC Press eBooks, Jul 1, 2024

International Journal of Information Systems and Project Management, Oct 3, 2023

IGI Global eBooks, Jan 18, 2011

International Journal of Smart Technology and Learning

International Conference on Software Engineering Advances, 2007

Distance education has by nature always depended on technology as a vehicle for various media use... more Distance education has by nature always depended on technology as a vehicle for various media used to facilitate learning. Today as technology has taken centre stage in our lives especially Internet-based technology, distance education continues to grow in its use of state-ofthe-art tools and hence the need to effectively adopt these online tools for online education remains inevitable. This study presents an evaluation of the usability of social media blends in elearning environments. Comprehensive guidelines for improving the usability of social media blends are proposed in order to facilitate learner networks where knowledge can be created that is based on the leaners' experiences and their peer connections. In this meta-analysis study literature was searched to identify qualitative research articles that discuss social media blends most commonly used in e-learning. The search was done on South African and international academic databases which included SAe-Publications, EbscoHost, ProQuest and Google Scholar, among others. The metadata analysis was conducted following the online collaborative learning theory as a conceptual framework and the findings agreed with previous studies that the use of social media blends still lacks important empirical data. This study recommends a set of phases in designing curriculum for social media use in e-learning. The proposed guidelines should be useful to instructional designers interested in using modern learning theories in e-learning. Since African qualitative research could not be found, further work in this field could involve qualitative studies on the use of e-learning in African institutions.

The main goal of every business organization is to capitalize on its marketing resources and conc... more The main goal of every business organization is to capitalize on its marketing resources and concentrate on high meeting marketing targets. Likewise, presently most of business organisations, especially multi-national companies are focused on studying about which business opportunities offer a significant return on investment. However, this process requires an important amount of time in monitoring and analyzing data throughout all the media channels. To this end, the present paper aimed at demonstrating how artificial intelligence is a competitive advantage tool for the business operations, using the rail industry in the Southern African Development Community as case study. This paper breaks new ground by summarising the opportunities associated with the implementation artificial intelligence’s value drivers in the railway transportation networks. It was discovered that artificial intelligence can enhance the features, functions and performance of the railway industry; optimising the internal business operations; foreseeing system breakdown, identifying critical zones for improvement within product design; measuring the state of art of the railway systems; decreasing maintenance activities.

Computer systems science and engineering, 2023

Lecture notes on data engineering and communications technologies, 2023

World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, International Journal of Educational and Pedagogical Sciences, Nov 6, 2014

IGI Global eBooks, 2007

This chapter is aimed at comprehensively analyzing and defining agile methodologies of software d... more This chapter is aimed at comprehensively analyzing and defining agile methodologies of software development from a software quality assurance perspective. A unique way of analyzing agile methodologies to reveal the similarities that the authors of the methods never tell you is introduced. The chapter starts by defining agile methodologies from three perspectives: a theoretical definition, a functional definition, and a contextualized definition. Then an agile quality assurance perspective is presented starting from a brief review of some of the traditional understandings of quality assurance to the innovations that agility has added to the world of quality. The presented analysis approach opens a window into an understanding of the state-of-the-art in agile methodologies and quality, and what the future could have in store for software developers. An understanding of the analysis framework for objectively analyzing and comparing agile methodologies is illustrated by applying it to three specific agile methodologies.

International Journal of Forensic Software Engineering

Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the South African Institute of Computer Scientists and Information Technologists, 2018

Development and Operations (DevOps) is a buzzword in organisations developing software in which r... more Development and Operations (DevOps) is a buzzword in organisations developing software in which reacting to changing requirements and continuous delivery are inevitable. Resolving the issues of siloes between the development and operations departments in order to allow collaboration between them is the underlying philosophy of the DevOps movement. However, existing evidence indicates that the challenges surrounding the adoption of this collaboration culture by management and organisations may not necessarily translate to acceptance at implantation level by the teams. There is therefore a need for a model to guide the adoption. This study investigated human behavioural models and technology acceptance models that predict the behavioural intent to accept new technology. Based on the identified acceptance predictors, a model for successful acceptance of DevOps collaboration culture was proposed. This proposed model would be useful to software development organisations who have already adopted or are about to adopt DevOps.

Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Computer Supported Education, 2020

The growing use of applications and access to the internet has increased the number of average co... more The growing use of applications and access to the internet has increased the number of average computer users in South Africa, as people are using applications like WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and more. The goal of the study is to identify the challenges that most South African people face when they are interacting with computer applications, web applications, and mobile applications. The reason for conducting the study is that lately in South Africa we have seen an increase in South Africans who have access to computer systems, such as the use of smartphones, tablets or iPads, game consoles, and laptops. Most of the people who are using these devices or have access to them still face challenges as to how to use these devices or to use some of the applications that come with these devices. The paper will begin by introducing the topic. The paper will be followed by a literature review section, which will include four topics relating to the topic that helped the researcher to build a foundation for the research topic and to get ideas on how to do the research. The paper will then be followed by the research methodology, and the findings of, and discussions flowing from the study will then follow.

Handheld computing systems or devices can be defined as exceptionally portable, independent infor... more Handheld computing systems or devices can be defined as exceptionally portable, independent information management and communication devices. Furthermore, handheld computing systems or devices can be seen as a small or pocket-sized computing device with a touch screen keyboard and input and output interface. According to the definition of handheld computing systems, numerous devices fit the description such as smartphones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and pagers. However, adult firsttime users of computer systems face different issues in adopting the device and the literature reviewed shows that most of them have difficulties with the design, such as the touch screen. The negative views of technology devices by adult firsttime users can be attributed to the difficulty in adapting to new technology. Weakness, incapacity, distrust of technology, absence of perceived value and trouble in understanding how to utilise the device are largely the main problems observed by adult first...

2023 IST-Africa Conference (IST-Africa)

4th International Conference on Wireless, Intelligent and Distributed Environment for Communication, 2022

Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, 2020

Scrum provides many benefits to organizations requiring a project management framework for comple... more Scrum provides many benefits to organizations requiring a project management framework for complex adaptive problems. Some of these benefits include improved teamwork, improved time to market, and a noticeable decrease in software defects. The primary objective of this paper is to test nineteen research hypotheses that require a quantitative analysis of the Scrum framework. In order to test these hypotheses, the findings of a survey questionnaire was used to gather response data from Scrum practitioners on their perceptions of factors affecting Scrum adoption. Exploratory factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha analysis confirmed the validity and reliability of the measuring instrument. Following these analyses, a correlation matrix was used to test the relationship strength among the different factors. The Spearman correlation analysis revealed statistically significant correlations. Multiple linear regression statistical models were developed to examine the existence of factors and constructs impacting Scrum adoption. Our findings indicate that four of the nineteen hypotheses are statistically significant. The factors Change Resistance, Sprint Management, Relative Advantage, and Complexity are shown to have a significant linear relationship to Scrum as perceived by Scrum Practitioners working within South African organizations. Future research could incorporate a larger population sample to improve the generalizability of the findings.

Abstract The challenges of selecting appropriate software development methodologies for a given p... more Abstract The challenges of selecting appropriate software development methodologies for a given project, and tailoring the methodologies to a specific human culture have been dealt with since the establishment of software development as a discipline. The general trend in software development methodologies since the early 1990s has been to change from plan–driven approaches to more iterative incremental development approaches. This change has led to the birth of a group of methodologies called “agile methodologies”, whose values and principles are becoming more and more prevalent in the software development industry. The practice in this industry has since 2004 shifted from an initial focus on the selection of specific agile methodologies to selecting the most appropriate practices from the agile family. Previous work on methodology selection has centered on either choosing between agile and plan–driven approaches or choosing specific methodologies from these two groups. This research aims at developing a framework for selecting the most appropriate set of agile practices for a given project instead of selecting a specific agile methodology. The results of this research contribute towards greater understanding of agile software development issues and should be useful to developer firms that want to adopt agile methodologies as a generic development culture without worrying about specific agile methodologies