Project Life Cycle Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Project Life Cycle - Essay Example The Project Manager requires various general management skills[4] during the different phases of the project. Initiation and Scope Definition, comprises determination and negotiation of requirements, feasibility analysis, and process for the review and revision of requirements. Planning follows and includes process planning, determining deliverables, effort, schedule and cost estimation, resource allocation, risk management, quality management, and plan management. The project manager's role is to verify the requirements, bring in the experts and revalidate requirements and technical feasibility. He needs to baseline the requirements, cost, schedule, and quality of delivery to the smallest detail, thus setting up a solid framework to start work on the project. This phase is critical because unless requirements are set and baselines are defined, the project cannot take off. The project manager needs negotiating skills, estimation and scheduling skills as well as, team building capabilities that help set the base for delivering a project of required quality at a realistic budget. In the Development phase, implementation of plans, supplier contract management, implementation of measurement process, monitor process, control process, and reporting and the various tasks in an IT project. It should be noted that although project objectives have been defined, there may surface problems when the actual developments are taking place. This will require the project manager and stakeholder to negotiate change requests that will continue the development of the project smoothly. About sixty percent of the project life cycle is done during the development phase and internal testing phase where the development team tests the application internally. This phase needs to be on schedule in order that the project deadline is met. The project manager needs good controlling skills to keep the work going and good negotiation skills to handle change requests as well as risk management skills in order that risk are mitigated. Also he needs to be able to keep the energy flowing and the team unified and happy to enable milestones to be met. The Implementation phase The project now moves into the Implementation phase where the IT tasks are Review and Evaluation, which includes the topics of determining satisfaction of requirements and reviewing and evaluating performance. The developed IT application is now deployed or implemented in the client's environment and tested using their parameters. The application is User accepted and then deployed either as a pilot mode or as a full launch. The project manager needs good negotiating skills in case some major fixes or "bugs" as per IT jargon arises during the transition since he needs to go back to client when budgets are almost over. Often the teams are all tired and are anxious to get the project over with and move on. Keeping up the morale to see the project to completion becomes imperative, and if the project manager is a good team player that really helps. The Closeout phase In the closeout phase, the tasks include determining closure and closure activities. The application is running smoothly and the production-support team has taken over. The development team is released. The project manager now documents the project for future reference as well as writes up a lessons-learnt document. In summary, a good project manager is

Research Methodology Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Methodology - Research Paper Example Secondary research and selection process Secondary research is the process of gathering pertinent information from the work of various scholars. The data collection technique accompanies additional methods to ensure accuracy in the development of the research findings. The technique gives researchers credible basis and guidelines to improve on. Secondary sources of data include electronic resources, books, journals and appropriate publications. The resources must carry relevant information to realize the research objectives. These are identifiable based on the researcher’s judgment that determines their reliability. In this study, the researcher has identified six journals to facilitate data collection. A systematic selection procedure sample (SSPS) that ensures the use of reliable resources was instrumental in the identification of the journals. Outline of six journal articles The journals are chosen as secondary data gathering techniques based on their relevance. They provid e appropriate information after a systematic study that led to the identification of the impact of tourism in fostering peace and growth. The journals enable the realization of valid and reliable results with the capacity to influence decision-making. Paulo (2002) who is a renowned writer explores the benefits of tourism in the society. The author focused on the benefits of tourism with an aim of relaying credible information to diverse stakeholders in the industry. This is with the intention of advancing the practice. He stated that tourism is significant in shaping the economic soundness of individuals and nations. Nations that focus on growth are responsible for adopting noble tourism practices to enhance monetary and social integration. The information also equips policy makers with the information highlighting the benefits of tourism. This enables them to formulate appropriate guidelines to drive operations in the sector. This is critical since the benefits of tourism are achie vable through the development of logical polices that are economically viable. Tourism presents fiscal, cultural, ecological, political and communal benefits. The benefits lead to the improvement of economic performance, rise in the living standards of the locals and cultural integration. These elements are fundamental in developing cohesive communities that are economically vibrant. In particular, tourism contributes to the creation of jobs to the citizens; furthermore, it improves income earnings, conservation of resources and restoration of cultural practices. It fosters understanding between individuals and community members through systematic engagement that leads to cohesiveness. The practice also contributes to cultural understanding, tolerance and protection of the national heritage. As noted by Paulo (2002) tourism enables the community members to enjoy the natural resources and facilitates understanding of the historical events that shape individuals future dealings. There fore, tourism presents immense benefits that nations should adopt. This would facilitate economic growth and social amalgamation. Bull (1999) focuses on the role of tourism in the economic development in the contemporary society. The author stated that tourism influences economic performance in various settings since it contributes to the GDP or the income per-capita. The income generated by the industry contributes significantly in transforming individual’

ELEPHANT TALK - KOSHIK Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

ELEPHANT TALK - KOSHIK - Research Paper Example Dr. Stoegar and her fellow researchers are of the opinion that Koshik had been kept in solitude for a relatively long period of time, especially during the crucial growing period when an elephant, which is an extremely social animal develop its social skills, and since Koshik had no other elephant to socialize and bond with, he started imitating his trainers. The social habits of Asian elephants are somewhat similar to those of African elephants. They live in groups of 5-20 and thus they are extremely social and need to communicate. â€Å"Parents or alloparents, provide the primary sensory input and regulation of all essential development processes that interact with greater environmental conditions† (West et al, 2003) and since Koshik’s caregivers had taken up the role of his alloparents, their speech and behavior guided the neuro-ethological patterning of Koshik who adapted his speech by putting his trunk tip into his mouth in order to modulate the voice production pr ocess and started imitating the sounds that his caretakers would used to communicate with him. Koshik’s case is not the first of its kind. A male African elephant in Kazakhstan apparently could speak Russian; however lack of scientific evidence in the case makes Koshik the first living elephant who can imitate human sounds. Physiologically, the process of voice modulation in case of Koshik could not be determined because he is too big for an X-ray and is not well trained to undergo such test procedures. So, there was no way to establish the exact place of sound origination or the process of human-like sound production. Researchers had to determine that Koshik was actually speaking Korean words than just making a modulated sound which by chance matched Korean words. They recorded Koshik’s words and played them back to some Korean natives and asked to write down whatever they heard. The answers excited the researchers because they matched the words that the caretakers ha d claimed that Koshik could utter. â€Å"Vocal learning is defined is defined as the modification of the acoustic structure of the vocalization as a result of experience† (Janik and Slater, 2000). Prior to Koshik, elephants have been known to imitate sounds that they heard through modified vocalization. Mlaika, a 10 year old female African elephant who lived among a semi-captive group of African elephants, could imitate sounds of trucks. Spectrogram studies showed that the sound of trucks and the truck-like sounds made by Mlaika were similar and the noises made by Mlaika were very much different than those made by other African elephants (Poole, et al, 1988). Thus, it was proved by researchers that besides birds and marine mammals, elephants were also capable of learning vocal imitation. Dr. Stoegar conducted a similar spectrogram study on Koshik and a group of free ranging Asian elephants. "Human speech basically has two important aspects, pitch and timbre," says Angela Stoe ger of the Department of Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna. The results of the spectrogram test showed that quality and the frequency of each word uttered by Koshik, his trainer and a native Korean speaker matched to a great extent, while the sound graphs of other Asian elephants were very much different, giving the impression that the scientists had been hoping for- Koshik had modulated his vocalization to imitate and communicate with his keeper. However,

Metaphysics and Nominalism Essay Example for Free

Metaphysics and Nominalism Essay Metaphysics shares a breadth of problems concerning ‘universals’. One view that addresses these problems is nominalism. Nominalism is the position that universals do not exist outside the mind. There are different sects of nominalism that expresses various stances about the problem at hand. Austere nominalism, metalinguistic nominalism, and trope theory are the various types of nominalism that refute the claim of realism. Each of these types of nominalism contain their own respective views towards universals and have their own strengths and weaknesses. Austere nominalism, metalinguistic nominalism, and trope theory have many similarities and differences as well as strong points that support the nominalist perspective. Austere nominalism takes the stance that the only things that exist are concrete particulars. These concrete particulars are a category of individuals like individual persons, individual objects, individual animals, or various other individual materials. â€Å"What the austere nominalist wants to claim is that an ontology of concrete particulars provides the resources for dealing with all the phenomena the metaphysical realist claims presuppose an ontology of multiply exemplifiable entities† (Loux 53). The austere nominalist refutes the realist claim that universals are necessary and serve as handling the phenomena of attribute agreement. Rather the austere nominalist’ claim is that the issue needn’t be explained at all. Nominalists believe that realism does not contain more explanatory power than nominalism. Thus, it is much wiser to adopt nominalism because it is much simpler without universals. The leading issue with austere nominalism is that the proponent of universals and attribute agreement are to be ignored without much explanation. The notion that they are unnecessary complications may not seem like a sufficient enough explanation to combat the ideals of realists. However, the benefit to the austere nominalist theory offers a very simplistic approach towards the ideas of attributes and predication. Overall, austere nominalism offers an ontologically simpler metaphysical explantion, but realism may be explanatorily simpler. Metalinguistic nominalism takes into consideration the usage of language when addressing the issue of universals. Metalinguistics nominalists see universals as references about language and not objects. They want universality to be understood linguistically using predicativity for example, when referencing ‘humanity’ the reference is towards human individuals. It is in this view that abstract referencing takes on a different form. It disguises itself as an object language sentence, but is actually a claim about a linguistic expression. This beholds the idea that abstract references like ‘triangular’ is a shape predicate. Metalinguistic nominalism presents a couple problems in its ideology. The fact that the linguistic expressions are talked about in the terms of ‘types’, this notion would make them universals as well. This is unfortunate since the metalinguistic nominalist is trying to eliminate universals altogether. In addition to this problem, another issue arises with the subjectivity of language. The theory does not take into account the possibility of other languages. When an English speaker is talking, they are referring to an English word. Two words of equivalent meaning would not be referenced in the same way according to metalinguistic nominalism. Rather they would both be considered two different words. However, in light of metalinguistic nominalism it does offer a workaround to address the issues of multiple languages. Sellars devised a punctuation that would focus on the equivalent meaning of the word to be addressed rather than the word itself. The punctuation came in the form of a single dot placed on both sides of the word being addressed. Metalinguistic nominalism also offers a bit of clarity in the issue of referring to multiple individuals through the use of distributive singular terms. In the issue of addressing multiple concrete particulars it utilizes a singular term to take possession for all individuals being referenced. For example, ‘American citizen’ in â€Å"The American citizen has freedom of speech† is the distributive singular term. Trope theory is unlike austere and metalinguistic nominalism in the essence that trope theory allows for the use of attributes in its ontology. However, this is not like the belief realist hold which also possesses that attributes are multiply exemplifiable. Trope theorists believe in the opposite. They believe that attributes are not only not multiply exemplifiable, but that they are also particulars. It is believed in trope theory that it is impossible for anything else to possess the same attribute as another. A concerning attribute of trope theory is the fact that it may not sufficiently address the similarity between two different attributes. Trope theorists will argue that two different tropes may be similar and may be the reason why two concrete particulars may appear similar. This doesn’t however, bridge a connection between commonalities between two similar objects. However, tropes offer an elegant approach to the issue of properties. While lacking zero properties themselves, they help define an object without the ontology of particulars and universals. This makes tropes a possibly powerful tool for a nominalist. In contrast to each other, austere nominalism, metalinguistic nominalism, and trope theory are differing forms of nominalism that contain various differences. Whilst all combatting the problems and complexities of universals, they each have ways in which they combat it. Austere nominalists are able to address the issue of universals by denying the existence of them and the notion that they have to be dealt with altogether. This is a very simplistic approach and avoids the need to addressing the phenomena of addressing attribute agreement. Metalinguistic nominalism is able to do the same by changing the phrase of universals into a linguistic reference. This viewpoint also avoids addressing the existence of universals and states that they are just disguised as linguistic expressions. Syntactical and grammatical tools allow for predicativity on several different objects to be used as universality. Lastly, trope theory takes a unique position against universals. Tropes almost seem to take on the appearance of universals in their ability to describe and object, but stray away in the notion that they are particulars themselves. While still being able to provide the descriptive nature of universals, tropes are still very different and add to the nominalist box of tools. Most intriguing of the forms of nominalism is metalinguistic nominalism. While eliminating the problem with universals, it seems to combat the issue in the least aggressive way. Terms that would be considered to be ‘universals’ still have their place in metalinguistic nominalism since they mostly come to be predicates. In addition to the problems that metalinguistic nominalism brings about with the issue of multiple languages, it combats it with a useful punctuation created by Sellars. Each of the forms of nominalism all focus around the problem of universals and realist theory. They combat them through the usage of very different means. Altogether they bring an alternate view aside from realism in three different perspectives. In address to the realist view Alan Watts stated, â€Å"The menu is not the meal†.

Brave New World - Technology :: Brave New World

Brave New World - Technology    Technology, what is it? It’s usually something new, and better than the old idea. Technology started with cars, stoves, TV, radios, etc. Cars takes somebody from one place to another, faster than walking, running, or biking and one could go places without getting tired. Stoves allowed one to conveniently be able to turn on and off heat to a cooking utensil with less clean up. The biggest contributor to making our lives easier would be computers, which has come a long way since its introduction to the world. Also, computers have the ability to be improved more, and more in time. In general, technology started off by comforting our lives. Now, the rapid growth of technology has replaced the need for one’s own intellect.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   To begin with, technology makes us lazy. One no longer writes with pen and paper, or a typewriter, but with a computer program. The use of a computer program eliminates many things such as a rough draft. Because one can make mistakes, fix it without a mess, and then print a final copy, a rough copy is not made. It is also not needed according to these people, yet as many people know, spur of the moment thinking is not nearly as good as a well thought out plan. Therefore, a rough copy is much better to have, even though most people don’t make a rough copy because they’re too lazy. This lethargy is due to the advanced technology of computers. Also, almost all programs are equipped with a spell-check. Spell-check is, in other words, a dictionary without the definition. So, because of spell-check, one wouldn’t need to use the dictionary, or is it one would be too lazy to use the dictionary? The use of the internet is also used to cheat. People can look for something to plagiarize across the whole world in less than five minutes. These lazy people just cannot resist this temptation.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   This leads me to my next point, with the use of technology, one no longer exercises their mind. Take the spell check for instance, since one has spell check, they don’t look up words in the dictionary. Spell check, though, doesn’t have definitions, and their might be some replacement words that don’t have the same meaning as the word in your sentence.

Medical Assistant Ethics

There are numerous ethical issues that a medical assistant may encounter in a daily office or hospital setting. It is unethical to have a conversation with a fellow coworker regarding a patient. The patient may overhear or worse they may be related to someone in the office. It is no one’s business as to why the patient had an appointment. Another unethical behavior that is unacceptable is foul language in front of the patients. They do not need to hear that kind of language under any circumstances. When a patient comes in to see you and smells of urine or alcohol, be courteous to the patient and do not judge the patient. This patient may not have the means to shower daily or they may be sick and are unaware of the odor. A good thing to remember when dealing with an ethical issue is always do the right thing at the right time and it will never become an issue. Medical Assistants need to put themselves into the shoes of the patient. They need to ask themselves, how would I want to be treated? How would I like to be recognized in the eyes of the health care worker? How would I want my family treated? In doing this little experiment on a daily basis they will come to realize that we all are human and need to be treated equally, no matter what the situation may be. The general skills of a Medical Assistant consist of basic customer service. They must be able to communicate between the doctors and the patients. They need to do this within the legal and ethical boundaries. Document every conversation because if it is not documented then the conversation never happened. Educate the patient within the scope of practice. Let the patient know of community resources for future reference of patients’ needs. Operational functions are also a part of the daily duties of a Medical Assistant. Performing inventory of supplies and equipment so items can be replenished. Doing these functions will always help in maintaining the highest quality of care for the patient. Clinical skills of the CMA of general patient care to make them as comfortable as possible. Many diagnostic procedures are required of the CMA; from collecting specimens to performing radiology tests. Fundamental principles consisting of sterilizing rooms and equipment are skills that a CMA will do daily. Doing these clinical skills while practicing standard precautions must be a high priority for everyone in the health care facility. Administrative skills are essential for a CMA to do the job that is required of them. It is all done via computer so there typing skills must be adequate for them to succeed. From patient schedules to bookkeeping to insurance forms, all is done on a daily basis. Licensure is when a government agency authorizes individuals to work in a job. A CMA does not need a license to work. Professions needing licenses are nurses and therapists. Registration is a professional organization in a specific health care field that administers exams and/or maintains a list of qualified individuals. CMA’s can apply for a registration credential. This would give them a better paying job and more responsibilities at their present facility. Certification involves the issuing of a certificate and credentials by a professional organization to someone who has met the experience and education guidelines of that organization. This basically tells everyone that you have finished your schooling for Medical Assisting. For a Medical Assistant to maintain his/her certification they must recertify either by passing the CMA exam again or by receiving sixty recertification points, thirty of which must be AAMA approved CEU’s. The points must be as follows 10 administrative, 10 clinical, 10 general and 30 from any combination of the above three categories. You must also submit proof (photocopy of the card and length of program) of current, provider level CPR certification. Continuing education units (CEU’s) can be received by reading online books and taking a test when finished. The AAMA sponsors many workshops, seminars, and county, state, and national conferences for MA’s to remain current in their field and earn the CEU’s. For the safety of the patient and employee, an MA should never perform any tasks that are outside the scope of the MA practice. Outside the scope of a Medical Assistant’s practice would be suturing a wound, administering a pap test for a female patient, or possibly giving the patient the diagnosis of the symptoms they are experiencing. A physician should never delegate the full range of physical therapy to anyone other than a physical therapist. Under no circumstances should the Medical Assistant do any duties that are outside their scope of practice. If I were approached by my supervisor to perform outside of my scope of practice, I would calmly and rationally refuse the request. I do not feel that any job is worth losing if you are asked to perform it wrong. I would explain to my supervisor politely that I am not qualified to perform the task asked and I would suggest someone else in the facility that is capable. I would let them know I would be willing to help out with any other task that is within my scope of practice. In order to find the article listed, I went to google. com and found an article from AAMA website on scope of practice act for Wisconsin. You can also go to AAMA website. Click on site map. Go to CMA today and scroll down. Click on Public Affairs Articles. Scroll down until you see the article found on google. If I were approached by a patient or a fellow coworker and referred to as a nurse, I would explain to them that I am a Medical Assistant and explain some of my job functions. I would let them know that there is a big difference and the title does need to be corrected. I would let them know that if I were to acknowledge the comment of being called a nurse, I could lose my job as well as my career. They may not understand that it is a very serious offense. I would explain them that the actual nurses would not be able to be titled as a doctor so the same holds true for me. When a medical assistant misrepresents herself/himself, they are in fact making the entire profession look bad in the eyes of the patient. The disciplinary results that could happen to the medical assistant are far greater than the prestige of stating you are who you are not. State disciplinary actions can result in fines and other criminal penalties. All office personnel should avoid referring to the medical assistant as a nurse also not just the patient. The doctor can also lose his career and/or a fine. I could lose my certification also.

Case: Supply Chain Management and Application Software Packages

Info from case total revenue for last reporting = 110 million cio reviewed 3 following implementation strategies: -classic disintermediation – removal of intermediaries in a supply chain. connects supplier directly with customers -remediation-working more closely with ecisting middlemen partners. strategy could be affected by high contracting risks. -network-building alliances and partnerships with both existing and new suppliers and distributors involving a complex set of relationships. Networks tended to reduce search costs for obtaining information, products and services. selected remidiation – because it best fits the firms goal of simplifying data sharing throughout the supply chain -also had longterm and positive relationship with its primary distributors, which would ameliorate the high contracting risk. â€Å"The firm purchased stock woods from a number of producers and processed them to meet specific customer specifications. Approx. 60 percent of woodsynergy s ales were in high-end furniture† Problems 1 – Choice of implementation plan is wrong – LONG TERM -CIO chose remediation because it best fit the firm's goal of simplifying data sharing throughout the supply chain; furthermore, the CIO noted that woodsynergy had a long-term and positive relationship with its primary distributors which would ameliorate the high contracting risk issue† -the best way of simplifying data sharing is eliminating any unnecessary party that the information needs to travel to. -remove the distributors and engage the customers directly -who are we to decide how your existing distributors will feel after you amend any contracts to include any new information system to the SCM that ultimately creates more overhead for them? the business model of woodsynergy suggests that â€Å"the firm was committed to delivering information to the right people at the right time so that strategic and operational decisions were made properly and quicklyà ¢â‚¬  -benefit going national prevented by local distributors – if woodsynergy engages their end users directly it will promote better customer relationships as well as open potential national and international markets/ Causes -long-term relationships with distributors -contracts with distributors -CIO decision seems biased Alternatives choose classic intermediation -stay with remediation -choose networking Solution: Chose Classic intermediation †¢Removes the middleman †¢The middle man share shift to suppliers, Woodsynergy and to the customer, making the company more profitable and increasing the customer loyalty †¢Efficiency – instead of suppliers shipping first to the Woodsynergy and then Woodsynergy shipping the products to the customer, supplier can ship straight to the customer Implementation: (implanting the plan – find the need, develop the program, and implement it and the evaluate it) Business need †¢System investigation †¢Syst em analysis †¢System design †¢Proframming and testing †¢Implementation †¢Operation and mainenance 2 – Prototype Built – short term problem *** -â€Å"due to budget and time constraints the project team chose to build a gateway prototype without addressing problems of integrity and timeliness with the systems data. The project team decided to improve the data quality at a future date† – customers data needs to be secure. Period. For any duration no matter how short. â€Å"Two of the key drivers included in gateway design were data standardization and real-time interface† -It should be real-time interface and data integrity as aligned with Woodsynergy’s business goals. -release data standardization at a later time instead of data integrity Causes -budget -time constraint -phase 1 of prototype does not directly correlate to business goals Alternatives -cloud system from 3rd party -key drivers in phase 1 = data integrity and real-time interface/data standardization at future date/release †¢Application software packages – off the shelves. ONE MORE alt Solution: †¢Application software packages – off the shelves. oPrewritten, pre-coded application software commercially available for sale oA lot of choices, with rating/reviews from its customers/users oOther companies are already using them oSome software companies even let you try them oQuicker solution, gives the it team to work on the bigger problem or new software oIt may be cheaper than labour and resources spent building prototype that may put company`s customer`s information at risk Implementation – . Identify potential vendors 2. Determine the evaluation criteria a. Functionality of the software b. Cost and financial terms c. Vendor`s reputation – success stories/customer reviews d. System flexibility e. Security f. Required training g. Data handling h. Ease of internet interface i. User friendly 3. Evaluate ven dors and packages 4. Chose vendor and package 5. Negotiate a contract 6. Implement the software 7. Train the staff/users 3 – Project Team Questionable – Short term and Long term? *** Causes launched multiple it based supply chain management initiatives -researched how gateways are used in their business and understand the different of technology on the internet† in first few weeks – this should take a few days at most -phase 1 of prototype not aligned with business goals –decision criteria— this is what I think would be the criteria, we can discuss if you have others *** -budget – need better coaching on team goal and better planning -increase customer satisfaction -be consistent with corporate mission -Time constraint – implement fairly quickly -improve profits within acceptable risk parameters Solution – BE consistent with corporate mission Implementation †¢Be consistent with corporate mission oTrain and remind the m in every morning huddles oBefore implementing the any new plan or developing new software or making the decision to devolve a new software, correlate it with the business strategy oDelegate effectively to team members oHold them accountable – stay on top of their performance oGive the team budget – quarterly yearly or project based – so there will not be any wastages Source: /http://plato. acadiau. ca/courses/Busi/IntroBus/CASEMETHOD. html/