Prof Alta van der Merwe, Principal Researcher

How can you contact me?

By post: Meraka Institute, P O Box 395, Pretoria, 0001, South Africa

By e-mail: alta at meraka dot org dot za

By phone: +27 (0)12 841 3208 (work)

+27 (0)12 841 4570 (fax)

 My Office: Building 43C, room 319, CSIR Campus, Meiring Naude Road, Brummeria, Pretoria, South Africa

Who am I and what do I do?

I am a Principal Researcher at the Meraka Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), within the Human Factors and Enterprise Engineering Group (HuFEE).

I am also Professor Extraordinaire in:

• the School of Computing at the University of South Africa, Pretoria. I was a full-time member of this School for 15 years before joining the Meraka Institute
• the School of Modelling Sciences at the University of North-West (was previously known as the Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education)
• the School of ICT and the Institute for ICT Advancement at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth
• the Durban University of Technology.

Relationships to Societies and Journals

I am currently the chair of the South Africa IEEE SMC Chapter, where the goal is to serve the interest of its members and the community at large by promoting the theory, practice, and interdisciplinary aspects of systems science and engineering, human-machine systems, and cybernetics. It is accomplished through conferences, publications, and other acticities that contribute to the professional needs of its members. 

The South African SMCS Chapter was introduced to the South African community in the EngineerIT magazine (July 2009).

I am also the editor in chief of the SAIEE Africa Research Journal (SAIEE ARJ), Computer Science track where the focus is on new research within Computing. The SAIEE ARJ is a peer-reviewed journal that is on the South African DOE list.

In January 2009 the Enterprise Architecture Research Forum (EARF) was formed after discussions with Prof Paula Kotze and Jan Mentz that such a forum is needed that will focus on academic research in South Africa within the Enterprise Architecure domain. Currently I act as chair for the EARF forum that meets monthly at the Meraka Institute.

Some Highlights

2010: Zachman Certification

We hosted with REALIRM a 7-day Zachman certification at the CSIR. John Zachman presented his one day introduction to the certification and was as always a inspiration for everyone.

2009: Togaf Certification

In November 2009 we sucessully completed our TOGAF certification that was presented by the very competent Louw Labuschagne from REALIRM.

2009: CIO Conference

In October 2009 I was invited to give a presentation at the first CIO conference in Cape Town. There was a very dynamic audience where many of the presentations were on the existing challenges that the CIO and industry faces.

2009: Meeting John Zachman

In 2009 we were priviledge to have two meetings with John Zachman. The first time was in February 2009 when me and Paula decided to go on a one day Enterprise Architecture workshop / presentation where John Zachman talked about his framework .. what a pleasure. The following day I dragged Jan Mentz to the Johannesburg airport to meet Zachman in person - I am sure an event that he will never forget.

I phoned Prof Johannes Cronje and told him John do not have any arrangements for the evening, and more people was priviledge in Cape Town to dine with him.  Read what Roderick Lim Banda had to say after meeting himfor dinner.

The second time was arranged by Paul van der Merwe from RealIRM where John Zachman visited Meraka to give a presentation to the staff at Meraka and also have some interactive discussions with the Enterprise Architecture Research Forum.

2008: Chancellors Address

In 2008 I was asked to present the Chancellor's address at the University of South Africa. In this talk I gave an overview on the role of technology in our young generation.

  Publications

The list of publications is currently under construction - for a more updated list visit my previous profile on the Unisa web site.

 Journal Publications

Van der Merwe, Mac, Van der Merwe, Alta, Venter, Lucas (Accepted 2010) A model to direct online continuous professional development opportunities for mathematics teachers in the South African context of disparities, To appear in Journal of the Southern African Association for Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education;

Kotze, P., Van der Merwe, Alta (2009) The Research Foci of Computing Research in South Africa as Reflected by Publications in the South African Computer Journal. South African Computer Journal, Vol 44, December 2009.

Mentz, J., Kotzé, P., Van der Merwe, A. (2008). Searching for the Technology in University of Technology. South African Computer Journal, Vol 42, December 2008, p. 29 - 37.

Van der Merwe, M; Van der Merwe, Alta; (2008), Online Continuing Professional Development: tensions impacting on the reflective use of a mathematics-friendly forum environment , South African Computer Journal (42).

Gerber, AJ, Barnard, A & Van der Merwe, Alta (2006), A Semantic Web Status Model, Integrated Design & Process Technology, Special Issue: IDPT 2006

Van der Merwe, A.J., Kotzé, P., and Cronje, J. 2005. The functionality of a requirements elicitation procedure developed for process modelling within the higher education domain. Alternation, 12(1): p. 489-514.

Van der Merwe, A J, Pretorius, L & Cloete, E. (2004),  A requirements elicitation process modelling technique for incorporation of e-learning as a core learning strategy, Journal of Integrated Design and Process Science, (8) 2, pp 1-16.

Conference Publications

De Vries, M, Van der Merwe, A, Gerber, A, Kotze, P (2010) Refining The Operating Model Concept To Enable Systematic Growth In Operating Maturity, accepted for publication in the conference proceeding of the SAIIE Annual Conference, October 2010, Muldersdrift.  

Smuts, H; Van der Merwe, A; Kotze, P; Loock, M. 2010. Critical success factors for information systems outsourcing management: a software development lifecycle view. To appear in Proceedings of SAICSIT 2010 Conference.

Gerber, A; Molefo O, Van der Merwe, A. 2010. Documenting open source migration processes for re-use. To appear in Proceedings of SAICSIT 2010 Conference.

Le Roux, Petra, Van der Merwe, Alta, Gerber, A (Accepted for publication in 2010) A Model for Teaching Distributed Computing in a Distance-based Educatinal Environment, International Workshop on Distance Education Technology (DET 2010), Oak Brook, Illinois, USA, October 2010.

Kistasamy, Christopher, Van der Merwe, Alta, De la Harpe, Andre (Accepted for publication in 2010), The relationship between Service Oriented Architecture and Enterprise Architecture, Second IEEE International Workshop on Service oriented Enterprise Architecture for Enterprise Engineering (SoEA4EE 2010), October 2010, Brazil.

Gerber A;  Van der Merwe, A; Kotze, P: 2010. Towards the Formalisation of the TOGAF Contenet Metamodel using Ontlogies. To appear in: Proceedings of The 12th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems (ICEIS 2010). INSTICC.

Carrol, M; Kotze, P; Van der Merwe, A: 2010. Going Virtual: Popular Trend or Real Prospect for Enterprise Information Systems. To appear in: Proceedings of The 12th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems (ICEIS 2010). INSTICC.

Smuts, Hanlie; Kotze, Paula; Van der Merwe, Alta; Loock, Marianne; (2010) Information systems outsourcing issues in the communication technology sector, In: Proceedings of the International Conference Information Systems 2010, edited by M B Nunes, P Isaías and P Powell.  IADIS, p. 145-155, ISBN: 978-972-8939-09-0.

Smuts, Hanlie; Van der Merwe, Alta; Loock, Marianne;  Kotzé, Paula. (2009),  A Framework and Methodology for Knowledge Management System Implementation. In: Proceedings of the Annual Research Conference of the South African Institute of Computer  Scientists and Information Technologists,  edited by Jason Cohen and Scott Hazelhurst. SAICSIT in Association with the ACM, p. 70 - 79 .  ISBN 978-1-60558-643-4.

Gerber, AJ; Van der Merwe, AJ; (2009), Towards the use of formal ontologies in Enterprise Architecture framework repositories, The 1st International Workshop on Advanced Enterprise Repositories (AER 2009), Milan, Italy.

Jacobs, D; Kotze, P; Van der Merwe, AJ;  (2009), Towards an Enterprise Repository Framework, The 1st International Workshop on Advanced Enterprise Repositories (AER 2009), Milan, Italy.

Smuts, Hanlie; Van der Merwe, AJ; Loock, M (2009), Key characteristics in selecting software tools for Knowledge Management,  11th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems, Milan Italy (May 2009).

Mbaya, I; Gerber, AJ; Van der Merwe, AJ; (2009), Requirements of a Security Framework for the Semantic Web, Proceedings of the IASTED International Conference on Software Engineering, IASTED 2009, Innsbruck, February 2009.

Van der Merwe, Alta;  Kotze, Paula; (2009), A systematic approach for the identification of process reference models, Proceedings of the IASTED International Conference on Software Engineering, IASTED 2009, Innsbruck, February 2009.

Gerber, Aurona; Van der Merwe, Alta; Barnard, Andries; (2008), A Functional Semantic Web architecture, European Semantic Web Conference 2008, ESWC’08, Tenerife, June 2008.

Champman, M; Van der Merwe, Alta (2008), Contemplating Systematic Software Reuse in a Small Project-centric Company, Saicsit 2008, South Africa.

Gerber, Aurona; Van der Merwe, Alta; Alberts, Ronell; (2007), Implications of Rapid Development Methodologies, CSITEd 2007, Mauritius, November 2007.

Van der Merwe, Alta; Kotze, Paula; Gerber, Aurona (2007), Generic Process Model Structures: Towards a Standard Notation for Abstract Representations,  SAICSIT 2007 : Annual Conference of the South African Institute of Computer Scientists and Information Technologists, Fish River Sun, October 2007.

Van der Merwe, Alta; Kotze, Paula (2007), Criteria Used in Selecting Effective Requirements Elicitation Procedures,  SAICSIT 2007 : Annual Conference of the South African Institute of Computer Scientists and Information Technologists, Fish River Sun, October 2007, pp 162-171.

Hewett, R; Kijsanayothin, P; Van der Merwe, A J. (2007), Predicting order of likelihood of defective software modules, International Conference on Software Engineering & Knowledge Engineering, Boston, Massachusets, Knowledge Systems Institute, pp 93-98.

Caroll, M; Van der Merwe, A J. (2007), An Information Systems Auditor’s Profile, Ninth International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems, Funchal, Portugal, p390-397.
Gerber, AJ; Barnard, A; Van der Merwe, A J. (2007), Towards a semantic web layered architecture, The International Association of Science and Technology for Development, Innsbruck, ACTA Press, pp 353-362

Alberts, R, Van der Merwe, A J, Pretorius, H (2006), Using Quality Requirements to Systematically Develop a National Accessibility Portal, International Science and Technology Conference, Vanderbijlpark, South Africa, November 2006.

Van der Merwe, A J, Maneschijn, D. (2006), Guidelines in selecting an e-learning development model, IADIS Applied Computing 2006, San Sebastian, Spain, pp 161-168.

Van der Merwe, A J, Kotze, P & Cronje, J. (2006), The Usefulness of a Generic Process Model Structure, The Fourth International Workshop on Modelling, Simulation, Verification and Validation of Enterprise Information Systems, Cyprus.
Gerber, AJ, Barnard, A & Van der Merwe, A J. (2006), Design and Evaluation Criteria for Layered Architectures, The Fourth International Workshop on Modelling, Simulation, Verification and Validation of Enterprise Information Systems, Cyprus.
Van der Merwe, A J, Seker, R, Gerber, A J. (2005), Phishing in the System of Systems Settings: Mobile Technology, IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics October 10-12, 2005, Waikoloa, Hawaii, USA.

Van der Merwe, A J, Loock, M, Dabrowski, M. (2005), Characteristics and Responsibilities involved in a Phishing Attack, Winter International Symposium on Information and Communication Technologies, Cape Town, January 2005.

Van der Merwe, A J. Mennega, A. (2004), Key Characteristics in Developing a Long-term, Web-enabled Career Guidance Service, ED-MEDIA 2004-World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia & Telecommunications to be held in Lugano, Switzerland, June 21-26, 2004.

Van der Merwe, A J, Cronje, J. (2004), The Educational Value Chain as a modelling tool in re-engineering efforts, 3rd International Symposium on Information and Communication Technologies. Las Vegas, Nevada (USA).

Van der Merwe, A J. (2003), A requirements elicitation methodology for educational process modeling, Fourth International Conference on Information Communication Technologies in Education, Samos, Greece.

Cloete, E., Van der Merwe, A J & Pretorius L. (2003),  A process modeling approach to requirements elicitation to incorporate e-learning as a core learning strategy, Seventh World Conference on Integrated Design and Process Technology, Austin, Texas.

Cloete, E & Van der Merwe, A J. (2001). Structure and Techniques used in a Distance Virtual Learning Implementations. International Conference on Technology and Education. Potchefstroom. South Africa.

Van der Merwe, A J & Labuschagne, W. (1996). Theory meets practic: Using Smith's normal normalization in complex systems. SAICSIT 1996 : Annual Conference of the South African Institute of Computer Scientists and Information Technologists.

Some other links

Visit to Innsbruck in 2009.

Aurona Gerber's web page.

Link to wikipedia.

Links to previous travels.

Previous Unisa web site.