Reproductive System Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Reproductive System - Assignment Example Julia had been working as a computer engineer in an information technology firm and she described her job as â€Å"moderately successful†. She had never been pregnant in her life. Her menses had started at the age of 12 years and had been fairly normal regarding frequency, duration and bleeding. She had become sexually active at the age of 19 years and had variably used diaphragms, condoms and oral contraceptive pills for contraception. She weighed normal for her height, was a non smoker and occasionally consumed alcohol on social occasions. Apart from few episodes of urinary tract infection, last one 2 years back, her other medical and surgical history was remarkable. Ross was an architect and content in his professional and personal life. He had no significant medical, surgical or sexual history. He was physically very active and a non smoker. When they visited the infertility specialist, both of them were questioned regarding their medical and sexual history. They were educ ated regarding the physiology of reproduction and the possible causes of their infertility. Regarding the female reproductive system, description of the organs of reproduction in female and the steps of oogenesis and menstrual cycle was explained: Female reproductive system, oogenesis and menstrual cycle Organs involved in reproduction in a female are ovaries, fallopian tubes, uterus and vagina internally and external genitalia and mammary glands externally. Ovaries are small glands located on the sides of uterus. Germ cells in the ovary are referred to as ooogonia. At nearly 8 weeks of gestation, oogonia become primary oocytes by entering prophase of first meiotic division andundergo further change only before ovulation. A layer of granulosa cells surround this oocyte to form a primordial follicle. Out of all of the follicles, one follicle becomes dominant 5-7 days after menses (Knobil & Neill 2006). Due to hormonal action, meiosis is resumed and expulsion of the egg and follicular fluid occurs. This expulsion is called ovulation. Uterus is the organ where implantation of a fertilised egg occurs. Fertilisation itself occurs in the fallopian tube which connects ovary to the uterus. Cyclic shedding of the internal lining of the uterus called endometrium occurs every 28-30 days in a process called menstruation. This cycle is regulated by a complex interaction of hormones produced by the hypothalamus, pituitary and ovaries (Look, Heggenhougen & Quah 2011). Menstrual cycle has two parts: follicular or proliferative phase; and luteal or secretory phase. Follicular recruitment is caused by FSH. Estrogen causes LH surge for ovulation. These steps take place during follicular phase which technically begins on the first day of menses and lasts for around 14 days (Carr & Wilson 1987). Figure 1. Female reproductive system (www.patients.co.uk 2012) Figure 2. Oogenesis and menstrual cycle (Carr & Wilson 1987) Corpus luteum remains after ovulation and is responsible for sec retory phase of the endometrium. If fertilisation does not take place, it degenerates after 10-14 days and this leads to shedding of the endometrial lining and bleeding (Knobil & Neill 2006). Thus, the couple were explained about oogenesis and menstrual cycle with the aid of above illustrations. Only when these hormonal and tissue changes occur in tandem, fertilisation can take place. Any hormonal or endocrine disorder such as that of hypothalamus, pit

Frankenstein and Lord of the Flies Essay Example for Free

Frankenstein and Lord of the Flies Essay Frankenstein and Lord of the Flies were written in different centuries. Analyse the similarities and discuss the differences which you have found in these texts. You should pay particular attention to characterisation, style and theme. Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein in the 18th Century. As there was no cinema or television available books were a widely accessible form of entertainment. Particularly fantastical texts like Dracula and Vathek were popular, books like these were not meant to be thought of as a portrayal of realism, this is why Frankenstein is very unbelievable. Frankenstein is set in a time when new science posed a threat to Christian beliefs, as society started to believe that man could be created. This all seemed very possible in the early 18th Century because Benjamin Franklin had previously invented a lightning conductor and in 1802 Galvani ran a current through a frogs legs and it produced a twitch. The thought of starting life with lightning terrified people because of the dangers it appeared to pose to endanger human life. William Golding published Lord of the Flies in 1954, nine years after the end of the Second World War. So there were still conflicts going on between Russia and America, Golding used the idea of continuous war and portrayed it onto the island. The text concerns a group of public school boys getting trapped on an island after their plane crashes; they all have traditional upbringings and attitudes. Other books, which had previously been written such as Swiss Family Robinson and Coral Island, featured a similar situation but with a happier ending, these types of books were all very unrealistic and fairytale like. William Golding wrote what he thought would really happen if anyone ever faced this situation. The two tribes that develop in Lord of the Flies (Jacks and Ralphs) represent Hitler and the Nazis against the allies (America, Great Britain etc). The Italians swapped sides during the war as the Nazis became weaker; Sam and Eric reflect this as they join Jacks tribe because Ralphs is less popular. Both books have many similarities and differences between them. The main similarity is that both books are about lines of civilisation being broken revealing the darker sides of peoples characters. The boys in Lord of the Flies are immediately, physically desolate after their plane crashes. Nobody knows where they are and there are no adults. In Shelleys book, the character Frankenstein chooses to be isolated as his work is more important to him than anything around him. One similarity between the two books are the characters Piggy and the creature. These two characters are both judged by their appearance. Piggy is shorter than the fair boy and very fat. He has asthma and thick spectacles. The creature has yellow skin and straight black lips, in both cases we can immediately tell that they are physically different. Even Frankenstein, the creatures creator dreaded to behold him. They both become isolated and victimised because other people see them as being different; this creates a feeling of sympathy towards both characters throughout the books. They also both have no parents as Piggys dads dead, and [his] mum, and the creature said: No father has watched my infant days, no mother had blessed me with smiles and caresses. The creature feels sadness and rejection and believes that having parents is important, this is also implicit in the case of Piggy, but the creature has never been loved by anyone so the feeling of depression is greater. It can be argued however that, in a way the creature has been loved as Frankenstein loved him while he was creating him. When he is brought to life the love he had previously received from Frankenstein ends. The difference between these two characters is that Piggys intelligence is threatening to the other boys as he has some sensible ideas that the boys do not wish to carry out. He says: Which is better- to have rules and agree, or to hunt and kill? The boys ignore him as they have already descended into tribalism at this point. Piggys intelligence is threatening because he has a very defined idea of what is right and wrong and he is a very moral person. The creatures intelligence is harmless as he only wishes to fit in. However, as the creature becomes more knowledgeable he discovered what a wretched outcast he was. He has no idea of what is right and wrong and only wants to fit in. The level of intelligence an individual has, whether it is a lot or a little can still make them isolated from others. From the start of Lord of the Flies we can tell that Piggy wants to fit in by the way he follows Ralph. Ralph disentangled himself cautiously and stole away through the branches. In a few seconds the fat boys grunts were behind him. He is last to put his hand up to vote for Ralph: Every hand outside the choir except Piggys was raised immediately. He hesitates because although he wants to vote for Ralph he does not want to be the only one who votes for him. He wants to fit in and not be the odd one out. It is implicit that Piggy was not very popular at school as They used to call [him] Piggy. This is why he follows Ralph in the way he does; he desperately tries to try and make friends as he feels depressed and sad about his previous school life. He is not very attractive; this is a reflection of how people perceive him. There are not just similarities between Piggy and the creature. Frankenstein and Ralph are also similar because although they are in different situations, they both have something they want to achieve. Ralph desperately wants to be rescued from the island. He constantly tries to keep the fire going as The fire is the main thing, because it is a signal to people to show that they are stranded. Frankensteins aim is to take science a step further by creating new life without using nature. They are both headstrong and both have will power to achieve what they want to. Unlike Frankenstein, Ralph sees reality as he acknowledges that if they do not try to get rescued they will die on the island. without the smoke signal well die here! Ralph is far more considerate than Frankenstein. Frankenstein does not consider the consequences of his actions and as a result of this he creates a disaster. He does not see reality as he becomes so determined to be the first person to create life. While Frankenstein is preoccupied with creating life, Ralph believes that preserving life is more important. Frankenstein can also be compared to Simon from Lord of the Flies. They are both symbolic of Christ. Simon passed food down to outstretched hands and Frankenstein stated that; food that I had killed, which after taking a small part, I always presented to those who had provided me. They are both kind and considerate and the way they give to others is much like the same way that Jesus did. Although Frankenstein has been isolated and anti social for a few years he is still amiable. Simon is surrounded by a lot of biblical images all through the book. The way that Simon appreciates the island and nature seems quite strange to the other boys. He is described as cracked and batty. In the same way Frankenstein gets remarks because he enjoys the structure of the human frame. and philosophy. Both Simon and Frankenstein are intransigent as they ignore any comments tackling their views. Frankenstein believes that: A new species would bless me as its creator would owe their being to me. He wants to be worshipped and idolised for creating life like God. Simon wants to appreciate his surroundings, which God as created. Frankenstein states that; No father could claim the gratitude of his child so completely as I should deserve theirs. He becomes arrogant and his ego begins to swell. He wants to totally change the way in which humans are brought to life and he becomes insatiably infatuated with this. Simon willingly accepts the beauty of nature and he sees things differently to other people, like the beast only being a fallen pilot (this shows more clarity of thought than the other boys). Unlike Frankenstein, Simons character is very vague, he is simply known as the boy who fainted towards the beginning of the book. He is also described as a vivid little boy. No one really understands him as he has more maturity to understand things than the other boys, but he does not have the vocabulary to express his views and feelings. Frankensteins character is not constant through the book. At first he is very unorthodox, as he does not consider the views or beliefs of anyone around him. Towards the end of the book he becomes remorseful as he realises that he has created a demoniacal corpse. When Simon died the clouds opened and let down the rain like a waterfall. This is pathetic fallacy as it reflects what is happening in the story. Simon is seen as God- like, and the storm and heavy rain is like Gods anger against the savage boys sin. It is as if they killed the good on the island and it cannot be justified or tolerated. After he is killed the language used is very calming; there was a trickle of water and no noise. This is ethereal, as if Simons body is being taken by angels up to heaven. The way Simons dead body moved out towards the open sea is very heavenly. When Simon sees the Lord of the Flies for the first time, Golding says: Even if he shut his eyes, the sows head still remained like an after- imageThey assured Simon that everything was a bad business. It is as if Simon is getting a vision from God; the sows head demonstrated how the hunting has got out of control. God is warning him that what is happening on the island cannot be accepted. After this has happened it is ironic that Simon is killed for being mistaken for the beast. The message given to him was right; the hunting on the island had become a bad business. The difference between the two books is that Frankenstein is a man of science and Simon is a man of spirit. In Frankenstein it is science against religion, where as in Lord of the Flies the human need to survive is put against society. Another character from Lord of the Flies who can be compared to Frankenstein is Jack. It is clear from the start that Jack will potentially be a threat from his appearance. He has red hair which signifies a fiery temper, and red is also used for warning signs, which indicate danger. Both Jack and Frankenstein become obsessive about certain things. Frankenstein becomes obsessed with creating the creature and Jack lets hunting become his obsession. Jack begins to bring up hunting in most conversations, he said: All the same- in the forest. I mean when youre hunting. He is the first to suggest that the choir form a group called the hunters and he is always the first to lead them out into the forest to go on a hunt he insists to the other boys that meat is important. Jack becomes excited by droppings that steamed he bends down to them as though he loved them. This is clearly not natural behaviour and these are definite signs that his obsession with hunting has gone too far. Frankenstein gets so engrossed with his work that he forgets about his family. He, like Jack, becomes disturbingly infatuated with his project as he does many inhumane things: [He]collected bones from charnel- houses and disturbed, with profane fingers, the tremendous secrets of the human frame. The word profane is important because it illustrates the way he shows disrespect for religion. In Lord of the Flies the other religion could be classed as Ralphs tribe. Jack does not consider the welfare of these boys and he becomes so obsessed with hunting that he forgets both his morals and the fact that the boys need to be rescued. While Jack is hunting The madness came into his eyes again. He has the urge to kill and his obsession has got so far out of control he is losing his sanity. However, these two characters are also very different because Jack has a cruel personality; he picks on the weaker boys. Piggy is usually his victim; he singles him out for the way he looks, he says, shut up fatty and you fat slug. He smacked Piggys head and he is also very sarcastic towards him: We mustnt let anything happen to Piggy, must we? His character is also very fierce; this becomes apparent from the language used. The way he slashed, slammed and snatched shows he is destructive. He acts like this so that the other boys become afraid of him and do not challenge his views; he feels powerful and dominant. He gains respect from the other boys by behaving like this: Jack looked round for understanding and found only respect. He regains the power which he lost from not being voted chief by behaving in this way, and he also feels he has control over the other boys. The boys do not always agree with him, they just followed him obediently because they are afraid of him. Jack is also like the creature because they both show their darker sides after being isolated. Jack believes he has the qualities to be leader because he can sing C sharp. When Ralph is voted leader, Jack immediately becomes isolated, and tension occurs between them as he constantly challenges Ralph to be leader. The creature becomes isolated because he is not socially accepted, as he looks different. His treacherous side shows as his level of intelligence increases. He begins to feel rage and revenge towards Frankenstein, in the same way Jack feels for Ralph. The creature says that: I declared ever-lasting war against the species, and more than all, against him who had formed me. The language used here is very strong; he shows feelings of hate towards Frankenstein because he enrolled him into a world of misery. Jack and the creature both develop feelings of hatred towards the ones who have ostracised them. Some of the words used to describe Jack and Frankenstein are animalistic. When Jack is hunting it is like he almost becomes an animal, he sniffs the air and comes trotting back. When Frankenstein gets angry he gnashed [his] teeth and ground them together. They do mot appear human as they are stripped of human characteristics such as conscience and morality. This suggests that they have evil natures. These evil natures can also be shown by the inhumane killings that occur in both books. Lord of the Flies and Frankenstein both feature violence, death and murder. In Frankenstein the creature becomes completely demoralized like Jack and Roger, the murders they commit are brutal, but the reader is more sympathetic for the creature because he has never been loved and however desperately he tried to find a friend he was always rejected. The boys in Lord of the Flies have been loved and brought up in a religious manner, so they have no excuse to kill. The boys deconstruction of their reality mirrors the creatures construction of reality. This can be shown when Simon is brutally torn apart, where as the monster is pieced together. Simon can also be related to the creature because he has a problem, which he cannot do anything about. Simon is epileptic and the creature is ugly and 8 foot tall. These are problems, which can stop them from being like other people. In Frankenstein the style in which the book is written is totally different than that of Lord of the Flies. There are three concentric layers, one within the other. The outer layer, which is the shortest, is Robert Waltons letters to his sister describing his voyage to the North Pole. In the next layer Frankenstein tells the story of how he created the monster and how he abandoned it in disgust. In the third layer the creature describes the struggle he has trying to fit in. There are also multiple storytellers in Frankenstein. In Lord of the Flies the book has a linear narrative as it reads from beginning to end, it is narrated entirely by the author. As Frankenstein is a gothic horror book, the murders do not come as much of a surprise to the reader, where as Lord of the Flies features innocent, young school boys committing brutal murders. So the shock value in Lord of the Flies is greater and indeed more horrific than that in Frankenstein. The books are also both written in a way so that the reader looses track of time. Many phrases are used in the text to imply that a lot of time has passed, like Two years had now nearly elapsed and Six years had elapsed. This reflects the insanity that develops in the characters. In Lord of the Flies there is a system of hierarchy, as there is only one place at the top Jack and Ralph constantly fight to be the highest so that they have power over the other boys. These boys are underneath Jack and Ralph in the hierarchy so they are not as powerful they are, this is why they follow one of them. Piggy is one of the weaker boys at the bottom; this is why he is victimised. In Frankenstein there is no system of hierarchy, everyone in the text is considered as equal. In both books there is a role reversal. In Lord of the Flies Ralph goes from being leader to an outcast who is left to survive on his own. Jacks hunting tribe eventually over powers Ralphs tribe who want to be rescued. This shows the immaturity of the boys as they forget their priorities. The role reversal in Frankenstein occurs between Frankenstein and the creature. Frankenstein has power over the creature while he is creating him, but when he disowns him; he is left to do what he likes. He becomes more powerful than Frankenstein (and indeed any human being) because of his sheer stature and his increased level of intelligence. Frankenstein is aware of the fact that he does not have any morals as he killed innocent children. The creature realises this: You are my creator, but I am your master; obey! Role reversals are used in the text to show that the goodness in a person does not always win. I have already discussed thematic issues within characterisation, but the main theme in both books is about the darkness of Mans soul. The evil side of man, which is inherent in everybody, can be brought out in different situations. The two books show this in different ways. Frankenstein involves an adult world confronted with many scientific changes. Lord of the Flies shows a world entirely populated by children who struggle to survive. However, in both books the same message is delivered; the notion of society breaks down when there is nothing to uphold it. This is explored through the themes of isolation, difference, anger, ambition and obsession. While the boys on the island are unwillingly taken out of society structure and the creature is forcefully thrust into it, the result is the same- the hidden darkness of mans soul is revealed.

Practices of Agile Methods in Project Management

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

The Mists of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley Essay -- essays research

The Mists of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley The Mists of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley, is not only an example of a Medieval Romance, but also tells the story of the women who stood behind King Arthur during his infamous reign in the Middle Ages. The term â€Å"Medieval Romance† does not necessarily mean that the piece using it contains any sort of romance. There are three criteria that must be meet to form a Medieval Romance. (1) The plot must divide into sharply separate episodes that often do not seem joined in any obvious casual fashion. (2) The plots generally take the form of tests that they must pass to attain form goal. (3) The protagonist fails tests, which often involve acts of moral and spiritual perception, until such a point that they finally follow advice. This book is not a typical Medieval Romance, but it contains all the important aspects of one. This novel explains the reasoning and decisions that Arthur made from the perspective of the women involved. The Mists of Avalon is a twist on the Arthurian tales as told by the four women instrumental to the story: Gwynhefar, Arthur’s wife; Igraine, his mother; Viviane, the Lady of the Lake, High Priestess of Avalon; and Morgaine, his sister, lover, and heiress to Avalon. The story is told by each as they saw it happen. In this novel, the legend of King Arthur is for the first time told through the lives, the visions, and the perceptions of the women central to it. By telling the story through a woman’s perspective The Mists of Avalon provides a feminine insight into the depths of Arthurian legend previously dominated by men.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The struggle between Christianity and the religion of Avalon is one of the central parts of the story. Arthur, whose mother was Igraine, sister to Viviane, grows up to be High King of Britain after his father, Uther Pendragon, dies. In this era there were two religions that the people studied. One was under the Christians vows. They believed that their was only one god, theirs. They believed that all other gods were false and sinful. In the Christian beliefs, the women were believed to be the ultimate sinners. Under this belief they were always made to feel subservient to their men. The other religion was under the Goddess, who the people in the mystical world of Avalon believed were responsible for man and all of its creations. It is stated of... ...y wished for a baby and had no ill will towards Avalon. The same goes for Morgaine, there was no malice in her actions, and we see this since her actions are told from her own perspective, not of a man’s. Arthur betrayed Avalon and this was the result. In the male perspective of Arthurian legend we see only actions of the women. In this tale told by women we see their thoughts behind their actions. These thoughts were not know from the male’s perspective, but with the woman’s insight into these matters we see that more clearly.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In a world where men largely dominate Arthurian legend, The Mists of Avalon gives us a profound feminine insight. The Arthurian world of Avalon and Camelot with all its passions and adventures is revealed as its heroines might have experienced it: Queen Gwynhefar, Igraine, Viviane, and Arthur’s sister, Morgaine. This is a story of profound conflict between Christianity and the old religion of Avalon. It was a story of Arthur’s betrayal of Avalon. It was the first time that an Arthurian legend was told by the viewpoint of the females involved in the story. The insights that these women provided to the story are truly profound.

Bite Me: A Love Story Chapter 14

14. The Samurai of Jackson Street II Katusumi Okata had lived among the gaijin for forty years. An American art dealer, traveling through Hokkaido in search of woodblock prints from the Edo period, had come into Katusumi's father's workshop, seen the boy's prints, and offered to bring Okata to San Francisco to create prints for his gallery on Jackson Street. The printmaker had lived in this same basement apartment since. He'd once had a wife, Yuriko, but she had been killed in front of him on the street when he was twenty-three, so now he lived alone. The apartment had a concrete floor covered by two grass mats, a table that held his printmaking tools, a two-burner stove, an electric kettle, his swords, a futon, three sets of clothes, an old phonograph, and now, a burned-up white woman. She really didn't go with anything else, no matter how he arranged her. He thought he might make a series of prints of her-her blackened, skeletal form posed about the apartment like some demon wraith from a Shinto nightmare, but the composition wasn't working. He walked up to Chinatown and bought a bouquet of red tulips and put them on the futon beside her, but even with the added color and design element, the picture wasn't working. And she was making his futon smell like burned hair. Okata was not used to company, and he wasn't sure how to keep up his end of the conversation. He had once made friends with two rats who came out of a hole in the brick wall. He had talked to them and fed them on the condition that they not bring any friends, but they hadn't listened and he was forced to mortar up the hole. He figured they didn't speak Japanese. To be fair, however, she wasn't doing very well holding up her side of the conversation, either-lying there like a bog person dipped in creosote, her mouth open as if in a scream of agony. He sat on a stool next to the futon with his sketch pad and a pencil and began to sketch her for a print. He had very much admired the great cape of red curls that streamed out behind her when he'd seen her on the street, and he was sorry that all but a few strands had burned away in the sun. A shame. Perhaps he could draw the red curls in anyway. Make them swirl around the blackened rictus like one of Hokusai's waves. He knew what she was, of course. He was still healing from his encounter with the vampire cats, and it took no little bit of sketching to fill in the details, especially as her fangs were pointing prominently at his ceiling right now and they were far too long and sharp to be those of a normal burned-up white girl. He filled three pages with sketches, experimenting with angles and composition, but on the fourth page he found that a sadness had overcome him that he could not chase away with the moment created in making a drawing. Katusumi retrieved his wakizashi short sword from the stand on his work table, unsheathed it, and knelt by the futon. He bowed deeply, then put the point of the sword on the pad of his left thumb and cut. He held his thumb over her open mouth and the dark blood dripped over her teeth and lips. Would she be like the cats? Savage? A monster? He held the razor-edged wakizashi ready in his right hand, should a demon awake. But if he'd been able to raise his beloved Yuriko, even as a demon, wouldn't he have? All the years that had passed, kendo training, drawing, carving, meditating, walking the streets unafraid, alone, hadn't they all been about that? About making Yuriko live? Or not living without her? When the burned-up girl jerked with a great, rasping intake of breath, cinders cracked off her ribs and peppered the yellow futon and water began to flow from the swordsman's eyes. RIVERA AND CAVUTO Marvin the cadaver dog took them to the Wine Country. There they found Bummer and Lazarus, the Emperor's dogs, guarding a Dumpster in an alley behind an abandoned building. Marvin pawed the Dumpster, and tried to stay on task while the Boston terrier sniffed his junk and the golden retriever looked around, a little embarrassed. Nick Cavuto held the lid, ready to lift it. â€Å"Maybe we should call the Wong kid and see if our sunlight jackets are done, then open it.† â€Å"It's daylight,† said Rivera. â€Å"Even if there are, uh, creatures in there, they'll be immobile.† Rivera still had a very difficult time saying the word â€Å"vampires† out loud. â€Å"Marvin says there's a body in there, we need to look.† Cavuto shrugged, lifted the lid of the Dumpster and braced himself for a wave of rotten meat smell, but there was none. â€Å"Empty.† Bummer barked. Marvin pawed at the side of the Dumpster. Lazarus chuffed, which was dog for, â€Å"Duh. Look behind it.† Rivera looked in. Other than a couple of broken wine bottles and the rice part of a taco combo plate, there was nothing in the Dumpster, yet Marvin still pawed at the steel, which was the signal he had been trained to give when he'd found a corpse. â€Å"Maybe we should give Marvin a biscuit to reset him or something,† said Rivera. â€Å"No corpse, no biscuit, that's the rule,† said Cavuto. â€Å"We all have to live by it.† At the mention of a biscuit both Bummer and Marvin stopped what they were doing, sat, looked dutiful and contrite, and gave Rivera the â€Å"I need and deeply deserve a biscuit† look. Frustrated with what biscuit whores his cohorts were, Lazarus went to the side of the Dumpster and started pawing the space between it and the wall, then tried to stuff his muzzle in behind it. Cavuto shrugged, pulled on a pair of form-fitting mechanics gloves from his jacket pocket, and pulled the cement blocks from under the Dumpster's wheels. Rivera watched in horror as the realization hit that he was probably going to get Dumpster schmutz, or worse, on his expensive Italian suit. â€Å"Man up, Rivera,† Cavuto said. â€Å"There's police work to be done.† â€Å"Shouldn't we call some uniforms in to do it? I mean, we're detectives.† Cavuto stood up and looked at his partner. â€Å"You really believe the movies when James Bond kills thirty guys hand to hand, blows up the secret lair, gets set on fire, then escapes under water and his tux doesn't even get wrinkled, don't you?† â€Å"You can't just buy one of those off the rack,† Rivera said. â€Å"It's a high-tech fabric.† â€Å"Just give me a hand with this thing, would you?† Once the Dumpster was in the middle of the alley, the three dogs more or less dogpiled in front of the boarded-up window, Marvin doing his highly trained, â€Å"There's a dead guy in here, give me a biscuit† paw scrape, Bummer barking like he was announcing the big sale event down at Yap-mart and everything had to go, and Lazarus rolling out a long, doleful howl. â€Å"Probably in there,† said Cavuto. â€Å"Ya think?† said Rivera. Cavuto was able to work his fingers between the sheet of plywood and the window frame and pulled it out. Before he could even set it aside Bummer had leapt through the window into the darkness. Lazarus pawed the windowsill, then leapt after his companion. Marvin, the cadaver dog, backed away, then ruffed twice and tossed his head, which translated to, â€Å"No, I'm good, you guys go ahead, just give me my biscuit. I'll be over here-well, would you look at that-those balls definitely need some tongue attention. No, it's okay, go on without me.† Marvin had a nose that could distinguish as many different odors as the human eye could colors, in the range of sixteen million distinct scents. Unfortunately, his doggie brain had a much more limited vocabulary for giving name to those scents and he processed what he smelled as: dead cats, many, dead humans, many, dead rats, many, poo and wee, many flavors, none fresh, and old guy who needs a shower; none of which would have given him pause. The smell that he couldn't file, that he didn't have a response for, that stopped him at the window, was a new one: dead, but not dead. Undead. It was scary, and licking his balls calmed him and kept his mind off the biscuit that they owed him. Rivera shone his flashlight around the room. The basement appeared empty but for piles of debris and a thick layer of dust and ash over the floor, textured with the paw prints of hundreds of cats. He could see the movement of Bummer and Lazarus just at the edge of the flashlight's beam. They were scratching at a metal door. â€Å"We'll need the crowbar out of the car,† said Rivera. â€Å"You're going in there?† asked Cavuto. â€Å"In that suit?† Rivera nodded. â€Å"There's something down there, one of us has to.† â€Å"You're a goddamn hero, Rivera, that's what you are. A real, dyed in the worsted wool and silk blend hero.† â€Å"Yeah, there's that, and you can't fit through the window.† â€Å"Can too,† said Cavuto. Five minutes later they were both standing in the middle of the basement, fanning their Surefire ballistic flashlights through the dust like they were wielding silent light sabers. Rivera led the way to the steel door that the hounds were going at as if someone had duct taped it to a fox. â€Å"You guys, shut up!† Rivera snapped, and much to his surprise, Bummer and Lazarus fell silent and sat. Rivera looked back at his partner. â€Å"That's spooky.† â€Å"Yeah, and praise Willie Mays that's the only spooky thing going on here.† Cavuto was a deeply religious San Francisco Giants fan and genuflected whenever he passed the bronze statue of Willie Mays outside the ball park. â€Å"Good point,† said Rivera. He tried the door, which didn't budge, but it was clear from the arc plowed into the dust and ashes that it had been opened recently. â€Å"Crowbar,† he said, reaching back. Cavuto handed him the crowbar and at the same time drew his gun from his shoulder holster, a ridiculously large Desert Eagle.50-caliber automatic. â€Å"When did you start carrying that thing again?† â€Å"Right after you said the v-word out loud at Sacred Heart.† â€Å"It won't stop them, you know.† â€Å"It makes me feel better. You want to hold it while I pry the door?† â€Å"If there's a-one of them-in there, they'll be dormant or whatever you call it. It's daytime, they can't attack.† â€Å"Yeah, well, just in case they didn't get the memo.† â€Å"I got it.† Rivera fit the crowbar in the door jamb and threw his weight against it. On the third push, something snapped and the door scraped open an inch. Bummer and Lazarus were up instantly, with their noses in the gap. Rivera looked back at Cavuto, who nodded, and Rivera pulled the door open and stepped away. A pile of shelving and junk blocked the doorway, but Bummer and Lazarus were able to thread their way through it and were in the room, barking in frantic, desperate yelps. Through a gap in the junk, Rivera played the beam of his flashlight around the small storeroom, over barrels, shelving, and piles of dusty clothing. â€Å"Clear,† he said. Cavuto joined him in the doorway. â€Å"Clear, my ass.† The big cop kicked his way through the barricade, holding his flashlight high in one hand and the Desert Eagle trained on a row of barrels on the right side of the room, where Bummer and Lazarus were currently indulging a hurricane-level doggie freakout. Rivera followed his partner into the room, then approached the barrels while Cavuto covered him. Beyond the barking, he heard a faint metal tapping coming from one of the barrels. The barrel was upside-down and had held some kind of solid, the label said something about water-filtering mineral. It was sitting on its lid, which was only partially crimped on. â€Å"Something's in there.† â€Å"Plug your ears,† said Cavuto, cocking the hammer on the Desert Eagle, and aiming for the center of the barrel. â€Å"Are you high? You can't fire that thing in here.† â€Å"Well there's can't and there's shouldn't. I probably shouldn't fire it.† â€Å"Cover me, I'm pushing it over.† Before Cavuto could answer Rivera grabbed the edge of the barrel and shoved with all his might. It was heavy, and fell hard. Bummer and Lazarus rocketed around to the exposed lid and were pawing at it. â€Å"Ready?† said Rivera. â€Å"Go,† said Cavuto. Rivera kicked the edge of the lid and it clanked off, then landed with a dull thud in the thick dust on the floor. Bummer rocketed inside while Lazarus frisked back and forth outside. Rivera drew his weapon and moved to where he could look into the barrel. He was met first by a gray storm of hair, then two crystal blue eyes set in a wide, weathered face. â€Å"Well that was unpleasant,† said the Emperor, around the sloppy bath of dog spit he was receiving from Bummer. â€Å"I'll bet,† said Rivera, lowering his weapon. â€Å"I may require some assistance extricating myself from this container.† â€Å"We can do that,† said Cavuto. Cavuto was fighting back a very bad case of the empathy willies, imagining himself spending a night, maybe longer, upside-down, shoved inside a barrel. He and the Emperor were about the same size. â€Å"You in pain?† â€Å"Oh no, thank you, I lost the feeling in my arms and legs quite some time ago.† â€Å"I'm guessing you didn't get in there on your own, did you?† said Rivera. â€Å"No, this was not my doing,† said the Emperor. â€Å"I was roughly handled, but it appears to have saved my life. There wasn't enough room in the barrel for any of them to become solid. There were hundreds of the fiends around me. But you saw them as you came in, I'm sure.† Rivera shook his head. â€Å"You mean the cats? No, there are tracks everywhere, but the place is empty.† â€Å"Well that's not good,† said the Emperor. â€Å"No, it's not.† Rivera was distracted. He'd been playing his flashlight beam around the room, looking for something to help them get the Emperor out of the barrel. He stopped the beam on a spot by the shelves where the dust hadn't been stirred by their rescue efforts. There, as clearly as if it had been made in plaster of Paris to send home for Mother's Day, was a single human footprint. â€Å"That's not good at all,† he said. From outside the window Marvin barked three times quickly, which Rivera thought was a warning, but translated from dog to: â€Å"Hey, can I get a friggin' biscuit out here, or what?†