Servequal Model

SERVEQUAL MODEL (Measuring Service Quality of Hospitals in Larkana) Author 1: Sumeet Seedani (SZABIST) Contact #: 03333633233 Email: [email  protected] com Author 2: Naveed Anwar Contact number: 03562141247 Email address: [email  protected] szabist. edu. pk Table of contents: Abstract03 Introduction and04 Literature Review05 Importance07 Research Methodology08 Five Dimensions (Variables)09 Data Analysis10 Findings11 Conclusion12 Bibliography13 ABSTRACTService quality is a concept that has stimulated considerable interest and debate in the research literature because of the difficulties in both defining and measuring it. Customer satisfaction and service quality always treated together as customer’s perception and expectation, and the gap will show the result of the total satisfaction. The aim of the study is to rank the 5 dimensions of the service quality to measure the service quality of hospitals in larkana with the help of SERVEQUAL Model.This study also examines the Se rvice quality gap by measuring the gap between Hospital’s patient’s expectations and perceptions. This research shows that all the dimensions of the service are very much important for the service quality. Tangibility was rated as the most important dimension followed by assurance, reliability, responsiveness and empathy. The questionnaire used for this study was â€Å"SERVICE Quality: SERVEQUAL (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry 1986, 1988)†. The measurements used were on the basis of SERVEQUAL Model which is the best way to measure the service quality.This study state that the expectations were so much high but the perceptions are not that much strong and there is a huge gap between Patient’s Expectations and perception. Key words: Service quality, Customer satisfaction, perception and expectation, gap, Tangibility, assurance, reliability, responsiveness empathy. Introduction SERVEQUAL model is a method to measure a service quality. It was created in 198 0’s especially for the projects related to marketing to find the perception of customer regarding the service quality.In SERVEQUAL, quality is defined through the gap or space which customer got and perceive regarding the service quality. It’s very difficult to understand and measure the service quality, especially in the field of service providers in health care field and if we talk about the larkana than its more complex that’s why I choose the SERVEQUAL model to measure the service quality of Larkana hospitals and medical centers to know the effect of service quality on the customer perception.This research examines the measurement of service quality in hospitals of larkana, through the help of SERVEQUAL model to know, what are the gaps between, the service perceived and got by the customers or patients in the larkana. Service quality is all about ensuring customers, both internal and external, get what they want. Customer satisfaction is a attitude or feelin g of customer toward the service after using the service. Satisfaction and service quality is always treated together to know the perception.Satisfaction is defining customer perception and expectation, customer satisfactions is determined by defining customer perception of quality, expectation and preferences. It’s always arises a important question that why we measure the service quality? Because the measurement of service quality, is a comparison of before and after changes for the service quality. It also gives the solution of the problem for the betterment of service delivery standard.The main purpose of this research is to find the most important service quality dimensions that affect the customer satisfactions in hospitals in larkana, by using the SERVEQUAL model which is the best way to measure the service quality. Measuring the service quality is very crucial for the hospitals today, to improve the quality and image of the hospital, to study the importance and impact of service quality of hospitals on patients, to find the important dimensions of service quality which effect on customer satisfactions in hospitals and to determine customer need in their treatment in hospitals in larkana.In last few decades the importance of service quality has increased and every industries and departments are trying to find the reasons which effect the customer perception and satisfaction, and trying to give better quality that’s why this research is also very important to measure the service quality of hospitals via SERVEQUAL model. SERVEQUAL breaks service quality in five basic dimensions, Reliability, assurance, tangibles, understanding and responsiveness.So in this research these five dimensions are also considered and examine to measure the service quality and factors which effect the perception of customer towards the service quality. Literature review: This part gives you an overview of literature about the models related to the problem statement which discussed in introduction. In this we study about the concept of customer satisfaction, service quality, relation between customer satisfaction and service quality and its effect on consumer mind, traditional service quality dimensions and hospital’s service quality in order to give a clear idea about the research area.As it is discussed by Kotler (2003); there is a general agreement that: Satisfaction is a person’s feelings of pleasure or disappointment resulting from comparing a product’s perceived performance (outcome) in relation to his or her expectations. Based on this review, customer satisfaction is defined as the result of a cognitive and addictive evaluation, where some comparison standard is compared to the actually perceived performance.Furthermore, Omachonu (1990); stated that Health care quality has been posited to consist of two parts: quality in fact and quality as perceived by the consumer. Means how actually customer perceived the service quality and how its experience during the availing of the service, and every customer having its own perception. Another side it is argued that satisfaction is associated with performance that fulfils the expectation, while dissatisfaction occurs when performance falls below the expectation (Swan and combs 1976).This review based that when the service quality meet the customer expectation they satisfy and when service quality doesn’t meet with the customer expectation they got dissatisfied and they never avail that service, means there is a huge relation between the service quality on customer perception, because when customer once satisfy from the service quality he/she again avail that service because he make his mind set about that particular industry.Health care practitioners would contend that service quality is a provision of appropriate and technically sound care that produces the desire affect; however it has been misperceive their patient’s perception sometim es (McAlexander et al 1994).Means the service providers in hospital industry always trying to introduce new technologies to give the good service quality to their patients to change their mind and perception and to satisfy them by meet their expectation but sometimes some patients misperceive it and take it in a another side which is a loss for the hospitals, that’s why it is always difficult to measure the service quality specially in the field of hospital industry but it’s important for every department and industry now. As Dr. K.Ravichandran et al (2010) defining that every retail industries are consequently directing their strategies towards increasing service quality level which fosters customer satisfaction and loyalty improved service quality. He further discussed that; increase in service quality in retail industry can develop customer satisfaction which ultimately retains valued customer. It review stated that in today’s era its very much important for any organization or any industry to increase service quality and do work according the customer expectation than any organization can got success in business world and through this a organization can retail the oyal and valuable customer. James H. mcAlexendar (1994) discussed in his research that marketer generally view the service quality from the perspective of health care customers because marketers understand that patients perception of service quality may be more broadly constructed than those of the health care provider and based upon a more holistic assessment of the health care experience. Because patient’s perspective regarding service quality may include perception of technical care but also seemingly peripheral concerns as physical facilities, interactions with receptionists and even brochures.It argued by the Kekale (2001) that it is some how the measurement of customer dissatisfaction and offers a possibility for the elimination of falls, not a possibility for pr oduct development and product innovation. Companies should gather and analyze the suitable data, which will provide relevant information to real customer satisfaction. It is important to measure the right things, i. e. what is really important for the Customers. There is the possibility of wrong specifications or misinterpretations of what a customer actually wants.Means the gap between what companies think and what actually customer wants can also affect the service quality. It is not always be true that performance will equal to expectation as described in International journal of nursing studies (2007) that performance was relatively lower than expectations, resulting in poor nursing care quality. Differences between expectations and performance for both patients and nurses need to be further reduced. As its also discussed by the Tolgo taner et al (1997) that there is different service quality provided in private and public sector.He further discussed that inpatients in the priva te hospital were more satisfied with service quality than those in public hospitals. The result also suggest that patients in private hospitals were more satisfied with doctors, nuerses and supportive than their counterparts in public hospitals. One research suggest that customers are reluctant to complain when dissatisfied with professional and when they dissatisfied they tell to more customers means it become the word of mouth. Andreasen et al 1985). This result could be the health care professional would bear the burden of having dissatisfied patients, including negative word of mouth and patient turn over. IMPORTANCE of the Research: A good research is effective tool for reader and for a society for many positive changes in the environment. Especially, if we talk about the service oriented organization than we come to know that the base for their success is that they study well about their customers.So this research is helpful to know that how much there is a gap between the cus tomer perception and expectation and how much they get satisfied after availing the service of hospitals located in the larkana. This study is especially design to measure the service quality of hospitals in the Larkana. This research is also important study for to know that which are the drawbacks in private hospital sector and are customers (patients) are satisfied or not? This study is important for doctors to know that what patients want from them and how some changes can improve their quality for their customers.METHODOLOGY DESIGN RESEARCH TYPE * This Research is based on exploratory format and it is developed from qualitative point of view. METHODS AND TECHNIQUES: * I distribute the Questionnaire to the respondents to know their views. * I used the SERVEQUAL model format for my Research, because it’s the best way to measure the service quality and I have use the licart scale in the options of the questions. * Questioner consists of 22 statements about perception and 22 statements about the expectations. * The questions are based on 5 dimensions: * Tangibility, assurance, reliability, responsiveness empathy.SAMPLE AND SAMPLE SIZE * I have chosen random sampling for data collection method, and sample size is 100. POPULATION AND RESPONDENTS * As research is based on the service quality of hospitals so I choose private hospital and center’s patients of Larkana as my population. I will mainly focus on the patients of different hospitals and centers located in larkana. STATISTICAL PROCESSING OF INFORMATION * The data which is collected have been analyzed in SPSS software for further results and findings, to measure the gap between expectation and perception of the patients.Five dimensions of the SERVEQUAL Model Data Analysis: Reliability test: Expectation Perception Reliability Statistics| Cronbach's Alpha| N of Items| .555| 22| Reliability Statistics| Cronbach's Alpha| N of Items| .917| 22| This is the reliability test of SERVEQUAL Model for ho spitals in larkana. If we look around the expectation side the reliability value is 0. 555, and the value of perception is 0. 917. Means there is high reliability at perception side. So the overall questioners are effective.Descriptive Analysis: Statistics Expectation| | tangible| reliable| responsiveness| Assurance| empathy| N| Valid| 100| 100| 100| 100| 99| | Missing| 1| 1| 1| 1| 2| Mean| 6. 31| 6. 16| 6. 37| 6. 75| 6. 34| Median| 6. 25| 6. 20| 6. 50| 6. 50| 6. 40| Mode| 7| 7| 7| 7| 7| Std. Deviation| . 550| . 618| . 661| 2. 570| . 687| Statistics Perception| | tangibileavg| reliabilityavg| responsivnessavg| assuranceavg| emphathyavg| N| Valid| 100| 100| 100| 100| 100| | Missing| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| Mean| 4. 16| 4. 58| 4. 07| 4. 2500| 4. 1600| Median| 4. 00| 4. 60| 4. 00| 4. 000| 4. 2000| Mode| 4| 5| 4| 4. 50| 4. 00| Std. Deviation| 1. 229| 1. 107| 1. 147| 1. 15142| 1. 14486| Above two tables are showing the mean, median, mode and standard deviation of expectation and perception. The r esults clearly shows that the overall expectations are high than the perception, if we look to the values of mean at the expectation side is about 6 in all the variables but at the perception side it is about 4. So there is a still huge gap which shows that still there are people who are dis-satisfied from the services of Hospitals in Larkana.Same wise the median has averagely value is about 6. 5 in all the variables but at expectation side it is only 4. 5. Expectation side mode has value 7 in all the values but when it comes to perception it is only 4. Standard deviation also shows the huge difference between expectation of the customers and the service the perceived. These results clearly shows that there is still a gap which shows that the overall service quality of hospitals are not match or fulfill the expectations of the customers, that the main reason of increase rate of dissatisfied customers.The results also show that in assurance (knowledge and courtesy of employees and th eir ability to convey trust and confidence) people have more expectation but they perceived less in the Hospital’s of larkana. So we can finaly conclude that results are clearly showing the gap between the expectation and perception, which is huge gap. Conclusion & achievement Service quality is always a big topic to debate, because it’s difficult to understand and measure the service quality.We can simply define a service quality with the help of people expectation and perception about a certain field. As much as the gap is high the service quality is negative, but if there is a low gap or expectation and perception are equal it means there is a good service quality. This study is also done for the purpose to find and measure the service quality of hospitals in the larkana, with the help of SERVEQUAL Model, which is the worldwide best way to measure the SERVICE quality.The main purpose of conducted this study is to know the overall performance of the private hospitals . Because it’s very necessary that customer should be satisfied from the services than they can become the loyal with that particular industry or company. After conducting this research we come to know that there is still a huge gap between the expectations of the patients and the perception that they have perceived from the hospital, so it clearly shows the performance of hospitals in larkana.The other main drawback is that hospital’s are not understanding the basically needs of the customer, they shouldn’t provide them those services effectively which customer want from them. So we can conclude that maintain the service quality is very necessary for every organization especially in the field of medical, but in Larkana after doing the research we come to know that still there is a huge gap between expectation and perception and the overall services of hospitals are not up to that level and still they need to improve a lot to satisfy their customers (Patients).B IBLIOGRAPHY http://www. serviceperformance. com/articles/33_Five_Service_Dimensions. php http://www. proserv. nu/Docs/Servqual. pdf http://eprints. utm. my/9514/1/SeyedHosseinSiadatMFSKSM2008. pdf http://www. fm-kp. si/zalozba/ISSN/1854-4231/5_195-209. pdf http://www. journal-archieves14. webs. com/1397-1408. pdf http://www. eurojournals. com/IBBA_11_10. pdf

Promotional and Advertising Strategies Essay

The author comes from Iran, with an ideological and religious fanatic government which owns and controls all of economical and industrial activities with an armed to teeth minority. In such countries they can produce and sell any low quality with any prices that they want, and actually customers have not many choices, and almost all of promotional techniques and strategies are meaningless! So here we are talking about free trade and free market countries like US. This paper review and scrutiny the circumstances surrounding the promotional and advertising Strategies for two automotive companies: TOYATA and HUNDAI. The author is very curious about those companies, because HUNDAI (1967) began car production almost 32 years after TOYOTA (1935)! But now, in all aspects both companies are equal in quality, branding, marketing, price and customer service, even HUNDAI is further! HMC (Hyundai Motor Company) was unknown brand with low quality and cheap price cars, but after it came in the US market converted its products to high quality and luxury quickly and stealing loyal customers away from many industry pioneers! But how was this late-moving car maker able to gain an advantage in this extremely competitive market? (Graf B, 2013) Introduction Definition of Advertising: The term â€Å"Advertising† first appeared in the 17th century. It has its root in the Latin word â€Å"advertere,† which means, â€Å"to make people notice or know. † It can be roughly explained as â€Å"to extensively notify the public. † According to the Dictionary of Chinese Etymology, the Chinese definition of advertising means, â€Å"openly announce to the public,† with the annotation of â€Å"such as putting up notices or publishing advertisements in newspapers. † (Yan Boqin, 1978) Definition of Marketing: â€Å"Marketing† is an economic term meaning promotion and distribution. Originally applied in agriculture, it drew more and more attention after the 19th century and spread rapidly. From economic, social, business and customers’ angles, the property of its definition can be determined (Li Zongru, 2004). For highlighting the brand in the eyes of public and attracting new customers, product promotion is one of the essentials. There are many channels to promote a product or service. Successful promotions strongly depends on believe and culture of people, style of living, income level, government policies and economical and industrial infrastructures. Some firms use multiple methods, while others may use different methods for various marketing purposes. Irrespective of the type of service or product, a strong group of promotional strategies can help position the company in a favorable light with not only current customers but new ones as well. The following are top ten promotional strategies: â€Å"1- Contests, 2-Social Media, 3-Mail Order Marketing 4-Product Giveaways, 5-Point-of-Sale Promotion and End-Cap Marketing, 6-Customer Referral Incentive Program, 7-Causes and Charity, 8-Branded Promotional Gifts, 9-Customer Appreciation Events, 10-After-Sale Customer Surveys† (Carl Hose. 2014; Small businesses; Retrieved December 2, 2014 from http://smallbusiness. chron. com/top-ten-promotional-strategies-10193. html) Comparing the promotional strategies used by Toyota and Hyundai for a similar product Today almost all of carmakers have a lot of experiences and they have access to modern and new technologies. So they can produce good quality and good design cars and also offer good services to customers, especially in US, there is no way to sell any products with low quality and low customer service. In result the best promotional strategies are those that involve culture, attitudes and beliefs of the people. The following are some examples of such strategies. Green Environment: Increasing public awareness about environmental protection, governments forced to implement hard regulation and criteria for automobile firms. Toyota published on its website: 1. Diversifying energy sources: â€Å"Toyota is developing various new technologies from the perspective of energy saving and diversifying energy sources. Environment has been first and most important issue in priorities of Toyota and working toward creating a prosperous society and clean world. † 2. Fuel Cell: â€Å"By generating electricity from hydrogen, Toyota’s fuel cell vehicles are not only environmentally friendly they’re also highly energy efficient. With such eco-friendly characteristics, Fuel Cell Vehicles are the next step toward achieving sustainable mobility. † 3. Plug-In Hybrid: â€Å"Introducing the next step for eco-friendly cars; a combination of the proven engineering of current hybrids with home recharging. It has an increased electric range and produces lower emissions. † 4. Measuring environmental issues surrounding vehicles: â€Å"For more improvements in efficiency, Toyota proactively manages power train efficiency, reduces vehicle load, and controls energy management by integration of fuel-saving technologies such as charge control, idling stop, etc. † 5. Various vehicles: â€Å"Along with our emphasis of conventional vehicles and hybrid vehicles as fundamental core technology while pursuing further advancement. † 6. Alternative fuels: â€Å"Based on these core technologies, Toyota will develop next-generation vehicles utilizing alternative fuels such as gas fuel, electricity and hydrogen. † (Retrieved December 2, 2014 from http://www. toyota-global. com/innovation/environmental _technology/) Hyundai published on its website: 1. Blue Drive: Our Blue Drive ® technology gives you lower pollution and higher performance. Blue Drive is a philosophy that guides Hyundai in its effort to become the automotive leader in sustainability. It’s helped focus our engineers and designers on creating lighter vehicles, developing more efficient power trains and even inventing proprietary hybrid technologies. 2. Plug-in and zero-emission: In the future, Blue Drive will expand to include plug-in hybrid vehicles, zero-emission electric vehicles and fuel-cell vehicles that run entirely on hydrogen. Their only emission is water. 3. Electric hybrid: Hyundai introduced the first electric hybrid with electrifying performance. Our engineers have invented the industry’s most advanced hybrid vehicle. 4. New battery: Unlike other hybrids on the market, ours uses a patented Lithium Polymer battery. It has 40% less volume; it’s 25% lighter and 10% more efficient. The battery also has a longer life-span-it comes with a lifetime warranty guarantee. So you can feel good about preserving the environment for the life of your vehicle. (Retrieved December 2, 2014 from https://www. hyundaiusa. com/new-thinking/environment. aspx) Slogan: â€Å"An advertising slogan is usually a short tagline – less than five words — that tells potential customers the benefits they can expect when choosing your product or service, or establishes your company brand. † (Kristen Hamlin, 2014; Retrieved December 2, 2014 from http://smallbusiness. chron. com/ importance-ad-slogans-31343. html) 1. Toyota’s ownership slogans: marketing efforts in North America have focused on emphasizing the positive experiences of ownership and vehicle quality. The ownership experience has been targeted in slogans such as â€Å"You asked for it! You got it! † (1975–1979); â€Å"Oh, what a feeling! † (1979 – September 1985, in the US); â€Å"Who could ask for anything more? † (September 1985 – 1989); â€Å"I love what you do for me, Toyota! † (1989–1997); â€Å"Everyday† (1997–2001); â€Å"Get the feeling! † (2001–2004); â€Å"Moving Forward† (2004–2012); and â€Å"Let’s Go Places† (2012–present). 2. Hyundai’s Brand slogan: â€Å"NEW THINKING. NEW POSSIBILITIES. †; reflects the will of Hyundai Motor Company to create new possibilities to benefit the world and its people by encouraging and developing new thinking. All members of Hyundai have the brand slogan deeply engraved in their hearts as they move forward in their effort to provide new values and experiences desired by today’s customers through innovative ways that are unique to the brand, driven by new thinking about customers and cars. ( Retrieved December 3, 2014 from http://worldwide . hyundai. com/WW/Corporate/Corporate Information/BrandSlogan/index. html) New Compact Vehicle Strategy: According to the Ford India President, compact car sales are expected to double by 2018 from around one million units in 2013. This surge in demand in expected to be fueled by rising disposable incomes in the second most populous country in the world, and also owing to the increasing demand for fuel-efficient smaller cars due to rising fuel prices. ( Trefis Team ,2014. Retrieved December 3, 2014 from http://www. forbes.com/sites /greatspeculations/2014/06/13/tata-motors-looks-to-improve-passenger-car-sales-by-penetrating-the-compact-segment/) 1. Toyota: The automobile market in emerging markets is growing each year in tandem with the economic growth of each country. Within those markets, there has been marked growth in the sales of compact vehicles, so Toyota is promoting a new compact vehicle strategy that emphasizes the compact vehicle lineup and seeks to meet the needs of consumers in emerging markets. 2. Hyundai: The South Korean automaker ranked seventh among mass-market brands in the this year’s U. S. Initial Quality Study by J. D. Power and Associates, topping such brands as Toyota, Infiniti, Audi and Lincoln. Hyundai’s Accent compact and Elantra small car were named among the top three cars in their segments. (Hans Greimel, 2011. Retrieved December 2, 2014 from http://www. autonews. com/article /20101206/RETAIL03/ 312069982/hyundai-plans-new-brand-strategy) Financial Services Strategy: Every year, millions of people around the world transition out of poverty in any number of ways—by adopting new farming technologies, investing in new business opportunities, or finding new jobs, for example. Effective tools for saving, sending, and borrowing money and mitigating financial risks can help people weather setbacks and achieve greater financial stability over the long term. (Retrieved December 4, 2014 from http://www. gatesfoundation. org/What-We-Do/Global-Development/Financial-Services-for-the-Poor) 1. Toyota: Toyota Financial Services has constructed a global network that covers approximately 90% of the markets in which Toyota sells its vehicles. Mainly concentrated on auto loans, leases and Toyota dealer floor plan requirements, TFS provides auto sales financing to approximately 5. 4 million customers. Thus effectively helping them in making their own cars more affordable to their potential consumers all around the world. Again being a strategy that helps them a stronger competitor in the market. 2. Hyundai: Through our service brands, Hyundai Motor Finance and Kia Motors Finance, we provide financial products tailored to meet the needs of Hyundai and Kia dealerships nationwide, including dealer inventory and facility financing. And, through these dealerships, we provide indirect vehicle financing and leasing solutions to over 1 million retail customers. Our subsidiary, Hyundai Protection Plan, Inc.offers vehicle service contracts and other vehicle protection products under the Hyundai Protection Plan and Power Protect brands. (Retrieved December 2, 2014 from http://www. Hyundaicapital america. com/hca. aspx) Two uses for consumer-oriented promotions that could assist a company in both the short and long term for the carmaker companies What are consumer-oriented sales promotions? There are two points of view: 1- Retail Promotions consist of inducements offered by retailers to consumers includes retail coupons, price discounts, double coupons, special displays, features etc. 2- Consumer Promotions consist of inducements offered by manufacturers to consumers includes manufacturer’s premiums, bonus packs, coupons, samples, rebates, etc. There are some reasons for the importance of the sales promotion. First, the growth of retailer power in distribution channels has led to an excess in consumer promotions. Sometimes, manufacturers make special offers to consumers because a powerful retailer insisted that they do so. Another time, as a way of neutralizing retailer power by intensification the bonds of loyalty consumers may feel toward the brand. Either way, retailers frequently serve as the driving force behind consumer promotions. Second, the type of competition has converted significantly during recent years resulting in ever greater consumer price sensitivity. The growing of brands and brand extensions, intensity segmented consumer markets, and lower brand loyalty have combined to make consumers much more aware of price given that many product categories are populated by several competitors. Third, price deals have become the rule rather than the exception for many products. Rebates on certain brands of automobiles, department store sales, and coupons on many grocery items are only a few areas where consumers have grown to expect price breaks. Indeed, the expectation is more than, when possible, many consumers will wait for promotional offers rather than buy with no deal. Fourth, advertising clutter has forced marketers to find new ways of getting consumer attention. Product benefits alone frequently prove insufficient to prompt consumer action much less get their attention. Thus, marketers increasingly look to sales promotion to find ways of breaking through to customers who face a constant bombardment of promotional messages. Eventually increasing of consumer promotion can also be attributed to more pressure on marketing management for short-term results. Investors want to immediate bottom-line results rather than the long-term health or stability of the companies in which they invest. Sales promotions are tools to increase near term sales. However, as their use becomes more common, their costs become regular and recurring and therefore potentially self-defeating. (Retrieved December 5, 2014 from www. udayton. edu/†¦ /Consumer%2520Promotion. p) The strategic manner in which the leading car company has made its pricing decisions by using one or more of the four pricing objectives â€Å"The four Ps of marketing is the combination of product, price, place (distribution), and promotion. Marketers develop strategies around these four areas in marketing to enhance branding, sales, and profitability. â€Å" (Ross Gittell, 2014, Retrieved December 5, 2014 from http://catalog. flatworldknowledge. com/bookhub/reader/3157? e=gittell_1. 0-ch06_s02#). Price is the only revenue generating element amongst the 4ps, the rest being cost centers. Pricing objectives or goals give the company direction to the whole pricing process and consider the following: 1- Survival; 2- Get competitive advantage; 3- Financial, marketing, and strategic objectives of the company; 4- Enhance image of the firm, product or brand; 5- Hold price leadership; 6- Increase market share; 7- Consumer price point and elasticity; 8- Available resources; 9- Catch target of return of investment and sales; 10- Prevent new entrants; 11- Match competitors prices. Toyota gets credit for being the most known brand on the market; however the Corolla comes up nowhere in the competitor charts in terms of price, model distinction, or performance (TrueTrends, 2012). Providing a competitive advantage for the Corolla requires differentiating the car in pricing, quality, service, innovation, brand, convenience, and anywhere else that makes it more desirable over its competition (McCrimmon, 2008). How Toyota as a leading company can offer lowest prices? i. e. $89 a month for lease! The answer is: by maintaining its lowest costs. Along with differentiation Toyota also uses low cost to try and gain a competitive advantage in the automotive industry. â€Å"Toyota is (or was at the time) the low cost producer in the industry. Toyota achieves its cost leadership strategy by adopting lean production, careful choice and control of suppliers, efficient distribution, and low servicing costs from a quality product. †(Michael E. Porter, 2013) This quote from Michael Porter sums up how Toyota achieves this low cost strategy. Through research, it is evident that Toyota is still the low cost leader in the automotive industry. Societal trends have moved away from an individualistic culture—which identified social status and hierarchy based on material possessions—to an environmentally aware society (Grewal & Levy, 2012). With consumers’ minds wrapped around things like fuel mileage, cleaner emissions, and hybrid technology we find them moving further away from SUVs and trucks (Farooq, 2012). However, the 2013 Corolla is foreshadowed to be outshined by the Dodge Dart, as it loses some of its competitive edge in pricing and other award winning features (TrueTrends, 2012). By 2012 Toyota is planning to have more than 20 models that use batteries to extend fuel economy just like their Prius (Krolicki). Although they have not been as aggressive in the electric car market recently, like their competitors, they are planning to release a rechargeable version of their Prius by June 2012 (Krolicki). This re-chargeable version will position Toyota to attempt to take over as a low cost leader of hybrid technologies within the market, which supports Toyota’s overall strategy of low cost (Krolicki). Two actions that other car companies may take in order to differentiate themselves and gain a competitive advantage Hyundai rightly understood the consumer motivations to create magnetic products, price them strategically, position them sharply and keep making the magnetism more potent. Having understood the finer differences in consumer motivations, it opted for sharp arrow ‘reasons-to-buy’ differentiation over the ‘blanket-all approach’ taken by most of the other players. It is an aggressive marketer. It focuses on medium and low price products. Hyundai has also started premium products range to capture the growing market. (Anshuman goyal, pricing strategy of Hyundai, 2007; Retrieved December 9, 2014 from www. hyundai. com) The segments are based on type of customer like age group, attitude, end use of product, demographic behavior and purchasing power, status of the people of the region. Each competitor has its own strong point and value and position there product so as to attract maximum number of customers. (Kottler, Keller, Jha, Koshy, 2007, Marketing Management) Hyundai brand continues to dominate the market for premium cars, despite increasing competition. The firm should first consider the competitors price. If the company i. e. Hyundai contains features not offered by the nearest competitor, it should evaluate their worth to the customer and that value to the competitor price. Competitors are more likely to react when there is high competition. In case of Hyundai, many products are there such as Sonata, Santro, Hyundai i10, Accent etc. Hyundai continues to provide stiff competition to Honda in all the segments and poses an even bigger threat to expansion plans of Hyundai. (Anshuman goyal, pricing strategy of Hyundai, 2007; Retrieved December 9, 2014 from www. honda. com) Two examples of the most effective advertising medium for a Car company The TV advertising have been having the largest audiences in all ages, but car buyers are specific ages who have not enough time to watching TV even less than one hour per day, because they are too busy in today competitive era. Instead the internet via smart phones and computers is like a ghost became as a inseparable part of their life, at any time more than 15 hours a day, and even when they are eating, showering, walking, sporting, biking, swimming, and in any place even in high mountains and deep forests, roads and villages! Another reason for effectiveness of internet rather than TV is: new intelligence algorithms via data mining analyze the behavior of customers and put proper Ads to the web pages related to the target customers with very lower advertising costs. As a most important subject which advertisers should also pay attention to it is cultural differences, they have to be careful since cultures vary in different countries, they must understand the local audience culture before releasing new commercials, in order to avoid any misunderstanding. Another internet related way for advertising can be the online promotional games, such as Toyota’s use of MSN commercial games to promote its products, for instance. There are two interactive contents focusing on entertainment: fun activities and downloads. Both of them were found in about one third of the 100 web sites, respectively. Fun activities were also utilized to promote the brand in the sites and they are not related to scores or performance. Activities for fun included virtual test drive (www. gmc. com), virtual plant tour (www. cocacola . com), virtual auto show (www. lexus. com), e-cards (www. saturn. com), a coloring sheet (www. wendys. com), a virtual skin beauty analysis (www. neutrogena. com), and so forth. Downloads promoting and affiliated with the company’s brand were also analyzed. Desktop images such as wallpaper and icons were the most offered downloads, followed by music (Seounmi Youn, 2001, Retrieved December 9, 2014 from http://list. msu. edu/cgi-bin/wa? A3=ind0209c&L=AEJMC&E =0&P=3326464&B=†¦ _&T=text%2Fplain;%20charset=us-ascii) For the carmakers, another impressive promotion method is â€Å"complete test ride†. The buyers are very keen to getting experience to drive with a brand new car and having the opportunity to really feel its advantages and disadvantages. For encouraging the customers to more participating in test drive activities, offering some gifts can always increase the interest and willingness of then. Getting the best result always does not correspond with the cost of the advertising. So carmakers should choose their advertising media in accordance with today era. However as always, inviting stars to speak for different models with different appeals will have so effectiveness to increasing the public awareness. Conclusion Some observers suspect that Hyundai’s recent successes may be anomalies, abetted by the difficulties that the company’s U. S. and Japanese competitors faced after the global economic crisis, the rise in the yen’s value, Toyota’s wave of recalls, and the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan and Fukushima nuclear disaster. Others say that the company’s highly protected home market has enabled its growth, allowing Hyundai to establish a global presence while its domestic competitors restrict themselves to tiny slivers of the Korean market. But the single factor that has made the most difference is the company’s own interest in building world-class capabilities. Starting in 1998, Hyundai’s leaders set out to develop the kind of prowess the company would need to become a global automobile powerhouse, able to hold its own in the United States and other fiercely competitive markets. Early on, that meant offering a comprehensive warranty and taking specific steps to dramatically improve its quality ratings. Once customers were convinced of the brand’s reliability, Hyundai added other capabilities, such as design, which led to a more diversified product line and more stylish features. Meanwhile, it developed a knack for getting the word out through clever, consistent marketing. The result is a coherent mix of quality improvement, design, and marketing that gives Hyundai a clear advantage over its industry competitors. Although these are required capabilities at all automakers, Hyundai has excelled at combining them over the past decade, and its sales numbers reflect this success. The company’s effort to become a world-class automaker is beginning to pay off, and it’s far enough along that its story can be credibly told. (Source: Strategy & Business. February 26, 2013. Retrieved December 2, 2014 from http://www. strategy-business.com/article/00162? pg=all). References Anshuman goyal, pricing strategy of Hyundai, 2007; www. honda. com Anshuman goyal, pricing strategy of Hyundai, 2007; www. hyundai. com Carl Hose. 2014; Small businesses; http://smallbusiness. chron. com/top-ten-promotional-strategies-10193. html Hans Greimel, 2011. http://www. autonews. com/article /20101206/RETAIL03/ 312069982/hyundai-plans-new-brand-strategy Kottler, Keller, Jha, Koshy, 2007, Marketing Management Kristen Hamlin, 2014; http://smallbusiness. chron. com/ importance-ad-slogans-31343. html http://www. gatesfoundation.org/What-We-Do/Global-Development/Financial-Services-for-the-Poor Ross Gittell, 2014, http://catalog. flatworldknowledge. com/bookhub/reader/3157? e=gittell_1. 0-ch06_s02# Trefis Team, 2014. http://www. forbes. com/sites /greatspeculations/2014/06/13/tata-motors-looks-to-improve-passenger-car-sales-by-penetrating-the-compact-segment/ Seounmi Youn, 2001, http://list. msu. edu/cgi-bin/wa? A3=ind0209c&L=AEJMC&E =0&P=3326464&B=†¦ _&T=text%2Fplain;%20charset=us-ascii Strategy & Business. February 26, 2013. http://www. strategy-business. com/article/00162? pg=all.

Alzheimer’s disease Essay Example for Free (#3)

Alzheimer’s disease Essay What causes Alzheimer’s disease neurologically? This question came to my mind when I was watching the movie ‘The Notebook’ for the fifth time. Unusual for a guy, I love romantic genre movies and I was wondering why Alzheimer causes short and long term memory loss. I also had an interest on the Alzheimer’s disease after watching the movie ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ where the protagonist tries to fix the neurology nerve system to heal his father’s Alzheimer. What causes Alzheimer’s disease neurologically? I think the core reason of the Alzheimer’s disease lie on the nerve pathway signal transmission. I think the nerve pathway signal transmission system is same as all of the body functional system and as it grows older and older, the functioning of the specific nerve pathway signal transmission for memories weakens and decreases. #4 Making predictions based on this model If the problem of the Alzheimer’s disease is in the nerve pathway signal transmission, then the Alzheimer’s disease is indeed a neurological problem. If we can find out the way to re-ignite the signal or heal the receiving or sending parts of the neurological nerve signal system, then we will be able to delay the process of the disease or even fix it permanently. I do not know the system of the central neurological nerve system of the human nor the treatment of the Alzheimer’s disease. However, to find out numerous people with and without the disease should complete the cause of the Alzheimer’s disease. Run a MRI test on brain of the participants and compare the MRI results with the people with and without the Alzheimer’s disease. If it shows some difference showing the weakening or decreasing of the nerve pathway signal transmission then we can conclude that the neurological nerve pathway signal transmission is the cause of the Alzheimer’s disease. However, we can’t be sure that that is the only causes of the Alzheimer’s disease so we will have to create more experiments. Alzheimer disease is a neurological disease and it is one of the many forms of dementia. The researches says that the Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia since its percentage is over half of the total dementia cases. My question was ‘what causes the Alzheimer’s disease neurologically?’ so I decided to first go research about the neuroscience of the human body since the Alzheimer’s disease is primarily the degenerating of the signal pathway system in the brain. The human have a special cell called the neurons in the nervous system and these cells communicate with other cells by synapses. This is the most basic difference between a normal cell and a neuron. Synapses signal can be either chemical or electrical and they are just membrane-to-membrane junctions with such molecular machinery that produces rapid transmission of signals. There isn’t just one neuron in human. In fact, there are hundreds of different types with differ ent functions and shapes. So all these information led me to an another question of ‘what kind of neurons are related to the Alzheimer’s disease?’ I found out that Alzheimer’s kills neurons due to the accumulation of proteins in the brain. That is why the Alzheimer’s diseases are called the neurodegenerative diseases. I couldn’t specifically find the exact neurons that are related to the Alzheimer’s disease but I found out that the Alzheimer’s kills these neurons in the brain by proteinaceous plaques. An article by ‘Journal of Neuroscience’ did a research on A-beta, a peptide that surrounds the dying neurons in certain regions of the brain. The research said they weren’t sure if the A-Beta is the protein that kills the neurons. A-Beta becomes toxic when it forms an oligomer. Oligomer means a molecule that consists of a few monomer units. A-Beta oligomers are bad for neurons because it causes the neurons to re-enter the cell cycle. This is bad because once the brain neurons become adult cells, these are not supposed to divide. This is why neuronal cancers are very rare because the neurons cells don’t divide once it reaches adulthood. Then the articles went into deeper matters with mouse models so I stopped my research of A-Beta here. It says that the cause for the Alzheimer’s disease is essentially unknown and all of these researches are part of the hypotheses. There are many hypotheses including the cholinergic and the amyloid hypotheses. But the A-Beta is the most recent hypotheses in the field of  science since the A-Beta theory was updated in 2009. Then, I took my TA’s advice and went to find the biology behind the transmission of nerve impulses. Neurons have a part called the dendrites and this is where the neuron fires a correct impulse to another neuron through the axon. Axon is a long projection that connects nerve cells. Just like a normal cell, the neurons have cell membranes as well. When the neuron is not transmitting impulse, the reason is in its cell membrane. When the neuron cell is polarized, that is when the neuron is inactive. The outside of the cell contains excess sodium ions and the inside of the cell contains excess potassium ions. However, the inside of the cell is negative due to other negatively charged protein and nucleic acid molecules inside the cell. There are Na+/K+ pumps on the membranes and it is permeable! When the neuron gets stimulated, the sodium ions flow in to the cell and the neuron gets depolarized. When the neuron reaches the complete depolarization, impulse is transmitted through the axon and thus makes the cell active. When the impulse fires from a neuron, the other neuron at the end of the axon depolarizes and calcium ions are allowed to enter the cell. Then a chemical called a neurotransmitter is released into the synapse. The neurotransmitter then binds to proteins on the neuron membrane to receive the impulse. The proteins are the receptors of the many different neurotransmitter and the neurotransmitters does have specific receptor proteins. It is logical that when the neurons die from proteins of the Alzheimer’s disease, the synapses and impulse decreases and decreases. Therefore, I began to have questions about the effect and the symptoms of the Alzheimer’s disease due to the death of many neurons. Alzheimer’s disease equals the loss of neurons and synapses in the cerebral cortex. The most common effect and symptom of the Alzheimer’s disease is the loss of memory and mental skills. The chance of getting an Alzheimer’s disease is higher for older populations. The symptoms advance as the time passes. The speed of the progress of the disorder differs from person to person but most of them start with forgetfulness. It is probably the neuron transmission failure. As the brain neuron dies, the mental state of the human weakens and decreases. When the Alzheimer’s disease attacks the frontal lobe of the brain, the person’s mood swing can be dangerously unstable. It is because the frontal lobe controls the feeling and the behavior of a person. The person can also have problems  with washing and cleaning him/herself because another function of the frontal lobe of the brain is to plan things based on what is wrong and what is right. Also 40% of the Alzheimer’s patients have low appetite in food and have significant weight loss because as the neuron dies, the olfactory and taste nerves fails. All of these symptoms are all directly connected to the problems with the brain neurons. So my first starting question of ‘what causes Alzheimer’s disease neurologically?’ was answered. A simple but sophisticated disruption of a tiny neuron cells in the brain causes the Alzheimer’s disease. Then I began to think if there are any treatment researches going on in the field of biology. I found one research that caught my eyes and it was stem cells. Professor Kim of the Chung-Ang University in South Korea successfully restored a mouse’s brain function by transplanting a human nerve stem cell. He was able to transplant a stem cell containing acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter, and the articles said that the mouse restored its brain function to a normal state. Professor Kim’s work is also announced in an international journal called ‘Cell Transplantation.’ #7 Repeat (Modify, extend or reject) ‘What is the specific molecule (possibly a protein) that affects the neuron of the brains so it causes the Alzheimer’s disease neurologically?’ and ‘How will transplanting stem cell containing a neurotransmitter called ‘Acetycholine’ affect the human Alzheimer’s disease?’ These are my two refined questions after my exploration of the Alzheimer’s disease. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nervous_system#Neurons http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alzheimer’s_disease http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/understanding-the-transmission-of-nerve-impulses.html http://scienceblogs.com/purepedantry/2009/02/12/how-does-alzheimers-kill-neuro/ (Authors: N.H. Varvel, K. Bhaskar, A.R. Patil, S.W. Pimplikar, K. Herrup, B.T. Lamb) http://voices.yahoo.com/the-dreadful-effects-alzheimers-disease-116725.html?cat=70 (Publisher: Carl Kolchack, freelance article writer) http://blog.naver.com/vitaminmd?Redirect=Log&logNo=110133967592 (Publisher: Vitamin MD) http://www.medworld.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=63612 (Youn Sang Yong Reporter) Alzheimer’s disease. (2016, Jun 14).

Corporate accounting Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Corporate accounting - Assignment Example CSL Behring has its operations spread over several countries like Australia, US, Germany and Switzerland. The company has around 10000 employees spread across 27 countries all over the world. BioCSL carries out operation from Melbourne and caters medical solutions to customers all over the world. The group accounts also reveal that CSL Limited carries out research and development to support its global operations. CSL Behring carries out activities of developing and marketing blood plasma derivative and recombined medical solution, bio-therapies for its customers all over the globe. The bio-therapies of the company provides solutions in developing immune systems against diseases like haemophilia, hereditary syndromes, von Willebrand, angioedema etc. The therapy solution developed by the companies also used for treating heart diseases, burns and shocks, transplantation of organs and also for treatment of newly born babies. BioCSL is another subsidiary that carries out the function of developing anti-influenza vaccines, anti-venom and diagnostic reagents to the global markets like Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, Asia-Pacific, etc. The research and development wing of the company is dedicated to support the bio-pharmaceutical business by developing protein-based medicines which are sold in licensed versions. The company is focussed on developing the existing products as well as developing break-t hrough solutions through use of DNA technologies. The research and development wing is also looking at improving their capabilities in the area of haemophilia, blood coagulation, etc. The non-controlling interests of CSL Limited could be understood from the following table as given below. The percentage of shareholding of the company by the various shareholders has been given in the following table. The percentage of shareholdings of the shareholders has been depicted in descending form. Since CSL

Describe the political situation in the south after the end of Essay

Describe the political situation in the south after the end of reconstruction - Essay Example They never had the people’s interests at heart. This was evident in the reign of the president Hayes and even president Garfield. In most cases, the president task is to ensure that they are loyal to their citizens without favor. However, that was not the case as most of them awarded jobs and other 1privileges to the people who voted them in. The rotten political landscape not only affected the political field, but also stretched into the other arms of government too.2 The American courts were not an exemption either. Its main challenge was to ensure that the state does not deprive the police the power to protect the welfare of the vulnerable citizens from those leaders who are self-centered. Politics being the song of American citizens especially in every event since the late 19th century, party loyalty was a serious issue. Republicans were considered as synonyms for patriotism while the democrats were self respected individuals. The post reconstruction politics was meant that the one party system of politics faced opposition mainly from the less fortunate whites and even the black republicans too. Racial violence was rampant and for such a reason the black Americans had no choice but to unwillingly submit to their white

Organization Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Organization Development - Essay Example This institution was founded in 1979 as a social service agency in St. Paul, Minnesota. In 1987, the agency opened an office in Bamburg, South Carolina with the executive director serving as the only staff person. This company does not have a merit system in place. There are enough employees now and the organization wants to implement an appropriate merit system. Within a few months of operation in South Carolina, the first child was placed in one of our foster homes and this institution have consistently grown since. By 1994, the need for serving a special population of foster youth was identified and the agency began providing a medically-fragile program. In March, 2005, Growing Home Southeast acquired the programs of Family Resources, Inc. of Beaufort, SC, increased its staff size to nearly fifty employees statewide, managed services for more than 200 clients and entered the home-based services market. Analysis of the organizational status of the Growing Home Southeast was conducted. Various aspects of the organization were studied such as the management of the organization, projects, supervision of the institution, management of client relationships and strategies. The researcher also performed extensive analysis of database and system response times with custom realtime diagnostic tools, and designed optimizations to address performance, bottlenecks, and increasing database capacity fourfold. According to Choo (2001), scanning or browsing behavior is influenced by external factors such as environmental turbulence and resource dependency, organizational factors such as the nature of the business and the strategy pursued, information factors such... This essay stresses that environmental scanning is the acquisition and use of information about events, trends, and relationships in an organization's external environment, the knowledge of which would assist management in planning the organization's future course of action. Thispaper makes a conclusion that organizations scan the environment in order to understand the external forces of change so that they may develop effective responses which secure or improve their position in the future. They scan in order to avoid surprises, identify threats and opportunities, gain competitive advantage, and improve long- and short-term planning. To the extent that an organization's ability to adapt to its outside environment is dependent on knowing and interpreting the external changes that are taking place, environmental scanning constitutes a primary mode of organizational learning. Environmental scanning includes both looking at information (viewing) and looking for information (searching). It could range from a casual conversation at the lunch table or a chance observation of an angry customer, to a formal market research program or a scenario planning exercise. A sound business practices in place at the Growing Home Southeast will allow clients to meet their b asic necessities of living in addition to being able to save for more costly nonessential items. In addition, the organization may implement an electronic time keeping system to better manage overtime and payroll costs of its employees.

Creative use of English Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Creative use of English - Essay Example The use of language in Rebecca can be best understood when approached phenomologically as they reflect the perception of the perceiver and seemingly constitutes a prototype that is culturally defined and generated infinitely everytime there is an attempt at understanding it through the process of cognition. Thus cognition and language play are essential categories that wrestle dialogically until a decision in sentence production is taken everytime to fix or anchor authorial intent. But it does not rest there, as cognition is also an attempt to translate all linguistic and communicative possibilities for each level of word play or use at the lexical stage and at the level of poetic metaphor and metonymy at the semantic level. "It is clearly understood that one of the qualities that all languages have in common is their "creative" aspect. Thus an essential property of language is that it provides the means for expressing indefinitely many thoughts and for reacting appropriately in an indefinite range of situations" (Chomsky, 1965) Chomsky unlike Humboldt argues for the necessity of a universal grammar, which must accompany a generative grammar that "assigns to each of an infinite range of sentences a structural description indicating how this sentence is understood by the ideal speaker hearer" and is also "perfectly explicit" (Chomsky, 1965). Humboldt talks about the truly creative aspect of man's cognitive faculty and how man resolves particular creative challenges given to them since language cease to be just syntagmatic and paradigmatic modes of representations and enter the reader's "horizon of expectations" (Jauss, 1982) and self-conscious-ness as Hegel situates it. Thus the cognitive "potentialities" (Jauss, 1982) as per the Reader-response theory are derived out of cumulative responses of readers and hence is rests outside the individual mental struggle with understanding and is thus more result oriented. But cognitive approach concerns itself more with the working understanding of the mind as it tries to derive and synthesize meanings out of language that are creatively distorted beyond their functional and immediate lexical meanings and also not quite semantically or culturally relevant but intertwined with the progress and context or mood of the narrative itself. Thus in Rebecca, word play, unlike say as used in Finnegans Wake by Joyce is less a universalization of the protean qualities of dream. Both the novels use creativity through language to represent the conventions and the workings of the sleeping mind that are communicative but in a many possible ways. Cognition thus comes when language is embedded in a larger social or narrative context and faces danger in a new usage that challenges it to redefine language use and deconstruct all grammatical pragmatism. Thus new semantic domains can be best analyzed through deep introspection and understanding of reader's role in interpreting metaphors while deciphering language. Metaphors are thus the dominant demarcators of new language constructions that lack any objective ready meaning and rests mainly on conceptualization, categorization, grammaticalization and the use of language for communication of meaning. It lacks any older positivist paradigms of linguistics and archetypal expressions. Rebecca uses an archetypal imagery of dream sequence to indulge into creative language play so as to

Recruitment and Selection Strategy Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Recruitment and Selection Strategy - Assignment Example This research will begin with the duties and tasks of a sales manager. The major duty of a sales manager is to establish goals for the sales team and to come up with plans to achieve them. He should come up with innovative strategic methods to increase the market base and market share. It will be the duty of the sales manager to take an active role in recruiting and forming new sales team. He shall provide the adequate training and educational programs that they need. The sales manager should be able to adapt to the global standards and manage the budget for his department by minimizing expenditures. He should be able to adapt to utilizing online sales support system. He should be able to strongly understand the customer and market dynamics and their requirements. He will directly report to the Sales Director and submit the sales report every month. He will discuss the goals set and his strategy for the future market with the sales director. Monitors the performance of each Account E xecutive, analyzes their strengths and weaknesses, and provide them with appropriate feedback and tips for further improvement. He shall establish programs to motivate the accountant executives. The manager will make appropriate presentations and reports regarding products and sales performance to clients and executives. He should have 3-5 years experience in sales management with excellent oral and communication skills. He should have the ability to lead, guide, and motivate a diverse sales team. Also, he must be willing to be exposed to global divisions. A proven leadership and ability to drive sales teams is a chief requirement. This study will present most effective methods of attracting applicants. As indicated earlier, job posting refers to the practice of publicizing an open job to employees (often by literally posting it on bulletin boards) and listing its attributes, such as criteria of knowledge, qualification, skill, and experience. The purpose of posting vacancies is to bring to the attention of all interested persons (inside or out of the organization) the jobs that are to be filled. Selected attributes of the job, for example, skill or experience, will change; There are sufficient qualified, potential applicants serving in other positions within the organization who may be potential candidates for that job. Also necessary is the availability of a functional human resource information system that supports recruitment. An effective, computerized system [for medium and large scale] would: flag imminent vacancies throughout the organization to ensure that the recruitment process is timely; ensure that no candidates are lost but, instead, move through the process and are kept informed of their status; ensure that good candidate whose applications are pending are kept in touch to maintain their interest in the organization; assist in analyzing hiring, transfer and exit trends and provide other data that are helpful in planning, evaluating and auditing the recruitment process; identify any adverse impacts of the recruitment process on vulnerable groups (for example minorities, especially where Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action legislation exists);; As the sales manager position requires better understanding about the companies market goals, principles, and strategies, it would be better to look for internal candidates also who are more experienced and are having sufficient potential to perform the job.  

Religion Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Religion - Assignment Example The earliest founding can be traced back to 1897. As of now, it claims to have more than 5 million members worldwide. Its current bishop is Charles Blake. The website contains the following information in the About Us section : Founder and Church History, Affirmations, Doctrine, Seal, and Its Officers. The website also presents its numerous departments such as legal, marketing, Pastor’s and Elders Council, National Mens’ Conference, International Women’s Department and Church Growth and Development. The site also shows its Products and Services such as COGIC bookstore, COGIC publishing house, and Charities. COGIC Charities supports mission programs in 58 countries and provides $100,000 worth of scholarships annually. It does not limit its support to members of its organization since it also provided a grant to Save Africa’s Children. It can be implied from reading the website that COGIC takes pride in being a colored religious organization. Apparently, COGIC is a large religious organization with abundant funding since it has its own Bible College and Theological Seminary. COGIC also presents in its website the various activities it is involved with such as COGIC charities and bridging the digital divide. Presently, its website features the â€Å"Hijacking of Civil Rights Legacy† which is an argumentative position against homosexual marriage. It also posted a response on the human rights declaration with a severe apologetics on marriage. COGIC can be considered a moderate religious group since it sticks to the essentials of Christian doctrine in its statement of faith. In fact, it regards the bible as its only source. However, it can be considered moderate since it has been involved in social agenda such as alleviation of poverty through its north Michigan COGIC and Faith Community mortgage company, making donation to victims of calamity, and publicly commenting on social issues such as Human Rights and Civil Ri ghts. The website UUA.org

Application of Statistics in Daily Life Report Essay Example for Free

Application of Statistics in Daily Life Report Essay Inheritance is the process of creating new classes from the existing class or classes. In  C++  and  C,  classes  can be defined as deriving from a  base class. A  derived class  inherits all of the ancestors protected and public  methods  and data  members. With inheritance if a method is made virtual in the base class then the derived class can override it with different behaviour. This makes possible  polymorphism. Types of classes: Definition:  In  C++  and  C#  OOP, a derived  class  is any class that  inherits  from any other derived class or  base class. Definition:  In  C++  and  C#  OOP, the base  class  is the highest class and does not  inherit  from any other class. Other classes can inherit from a base class. They are called  derived  classes. Forms of Inheritance: Single Inheritance: If a class is derived from a single base class, it is called as single inheritance. Multiple Inheritance: If a class is derived from more than one base class, it is known as multiple inheritance Multilevel Inheritance: The classes can also be derived from the classes that are already derived. This type of inheritance is called multilevel inheritance. Hierarchical Inheritance: If a number of classes are derived from a single base class, it is called as hierarchical inheritance Definition of class:When you define a class, you define a blueprint for a data type. This doesnt actually define any data, but it does define what the class name means, that is, what an object of the class will consist of and what operations can be performed on such an object. Classes ;amp; Objects in Detail Class member functions: A member function of a class is a function that has its definition or its prototype within the class definition like any other variable. Class access modifiers: A class member can be defined as public, private or protected. By default members would be assumed as private Constructor ;amp; destructor: A class constructor is a special function in a class that is called when a new object of the class is created. A destructor is also a special function which is called when created object is deleted. | | | C++ copy constructor: The copy constructor is a constructor which creates an object by initializing it with an object of the same class, which has been created previously A  friend   function is permitted full access to private and protected members of a class. | C++ inline functions| With an inline function, the compiler tries to expand the code in the body of the function in place of a call to the function. | The this pointer in C++| Every object has a special pointer  this  which points to the object itself. | Pointer to C++ classes| A pointer to a class is done exactly the same way a pointer to a structure is. In fact a class is really just a structure with functions in it. | Static members of a class| Both data members and function members of a class can be declared as static. ENCAPSULATION Definition:  In  Object Oriented Programming,  encapsulation is an attribute of  object  design. It means that all of the objects data is contained and hidden in the object and access to it restricted to members of that class. C Programming| C++ Programming| C follows the procedural programming paradigm| C++ is a multi-paradigm language(proce dural as well as object oriented)| In C language focus on procedure and steps. | C++ focuses on the data rather than the process| In C data hiding and data security is not possible. Data hiding and data security is present. | C uses Top-Down approch| C++ uses Bottom-Up approach| C is a function driven programming language| C++ is a object driven programming language| C does not support overloading concept| C++ supports overloading concepts like operator overloading and function overloading| C does not support namespaces concept| CPP supports Namespaces concept. | C not support exception handling| C++ supports Exception Handling| C is structured programming language| C++ is object oriented programming language. C does not support inheritance, reusability, polymorphism, data abstraction| CPP supports inheritance, reusability, polymorphism, data abstraction. | C language only support Early binding| CPP supports both Early and Late binding| C uses standard input, output functions like scanf and printf. | C++ uses input fu nction cin and output function is cout. | There are all data is available to end user. No data security| There is data abstraction. Not complete data is available to End user|

E-Commerce in Fashion

E-Commerce in Fashion Background E-commerce is in fashion so many companies of all sizes and types are reviewing their sales strategies.   Consideration is being given to either (or both) selling to other businesses electronically (B2B) or selling directly to individual customers over the Internet (B2C).   Many companies are failing to live up to expectations, with problems such as poor website design making ordering difficult, website failure (crashes) from overload or because they were incomplete, failure to confirm the order, subsequent out-of-stock, failure to deliver on time. The Project Brief You, as the project manager, are to plan a project for a Triangle software house to develop an online Hotel Management system for an international hotel chain.   The project is scheduled to start on6thof July 2010. The project should have the following options Guests: Room Reservations for guests Services: Adding other services use, restaurant use, bar use by guests Maintenance: To maintain records in the system Inquires: To know about availability of rooms, reservations, gust lists Four computers have to be supplied for the selected project and these computers needs to be networked. Required time schedule for the project is three months. From the Project Managers point of view, an e-commerce project is no different from any other project.   You need a framework to plan resources and budget; you must set the plan against an appropriate calendar; and you need to ensure that you include the managerial and quality-related tasks that will help the project manager succeed. You need to plan how the project should be initiated.   However, your initiation plan should be presented in sufficient detail for someone else to manage it.   You are not expected to have all the answers at this stage; part of the skill of project planning is to ensure that you put the tasks in place to find out what is unknown and to manage the obvious risks. Task 1 (a) As the Project Manager, you are expected to decide on the following: 1. The tasks required to carry out the project aim for at least 10-15 tasks.   Traditional File System (SDLC-System Development Life Cycle) Strategic Study Business study Feasibility study Requirement analysis Requirement Specification Logical system specification Logical Design Physical Design Coding Testing Implementation Maintenance Paste out Relate Traditional File System steps to Hotel management system Case Study. We use Traditional File System for Hotel management systemto develop their system. Strategic study: Project Manager goes to the Hotel study the current system; after he understood what the system that they need to develop is what they technology must use to develop the hotel. Business study:- Project Manager prepare a document project initiation document this will give the general   definition for the developing system   that document shown to the hotel managing director we get the approval to proceed the development the new system. Feasibility study: These step uses to traditional file system how to feasible for hotel computerizes Economical, Technical Operational, even the developing system is most modern if end users are working within difficulty that system isnt operational but this system is not difficulty use. Cost effective ways and ensuring that the investment can be recovered and realize the benefits with allocated budget. The technology needed is available and can be integrated with the other systems of the organization. Deciding how the new system going to fit the current operational system and whether its operationally acceptable. Checking whether the new project is violating law both local and international Requirement analysis: Firstly we interview Hotel managing Director asked question about the current system what they want to include their system to computerize ..,.   Investigating forms and documents which are very useful to determine system data flows and transactions Identifying the outputs by investigating below reports, Hourly report Daily report Monthly report Yearly report Then Checking latest updated procedure manuals and user manuals To study user activities and to concentrate on how it is being handle. Interviewing and supervisor level users to gather opinions about the efficiency about the system, determine the needs of the users that to be in the new system, more specific details about the system. Producing and arranging online Questionnaires for all operational users who are going to use the system. By this can gather information from all the people who are going to have direct contact with the system. Planning formal observation sessions at 3 main hotels, specially the reception area And closely observing the activities performed by the users. And observing customer inquiries reservation process etc Studying a subset documents or subset of the activity in the area in order to get an impression of the whole activity or document set .it is useful to verify findings from interviews or the above discussed techniques. Requirement Specification: How the new computer system should be working this is a kind of the document which clearly specifies the requirement of the users. Use :- Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD)    Data Flow Diagram (DFD). Logical system specification:- This hotel computerize system   include several logical specification there are may be several technical option that could be adapted which are capable of delivering the requirement in this stage system analysis first design define what those technical options and then the help of manager select the most suitable option. Logical Design: This step we design a dialog design initial interface are design Update process that change on the line system data and Enquiry process concern the interaction of useful information from system data.(we should involve the hotel manager very strongly specially dialog design influence how to system looks and behave to its users) Physical Design: This step we design program design database design (ERD map into database components), this stage provides all the information required by the programmer. Coding: We use language is Visual Basic for coding.(First programmer code will be written in short pieces that outlines simple as well-defined program function.) Testing:- we tested correctness testing, performance testing ,reliability and recovery testing then security testing stress testing usability testing, unit and integration testing external function testing ,system testing, regression testing, acceptance testing, installation testing, completion testing, test documentation.(   discover and rectify errors below steps are planned to be done) Implementation:- This stage involve preparation of the target side and making the environment the network here the hotel new system to target environment will done and prepare in the user manual and training the hotel worker for the New system.| System will be installed shared in 4 computers which will be networked [LAN] (Configuration with I7 processors, 4 GB Ram..) With all required software. 2. Decide on appropriate task dependencies and state durations of them. Task Duration (1= 1 day)Reference Strategic study 1 A Business study 1   B Feasibility study 1 C Technical Feasibility2 Operational Feasibility1 Legal FeasibilityParallel with Op Feasibility(1) Economical Feasibility3 Requirement analysis D (Forms and documents)1 (Reports)1 (Procedureuser manuals)1 Interview-(Management level)3 Interview-(Supervisor level)3 (Questionnaires)1 (Observation)2 (Subset documentsactivity)1 Requirement specification 3 E Logical system specification 2F Logical design 10 G Physical design 20H Coding 5 I Testing J (Unit) 5 (Integrated) 1 (System)1 (User)2 DebuggingParallel with testing(8)K Implementation L (Installation)2 (User Training)2 (Parallel Running)7 MaintenanceContinues until phase out.M Total Duration81 -The explained tasks in task 1 are shortened and listed down above, under task name. -The Duration 1 is equals to 1 day. -Maintenance starts after implementing the project until phase out. -Total days for the project is 87-(81- planned days, and balances 6 days are to manage risks during the project period. (Table1.1) 3. Create an Activity Net work Diagram with respect to your identified tasks,AND must be given using a standard Tool such as MS Project or MS Visio Critical path- A   B C D E F G H I J   L MS Project Output (b)There are many elements in a typical project plan. One such element is the   Introduction which briefly describes the objectives of the project and the constraints, which affect project management. Prepare such introduction for this project using reasonable assumptions. List and explain with a sentence each other contents of a typical project plan. I am Nadeeshani and Im appointed as a project manager to develop this online hotel Management system for an international hotel chain by the triangle software house. The project is based on upgrading the existing system as an online system along with these main functions, Room reservations for guests The options to add other services like restaurant use, bar use, gym use, etc The system which has the ability to obtain inquires from the guests and the ability to give them an answer/feedback, for example for the customer queries like availability of rooms, reservations and guest list, etc. And to get all the above updates and inquiries from the parties and to maintain the records in the system We hope to start the project on 6Th of July 2010 and we were going to be finished in September 30th 2010 (3 month) period. On that project running period we are considering Saturdays Sundays as working days. We hope to finished this project 26Th of September 2010. The project has run 87 days but we are planning to be completed within 82 days rest 5 days we are planning to do collecting unanticipated problems complete the project report however we will make sure to complete this project in this 87 days period. This is the project plan how we are going to do the project. I hope the committee members will do their best to complete the project. The quality of the system will be maintained throughout the project by regular progress checking and progress monitoring. The project has been run through the 13 stages. Strategic study Business study Feasibility study Requirement analysis Requirement specification Logical system specification Logical design Physical design Coding, Testing Debugging Implementation Maintenance These stages are planned in a greater level of detail. (These plans are used to track progress on a week by week basis through regular progress monitoring.) These stages are also separated into sub tasks basically contains the lowest details. It will specify activities down to a daily level. This will be created in parallel with the above mentioned stage plans. And the monitoring and tracking will be on daily basis. As a project manager I hope we will be finished the project with less errors I believe you all are will be do your best. Clearly indicated whose responsible for what in the project, clearly shown what the project is to deliver, why and for whom and by making the project that can easily understand by everyone, mainly on time and within budget My motivation is to completely utilize my accumulated experience and knowledge to the fullest extent possible and making this projects a success. Task 2 (a) Explain what are your typical responsibilities as a Software Project   Manager in managing any type of software project and your typical tasks A software project manager has the overall responsibility for the successful initiation, planning, execution and closure of a project. A successful Project Manager must simultaneously manage the four basic elements of a project: resources, time, money, and most importantly, scope. All these elements are interrelated. Each must be managed effectively. All must be managed together if the project, and the project manager, is to be a success. Resources People, equipment, material Time Task durations, dependencies, critical path Money Costs, contingencies, profit Scope Project size, goals, requirements This title is used in the construction industry, architecture, information technology and many different occupations that are based on production of a product or service. The project manager must possess a combination of skills including an ability to ask penetrating questions, detect unstated assumptions and resolve interpersonal conflicts as well as more systematic management skills. The role of the project manager encompasses many activities including :-Planning and Defining Scope, Activity Planning and Sequencing, Resource Planning, Developing Schedules, Time Estimating, Cost Estimating, Developing a Budget, Controlling Quality, Managing Risks and Issues, Creating Charts and Schedules, Risk Analysis, Benefits Realization, Scalability, Interoperability and Portability Analysis,Documentation,Team Leadership, Strategic Influencing, Customer Liaison. As a software project manager my typical tasks in managing a software project will be below. Manage the production of the required product. Direct and motivate the project team. Plan and monitor the project. Manage business and project risks. Responsible for change control. Report the true progress report and stage assessment to the steering committee. Prepare the end project report. Responsible for project administration. Responsibility Matrix In a large project, there may be many people who have some role in the creation and approval of project deliverables. Sometimes this is pretty straightforward, such as one person writing a document and one person approving it. In other cases, there may be many people who have a hand in the creation, and others that need to have varying levels of approval. The Responsibility Matrix is a technique used to define the general responsibilities for each role on a project. The matrix can then be used to communicate the roles to the appropriate people associated with the team. This helps set expectations, and ensures people know what is expected from them. On the matrix, the different people, or roles, appear as columns, with the specific deliverables in question listed as rows. Then, use the intersecting points to describe each persons responsibility for each deliverable. Ex: (Table 2.1) A Approves the deliverable R Reviews the deliverable (and provides feedback). C Creates the deliverable (could be C (1) for primary, C (2) for backup). Usually there is only one person who is responsible for creating a deliverable, although many people may provide input. I Provides input N Is notified when a deliverable is complete M Manages the deliverables (such as a librarian, or person responsible for the document repository) In the table above, the Requirements Management Plan is created by the project manager, approved by the sponsor and client managers, and reviewed by the project team and analysts. The purpose of the matrix is to gain clarity and agreement on who does what, so you can define the columns with as much detail as makes sense. For instance, in the above example, the Project Team could have been broken into specific people or the person responsible for creating the Data Model could have been broken out into a separate column. After the matrix is completed, it should be circulated for approval. If it is done in the Project Charter process, it can be an addendum to the Project Charter. If it is created as a part of the initial Analysis Phase, it should be circulated as a separate document. Examples of responsibility codes are as follows. Our project may define different codes, as long as you explain what they mean so that people know what the expectations are for them. References http://www.lifecyclestep.com/open/407.0LifecycleRoles.htm (b) Briefly explain how you are going to manage the risk in the above project. Risk management is the process of analyzing exposure to risk and determining how to best handle such exposure. The project is planned to be a continuous process throughout the project until completion and considered in two main parts, the risk analysis part and the risk management part. I have planned to run risk management as below, At the start of the project, as a part of the decision of whether to undertake the project And at every end stage assessments Risk management includes the following activities Planning how risk management will be held in the particular project. Plan should include risk management tasks, responsibilities, activities and budget. Assigning risk officer a team member other than a project manager who is responsible for foreseeing potential project problems. Typical characteristic of risk officer is a healthy skepticism. Maintaining live project risk database. Each risk should have the following attributes: opening date, title, short description, probability and importance. Optionally risk can have assigned person responsible for its resolution and date till then risk still can be resolved. Creating anonymous risk reporting channel. Each team member should have possibility to report risk that he foresees in the project. Preparing mitigation plans for risks that are chosen to be mitigated. The purpose of the mitigation plan is to describe how this particular risk will be handled what, when, by who and how will be done to avoid it or minimize consequences if it becomes a liability. Summarizing planned and faced risks, effectiveness of mitigation activities and effort spend for the risk management. As an analyzing tool to assist in the risk management process, Decision tree is used to analyze the risks, Because the explanation for the result is easily described by simple graph in a simply understandable way which can be combined with other decision techniques as well. Important details can be generated based on its alternatives, probabilities, costs and their preferences for outcomes. First after analyzing the possible risks by identifying, Estimating the effectiveness by comparing the likelihood with the impact of a risk and finally evaluating by confirming that they are in correct sequence and the cross checking with the risk reduction options assessing the acceptable level of each other. We select the most suitable risk management approach for each risk and a detailed plan of action which confirms its goals will be prepared by discussing with members. The risk management consist four main activities and below tasks will be completed at the end of each part. Planning-: Most appropriate selection will be selected for each risk and a detailed plan of action which confirms its desirability and objectives will be developed. Sometimes this activity may proceed in parallel with risk evaluation.  §Resourcing-: This will identify and assign the necessary resources to do the work and will confirm that the revised plan is feasible and cost effective.  §Controlling-: This will make sure that the execution of the plan is having the desired effect on the risk. This will ensure the management of the risk process will apply effectively and it will modify the plan where it necessary.  §Monitoring-: This will check the stages of the risk and also check that the counted measures are happening effectively. During monitoring, if it feels that the risk management plan is ineffective, then we can go back to the risk analysis part. When managing the risks these below features will be considered mainly, Factors that need to continue correctly, threats, systemic risks for the successful delivery project and benefits, risks to the business, risks for the customers and suppliers, risks of unexpected outputs and success of the international hotel chain. This is how I have planned to manage the risk, which can happen during a process and which will effect with a negative result to the process in the project. Task 3 Configuration Management is an essential part of a project. In a large project Configuration librarian plays a major role. Configuration management (CM) is the detailed recording and updating of information that describes an enterprises hardware and software. Such information typically includes the versions and updates that have been applied to installed software packages and the locations and network addresses of hardware devices. Special configuration management software is available. When a system needs hardware or software upgrade, a computer technician can accesses the configuration management program and database to see what is currently installed. The technician can then make a more informed decision about the upgrade needed. An advantage of a configuration management application is that the entire collection of systems can be reviewed to make sure any changes made to one system do not adversely affect any of the other systems Configuration management is also used in software development, where it is called Unified Configuration Management (UCM). Using UCM, developers can keep track of the source code, documentation, problems, changes requested, and changes made. (a) Briefly out line some configuration items in the project given in the scenario. Manage the configuration: Hotel Management systemPlan what is required and how it will be achieved Guests: Room Reservations for guests Services: Adding other services use, restaurant use, bar use by guests Maintenance: To maintain records in the system Inquires: To know about availability of rooms, reservations, gust lists Four computers have to be supplied for the selected project and these computers needs to be networked. Required time schedule for the project is three months. (Use a Configuration Management Plan (Project Quality Plan) Identify components of the final product Use Defining and Analyzing Products (PL2) to create a Configuration Item Record Use unique identifiers for each product and each version: Project Product Type Product Name Product Version. Control changes to baseline products by using change authority Submit products to the Configuration Librarian to put under configuration control Release (issue) products and/or copiesS Product Status Account to record and report product information Report the status of products from the Configuration Librarian Verify product integrity Perform product configuration audits by the Configuration Librarian Perform project audits by Project Assurance. In the above hotel management system developing project at each stage end as an output as below final deliverables will be reported. 1st stage -Strategic study -information technology strategy will be produced. 2nd stage Business study -project initiation document. 3th stage Feasibility study- Feasibility report. 4th stage -Requirement analysis- the gathered exact requirements of the users to develop  Ã‚  Ã‚   the system will be produced as Requirement analysis report 5th stage -Requirement specifications-the requirements will be produced in a diagrammatic way and a wordy report. 6th stage Logical system specification -the mapped business and technical aspects of the system will be produced. 7th stage Logical design- interface design will be produced. 8th stage -Physical design -the database design and program design using miniature specifications like pseudo codes, flowcharts, structure diagrams, etc will be produced. 9th stage -Coding- the written program which is written with a programming language will be produced. 10th stage -Testing -testing report. 11th stage -Debugging-debugging report. 12th stage -Implementation- the released version of the system in the target environment. 13th stage -Maintenance-reports regarding the changes carried out throughout the system after the implementation. (b) Give a statement of the configuration librarians responsibilities. Configuration Librarian is the guardian of all the master copies of the projects products.   Ã‚   The role will be also to look after change control on behalf of the project manager. Purpose   : Custodian and guardian of all master copies of the projects products Receives, baselines and releases (issues) products Updates the product status and informs the Project Manager Maintains the Issue Log. The major tasks of the configuration librarian are summarized as follows:- To control the receipt, identification, storage and issues of all project products To provide information on the status of all products To number, record, store and distribute change control documents The specific responsibilities of the configuration librarian are as follows:- Assist the project manager to prepare the configuration management plan Create libraries at other storage areas to hold products Assist in the identification of products Create configuration item description records Hold the master copies of all project products Maintain the change control records Assist in conducting configuration audits Liaise with other configuration librarians where products required by the project are common to other systems (c) Briefly outline what are the things that we must consider in change control of Project Management. In this hotel management system development, will develop several documents that include all the importance issues regarding to   the development but sometime these document may need to be changed due to various reasons, when doing this changers it has to be done by stranded procedures its called ChangeControl . The change control document is the formal way into this projects any enquiry of a complaint or request, it can be raised by anyone associated with hotel project about anything such as:- A new function occurrence A frailer of a product In meeting some aspect of the user requirement Because of a possible misunderstand A problem with the planning A frailer of communication The change control mainly it has recharge control document such as:- Question document (when a question occurs about a change) It will be submitted to the configuration library and the configuration librar E-Commerce in Fashion E-Commerce in Fashion Background E-commerce is in fashion so many companies of all sizes and types are reviewing their sales strategies.   Consideration is being given to either (or both) selling to other businesses electronically (B2B) or selling directly to individual customers over the Internet (B2C).   Many companies are failing to live up to expectations, with problems such as poor website design making ordering difficult, website failure (crashes) from overload or because they were incomplete, failure to confirm the order, subsequent out-of-stock, failure to deliver on time. The Project Brief You, as the project manager, are to plan a project for a Triangle software house to develop an online Hotel Management system for an international hotel chain.   The project is scheduled to start on6thof July 2010. The project should have the following options Guests: Room Reservations for guests Services: Adding other services use, restaurant use, bar use by guests Maintenance: To maintain records in the system Inquires: To know about availability of rooms, reservations, gust lists Four computers have to be supplied for the selected project and these computers needs to be networked. Required time schedule for the project is three months. From the Project Managers point of view, an e-commerce project is no different from any other project.   You need a framework to plan resources and budget; you must set the plan against an appropriate calendar; and you need to ensure that you include the managerial and quality-related tasks that will help the project manager succeed. You need to plan how the project should be initiated.   However, your initiation plan should be presented in sufficient detail for someone else to manage it.   You are not expected to have all the answers at this stage; part of the skill of project planning is to ensure that you put the tasks in place to find out what is unknown and to manage the obvious risks. Task 1 (a) As the Project Manager, you are expected to decide on the following: 1. The tasks required to carry out the project aim for at least 10-15 tasks.   Traditional File System (SDLC-System Development Life Cycle) Strategic Study Business study Feasibility study Requirement analysis Requirement Specification Logical system specification Logical Design Physical Design Coding Testing Implementation Maintenance Paste out Relate Traditional File System steps to Hotel management system Case Study. We use Traditional File System for Hotel management systemto develop their system. Strategic study: Project Manager goes to the Hotel study the current system; after he understood what the system that they need to develop is what they technology must use to develop the hotel. Business study:- Project Manager prepare a document project initiation document this will give the general   definition for the developing system   that document shown to the hotel managing director we get the approval to proceed the development the new system. Feasibility study: These step uses to traditional file system how to feasible for hotel computerizes Economical, Technical Operational, even the developing system is most modern if end users are working within difficulty that system isnt operational but this system is not difficulty use. Cost effective ways and ensuring that the investment can be recovered and realize the benefits with allocated budget. The technology needed is available and can be integrated with the other systems of the organization. Deciding how the new system going to fit the current operational system and whether its operationally acceptable. Checking whether the new project is violating law both local and international Requirement analysis: Firstly we interview Hotel managing Director asked question about the current system what they want to include their system to computerize ..,.   Investigating forms and documents which are very useful to determine system data flows and transactions Identifying the outputs by investigating below reports, Hourly report Daily report Monthly report Yearly report Then Checking latest updated procedure manuals and user manuals To study user activities and to concentrate on how it is being handle. Interviewing and supervisor level users to gather opinions about the efficiency about the system, determine the needs of the users that to be in the new system, more specific details about the system. Producing and arranging online Questionnaires for all operational users who are going to use the system. By this can gather information from all the people who are going to have direct contact with the system. Planning formal observation sessions at 3 main hotels, specially the reception area And closely observing the activities performed by the users. And observing customer inquiries reservation process etc Studying a subset documents or subset of the activity in the area in order to get an impression of the whole activity or document set .it is useful to verify findings from interviews or the above discussed techniques. Requirement Specification: How the new computer system should be working this is a kind of the document which clearly specifies the requirement of the users. Use :- Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD)    Data Flow Diagram (DFD). Logical system specification:- This hotel computerize system   include several logical specification there are may be several technical option that could be adapted which are capable of delivering the requirement in this stage system analysis first design define what those technical options and then the help of manager select the most suitable option. Logical Design: This step we design a dialog design initial interface are design Update process that change on the line system data and Enquiry process concern the interaction of useful information from system data.(we should involve the hotel manager very strongly specially dialog design influence how to system looks and behave to its users) Physical Design: This step we design program design database design (ERD map into database components), this stage provides all the information required by the programmer. Coding: We use language is Visual Basic for coding.(First programmer code will be written in short pieces that outlines simple as well-defined program function.) Testing:- we tested correctness testing, performance testing ,reliability and recovery testing then security testing stress testing usability testing, unit and integration testing external function testing ,system testing, regression testing, acceptance testing, installation testing, completion testing, test documentation.(   discover and rectify errors below steps are planned to be done) Implementation:- This stage involve preparation of the target side and making the environment the network here the hotel new system to target environment will done and prepare in the user manual and training the hotel worker for the New system.| System will be installed shared in 4 computers which will be networked [LAN] (Configuration with I7 processors, 4 GB Ram..) With all required software. 2. Decide on appropriate task dependencies and state durations of them. Task Duration (1= 1 day)Reference Strategic study 1 A Business study 1   B Feasibility study 1 C Technical Feasibility2 Operational Feasibility1 Legal FeasibilityParallel with Op Feasibility(1) Economical Feasibility3 Requirement analysis D (Forms and documents)1 (Reports)1 (Procedureuser manuals)1 Interview-(Management level)3 Interview-(Supervisor level)3 (Questionnaires)1 (Observation)2 (Subset documentsactivity)1 Requirement specification 3 E Logical system specification 2F Logical design 10 G Physical design 20H Coding 5 I Testing J (Unit) 5 (Integrated) 1 (System)1 (User)2 DebuggingParallel with testing(8)K Implementation L (Installation)2 (User Training)2 (Parallel Running)7 MaintenanceContinues until phase out.M Total Duration81 -The explained tasks in task 1 are shortened and listed down above, under task name. -The Duration 1 is equals to 1 day. -Maintenance starts after implementing the project until phase out. -Total days for the project is 87-(81- planned days, and balances 6 days are to manage risks during the project period. (Table1.1) 3. Create an Activity Net work Diagram with respect to your identified tasks,AND must be given using a standard Tool such as MS Project or MS Visio Critical path- A   B C D E F G H I J   L MS Project Output (b)There are many elements in a typical project plan. One such element is the   Introduction which briefly describes the objectives of the project and the constraints, which affect project management. Prepare such introduction for this project using reasonable assumptions. List and explain with a sentence each other contents of a typical project plan. I am Nadeeshani and Im appointed as a project manager to develop this online hotel Management system for an international hotel chain by the triangle software house. The project is based on upgrading the existing system as an online system along with these main functions, Room reservations for guests The options to add other services like restaurant use, bar use, gym use, etc The system which has the ability to obtain inquires from the guests and the ability to give them an answer/feedback, for example for the customer queries like availability of rooms, reservations and guest list, etc. And to get all the above updates and inquiries from the parties and to maintain the records in the system We hope to start the project on 6Th of July 2010 and we were going to be finished in September 30th 2010 (3 month) period. On that project running period we are considering Saturdays Sundays as working days. We hope to finished this project 26Th of September 2010. The project has run 87 days but we are planning to be completed within 82 days rest 5 days we are planning to do collecting unanticipated problems complete the project report however we will make sure to complete this project in this 87 days period. This is the project plan how we are going to do the project. I hope the committee members will do their best to complete the project. The quality of the system will be maintained throughout the project by regular progress checking and progress monitoring. The project has been run through the 13 stages. Strategic study Business study Feasibility study Requirement analysis Requirement specification Logical system specification Logical design Physical design Coding, Testing Debugging Implementation Maintenance These stages are planned in a greater level of detail. (These plans are used to track progress on a week by week basis through regular progress monitoring.) These stages are also separated into sub tasks basically contains the lowest details. It will specify activities down to a daily level. This will be created in parallel with the above mentioned stage plans. And the monitoring and tracking will be on daily basis. As a project manager I hope we will be finished the project with less errors I believe you all are will be do your best. Clearly indicated whose responsible for what in the project, clearly shown what the project is to deliver, why and for whom and by making the project that can easily understand by everyone, mainly on time and within budget My motivation is to completely utilize my accumulated experience and knowledge to the fullest extent possible and making this projects a success. Task 2 (a) Explain what are your typical responsibilities as a Software Project   Manager in managing any type of software project and your typical tasks A software project manager has the overall responsibility for the successful initiation, planning, execution and closure of a project. A successful Project Manager must simultaneously manage the four basic elements of a project: resources, time, money, and most importantly, scope. All these elements are interrelated. Each must be managed effectively. All must be managed together if the project, and the project manager, is to be a success. Resources People, equipment, material Time Task durations, dependencies, critical path Money Costs, contingencies, profit Scope Project size, goals, requirements This title is used in the construction industry, architecture, information technology and many different occupations that are based on production of a product or service. The project manager must possess a combination of skills including an ability to ask penetrating questions, detect unstated assumptions and resolve interpersonal conflicts as well as more systematic management skills. The role of the project manager encompasses many activities including :-Planning and Defining Scope, Activity Planning and Sequencing, Resource Planning, Developing Schedules, Time Estimating, Cost Estimating, Developing a Budget, Controlling Quality, Managing Risks and Issues, Creating Charts and Schedules, Risk Analysis, Benefits Realization, Scalability, Interoperability and Portability Analysis,Documentation,Team Leadership, Strategic Influencing, Customer Liaison. As a software project manager my typical tasks in managing a software project will be below. Manage the production of the required product. Direct and motivate the project team. Plan and monitor the project. Manage business and project risks. Responsible for change control. Report the true progress report and stage assessment to the steering committee. Prepare the end project report. Responsible for project administration. Responsibility Matrix In a large project, there may be many people who have some role in the creation and approval of project deliverables. Sometimes this is pretty straightforward, such as one person writing a document and one person approving it. In other cases, there may be many people who have a hand in the creation, and others that need to have varying levels of approval. The Responsibility Matrix is a technique used to define the general responsibilities for each role on a project. The matrix can then be used to communicate the roles to the appropriate people associated with the team. This helps set expectations, and ensures people know what is expected from them. On the matrix, the different people, or roles, appear as columns, with the specific deliverables in question listed as rows. Then, use the intersecting points to describe each persons responsibility for each deliverable. Ex: (Table 2.1) A Approves the deliverable R Reviews the deliverable (and provides feedback). C Creates the deliverable (could be C (1) for primary, C (2) for backup). Usually there is only one person who is responsible for creating a deliverable, although many people may provide input. I Provides input N Is notified when a deliverable is complete M Manages the deliverables (such as a librarian, or person responsible for the document repository) In the table above, the Requirements Management Plan is created by the project manager, approved by the sponsor and client managers, and reviewed by the project team and analysts. The purpose of the matrix is to gain clarity and agreement on who does what, so you can define the columns with as much detail as makes sense. For instance, in the above example, the Project Team could have been broken into specific people or the person responsible for creating the Data Model could have been broken out into a separate column. After the matrix is completed, it should be circulated for approval. If it is done in the Project Charter process, it can be an addendum to the Project Charter. If it is created as a part of the initial Analysis Phase, it should be circulated as a separate document. Examples of responsibility codes are as follows. Our project may define different codes, as long as you explain what they mean so that people know what the expectations are for them. References http://www.lifecyclestep.com/open/407.0LifecycleRoles.htm (b) Briefly explain how you are going to manage the risk in the above project. Risk management is the process of analyzing exposure to risk and determining how to best handle such exposure. The project is planned to be a continuous process throughout the project until completion and considered in two main parts, the risk analysis part and the risk management part. I have planned to run risk management as below, At the start of the project, as a part of the decision of whether to undertake the project And at every end stage assessments Risk management includes the following activities Planning how risk management will be held in the particular project. Plan should include risk management tasks, responsibilities, activities and budget. Assigning risk officer a team member other than a project manager who is responsible for foreseeing potential project problems. Typical characteristic of risk officer is a healthy skepticism. Maintaining live project risk database. Each risk should have the following attributes: opening date, title, short description, probability and importance. Optionally risk can have assigned person responsible for its resolution and date till then risk still can be resolved. Creating anonymous risk reporting channel. Each team member should have possibility to report risk that he foresees in the project. Preparing mitigation plans for risks that are chosen to be mitigated. The purpose of the mitigation plan is to describe how this particular risk will be handled what, when, by who and how will be done to avoid it or minimize consequences if it becomes a liability. Summarizing planned and faced risks, effectiveness of mitigation activities and effort spend for the risk management. As an analyzing tool to assist in the risk management process, Decision tree is used to analyze the risks, Because the explanation for the result is easily described by simple graph in a simply understandable way which can be combined with other decision techniques as well. Important details can be generated based on its alternatives, probabilities, costs and their preferences for outcomes. First after analyzing the possible risks by identifying, Estimating the effectiveness by comparing the likelihood with the impact of a risk and finally evaluating by confirming that they are in correct sequence and the cross checking with the risk reduction options assessing the acceptable level of each other. We select the most suitable risk management approach for each risk and a detailed plan of action which confirms its goals will be prepared by discussing with members. The risk management consist four main activities and below tasks will be completed at the end of each part. Planning-: Most appropriate selection will be selected for each risk and a detailed plan of action which confirms its desirability and objectives will be developed. Sometimes this activity may proceed in parallel with risk evaluation.  §Resourcing-: This will identify and assign the necessary resources to do the work and will confirm that the revised plan is feasible and cost effective.  §Controlling-: This will make sure that the execution of the plan is having the desired effect on the risk. This will ensure the management of the risk process will apply effectively and it will modify the plan where it necessary.  §Monitoring-: This will check the stages of the risk and also check that the counted measures are happening effectively. During monitoring, if it feels that the risk management plan is ineffective, then we can go back to the risk analysis part. When managing the risks these below features will be considered mainly, Factors that need to continue correctly, threats, systemic risks for the successful delivery project and benefits, risks to the business, risks for the customers and suppliers, risks of unexpected outputs and success of the international hotel chain. This is how I have planned to manage the risk, which can happen during a process and which will effect with a negative result to the process in the project. Task 3 Configuration Management is an essential part of a project. In a large project Configuration librarian plays a major role. Configuration management (CM) is the detailed recording and updating of information that describes an enterprises hardware and software. Such information typically includes the versions and updates that have been applied to installed software packages and the locations and network addresses of hardware devices. Special configuration management software is available. When a system needs hardware or software upgrade, a computer technician can accesses the configuration management program and database to see what is currently installed. The technician can then make a more informed decision about the upgrade needed. An advantage of a configuration management application is that the entire collection of systems can be reviewed to make sure any changes made to one system do not adversely affect any of the other systems Configuration management is also used in software development, where it is called Unified Configuration Management (UCM). Using UCM, developers can keep track of the source code, documentation, problems, changes requested, and changes made. (a) Briefly out line some configuration items in the project given in the scenario. Manage the configuration: Hotel Management systemPlan what is required and how it will be achieved Guests: Room Reservations for guests Services: Adding other services use, restaurant use, bar use by guests Maintenance: To maintain records in the system Inquires: To know about availability of rooms, reservations, gust lists Four computers have to be supplied for the selected project and these computers needs to be networked. Required time schedule for the project is three months. (Use a Configuration Management Plan (Project Quality Plan) Identify components of the final product Use Defining and Analyzing Products (PL2) to create a Configuration Item Record Use unique identifiers for each product and each version: Project Product Type Product Name Product Version. Control changes to baseline products by using change authority Submit products to the Configuration Librarian to put under configuration control Release (issue) products and/or copiesS Product Status Account to record and report product information Report the status of products from the Configuration Librarian Verify product integrity Perform product configuration audits by the Configuration Librarian Perform project audits by Project Assurance. In the above hotel management system developing project at each stage end as an output as below final deliverables will be reported. 1st stage -Strategic study -information technology strategy will be produced. 2nd stage Business study -project initiation document. 3th stage Feasibility study- Feasibility report. 4th stage -Requirement analysis- the gathered exact requirements of the users to develop  Ã‚  Ã‚   the system will be produced as Requirement analysis report 5th stage -Requirement specifications-the requirements will be produced in a diagrammatic way and a wordy report. 6th stage Logical system specification -the mapped business and technical aspects of the system will be produced. 7th stage Logical design- interface design will be produced. 8th stage -Physical design -the database design and program design using miniature specifications like pseudo codes, flowcharts, structure diagrams, etc will be produced. 9th stage -Coding- the written program which is written with a programming language will be produced. 10th stage -Testing -testing report. 11th stage -Debugging-debugging report. 12th stage -Implementation- the released version of the system in the target environment. 13th stage -Maintenance-reports regarding the changes carried out throughout the system after the implementation. (b) Give a statement of the configuration librarians responsibilities. Configuration Librarian is the guardian of all the master copies of the projects products.   Ã‚   The role will be also to look after change control on behalf of the project manager. Purpose   : Custodian and guardian of all master copies of the projects products Receives, baselines and releases (issues) products Updates the product status and informs the Project Manager Maintains the Issue Log. The major tasks of the configuration librarian are summarized as follows:- To control the receipt, identification, storage and issues of all project products To provide information on the status of all products To number, record, store and distribute change control documents The specific responsibilities of the configuration librarian are as follows:- Assist the project manager to prepare the configuration management plan Create libraries at other storage areas to hold products Assist in the identification of products Create configuration item description records Hold the master copies of all project products Maintain the change control records Assist in conducting configuration audits Liaise with other configuration librarians where products required by the project are common to other systems (c) Briefly outline what are the things that we must consider in change control of Project Management. In this hotel management system development, will develop several documents that include all the importance issues regarding to   the development but sometime these document may need to be changed due to various reasons, when doing this changers it has to be done by stranded procedures its called ChangeControl . The change control document is the formal way into this projects any enquiry of a complaint or request, it can be raised by anyone associated with hotel project about anything such as:- A new function occurrence A frailer of a product In meeting some aspect of the user requirement Because of a possible misunderstand A problem with the planning A frailer of communication The change control mainly it has recharge control document such as:- Question document (when a question occurs about a change) It will be submitted to the configuration library and the configuration librar