Managing Business Processes& Information Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Overseeing Business Processes& Information - Essay Example In the ongoing marvel, it has been generally viewed as that clients are among the greatest resources of any type of business in the advanced business situation. The presentation of any specialty unit is in this way generally reliant on the methodologies and view of the clients towards the business and its items or potentially benefits (Brandi, 2001). In this way, the idea of client support appears. Perspectives, for example, picking up client steadfastness and their maintenance over quite a while period, contain the methodology of the organizations towards dealing with the clients successfully. Hypothetically, customer’s administrations are alluded to the arrangements or the methodologies followed by contemporary specialty units in serving their clients with the sole goal to expand their image esteem and correspondingly, increment brand dedication for the items/benefits on offer under the brand. The procedure organizations follow while managing the clients when the acquisition of the item to guarantee most elevated conceivable fulfillment to the purchasers. This not just encourages organizations to accomplish amplification of their benefit level yet in addition guarantees the general maintainable improvement of the organization, helping it to get the job done the stakeholders’ interests to a significant degree. According to the guideline of client administrations, associations are likewise coordinated to be responsive towards the protests of the clients and their desires from the business and plan their move as needs be in arrangement with the market patterns (Slack, and et. al., 2011; Svendsen, 1998). This will ensure that the clients are fulfilled, compensating most extreme dependability to the specialty units, which further decides due consistence of the announcement by Dr. W Edwards Deming - â€Å"Keep the clients returning; not the products.† In this unique circumstance, the paper plans to direct an intricate conversation on the announ cement of Dr. W. Edwards Deming with center around its focal topic. Besides, the paper likewise underlines reproducing the different elements of the announcement by delineating the case situation saw in Tesco, a worldwide retail chain that is right now managing the issue of frail client administrations. In like manner, certain suggestions for development will likewise be given to the equivalent. Clarifying the Central Focus of the Statement †â€Å"Keep the Customers Coming Back; Not the Products† by Dr. W Edwards Deming It is obvious that clients are one of the most conspicuous partners for any kind of business and they will in general have an immediate and solid effect on the productivity and viability of the business through reacting to the company’s activity. Therefore, it is significant that so as to draw in the consideration of the clients, organizations need to think of different assorted thoughts so as to protect the interests of the clients as unblemished towards the business for a more drawn out timeframe. Relevantly, it tends to be

Biography of Mark Dean, Computer Pioneer

Life story of Mark Dean, Computer Pioneer Imprint Dean (conceived March 2, 1957) is an American innovator and PC engineer. He was a piece of the group that built up a portion of the key parts to early PCs during the 1980s. Dignitary holds three of the nine licenses identified with IBM’s PCs, and his work shapes some portion of the establishment of present day registering. Quick Facts: Mark Dean Occupation: Computer engineerKnown For: Co-designer of the individual computerBorn: March 2, 1957 in Jefferson City, TennesseeEducation: University of Tennessee, Florida Atlantic University, Stanford UniversitySelected Honors: IBM Fellow, Black Engineer of the Year Presidents Award, National Inventors Hall of Fame inductee Early Life Senior member was conceived in Jefferson City, Tennessee. He apparently had an enthusiasm for science and an adoration for innovation since early on. His dad was a manager at the Tennessee Valley Authority, the service organization established during the Great Depression to help modernize and accommodate the district. As a kid, Deans early structure ventures included structure a tractor without any preparation, with his father’s help, and his greatness at math grabbed the eye of educators in any event, when he was in grade school. A phenomenal understudy just as an understudy competitor, Dean did well all through his tutoring at Tennessee Valley High School. After secondary school, he went on to the University of Tennessee, where he studied designing and graduated at the highest point of his group in 1979. After school, Dean started searching for a vocation, in the long run arriving at IBM-a decision that would completely change him and the whole software engineering field. Vocation at IBM For most of his profession, Dean was related with IBM, where he pushed software engineering and innovation into another time. From the get-go in his vocation, Dean end up being a genuine advantage for the organization, rising rapidly and picking up the regard of increasingly prepared companions. His ability drove him to work with another designer, Dennis Moeller, to make another bit of innovation. The Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) frameworks transport was another framework that permitted fringe gadgets, for example, circle drives, screens, printers, modems, and more to be stopped straightforwardly into PCs, for better-coordinated and simpler to-utilize figuring. Indeed, even while at IBM, Dean didn't stop his instruction. Very quickly, he came back to class at Florida Atlantic University to get his master’s qualification in electrical building; the degree was presented in 1982. In 1992, he likewise got a PhD in electrical designing, this time from Stanford University. His progressing training added to his capacity to advance in when software engineering was creating and extending quickly. After some time, Deans work started to concentrate on improving the PC. He built up a shading screen for the PC, just as different upgrades. The IBM PC, discharged in 1981, started with nine licenses for its innovation, three of which have a place explicitly with Mark. In 1996, Deans work was remunerated at IBM when he was made an IBM Fellow (the most noteworthy respect for greatness at the organization). This accomplishment was something other than close to home for Dean: he was the principal African-American to be granted with this respect. Just a year later, in 1997, Dean got two increasingly significant acknowledgments: the Black Engineer of the Year Presidents Award and an enlistment into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Milestone Accomplishment Senior member drove a group that built up an immense forward leap at IBM and for the PC world all in all. With a group based out of IBM’s Austin, Texas, lab, Dean and his architects made the first gigahertz PC processor chip in 1999. The progressive chip, entrusted with completing the computations and fundamental procedures of a PC, could do one billion counts for each second. With this new innovation, the PC world took a monster jump forward. Through the span of his profession, Dean had in excess of 20 licenses enrolled for his advancement PC building work. He later moved up the positions at IBM as a Vice President administering the company’s San Jose, California, Almaden Research Center, just as the main innovation official for IBM Middle East and Africa. In 2001, he turned into an individual from the National Academy of Engineers. Present-Day Career Imprint Dean is the John Fisher Distinguished Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Tennessee. In 2018, he was named the break dignitary of the university’s Tickle College of Engineering. Dignitary likewise stood out as truly newsworthy in 2011 when he about the declining fame of the PC, very gadget he helped make typical. He even conceded that he had changed to principally utilizing a tablet. In a similar paper, Dean helped perusers to remember the mankind that must underscore all innovation utilization: â€Å"These days, it’s turning out to be evident that advancement prospers best not on gadgets yet in the social spaces between them, where individuals and thoughts meet and communicate. It is there that processing can have the most impressive effect on economy, society and people’s lives.† Sources Earthy colored, Alan S. Imprint E. Dignitary: From PCs to Gigahertz Chips.† The Best of Tau Beta Pi (Spring 2015), https://www.tbp.org/bars/Features/Sp15Bell.pdf.Dean, Mark. â€Å"IBM Leads the Way in the Post-PC Era.† Building A Smarter Planet, 10 August 2011, https://web.archive.org/web/20110813005941/http://asmarterplanet.com/blog/2011/08/ibm-drives the-way-in-the-post-pc-era.html.â€Å"Mark Dean: Computer Programmer, Inventor.â€Å" Biography, https://www.biography.com/individuals/mark-dignitary 604036

A See In Attach Example

Topic N/A See In Attach Example Topic N/A See In Attach â€" Assignment Example > LOCATION ANALYSISINTRODUCTIONSince ages, land and property have influenced the growth and prosperity of a location or area. The land attributes or the physical landscape, the materials and natural wealth of an area has been mainly responsible for the economic growth of a region. Thus economists have been studying the effects of resources of space and location on the economic activity and economic growth and this is known as the spatial economics. Usually, the spatial economics is concerned with the location analysis which in turn is dependant on the location choice. But this is only one of the many factors affecting economic activity and growth. (Duranton, 2005). But though some experts such as Debreu (1959) argue that spatial economics is only about space, it is not true. Others such as Ricardo (1821), believe that other factors can also be taken into consideration when discussing location choices. He developed a theory of land use based on relative fertility. This and others fin ally led to the theories of location and trade that are based on the concept of comparative advantages across locations. As of today, there are two main approaches of spatial economics -- the first is the urban systems approach as given by Henderson (1974) which focuses on cities and areas growing because of combination of agglomeration economies and urban crowding. And the second is the New economic geography given by Krugman (1991). According to this approach, the cost of trading is more important than the transportation costs in urban systems. Moreover, workers want to be in the area where there is larger market due to agglomeration as it gives them better access to consumers. Basically, location choices by companies, businesses and individuals are based on the information they have on that location. Thus, a major issue in the development of land and property markets is the non availability of timely and accurate market data and the inability to interpret that data in an approp riate fashion. And thus markets and areas that are able to possess such information certainly have the competitive advantage and are able to attract better companies and investment to their location. Another important area of investigation is the role of agglomeration economies in the choice of location by businesses in the regional and international economics. Many experts have shown that by clustering together the same kind of economic activities, the businesses are able to cut costs and gain profitability and productivity and thus many companies go for locations which already have the same kind of economic activity. But it has also been seen that the location decisions of foreign firms are different from their domestic counterparts and thus these need to be investigated separately. And as pointed out by Caves (1996), foreign firms face more uncertainty on account of quality of location and it has to bear higher costs for information search as compared to the domestic firms. CHO SEN AREA For our study, we have chosen the area of Leeds in UK as the study location. Leeds have been chosen because it is one of the prime areas in UK which has been attracting businesses since long. It has recently been named one of the best places in Europe to locate a business (as per Cushman Wakefield ‘European Cities Monitor’). Some of the other key facts about the region are:

Media s Influence On Public Perception Of Law Enforcement...

It is no secret that the media is able to influence the general public’s opinion on most anything. Whether the subject is fiction or non, movies, documentaries, and the news especially, are capable of swaying the public’s opinions and perceptions one way or the other. Not even the world of law enforcement is safe from the media’s purview (Barlow, M. H. and Barlow, D. E. and Chiricos T. G., 1995), as media portrayals often romanticize law enforcement as a well oiled machine that always gets the bad guy, and has a perfect relationship with the public. On top of this, the media has displayed a poor habit of portraying crime as predominantly violent and racial, rather than showing the whole picture(Gilliam, F. D. and Iyengar, S. and Simon, A. and Wright, O., 1996). In this paper, the motives driving these depictions, as well as the scope and effect of the media’s influence on public perception of law enforcement, will be explored and discussed. MEDIA INFLUENCE One of the largest ways the media influences public opinions is through the news. News outlets report on local and world events, often applying their own bias to advance an agenda (Cavender, 2004). In general, entertainment television depicts crime, especially violent crime, far more often than it actually occurs in the real world (O’Keefe, 1987). Crime is more often than not presented to the public in two ways: crime is violent and criminals are nonwhite (Gilliam, et al, 1996). When put together, these two factors haveShow MoreRelatedThe Problem Of Local Police868 Words   |  4 PagesDescription of the Problem Local police are being overly co-opt by federal law enforcement agencies. They are directing too many resources toward protecting the nation’s borders and other federal duties. It is a belief held by some that local police are becoming too militaristic in nature by using military-style weapons, tactics, training, uniforms, and heavy equipment. This notion makes local police no longer a benefit for the community. A number of attacks on American soil have demonstrated thisRead MoreThe Media And The Criminal Justice System Essay1260 Words   |  6 PagesThe media plays the role as entertaining and a source of information to its viewers, however, with the current crime trends, most viewers have the perceptions that our criminal justice system is lacking in areas of proper sentencing and protecting the viewers. All this is based upon what we see in the media is the information reliable or not? I say this because of hearing about news personality lying about their experience only to booster the networks rating. When the criminal justice system hasRead More Profiling and Police/Community Relations Essay1435 Words   |  6 Pagescompleted by early intervention systems, in an effort to reduce complaints from members of the community. The literature on the attitudes which community members have about profiling states that race, personal experience, and media framing influence the public’s perception (Graziano, Schuck, Martin, 2010; Weitzer Tuch, 2002). The literature on early intervention systems is demonstrative of how such systems can become critical management tools, tailor-made for addressing behavioral and managementRead MoreRealtionship Between the Media, Public Perceptions of Crime and Police1553 Words   |  7 PagesDoes the media and the amount of exposure to specific news media affect fear of crime? This question is examined in a survey with data collected from three universities in the United States and one in Canada;  The Impact of Media on Fear of Crime among University Students: A Cross-National Comparison, goes over the results. It’s believed that fear in itself can be debilitating leading to harmful social outcomes. 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The first law enforcement system was established in Boston, Massachusetts over 350 yea rsRead MoreMedia Reports And Police Brutality2942 Words   |  12 PagesMedia Reports and Police Brutality The purpose of my proposed research is to study the effect of media reports on the current Americans’ perceptions of police brutality. Police brutality has been a headline topic for debate for the past century. This topic’s popularity has grown recently due to advancements in media technology over the past two decades. Police brutality is a problem in the United States for both, citizens and police officers. It is important to study the effect that mass media coverageRead MorePolice Officers As Beacon For Justice963 Words   |  4 PagesIn the past the media portrayed police officers as beacon for justice. Based on personal experiences, until about the 1990’s every little boy growing up wanted to be the good guy. However in today’s new popular culture, young boys are no longer arguing over who gets to be the good guy. The villain is now seen as a viable option. The difference in views comes from the mass media; police officers are now being represented in a more negative characteristic. Some police portrayals show the police asRead MoreCrime Is Not A Major Problem1855 Words   |  8 Pagesresults to be an accurate assessment and reflection of crime, to examine and compare differing perspectives of crime, and to research the effect the media has upon the perceptions of crime and whether it can accurately determine whether crime is a major problem in Australia. Crime has always been socially defined, determined by morals ethics and perceptions, and leads to varying and competing views and comprehensive debate. It can be universally agreed that the definition of crime in terms of legal

The Development Of Human Genome Development - 1229 Words

Cellular process that are crucial for health or disease are orchestrated by the expression of multiple genes in a network of differential complex signaling pathways, consisting of many physical and functional interactions. Unlike the stable genome structure, the highly dynamic interactome represents a major challenge for quantitative mapping of protein-protein interactions . In this article, I will discuss the latest systems science advances by using breakthrough technologies to gain an understanding of the whole picture of the spatiotemporal signaling network as a response to dynamic individual genome-lifestyle interactions and translating it to the clinic. The intracellular signal transduction network involves the two complex†¦show more content†¦Current and emerging sequencing- and arrays-based methods are changing life sciences. Understanding how genome structural variation influences gene-expression regulatory networks and organ homeostasis, leading to disease, will change medical implementations, improving healthcare by achieving personalized clinical practice, particularly in cancer diagnostics and therapeutics . Combining next-generation sequencing with advancing mass spectrometry-based proteomics and phosphoproteomics , living cells imaging technologies and 3D genome mapping now provide powerful strategies for understanding input-output circuits at the protein, gene, chromosome and whole-genome level. Collectively, these genome-mapping novel technologies and systems and synthetic biology advances, along with mathematical and computational strategies , allow us to shift from amazing cell lines and network modeling r esearch to the initial steps of clinical genome and clinical cell signaling transduction circuits , which build the foundation for medical practice. 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Decision Support for Best Practices Lessons Learned Free Essays

string(153) " analyze results based on practical experience, and package what is learned into an Experience Base for new users of the organization to find and apply\." Decision support for best practices: Lessons learned on bridging the gap between research and applied pratice. Today, everyone is looking at best practices for developing a system or making the right choice in acquiring system components. If the right best practices are applied, they help to avoid common problems and improve quality, cost, or both. We will write a custom essay sample on Decision Support for Best Practices Lessons Learned or any similar topic only for you Order Now However, finding and selecting an appropriate best practice is not always an easy endeavor. In most cases guidance, based on sound experience, is missing; often the best practice is too new, still under study, or the existing experiences do not fit the user’s context. This article reports on a program that tries to bridge the gap between rigorous  empirical research  and practical needs for guiding practitioners in selecting appropriate best practices. ********** Many program managers would agree that using time-tested â€Å"Best Practices† can help to avoid common problems and increase the quality of a system, reduce development cost, or both. For instance, in a short survey at the 2004 Conference on the Acquisition of Software-Intensive Systems, 48 senior systems and software managers supported the use of Best Practices. However, the same survey indicated that it is hard to find such Best Practices. The survey identified the following reasons for this problem: * Best practices often do not exist (i. e. , they have not been publicly documented), * People do not know of a certain best practice, or * Best practices are not easily accessible (i. e. , there is no central place to look for best practices). The last point matches a more general study by the Delphi Group in which more than 65 percent of the interviewees agreed that finding the right nformation to do their job is difficult (Delphi, 2002). Further research conducted by the U. S. Department of Defense (DoD) concluded that barriers for the adoption of best practices included: * the lack of selection criteria among practices within cost-constrained programs, * the lack of confidence in the value of such practices by the program offices, and * the inability to relate practices to the risks and issues programs were facing. In summary, recognizing g ood practices and  disseminating  them to the workforce seems to be a key issue. To address these issues the DoD Acquisition Best Practices Clearinghouse (BPCh) program, sponsored by several offices of the DoD (DS,  ARA, National Information Infrastructure [NII], and Defense Procurement ; Acquisition Policy [DPAP]), was initiated in 2003 (Dangle, Dwinnell, Hickok ; Turner, 2005). The Fraunhofer Center for Experimental Software Engineering, Maryland (FC-MD) was chosen to develop the initial â€Å"proof of concept† for a system to document, evaluate, and  disseminate  Best Practices. In collaboration with other organizations within the DoD and industry (including  Northrop Grumman  IT, the Computer Sciences Corporation [CSC], and the Systems and Software Consortium [SSCI]), a prototype system has been built and piloted. It is currently operated and hosted by the Defense Acquisition University (DAU). THE VISION FOR APPLYING BEST PRACTICES The DoD vision for the BPCh initiative is to provide more than just a list of Best Practices. It is to provide an integrated set of processes, tools, and resources which will enable information seekers to identify emerging or ell-proven practices that have been implemented and proven effective. Practices in the BPCh serve as an information resource to individuals  looking for  ideas on how to improve quality and become more effective in their job. Clearly, the vision of the BPCh is not to create another â€Å"data cemetery,† but to develop an information-sharing network around the BPCh repository which will foster relationships between individuals within DoD and also partnerships between DoD and industry leaders. The following types of questions illustrate usage examples: * â€Å"I just heard about accelerated life testing. Where can I find out if it’s useful or just hype? † * â€Å"They’ve just shortened my testing schedule by 30 percent. Are there any practices that can help me better handle that kind of schedule compression? † * â€Å"I want to add inspections to my quality process. Is it worth the cost and if so, what’s a good first step? Is there someone I can contact in case of any difficulties? * â€Å"I’ve taken over an acquisition program just before Critical Design Review (CDR). What practices should I look for in my contractors? † * â€Å"I’m in charge of defining a training course as part of the  continuing education  program for quality improvements. What are state-of-the-art or emerging practices that should be addressed? † The BPCh has been designed with the understanding that a single practice can never be a à ¢â‚¬Å"silver bullet† for each and every project/program. This is because some practices may only be useful or beneficial in certain contexts while failing to produce the desired results in others. For example, practices that are absolutely necessary for large, mission critical projects may be too heavyweight for  rapid prototyping  or Web application development. Practices that work well when the development team is located in the same room may not always scale well when the team is distributed across the country. Clearly, there exists no one â€Å"best† answer. Practices that are best for one user might not be best for the next. Therefore, the BPCh tool responds to user queries with a list of practices rated by how well they fit the project characteristics of the user making the query. The presented selection is compiled using the experience other users have had implementing the practice in a similar context. High-quality evidence about a practice is collected and reported with any necessary caveats, so that information seekers have a sound basis for making up their own minds given their needs. APPLYING TECHNOLOGY TO DELIVER BEST PRACTICES To develop the BPCh tool, we applied FC-MD’s EMPEROR approach (Experience Management Portal using Empirical Results as Organizational Resources). This approach makes use of all kinds of available  evidential  data from research and industry, analyzes and packages it, and disseminates it through a Web-based Experience Base. The EMPEROR is based on the experience factory approach, developed by Basili, Caldiera, and Rombach (1994), which has been successfully employed to facilitate  organizational learning  at  NASA  (Basili, et al. 1995), DaimlerChrysler (Schneider Schwinn, 2001), and elsewhere in  North America, Europe, and Australia (Koennecker, Jeffery, Low, 2000; Mendonca,  Seaman, Basili, Kim, 2001). An experience factory provides a way to analyze results based on practical experience, and package what is learned into an Experience Base for new users of the organization to find and apply. You read "Decision Support for Best Practices Lessons Learned" in c ategory "Papers" Since the users of the BPCh come from a wide variety of organizations and programs, any Experience Base will have difficulties in addressing all user needs. To mitigate this problem, EMPEROR is required to: (a) provide transparency to users, so that they can understand the analysis process and the sources of experience and make up their own minds; (b) rate the â€Å"trustability† of each of the used sources, so that users can judge the degree of confidence they have in the information provided; and (c) provide a completeness and maturity indicator of the practice information taken as a whole, that is, to perform a self-rating based on how much and what quality evidence can be offered. DATA STRUCTURE OF A BPCH PRACTICE These sections describe how these requirements are implemented in the case of the BPCh. In the BPCh, each practice has one associated Practice Record, containing information about the practice and what is available in the Clearinghouse, and zero to many Evidence Profiles, each of which contains a summary of a single organization’s experience using the practice. A Practice Record consists of: 1. A Practice Detail block, which contains information such as the practice name, a short description, and the completeness and maturity indicator for the experience package. . A Practice Summary block, which synthesizes all available evidence data and describes possible application contexts for the practice based on a set of characterizing attributes. This part of the practice record thereby allows different users (i. e. , organizations) to make use of the practice. An Evidence Profile contains an example or report of some type of program that has used this practice, how they applied it, and what results were obtained. Each Evidence Profile contains the same set of context and result fields as the Practice Summary block, except that the information recorded in each field will describe only what has been observed in the given context of the particular piece of evidence. In addition, the data structure of an Evidence Profile contains a field for documenting its classification of the trustability. TRUSTABILITY OF A SINGLE SOURCE OF EVIDENCE A 20-point scale rates the trustability of each Evidence Profile. A rating of l indicates an  anecdotal  or informal experience; a rating of 20 indicates that the results of applying the practice are rigorously measured and substantiated. Points are based on the following four dimensions: * how the practice was applied, ranging from a single pilot study to use on multiple real projects; * how the results were measured, ranging from an educated guess to a rigorous measurement program; * how the evidence was reported, ranging from an informal  anecdote  to a peerreviewed publication; and who reported the evidence, ranging from a second-hand report to someone directly involved on the team. More information on the rating scale can be found on the BPCh page of the Acquisition Community Connection of DAU (https://acc. dau. mil/bpch). MATURITY OF A PRACTICE RECORD A 4-point scale is used to rate each Practice Record to quickly inform the user of how much, and what type of, information is known about the practice. As required by EMPEROR, this scale focuses on the quality of the overall accumulated information that is available for a practice (i. e. the  synthesized  and packaged information in the Practice Record). Based on the available information we describe the practice maturity as: * No status assigned/Initial entry: A new Practice Record is initially entered into the BPCh when it is nominated by our experts and/or user communities. Typically at this time, only some of the fields in the Practice Detail block are filled in and no Evidence Profiles are available. * Bronze status/Awareness raised: As soon as any evidence becomes available (i. e. , an Evidence Profile has been linked to the Practice Record), the status is set to Bronze Level. For users, the Bronze Level status indicates that the practice has been nominated by our experts and user communities, and received a preliminary check for applicability. * Silver status/Evaluation performed: When a sufficient set of Evidence Profiles is available, the BPCh experts will fill in the Practice Summary block and the status is set to Silver Level. For users, the Silver Level status indicates that the practice has been selected as promising enough to commission experts in the area to summarize key information. Users can see at a glance what they should know. * Gold status/Continuously maintained: When the summary has been further evaluated (i. e. , vetted) by experts from industry, academia, and government, the status is set to Gold Level. For users, the Gold Level status indicates that the practice has been through a rigorous analysis by a committee of experts in the practice itself as well as by user representatives. Information on Gold Level practices contains the best and widest-ranging experiences we can find. CONTENT STATUS OF THE BPCH We have been piloting BPCh processes and tools by seeding initial content. At this point the BPCh contains 51 practices at all levels of maturity. Practices that have progressed to Gold Level are those, like inspection/technical review, which have a long history of published industrial experience. Many practices of interest in the area of systems and software acquisition have few documented sources of evidence or experience. Therefore, we are testing different processes for eliciting information from the workforce. Based on the recommendations of our User Advisory Group, the following types of practices are currently our top-priority areas for additional content: *  Earned Value Management, * Risk Management, * Information Assurance, and * Spiral Development Process. We hope that visitors to the BPCh tool will try out the offered features for providing short stories about their own experience with practices in these (or any other) areas. We encourage you to provide feedback as to whether you agree or  disagree with  the existing experiences that have been entered, or thoughts on our BPCh tool in general. LESSONS LEARNED Based on our experience with the BPCh program and other knowledgemanagement projects, we can formulate some observations which make useful rules of thumb for good practices to build such systems. The BPCh program has been organized along three parallel (but interconnected) tracks, which reflects our first lesson learned. LESSON 1: PROCEED IN MULTIPLE DIRECTIONS SIMULTANEOUSLY Progress in building a knowledge repository needs to proceed in multiple dimensions simultaneously: content collection, tool development, and outreach. Although there is often a temptation to view these as tasks that can be done sequentially (e. g. , first the tool will be built, then  populated, and then it will be advertised to users), we have found this to be an overly  simplistic  view that diminishes the chance of project success. Constructing the tool prior to collecting actual content and getting users’ feedback almost ensures that important user needs will be discovered late and will require much more effort to implement. Populating the content without getting user feedback leads to a high likelihood that the content will not really address user needs. More importantly, content needs to come from the user community, if the repository is to have a long-term life. We have found that for the research team to generate substantial amounts of content is a time-consuming way of recreating what many users already have at their  finger tips. Finally, engaging in outreach and building excitement in the community of potential users runs the risk of all prototyping efforts: When told how anything is possible in the final system, users often come up with many wish list features that are not really linked to their everyday needs. Moreover, users often get  frustrated  with the slow pace of progress when the system actually has to be implemented, and lose interest before the system is fielded. To avoid these problems, we have adopted an  incremental  approach, with content and tool development going on simultaneously and outreach activities to the user community (such as booths at major conferences, or specific User Advisory Group meetings) planned at major milestones. Although this sometimes stretches resources a bit thin, we feel this approach has enabled us to engage periodically with the user community, show them progress since the last  iteration, and get feedback on ever more mature versions of the system, with an initial body of content. LESSON 2: MAINTAIN A CONTINUOUS STREAM OF FUNDING Because of the interconnected nature of all the tasks listed above, having a stable funding stream is crucial. Requiring the team to take a  hiatus  from the project after a release is delivered leads to lost opportunities for user involvement (users find it hard to match their schedule to the development team’s), leads to new content ideas that miss getting followed up on, may result in the loss of expertise if experienced personnel resources are in transition to other projects during the hiatus, increases the personnel learning curve encountered at restarts, and may result in flagging interest in the user community since momentum generated during outreach is lost. LESSON 3: RECOGNIZE THE RELATIVE MERITS OF CONTENT Our most important lesson learned is a direct implication of the BPCh vision: There is no such thing as a â€Å"Best Practice. † Or, to say it more diplomatically: No practice will be â€Å"best† for every project. Practices that are absolutely necessary for large, mission-critical projects may be too heavyweight for rapid prototyping or Web application development. The implications of this lesson are many. Perhaps the most important is related to the tone of the recommendations that users find: Rather than arguing as an expert that readers should be following a given practice, or else they are doing something wrong, practices should be recommended to readers on the basis that projects of certain type(s) have found it useful. That is, rather than presenting a  foregone conclusion  to users, the system should aim at respecting users’ intelligence enough to enable them to draw their own conclusion, providing sufficient evidence as necessary for those decisions to be sound ones. LESSON 4: UNDERSTAND THE LIFE CYCLE OF BEST PRACTICES Practices (and practice information) are not static and have a real life cycle. Major  paradigm shifts  in the software development world can have an impact on which practices are recommended. The practices that seemed to be good fits for most projects, when a  waterfall  life cycle was the most common approach to software development, are not all equally applicable at the current time, when  iterative, spiral, and even agile approaches are probably more representative of the state-of-the-art practice. Our recommendations regarding a structured life cycle for practice information are: 1. A knowledge repository needs to be continually evolving by accepting information on topics of interest and making it available to users as soon as possible. While some quality checking is necessary to make sure that incorrect, misleading, or incomplete information is disseminated outward, it is better to get information to users as it comes in, than to wait and try to create something perfect. Users should be able to see a timestamp on all information so that they can see if the experiences related are fresh and up to date or come from years ago. 2. However, the desire to get information out quickly should not interfere with the need for validation activities that provide higher confidence in the information. These additional levels of maturity should be noted, to give users more confidence in the information they find, but should not be used as aprecondition  for displaying content. 3. Content needs to be retired when appropriate. Practices may have a natural lifespan, since the acquisition and development worlds continue to evolve and change on their own. Practices that were good 10 years ago may not be appropriate given today’s constraints or technologies. To avoid users finding obsolete information in the repository, reports need to be generated periodically of which practices have received no updates or new experiences in the longest time. LESSON 5: APPLY AGILE STRATEGIES AND PROTOTYPING To create the front end of the BPCh tool, which helps users find candidate practices, explore possibilities, and get more information on practices of real interest, we have found that prototyping and agile strategies are extremely valuable for developing knowledge-management systems. Precisely because of the need for parallel activities in different tracks, and the number of  stakeholders  involved (tool developers, content gathering team, end user representatives, sponsor representatives), an agile approach is extremely valuable. The implementation of the prototype BPCh tool was carried on in two-week increments, at the end of which a releasable version was always available. At the end of each two-week period, a demonstration and planning meeting was held with as many of the stakeholders as could be present. This approach was necessary to help us coordinate and  prioritize  the evolving expectations of the users as well as the necessary changes that were suggested by the content development team, based on what they were finding. As part of this meeting we learned the following lesson: LESSON 6: USE APPROPRIATE LANGUAGE Speak to the users in their language. Do not expect them to learn yours. We realized early on that having the greatest possible content in the BPCh repository would not be of much help if the users cannot find it. To address this we needed to provide multiple paths to the information, so that users could select the path that made the most sense to them. Some specific lessons learned here included: 1. Organize around common tasks. The best way to reach users is to organize the contents of the repository  according to  everyday activities that the user performs. This helps users see the repository less as an additional activity that they need to make time for, and more as a value-added to the activities that already consume their time. In the case of BPCh, we added several such perspectives (i. e. , indexes to the content) based around activities of importance to different segments of the user community (e. g. , addressing  CMMI  practice areas, constructing a systems engineering strategy, and referencing back to common guidebooks). 2. Push as well as pull information. Rather than always expecting users to take time to come to browse the BPCh tool, information can be â€Å"pushed† outward to the user on a periodic basis. For example, the user could select some practices of special interest, and when new experiences come in related to these practices a notification is sent via e-mail. 3. Match users to practices based on context similarity. Since no practice will be â€Å"best† for every project, it is important to match users to practices using context characteristics. This provides the users with a pick list of practices that may be useful in their particular situation, in ddition, it may alert the user to practices that they might not have known about previously. For example, if the user selects a few context variables that describe his/her context, then practices can be prioritized and displayed according to whether they have associated evidence provided by users with similar context information. This is a way of indicating that, e ven if the practice does not answer a specific search query, users like the current one have found this practice useful and it may be something the user should know. LESSON 7: DEMONSTRATE PRACTICAL EXAMPLES TO INTENDED USER To engage in effective outreach activities, aimed at building up an interested and active community of users of the BPCh, we find the following lesson of relevance: You can not show initial users an empty  depository. In line with the idea that building a tool like the BPCh needs to proceed on three tracks in parallel (front-end, content, and outreach) is the lesson that populating the content cannot come after the repository is built. Showing users a fancy front-end without an initial set of real content may get their interest for a short time period, but is not an effective way of building an active user community. Users need to see a small but representative set of content which they can respond to and start generating ideas for the next content or tool release. LESSON 8: UPDATE CONTENT AND FUNCTIONALITY CONTINUOUSLY To keep interest engaged, when users do check back to the site they need to see that updates have been made since last time. Content needs to be continuously updated and  refreshed  to stay abreast of trends. If users ever become convinced that the repository does not get updated on a regular basis, this often spells the end of their involvement. Rather, they need to be motivated to come back often enough to find new things and hopefully, as they progress, be motivated to submit responses and ideas of their own showing emerging trends and keeping the content relevant. Thus, user involvement tends to build more user involvement. As users become interested enough to post comments or send  new ideas  to the repository, other users will continue to be interested to show up to see which comments have been added since the last time and possibly find something of interest to their current situation–and more likely to find something applicable. One way we have experimented with–to reinforce this concept–is to list on the front page of the BPCh tool the most recently added practices and highlight ones that have been promoted to various maturity levels (Bronze, Silver, or Gold). Thus, one of the  first things  users see is an indicator of how much progress has occurred since their last visit. CONCLUSIONS This article has presented some of the lessons learned with the BPCh program, which aims to document practices and quickly disseminate them to the users. The BPCh, which is based on the EMPEROR approach, makes use of a two-dimensional rating scale. These scales provide users with a quick overview of the trustability and maturity of the stored practice records. The scales allow users to understand and to draw their own conclusions based on a set of evidence from different contexts, from research studies as well as industrial experiences, and using measures at different levels of  rigor. Practitioners can rely on this information without reading in detail through the different evidence sources, unless they are interested in the very detailed level of information. In addition, ways to collect user feedback and trigger discussions are offered to allow a vivid and growing user community. While initial feedback regarding the BPCh tool has been positive (Turner Shull, 2005), we are continuing to improve the BPCh program and its associated tool through ongoing research, advisory groups, and user community feedback. We are interested in addressing such questions as: â€Å"How much extra effort to  certify  evidence sets and summaries as correct is worthwhile to users? † or â€Å"Are there subsets or types of evidence that users will find especially worthwhile? We invite you to take a look at our BPCh tool, available at http://bpch. dau. mil. We appreciate all feedback, whether it be submitted through the tool or directly to the authors’ e-mail. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This research was supported with funding from the U. S. Department of Defense (DoD), the  Office of the Secretary of Defense  (OSD), and the Defense Acquisition Univers ity (DAU). We wish to thank the members of the BPCh team, from DAU, FC-MD, CSC, and SSCI, for the many productive discussions that have improved this work. REFERENCES Basili, V. R, Caldiera, G. , Rombach, H. D. (1994). Experience factory. In J. J. Marciniak (Ed. ),  Encyclopedia  of Software Engineering (Vol. 1, pp. 469-476). New York:  John Wiley   Sons, Inc. Basili, V. , Zelkowitz, M. , McGarry, E, Page, J. , Waligora, S. , Pajerski, R. (1995). SEL’s software process improvement program. IEEE Software, 12(6), 83-87. Dangle, K. , Dwinnell, L. , Hickok, J. , ; Turner, R. (2005, May). Introducing the Department of Defense acquisition best practices clearinghouse. CrossTalk, 18(5), 4-5. Defense Acquisition University. Retrieved from http://bpch. dau. mil Delphi White Paper. (2002). Taxonomy  ; Content Classification–Market Milestone Report. Boston, MA: Delphi Group. Koennecker, A. , Jeffery, R. , Low, G. (2000, April). Implementing an experience factory based on existing organizational knowledge. In Proceedings of the 2000  Australian Software Engineering Conference  (pp. 28-29), Canberra, ACT, Australia. Mendonca, M. , Seaman, C. , Basili, V. R. , Kim, Y. M. (2001, June). A prototype experience management system for a software consulting organization. In Proceedings of the 13th  International Conference on Software Engineering  and Knowledge Engineering (SEKE). Ottawa, Canada. Schneider, K. , ; Schwinn, T. (2001, June). Maturing experience base concepts at DaimlerChrysler. Software Process-Improvement and Practice, 6(2), 85-96. Turner, R. , ; Shull, F. (2005, November). An empirical approach to best practice identification and selection: The U. S. Department of Defense acquisition best practices clearinghouse. In Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering (ISESE  2005)(pp. 33-140), Noosa Heads, Australia. Mr. Raimund L. Feldmann is the technical lead for Knowledge and Experience Management at the Fraunhofer Center for Experimental Software Engineering, MD (FC-MD). Before he joined FC-MD in 2004, Raimund participated in several technology transfer projects in Germany and was also involved in the development of the Virtual Software Engineering Competence Center (VSEK) portal, funded by the Department of Education and Research (bmb+f) of the German Federal Government, to offer up-to-date Software Engineering knowledge to subject matter experts. E-mail address: rfeldmann@fc-md. umd. edu) Mrs. Michele A. Shaw is a Scientist at the Fraunhofer Center for Experimental Software Engineering. Michele supports clients implementing process improvement, measurement, and experience factory concepts. She has over 25 years of experience in Information Technology including software and service development, project management, quality assurance, client care and  subcontractor  management Ms Shaw holds a BS in Business from  University of Baltimore  and a masters in applied  behavioral science  from  Johns Hopkins University. (E-mail address: mshaw@fc-md-umd. edu) Dr. Forrest Shull is a senior scientist at the Fraunhofer Center for Experimental Software Engineering, MD (FC-MD). He is project manager and member of technical staff for projects with clients that have included Fujitsu, Motorola, NASA, and the U. S. Department of Defense. He has also been lead researcher on grants from the National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, Air Force Research Labs, and NASA’s Office of Safety and Mission Assurance. (E-mail address: fshull@fc-md. umd. edu) How to cite Decision Support for Best Practices Lessons Learned, Papers

Module A - Joyeux Noel + Christmas Truce free essay sample

Module A- Comparative Essay Comparative essays serve to enhance the understanding of the themes, values and ideas represented in texts, by examining their different mediums, contextual values and purposes. Christian Carrion’s feature film Joyeux Noel, and Nic Young’s documentary, The Christmas Truce, are both 21st century filmic responses to a 20th century event. The similar values of the texts are showcased through different forms, and techniques. QUESTION. Carrion has created a sanitizing version of the Truce, QUESTION, through the gripping use of characterization and film techniques. Modify Topic sentence to answer question. Through visual and textual techniques, Carrion has conveyed the camaraderie between the soldiers and has proposed the idea that music can unite enemies. This is evident in the ‘Interaction’ scene on Christmas Eve. German Tenor Sprink, sings a well known Christmas carol Silent Night, and is responded by the Scottish soldiers’ bagpipes. This suggests that music can descend the barriers of war. We will write a custom essay sample on Module A Joyeux Noel + Christmas Truce or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Long shots are used to display the sanitizing mise-en-scene of candles and snow. This use of artistic license softens the horrendous state of the war and creates a sense of hope. The linear structure of the film is reinforced through the unifying song ‘I still dream of home’. The Germans humming this Scottish song in the carriage, accentuates the idea of the human spirit overcoming adversity and links the idea that all soldiers share the longing for home and peace. Modify Link to answer question. Modify Topic sentence to answer question. Nic Young has used powerful film techniques and stylized reenactments to create a realistic representation of the truce. The documentary follows a linear structure and moves chronologically, this is supported through the continuous use of time and date stamps. This highlights the director’s purpose of an informative and historical documentary. The lack of colour in  the documentary reflects the dull lives of the soldiers. Darkness is dominant, significantly in the opening scene, symbolizing the dark time in history. In contrast to the sanitizing effect of the feature film, this creates a realistic interpretation of the event, minimizing the sense of hope. The opening shot of the hand stuck in a wire in no man’s land, foreshadows the fate of these soldiers. This scene is juxtaposed against the handshake over the wire, representing that humanity breaking down the physical barriers of war. Equality is achieved through long shots of the fraternizing men. The exchange of photographs of wives and children highlights the commonality between these men. Multiple shots of men singing the same carol yet in a different language, emphasizes that war and enmity has been overridden by the fellowship and Christmas. However, the bitter narration ‘business as usual’ conveys the realistic purpose of the suffering of these men, money and power. By using characterization, Carrion enhances the viewer’s emotional response and understanding of the event. Parallels can be drawn to the documentary in the ‘Abandon’ scene, however Carrion has used this scene to develop the character of the priest and therefore increasing the viewers emotional connection and response. This scene displays his compassion and bravery and highlights his use of religion as a tool for peace. Extreme close ups of the French soldiers in the ‘Interaction’ scene, convey the petrified emotions of these soldiers. These shots exemplify the individuality of these men and position the viewer to perceive them as normal as opposed to killing machines. The powerful confession from French Lieutenant Audbert, ‘I want to go home too’, gives a realistic insight of the men’s feelings towards the war and positions the viewer to sympathize, therefore increasing their emotional response to the film. Carrion has created a two dimensional representation of the Generals. Spink’s comment ‘ Look at those fat sated men, parading and spilling champagne’ and French soldier’s quote ‘ Those bastards sitting pretty, sent us here to slug it out’, influence the audience to perceive the Generals as rude and ignorant. The relatable impressions between Sprink and the French soldier, ironically suggest that that the soldiers have more in common with their enemies than with their leaders. Through the characterization of Scottish soldier Jonathan, Carrion  displays the destruction of innocence and its psychological impact. ‘At last, something great is happening in our lives’, this opening state of mind is contrasted with the reality of the war, his loss and destruction. The voice-over conveys his denial to reality and positions the viewer to sympathize and understand his disturbance. The connection through characterization enhances the viewer’s emotional response. The lack of characterization in the documentary positions the viewer to focus on the facts and information presented, limiting their emotional response and connection. The use of didactic technique employed, limits the viewers connection to the soldiers, however the use of 1st hand diary extracts creates a realistic impression of the soldier’s experiences. ‘ Grave and tender voices rose out of the frozen mist, .. it was like being in another word’, these first hand diary extracts are used to present the outwardly experience of the men, witnessing the truce. ‘We don’t want to fight this war, not now, not ever’ This confessions from the conscripted German soldier highlights the mentality of the soldiers and their longing for home and normality. The unreality of peace in the truce is displayed through the decisive comment ‘ It can’t alst’ and the accompagniment of slow motion camera work. The cello music and the estinguishment of the candles, highlights the end of the truce and hope for soldiers. A non biased representation of this event is developed through the comparative study of the two different mediums. Carrion has effectively accentuated – QUESTION.