Human Behavior and the Enviroment Unit 2 Discussion Research Paper

Human Behavior and the Enviroment Unit 2 Discussion - Research Paper Example Most women are ignorant on the significance of an excellent and regular prenatal care (Zastrow & Kirst-Ashman, 2007). They do not make arrangements, and if they do, they ignore them. This is common with girls who have no experience in childbirth. Scarcity of qualified doctors has led to women being put on hold due to extensive waiting lists (Zastrow & Kirst-Ashman, 2007). In addition, when mothers get a chance to visit, they find long lines at the clinics. This frustrates the pregnant women who have other places to be. Prenatal care for the mother and the child lessens a lot of threats that could occur during delivery, and after. At a prenatal clinic, a mother will be directed on the diet, for example, intake of folic acid condenses prospects of abnormalities. In addition, the right diet will guarantee the child grows at the normal, healthy rate. The public need to be aware of the significance of prenatal care, thus health specialist, can use the following ways. Firstly, they could initiate campaigns to create awareness all over the country, and advertise it thoroughly. Secondly, experts should learn to treat mothers with trust and comfort, since some women fear medical procedures. Lastly, the professionals can join forces with film makers, and authors to film documentaries, and publish books on pregnant

Rationale for Work Placement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Rationale for Work Placement - Essay Example Physical strength is one of the principle fitness skills that a good trainer aims at imparting to the clients. Football players need strength in order to gain position advantage in front of the defenders and maintain versatility for a longer time. The training involved targets mostly the legs, with an aim of physically lowering the player’s centre of gravity. Strength enables the player to attain high balance capacity needed in stability. Stability is not only needed in running and fighting for the ball but also in dribbling towards the opponent’s net (Kraemer and Zatsiorsky, 1995, p105). The other part of the body targeted in strength training is the upper body, which enables the player to coordinate aerial contests for the ball as well as ball control. Contact with the opponents must be solidly positioned to avoid unnecessary face-offs. The torso fitness training includes muscular ability enhancement. Strength endurance is particularly important in games with high tem po and contact like football. Endurance training involves improvement on the players’ ability to use sub-maximal energy in the entire game duration, to enable the muscles gain tolerance to extended energy taxing. It is not necessarily aimed at muscle mass but the ability of the muscle to endure long durations of workouts. Training includes use of three types of exercise; body weight tolerance, machine weight resistance as well as free weight (objects). Training controls the factors that limit strength and endurance abilities some which include reps.

Medmira Case Essay Example for Free

Medmira Case Essay MedMira Case Course: Marketing Planning What changes in the environment made it possible to consider the launch of an OTC Aids Test? Be specific. MedMira is known by developing and manufacturing quality diagnostics to prevent and control the spread of infectious diseases. All tests used a flow-through membrane technology and were fast and easy to use. Medmira was distributing rapid HIV tests in Canada, United States, South Africa, Latin America and China, and selling them to hospitals, pharmacies and aid groups. One of the focuses of MedMira was to expand to Over-the-Counter market as there happened some changes that made it possible to consider this attempt: New infections were happening and about 3.1 million people were dying from HIV. This adds a higher preoccupation to the government and specialists on the health sector and pressure to arrange a solution. During the 80’s, there were few available treatment and when people knew they had the virus they would see it as a death sentence. Nowadays this idea is disappearing as technology is more advanced, it is a â€Å"more manageable illness† and there is an increase of information available about HIV. Due to legal approval of the tests, MedMira was able to distribute rapid HIV tests in Canada, United States, China and European Union. This is a step closer of entering the OTC market. Rapid testing was expected to grow between 20 to 30 per cent of the market. This expected growth was also related to a higher approval by governments as there were changes in the society acceptance and technological improvements on this area. Comparison factor as Medmira’s first rapid HIV test for OTC, Miracare, had a big success in China and this could happen in the rest of the world. Due to this accomplishment, international demand for this product has increased. Prepare a SWOT analysis for MedMira Aids Test. The following SWOT analysis contains the most significant and strategically important internal and external conditions that MedMira faces. The Internal is divided into strengths and weakness and the external is divided into opportunities and threats: Internal Strengths: -HIV test market leader -Easy use Weakness: -Ethical concerns -Cannibalization of revealing G2 External Opportunities: -Partnership with HA -Open door for testing other diseases -Growing rapid test market Threats: -Ethical concerns -Possible partnership of HA with competitors -Entry costs MedMira has some internal strengths by being a HIV test market leader, specially selling to hospitals, and suitable for at-home use. The Aids test is also easier to use and faster on getting the results relative to the competition, result of this was a higher international recognition. Relative to weakness aspects, there are some ethical concerns such as the possibility of testing without another person’s authorization that is a negative aspect. Apart from this, in case MedMira is able to enter the OTC market, there is a possibility of cannibalizing the sales of Reveal G2 to laboratories and hospitals, as the products would be considered as â€Å"substitutes† as they practically have the same objective. One of the opportunities is the partnership with Home Access and develop a revised  version of HA’s Consumer Advocate System. This partnership would eliminate the ethical concerns MedMira couldn’t address and would also help to remain competitiveness, build a barrier to entry of other firms on the phone support system and reduce courier costs. Another opportunity is if MedMira could enter the OTC market, it would be an open door for rapid tests of other infectious diseases that are worth millions. For last, the development of the rapid test market is a favorable trend to higher sales and profits, which is seen as a good opportunity. If Home Access, which possesses a patent on phone support system, joins with one of the competitors, MedMira will eventually lose competitiveness with this partnership, being one of the main threats. For last, entry costs on the OTC market are high and it is not clear if the company could afford the expansion at this moment. To conclude this analysis, the partnership would have a positive impact in the society. Because if consumers are able to buy rapid tests, this could prompt people to be tested earlier in a faster, easier and more accessible way, which would reduce the instances of transmission.

Developing of Online Enrolment System

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

James Langston Hughes :: Poet Poetry

Langston Hughes One of the most promising of the young Negro poets said to me once, â€Å"I want to be a poet—not a Negro poet,† meaning, I believe, â€Å"I want to write like a white poet,† meaning subconsciously, â€Å"I would like to be a white poet;† meaning behind that, â€Å"I would like to be white.† And I doubted then that, with his desire to run away spiritually from his race, this boy would ever be a great poet. But this is the mountain standing in the way of any true Negro art in America—this urge within to race toward whiteness, the desire to pour racial individuality into the mold of American standardization, and to be as little Negro and as much American as possible (Hughes, Modern Internet). As a successful writer, Langston Hughes was proud to be African American, a fact inherent in all his literary works. Hughes’ optimistic attitude that not all people are prejudiced provided impetus to take chances to get his poetry noticed. Intensely criticized by many Negro critics and intellectuals, Hughes wrote about oppression and other racial themes in his works and utilized a jazz and blues rhythm in conjunction with black urban language. James Mercer Langston Hughes’ writing was profoundly influenced by his life, his ethnicity, and the way he viewed the world around him. He never lost sight of the fact he was African American and wrote his poetry for the people not his critics or contemporaries. Vachel Lindsay greatly influenced Langston Hughes’ writing style. Hughes, wanting to hear Lindsay read his poetry and knowing he would not be allowed into the auditorium because of his ethnic background, dared to handwrite three of his poems and leave them beside Lindsay’s plate at a restaurant where Hughes worked as a busboy (Langston, Elements 378). Langston Hughes knew he would never be allowed to speak to the famous poet, and took a risk to give Lindsey handwritten poetry; he hoped the literary giant would notice and perhaps appreciate his work. Hughes was not ashamed of being African American or a busboy and that’s why he took the chance Lindsay would actually look at his work. Hughes’ ploy worked when the headlines of the local paper the next morning read that Vachel Lindsey claimed to have found the next great African American poet. Hughes, a well-educated and traveled writer by the time he was in his mid-twenties, enjoyed the clubs around Harlem, New York and other cities around the world where he traveled. These clubs heavily influenced the poetry written by Hughes.

Lorraine Hansberrys A Raisin In The Sun :: essays research papers

A Raisin In the Sun  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Staci King Lorraine Hansberry  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A-2 PCP Penguin Books  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  10-29-99 1988 Rpt. 2 A Raisin In the Sun is a drama play that takes place â€Å"sometime between World War II and the present.† The family lived in Chicago’s Southside. The town was very â€Å"dusky† and as each day passed the nights got colder. The Younger family lived in a small old apartment with only two small rooms. The little one had to sleep on the couch every night. The house needed a great amount of fixing up; everyone was ready to move out. Ruth Younger is about thirty years old. She is married to Walter Lee Young and they have a son named Travis. â€Å" Ruth is a pretty girl, even exceptionally so, but now it is apparent that life has been little that she expected, and disappointment has already begun to hang in her face. In a few years, before thirty-five even, she will be known among her people as a ‘settled woman.’† Ruth tries to do everything she can to make her family happy. She just wants the best for them. Walter Lee Younger is a â€Å"lean, intense young man in his middle thirties, inclined to quick nervous movements and erratic speech habits and always in his voice there is a quality of indictment.† He works as a chauffeur, but his dream is to one day open up a liquor store. Walter has a very bad temper and tends to say things he doesn’t mean. Walter and his wife have been getting into many fights. He has a really bad temper. Many times when Walter gets upset he goes out and gets drunk. Walter likes to spoil his son Travis. Beneatha Younger is Walter’s smart, younger sister. She is about twenty years old and â€Å" as slim and intense as her brother. She is not as pretty as her sister-in-law, but her lean intellectual face has a handsomeness of its own.† She also gets her bad temper from Walter. Beneatha wants to become a doctor when she gets older. She says everything that is on her mind and it never seems like she is happy. Beneatha finds most everything people say to be offensive to her some how. Lena Younger, known as Mama, is in her early sixties. â€Å" She is one of those women of a certain grace and beauty who wear it so unobtrusively that it takes a while to notice.

Spirituality for the Alienated

Struggling with the Spirit in today’s world is a daunting challenge. Most fail. This is because the mainline culture holds that the life of the Spirit is actually a life of the mind, a life of the emotions somewhat distorted by older, â€Å"discredited† system of spirituality and life. Burg’s project, however, is not so much denying this rather dogmatic approach, but in reconstructing it so that the moderns can come to the life of the spirit with few doubts and problems. However, Borg speaks to me for several reasons: first, my love of the eastern tradition stresses Christ as Tao, as the path, rather than as a dogmatic set of beliefs.It is not so much that dogma is a problem–as it merely asserts things as true–but these propositions never exist in themselves, they exist as part of a broader whole, a struggle with myself and the modern world (Damascene, 1999). This struggle is about integration: the integration of a tradition, a set of beliefs held p ropositionally, but also its integration within a culture that is often hostile, and that–it seems–seeks to constantly throw roadblocks in the way of one’s struggle. This paper, then, will take my own struggle through the methods Borg uses to reconnect Christianity to modern life.The basic thesis here is integration: taking the insights from all relevant communities to construct a reasonable and useful understanding of Jesus and his mission. For Borg’s (1995) work, the real struggle is twofold: first, the struggle between the communal understanding of Christ and his historical essence, and second, the struggle with integrating â€Å"modern scholarship† with one’s life of true faith. This struggle is very real, but for Borg, his uncritical acceptance of â€Å"modern scholarship† as a set of infallible oracles who have no agenda or ulterior motives make his approach weak and compliant.Nevertheless, the insights taken from this approach cannot be ignored. The basic historical approach Borg takes is highly problematic: Christ did not say what is attributed to him, this existed as an oral tradition prior to being written down, hence unreliable, and lastly, that these oral ideas were written down by a community that had already experienced Christ and hence, itself is largely personal and cultural (Borg, 1995). Unfortunately, he refuses to deal with the large body of work that refutes these theses, such as McDowell (2006), Strobel (1998), Siciliano (2001) and so many others.His assumption that the modernist scholarship is true (rather than as an ideological construct) shows his criticism to be poorly developed: if the Christ of the ancient world is an ideological construct of the community (and hence unreliable), why is the modern academic, also part of a community, not guilty of the same crime? The fact that Borg is a part of this community might help in answering that problem. If I am to hold that Christ is the creat ion of an ideologically motivated community, then there is no reason why the â€Å"modern scholarship† on this question is not also an ideologically motivated community.Nevertheless, it is the case that struggles against the modern idea are real, and some of their insights cannot be cast out of hand, as this community does to what they call the â€Å"fundamentalists. † There are several issues Borg takes the reader though that are full of insight and use for the modern Christian buffeted by the modern mentality. In Borg’s Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time (1995), he stresses that images of Jesus are important for one’s development as a Christian. There are several images that he identifies:Jesus as Savior: likely the most common image. Christ came to earth to save man frm sin, to take his human nature and link it to the divine, hence cleansing it, and bringing it through the realm of death, hence conquering it. Second, Jesus as teacher, Jesus came to earth to primarily teach a set of doctrines about Himself, the world and the Christian’s relation to it. Third, Jesus as the â€Å"king of creation,† the stern judge and teacher of righteousness. Fourth, Jesus as moralist, that Jesus came to earth to primary teach an ethical system.And lastly, Jesus as a liturgical figure, the Jesus whose beauty is such that normal words cannot describe it, but it can only be understood in poetry and the symbolism of liturgy (Borg, 2-5). This is an important approach. All of these, to one extent or another, are a part of each Christian’s life, but some are more significant than others. Borg seems to hold that the real problem for modern Christians is the â€Å"propositional† nature of â€Å"faith. † That faith, for him, is the assent to a series (literally a list) of propositions: Christ is the Son of God, Christ walked on water, etc.The problem is that the modern person lives in a society that lives by its own do gmas: that such things cannot happen because they â€Å"violate the laws of nature. † Of course, this assumes that Christ is not their author. He does have a solution, one that I find personally satisfying: that there are two Christs (though not literally), the Christ that existed prior to the resurrection, and the Christ that came after. The latter is the Christ that should motivate the modern reader, and this is the Christ that motivated the early Christian community to write the scriptures.The assumption is that this community made up a series of stories and held to it. The fact that the resurrection and crucifixion made no sense to the surrounding Jewish or pagan world is not considered. In other words, that no real religious interest was served by creating these stories, since the concept of a crucified God was abhorrent to both communities. Nevertheless, he holds that the motivation of writing the Gospels come from the resurrection, which Borg takes as true from the tes timony of the Scriptures that he does not trust (Borg, 1995). Nevertheless, Borg, while inconsistent, is involved with a similar struggle to my own.Being from a secular household, the concept of Christ and his miracles was strange to me. No different, really, than a cartoon superhero. It was so easy to reject them, so hard to accept them. But this was not a matter of assent and intellectual life, but rather socially. To preach Christ to anyone other than the converted is to lose a great deal of social capital. This I felt powerfully. But intellectually, I never had a problem: â€Å"science,† or rather, the scientific establishment, tells me that the infinitely complex life of DNA came into existence by chance.If this was true, then how strange was it to believe that God came to earth to teach men about Himself? I never thought it strange that Christ was God, while my friends believed that Eric Clapton was God. What I did find strange was the mentality of belief as â€Å"prop ositions. † In other words, that one could hold to the list of accepted beliefs about God and Christ, but the integration of these ideas into the world about them was the real challenge. Borg’s other famed work, The Heart of Christianity: Rediscovering the life of Faith, has helped me put this problem into a better perspective.In fact, it is precisely the statement of the problem that makes the most sense, just as much as the solution itself. In other words, the context of the problem suggests its own answer. Borg writes that Christ should be seen as a way of life rather than as a set of beliefs (Borg, 2004, 25). However, the problem is that Borg seems to say this so as to relieve himself of the pressure of believing things that â€Å"modern scholarship† has decided are false. This, as I have already said, is the great weak spot of this series of books. But it helps to place it like this:Dogma: This is an intellectual approach to God and Christ. It holds to a set of beliefs both as reflecting the historical world of facts, and at the same time, demands a consistency among the propositions believed. This is fair enough. But the real issue is that it is a matter of the head. If Christianity was to be a strictly rational, empirical religion, then why did Christ not speak in this way? Christ, rather than speaking as a metaphysician, spoke in parables, He spoke in aphorisms, He spoke in stories of only a few sentences. He seems to preach by example as much as by words.Way: Christ preached by example, by the words and actions that he integrated within himself for a short span of three years. He struggles with non-belief, the arrogance of the Pharisees, and incomprehension of the Romans. But this is precisely our condition: our modern Pharisees, our modern secular people consistently give us trouble. Christ is a way of struggle rather than as a set of dogmatic beliefs (Damascene, 1999). Borg (2004, 28-37) does one better: he reduces the struggle t his way: Christ and the Christian mission in the modern world can be reduced to four specific approaches:(1) Assensus: this is a matter of rational assent. This is the problem, at least when such assent is separated from the community. One can hold that Borg is really trying to minimize conflicts, to minimize the â€Å"dogmatic† element of Christ so as to lower the threshold of belief: more and more can come to Christ if they do not need to â€Å"pass the belief test. † At the same time, Borg can also be said to hold this because either he does not believe the dogmatic pronouncements about Christ, or his community (i. e. the academic community) does not, and he does not want to be left out, or attacked as a â€Å"fundamentalist.† (2) Fidelity: this is the matter is personal relationship. This is not so much a matter of a-dogmatism, but goes beyond it: love is stronger than intellectual assent. One follows Christ not because he has given assent to a series of dog mas, but rather, because Christ is a man worthy of being followed. A man that exudes love in the strongest sense of the world. (3) Vision: the approach where faith in Christ makes sense out of the whole: the world, the community even of religion. While it is is true that Christ preached the coming of his Church, he did not speak of it all that much.Christ spoke of a life of struggle, of virtue, of a personal relationship through faith. The apostles had this, and still could not keep Judas. The vision is to bring the whole into integration with Christ’s teachings, the real basis of this paper and the basis of my personal life. One cannot run from the world, but one can infuse it with Christ and his teachings. But this is difficult with so many teachings about Christ, one does not know which image to pick,. This is the problem, and many have rejected Him altogether because fo the disagreements. This many be the real strength of Borg and his approach.(4) Trust: this seems to syn thesize all the above. One trusts in the message of Jesus, but a message that might not be literally â€Å"true,† but is the experience of God in and by the community. If one approaches scriptures in this manner, then one can get over the â€Å"belief threshold† and see the Scriptures as a â€Å"response to God,† rather than a historical record. On a more personal note, the most satisfying part of Borg’s work is in his threefold â€Å"basis† of the Christian life in the modern era. I’d like to make this the conclusion, and the real central element of my personal response to reading Borg.In his (2004) work, Borg holds that the modern mission of Christianity can be reduced to three elements: (1) The affirmation of the reality of God. Now this can be done two ways: first, through intellectual arguments, but also as a set of experiences. Borg prefers the latter. Nevertheless, in my own history, it was the former that led me to the latter. In my younger years of obligatory doubt, it was not the experience of God, it was the understanding of him. Once I understood him, I could feel and experience him. But my understanding came in the form of a series of negations: I could not believe that DNA ever came into existence by chance.DNA is the great proof of the intelligence of God, the very nature of His creative power (at least that which is open to human observation). I could not believe that matter was eternal. Even in my younger years, while I could not articulate such an idea, I most certainly believed it. Materialism holds that matter is God, in the sense that all things, including life, came from it. It is also eternal and hence, all powerful. Once I realized this set of ideas that must be held by materialism, I realized that the life of the spirit was for me. Life cannot come from death, since something cannot give what it does not have.Consciousness does not come from chance. I saw these as the affirmation of the dogmati c and ideological community of modern scholarship and science, I saw it as the worst and crudest form of obscurantism (2) The centrality of Jesus. While I have no problem with this concept, I can not imagine that Borg can say the same. Jesus? But if one holds that the Jesus of Scripture is deliberately falsified, then what is he speaking of here? He never says. Jesus seems to become an archetype rather than a person. If one holds that the New Testament is falsified (a concept I hold as fantastic) then Christ can never be central.In other words, unless one holds to certain things as historically true (i. e. dogma), then Christ can never be the central part of one’s life. (3) Lastly, the centrality of the scriptures. There are two ways of viewing this: first, the scriptures as historically true, which Borg rejects, and the scriptures as reflecting, in words, the early community’s experience with God. Of course, these are not mutually exclusive, but the latter does more a ccurately reflect out situation. We do experience God in our lives. What we write about this comes out as vague and poetic.It is not history, but at best, psychology. It does not mean that the experiences are false, but that there are only so many ways that such experiences can be expressed. The final expression cannot, however, be called â€Å"history. † I commend Borg for trying, but he ultimately, fails. He cannot have it both ways: to reject scripture (as his community does) but still hold Jesus as central. Jesus cannot be central if his life is falsified. Borg is ultimately a sloppy writer that seems to want to pleas everyone, and make Christianity an easy religion for all to approach.Whatever he likes about the Scriptures he uses, whatever will get him made fun of by his colleagues, he rejects. This is dishonest, and says more about the academic community than the early Christian community. Basically Borg is trying to rescue Christianity from the attacks of the modern c ritics, while affirming that everything that those critics say about the Bible is true. Nevertheless, we have all experienced the doubt, the pressure of the outside world. It is all the matter of context and expression: how we approach God in a materialistic world. That, Borg can do nicely. Bibliography:Borg, Marcus (1995) Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time. HarperOne. ___. (2004) The Heart of Christianity: Rediscovering the Life of Faith. HarperOne Damascene, Fr. (1999) Christ the Eternal Tao. St. Herman’s Press. Fr. Damascene’s book strongly takes the approach advocated by Borg. He holds that Christ as a relational entity (so to speak) leads to believing in Christ as the Way, a method, a path to Enlightenment and truth. McDowell, Josh. (2006). Evidence for Christianity. Thomas Nelson Publishers. Strobel, Leo. (1998). The Case for Christ. Zondervan. Siciliano, Terry. (2001) Beyond a Reasonable Doubt: Evidence for Christianity.Truth Press. These are three major wor ks that refute the thesis that Christ’s message was falsified. There are many means to do this, but the most impressive one is that the message that came out in the Scriptures is repugnant to both the Jewish and Pagan mentality: rising from the dead, execution like a common criminal, no military force, etc. were all highly disagreeable to the environment in which the Scriptures were first written and disseminated. Hence, they must be true. If one was going to invent a series of events, the last series one would invent at the time was that which was actually written.