How Social Media Influences Your Shopping Essay

At the present time social media is the one of the most powerful ways to shop and advertise online via the use of web-based and mobile technologies; it transforms online communication into an interactive dialogue. Quester, Pettigrew and Hawkins (2011) defined social media as â€Å"media for social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable communication techniques.† According to Vithoulkas, social media is more than just the hardware or software which enables it, instead he argues that it is more of a philosophy of communication where honest and transparency is required and information is shared and has the potential to â€Å"spread virally very quickly†. For the consumer, social media can be a continual bombardment of advertising and promotion every time we use communication modes, such as the internet or mobile, which may be infuriating for the consumer but increases the market exposure for the seller. This report intends to analyse the effectiveness of social media in influencing the general population to purchase more than presently before. When large companies, such as Pepsi, invest 50% of their annual advertising budget into Social Media it is obviously a worthy idea for the discussion of marketing professionals worldwide. The buyer behaviour system has been challenged in ranges of high involvement and low involvement alike. Consumer control is now the focus of consumption, when before it was heavily regulated institutionally. Although social media is an inescapable part of every day life it cannot be assumed that it will replace other forms of communication. A great number of people of all ages use social networking sites before purchasing a product, especially in high involvement purchases. Seidma (2010, p11) has demonstrated that the large majority of people are engaged in some form of social media, showing its considerable societal acceptance; Marketing magazine online tells us that â€Å"Facebook has more than 400 million active users. Every minute, 24 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube. An estimated 5–10 thousand Twitter accounts are opened per day,† showing that when information is directly found by a population 20 times that of Australia there is serious product awareness to gain . Quester et al. (2011) stated that there are fives stages of decisions making processes prior to making the choice in buying a product or service. These include problem recognition, information search, evaluation and selection, store choice and purchase and post purchase processes. When consumers’ recognise a need or identify a problem which may exist, they then undertake an information search on the product or service with their behaviour influenced by internal and external factors, Consumers evaluate the various alternatives after they have gathered all information, and afterwards they make a selection of retail outlets for the actual purchase of the good or service. Lastly, the consumer compares the product performance against their expectations and decide whether they satisfied or dissatisfied with it. In last few decades, traditional media such as television, radio, newspaper has been the only way to promote and communicate with the target market, but now it appears that the trend has changed. As seen in diagram one (below) consumer control is now the driver in the marketing segment. As seen in chart one (below), it can be seen that on average people spend more time when choosing and product and general spend more money, suggesting that when purchasing online the products will be a high involvement purchase. Marketing Magazine online tell us â€Å"For 35% of shoppers, the process starts with online search; 30% of consumers read user reviews on retailer websites as a part of the shopping process.† In the U.S.A. alone there are 95 million people who admit to frequently using social-media in their purchase decisions. Hub Magazine found that more than 40% of American adults currently use social media as part of their shopping experiences, with further data showing most consumers increased in use of social media for shopping within an annual period. Hub magazine also found that 39% have strongly agreed with the statement that ‘they can learn a lot more about a brand by seeing what everyday people are saying about it online’ in comparison with only 22% percent of non-social media shoppers agreeing with the statement. This clealy shows us that Social Media can obviously affect buying habits. However, social media may not be the first choice for every business or organisation for their marketing strategy. In December 2009, COM Score released a report of their customer survey that showed peoples views on social media in comparison to traditional forms of media. Overall, they found that 28% of respondents were likely to notice advertising on social media and less than that 23% are likely to trust the advertisements they notice. Those numbers put social media websites at #5 on the list behind television, print, news and corporate websites. In the same findings it also showed that only 28% of those who had began their holiday shopping this season indicated that social media has influenced their purchases specifically consumers said their influences were: †¢ Reading a consumer-generated product review (13% of respondents) †¢ Reading an expert product review (11 %)  Ã¢â‚¬ ¢ Following a fan page on Face book to take advantage of special offers and deals (7%) †¢ Influence by a friend’s Face book status update referring to a particular product (6%) †¢ Following a company on Twitter to take advantage of special offers and deals (5%) †¢ A friend’s â€Å"tweet† about a product influenced their purchase behaviour (3%) Given the exposure to the internet that we in the western world undergo every day versus time spend watching television, it is odd that only 13% saw the high consumer involvement in reading reviews of products. What is even stranger is that these consumers have shifted from trusting expert reviews to peer reviews. In traditional media reputable sources were usually quoted to give weight to a certain product. It seems in the days of social media, peer influence has replaced the trustworthiness of reputable sources. Thus changing the buyer behaviour process. Social Media may influence and change the buyer behaviour process but it is not necessarily a replacement for tradition media. Although it is a change to the normal standards of media, it will never replace traditional media given the system of interaction in our society. The interesting thing, as discussed in this essay, is the change in the high involvement purchase process and the consumer control over purchases. It is effective to some degree, given the right target audience and consumer group, but in our society with the lack of general literacy (21.1% of the world are internet literate) and dramatic choices for consumers it is not the answer to the change of the consumer buyer process.

Academic Autobiography Essay

Thinking about college and your future career can be very overwhelming at the beginning. There’s so much to consider when it comes to getting ready for college: where to go and what to study. I’ve heard it said that sometimes a student will enter college fully aware of what they want to do in life, and doggedly reach their undergraduate goal after four years of diligent study. My college career didn’t start off on the best footing. I was a dreadful student in high school, chronically absent, and not doing homework even when I could be bothered to attend class. My Arlington, Virginia high school was competitive, and my mother relentlessly referred to my performance as â€Å"not living up to my potential. † However, there was one class I never missed, and that was Madrigals, my high school’s elite choir group. There was nothing I enjoyed more than signing old songs in a tightly knit group. When it came time to apply to colleges, I was in a quandary. My SAT scores were high enough to get in just about anywhere, but my grade point average was so low that I did not expect any school to be interested in having me as a student. Then I saw a poster for Shepherd College in the choir room. It was in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, which was near enough to be convenient, but far enough away that I would definitively be on my own. Shepherd also had a very early date for notifying approved applicants, and it turned out that my guidance counselor knew their director of admissions and was willing to put in a good word for me. I applied to them early, and to my surprise and relief they sent me the Thick Envelope of Acceptance. Having gotten in somewhere, I didn’t bother to apply anywhere else, and after attending summer school one last time to make up yet another class for which I hadn’t shown up during the regular year, I was on my way to historic Shepherdstown to start my higher education career. I spent a year at Shepherd, and it was the same story all over again – I attended my music classes and did well, but dropped almost all of my academic courses. After a year of this mediocre performance, the worst possible thing happened from the perspective of academic success: I fell in love with a graduating senior. She was returning to her native Delaware on graduation, and with the finely honed reasoning that only eighteen year olds can display, I decided the obvious response on my part was to drop out and go with her. Rather than bore the faithful reader with the details, suffice it to say that over the course of the next ten years, while moving around the East Coast, I amassed piecemeal credit from Shepherd College, Virginia Commonwealth University, Northern Virginia Community College, North Carolina Wesleyan College, and Strayer University. Meanwhile, I had changed majors from Music Composition to Music Education to Communications before finally becoming involved with information technology. The ‘90s were a great time for technical people. No one cared about college degrees, as demand for competent labor was too high for employers to care about anything other than ability. After the burst of the dot-com bubble, however, things changed completely. One of those changes was my attitude toward completing my degree. Since the ads for jobs in my field had gone from saying â€Å"Associate degree preferred† to â€Å"Bachelor’s degree required, Master’s preferred,† it seemed that the time had come to finish what I had started. There was a higher motivation, however, in that my years as a professional had changed me; I had become serious about setting goals and reaching them. I initially considered returning to Strayer University. However, I was dismayed by how long it would take me to finish there, as I only had about seventy credits all told. Strayer would give me some advanced standing for having earned the Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer technical certification, but I knew that the expense of their courses would mean that I could only take a few in a year. The time had come for research. After scouring the Internet looking for the best option for me I found and decided on Charter Oak State College. I looked at my transcripts and the requirements for their Bachelor of Science, general education, and Information Systems Studies concentration, and was pleased to be able to map all of what I had done to meeting requirements. Moreover, after looking at earning credit by standardized examination, I realized that it would be the most efficient way for me to demonstrate what I had already learned. I was very thorough in my preparation for applying to Charter Oak. While getting ready to submit my materials, however, there was one more interesting plot twist to my story. A friend of mine discovered that I was evaluating colleges for degree completion, and on seeing how well I had navigated all of the available materials, suggested I apply for a position at Keiser College in Florida, where he was chair of the business department for the online campus. I remember thinking that if only I could finish my degree and be done with it, I could wash my hands of academia forever. Now, however, I finally appreciate the benefits my undergraduate experience has given me, from both general education and my concentration. Most important of all, I am ready and eager to experience the next chapter of my academic autobiography.

Personal and Team Effectiveness

Personal and Team Effectiveness Introduction: In every organization particularly in the Health and Social Care Industry which involves individual employees and the entire workforce to where they are the company’s backbone of its existence it all rely on the importance of personal and team effectiveness to achieve the organization’s mission statement and service to their customers. In the influence of the management and organisational factors on the effectiveness of the people involved in the care particularly through developing their ability to work effectively in teams and developing their knowledge and skills so that they can contribute to the delivery of a quality service. All organizations require their people, at times, to work in groups. The most successful organizations find ways to realize the full potential and capability of groups. They understand the important contribution that groups can make effective groups usually outperform individuals. Organizations are comfortable establishing, empowering and promoting the participation of people in groups, value change and adaptation as key to improving productivity, quality and customer service and are constantly looking for creative ways to use groups to drive performance improvements. In looking at strategies for personal and professional development which refine behaviours, improve capability and give individuals the confidence and competence to excel not only for themselves but as part of the entire Health Care team as shown in high-performing organizations, the most successful groups function as â€Å"teams†. Teams flourish in organizations which create a climate where people want to work together giving their best efforts. Definition: Personal effectiveness is a branch of the self help movement dealing with success, goals, and related concepts. Personal effectiveness integrates some ideas from â€Å"the power of positive thinking† and Positive Psychology but in general it is distinct from the New Thought Movement. Team effectiveness refers to the system of getting people in a company or institution to work together effectively. The idea behind team effectiveness is that a group of people working together can achieve much more than if the individuals of the team were working on their own. Content: According to Carl Jung’s premise that all change and development starts from within and its principle underpins to the approach and it all start with personal effectiveness. The middle and senior managers in Health and Social Care should develop their skills and competencies in leading and managing the team. It is where the management of each organization would find how to enlighten and have each of them to explore and examining the facets that each of the employees are unique and valuable individual in the organization for the better good of the entire workforce. By exploring the preferences of others to understand why they behave as they do particularly and inspire those that are into the team and show them how to adapt and collaborate for improved interactions. The team leader and managers should see through it that the individuals and the entire team should focus on the implications and evaluating the by using management for the people for improving the organizational performance. In every individual, each has their own personality, style and personal interactions for effectively doing the job. By achieving this personal development and individual effectiveness comes with training, career development, staff development plans and the management will implement the development programs by in-house training, using supervision and appraisal, external courses, action-centred learning, lifelong learning, coaching and mentoring, assessing competence. The monitoring performance of individuals through observation, appraisal, periodic review, and achievement of successful outcomes as well as the use of targets, benchmarks, feedback from others is one key factor in measuring personal effectiveness. By Identifying individual training and evelopment needs: monitoring of performance, career development planning, changing personal circumstances. Strategies for promoting continuous development: achieving competence, training versus education, partnerships, staff development plans, compliance with external requirements, dedicated allocation of resources, use of external kite marks for exampl e Investors in People. In assessing the individual effectiveness is by describing different ways in which the performance of individuals working in health and social care may be monitored and by describing how individual training and development needs may be identified. Analyse different strategies for promoting the continuing development of individuals in the health and social care workplace. The effective staff development programme may be implemented and evaluate the effectiveness of a specific staff development programme with which the management is familiar. Team effectiveness is determined by several factors: †¢ The right mix of skills. Team effectiveness depends in part on bringing together people who have different skills that somehow complement each other. This can mean different technical abilities or communication skills. In fact, teaming up people who share the exact same characteristics is often a recipe for disaster. Team effectiveness depends on people taking on different roles in a group setting. If there is no agreement on who does what in the group, it is unlikely that the team will prosper. †¢ The right motivation. Team effectiveness is directly linked to the interest that the group has on the project. If the job is too easy or too difficult, or if the rewards for achieving the end result do not seem worth the effort, the team may end up working half-heartedly in the project. The task should also have a clear outcome. Working towards a specific goal enhances team effectiveness significantly. †¢ The ability to solve conflicts without compromising the quality of the project. Team work has one major downfall. Sometimes groups end up making decisions they know are not in the best interest of the project, just so they can keep the process moving. Conflict is innate to any work done in groups, and should be taken as part of the challenge rather than as something to be avoided by compromising. Team effectiveness should be increased, not compromised, through conflict. The model of team development as developed by Bruce Tuckman that teams evolve through four main stages. †¢ Forming is when the members are first brought together. It is a period of exploration, testing and orientation. †¢ Storming is a difficult but inevitable stage, where members may compete and conflict. †¢ Norming is the stage where the team starts to pull together, and noticeable progress begins to be made. †¢ Performing is characterized by a high level of task focus, and the team producing consistent and excellent results. Discussion: It is important as well for a team leader to create a climate in which people can develop and contribute to their full potential. The climate must be one of cooperation, commitment, and team focus. A good leader must also be a good coach. Different members are used as resource leaders because of their knowledge or experience. The focus is on how to get the job done, not on who controls the team. Team members are empowered to do the job they must do. Everyone is involved in the functioning of the team. In light of the discussion, the following points summarize the conditions required to create an effective team environment, each of these factors is important, and they are also highly interdependent. All of these factors are critical to achieving an effective and high performing team. Leaders can help create these conditions through the following behaviours. 1. Trust, Respect and Support †¢ Encourage and protect team member diversity in views, backgrounds, and experiences. †¢ Inspire teamwork and mutual support through example. Keep your commitments and expect the same from all team members. 2. Commitment to the Team †¢ Support and positively represent the team to senior management, peers and other employees. †¢ Ensure that individual member and team accomplishments are recognized and celebrated appropriately 3. Shared Vision †¢ Clarify the tasks to be accomplished. †¢ Establish and communicate a vision about what the members can achieve as a team. â₠¬ ¢ Encourage team members to participate in creating their vision of what the team can accomplish. 4. Open and Honest Communications Communicate fully and openly; welcome questions; avoid the â€Å"need to know† limitations. †¢ When seeking solutions, encourage members to suspend assumptions, reflect on their own thoughts and feelings, clearly voice these, inquire about and listen to opinions of others, and be less reactive. 5. Empowerment and Involvement of all Members †¢ Encourage members to participate. †¢ Make it easy for others to see opportunities to work together. †¢ Clarify that problem-solving is a responsibility of all team members. †¢ Mediate conflicts before they become destructive. 6. A Learning Environment †¢ Guide team members to determine where they actually are relative to their goals, and to clarify why the gaps exist and how to bridge them. †¢ Surface and treat conflicts as learning situations. Peter Senge, in his book â€Å"The Fifth Discipline† says, â€Å"One of the most reliable indicators of a team that is continually learning is the visible conflict of ideas. In great teams, conflict becomes productive. Conclusion: In every Health and Social Care organization they must be People Investors to which people or the staffs are a company’s most valuable resource. Human beings have unlimited potential to grow, develop and learn and in that sense constant training and improvement of personal and team development is needed for the organization to be successful and create a greater impact to the service user and the people involved in the care and service. The leader’s role is to help each team member achieve his or her potential and they act as coach which provide more structure, guidance and direction as well as to clarify tasks, goals, management’s expectations, and the way their performance and contributions will be measured. Teams need to be constantly developed for creating an effective approach on how things should be done for the better service to the clients. Members of the team generally have a broader range and depth of skills and experiences. With encouragement and support from the leader and other team members, individual members can enhance their technical, functional, problem-solving, decision-making, interpersonal and teamwork skills by taking some risks and facing some new challenges. Everyone is capable of making decisions that affect them, provided they are given the appropriate information and training. People do not resist changes they have been involved in making for the benefit of the entire team and the effectively managing the entire conflict which will be turned in to an advantage in solving the problem. Gaining true employee involvement is an ongoing process, not a one-time effort it always develop each personal and team effectiveness, If a change is affecting the team, the leader must be a role model of the â€Å"new† way. The leader must be able to â€Å"let go† in order to empower people. The leader must train and coach people first so they will be ready and able to succeed. The leader realizes mistakes are unavoidable, and helps people learn from them. A key factor which differentiates teams from work groups involves the interdependence of people. As Stephen Covey points out in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, â€Å"Interdependence opens up worlds of possibilities for deep, rich, meaningful associations, for geometrically increased productivity, for serving, for contributing, for learning, for growing. Reference: Tuckman, Bruce W. â€Å"Developmental Sequence In Small Groups†. Psychological Bulletin 63, 1965, pp. 382-399 http://gtwebmarque. com/wikis/gtwm/index. php/The_Fifth_Discipline http://www. skillsforcare. org. uk/workforce_strategy/workforce_strategy. aspx http://www. insights. com/LearningSolutions/Expertise/IndividualEffectiveness. aspx http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Team_building http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Personal_effectiveness http:// www. wisegeek. com/what-is-team-effectiveness. htm

Business models of Staples Inc Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Business models of Staples Inc - Essay Example Safety is an issue that affects the running of the business, but staples have that covered under their safety supplies. Staples are a business concept that surpasses supplying products only by offering a list of easy to obtain services tailor made for the customers. They offer mailing and shipping services. For any business that requires the Copy and Print services, they are readily available within their customer center. They also offer Promotional services and the modern Cloud Software. Technology trade-ins and tech Support Services is a business portfolio they use to attract and maintain their customers. In addition, they have a Recycling and Eco-Services, a Business Hub, Textbook Rental, Staples Credit Center and Staples Merchant Services. Staples Inc. are Retailers who have stores where customers come and pick their products. They have retail stores, restaurants and online features for order and shipment of their products. They offer as a link between manufacturers of the broader products as above. They trade using their original name in cities across USA and slightly change their name in other countries like Italy. T some extent Staples become distributors by working with other enterprises, but these are exclusively in the US in the business-to-business and business-to-company models. The advertising procedure utilized by Staples concentrates on the target business sector of commonplace buyers and organizations. By designating sensible costs and straightforwardly mailing advancements to homes, Staples targets everybody from regular clients to larger enterprises. Staples can offer office supplies in mass or single units. They have secured the establishment for office supply superstores. In 2003, Staples started their committed fight to make their organization client centered. Â  

Brand Personality Personal Statement Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 10000 words

Brand Personality - Personal Statement Example I need the first two chapters to review in three days, with journal reference. It is because, I make sure we do the right direction and we can discuss for the further. This will convenience for cooperate. Then keep going to develop the other. Of course, I need what topic you are going to do immediately. Pls, do not use too old journal except the original theory. In the first choice, I mainly study in how does brand personality affecting the purchasing intention or focus on the buying intention of consumer behaviour and attitude. All this idea is come from the journal Franz- Rudolf Esch and Tobias Langner 2006, "Are Brand forever How brand knowledge and relationships affect current and future purchases." Traci H. Freling and Lukas P. Forbes 2005, " An examination of brand personality through methodological triangulation, Traci H. Freling and Lukas P. Forbes 2005, "An empirical analysis of the brand personality effect" and Ulrich R.Orth and Renata De Marchi 2007, "Understanding the relationships between functional, symbolic, and experiential brand beliefs, product experiential attributes, and product schema: Advertising - trial interactions revisited." Refer to the attachment. In addition, it needs to explain why I use the digital or electric product to test it. It should needs to do one more same product category to compare with it, or to te st with different category. For the structure of the dissertation, I need t... d 1.2 the research context, 1.3 Objectives and Research question, 1.4 Motivation for the research, 1.5 Significance of the research, 1.6 Structure of the dissertation. It would be around 1000 words. In this chapter, I need strongly to point out why I go to do this project and what is the significance of this project by using the present theory or have theoretical/conceptual background. The most important thing is point out the gap in this paper. This is an argument dissertation. For the Hypothesis setting, it should be use the basics of Multi regression to process only. e.g. co-efficiency analysis, simple regression model or more complex regression model. Refer to the attachment. There is only we can use in this stage. In the objective and research question, the clearly flow chart to represent the relationship is required. In the chapter two, the literature review, the format would be 2.1 Introduction. 2.22.2.1.2.2.22.2.32.3.2.42.4.1...2.4.22.4.3and so onand the last one must have the summary or conclusion. In addition, they MUST have relationship and should relate to the topicit need systematically to develop it. I need the clearly flow chart to represent the relationship. And Why THOSE LITERATURES are related Words requirement around 3000. Chapter 3 of the methodology. I need the very simple and easy to understand for measure of the personality of buyer intent. (Deductive research) Just a simple, clear and logic step by step to measure (very common method for this measurement will be ok; of course it SHOULD BE the right method for this topic as we all know many method for different topic of different measurement). It will require such like 3.1 introductions, 3.2. research design, 3.3 data collects tools - Questionnaire/ interview, 3.4 data analysis and

Politcal Theory- The Liber tarian approach Essay

Politcal Theory- The Liber tarian approach - Essay Example Government’s roles in the private lives of citizens and their activities include enacting contracts, protecting people’s property from theft and keeping peace. Sandel states that â€Å"if the libertarian theory of rights is correct, then many activities of the modern state are illegitimate, and violations of liberty† (60). Libertarianism implies that individuals have the right to do whatever they desire with their bodies and property, but refrain from harming other people without their consent or destroying their property. The contemporary social institutions have enforced and implemented laws, regulations, values and policies that prohibit some of the liberties that the libertarian approach consider as the right. These institutions in the society include political, social and economic institutions. Social institutions govern individuals’ relationship and interaction with other people such as religious values, beliefs and customs. Political institutions im plement laws and policies that prevent individuals from practicing unaccepted behavior while economic institutions deals with freedom in free markets. Libertarianism and Violation of Liberty According to Sandel (60), individuals have the right to ownership of their body and property. An individual has the right to consent to heinous acts such as cannibalism, scientific experimentations and assisted suicide. Cannibalism is defined as eating human flesh for the purpose of survival, experimentation or cultural beliefs. In the contemporary society, cannibalism is considered a crime punishable by serving a life sentence or death by lethal injection. However, there are people who want to experiment on the old customs of eating human flesh. There are two groups of people who participate in this agreement: the cannibals and the consenting adults who will be eaten. According to the libertarian approach, an adult who has the mental capacity to understand the experiment and know its consequenc es can consent to cannibalism. The society and the government must not intervene in such matters because people have the freedom and the right to make their own decisions about their bodies. The judicial system will be violating the rights of an individual to ownership by arresting and charging the individuals who participated in the acts of cannibalism or assisted suicide. Libertarian approach advocates for freedom to participate in leisure activities that do not cause harm to other people. Such leisure activities include consented pornography and prostitution. In the contemporary society, state laws and religious rules are enacted to prevent these unlawful acts. Watching and sharing pornography in schools, airplanes and other public areas are serious offenses that lead serving time in prison. Prostitution is illegal and shunned by religious groups. However, according to the libertarian approach, consenting to prostitution as a source of income is a person’s choice and prefe rence. Women who consent to selling sexual favors can do so according to their desires and projected outcomes. Pornography and prostitution are victimless crimes that do not violate or hurt other people. According to the libertarian approach, charging individuals for performing the above acts in a court of law violates their liberty to ownership. In the U.S, a few states have legalized the use of marijuana as a medical drug or leisure drug. Other states refuse to legalize this drug because of the moral constraints associated with it. According to

Personality Assessment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Personality Assessment - Essay Example Personality assessment is also vehemently supportive in the treatment process of the individuals; it is therefore the counselors and therapists lay stress upon knowing the domestic, environmental, racial, ethnic and religious background of the patients before starting the treatment procedure. Now, the counselors have also started enquiring about the sexual orientation of the individuals, as such kind of information is pertinent for the recommendation of treatment process of the patients. Personality predicts how a person will work—diligently, intelligently, cheerfully, and cooperatively. Personality affects the style or manner in which a person approaches his/her work; to the degree that a person must work with others—clients or fellow employees—this style matters greatly. (hoganassessments.com) INTP, INTJ, ENFJ, ENFP and others are the prominent personality categories, assessment of which is based upon the theoretical framework of the illustrious 20th century ps ychologist Karl Jung. Since personality assessment diagnosis is a very sensitive issue, the questionnaire must be developed in such a way that it should not hurt the feelings of the patient altogether.

Managing Change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Managing Change - Essay Example es on timely delivery of the goods assigned to it, raised satisfaction of the clients and the process depends on the quickness of the staffs and machinery associated. Staffs of the company undertakes major roles in various segments entailing the roads , taxi truck, sea freight, air express, transit store, customs and air VIP. The restructuring mainly focuses on the organization of the staffs and realignment of the machineries applied in working of the Express-Link system. The design of the current and appropriate interventions aimed at moving the firm from the current state to the future prospected level thus by tackling its limitations and moving on forward. The action plan also addresses the essence of the internal politics, leadership in execution of the changes and culture in the organization by further elaborating on the account type, depth and range of the change entailed program. The action plan also considers the recommendations regarding how the prospected change should be i nstitutionalized by considering features of the firm. The clear and vivid development of the parts and portions of the action plan is aimed at presenting coherent, well supported and logically structured model. The output action plan is a contributed process with agents of change ready to work on the tasks that conform to the roles of the external change agents and inclination on evaluating the different approaches to the team members on every intervention, implementation and institutionalization stages (Jones, Jimmieson, & Griffiths, 2005). The Organizational Development interventions must be adopted by the Express-Link. The essence of the planned change interventions which extensively reveal a sets if structured activities that selected organizational units or even the target groups undertake task and even sequence of certain critical tasks with aimed goals having organizational improvement and other distinct individual tasks. The actual interventions are aimed at moving the

Logos and Pathos Appeals in Taking What is not There Essay

Logos and Pathos Appeals in Taking What is not There - Essay Example He aims to convince the affected communities along these water sources to organize and mobilize against taking more than what actual water levels are and to fight water pollution. Midkiff seeks to persuade people to conserve water and to ensure that politicians manage the waters more efficiently through equitable treatment of all users, and he effectively uses pathos and logos appeals, where he describes, compares and contrasts current and recommended systems that can improve water management and conservation, and uses irony and sarcasm to provoke a sense of urgency in attaining his rhetoric. In order to effectively persuade people to understand the gravity of the water management problems in the country, Midkiff uses description to show how serious America’s water problems are, with specifications for the Colorado River and Rio Grande. These specifications appeal to the rationality of the people, so that they will understand that their demand for water is way beyond the produ ction capacity of their water systems. For the Colorado River, Midkiff illustrates that the 1920s flow of the Colorado River is not the same as present times: â€Å"Recent estimates indicate that only 10 percent of the flows in the 1920s now reach the gulf, and this trivial amount is heavily polluted with agricultural runoff- pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizer† (2). ... ime the Rio Grande arrives at the International Bridge, it looks far from the lush and clean river its used to be: â€Å"The barely flowing water is a putrid greenish yellow, filled with herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizers carried by the ‘return flows’ from irrigated cultural lands and with the polluted discharges of the maquiladoras (U.S. factories in Mexico)† (Midkiff 9). This description highlights how rivers die because of human-made pollution. Also, in both rivers, high water demand exerts too much pressure on these rivers. Midkiff says that when Rio Grande flows to Albuquerque, it almost dries completely, after it passes to numerous communities that use its water. The dryness of some parts of these rivers and the polluted waters indicate that the water systems of these communities are in danger. Midkiff effectively explains that if these waters are in danger, the people’s survival is in danger too. Midkiff uses comparing and contrasting approach o f different uses and solutions to the water problems to emphasize that only the people can organize to save their water resources, and this process combines appeals to logic and emotions. For Rio Grande, Midkiff compares and contrasts the difference between what the river can offer and what people demand for it. He stresses that the Lower Rio Grande Valley is â€Å"a shadow of its former self† (11). The Sabal Palms Refuge is already affected by falling water levels (Midkiff 11). The water levels are declining because of overappropriation and pollution, and by explaining how the river dries because of these factors appeals to logos. Aside from logos, Midkiff adds heart-wrenching images to tug people’s hearts. In the Sabal Palms Refuge, plants and animals are dying (Midkiff 11). The image of these living things

What actions might be taken by the government of (one country) to Essay

What actions might be taken by the government of (one country) to reduce and limit price fluctuations of coffee - Essay Example If the price of any product fluctuates highly then the government can limit the fluctuation through minimum and maximum prices, also referred to as price flooring and price ceiling respectively (Dineshbakshi, 2015). The government can set a maximum price which must be below the equilibrium price of coffee in order to be effective and disallow trading above that price level (Dineshbakshi, 2015). As, the price is below the equilibrium it will lead to excess demand and eventually lead to a shortage. In such cases there will also be some consumers who will be willing to buy coffee at a higher price than the price set by the government and this will lead to black markets being created (Dineshbakshi, 2015). The situation cannot be left this way and let the economic situation of the country worsen, thus further actions are required by the government (Dineshbakshi, 2015). Government may take total control of supplying these goods or even producing goods itself (Dineshbakshi, 2015). But the problem may remain as people may not sell all their stock of coffee and black markets may still remain. On the other hand if the government takes control of the production in its hand, it will be accompanied with may management and other technical issues. The government can also help in eliminating this black market and the shortage in the market by supplying coffee from its own stocks (Dineshbakshi, 2015). All these steps by the government will lead to the supply curve shifting rightwards, achieving equilibrium and eliminating shortage (Dineshbakshi, 2015). On the other hand, if the government sets a minimum price which must be above the equilibrium price in order to be effective and ban trading lower than that price level; it may also help in reducing price fluctuations (Dineshbakshi, 2015). As the price is set above the equilibrium price it will lead to higher supply and lower demand leading to a surplus of coffee in the market (Dineshbakshi, 2015). Surplus can also be catered

Brazil Business Process Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Brazil Business Process - Research Paper Example The close relationship is one of the crucial success elements in doing business in Brazil. This paper explores business practices in Brazil, negotiation process and how business etiquette is influenced by the Brazilian culture. Business Practices in Brazil Personal relationships define how Brazilians do business. For someone to do business successfully in Brazil, he or she must first develop the close relationship with a Brazilian within the industry in which he or she wants to operate. The Brazilian contact will then create a link with other important people for the prosperity of the business. Brazilians strongly value family relationships. As such, many Brazilians have the tendency of working for one company. This is because Brazilians prefer to engage in business with those whom they know and trust. Therefore, one must be dedicated to allocating long-term resources, like time and money, in building strong relationships in Brazil in order to create a successful business. Also, in m any cities in Brazil, work begins at 8:30 am and runs up to 5:00 pm. In between, there is usually an hour or two for lunch break. Businesses usually open at 9:00 am to 7:00 pm from Monday to Friday. On Saturday, businesses open at 9:00 am and close at 1:00 pm. However, giant business enterprises may remain open for relatively long hours. In most cases, it is crucial to plan business arrangements two or three weeks prior and authenticate the appointments before and on arrival in Brazil. When scheduling time for the appointments, it is usually advisable to have time allowance between the appointments in case they last longer than expected. Brazilians embrace socializing and passing time with one another. This usually happens during mid-morning tea or coffee breaks and lunch periods. Coffee is usually served before or as meetings progress. Brazilians are usually concerned about dressing, which demands that a person must dress smartly and in a conservative manner (Lee 319). In many case s, Brazilian companies tend to have tall organizational structures. Top executives of the companies make most organizational decisions. Top managerial positions tend to be male-dominated. However, women are currently gaining access to executive roles in some companies. Brazilian business is also influenced by class differences, which is prevalent in both Brazilian societal and business cultures. Economic status and salaries paid to individuals determine the class to which an individual belongs. There are legislations against discrimination and existing class differences in business are faint. Negotiation Process Attitudes and Styles Relationships form a crucial part of negotiation processes in Brazil. Brazilians frequently use distributive as well as contingency bargaining. The buyer is usually perceived to be in a superior position in the negotiation, but both parties (buyer and seller) have the duty to reach a consensus. The main focus is usually on commitments of business partner s and long-term benefits (Jain 420). Competitive negotiation style is a common characteristic of Brazilian negotiations and Brazilians are often insistent negotiators. Proposals should reflect benefits to both parties to a negotiation and none of the negotiating members should manifest intent to win over the other in a negative approach.

Carnival Cruise Lines Essay Example for Free

Carnival Cruise Lines Essay In the case of Kirby vs. Carnival, I hold Carnival Cruise Lines responsible for her injury. There are several reasons why, first the bartender is responsible for her overall consumptions of alcohol, there is a history of guests that have either fallen or jumped over board and finally there is the fact that carnival never took it upon themselves to call for air lift transportation to the nearest hospital. Bartenders at Carnival Cruise Lines rely on big tabs and tips to make their earnings. Since they need to build up their tabs, why not get an innocent guest just looking to have a good time – extremely intoxicated? I feel like the bartender encouraged the drinking by offering five-dollar certificates for the casino. The more she drank, the more free money for the casino she got. She was visibly drunk when she left the bar, the bartender should have asked a crewmember to escort her to her room and told her friend to keep an eye out for her as a simple standard of care. Carnival Cruise Line has a history of passengers falling off or jumping off their ships, about 30 incidents a year are reported. Some of those passengers have unfortunately passed away because of this. If Carnival Cruise Line knows this, then why don’t they go above and beyond for their own guest’s safety? They should have had more cameras, more detectors, and more employees that care enough about the passengers to not let them get so intoxicated. Finally, Carnival Cruise Line is negligent for not stopping immediately to rescue her. They left her in the middle of the sea for almost two hours. The longer you stay in the water, the worse your injuries get. When they finally get her back to ship, the independent contractor they hired as a doctor could not assist her since her injuries were of an emergency level. The only thing the doctor did was give her pain relief medicine, which of course will never work for these types of injuries. Also, Carnival Cruise Line should have air lifted her to the nearest capable medical facilities, even without her consent to pay. Carnival Cruise Line could have offered to pay for at least the air lifting services, it is the least they can do for her and her family after going through this entire trauma. In conclusion, I feel Carnival Cruise Line is guilty of standards of care and negligence on their part. They are the ones that in the industry, and should provide extreme safety procedures, especially after there is a history of passengers falling or jumping over board. Also the bartender is responsible for her overall consumptions of alcohol, particularly because Carnival Cruise Lines has total control of alcohol on their ships. They do not let guests bring their own alcohol; their consumption and alcohol intoxication solely rely on Carnival Cruise Lines to provide that for them. As a final point, Carnival Cruise Line never took it upon them to give her proper medical attention.

Care Giver Perceptions of End of Life Care for COPD Patient

Care Giver Perceptions of End of Life Care for COPD Patient RESEARCH PROPOSAL Title: Exploring the primary family care givers perceptions of care giving for end of life care of COPD ICU patient. Introduction: The world perspective is shifting towards non-communicable diseases, with chronic conditions such as heart disease, stroke and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) as chief causes of death globally. COPD is a chronic progressive disease of air flow obstruction which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis. COPD is predicted as 3rd leading cause of death in 2030 according to 2008 WHO statistics. In terms of social burden of disease quantified by disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) lost, COPD ranked as the 12th leading cause of DALYs lost worldwide in 1990, but will be the 7th leading cause of DALY lost worldwide in 2030.COPD is more common among world age people due to decreased lung function capacity. The world population above 60 years was1.7% in 2013 and will continue to grow as a reaching 21.1 per cent by 2050 (world ageing population 2013). COPD is one of the major 8th leading causes of death in Singapore. According to MOH 2013 census COPD causes 1.6% of deaths per 18938 populations.COPD is a treatable disease but not a curable one. So ultimately it increases the economic burden of the country by its chronicity, rate of hospital readmission and affects the quality of life activities of daily living of the patient and family members. The total expenditure for COPD was $9.9 million per year. $ 7.2 million accounts for inpatient care cost (W.-S. Kelvinteo et.al, 2011). For last 10 years no studies found in Singapore on family care givers perspectives on end of life care in ICU. Primary family care givers most of the time the spouse are the carer for the COPD patient The Singapore old age percentage is in increasing trend 7.3% in 2000 9.3 in 2011 expected to rise up to 18.7% 2013. When a family member is dying, conversations about the end of life can be uncomfortable and difficult. Still, discussing end-of-life care is important. Patients with end-stage of diseases may suffer from distressful symptoms.The Advanced COPD patient suffer from severe distressful symptoms such a dyspnea anxiety and depression. Palliative care of malignant disorder gained more attention when compare to non-malignant diseases (Blackler et al., 2004; Lynn, 2000; Simonds, 2004).The palliative care needs of patients with end-stage respiratory diseases are increasingly being recognized (Curtis, 2008; Lanken et al., 2008) . The COPD patient experience significant impairment of quality of life and physical and psychological needs when compare to individual with lung cancer (Core et al., 2000; Edmonds et al., 2001; Skilbeck et al., 1998; Tranmer et al, 2003). Why family members? When there is progression of diseases it imposes negative impacts on psychological health of Care givers (Daniela Figueiredo, 2014). Careers are more likely to suffer from anxiety and depressive symptoms providing continuous care during the advance stage of the disease and end of life care (Abebaw Mengistus Yohannes 2007). Preparation for death should include a realistic appraisal of the prospects for dying peacefully at home. (Hansen –Flaschen J .2004) Most of the patients are willing to be housebound at the end stage of life so its responsibility of family cares to provide continuous care and support them White P (2011) stated 45% were housebound, 75% had a career in end stage of COPD . despite no studies have been conducted qualitatively on family care givers perception on End of life care on COPD in Asian countries . Review of literature: â€Å"Palliative care in COPD† search in PUBMED extracted only 285 titles from 1991 to 2011. ( Anirban Hom Choudhuri 2012) .The absence of palliative care services highlights the need for research into appropriate models of care to address uncontrolled symptoms, information provision and end of life planning. (Jones et al 2014). Synthesis of findings: The literature review showed that the family care givers suffer from intense conflict, emotions such as helplessness, guilt, anger, anxiety and frustration. These suffering are due to deterioration of the health of the loved one and cumulative losses over time that the patient illeness affect the care givers the most. The key findings of each study were identified and supplemented based on a review of the full article. Then, categories were derived by grouping the key findings thematically. Lack of support: Most of the family care givers reported they were unaware of the facilities for COPD patient. There was no social or psychological support. If the support is received also this is inadequate or sporadic. They learnt most of the things by their experience regarding prognosis, treatment signs and symptoms, illness. They faced the financial constraint in addition too. They are expecting support from the health care professionals. â€Å"Well, the care from Father’s doctors was extremely basic and, I felt, on the most part extremely uncaring†¦ The doctors really had an attitude of ‘You were a smoker, you’re dying of lung disease, and what do you want us to do about it?’ The way they spoke to him, and the fact that they really weren’t concerned, and they didn’t doo very much for him; anything they did for him, I was disappointed in† – participant from Hasson et al. (2009) Burden of care givers: Burden of care givers are noted in all the studies. Most of the care giver said they are exhausted and need to perform multi task. They need to spend most of time in caring the patient. The involvement in social life is reduced, change of relationship with patient. Mostly they are anxious and frustrated. Sometimes care givers are helpless when they patient are suffering from breathing difficulties. â€Å"It is very frustrating, and you know I don’t know if the government realizes how hard it is for carers..It’s a full-time job. It’s work isn’t it? It’s not something you do because you like it. I mean I care for my Dad, I love him and I want to look after him, but I also need my own time.†- participant from Philip et al. (2014) End of life care and support of Bereavement Mostly family career are involved end of life decision making which lead to a peaceful death and die with dignity for the patient. â€Å"I think the situation was the way is should have been. I think if there had been any external help, it would have been a bit of an intrusion. [Father] did not want to leave the house and that was fine but also whenever he was like that and he was not feeling the best, it was just best to leave him alone† – participant from Hasson et al. (2009) Some said the hospital policy did not allowed us to care for the patient in home during end stage of life. No adequate bereavement support for the family careers after the death. Some had counselling in later part of life. Rewards, meaning, and coping: However, some caregivers described their experiences as positive. Identified positive features include sense of pride, esteem, and mastery as a caregiver a sense of normalcy; being able to demonstrate love and fulfill satisfaction and sense of accomplishment ability to be with and help the patient life-enriching experiences closer relationships a sense that it is important. Some care givers felt that their loved one died with dignity and respect. They were able to provide good care and that provided them a sense of accomplishment. Conclusion: The COPD has a great impact on Family care givers. All the studies stated that there is a lack of support and facilities, unmet needs. There was a lack of knowledge about the available facilities and lack of emotional support .There is a need for supportive and education regarding the palliative and end of life care. Mostly of the careers reported they are helpless when patient suffering from breathlessness and guilt of not doing enough. Caregiver’s involvement in providing care and feeling able to provide quality care, will enhance the coping among the care givers. These four studies were conducted in European countries and thus there is a lack of ethnic diversity which may have an additional impact on caregiving culturally. Many recommendations were made for further research relating to the care givers perspectives. The studies did not discuss if there were any difference in the care provided by spouse/children or by ethnicity. Thus, further research can be done to study the cultural influences on care giving of COPD patients. Research Objectives What are the experiences of Family care givers on end of life care of patient with COPD in ICU? What are the needs of family care givers on end of life care of patient with COPD? What are the barriers of caring family care givers Details of Research Proposal: Aims To explore the needs of Primary family care givers or bereaved careers on end of life care of ICU COPD patient To explore the perspectives of Primary family care givers or bereaved careers on end of life care of ICU COPD Patient. Operational definition: End of life care: The care provided to alleviate the symptoms of patient during the end stage of COPD. Family care givers: Care provided by the Family members other than the health care professionals. Bereaved careers: Bereaved careers are one who suffered from the death family members due to COPD. Research Methodology: Study design: A Phenomenological Descriptive approach will be adopted to explore the perspectives of Family care givers on End of life care. Interviews will be conducted. Sampling: The study will use purposive sampling method to select the participant for the interview. Samples: Primary Family care givers COPD patient who have died in ICU Inclusion criteria: Participant Speak English Participant over 18 years of age Bereaved careers of COPD patient within a year. Exclusion criteria: Bereaved careers of other diseases. Family care givers of other diseases Bereaved and Family care givers of More than one year of COPD patient Sample size planning: Approximately 10-15 primary bereaved careers of COPD patient until the data saturation is obtained Ethical Consideration: The DSRB approval will be obtained before data collection. The purpose of the study will be explained to the participant before informed consents are obtained. The participant will be ensured that the information collected will be kept confidential and it will be used only for research purpose. Data collection: The researcher will get access to the COPD Program coordinator and get permission to conduct a study. After Permission is granted, the COPD patient died in ICU will be identified through the register. The eligible participant will be selected who meet the inclusion criteria. Then the family members will be contacted through telephone by the researcher and if the participant is willing to participate in the research.. The research process will be first explained to the selected participants in an appropriate manner without hurting their sentiments and understanding their difficult situation’s as well. Face to face semi structured interviews will be conducted with the Family care givers. In that interview, a set of general and open ended questions would be asked. And the entire conversation will be audiotaped. Each conversation is assumed to last for 40 to 60 minutes. When the participant become too emotional, the interview will be stopped and reassured by the researcher. Again the interview will be conducted when normality is retained. After the interview, basic demographic data will be collected and the same will be kept confidential. A pilot study will be conducted based on the interview guidelines prepared with 2-3 participants to assess the feasibility of this study. Interview guidelines: Introduction 🙠 2 minutes) Good morning .Thank you for participating in our Research. I Arunadevi graduate student from Alice Lee Center of nursing Studies, National University of Singapore. As a Part of my program I am conducting this Interview. The interviews will be carried out for 45 minutes to an hour. The Questions will be open ended questions. The answers will be audiotaped. Objectives :(1 Minute) To identify the perspectives of primary Family care givers on End of Life care Interview Questions: 45 minutes to One hour) How did you become a Primary care giver? What you understand your role as a care giver? What do you understand about end of life care? How do you experience providing care to family members at the end stage? What helped with the care? What do you felt as lacking while providing the care? What could be improved? Ending session: (5 minutes) Would you like to say anything further? Thanks for sharing your thoughts and views. It would surely help others and provide support when others are facing the same problem. Data analysis: The analysis of the data is based on Colaizzi (1978) which includes various steps such as read and acquire the meaning, organize it into meaningful themes, integrate results, send it to the participant as final validating steps. The recorded interviews will be listened repetitively and transcribed to verbatim by the researcher. The initial impression and reflection will be noted in a separate note book. The themes will be emerged from the transcript. The clustering of the themes with similar context will be made .The thematic analysis will be used to analyses the data. Whenever possible the transcript will be send to the participant to know the meaning or to validate the information. Gaps will be identified as well based on the expectations of the family care givers. Then certain recommendations/suggestions will be generated for the group based on the findings, in addition to the current facilities available. Rigour /Validity: The four essential criteria highlighted by Lincoln and Guba (1985) are as follows: Credibility, Transferability, Dependability and Conà ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ rmability. Credibility refers to the confidence in the truth and interpretation of Data. After transcribing the transcription will be send to the participant when possible to validate the information. To ensure the findings are not modified by the researcher. Reflective Questioning will also be used to ensure the credibility. Transferability of the results generated in the study will be achieved through ‘thick description’, (Lincoln Guba 1985). The study findings will be useful to all the health care professionals family care givers of COPD patient on End of life care. Conformability and dependability rest on the consistency, objectivity and accuracy of the data findings chiefly depends on the data consistency and accuracy and (Richard Morse 2007). Audio recording and supervisor member check in will be done for conformability and dependability.

Practices of Agile Methods in Project Management

Practices of Agile Methods in Project Management Abstract This paper describes the practices of agile methods from the viewpoint of project management. The project management techniques are complex processes that require the understanding and coordination of several domains of knowledge. As more and more software projects engage Agile Methods, there are emerging patterns of success and failure. With growing adoption of Agile Methods, project managers increasingly need to understand the applicability to their projects and factors that drive key project performance characteristics. Agile Methods have advantages, especially in accommodating change due to volatile requirements. However, they also present concomitant risks with managing the many dependent pieces of work distributed across a large project. The paper is divided into four parts. In the first part an overview of the project management and its processes and knowledge areas discussed. after that the agile methods discussed following with a short history of RAD(We should mention that just three most used and famous methodologies are discussed). In the second part the project management approaches and a brief definition of each approach are given. In the third part we looked at the agile methodologies from project management areas view such as cost, time, quality and risk management and we compared agile methodologies and we explained their advantages and disadvantages. In the fourth part we discussed about combination of agile methodologies and their utilization in large and complex projects. And finally we propose our own idea about the future of project management in agile methods. Keywords Project Management, Rapid Development Methodologies, Agile Project Management, History of RAD, Project management approaches, Agile Performance Measurement, Investment and Risk, Agile Enterprise Framework, Agile Methodology Fit Introduction What is Project? A human activity that achieves a clear objective against a time scale A project is a one-shot, time-limited, goal-directed, major undertaking, requiring the commitment of varied skills and resources. A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service. A project is temporary in that there is a defined start (the decision to proceed) and a defined end (the achievement of the goals and objectives). Ongoing business or maintenance operations are not projects. Energy conservation projects and process improvement efforts that result in better business processes or more efficient operations can be defined as projects. Projects usually include constraints and risks regarding cost, schedule or performance outcome. What is Project Management? Many have attempted to define project management. One example, Oisen,3 referencing views from the 1950s, may have been one of the early attempts. Project Management is the application of a collection of tools and techniques (such as the CPM and matrix organization) to direct the use of diverse resources toward the accomplishment of a unique, complex, one-time task within time, cost and quality constraints. Each task requires a particular mix of theses tools and techniques structured to fit the task environment and life cycle (from conception to completion) of the task. Notice in the definition are included some the success criteria, The Iron triangle. Those criteria for measuring success included in the description used by Oisen3 continue to be used to describe project management today. The British Standard for project management BS60794 1996 defined project management as: The planning, monitoring and control of all aspects of a project and the motivation of all those involved in it to achieve the project objectives on time and to the specified cost, quality and performance. The UK Association of project Management (APM) have produced a UK Body of Knowledge UK (BoK)5 which also provides a definition for project management as: The planning, organization, monitoring and control of all aspects of a project and the motivation of all involved to achieve the project objectives safely and within agreed time, cost and performance criteria. The project manager is the single point of responsibility for achieving this. Other definitions have been offered, Reiss6 suggests a project is a human activity that achieves a clear objective against a time scale, and to achieve this while pointing out that a simple description is not possible, suggests project management is a combination of management and planning and the management of change. Locks7 view was that project management had evolved in order to plan, co-ordinate and control the complex and diverse activities of modern industrial and commercial projects, while Burke8 considers project management to be a specialized management technique, to plan and control projects under a strong single point of responsibility. While some different suggestions about what is project management have been made, the criteria for success, namely cost, time and quality remain and are included in the actual description. Could this mean that the example given to define project management Oisen3 was either correct, or as a discipline, project management has not really changed or developed the success measurement criteria in almost 50 years. Project management is a learning profession. Based upon past mistakes and believed best practice, standards such as BS 60794 and the UK Body of Knowledge5 continue to be developed. But defining project management is difficult, Wirth,9 indicated the differences in content between six countries own versions of BoKs. Turner10 provided a consolidated matrix to help understand and moderate different attempts to describe project management, including the assessment. Turner10 further suggested that project management could be described as: the art and science of converting vision into reality. Note the criteria against which project management is measured is not included in that description. Is there a paradox however in even attempting to define project management? Can a subject which deals with a unique, one-off complex task as suggested as early as Oisen3 be defined? Perhaps project management is simply an evolving phenomena, which will remain vague enough to be non-definable, a flexible attribute which could be a strength. The significant point is that while the factors have developed and been adopted, changes to the success criteria have been suggested but remain unchanged. Could the link be, that project management continues to fail because, included in the definition are a limited set of criteria for measuring success, cost, time and quality, which even if these criteria are achieved simply demonstrate the chance of matching two best guesses and a phenomena correctly. Prior to some undergraduate lectures and workshops about project management, the students were asked to locate some secondary literature describing project management and produce their own definition. While there were some innovative ideas, the overriding responses included the success criteria of cost, time and quality within the definition. If this is the perception about project management we wish those about to work in the profession to have, the rhetoric over the years has worked. Has this ho wever been the problem to realizing more successful projects? To date, project management has had the success criteria focused upon the delivery stage, up to implementation. Reinforced by the very description we have continued to use to define the profession. The focus has been to judge whether the project was done right. Doing something right may result in a project which was implemented on time, within cost and to some quality parameters requested, but which is not used by the customers, not liked by the sponsors and does not seem to provide either improved effectiveness or efficiency for the organization, is this successful project management? Project Management Life Cycle The process flow of Project management processes is shown below. The various elements of project management life cycle are Need identification Initiation Planning Executing Controlling Closing out a) Need Identification The first step in the project development cycle is to identify components of the project. Projects may be identified both internally and externally: Internal identification takes place when the energy manager identifies a package of energy saving opportunities during the day-to-day energy management activities, or from facility audits. External identification of energy savings can occur through systematic energy audits undertaken by a reputable energy auditor or energy service company. In screening projects, the following criteria should be used to rank-order project opportunities. Cost-effectiveness of energy savings of complete package of measures (Internal rate of return, net present value, cash flow, average payback) Sustainability of the savings over the life of the equipment. Ease of quantifying, monitoring, and verifying electricity and fuel savings. Availability of technology, and ease of adaptability of the technology to Indian conditions. Other environmental and social cost benefits (such as reduction in local pollutants, e.g. SOx) b) Initiation Initiating is the basic processes that should be performed to get the project started. This starting point is critical because those who will deliver the project, those who will use the Bureau of Energy Efficiency project, and those who will have a stake in the project need to reach an agreement on its initiation. Involving all stakeholders in the project phases generally improves the probability of satisfying customer requirements by shared ownership of the project by the stakeholders. The success of the project team depends upon starting with complete and accurate information, management support, and the authorization necessary to manage the project. The initiation stage should include a plan that encompasses the following areas: Analyzing the business needs/requirements in measurable goals Reviewing of the current operations Financial analysis of the costs and benefits including a budget Stakeholder analysis, including users, and support personnel for the project Project charter including costs, tasks, deliverables, and schedule c) Planning The planning phase is considered the most important phase in project management. Project planning defines project activities that will be performed; the products that will be produced, and describes how these activities will be accomplished and managed. Project planning defines each major task, estimates the time, resources and cost required, and provides a framework for management review and control. Planning involves identifying and documenting scope, tasks, schedules, cost, risk, quality, and staffing needs. The result of the project planning, the project plan, will be an approved, comprehensive document that allows a project team to begin and complete the work necessary to achieve the project goals and objectives. The project plan will address how the project team will manage the project elements. It will provide a high level of confidence in the organizations ability to meet the scope, timing, cost, and quality requirements by addressing all aspects of the project. Project planning generally consists of determining how to plan (e.g. by level of detail or rolling wave); developing the scope statement; selecting the planning team; identifying deliverables and creating the work breakdown structure; identifying the activities needed to complete those deliverables and networking the activities in their logical sequence; estimating the resource requirements for the activities; estimating time and cost for activities; developing the schedule; developing the budget; risk planning; gaining formal approval to begin work. Additional processes, such as planning for communications and for scope management, identifying roles and responsibilities, determining what to purchase for the project and holding a kick-off meeting are also generally advisable. For new product development projects, conceptual design of the operation of the final product may be performed concurrent with the project planning activities, and may help to inform the planning team when identifying deliverables and planning activities d) Executing Once a project moves into the execution phase, the project team and all necessary resources to carry out the project should be in place and ready to perform project activities. The project plan is completed and base lined by this time as well. The project team and the project managers focus now shifts from planning the project efforts to participating, observing, and analyzing the work being done. The execution phase is when the work activities of the project plan are executed, resulting in the completion of the project deliverables and achievement of the project objective(s). This phase brings together all of the project management disciplines, resulting in a product or service that will meet the project deliverable requirements and the customers need. During this phase, elements completed in the planning phase are implemented, time is expended, and money is spent. In short, it means coordinating and managing the project resources while executing the project plan, performing the planned project activities, and ensuring they are completed efficiently. e) Monitoring and Controlling Project Control function that involves comparing actual performance with planned performance and taking corrective action to get the desired outcome when there are significant differences. By monitoring and measuring progress regularly, identifying Bureau of Energy Efficiency variances from plan, and taking corrective action if required, project control ensures that project objectives are met. Monitoring and Controlling includes: Measuring the ongoing project activities (where we are); Monitoring the project variables (cost, effort, scope, etc.) against the project management plan and the project performance baseline (where we should be); Identify corrective actions to address issues and risks properly (How can we get on track again); Influencing the factors that could circumvent integrated change control so only approved changes are implemented In multi-phase projects,process also provides feedback between project phases, in order to implement corrective or preventive actions to bring the project into compliance with the project management plan. Project Maintenance is an ongoing process, and it includes: Continuing support of end users Correction of errors Updates of the software over time Monitoring and Controlling cycle In this stage, auditors should pay attention to how effectively and quickly user problems are resolved. Over the course of any construction project, the work scope may change. Change is a normal and expected part of the construction process. Changes can be the result of necessary design modifications, differing site conditions, material availability, contractor-requested changes, value engineering and impacts from third parties, to name a few. Beyond executing the change in the field, the change normally needs to be documented to show what was actually constructed. This is referred to as Change Management. Hence, the owner usually requires a final record to show all changes or, more specifically, any change that modifies the tangible portions of the finished work. The record is made on the contract documents usually, but not necessarily limited to, the design drawings. The end product of this effort is what the industry terms as-built drawings, or more simply, as built. The requirement for providing them is a norm in construction contracts. When changes are introduced to the project, the viability of the project has to be re-assessed. It is important not to lose sight of the initial goals and targets of the projects. When the changes accumulate, the forecasted result may not justify the original proposed investment in the project. f) Closing out Project closeout is performed after all defined project objectives have been met and the customer has formally accepted the projects deliverables and end product or, in some instances, when a project has been cancelled or terminated early. Although, project closeout is a routine process, it is an important one. By properly completing the project closeout, organizations can benefit from lessons learned and information compiled. The project closeout phase is comprised of contract closeout and administrative closure. This phase consists of: Project close: Finalize all activities across all of the process groups to formally close the project or a project phase Contract closure: Complete and settle each contract (including the resolution of any open items) and close each contract applicable to the project or project phase Project Management Knowledge Areas with the Related Processes Each of the nine knowledge areas contains the processes that need to be accomplished within its discipline in order to achieve an effective project management program. Each of these processes also falls into one of the five basic process groups, creating a matrix structure such that every process can be related to one knowledge area and one process group. Risk Management Software development projects represent an investment of resources by the projects sponsor, an investment that often yields little or no return. The Standish Groups Chaos Report 1994 states that fewer than 10% of software projects in large companies were successful. Medium sized companies do better with 16% of their software projects being successful, and small companies succeed on 28% of their software projects (Standish 1994). Given these statistics it is worthwhile to invest significant effort in Risk Management for software projects. Research at The Standish Group also indicates that smaller time frames, with delivery of software components early and often, will increase the success rate. (Standish 1994). Integration Management Extreme Programming offers nothing to help integrate the efforts of non-software developers. Unfortunately, some advocates of Extreme Programming suggest that the efforts of technical writers, database managers, and quality assurance specialist are not required. In reality, while Extreme Programming does not explicitly describe how to integrate the work of others, the practices do not preclude the ability to integrate with other efforts. Small Releases make Integration Management a more continuous process in contrast to processes that place deployment, documentation, and testing at the end of the schedule. Continuous Integration At a more tactical level, the Extreme Programming practice of Continuous Integration requires that the work of software developers be integrated on a daily basis. While this practice can cause additional overhead for individual developers, it allows the team to identify problems daily that would otherwise become undiscovered rework accumulating until all developers integrate their individual work products. Scope Management Time Management Ask most software development teams for a copy of their project plan and you will receive an activity list formatted as a Gantt chart. Many times these activity lists will describe several phases of activities such as Analysis, Design, Construction, and Testing. Areas of functionality will be broken out under these headings in order to assign them to specific programmers, but seldom are the assignments identified in the Gantt chart clearly traceable back to a Requirement or other specification documents. All too often, the missing item that would help a team improve their planning practices is a well-constructed Work Breakdown Structure. Extreme Programming focuses almost all of its planning efforts on building a thoughtful Work Breakdown Structure and its constituent Work Packages. Extreme Programming does not teach Work Breakdown Structures and Work Packages explicitly, however, careful study of the Story Cards used in Extreme Programming reveals that they are almost identical to Work Packages in their key attributes. Human Resources Management Often one of the most challenging aspects of project management is managing human resources. For software development projects in particular this includes the complex juggling of technical tasks between individual software developers who have different individual skills, effectively treating each developers assigned tasks as an independent subproject. This type of project plan often suffers from key resource bottlenecks and status meetings reduced to determining which individuals are falling furthest behind. Extreme Programming addresses this head-on by eliminating the dependency on individual developers. Work Packages are scheduled and authorized based on the needs of the business and the users not the needs of the software developers. All developers are cross-trained to work in all areas of the code base. Developers broaden their skills, and project managers stop worrying about keeping individual software developers for the entire duration of the project. The process maintains know ledge of the full code base in the team, not in individuals. Quality Management As programmers move from work authorization to work authorization, and often from one area of the code to another, it is easy to see that maintaining quality in the work product could be challenging. Extreme Programming requires a very disciplined design approach to allow freedom in assigning resources while maintaining high quality. Communications Management When a project manager mentions the need for improved communications on a project, software developers often immediately envision an increased number of meetings and documents. While formal meetings and written documents have their place in a communication plan there are many other tools for facilitation of communication between project participants. The Extreme Programming practices include several simple practices intended to enhance communications. Costs Management Often a Project Manager is evaluated on his or her ability to complete a project within budget. The costs include estimated cost, actual cost and variability. Contingency cost takes into account influence of weather, suppliers and design allowances. How the 80/20 Rule can help a project manager? The 80/20 Rule means that in anything a few (20 percent) are vital and many (80 percent) are trivial. Successful Project Managers know that 20 percent of the work (the first 10 percent and the last 10 percent) consumes 80 percent of your time and resources. The History of RAD Traditional lifecycles devised in the 1970s, and still widely used today, are based upon a structured step-by-step approach to developing systems. This rigid sequence of steps forces a user to sign-off after the completion of each specification before development can proceed to the next step. The requirements and design are then frozen and the system is coded, tested, and implemented. With such conventional methods, there is a long delay before the customer gets to see any results and the development process can take so long that the customers business could fundamentally change before the system is even ready for use. In response to these rigid, cascading, one-way steps of Stagewise or Waterfall Models of development, Barry Boehm, Chief SW Engineer at TRW, introduced his Spiral Model. The Spiral Model is a risk-driven, as opposed to code-driven, approach that uses process modeling rather than methodology phases. Through his model, Boehm first implemented software prototyping as a way of reducing risk. The development process of the Spiral Model separates the product into critical parts or levels while performing risk analyses, prototyping, and the same steps at each of these levels. Similarly, Tom Gilbs Evolutionary Life Cycle is based on an evolutionary prototyping rationale where the prototype is grown and refined into the final product. The work of Boehm and Gilb paved the way for the formulation of the methodology called Rapid Iterative Production Prototyping (RIPP) at DuPont in the mid-to-late 1980s. James Martin then extended the work done at DuPont and elsewhere into a larger, more formalized process, which has become known as Rapid Application Development (RAD). RAD compresses the step-by-step development of conventional methods into an iterative process. The RAD approach thus includes developing and refining the data models, process models, and prototype in parallel using an iterative process. User requirements are refined, a solution is designed, the solution is prototyped, the prototype is reviewed, user input is provided, and the process begins again. What is Agility? There is no Agility for Dummies. Agility isnt a silver bullet. You dont achieve it in five easy steps. So what is it? From one view agility characterized in two statements: Agility is the ability to both create and respond to change in order to profit in a turbulent business environment. Agility is the ability to balance flexibility and stability (Highsmith 2002). In an uncertain and turbulent world, success belongs to companies that have the capacity to create change, and maybe even chaos, for their competitors. Creating change disrupts competitors (and the entire market ecosystem); responding to change guards against competitive thrusts. Creating change requires innovation: developing new products, creating new sales channels, reducing product development time, customizing products for increasingly smaller market segments. In addition, your company must be able to respond quickly to both anticipated and unanticipated changes created by your competitors and customers. An example of a product development effort in which all the aspects of agility come into play is that of small, portable DNA analyzers. These instruments can be used for analyzing suspected bio-terror agents (e.g., anthrax), performing quick medical diagnoses, or undertaking environmental bacterial analysis. These instruments must be accurate, easy to use, and reliable under wide-ranging conditions, and their development depends on breakthroughs in nanotechnology, genome research, and micro-fluidics. Developing these leading-edge products requires blending flexibility and structure, exploring various new technologies, and creating change for competitors by reducing delivery time. These are not projects that can be managed by traditional, prescriptive project management methodologies. Some people mistakenly assume that agility connotes a lack of structure, but the absence of structure, or stability, generates chaos. Conversely, too much structure generates rigidity. Complexity theory tells us that innovation—creating something new in ways that we cant fully anticipate (an emergent result) occurs most readily at the balance point between chaos and order, between flexibility and stability. Scientists believe that emergence, the creation of novelty from agent interaction, happens most readily at this edge of chaos. The idea of enough structure, but not too much, drives agile managers to continually ask the question, How little structure can I get away with? Too much structure stifles creativity. Too little structure breeds inefficiency. This need to balance at the edge of chaos to foster innovation is one reason process-centric methodologies often fail. They push organizations into over-optimization at the expense of innovation. Agile organizations dont get lost in some gray middle ground; they understand which factors require stabilization and which ones encourage exploration. For example, in a high-change product development environment, rigorous configuration management stabilizes and facilitates flexibility just as a focus on technical excellence stabilizes the development effort. Overview and definitions The Agile Movement in software industry saw the light of day with the Agile Software Development Manifesto4 published by a group of software practitioners and consultants in 2001 (Beck et al. 2001; Cockburn 2002a). The focal values honored by the agilists are presented in the following: Individuals and interactions over processes and tools Working software over comprehensive documentation Customer collaboration over contract negotiation Responding to change over following a plan These central values that the agile community adheres to are: First, the agile movement emphasizes the relationship and communality of software developers and the human role reflected in the contracts, as opposed to institutionalized processes and development tools. In the existing agile practices, this manifests itself in close team relationships, close working environment arrangements, and other procedures boosting team spirit. Second, the vital objective of the software team is to continuously turn out tested working software. New releases are produced at frequent intervals, in some approaches even hourly or daily, but more usually bi-monthly or monthly. The developers are urged to keep the code simple, straightforward, and technically as advanced as possible, thus lessening the documentation burden to an appropriate level. Third, the relationship and cooperation between the developers and the clients is given the preference over strict contracts, although the importance of well drafted contracts does grow at the same pace as the size of the software project. The negotiation process itself should be seen as a means of achieving and maintaining a viable relationship. From a business point of view, agile development is focused on delivering business value immediately as the project starts, thus reducing the risks of non-fulfillment regarding the contract. Fourth, the development group, comprising both software developers and customer representatives, should be well-informed, competent and authorized to consider possible adjustment needs emerging during the development process life-cycle. This means that the participants are prepared to make changes and that also the existing contracts are formed with tools that support and allow these enhancements to be made. According to Highsmith and Cockburn (2001, p. 122), what is new about agile methods is not the practices they use, but their recognition of people as the primary drivers of project success, coupled with an intense focus on effectiveness and maneuverability. This yields a new combination of values and principles that define an agile world view. Boehm (2002) illustrates the spectrum of different planning methods with Figure 1, in which hackers are placed at one end and the so called inch-pebble ironbound contractual approach at the opposite end: Hawrysh and Ruprecht (2000) state that a single methodology can not work for the whole spectrum of different projects, but instead the project management should identify the specific nature of the project at hand and then select the bes Practices of Agile Methods in Project Management Practices of Agile Methods in Project Management Abstract This paper describes the practices of agile methods from the viewpoint of project management. The project management techniques are complex processes that require the understanding and coordination of several domains of knowledge. As more and more software projects engage Agile Methods, there are emerging patterns of success and failure. With growing adoption of Agile Methods, project managers increasingly need to understand the applicability to their projects and factors that drive key project performance characteristics. Agile Methods have advantages, especially in accommodating change due to volatile requirements. However, they also present concomitant risks with managing the many dependent pieces of work distributed across a large project. The paper is divided into four parts. In the first part an overview of the project management and its processes and knowledge areas discussed. after that the agile methods discussed following with a short history of RAD(We should mention that just three most used and famous methodologies are discussed). In the second part the project management approaches and a brief definition of each approach are given. In the third part we looked at the agile methodologies from project management areas view such as cost, time, quality and risk management and we compared agile methodologies and we explained their advantages and disadvantages. In the fourth part we discussed about combination of agile methodologies and their utilization in large and complex projects. And finally we propose our own idea about the future of project management in agile methods. Keywords Project Management, Rapid Development Methodologies, Agile Project Management, History of RAD, Project management approaches, Agile Performance Measurement, Investment and Risk, Agile Enterprise Framework, Agile Methodology Fit Introduction What is Project? A human activity that achieves a clear objective against a time scale A project is a one-shot, time-limited, goal-directed, major undertaking, requiring the commitment of varied skills and resources. A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service. A project is temporary in that there is a defined start (the decision to proceed) and a defined end (the achievement of the goals and objectives). Ongoing business or maintenance operations are not projects. Energy conservation projects and process improvement efforts that result in better business processes or more efficient operations can be defined as projects. Projects usually include constraints and risks regarding cost, schedule or performance outcome. What is Project Management? Many have attempted to define project management. One example, Oisen,3 referencing views from the 1950s, may have been one of the early attempts. Project Management is the application of a collection of tools and techniques (such as the CPM and matrix organization) to direct the use of diverse resources toward the accomplishment of a unique, complex, one-time task within time, cost and quality constraints. Each task requires a particular mix of theses tools and techniques structured to fit the task environment and life cycle (from conception to completion) of the task. Notice in the definition are included some the success criteria, The Iron triangle. Those criteria for measuring success included in the description used by Oisen3 continue to be used to describe project management today. The British Standard for project management BS60794 1996 defined project management as: The planning, monitoring and control of all aspects of a project and the motivation of all those involved in it to achieve the project objectives on time and to the specified cost, quality and performance. The UK Association of project Management (APM) have produced a UK Body of Knowledge UK (BoK)5 which also provides a definition for project management as: The planning, organization, monitoring and control of all aspects of a project and the motivation of all involved to achieve the project objectives safely and within agreed time, cost and performance criteria. The project manager is the single point of responsibility for achieving this. Other definitions have been offered, Reiss6 suggests a project is a human activity that achieves a clear objective against a time scale, and to achieve this while pointing out that a simple description is not possible, suggests project management is a combination of management and planning and the management of change. Locks7 view was that project management had evolved in order to plan, co-ordinate and control the complex and diverse activities of modern industrial and commercial projects, while Burke8 considers project management to be a specialized management technique, to plan and control projects under a strong single point of responsibility. While some different suggestions about what is project management have been made, the criteria for success, namely cost, time and quality remain and are included in the actual description. Could this mean that the example given to define project management Oisen3 was either correct, or as a discipline, project management has not really changed or developed the success measurement criteria in almost 50 years. Project management is a learning profession. Based upon past mistakes and believed best practice, standards such as BS 60794 and the UK Body of Knowledge5 continue to be developed. But defining project management is difficult, Wirth,9 indicated the differences in content between six countries own versions of BoKs. Turner10 provided a consolidated matrix to help understand and moderate different attempts to describe project management, including the assessment. Turner10 further suggested that project management could be described as: the art and science of converting vision into reality. Note the criteria against which project management is measured is not included in that description. Is there a paradox however in even attempting to define project management? Can a subject which deals with a unique, one-off complex task as suggested as early as Oisen3 be defined? Perhaps project management is simply an evolving phenomena, which will remain vague enough to be non-definable, a flexible attribute which could be a strength. The significant point is that while the factors have developed and been adopted, changes to the success criteria have been suggested but remain unchanged. Could the link be, that project management continues to fail because, included in the definition are a limited set of criteria for measuring success, cost, time and quality, which even if these criteria are achieved simply demonstrate the chance of matching two best guesses and a phenomena correctly. Prior to some undergraduate lectures and workshops about project management, the students were asked to locate some secondary literature describing project management and produce their own definition. While there were some innovative ideas, the overriding responses included the success criteria of cost, time and quality within the definition. If this is the perception about project management we wish those about to work in the profession to have, the rhetoric over the years has worked. Has this ho wever been the problem to realizing more successful projects? To date, project management has had the success criteria focused upon the delivery stage, up to implementation. Reinforced by the very description we have continued to use to define the profession. The focus has been to judge whether the project was done right. Doing something right may result in a project which was implemented on time, within cost and to some quality parameters requested, but which is not used by the customers, not liked by the sponsors and does not seem to provide either improved effectiveness or efficiency for the organization, is this successful project management? Project Management Life Cycle The process flow of Project management processes is shown below. The various elements of project management life cycle are Need identification Initiation Planning Executing Controlling Closing out a) Need Identification The first step in the project development cycle is to identify components of the project. Projects may be identified both internally and externally: Internal identification takes place when the energy manager identifies a package of energy saving opportunities during the day-to-day energy management activities, or from facility audits. External identification of energy savings can occur through systematic energy audits undertaken by a reputable energy auditor or energy service company. In screening projects, the following criteria should be used to rank-order project opportunities. Cost-effectiveness of energy savings of complete package of measures (Internal rate of return, net present value, cash flow, average payback) Sustainability of the savings over the life of the equipment. Ease of quantifying, monitoring, and verifying electricity and fuel savings. Availability of technology, and ease of adaptability of the technology to Indian conditions. Other environmental and social cost benefits (such as reduction in local pollutants, e.g. SOx) b) Initiation Initiating is the basic processes that should be performed to get the project started. This starting point is critical because those who will deliver the project, those who will use the Bureau of Energy Efficiency project, and those who will have a stake in the project need to reach an agreement on its initiation. Involving all stakeholders in the project phases generally improves the probability of satisfying customer requirements by shared ownership of the project by the stakeholders. The success of the project team depends upon starting with complete and accurate information, management support, and the authorization necessary to manage the project. The initiation stage should include a plan that encompasses the following areas: Analyzing the business needs/requirements in measurable goals Reviewing of the current operations Financial analysis of the costs and benefits including a budget Stakeholder analysis, including users, and support personnel for the project Project charter including costs, tasks, deliverables, and schedule c) Planning The planning phase is considered the most important phase in project management. Project planning defines project activities that will be performed; the products that will be produced, and describes how these activities will be accomplished and managed. Project planning defines each major task, estimates the time, resources and cost required, and provides a framework for management review and control. Planning involves identifying and documenting scope, tasks, schedules, cost, risk, quality, and staffing needs. The result of the project planning, the project plan, will be an approved, comprehensive document that allows a project team to begin and complete the work necessary to achieve the project goals and objectives. The project plan will address how the project team will manage the project elements. It will provide a high level of confidence in the organizations ability to meet the scope, timing, cost, and quality requirements by addressing all aspects of the project. Project planning generally consists of determining how to plan (e.g. by level of detail or rolling wave); developing the scope statement; selecting the planning team; identifying deliverables and creating the work breakdown structure; identifying the activities needed to complete those deliverables and networking the activities in their logical sequence; estimating the resource requirements for the activities; estimating time and cost for activities; developing the schedule; developing the budget; risk planning; gaining formal approval to begin work. Additional processes, such as planning for communications and for scope management, identifying roles and responsibilities, determining what to purchase for the project and holding a kick-off meeting are also generally advisable. For new product development projects, conceptual design of the operation of the final product may be performed concurrent with the project planning activities, and may help to inform the planning team when identifying deliverables and planning activities d) Executing Once a project moves into the execution phase, the project team and all necessary resources to carry out the project should be in place and ready to perform project activities. The project plan is completed and base lined by this time as well. The project team and the project managers focus now shifts from planning the project efforts to participating, observing, and analyzing the work being done. The execution phase is when the work activities of the project plan are executed, resulting in the completion of the project deliverables and achievement of the project objective(s). This phase brings together all of the project management disciplines, resulting in a product or service that will meet the project deliverable requirements and the customers need. During this phase, elements completed in the planning phase are implemented, time is expended, and money is spent. In short, it means coordinating and managing the project resources while executing the project plan, performing the planned project activities, and ensuring they are completed efficiently. e) Monitoring and Controlling Project Control function that involves comparing actual performance with planned performance and taking corrective action to get the desired outcome when there are significant differences. By monitoring and measuring progress regularly, identifying Bureau of Energy Efficiency variances from plan, and taking corrective action if required, project control ensures that project objectives are met. Monitoring and Controlling includes: Measuring the ongoing project activities (where we are); Monitoring the project variables (cost, effort, scope, etc.) against the project management plan and the project performance baseline (where we should be); Identify corrective actions to address issues and risks properly (How can we get on track again); Influencing the factors that could circumvent integrated change control so only approved changes are implemented In multi-phase projects,process also provides feedback between project phases, in order to implement corrective or preventive actions to bring the project into compliance with the project management plan. Project Maintenance is an ongoing process, and it includes: Continuing support of end users Correction of errors Updates of the software over time Monitoring and Controlling cycle In this stage, auditors should pay attention to how effectively and quickly user problems are resolved. Over the course of any construction project, the work scope may change. Change is a normal and expected part of the construction process. Changes can be the result of necessary design modifications, differing site conditions, material availability, contractor-requested changes, value engineering and impacts from third parties, to name a few. Beyond executing the change in the field, the change normally needs to be documented to show what was actually constructed. This is referred to as Change Management. Hence, the owner usually requires a final record to show all changes or, more specifically, any change that modifies the tangible portions of the finished work. The record is made on the contract documents usually, but not necessarily limited to, the design drawings. The end product of this effort is what the industry terms as-built drawings, or more simply, as built. The requirement for providing them is a norm in construction contracts. When changes are introduced to the project, the viability of the project has to be re-assessed. It is important not to lose sight of the initial goals and targets of the projects. When the changes accumulate, the forecasted result may not justify the original proposed investment in the project. f) Closing out Project closeout is performed after all defined project objectives have been met and the customer has formally accepted the projects deliverables and end product or, in some instances, when a project has been cancelled or terminated early. Although, project closeout is a routine process, it is an important one. By properly completing the project closeout, organizations can benefit from lessons learned and information compiled. The project closeout phase is comprised of contract closeout and administrative closure. This phase consists of: Project close: Finalize all activities across all of the process groups to formally close the project or a project phase Contract closure: Complete and settle each contract (including the resolution of any open items) and close each contract applicable to the project or project phase Project Management Knowledge Areas with the Related Processes Each of the nine knowledge areas contains the processes that need to be accomplished within its discipline in order to achieve an effective project management program. Each of these processes also falls into one of the five basic process groups, creating a matrix structure such that every process can be related to one knowledge area and one process group. Risk Management Software development projects represent an investment of resources by the projects sponsor, an investment that often yields little or no return. The Standish Groups Chaos Report 1994 states that fewer than 10% of software projects in large companies were successful. Medium sized companies do better with 16% of their software projects being successful, and small companies succeed on 28% of their software projects (Standish 1994). Given these statistics it is worthwhile to invest significant effort in Risk Management for software projects. Research at The Standish Group also indicates that smaller time frames, with delivery of software components early and often, will increase the success rate. (Standish 1994). Integration Management Extreme Programming offers nothing to help integrate the efforts of non-software developers. Unfortunately, some advocates of Extreme Programming suggest that the efforts of technical writers, database managers, and quality assurance specialist are not required. In reality, while Extreme Programming does not explicitly describe how to integrate the work of others, the practices do not preclude the ability to integrate with other efforts. Small Releases make Integration Management a more continuous process in contrast to processes that place deployment, documentation, and testing at the end of the schedule. Continuous Integration At a more tactical level, the Extreme Programming practice of Continuous Integration requires that the work of software developers be integrated on a daily basis. While this practice can cause additional overhead for individual developers, it allows the team to identify problems daily that would otherwise become undiscovered rework accumulating until all developers integrate their individual work products. Scope Management Time Management Ask most software development teams for a copy of their project plan and you will receive an activity list formatted as a Gantt chart. Many times these activity lists will describe several phases of activities such as Analysis, Design, Construction, and Testing. Areas of functionality will be broken out under these headings in order to assign them to specific programmers, but seldom are the assignments identified in the Gantt chart clearly traceable back to a Requirement or other specification documents. All too often, the missing item that would help a team improve their planning practices is a well-constructed Work Breakdown Structure. Extreme Programming focuses almost all of its planning efforts on building a thoughtful Work Breakdown Structure and its constituent Work Packages. Extreme Programming does not teach Work Breakdown Structures and Work Packages explicitly, however, careful study of the Story Cards used in Extreme Programming reveals that they are almost identical to Work Packages in their key attributes. Human Resources Management Often one of the most challenging aspects of project management is managing human resources. For software development projects in particular this includes the complex juggling of technical tasks between individual software developers who have different individual skills, effectively treating each developers assigned tasks as an independent subproject. This type of project plan often suffers from key resource bottlenecks and status meetings reduced to determining which individuals are falling furthest behind. Extreme Programming addresses this head-on by eliminating the dependency on individual developers. Work Packages are scheduled and authorized based on the needs of the business and the users not the needs of the software developers. All developers are cross-trained to work in all areas of the code base. Developers broaden their skills, and project managers stop worrying about keeping individual software developers for the entire duration of the project. The process maintains know ledge of the full code base in the team, not in individuals. Quality Management As programmers move from work authorization to work authorization, and often from one area of the code to another, it is easy to see that maintaining quality in the work product could be challenging. Extreme Programming requires a very disciplined design approach to allow freedom in assigning resources while maintaining high quality. Communications Management When a project manager mentions the need for improved communications on a project, software developers often immediately envision an increased number of meetings and documents. While formal meetings and written documents have their place in a communication plan there are many other tools for facilitation of communication between project participants. The Extreme Programming practices include several simple practices intended to enhance communications. Costs Management Often a Project Manager is evaluated on his or her ability to complete a project within budget. The costs include estimated cost, actual cost and variability. Contingency cost takes into account influence of weather, suppliers and design allowances. How the 80/20 Rule can help a project manager? The 80/20 Rule means that in anything a few (20 percent) are vital and many (80 percent) are trivial. Successful Project Managers know that 20 percent of the work (the first 10 percent and the last 10 percent) consumes 80 percent of your time and resources. The History of RAD Traditional lifecycles devised in the 1970s, and still widely used today, are based upon a structured step-by-step approach to developing systems. This rigid sequence of steps forces a user to sign-off after the completion of each specification before development can proceed to the next step. The requirements and design are then frozen and the system is coded, tested, and implemented. With such conventional methods, there is a long delay before the customer gets to see any results and the development process can take so long that the customers business could fundamentally change before the system is even ready for use. In response to these rigid, cascading, one-way steps of Stagewise or Waterfall Models of development, Barry Boehm, Chief SW Engineer at TRW, introduced his Spiral Model. The Spiral Model is a risk-driven, as opposed to code-driven, approach that uses process modeling rather than methodology phases. Through his model, Boehm first implemented software prototyping as a way of reducing risk. The development process of the Spiral Model separates the product into critical parts or levels while performing risk analyses, prototyping, and the same steps at each of these levels. Similarly, Tom Gilbs Evolutionary Life Cycle is based on an evolutionary prototyping rationale where the prototype is grown and refined into the final product. The work of Boehm and Gilb paved the way for the formulation of the methodology called Rapid Iterative Production Prototyping (RIPP) at DuPont in the mid-to-late 1980s. James Martin then extended the work done at DuPont and elsewhere into a larger, more formalized process, which has become known as Rapid Application Development (RAD). RAD compresses the step-by-step development of conventional methods into an iterative process. The RAD approach thus includes developing and refining the data models, process models, and prototype in parallel using an iterative process. User requirements are refined, a solution is designed, the solution is prototyped, the prototype is reviewed, user input is provided, and the process begins again. What is Agility? There is no Agility for Dummies. Agility isnt a silver bullet. You dont achieve it in five easy steps. So what is it? From one view agility characterized in two statements: Agility is the ability to both create and respond to change in order to profit in a turbulent business environment. Agility is the ability to balance flexibility and stability (Highsmith 2002). In an uncertain and turbulent world, success belongs to companies that have the capacity to create change, and maybe even chaos, for their competitors. Creating change disrupts competitors (and the entire market ecosystem); responding to change guards against competitive thrusts. Creating change requires innovation: developing new products, creating new sales channels, reducing product development time, customizing products for increasingly smaller market segments. In addition, your company must be able to respond quickly to both anticipated and unanticipated changes created by your competitors and customers. An example of a product development effort in which all the aspects of agility come into play is that of small, portable DNA analyzers. These instruments can be used for analyzing suspected bio-terror agents (e.g., anthrax), performing quick medical diagnoses, or undertaking environmental bacterial analysis. These instruments must be accurate, easy to use, and reliable under wide-ranging conditions, and their development depends on breakthroughs in nanotechnology, genome research, and micro-fluidics. Developing these leading-edge products requires blending flexibility and structure, exploring various new technologies, and creating change for competitors by reducing delivery time. These are not projects that can be managed by traditional, prescriptive project management methodologies. Some people mistakenly assume that agility connotes a lack of structure, but the absence of structure, or stability, generates chaos. Conversely, too much structure generates rigidity. Complexity theory tells us that innovation—creating something new in ways that we cant fully anticipate (an emergent result) occurs most readily at the balance point between chaos and order, between flexibility and stability. Scientists believe that emergence, the creation of novelty from agent interaction, happens most readily at this edge of chaos. The idea of enough structure, but not too much, drives agile managers to continually ask the question, How little structure can I get away with? Too much structure stifles creativity. Too little structure breeds inefficiency. This need to balance at the edge of chaos to foster innovation is one reason process-centric methodologies often fail. They push organizations into over-optimization at the expense of innovation. Agile organizations dont get lost in some gray middle ground; they understand which factors require stabilization and which ones encourage exploration. For example, in a high-change product development environment, rigorous configuration management stabilizes and facilitates flexibility just as a focus on technical excellence stabilizes the development effort. Overview and definitions The Agile Movement in software industry saw the light of day with the Agile Software Development Manifesto4 published by a group of software practitioners and consultants in 2001 (Beck et al. 2001; Cockburn 2002a). The focal values honored by the agilists are presented in the following: Individuals and interactions over processes and tools Working software over comprehensive documentation Customer collaboration over contract negotiation Responding to change over following a plan These central values that the agile community adheres to are: First, the agile movement emphasizes the relationship and communality of software developers and the human role reflected in the contracts, as opposed to institutionalized processes and development tools. In the existing agile practices, this manifests itself in close team relationships, close working environment arrangements, and other procedures boosting team spirit. Second, the vital objective of the software team is to continuously turn out tested working software. New releases are produced at frequent intervals, in some approaches even hourly or daily, but more usually bi-monthly or monthly. The developers are urged to keep the code simple, straightforward, and technically as advanced as possible, thus lessening the documentation burden to an appropriate level. Third, the relationship and cooperation between the developers and the clients is given the preference over strict contracts, although the importance of well drafted contracts does grow at the same pace as the size of the software project. The negotiation process itself should be seen as a means of achieving and maintaining a viable relationship. From a business point of view, agile development is focused on delivering business value immediately as the project starts, thus reducing the risks of non-fulfillment regarding the contract. Fourth, the development group, comprising both software developers and customer representatives, should be well-informed, competent and authorized to consider possible adjustment needs emerging during the development process life-cycle. This means that the participants are prepared to make changes and that also the existing contracts are formed with tools that support and allow these enhancements to be made. According to Highsmith and Cockburn (2001, p. 122), what is new about agile methods is not the practices they use, but their recognition of people as the primary drivers of project success, coupled with an intense focus on effectiveness and maneuverability. This yields a new combination of values and principles that define an agile world view. Boehm (2002) illustrates the spectrum of different planning methods with Figure 1, in which hackers are placed at one end and the so called inch-pebble ironbound contractual approach at the opposite end: Hawrysh and Ruprecht (2000) state that a single methodology can not work for the whole spectrum of different projects, but instead the project management should identify the specific nature of the project at hand and then select the bes