Difference between rationalism and empiricism Essay

Difference between rationalism and empiricism - Essay Example Rationalist believe that truth exists and rational and logic can grasp truth. Empiricism Empiricism is a Greek Philosophy Empiricism is a philosophy which bases on experience for knowledge This philosophy establishes that sensory experience is the sole way to gain knowledge Empiricism is related to the material world and phenomenon of universe. Empiricism is related to posteriori knowledge which means knowledge need experience. Empiricism explains that all human ideas are based on some outward experience Empiricsim is a psychological thought. Empiricism is philosophical theory which believe on intelligent assessment of things in universe Empiricist believe that knowledge is gained though experience and not by innate ideas. Plausibility of the theories Rationalism -Rationalism is a theory which is based on logic or rational. It is right that logic is predisposed with us who give us the ability to understand between right and wrong. If a person does not have logic then it is not possib le for him to evaluate experience or gain knowledge. However, logic itself cannot give knowledge, as human being is social beings some kind of experience can complete our knowledge level. The strength of this philosophy is universal and eternal which means that if one person can think then all others can as well. Rationalism makes us independent because we don’t need experience from outside to increase our knowledge. This philosophy believes in innate ideas and hence is natural and pure. The weakness of this philosophy is that only by thinking one cannot gain knowledge. For example ;We can imagine of a strawberry of how it would look like but we can never think of it taste. This is because our brain does not have the faculty to give sense of taste of aching which we never... Rationalism -Rationalism is a theory which is based on logic or rational. It is right that logic is predisposed with us who give us the ability to understand between right and wrong. If a person does not have logic then it is not possible for him to evaluate experience or gain knowledge. However, logic itself cannot give knowledge, as a human being is social beings some kind of experience can complete our knowledge level. The strength of this philosophy is universal and eternal which means that if one person can think then all others can as well. Rationalism makes us independent because we don’t need experience from outside to increase our knowledge. This philosophy believes in innate ideas and hence is natural and pure. The weakness of this philosophy is that only by thinking one cannot gain knowledge. For example, We can imagine of a strawberry of how it would look like but we can never think of its taste. This is because our brain does not have the faculty to give a sense o f taste of aching which we never experienced.Empiricism -The main strength of empiricism is that it believes that knowledge can come only through experience which is obtained through sensory organs. We learn from scientific methods and experiments and gain knowledge more and more. According to this philosophy, the best way to understand things is to see with the eyes. The second strength of empiricism is that it gives experimental reasoning. Here the past experience and observation contribute to the gaining of knowledge.

Multi-Level Change Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Multi-Level Change - Coursework Example Meanwhile, there were two of these positions were top departmental positions. What this means was that those two positions needed to be occupied by senior employees with long years of experience in the organization’s business. The decision that was taken by the leadership was that two existing employees would be made to occupy the two top positions as a form of promotion for them. This created two new vacancies at the lower rank and three lower rank vacancies in all. Three new employees were subsequently recruited in the organization. The change created a couple of impact within the organization. At the individual level, the newly promoted employees had their human capital equipped. The promotion also served as an intrinsic motivation for them (Johnson, 2012; Gray-Toft and Anderson, 2008). All in all, their human resource base was enhanced to put up extra ordinary performance for the organization. If for nothing at all, they needed to justify their competence for the new roles that were assigned to them. At the group level also, it can be said that there was a positive impact on organizational functioning. As new group leaders who were very familiar with the existing employees, inter-personal relations became enhanced and easier (Saunders, Lewis, and Thornhill, 2003). These two major impacts at the individual and group level ensure that the whole organization experienced sharp growth as the organizational culture was upheld to (Hussey and Hussey, 2007). Thereby, there was a welcoming response to the

Developing of Online Enrolment System

Developing of Online Enrolment System Preface This software project management plan is intended to act as an outline of the development of a new honours system for Buena Vista College Administration. This plan will provide the structure and basis of the development of the new system. This includes outlining the deliverables, providing a schedule and organisational structure, and producing the associated plans needed for development of this project. This plan is intended to be used by the project team, as a development guide, throughout the life of the project, and by management as a reference to the details of the design as well as the progress of the project. 1.0 Project Overview The overview of the project provides a brief outline of the major details of the project, including identifying the project, stating what is expected form the project, and a summary of both schedule and budget. 1.1 Purpose, Scope Objectives The purpose of this project is to upgrade the existing enrolment system for Buena Vista College. The upgrade will consist of an added function, allowing administration staff to automatically compute students eligibility for entrance into honours programs. This new system will be integrated into the existing enrolment system. The project team will be restricted to adding the honours function only; fixing defects or adding other functionality is out of the scope of this project. The scope of the project does however include the implementation of any additional packaged software. The objective of this project is to meet the universitys business need of improving efficiencies, in order to lower operating costs and remain competitive. These needs are further defined below: v Overall quicker processing of applications to honour programs. Current methods are manual, making them both time consuming and prone to error. v A more effective handling of honors applications v Develop a readily accessible assessment report of current applicants v Develop a readily accessible honors entrance summary report 1.2 Assumption and Constraints There are several assumptions and constraints relating to the project team developing an honours system for Buena Vista College. They can be found in table 1.1 (below). Table 1.1: Assumptions, constraints and impacts Assumptions Impact on plan if false The group size will remain at five members through-out the life of the project The plan will need to be rescheduled to accommodate the change. Tasks will also have to be reallocated. The client has not specified a due date. The project will require heavy rescheduling, and possibly an outsourcing arrangement. The university will approve financing the system. The project will not go ahead. Client will be able to be contacted at all times May delay production, therefore extending the schedule. Constraints Impact on plan if false Project team is constrained by design of current administration system Project would be developed in a manner best suited to the project team. The plan would need to be recompiled, to conform to the new design. 1.3 Project Deliverables The following list specifies the elements of the project to be formally completed as a deliverable. A full list of both deliverable and non-deliverable work products is included in section 7.3. Table 1.2: Project Deliverables Statement of User Requirements and Acceptance Criteria Formally identifies the requirements of the system, specified by the client. This document needs to be reviewed and accepted cby the client. Software Project Management Plan Details the processes, tools and techniques that are to be used in the development of the project. User Documentation A manual for users clearly explaining system. System (Software) Formal hand over of new system to the client. 1.4 Schedule and Budget Summary The schedule and budget for this project is based upon the waterfall Software Design Life Cycle (SDLC) being adopted for this project. Table 1.3: Schedule and Budget Summary Phase Begun Finished Cost Requirements 04/11/2002 08/11/2002 $1,642.67 Analysis 11/11/2002 25/11/2002 $5,923.44 Design 26/11/2002 13/12/2002 $6,608.00 Coding 16/12/2002 03/03/2003 $36,216.00 Testing and Implementation 04/04/2003 25/04/2003 $6,308.31 TOTALS Project life is approx 125 days $56,968.42 The worst-case and best-case scenarios deviate less than 10% from the above summary. The full schedule and budget can be found in section 5.2.2 and 5.2.4 respectively, and in APPENDIX. 1.5 Evolution of the Project Plan This plan will be completed when it passes two criteria: v All elements of the Software Project Management Plan Template (Walden), are included in this document, and v The document passes a quality review, outlined in the Quality Assurance Plan (Section 7.4). At the completion of this document it will be labelled version 1.0 and shall be put under change control, whereby it may only be changed through the processes outlined in the Configuration Management Plan (Section 7.1). This process shall be made available to all members of the project team, as well as any member of management who requests it. Scheduled updates will be conducted at reviews undertaken at each milestone specified in the Project Reviews (Section 7.5). Unscheduled updates may be conducted at any stage during the development of the project, as long as the project manager approves changes. Regardless of whether the updates are scheduled or not, any change to this plan must comply with the change control plan outlined in the Configuration Management Plan (Section 7.1). 2.0 References Buena Vista College (1997) Configuration Management Plan v2.0, Buena Vista College Press, LOCATION Buena Vista College (2001) Quality Management Plan v3.1, Buena Vista College Press, LOCATION Buena Vista College (1999) Verification and Validation Plan v1.2 Buena Vista College Press, LOCATION Buena Vista College (2002) Work Product Plan v4.0 Buena Vista College Press, LOCATION IEEE Computer Society (1999) Volume Two: Process Standards, IEEE Inc.: New York, U.S.A. Walden, J. (1999) Software Project Management Plan Template v3.0, Department of Information Resources. PMBOK Rout Hodgen (2002) lec notes ROUT CASE STUDY SCHWALBE ALAVI M 1999 RUDOPLH EBERHADT LEC NOTES ON ESTIMATING ADD STANDARDS REFERED TO IN THE SUPPORTING PROCESS PLANS ALPHABETISE REFERENCES. 3.0 Acronyms and Definitions The table below shows all acronyms used and their definitions, in alphabetical order. Table 3.1:Acronyms Definitions (Alphabetical) Acronyms Definitions BVC CMP Buena Vista College Configuration Management Plan BVC QMP Buena Vista College Quality Management Plan BVC VVP Buena Vista College Verification and Validation Plan BVC WPP Buena Vista College Work Product Plan Client Buena Vista College Administration COCOMO Constructive Cost Model COSMOS Software Cost Modelling System FPA Function Point Analysis IT Group Buena Vista College Information Technology Group PM Project Manager PPR Post-project Review Project Team Members of the IT Group working on the system QE Quality Engineer SDD Software Design Description SDLC Software Design Life Cycle SPMP Software Project Management Plan SRS Software Requirements Specification SURAC Statement of User Requirements and Acceptance Criteria System Buena Vista College Administration honours system being developed by the project team TD Test Documentation TP Test Plan UD User Documentation 4.0 Project Organisation Project organisation involves identifying the external and internal interfaces as well as the roles and responsibilities of each member of the project team. 4.1 External Interfaces External interfaces summarise the relationship between the project team, the client, and any other entities associated with the project. This project does not have a true external interface existing between two parties, as both the acquirer and developer are part of the same larger organisation. The project shall exist in an environment separated from non-university bodies. The following table highlights the project teams organisational interactions and the interface/ liaison to each organisation. Table 3: External interfaces Organisation Role/s Interfaces with Project Team Develop of system Client IT Department IT Department Oversee project at highest level Client Project Team Buena Vista College Client; Managerial superior of IT dept and project team Project Liaison interfaces with Project Team IT Dept The Project Manager will be responsible for interfacing with anything outside of the project team. This includes the client liaison, the IT Director, and any other external body. It is important to mention that the IT Director has strong personal interest in this project, as he wishes to prove to the university that the IT department is a capable body. We expect that he will impact heavily upon the interface between the client and the project. Buena Vista College are both the client, and organisational superiors to all involved in the project. 4.2 Internal Structure The internal structure of Buena Vista College outlines the managerial hierarchy of the project team, identifying whom each member is reportable to. The structure also distinguishes the other known elements of the organisation, and their relation to each other. 4.5 Roles and Responsibilities The following table identifies the roles of each person in the team, and the subsequent responsibilities related to that role. Table 4: Roles and responsibilities Role Responsibilities Project Manager * conflict resolution * task allocation * project monitoring and improvement * project team leadership * liaise with both client and superiors Quality Engineer * review all deliverables for quality * produce quality plan * system testing System Analyst/ Designer * analysis * design * testing Programmers * coding * source code documentation * testing 5.0 Managerial Process Plans This section contains the managerial plans that shall be employed during this project. These plans are all subject to change and improvement. The plans have been created using both external knowledge, and personal judgement. External knowledge used includes IEEE standards and the PMBOK guide. 5.1 Start-Up Plan The projects cost and schedule shall be determined by how much effort will be required for this project. In order to determine the effort, the system size must be estimated. This shall be done using function-point analysis (FPA), and Constructive Cost Model (COCOMO) analysis. 5.1.1 Measuring System Size The FPA will yield an approximation to the systems size, which includes an estimate to the number of lines of code required. The FPA will be based upon the statement of user requirements; all data requirements, functions, and reports shall be approximated based upon the users specifications. Please be aware that the FPA is executed after the user the requirements have been gathered, and that the project has already begun. 5.1.2 Measuring Effort Required and Determining Schedules Measuring the amount of effort needed for this system can be measured in terms time required. Because the FPA provides an approximation to the size of the system, it can be used as the basis for measuring time required. Accordingly, the FPA results will be fed into a COCOMO analysis. Again, please be aware that this analysis is done once the project has begun, and does not include the effort required to gain, study, and synthesise the user requirements. The COCOMO analysis shall provide an estimate on the amount of time required to complete the project. The time required shall be displayed in a three phase breakdown; design, programming, and integration and testing. These phases shall then be broken down into activities, which shall be further broken down into tasks. Effort/time required for activities will be guided by the estimate provided in the COCOMO analysis. These estimations will be based upon the outlines given in section 7.2 of the PMBOK (Cost Estimating). In turn, the effort/time required for tasks shall be based upon the estimate for the activity that the task is part of. The COCOMO analysis has only been used to determine the effort required from schedule task 2.2 (Process Implementation), to schedule task 5.3 (Configuration Evaluation). To be more specific, the COCOMO product design phase includes section 2.2 to 3.2; the COCOMO programming phase includes all of section 4; and COCOMO integration and testing phase includes all of section 5. The schedule may be found in Appendix. A diagrammatic mapping the breakdown of work, or Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), is included in APPENDIX. The WBS shall then be used to calculate the project schedule, shown in APPENDIX. 5.1.3 Measuring Project Cost Cost is associated with three key indicators, size, quality, and productivity (Rudolph, 2002, p9). Unfortunately quality and productivity are too difficult to measure. Because system size can be measured in terms of effort, which is measured in terms of time, the hours required to complete the effort tasks can be translated to money (As staff pay can be calculated hourly.). By looking at the schedule, a monetary value shall be assigned to each resource used, eg. staff, hardware, training, etc. 5.1.4 Tools Employed in Calculating Size, Effort Cost The tool (application) that shall be used to conduct this analysis is known as COSMOS, created by East Tennessee Universitys Computer Science Department. The output of this application, the FPA, COCOMO, and Rayleigh Information, is shown in APPENDIX. The Rayleigh Information outputted by COSMOS shows how much time needs to be committed to the main building phase. 5.1.5 Staffing Currently, five staff are available for this project; one Project Manager, one Systems Analyst/Designer, one Quality Engineer, and two programmers. Not all staff will be required to work on the project at once. In the initial phase, the Project Manager and System Analyst are expected to do most work. As the project progresses more staffing shall be required. Programmers shall be employed during the intermediate phases, as well as a quality engineer. During this phase the project manager shall continue to manage and control the project, and the Analyst shall provide support, possibly in supporting areas such as process improvement. The Quality Engineer is likely to oversee the programmers, as well any processes that are subject to quality reviews. As the final phase is entered, the programmers shall be laid off, and also other staff, once their roles are no longer required. The project manager shall then hand over the completed product to the client. An approximation of the staff required through each phase is shown below. Detailed staffing schedules can be found in appendix. Table 5.1: Staff number and details by phase Phase Staff required Details Initial phase: Maximum 2 staff Project Manager Analyst Intermediate phase: Minimum 5 staff All staff Final phase: 1 or 2 staff Project Manager (Minimum) 5.1.5.1 Staff Sources The staff for this project will almost certainly come solely from the IT department. We doubt that contract personnel will be required for this project, as the IT group have more staff, which we expect to be free. If no additional internal staff available when the project requires extra staff, then contract personnel shall be considered. As all staff are familiar are with the development environment, we also doubt special expertise will be required. In the unexpected case that contract personnel are required, we shall approach an appropriate agency and seek the right person immediately. Little technical or managerial training will be required, as any contract staff must be experienced in the technical fields needed. Should the position be a managerial position, then managerial experience will be a prerequisite for such a job. 5.1.5.2 Staff Training All staff are currently familiar with the development environment so we do not expect that any technical training will be necessary. We do not know whether managerial training will be of benefit to the staff in this project, as such, no training will be provided. However, managerial process reviews shall be used in this project. These may uncover managerial weaknesses. Should this be the case, action shall be taken during the project, if feasible, otherwise, it shall be provided upon conclusion of the project. 5.1.6 Required Skills The client has specified a fairly basic system that is to operate in a Windows environment. Furthermore, the client stated that the system is a stand-alone system to run on one PC. Therefore, basic technical skills will be required. Our technical staff are certainly competent in such environments. Project management skills will also be required for this project, as well as knowledge in quality, and systems analysis and design. 5.1.7 Other Resources Required We do not expect any resources not already discussed in this document to be used. No additional hardware, facilities, contracts, or software is expected to acquired, both on the clients side and on the develop teams side. 5.2 Work Plan This section explains about work activities, schedule, resources, and budget details for the project. Some parts of the sub-section will refer to appendix or other sections. 5.2.3 Work Activities Waterfall model has been used to satisfy the requirement of BVC. Work activities involved in the work breakdown structure are: v Requirements v Analysis v Design v Coding v Testing v Project Management For a full description of their relationships and details, refer to section 6(technical plan) and appendix WBS. The acceptance criteria for the project lists the necessary task that are to be completed for the client to accept the product. A copy of the Acceptance Criteria is attached in section 6. Risk management processes relevant to these activities, including risk tracking, is included in section section 5.4 The relationship between a task and its predecessors and successors is illustrated in appendix msProject. 5.2.2 Schedule Allocation After establishing WBS, the tasks were entered into Microsoft Projectà ¢ 97, and the estimated schedule was created. This was completed by assigning a time period to each task. The schedule has been provided in the appendix msProject. 5.2.3 Resource Allocation Resource allocation assigns resources, as in staff and tools provided, to control activities within the WBS. These resources for each task are listed in section 6. 5.2.4 Budget Allocation Budget Allocation place a key role in any project. It estimates cost of resources and tools needed to conclude project activities. The budget for this project was calculated using Microsoft Projectà ¢ 97, using resource allocation, and expected pay-rates. A copy of the budget is provided in msProject. 5.3 Control Plan This section describes how the project will be monitored and controlled using the following plans. 5.3.1 Requirements Control Plan Any changes to the product requirements will be managed through the configuration management change control process, summarised in section 7.1. A requirements tracability matrix will be provided in all documents referencing the requirements, this will provide a direct link back to each requirement of the system. Impact analysis and change approval processes are described in Configuration Management, section 7.1. 5.3.2 Schedule Control Schedule control for this project will require inputs to control, control techniques, and outputs such as updates and corrections. The schedule will be monitored using the following inputs. v Project schedule: See Appendix for the project schedule. This will provide the basis for measuring and reporting schedule performance. v Performance reports: These reports provide information on schedule performance, such as whether deadline dates are being met or not. They shall also help the team stick to schedules, and alert us issues that may cause future problems. v Change requests: Schedule changes may be required to extend or shorten the project. Change requests for this project must exist formally as a document, and may originate internally or externally. A schedule control system shall use the above the inputs to manage changes to schedule. When changes to occur, additional planning must be done for compensation. A MS Project file will be updated to accommodate these changes. 5.3.3 Budget Control Budget control will be undertaken by the project manager, and include affecting any changes to the cost schedule, monitoring the cost baseline and determining any changes to the schedule and managing those changes. Changes to the budget schedule shall be influenced as much as possible by the project manager, to create the least effect on the plan. To monitor the budget, the project manager will receive periodic reports on the status budget, detailing what is under, over and on budget. Based on this information, Based on this information, the project manager will be able to assess any difference from the planned budget and determine if the variance is significant enough to require further investigation. If further action is required, then the type and extent is left to the project managers discretion, based on the particular case. Earned Value Management (EVM) will be used to monitor the budget compared to the amount of work completed. Through these techniques, the project manager will be able to determine if there are any changes to the schedule. If the schedule has changed, the project manager will need to reassess the schedule, taking into account these new developments. The project manager will also have to ensure that the changes to the budget will not affect the scope of the project by having to leave out some tasks due to budget constraints. Cost reporting of each task will be determined based on its size and budget. Large and expensive tasks will be reporting more frequently than small and cheap tasks. The period between reports is chosen by the project manager on a case-by-case basis. 5.3.4 Quality Control Plan The details of the Quality Control Plan are outlined in the Quality Assurance Plan, (section 7.4). The Quality Assurance Plan describes the measuring and controlling mechanisms used to assure the quality of the work processes and products. These mechanisms include audits, joint reviews, process assessments, and quality assurance of the processes. 5.3.5 Reporting Plan This plan highlights the reporting mechanisms, formats and frequencies of the reporting structure of the project. These relationships are displayed in table 5.2, below. Table 5.2: Reporting and Communication plan Communication From To Time Period Action plans Audits Minutes of meetings Risk Assessment Schedule checks Progress of assigned tasks All group members Project Manager Weekly 5.3.6 Measurement Plan All project measures, where not predetermined by either Buena Vista College, or any other external requirements, will be agreed upon by the project team based on the projects main issues. These details will be formally recorded in the Measurements Recording Form (Appendix #). The metrics used in the measurement plan will be collected at two processes in the development lifecycle, at the verification and validation processes, and at the end of the project. These measures will be collected mainly through interviews and reports at each of these times. The collected data will then be validated and stored by the project manager. 5.4 Risk Management Plan The risk management plan is designed for the development team to recognize any risk that may have a clashing affect to the projects schedule, budget and quality. The risk management covers the identification of risk factors, the assessment of the possible severity and likelihood of the risks, definition of management strategies for avoiding and containing risk, and the means for ongoing monitoring of the risk factors. 5.4.1 Risk Factors Identified Risk factors that were identified early in the project are listed below. During the life of the project the PM may find more risk factors that may affect the schedule and budget of the project. The PM will record each new risk factor in a Risk Identification Form (Appendix #). The risks presently identified are: v Conflict with team members v Staff skills and competence v Functional Rise v Conflicts with client/Customer v Low quality v Low productivity v Consistent to standards v Business Risks (absence caused by illness of accident of involved stakeholder.) v Loss of client. v New/Old technology conflicts. v Client Acceptance v Availability and use of Resources. 5.4.2 Risk Assessment Each risk factor identified was assessed on the likelihood and severity of it becoming an issue. Each assessment gave a value of 1 to 10, where 1 was low and 10 was high, indicating its importance. The assessment for each risk factor gave the reasons for the risk, impact of the risk, monitoring of the risk, and the resolution of the risk. With this detailed assessment of the risk factors a top ten risks identification and report was created. Also a risk matrix was created of each risks likelihood and severity. The project risks can be founding APPENDIX. 5.4.3 Risk Management Strategy Impacts of the risks on the project will be the cost, schedule and quality of the product. The PM must understand that risks are part of the day-to-day operations of the project. As part of the risk management strategy, the PM must conduct weekly reviews on the status of the current top-ten risks, and continually be aware of the development of any new risks. Any new risks identified must be formally recorded in a Risk Identification Form (Appendix #). Once identified, if in the top-ten, a risk has a contingency plan developed in case it becomes an issue, and is continually monitored. If a risk eventuates and becomes an issue, it will be recorded, its contingency plan will be started, and a group member will be assigned to handle the issue. These procedures are outlined in Issue Management, section 7.6. The PM must also be able to produce a report on the current status of the risks to any stakeholder if required. 5.4.4 Top Ten Risks Identification The top-ten risks identification highlights each risk and its details. It identifies each risks probability of occurring, 1 10(high), its severity and exposure (probability of occurrence * severity), the problem resolution technique, who is responsible for monitoring the risk, and the time period of the risk. Table 5.3: Top Ten Risks ID Item Prob Loss Exp Resolution Who Date 1 Conflicts with team members 6 8 48 Group Meeting PM Cont 2 Resource Availability 4 9 36 Reschedule PM Cont 3 Low Productivity 4 8 32 Inspection PM Cont 4 Consistent standards 5 6 30 Inspection PM Cont 5 Low Quality 4 7 28 Inspection PM Cont 6 Client Acceptance 4 7 28 Client meeting PM Hand -Over Phase 7 Conflict with Client 4 7 28 Client meeting PM Cont 8 Staff skill and competence 3 9 27 Training PM Cont 9 Functional Rise 2 9 18 Reschedule PM Cont 10 Absence of a stakeholder 2 9 18 Reschedule PM N/A Cont = Continuous (on -going) Below is example report kept by the PM to monitor risks in the project. The PM must have a current copy of the report. He must be able to show the report when requested by a stakeholder. Table 5.4: Risk Report Item Rank Now Last Time Time List Resolution Conflicts with team members 1 New 0 Have a group meeting. Resolve differences among the team members Resource Availability 2 New 0 Get more resources Low Productivity 3 New 0 Use Software process improvement methods. Consistent standards 4 New 0 Check QA plan. Low Quality 5 New 0 Design a Quality Model to achieve software quality standards Client Acceptance 6 New 0 Rework project until the client is satisfied. Conflict with Client 7 New 0 Talk with client and resolve issue Staff skill and competence 8 New 0 Train Staff Functional Rise 9 New 0 Redo Schedule for project. Absence of stakeholder 10 New 0 Redo Schedule for project. 5.4.5 Risk Matrix The risk matrix identifies the top-ten risks in terms of their likelihood of occurrence and severity. Items towards the top-left of the matrix are both probable and severe, and should be monitored carefully. Items towards the bottom-right are improbable and have a negligible impact on the project. Table 5.

Hypatia :: Essays Papers

Hypatia Hypatia was born in the year 370 AD in Alexandria, Egypt. She was the daughter of Theon, a famous mathematician and astronomer. He invented many things, but his most famous invention is the astrolabe, which measures the altitude of a star or planet. Hypatia studied with her father for many years at the Museum in Alexandria, but soon became unsatisfied with his instruction because she was smarter than him. She left Egypt, and traveled to Greece and Rome to do "post-graduate" work. Her brains and beauty gave her a wonderful reputation throughout the capitols near the Mediterranean. When she returned to her homeland, everyone wanted to be taught by her. She not only gave lectures on philosophy, but also tutored. Hypatia became good friends with Orestes, the Roman governor of Alexandria, and would later become one of his closest advisors. She also became pals with Synesius, who became bishop of Ptolmais thanks to Hypatia’s ingenuity. Much of what we know about Hypatia today is from the letters Synesius wrote to her. In one letter, Synesius wrote to his friend, "You always have power and long may you have it and make good use of that power. The ancient encyclopedia Suda also tells us a little bit about Hypatia. It tells us that when she was 31, she became director of the museum in Alexandria. This museum was brought the top scientists from all around Europe to work and do research there. Some of these mathematicians and scientists were Euclid, Galen, and Archimedes. This museum was considered to be one of the finest and most outstanding buildings at the time. It was built by Ptolemy, the ruler of Egypt after Alexander the Great, in 300 B.C. Next to the museum Ptolemy built a library which was considered the greatest library of the ancient world. However, the Julius Caesar’s army burned it down accidentally. Some archaeologists called this "the greatest disaster in the ancient world." During Hypatia’s life, there was bitter rivalry between the pagans and Christians of the Mediterranean. Hypatia was a pagan herself, but taught both Christian and non-Christian students. The pagans and Christians were battling over who had more power, and in March of 415 AD, it was the Christians who had the most power. These two groups were trying to drive each other out of Alexandria.

Strategic Management Business Case Study for Insight Magazine

{draw:frame} {draw:g} {draw:g} INSIGHT’s MISSION, VISION & PHILOSOPHY {draw:text-box} Insight is a local social magazine founded to satisfy different appeals in the Egyptian society. It are committed to face our challenges by embracing and creating change, through innovative solutions to extend the overall content distribution and marketing model to include websites, digital magazines, virtual events, and other new technologies to establish positive relations and credibility between the magazine and its readers. It is committed to providing an informal yet professional working environment that encourages and rewards creativity, teamwork and enthusiasm. Insight’s operation is environmentally friendly. {draw:text-box} ENVIRONMENTAL SCANNING When setting the mission, Insight had to first understand the â€Å"big picture† of the environment, in which it is operating, and the opportunities and threats that lie within. Such understanding of the surrounding environment will enable us to take advantage of the opportunities that will come in our ways and minimize the threats that will face us along the way The Big Picture (PEST ANALYSIS) PEST Analysis helps understanding the â€Å"big picture† of the Political, Economic, Socio-Cultural and Technological environment, it ensures that what we are aiming for in our mission is aligned positively with the powerful forces of change that are affecting the press media. Political factor: Understanding the political environment in Egypt is almost the most important step in the scanning phase, the freedom of press in Egypt is not â€Å"as free† as it may seem because of the following: The political environment might not be stable within the next five years due to the presidential election which may negatively influence the market. Egypt's state security investigation apparatus empowered to interfere in almost every area of public life under the state of emergency in force for the last 28 years which forms a barrier for writers to speak up their minds freely. On the other hand, there are some positive changes in the political environment such as the reform program that is a work in progress. Egypt has made substantial progress in developing its legal, tax and investment infrastructure, over the past five years; Egypt has passed, amended and admitted over 15 legislative pieces one of which was the reform of the country's presidential election law, paving the way for multi-candidate polls in the upcoming presidential elections. Economical factor: The financial crisis and the recession which has recently struck the world all over definitely had an impact on the Egyptian job market in many versatile ways such as: The downfall of the western economy forced the expatriates working abroad consider twice before asking for a high salary, this made the hiring of foreign calibers easier and resulted in the layoffs of many local employees and the increase of unemployment and job market instability. Unemployment in the Egyptian society has aggressively increased during the last five years affecting indirectly the press industry. Many organizations started to adopt the policy of cost cutting and benefit minimization; this as well had the same effect as the precedent point resulting in unemployment and instability. The worsening state of the global economy makes 2009 a â€Å"horror show† for advertising-dependent newspaper and television companies, with some analysts predicting that businesses may have to wait until 2011 to see positive ad growth. It must be noted as well that the Egyptian economy has been gaining, thanks to the wide-ranging amendments & reforms that the country began implementing in 2004 and due to such amendments and administration of many legislative pieces the economy is expected to grow by about 4% to 6% in 2009/2010. Technological Factor: We are living the technology era, every day, a new invention, revolution or innovation strikes the market in every business, if Insight is not open to apply new operational strategies that can help to address the effects of both technological streamlining and better developing meaningful ways of generating an exchange of ideas, it won’t last before its competitors, with a daily increasing pace in the world of technology. The rise of online media presents another challenge: reliability. The internet has become the fastest and easiest way for the readers to get the type of info they claim, low-priced and as diverse as they want, and this rise is obliging the media world to give attention to online advertisement as much as or even at a higher interest that normal printed magazines. Socio-cultural Factor: A cultural change has came into the surface, with he increase of the coffee shops outings, the topics that were point of interest to readers have been changed , Insight carried out new researches to cover a broad range of topics to attract readers. Over the last 5 years, the interest in football, politics and religion ruled over many areas in life, Insight being a social lifestyle magazine it has to cope with the new interests in our society. Given that English is the language of the magazine in an Arabic speaking country; this has enlarged the difficulty of the magazine’s distribution in the Egy ptian market. Environmental Factor: Global warming that became perhaps the most complicated issue facing the world of magazine production after study showed that the carbon dioxide emissions caused by the production and distribution of one copy of an average sized 0. 39 pound magazine total about 0. 95 kilograms including paper from trees, materials, production, shipping and customer use; henceforth, the loss of natural habitat potential from the 0. 39 pound magazine is estimated to be 0. 3 square meters. This has led to a huge increase in the prices of the papers which is the most important element of the magazines industry. {draw:frame} The Small Details (SWOT ANALYSIS) SWOT Analysis is a simple but powerful framework for analyzing the magazine’s Strengths and Weaknesses, and the Opportunities and Threats it faces. Thus, helping Insight to focus on its strengths, minimize threats, and take the greatest possible advantage of opportunities available. Strengths: Insight magazine enjoys a very good image that has a business idea and credibility amongst its competitors. It has an extensive advertising and good promotions that withhold good value and quality. The magazine enjoys good cash flow through advertising which provides space for innovation and expansion. Most of Insight’s staff is between 20-25 years, at these young ages the ability to cope with new challenges of life is much more flexible than older generations and this provides the space to innovate & improve in many fields. Weakness: Any organization has its weaknesses; Insight suffers from the lack of a good distribution plan compared to its rivals. Another weakness facing Insight is the fact that the teams are self managed by junior staff which lack knowledge and experience leadership of its junior staff. Threats: Insight’s main threat is the strong competitors dominating the market and how quickly they can adapt to market changes. The inability to cope with new technologies may also lead to the magazine’s failure. Opportunities: Giving that Egypt is in a state of transition and economic growth, our good cash flow will enable us to seize any opportunity of hiring excellent calibers and adopting new technologies. {draw:frame} STRATEGY FORMULATION Strategy formulation is the process of determining appropriate courses of action for achieving the organizational objectives and thereby accomplishing organizational purpose. The strategies formulated should reflect environmental analysis previously discussed, lead to fulfillment of the mission, and result in reaching our organizational objectives. TOWS MATRIX The TOWS Matrix is a relatively simple tool for generating the strategic options, using it, will enable us to look intelligently at how Insight takes the best advantage of the opportunities open, at the same time that we minimize the impact of weaknesses and protect ourselves against threats. By analyzing the external environment (threats and opportunities), and the internal environment (weaknesses and strengths), we can use these techniques to think about our corporate, business & functional strategies. Corporate Strategy Corporate strategy is one, which decides what business the magazine should be in, and how the overall group of activities should be structured and managed, it is as well a description of the magazine's overall direction in terms of its general attitude toward growth, stability or Retrenchment and the management of its various businesses and product lines. Following the change of the external major forces as well as the declining performance of the distribution unit and the marketing department, the top management had to consider formulating an alternative strategy other than the previously followed growth strategy. A stability strategy is now the new corporate strategy followed by Insight, it is decision of doing nothing new in the worsening situation but instead to act as though Insight’s problems are only temporary, and it is an attempt to artificially support profits when sales are declining by reducing short term discretionary expenditures. Insight magazine is currently following the stability strategy as its corporate strategy knowing that it will be temporarily adopted until Insight settles its weakness in the marketing area and regains a significant position in the Egyptian market. Business Strategies In light of the ongoing economic crisis besetting the world, many business leaders had to consider just exactly how they are going to put together a winning business strategy to help overcome the hard times. Insight’s business strategy is a competitive one, it involves making the right choices in order to achieve cost leadership, differentiation and focus; this is achieved by invest our money and strategies in this area as well as coordinating properly Insight’s distinctive competencies in the provision of the service we provide. In order to sustain our competitive advantage, Insight has to determine the durability and imitability of its main distinctive resources which are the human and the financial resources. Business Model Insight serves English reading customers in Egypt by providing them with the latest lifestyle information; Insight’s Insight sustains a competitive advantage through recruitment through the strong cash flow from advertisements made by top class brands, young calibers who adapt easily with any changes in the external environment, thus allowing diversity in writing materials and articles. draw:frame} Functional Strategies Functional strategy is the approach taken by Insight’s functional departments to achieve corporate and business unit objectives and strategies by maximizing distribution. In each functional area, the manager is concerned with developing a distinctive competence to provide Insight with the competitive advantage that it aims to obtain. Marketing & Sales Strategies After 14 years Insight is still struggling and to maintain, capture larger market share, and continues market penetration. It is very hard to achieve now days especially in our case and similar to many magazines and newspapers in the region and world wide. Insight relies heavily on advertising money for revenue since the price consumers pay when they purchase a copy of the magazine has never been sufficient to cover the production costs much less creating any profit. Insight Magazine’s marketing strategy consists of market and product development as well as dealing with pricing, selling and distributing the magazine through the following: Creativity Launch new campaigns with developed layout and logo. Distribution Generate new distribution plans to cover different venues; hotels, bookshops, newsstands, supermarkets, airports, cultural centers, advertisers, numerous Egyptians and international business peoples and VIPs. Make a deal with a well known distribution agency to circulate the magazine on a wider scale on one hand, and on the other hand to put booths in many different areas and offer special gifts to people in order to attract the readers. Sales Give free issues on special occasions in order to encourage and attract customers Instead of selling space to marketers for print ads, we started selling services that marketers want to have. Diversification To focus more on topics that have overwhelmed people lately especially football. Emphasize profitable material and realign their content production costs with where the revenue is generated. A publisher will need to find the unique and defining material that attracts their readership. Go Green Despite the economic state and the rapid increase of paper prices, the Marketing head suggested to the top management to use recycled papers and environmentally friendly materials in order to save cost and maintain same quality of the product that the customer got used to and at the same time to cope with the green trend of the world. Technology & Innovation Digital marketing media and web publishing have become a very tangible area for improvement and market enlargement, Insight’s strategy for development in print media magazine world is mainly based on enriching Insight’s website, with new means of advertisements such as online purchasing of a wide range of products starting from pictures all the way to specific non published exclusive articles. HR Strategies Giving that a good human resources management practice enables organization to achieve higher profits and better survival rate than do firms without these practice, Insight’s strategies towards its most valued asset-the people had to be reviewed and amended to the following: Insight being owned and managed by a sole proprietor, have always followed a top-bottom strategy, as a new practice, the top management is now opening the door for a bottom-top strategy thus taking advantage of any new ideas, innovations and changes that can increase the magazine’s share in the Egyptian Market. Insight magazine is considering the hire of a mix of young generation, skilled reputable writers and foreign calibers as well, no matter how high they get paid. This mixture will help the different teams at Insight to properly manage themselves and thus achieving high productivity to the magazine. Encouraging the hire of part time employees and free lance writers; it will save cost since they will not be paid for health care benefits, pensions and many allowances offered to the full time employees. Promote new company traditions such as family outings, annual dinners. Improve the communication level between the top management and staff by involving employees in decisions that affect their jobs and the overall direction of the company whenever possible. Recognize excellent performance by implementing new exercises such as employee of the month, additional rewards for high performers. Promote career & personal growth perspectives such as succession planning, trainings, education, challenging, assignments and more. Assign a development team to cope with the recent technologies. Insight’s Culture & Behavior Insight enjoys a very friendly and supportive work environment, everyone is free to speak up their minds, and all new ideas are being appreciated, but giving that the top management of the magazine is being held by the owner, the last word is always up to them. This gives Insight’s a mix of Supportive and Autocratic behavior, any suggestions are being carefully interpreted but the final decision is always up to the owner. Insight’s culture is a Multi-directionalone, being a relatively small organization that has only four distinct function, each department member considers themselves as a part of his function only forgetting that they are a member of a whole body. Insight’s Organization Structure Insight’s organization was structured based on functional groups centered on clusters of titles each led by chief function officer with complete responsibility for their respective business unit as per the below chart. draw:frame} STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION The implementation of organization strategy involves the application of the management process to obtain the desired results. Particularly, strategy implementation includes designing the organization's structure, allocating resources, developing information and decision process, and managing human resources, including such areas as the reward system, approaches to leadership, and staffing. Strategy mplementation skills are not easily mast ered, unfortunately. In fact, virtually all managers find implementation the most difficult aspect of their jobs – more difficult than strategic analysis or strategy formulation. Marketing & Sales Strategy Implementation: Implementing a rock-solid marketing strategy is probably the most important factor contributing to the long-term sustainable success of any business and the one that will set Insight ahead of its competitors. Insight’s main task is to get its message across the market, make sure that its unique selling proposition is articulated in all of its marketing messages, campaigns, and sales channels through the following implementation: HR Strategy Implementation The HR Strategy has at its core maximizing the potential talent of Insight’s staff. Each of these strategic themes are interlinked and are the strategic objectives for each of these themes facilitates the delivery of the Institutional Strategy, the Financial Strategy, enhanced organizational performance and Operational Plans. This is illustrated as follows: {draw:frame} In implementing the desired strategy of Insight to resolve the sales and distribution, The HR function have done the following: â€Å"Get the big picture â€Å" of the whole company, to provide the readers with the ultimate life experience through lifestyle magazine and becoming No. 1 magazine the Egyptian market; Recruit a mix of the young generation and skilled reputable writers and employees who receive high pay and are trained to participate in self managing teams. By implementing this strategy it will result in employee satisfaction and high productivity to the magazine. Hire part time employees and free lance writers; it will not save cost since they will not be paid for health care benefits, pensions and many allowances offered to the full time employees. Encourage diversity in nationality, and age as in aligning with the Egyptian labor law, this strategy has proven higher productivity inside the magazine. Respect employees at all times. Listen to them deeply; use their ideas. Offer performance feedback and praise good efforts and results. Involve employees in decisions that affect their jobs and the overall direction of the magazine whenever possible thus increasing the loyalty and sense of belonging to the magazine Recognize excellent performance, and especially, link pay to performance. Value and encourage the magazine traditions through events and gatherings like Family day and annual company dinner. Increase the employees’ skill by providing them with the best training opportunities to enhance their competencies and develop their skills. Outsource professional distributors in an attempt to reach the target. EVALUATION & CONTROL Although the term â€Å"monitoring and evaluation† tends to get run together as if it is only one thing, monitoring and evaluation are, in fact, two distinct sets of organizational activities, related but not identical. Monitoring is the systematic collection and analysis of information as a project progresses, aimed at improving the efficiency of organization. If done properly, it is an invaluable tool for good management that provides a useful base for evaluation. Evaluation is the comparison of actual project impacts against the agreed strategic plans. It can be formative (taking place during the life of a project or organization, with the intention of improving the strategy or way of functioning of the project or organization). It can also be summative (drawing learning from a completed project or an organization that is no longer functioning) During the planning and implementation phases, it was crucial to conduct a reporting mechanism to monitor whether the right milestones have been taken towards the targeted goals or not as well as to ensure that employees are keeping pace with the progress. This monitoring was done by Chief executives submitting a monthly report to the Chairman as well as scheduling a quarterly meeting to continually keep an eye on the sales, client feedback, foresee what could be done for improvement of any new ideas that would help in increasing the sales of upcoming editions, and finally to ensure that the business and functional levels are keeping track with the corporate objectives and goals. On the other hand, daily meetings are held in each functional department to continually monitor and evaluate work quality and business progress. After an extensive monitoring process the HR strategy was found week in the following points: No HR interview was made any manager interviews his calibers from his own aspects and cultural background. Huge cultural gaps between foreign and local employees No relatively clear difference between the full time and part time employees in term of salaries and benefits which creates unfairness and injustice among them. The rewards were not given in great value and are not fairly given to all employees. Trainings were not fairly distributed among employees. In order to evaluate the magazine performance we have found the following diagnostic checklist items: CONCLUSION Insight is a local English magazine which has been in the Egyptian market for more than a decade. Although Insight enjoys good cash revenue from the top class advertisements it provides, it is struggling with a marketing and distribution setback which gave the top management the sufficient motives to alter the current strategies followed in order to reclaim its top position in the Egyptian market. Insight’s top management first steps of creating new strategies started by setting a new mission of developing the marketing function followed by an external and internal scanning of all possible threats and opportunities that could in a way or another affect the strategies. The scanning that was done helped Insight distinguish its competitive advantage which consequently assisted in the formulation of new corporate, business and functional strategies. After implementing the previously formulated strategies precise monitoring and evaluation were done in order to conclude the gap areas that resulted in the implementation. One of the gap areas that were found was the wrong implementation of hiring foreigners without giving them a proper induction on the Egyptian culture which lead to a huge conflict in ideas between the local and foreign staff. As a final conclusion to the previous report, Insight top management should investigate what went wrong during the implementation of the HR strategy that lead such gaps and how to overcome these gaps to properly implement the functional human resources strategy that will ultimately reflect its success in Insight’s overall performance. {draw:frame}

A Vine on the House

A Vine on the House Ambrose Bierce Ambrose Bierce has a special talent of keeping readers alert on their toes and holding their breaths till the very last word. I believe Mr. Bierce wanted to allow others to understand that circumstances and events are not always what they appear to be. The words Mr. Harding expressed and the reality of the situation were two complete opposites. He kept a secret of his wife’s â€Å"disappearance† and also picked up everything and left, leaving no signs behind, leading to believe he was very secretive and suspicious.Secrets are kept in every household, things that could kill if it was leaked. I feel like the writer’s purpose was to keep the reader guessing and inferring. This story could also be an account of his life and a cry for help. Mr. Bierce grew up in a troubled family. His two sons died early on and he found out about his wife’s infidelity. This could be his way of plotting revenge on his wife. It is a cry for help because he mentions Mr. Harding disappearing, which is exactly what Bierce did a few years later.The intended audience is for those who enjoy getting goose bumps, those who seek a thrill and love being kept in the dark. It is not however for the uneasy sleeper. The main theme of this story and connection on a universal level is that in every family, there is a fair share of secrets. Everyone can relate to this one way or another because we all have issues we wished no one would find out. The Harding family as a whole must’ve had a few problems of their own. A family doesn’t just all of a sudden fall apart. It takes time to disintegrate.In the story, like in real life, it shows that there are unhappy couples out there, ones who have stopped loving each other and instead find pleasure in hurting their significant other. The Harding family is just one example of a relationship that is unhealthy, both physically and emotionally. The author has quite a few tricks up his sl eeves to grasp the reader’s attention. First of all, Mr. Bierce is an expert in the suspense category. He keeps readers guessing and wondering what will happen next. For example, Mr.Harding mentions his wife went to â€Å"visit relatives† but his tone of voice allowed no further questioning. This makes me curious because he seems like he’s hiding a dark secret. He also later on flees the country, which gathers even more curiosity. Mr. Bierce describes the â€Å"haunted house† as not actually haunted, making me wonder what truly happened for it to deserve such a title. He also pulls in elements from his life. This story is loosely based on his own family matters. He could also be a â€Å"revenge† for finding out about his wife’s sinful actions.A Vine on the House has supernatural aspects but because the events were pulled from his life, it makes the story seem more realistic and feel like it could potentially be a true story. Another aspect t hat I enjoyed was that, yes this story is gothic, but the gothic elements were all very subtle and mind boggling but not gory. There was no mentions of diseases, a small brush on incense and only one inferred death. This gives the story a different twist to the normal classical gothic tales. The author uses foreshadowing well. He describes Mrs.Harding in detail and left her disappearance very shocking and sudden leading to her inferred murder by her husband. He also described the wine along the house as a sign of the supernatural that was partly concealed, which indicated before hand that something out of the ordinary was going to happen. These are all red flags, leading to the discovery of the vine’s unnatural root formation. I enjoyed this short story very much. It was intriguing and kept me on my toes at all times. I enjoyed the suspense and the feeling of wanting to know what happens next.The one part that I was disappointed in was that I found the part where people were witnessing the phenomenon of the tree dragged on for a long time. My interest was lost during that time. However, I really enjoyed the idea that things are never what they appear to be and words spoken could just be a slur of lies. I find that this is completely true in today’s society. People don’t always show their true colours. The part I love was the cliff-hanger ending. It makes me wonder, could this all be a coincidence or could it truly happen in real life? If it could, then it was surely explain the phenomenon of a shaking leaf on a still tree.

The Message of Kings essays

The Message of King's essays On Good Friday in 1963, 53 African-American, led by Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., marched into downtown Birmingham, Alabama to protest the existing segregation laws. All of the demonstrators were arrested. The arrests sparked eight clergymen in Birmingham to compose a letter appealing to the black population to put an end to their demonstrations. In response, Martin Luther King drafted a document that would mark the turning point of the Civil Rights movement and provide enduring inspiration to the struggle for racial equality. Martin Luther Kings Letter from Birmingham Jail, in a diplomatic, heartfelt and completely inoffensive voice, strives to justify the desperate need for nonviolent direct action, the absolute immorality of unjust laws together with what a just law is (in reference to St. Augustines theory of morality and natural law). King predicts the increasing probability of the Negro resorting to extreme disorder and bloodshed. In addition, King voices his utter disappointment with the Church who, in his opinion, has not lived up to its responsibilities as a servant of God. Kings justification to the eight Birmingham clergymen for protesting segregation begins with a profound explanation of their actions, Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. The actions of the African American people are overdue and very well planned, as King states in the letter. As King describes, past promises have been broken by the politicians and merchants of Birmingham and now is the time to fulfill the natural right of all people to be treated equal. Violence is not what King wishes for; he simply wants unjust laws changed and the Supreme Courts 1954 ruling (Brown v. Board of Ed.) upheld. King also responds to the clergys all...