Thursday, September 19, 2019

everyday use Essay example -- essays research papers

A symbol is a person, place, event, or object that suggests more than just its normal meaning. The symbols in this story, â€Å"Everyday Use†, were pretty clever and told a lot of clues about the story. Also Little peepholes that would dig into deeper meanings, and hints in the story.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The first symbol, which I thought meant something was towards Maggie and Dee’s mom. â€Å"I was always better at a man’s job.† (pg.320). â€Å"In real life I am a large, big boned woman with rough, man- working hands.† (pg. 318). â€Å"I can kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man.†(pg. 318) I think because man was used a lot referring to their Mom, might have meant that she was the man of the house. Maybe that she was the only parent and that her husband was never around to help after the kids were born. So she really had to be tough and do a lot of things that the men would usually do.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Another symbol I found was one that goes along with Dee. â€Å"She burned us with a lot of knowledge we didn’t necessarily need to know.†(pg. 319). â€Å"It is hard to see them clearly through the strong sun.† (pg. 320). â€Å"Dee next. A dress down to the ground, in this hot weather.† (pg. 320). â€Å"There are yellows and oranges enough to throw back the light of the sun. I feel my whole face warming from the heat waves it throws out.† ( Pgs. 320-321). â€Å"She put on some sunglasses that hid everything about the tip of her nose and her chin.† (pg. 324). I think because we don’t quite kno...

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Big Brother is Watching: Get Over It! Essay -- essays research papers

Big Brother is Watching: Get Over It!   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In George Orwell’s book, 1984, the very existence of every person is scrutinized by their form of government called the Party. The main character, Winston Smith, is constantly monitored throughout his daily life by the telescreen, â€Å"an oblong metal plaque like a dulled mirror† (1), placed strategically so that it can see and hear everything that is going on around him. In America society today we are seeing a movement that can be classified as â€Å"Orwellian† as it relates to this very subject of surveillance, the Internet. The similarities between the telescreen and the free access of the Internet cannot be ignored and as our country is dealing with terrorism, we must be willing to endure some lose of independence that we have gained through the World Wide Web.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  One similarity easily noted between the telescreen and the Internet is that they both can not be turned off. The telescreen â€Å"could be dimmed, but there was no way of shutting it off completely† (2). On the other hand, you may think that you are turning off the Internet when you shut down your computer, but in fact it stays on twenty-four hours a day. They are both viewed through a monitor, whereas the telescreen is forcibly two-way where you can be seen and heard, the computer gives you a choice. Some people invite others into their homes via the internet with the use of webcams, cameras that are attached to your computer and...

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Spas in Roman Times :: essays research papers

What is the â€Å"spa†? The word â€Å"spa† is rooted in the Latin language and means â€Å"salus per aquam.† For those of you who are not very polished on your Latin, that means â€Å"health from water.† â€Å"Spa† is also the name of a small village in Belgium where hot mineral springs were discovered by ancient Romans and used by soldiers to treat aching muscles and wounds from battle. When? It is unclear when the Romans used the first public bath, but during the reign of Caesar Augustus from 27 B.C. to 14 A.D., there were approximately 170 baths throughout Rome.At this time, citizens of Rome began to view baths as a way of providing rest, relaxation, and solace to all people, not just those weary of war. Spa in England In 70 A.D., the Romans built a spa and dedicated it, as a shrine consisting of a reservoir around the hot springs at Bath, in what is now England, a complex series of baths, and a temple, to the honor of the goddess Sulis Minerva. As the Roman Empire grew, so did the number of public baths. By the year 300 A.D., there were over 900 baths throughout the empire. The oldest Roman spa still in existence today is located in Merano, Italy, providing evidence of the idea that the Romans used natural springs in an organized manner to provide treatments. Types of Spa   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  After exercising, bathers entered the tepidarium, a room where they would prepare for their bath. The first step was to remove the oil from their body. Oil was used as a substitute for soap, which was reserved for only the very wealthy in ancient Rome, then scraped off with an implement known as a strigil, removing dirt and grime with it. Upon completing this step, bathers were ready to enter the caladarium. This room was very hot and filled with steam, created by sunken pools of hot water. Some baths also included a room that was very hot and dry, very much like our modern day saunas, called a laconicum. Visits to the hot rooms were followed by a visit to the frigidarium. As the name implies, this room was cold and served to close pores that were open from sweating in the hot rooms. This room also frequently contained either a small pool of cold water for washing away sweat or a large pool of cold water for swimming.

Law of Diffusion of Gases

Thomas Graham studied the behavior of the diffusion of gases of unequal densities when placed in contact with each other, using air as his control. He wanted to numerically prove how the diffusion of the gas volumes was inversely proportional to the value of the density of the gas, under constant temperature and pressure. The significance of this experiment was that in led to a reevaluation of the concept of the movement of matter, realizing that diffusion dealt with small immeasurable elements of matter, as opposed to large volumes of air, as perceived in the corpuscular theory, shedding light into the study of the behavior and structure of matter. Graham’s initial objective was to establish a numerical value regarding the gas density and its diffusiveness for ten different gases, establishing that the greater the gas’s density the smaller the value and rate of diffusiveness compared to air. He predicted that gases moved by diffusion when placed together in the form of minute volumes, were the heavier gas would tend to accumulate on one side while the lighter gas displaced towards the denser gas until a uniform mixture was achieved. In light of this, he predicted that if controlling temperature and pressure he would achieve the gases to diffuse and establish a numerical value. However no hypothesis was established based on the limited information at their disposal of matter. However seeing how gases diffused proportionately despite the aperture size, Graham perceived that diffusion dealt with minute particles as opposed to large volumes. The gas’s diffusion volume was achieved once the gas inside the stucco container was entirely replaced by external air, being this new volume the equivalent volume of diffusion. Once established the volume, he used his law of diffusion to provide a numerical value and verify the exactness of his formula. This was achieved by observing the change in height of the level of mercury. The use of a stucco plug channel containers was suitable to lessen the effect of gas absorption by the material and avoid the gas’s expansion or contraction when atmospheric conditions varied; in addition to this the fact that temperature and pressure were kept constant meant the movement of the gases was because of simple diffusion and not by an external force. Using air as a unit measure, meant variations in duplicability of results due to the air’s heterogeneous nature making the experiment inconclusive. They used air as their measure unit since they did not have the technology to test the direct interaction of single separate samples of gases, being unable to study properly their behavior. This experiment was accurate when comparing the results with the theoretical values, and consistent to previous experimental observations. The results showed to be always below the theory value explained by means of their materials absorption nature and slight variations in conditions and instrument’s precision. Despite this Graham was able to establish a clear numerical relationship using equivalent diffusion volumes, however with slight exceptions to certain gases that had to be further tested. Graham’s prediction of being density a factor, which determined the diffusiveness of gas, was corroborated at the sight that lighter gases than air such as hydrogen diffused more easily. In addition the accuracy of the results helped to determine the value of the gas’s gravity, which would further provide evidence for the study of matter. In addition the fact that intermixture of gases was achieved under controlled conditions, despite the size of contact surface, provided evidence of minute particle diffusion and led Graham to speculated further on the constituents of matter, not explained through the corpuscular theory, would lead to development of the colloid theory in the future. In conclusion this research paper showed that Graham verified a numerical value for the diffusion of gases with varying densities. However Graham’s observations led him to further speculate on the idea that diffusion was related to immeasurable elements, as opposed to sensible volumes. This paper provides valuable evidence on how the study and discovery of minute particles evolved as the corpuscular theory failed to explain the nature of matter.

Monday, September 16, 2019

The Rise of Event Industry

Introduction To Event Report The Rise Of Event Industry And Event Tourism YinJin Chen (Damon) 2-6 Words Count: 2052 words Date: 20 October, 2012 Table Of Content Introduction†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 3 Chapter One: Events place today†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦4 People activities†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 4 Government Support†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 4 Important for local†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦5 Chapter Two: Events and Environment Sustainability†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 5 Important for Environment Sustainability†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã ¢â‚¬ ¦. 5 Effects to environment†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 6 What measures we can do?†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ The biggest challenges that we faced†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦8 Chapter Three: The events effects on society in future†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 9 Positive effects †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦9 Negative effects†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 10 Events industry in 20 years†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 11 Conclusion†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 12 Reference List†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 13 Introduction In today’s society background, people become to pay more attention for the development of event industry and event tourism. For the past years, you might not have any concept about event, perhaps you also did not notice that event occurred in the world every single minute.Event has already into our life and people play different roles in it. Based on size and impact, we describe and categories them such as Mega-Events, for example Olympic Games, World Cup. Hallmark Events which like China Spring Festival, The Water-sprinkling Festival. Major Events such as Golf open championship, Formula one racing. General speaking, the emergence of the events and which process of developing affects our life. What benefits that events bring to us? what disadvantages that events cause? In the following report, I am going to analysis the imp ortance of the events industry’s in today’s Society.What measures can an event take in order to achieve environmental sustainability? How does events industry effects our society in the future. Chapter one Special events can include national days and celebrations, important civic occasions, unique cultural performances, major sporting fixtures, corporate functions, trade promotions and product launches (Bowdin et al, 2011). It looks like that we can see events are everywhere and today it has became a growth industry. For example, as News reported that for recent Olympic Games held which attract more and more countries and athletes to participate in it.At the same time, the number of audience has also been increasing year by year. Such as the 2012 Olympics Games in London, Chinese audiences in China in order to watch the games on TV that do not care about time difference. The emergence of events bring a large number of tourists to host venue, tourists make consumption o n local and at the same time TV ratings increase has brought big income which direct cause huge economic growth. Government play an important role in Events, sometimes government gives money and policy support to organizers, sometimes governments may also themselves be event producers or host organizations.For example, Mega-events like Olympic Games, World Cup. For event tourism, Governments invested in the development of event tourism, which give money support, contributed important to events specific needs infrastructure, for example, exhibition centers and stadiums. In the specific case of China, for example, there was only one convention and exhibition center larger than 50,000 square meters in 1992. By 2003 this number had risen to 16(Kaye, 2005). Events are also important for local community, as we know Hallmark Events, for example Chinese New year, The water-sprinkling Festival in Thai, The Munich Oktoberfest.These kind of festivals attract foreign tourism and mercy fund-rais ing. That is reason why those places of their communities that can still continue a century later for many of these festivals. Chapter two The real question regarding environmental sustainable is â€Å"What are we going to leave to future generations†. Today more people realized that if we keep developing our world which like what we did before, we need more than one earth to provide resources to maintain our life. So this just makes us to realized the importance of sustainable development.At the moment when we development of events, we also bring some impacts to the environment at the same time. For example, when we are building a conference and exhibition center, we have to concern about carbon emissions because of the engineering machinery we are using. How to correctly deal with construction waste is also a serious problem. As time moves on, the term â€Å"green events† have entered the events industry to generally refer to control the negative environmental impact s of events, including carbon reduction, recycling, waste reduction and so on.Olympic Games is one of famous Mega-events. The Centennial Olympic Congress, Congress of Unity, held in Paris in 1994, recognized the importance of the environment and sustainable development, which led to the inclusion of a paragraph in Rule 2 of the Olympic Charter (Olympic. org, unknown time). The IOC(International Olympic Committee) has admitted its specific function to promote sustainable development and to take the environment as the third dimension of the Olympic spirit, sports and culture. Event greening is not rocket science; it is common sense if you care about people and our planet.It should also make financial sense, and build a positive brand, with many other benefits unfolding as it becomes a standard way of doing business. However, it is essential that it is incorporated into the core function of the event, and should not be an afterthought or an add-on at the last minute (Plato, 2010). It i s very important that environmental sustainability are included right from the start, even in the tender process for larger events. High-level support is essential and an appropriate budget to make sure that events greening process is successful.To ensure the successful implementation of event- greening strategy, there are some processes we can do. Preparation As an events organizer, firstly we have to set up a green team, not only one person. Everyone in this team is playing each role. For example, the green team could include managers, high-level decision makers, managers, environmental experts, and key operational staff relating to aspects such as venues, transport, communication and so on. Making events green should not be the responsibility of only one person, but is a team effort including all the different role players. PlanningThe second step is to determine the main principles and these principles should be supported by go through a simple greening policy to show what you w ant to achieve. This can be given to sponsors and suppliers, so that they are also encouraged to consider their environmental impact, and to keep your policy. Implementation The third step is to ensure the planning into real action. If more people participate, it will make the task much easier. Encourage participants to get actively involved in greening initiatives, and ensure that they are aware of process and know how they can contribute.Staff and team members should be informed about the greening plan, and their in the process should be clued. Monitoring and evaluation Monitoring and evaluation in the green event is a very necessary conditions, it should be applied to and continuous development. In the detailed plan, the early event middle and late relates in together. This can guarantee information in the implementation process will not be misunderstood. I think the biggest challenges for us to do is that when an event has finished, if we consider sustainability, it is important to take into ccount the positive long-term impact or legacy of event on the host city or community. Like how to strengthen the social impact, such as community involvement and fair employment. Balancing with increase local economic, social and environmental benefits. Chapter 3 Events can have some positive and negative social impacts in the future. Cooper et al. (2005,pp. 246-247) have identified the following positive generic social impacts of tourism that can also be ascribed to events. * The fostering of community/ civic pride. Creating sociocultural awareness and peace. * Shared infrastructure. * Direct sociocultural support. (Raj & Musgrave, 2009) According to the above, events can let people fell the real life. This will motivate and assist the host feel proud, and provide a better experience for the participants. Events can bring people to new places and give them more understanding and knowledge of cultures and environments. This can be looked as a process of education, if leader do like this properly, it can make our society has more awareness, sympathy and admiration.Events can make countries bring more culture exchange, so that the participants and the local community can promote peaceful development. When events host in a developing country, for example, the FIFA 2010 World Cup in South Africa, The local infrastructure according to the requests of events construction, so this can make people to improve the quality of life by enjoy these improved facilities. These infrastructures include improving sports venues, airport and public transportation construction. The different events can provide funds to help local charities, conserve natural and culture sites and restore heritage sites.The revenue comes from events held in the goods sold and tickets cost can be donated to the local charity organization. Events can also have negative impacts in future, it can effects to participants, stakeholders and host local community. Events participants from other country that sometimes their behaviors can bring a detrimental impact on quality of life for the local community. For example, such as crowding and congestion will happen in future. In some country, local people has being displaced from their land in order to build new facilities construction.For example like Olympic games. How to deal with the Games infrastructure after games, especially new venues. More attention needs to be paid like after Olympic Games end, charge the regional and venues fees whether can provide sustainable returns and make community benefit. If such facilities do not have a significant post-Games use they can become ‘white elephants’, and a burden to the taxpayers (Cashman, 2002). One question we have to think about which is after Olympic games, do we have to put money in to maintain the venues? If we need, making money cost effective.Sydney’s Aquatic Centre is a good example of a dual purpose venue in that it housed both the best facilitie s for elite sport as well as sport for all venue, which included play areas for children. The future of the Main Stadium, by contrast, is more problematic. There is the initial cost of reconfiguring the Stadium, reducing its capacity from 120,000 to 80,000 and then there is the problem of finding sufficient tenants to make the Stadium cost efficient (Searle, 2002) In my opinion, events industry in future 20 years will be a lot of changes.Because events of the future will need to adapt and evolve to respond to economic, environmental, social and technological changes. As we think an event has to think green today and even more in future. Events bring our environment negative effects gradually reduce and make more contribution to make our environment sustainability. Events of scale will be increased and countless of new themes will be gave out. Events industry comprehensive rise up and become the important part of the tourism economic. ConclusionAs the Olympic Games has been hosting s uccessfully, people become to pay more attention about events industry. Events is developing gradually and become more important. But in its development process we also see negative effects for our environment and society. But I believe that in the events industry development process of future, the organizers will be more efficient to manage it in order to make event industry better. Reference List Bowdin, G. , Allen, J. , O’Toole, W. , Harris, R. , McDonnell, I. , (2011). Events management. 3rd ed.Great Britain, Elsevier. Cooper, C. , Fletcher, J. , Fyall, A. , Gilbert, D. and Wanhill, S. (2005). Tourism Principles and Practice, 3rd edn. Prentice Hall, London. Cashman, Richard (2002): Impact of the Games on Olympic host cities: university lecture on the Olympics [online article]. Barcelona :Centre d'Estudis Olimpics (UAB). International Chair in Olympism (IOC-UAB). Available from: ;http://olympicstudies. uab. es/lectures/web/pdf/cashman. pdf; [Date of publication:2002] Kaye, A. (2005). China’s convention and exhibition center boom.Journal of Convention ; Event Tourism, 7(1), 5-22. Olympic. org. Mission [Internet] Sport and environment commission: Available from: ; http://www. olympic. org/sport-environment-commission? tab=mission; Plato, D,. (2010). Smart Events HANDBOOK: How to implement event greening. Cape Town, Independent publisher. Raj, R. and Musgrave, J. (2009). Event Management and Sustainability. CAB International, London. Searle, Glen (2002): Uncertain legacy: Sydney’s Olympic stadium. European planning studies, vol. 10, no. 7, p. 845-60.

Sunday, September 15, 2019

Will Project Creep Cost You Or Create Value

Mediators scope adjustments to accommodate new realities or incorporate new capabilities can pay off, but only when they're done very intentionally and with a hard-nosed insistence on demonstrating up front where the money is going to come from. Such vigilance doesn't just happen, which is why for every story like Infant's, there's probably three or four that speak to the dangers of creep. Need an example? Think of the Big Dig, the highway project to put Boson's central artery underground, in which scope changes were all too casually agreed to when they were noticed at all.Construction for this project began in 1991 and was supposed to take 10 years and cost $4. 9 billion. Current projections suggest that more realistic figures are, at minimum, 14 years and $14. 6 billion. You treat every project as utterly unique, none of the learning from one project to another-?which essentially has to do with recognizing patterns-?transfers over,† says Steven Wheelwright, a professor and se nior associate dean at Harvard Business School (HOBS) whose research focuses on product and process development.And just what is this relevant learning Wheelwright is referring to? Conversations with project managers who have a track record of success underscore the importance of adopting, in the initial planning phase, key frameworks, rules, and structures to ensure: ; The right people have defined the project's scope. ; The project's boundaries have been sharply delineated. ; The impact of potential alterations or slippage can be quickly calculated.In the implementation phase, the challenge is to organize the work so as to minimize the inherent uncertainties. Whether you're the manager or the executive sponsor of any major project, a solid methodology that's sensitive to creep can make it easier for you to decide, in the moment, which project add-ions to say yes to and which to pass on. The planning phase A surprising number of projects get under way without a thorough attempt to define their parameters, specs, and performance characteristics.Haste is the chief culprit here, says Dave Nonfat, who brings 40 years of industry project management experience to his role as Enron operations adviser at HOBS and project manager for the renovation of one of the school's main classroom buildings. â€Å"There's a minimum lead time that all projects require,† says Nonfat, and it's the responsibility of the project's manager to know what that lead time is and to ensure that it not squeezed. Here are the key tasks of the planning phase: Differentiate scope from purpose.As you define the parameters of a project, its critical to separate its scope from its purpose. â€Å"A project's purpose is the general benefit it will provide to the organization,† explains Alex Walton, a Winter Park, AAA. Based project con- Copyright C 2005 by Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved. 3 Project Creep (continued) sultan who's worked with computer, aerospace, financial, and medical/nutritional companies. â€Å"Its scope comprises the particular elements (or product attributes) that the project team can control and has agreed to deliver. For example, a project's purpose may be to create a new food item that will increase sales by $20 million. But the team developing the product needs to know what features the product must have and what the budget for producing the product will be. This is the information that a three- to four-sentence document known as a scope statement provides; it spells out how the team intends to achieve success and, thus, the criteria on which it will be evaluated. Involve key stakeholders.Make sure that you have the right people defining the project's scope. â€Å"If you don't have all the affected stakeholders and sponsors at the table, either you won't get an accurate identification of the critical dependencies and functionalities or you won't have the people who can ensure that the project hews to th ose critical dependencies and functionalities,† says Brian Dobby, a Enron project manager for Meddles, a Mason, Ohio-based subsidiary of Custodianship's, who oversees the installation of electronics systems in health care facilities.For this reason, it's crucial to include â€Å"the end users perspective and needs when you're scoping out the functionality that's required,† says Wheelwright. In the renovation of Baker Library at HOBS, for example, project planners solicited faculty members' input about the prototypes of the new office spaces that were being designed for them. Plan in the aggregate. Getting the right people involved in defining the scope ND devoting sufficient time to the project planning phase aren't enough to ensure that the project has clear boundaries, however. Organizations also need to do aggregate project planning,† says Wheelwright, â€Å"in which they develop a strategy that lays out a pattern and rhythm for when subsequent projects will o ccur. † This is especially important for new product development. Without such a schedule for future projects, a product engineer with a new idea can grow concerned that it will never be implemented; as a result, there's a strong temptation for the engineer to try to slip that idea into the product that's currently in placement-?regardless of its impact on the cost and schedule.The analysis of prior projects serves as a valuable adjunct to aggregate planning. For example, study the past 1 0 internal IT projects your company has undertaken what patterns emerge? The findings can help you identify and better prepare for potential trouble spots in the IT projects that are on the docket for the coming years. Set the rules. One last piece Of work in the planning phase that can minimize the chances of project creep involves creating buffers or rules that make it difficult for significant hanged to occur without conscious discussion and approval. For instance: ; Set up a change contro l board.In highly structured project environments, such a group is responsible for â€Å"gathering information about the impact that a proposed change will have on the schedule, budget, or scope; voting on the proposed change; and then sending a request-for-change document on for the project sponsors' signature,† says Bob Tartan, a senior consultant who specializes in IT and telecommunications projects for Haverford, pa. -based PM Solutions. Thus, for an IT project affecting the sales, marketing, and logistics departments, the change intro board would comprise senior managers from each of these units.

Saturday, September 14, 2019

Luca Pacioli

Fra Luca Bartolomeo de Pacioli (sometimes Paciolo) (1445–1514 or 1517) was an Italian mathematician and Franciscan friar, collaborator with Leonardo da Vinci, and seminal contributor to the field now known as accounting. He was also called Luca di Borgo after his birthplace, Borgo Santo Sepolcro, Tuscany. Luca Pacioli studied in Venice and Rome and became a Franciscan friar in the 1470s. He was a travelling mathematics tutor until 1497, when he accepted an invitation from Lodovico Sforza (â€Å"Il Moro†) to work in Milan. There he collaborated with, lived with, and taught mathematics to Leonardo da Vinci. In 1499, Pacioli and Leonardo were forced to flee Milan when Louis XII of France seized the city and drove their patron out. After that, Pacioli and Leonardo frequently traveled together. Upon return to his hometown, Pacioli died of old age in 1517. Pacioli published several works on mathematics, including: Summa de arithmetica, geometria, proportioni et proportionalita (Venice 1494), a synthesis of the mathematical knowledge of his time, is also notable for including the first published description of the method of keeping accounts that Venetian merchants used during the Italian Renaissance, known as the double-entry accounting system. Although Pacioli codified rather than invented this system, he is widely regarded as the â€Å"Father of Accounting†. The system he published included most of the accounting cycle as we know it today. He described the use of journals and ledgers, and warned that a person should not go to sleep at night until the debits equalled the credits. His ledger had accounts for assets (including receivables and inventories), liabilities, capital, income, and expenses—the account categories that are reported on an organization's balance sheet and income statement, respectively. He demonstrated year-end closing entries and proposed that a trial balance be used to prove a balanced ledger. Also, his treatise touches on a wide range of related topics from accounting ethics to cost accounting.