Browsing by Author "Uys, Walter"

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    Open Access
    Experiences of South African women in agile projects: an intersectional perspective
    (2025) Ngwadla, Sinethemba; Uys, Walter; Tsibolane, Pitso
    Gender diversity remains a significant challenge in the Information Technology (IT) industry, particularly in South Africa, where the workforce composition does not reflect the nation's demographic diversity. This disparity results in the underrepresentation of women despite policies aimed at fostering inclusion. Existing research highlights a decline in women's participation in the IT sector but often overlooks the perceptions and treatment of women within IT workplaces. This study investigates women's experiences working in Agile project environments in South African IT companies. Agile is a popular software development methodology emphasizing collaboration, communication, and collective decision-making. Using intersectionality theory, this cross-sectional study examines how gender and background factors affect women's work performance. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with twenty-five women IT professionals recruited via snowball sampling. Key findings indicate that gender discrimination persists in Agile environments. The study revealed that South African women in Agile project environments exist within a male dominated, Gendered Organisational Culture, which privileges behaviours and actions that benefit men. Women in these environments often experience feelings of inadequacy due to their minority status in predominantly male teams. Other specific persistent issues emerged such as gendered recognition bias, gender pay gap, job insecurity, lack of support for motherhood, work-life balance, and scarcity of women mentors. The study further reveals that the high attrition rate of women in IT is not due to the technical demands of the roles but rather the negative impact of organisational culture and gender bias on their professional development. The study's limitations include its reliance on a small, non-random sample, which may not fully represent the broader population. Additionally, the focus on Agile environments may limit the generalizability of the findings to other IT settings. Future research should explore the intersection of gender with other factors, such as socioeconomic status and motherhood, providing a more comprehensive understanding of the barriers women face in IT. It should also investigate strategies to create more inclusive and supportive workplace cultures.
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    Open Access
    Factors influencing user adherence towards privacy standards in the usage of Internet of Things devices in South Africa
    (2022) Bazanye, Kizito Philip; Uys, Walter; Chigona, Wallace
    Background: The Internet of Things (IoT) is considered an essential element of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). IoT devices are vulnerable to attacks. These vulnerabilities affect all aspects of daily life including retail and home automation interconnected by basic networking. The vulnerable end nodes may be machines, human to machine interactions, and the integration points of human-to-human communication. Problem statement: The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic ushered in increased use of IoT devices. The increased use of IoT devices perpetuated negligent use and therefore cyber-attacks exposed South African IoT users' data harvested through these devices. Purpose of research: The objective of the study is to conceptualise and understand what factors influence IoT device users to adhere to recommended IoT device privacy standards in South Africa. Design/methodology/approach: This qualitative, interpretivist, cross-sectional exploratory research was guided by a three-phase approach using Activity Theory. The ontological stance adopted is subjectivism. The interview questions were derived from the Activity Theory model and themes identified in the literature reviewed. The qualitative data collected from the semistructured interviews was analysed using deductive thematic analysis by linking of elements to the six components of Activity Theory. Findings: The lack of privacy adherence is driven by a lack of trust in IoT devices and service providers as well as convenience and health factors. Additionally, users' personality, awareness and surroundings are major influencers to IoT device privacy standards' adherence. Contribution and implication: This study conceptualises how IoT device privacy standards adherence can further be promoted with the increased adoption of such technologies. Further research may need to examine the specific impact of legislation on users and IoT device privacy. Additionally, the impact of third-party IoT service providers on IoT privacy models in South Africa needs to be investigated.
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    Open Access
    The value of waste data within the City of Cape Town's waste management systems: an exploratory case study
    (2022) Stemmet, Paulus; Uys, Walter; Rivett, Ulrike
    Producers are increasingly compelled by legislation to understand the volume of their products recycled and a product's total impact on waste management systems (WMS). Improved data quality is essential to drive the adoption of a waste management system, and to guide policy strategy and planning decisions. This study focuses on the data from post-consumer waste in the City of Cape Town within the broad field of solid waste management (SWM). This study explores the (primary) research questions: “What is the value of waste data in the City of Cape Town waste management system ?” It answer the primary question through three secondary-questions 1. How do stakeholders within the WMS perceive the availability of waste data? 2. What is the current volume and composition of waste data in the City Of Cape Town's WMS ? 3. Additionally, can data from the informal waste sector assist in improving existing waste data quality? A sequential mixed-methods exploratory case study approach and the solid waste information management model (SWIMM) are used. Through interviews with key industry players, a review of selected literature, and publicly available data on waste from the City of Cape Town, the study surfaces the misalignment between stakeholder expectations and currently collected data on waste within the waste management system. This study finds that expectations from stakeholders across waste management are misaligned around the perception of essential waste data indicators. The research presents a novel SWIMM model that collects a higher volume, frequency, quality, diversity, and composition of data across the waste stream, predicting future short-term waste scenarios, legislation compliance, and production planning.