Middle School Graduation Speech

Today you are graduating middle school. Some of you are sitting in your seats thinking â€Å"its just middle school, its not really even a big deal. † I know that because that was me at the same time last year But it's a big deal. Three years of your life are gone, some of you may believe you have nothing to show for these three years, but that could not be farther from the truth. You have grown, not Just In the getting taller sense- but In the sense that you are becoming the person you are meant to be.You have developed your own ideas and your own sense of the world. You have learned many many things, even if you don't believe so. You have challenged yourself without knowing and made the adults in your life so proud of you in Just three years. So what about the next four years you have here at Greenville? What will you accomplish? What about your years after you leave us? How many heights will you reach? The world Is yours. The world Is yours to conquer and to change. Maybe I t will take you years to decide how you want to live your life, or maybe you already know.Maybe you now now and will change your mind, and that is perfectly fine. Maybe you will start on a road that is not for you or maybe you will get lucky and take the correct path on your first try. You will get hurt and you will fall down. When this happens, chances are you won't want to get back up, but you have to. If you let life keep you down you will go nowhere. So don't listen to things people say about you, because the only opinion of you that matters Is what you think of yourself. Not everyone Is going to love you, actually a majority of people will hardly even like you.But who really cares about those people? If they waste their time trying to knock you down, they obviously aren't even worth me taking the time to talk about. You only have a short amount of time here, and you should use every minute of it wisely so when the time comes and your life flashes before your eyes you are not di sappointed with what you see. So learn everything you can. Take advantage of every opportunity given to you. Stand up and use your words for good, and always remember to dance In the rain.You'll get mixed up, of course, s you already know. You'll get mixed up with many strange birds as you go. So be sure when you step. Step with care and great tact and remember that Life's a Great Balancing Act. Just never forget to be dexterous and deft. And never mix up your right foot with your left. And will you succeed? (98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed. ) Kid, you'll move mountains! So†¦ Be your name Buxom or Boxy or Bray or Moroccan All Van Allen Ashes, you're off to Great Places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So†¦ Get on your way!

Fashion and Gender Essay

In the western culture, fashion has affected and reflected the distinctions between the social and economical status of men and women throughout the years. From the 19th century on, gender, social understanding of femininity and masculinity, became clearer and more precise. They were identifiable through fashion and clothing and were an important aspect in distinguishing roles of men and women. However, changes in fashion will blur as much as emphasise the differences between gender, evolving in parallel borrowing from one another. Thus, as the constant changes in fashion, the level of differences between men and women varied very so often. Fashion was influencing and defining gender role and gender lifestyle was influencing fashion. Masculine men and feminine women The first signs of gender distinctions appeared at the start of the 19th century following the French Revolution. In addition to separating social classes, fashion now established a clear division between male and female clothing. Men were no longer powdered or perfumed and they got rid of ornaments and wigs, now signifies of femininity. Their clothing was characterized by a restricted use of material, tailored construction, simplified set of surface, uniformity, net and spotless garments, perfect hats and limited color (29 January). According to the trickle-down effect, fashion trends were still created by the upper-classes and were followed by others down the scale (05 February). Then, according to Georg Simmel, two types of males emerged from the middle-class. Dandies were followers of the leisure class and never went against a particular fashion dress code while bohemian were rejecting fashion (05 February). Men of the upper-class are characterized as a Flaneur by Walter Benjamin: â€Å"Empathy is the nature of the intoxication to which the flaneur abandons himself [†¦]† (05 February). The upper-class still needed to follow three rules in order to stay on top and keep the middle-class from rising; the expensive fabric, the lack of movement inflicted by the garment and the novelty of the ensemble (05 February). They conformed to a conspicuous lifestyle with their absence of labour and function in the society, but still in a more subtle way than women in terms of dress (29 January). Indeed, women became a physical display representing the husband’s wealth through fashion, assuring their social rank in the leisure class; the new aristocrats. Important gatherings such as the Grand Prix de Paris were a place where â€Å"one went to the races, as to the theater, partly to look over the women and their apparel† (Hebert, 24). They would wear multiple colors, dresses with pouf skirts, light fabrics, beading and flower ornaments, parasols and other accessories. Women were placed in the forefront with fashion and devoid of any role or power. [†¦] the adornment of both the female person and her environment was an expression of women’s inferior economic power and her social status as a man’s chattel† (Veblen, 91). Unattached and unmarried women were also expected to dressed respectfully and fashionably for the dignity of her family and for future husbands. Lower-level women such as actresses and prostitutes, who were mingling with the upper-class, wore more revealing clothes but still in fashion. Women were thought of as irrational and sensible creatures who adhered to fashion by weakness, to have a sense of belonging. During the 19th century and early 20th century, there is a clear distinction between man and woman fashion. It is reflected in their clothes and in their social status and role in the society. Gender was easily identifiable with the shape formed by the garment. While men wear clean cut, sober and solid suits, holding all the power, the women dress in soft, elaborate and colourful dresses, trophies to the men. ? Fashion upside-down With the start of the World War I, women were now helping out and filling more masculine jobs. Roles were no longer clearly defined according to hysical characteristics. â€Å"Because while war work forced women to life in new social and physical environments, they had to adapt their clothing to unfamiliar activities and spaces† (Matthews David, 101). New technology and new combat techniques meant also a change in menswear. Soldiers had to wear uniforms that hid their masculine forms to allow movement. They replaced their flat and boxy hats with a mo re feminine and round one with leaves and flowers to hide in the trenches. â€Å"A definite outline, a traditionally masculine attribute, proved a deadly handicap in battle† (Matthews David, 97). Upper-class men were traditionally supposed to show their status through clothing. The advent of the war blurred distinctions between classes as both had to participate in the war effort. Men were no longer useless and ineffective in the society, with meant a necessary change in fashion. Restrictions in luxury fabrics, such as silk, fur and ornaments, forced a transformation of men’s masculine and luxurious attire. All men were now wearing jersey fabric clothing, darker earth colours and softer silhouettes. In the early 20th century, there was a eminent need for change in fashion. While men were adopting feminine fashion to survive during the war, women started borrowing the simplified and linear masculine silhouette. â€Å"The flip side of this feminization of the sniper was the much more generalized masculinization of women’s civilian and uniform dress during the war† (Matthews David, 101). They started wearing suits with sober colours to adapt to their more active lifestyle in the warfare. The latter was the start of a changing role in society for women. Before this change, women had no power on fashion or society. They were now needed for labour and they showed to be very efficient. This allowed women to make decisions and have a definite role society. By adopting the masculine look, they gained power. They were no longer considered as an accessory to men. The exchanges of particular characteristics of gender made the distinctions and the differences more blurry. The World War I was a turning point in fashion for both men and women. Shortages of materials transformed clothing; new fabrics emerged, new silhouettes using less fabrics, less ornaments, leaner cuts, suits for women and softer clothes for men. Women were now looking more or less like men with the square suits and linear dresses, requisitioning their roles as women as though the clothes itself hold the power. While men were still the dominant figure, women were revising their position in the public and private sphere. ? Conclusion To conclude, gender is a social perception of masculinity and femininity. Through the 19th and 20th cent ury, both men and women were affected by fashion; gender leading the distinctions. Sexes were defined by gender in the 19th century with the specific trends of clothing for each. Men were wearing clean and linear cuts, showing their boxy figures, while women wore elaborate and frivolous clothes highlighting their silhouette. Roles were also clearly different according to gender. Men held all the power and women served of accessories, displaying the husband’s wealth. The World War I acted as a turning point for men and women. Both were transforming their fashion because of their active lifestyle by adopting each others gender characteristics of fashion. Men softened their figures while women started wearing masculine suits. Gender differences became were blurred and roles redefined; women gained power and all men got functional for the society. Hence, the level of distinction between gender is in constant change. Fashion influences gender roles and gender lifestyle influences fashion. The latter blurs, blends as well as emphasis the social perceptions of what a men and a women is and looks like. Gender continues to affect and reflect distinctions between sexes, both constantly borrowing and exchanging from one another.

Education authority staff Essay

By you consistently adhering to the writing guidelines By meeting agreed timescales and deadlines Through regular monitoring of output by your team leader. Through joint meetings with other writers to set and maintain the standard Through feedback from the engagement process Finally, sign off for outputs will be agreed by the Program Director following advice from a final validation panel comprising members of all four partner organisations. A checklist for writing outcomes Does the outcome conform to the following criteria? 1. Is it written in clear English, appropriate as far as possible to the level? 2. Does the outcome: Specify what may be: i. learned – knowledge, understanding or skill? ii. Experienced? iii. Indicate or direct the selection of learning activities? iv. Allow evaluation of the outcome: v. By the young person? vi. By the teacher? vii. Does the outcome include an appropriate ‘action verb’? viii. Does the outcome demand more of the young person than consider features of outcomes at the earlier level? Technology in K-12 education [8] Generation Y is an innovative curriculum and resource solution for grades 3-12 that promotes school wide technology infusion. It is a technology program with a twist. Gen Y students develop technological fluency while learning how to share their knowledge with others. Each student is paired with a classroom teacher who needs help integrating technology into their practice. Each student/teacher team decides on a curriculum component or lesson to enhance with technology. Students learn about pedagogy and lesson plan design while developing their communication, planning and project management skills. The partner teacher receives support for their technology projects when and where they need it – in their classroom. The result is authentic project-based learning for the students and sustainable technology professional development for the teachers. This powerful model has been refined and proven in real classrooms around the world. The students are empowered to see themselves as valuable members of the educational community. They take this responsibility very seriously, becoming invaluable resources and helping teachers and their schools throughout their school career. For six years, Generation Y has been delivered in almost any conceivable school setting. From Native American villages in Alaska and Washington to all secondary schools in the Virgin Islands, to remote towns in Wyoming to urban schools in empowerment zones in Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Seattle, Los Angeles and Washington DC. â€Å"Through this technology infusion, participating educators receive individualized support as they strengthen their use and integration of new technologies. Students learn technology, communication, collaboration, and project management skills in an authentic, personally meaningful context, and many go on to further extend their skills through advanced school or community service projects. † Generation Y is one of most researched educational technology programs in the United States. Since the start of the Technology Innovation Challenge Grant (TICG) program, the Northwest Regional Education Laboratory (NWREL) has served as an independent external evaluator. Feedback from every stakeholder group was woven back into the curriculum materials, the online support tools and the assessment design. The resulting program is a strong model that supports a wide variety of uses and classroom profiles. Test for the effectiveness of curriculum towards meeting its aims and objectives [6] Is it possible to anticipate whether or not the curriculum meets its aims? One simple test to apply makes use of the set of guiding principles of good education proposed by the American Association of Higher Education. According to these a good curriculum should: Encourage staff/student contact Encourage co-operation between students Encourage active learning Provide prompt feedback on performance of both teacher and taught Emphasise `time on the task’ Respect the diverse talents and ways of learning brought to the course by the students Evaluate itself Display a clarity of aims and objectives. Make use of the educational literature Conclusion One telling criticism that can continue to be made of any approach is that there is no social vision or program to guide the process of curriculum construction. Designing a curriculum not a simple matter and there is no single ‘best’ answer either in the form of the curriculum or even the methodology adopted for its design. A final question we might ask is whether or not it is possible to determine if the result is any good. One way is by always including a careful student of the course once it has been given. Evaluation of this sort is essential and should always be treated seriously, allowing sufficient time in class for any survey questionnaire to be filled out and with the results carefully summarised. It is good practice to post a notice giving the results of the evaluation and providing an instructor’s commentary. References 1. p 10, Kelly 1983, Kelly 1999 2. v50 n6 p488-496 Mar 2007, Stansberry, Susan L. ; Kymes, Angel D. , Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 3. p 23, Blenkin et al 1992: 23 4. p 11, Grundy 1987, Curriculum: Product or Praxis, Lewes 5.77, Stenhouse 1974. 6. David J. Unwin, (1997). Curriculum Design for GIS, NCGIA Core Curriculum in GIScience, 7. http://www. ncgia. ucsb. edu/giscc/units/u159/u159. html, posted January 08, 1998. 8. http://www. newhorizons. org/strategies/technology/martinez. htm 9. Generation Y Evaluation Studies http://www. genyes. org/products/geny/genyresearch 10. Tyler, R. W. (1949) Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction, Chicago 11. Wragg, T. (1997) The Cubic Curriculum, London 12. Aristotle (1976) The Nicomachean Ethics (‘Ethics’), Harmondsworth: Penguin. 13. Barnes, J. (1976) ‘Introduction’ to Aristotle The Nicomachean Ethics (‘Ethics’), Harmondsworth: Penguin. 14. Barrow, R. (1984) Giving Teaching back to Teachers. A critical introduction to curriculum theory, Brighton: Wheatsheaf Books. 15. Blenkin, G. M. et al (1992) Change and the Curricula, London: Paul Chapman. 16. Bobbitt, F. (1918) The Curriculum, Boston: Houghton Mifflin 17. Bobbitt, F. (1928) How to Make a Curriculum, Boston: Houghton Mifflin 18. Carr, W. & Kemmis, S. (1986) Becoming Critical. Education, knowledge and action research, Lewes: Falmer Press 19. Cornbleth, C. (1990) Curriculum in Context, Basingstoke: Falmer Press. 20. Curzon, L. B. (1985) Teaching in Further Education. An outline of principles and practice 3e, London: Cassell. 21. Dewey, J. (1902) The Child and the Curriculum, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 22. Dewey, J. (1938) Experience and Education, New York: Macmillan. 23. Eisner, E. W. (1985) The Art of Educational Evaluation, Lewes: Falmer Press. 24. Foreman, A. (1990) ‘Personality and curriculum’ in T. Jeffs. & M. Smith (eds. ) (1990) Using Informal Education. An alternative to casework, teaching and control? Milton Keynes: Open University Press. Freire, P. (1972) Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Harmondsworth: Penguin. 25. Grundy, S. (1987) Curriculum: product or praxis? Lewes: Falmer Press. 26. Jackson, P. W. (1968) Life in Classrooms, New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. 27. Jeffs, T. & Smith, M. (eds. ) (1990) Using Informal Education. An alternative to casework, teaching and control? Milton Keynes: Open University Press. 28. Jeffs, T. J. and Smith, M. K. (1999) Informal Education. Conversation, democracy and learning, Ticknall: Education Now. 29. Kelly, A. V. (1983; 1999) The Curriculum. Theory and practice 4e, London: Paul Chapman. 30. Stenhouse, L. (1975) An introduction to Curriculum Research and Development, London: Heineman. 31. Newman, E. & G. Ingram (1989) The Youth Work Curriculum, London: Further Education Unit (FEU). 32. Taba, H. (1962) Curriculum Development: Theory and practice, New York: Harcourt Brace and World. 33. Tyler, R. W. (1949) Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 34. Usher, R. & I. Bryant (1989) Adult Education as Theory, Practice and Research. The captive triangle, London: Routledge.

Report on Recommendations for changes the financial portfolio in Essay

Report on Recommendations for changes the financial portfolio in response to various scenarios in Cheep Petrol (CP- the company is not real) plc (UK) - Essay Example ble to demonstrate an excellent command of sophisticated energy derivative transactions while it strives to respond to the diverse energy risk management needs of its customers. Abstract: Developing a framework for analyzing the investment allocation and investment structure decisions facing institutions. Our model should incorporate two key features: i) value-maximizing institutions should have a well-founded concern with risk management; and ii) not all the risks they face can be hedged frictionless in the capital market. This approach allows us to show how institutional-level risk management considerations should factor into the pricing of those risks that cannot be easily hedged. Several applications should be examined, including: the evaluation of proprietary trading operations; and the pricing of unhedgeable derivatives portfolios. One of the fundamental roles of investments of the companies and other financial intermediaries is to invest in illiquid financial assets--assets that, because of their information-intensive nature, cannot be traded frictionless in the capital markets. The standard example of such an illiquid asset is to have a bond portfolio. Below were given developed diversified portfolios with varying risk/return profiles from conservative to aggressive. They are designed to help you choose a real-world portfolio suited to your investment goals, time horizon, and risk profile. Asset allocation is the process of distributing wealth among different investment types, most typically stocks, bonds, and cash. Asset allocation attempts to increase potential return and reduce risk in portfolios over time. Research has shown asset allocation decisions are the most important factor affecting overall portfolio performance. While this process can be performed on any portfolio with two or more assets, it is most commonly applied to the asset classes mentioned above—stocks, bonds, and cash. Studies between 1991 and 1995 demonstrated that allocation

Opinion paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Opinion paper - Essay Example Speech features in interpersonal communication, organizational communication, group communication, and public speaking. A good speech is audible and clear. However, the human auditory system can understand speech in adverse conditions. This paper will focus on the intelligibility of periodically interrupted speech in speech communication. The paper will, rely on a research study, â€Å"Effects of low-pass filtering on intelligibility of periodically interrupted speech,† by Pranesh Bhargavaa and Deniz BaÅŸkent. The paper will focus on audibility, effect of audibility on perception of interrupted speech and factors causing reduced intelligibility of interrupted speech with hearing impairment as analyzed in the study. The study involved use of meaningful Dutch sentences on eight young undergraduate Dutch native students of both genders. The sentences were low-pass filtered and were left uninterrupted, or were interrupted by modulating with a periodic square wave. The listeners were then supposed to listen and repeat verbally what they have heard (Bhargavaa and BaÅŸkenta Web). Audibility of any speech is very necessary in communication. One needs to hear clearly in order to interpret reasonably. Biologically, the ability to speak and hear clearly seems to depreciate with age. However, other biological and general factors can affect the audibility of an individual’s speech like diseases and physical disabilities. According to the results drawn from the study, slow interruption rates reduced speech intelligibility. However, there was no effect of the fast interruption rate without the interruptions. There was no effect of low pass filtering on the speech intelligibility except on the lowest cut-off frequency and the highest filter orders. It was also observed that the increase of the filter order, decreased intelligibility of speech (Bhargavaa and BaÅŸkenta Web). Concerning the factors that cause the poor intelligibility of interrupted speech in hearing

Outline.This is only an outline for a research paper that is going to

Outline.This is only an outline for a that is going to be written latter,so the topic is outline - Research Paper Example One major argument on the matter is with relation to scientology. Scientology has grown in contemporary years and has seen many people join the particular movement (Barth, 2007). With the absence of religion, people would grow further believing in the movement. Religion exists in current days and people still carry out heinous crimes on a daily basis. It is only right to state that with absence of religion, these crimes would increase significantly. People would invade other’s privacy stealing and committing murders. (Matlock, 2008) Society would have no rubrics and humans would lack personal rules by which to abide. Without religion, people in society would lack common grounds (Ryan, 2007). Getting together in prayer and worship is one factor that unites people of different backgrounds and social stature. Lack thereof would lead to judgment and condescending among people. Atheists portray this when looking at the manner in which most of them live their lives. People would lack a sense of unity and this would act as a sign for the beginning of societal and humanity’s

Business Law Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 10

Business Law - Assignment Example USA), the Supreme Court actually decided against the Pasquantinos, arguing that they have been guilty in violating Federal Wire Fraud laws. In this case, I don’t think that the Pasquantinos and the Hilts would not be able to succeed in their legal argument, given that the nature of the law was against smuggling, the very crime that the Pasquantinos and the Hilts committed. Meanwhile, with regards to the third case (USA v. Dotterweich); I think that he must still be held criminally responsible for violating the Food, Drugs and Cosmetics Act. Although it may be argued that he may have not participated directly in shipping misbranded drugs, this fact does not remove his responsibility to ensure that his business is actually complying with all standards and regulations that are being enforced by the state. In this case, given that it is still his company, such failure to comply with regulations is fully within his

Individual differences and second language acquisition Essay

Individual differences and second language acquisition - Essay Example ional or biological factors enhance the differences amid humans, and there are ways that individuals use to learn their variations, although their interaction and introspection with other individuals can be similar. In this regard, it is crucial to evaluate the individual differences that influence second language acquisition. Among the factors that will be evaluate include; age, learning styles, individual motivation, learning strategies, sex, personality and aptitude. One of the most influential individual differences that affect the acquisition of second language is age. Ehrman, Leaver and Oxford (2003) hold that children and young individuals have a better chance of acquiring a second language as compared to older individuals; the argument is that there is a certain age limit at which children have the ability to acquire a second language at a faster rate. Beyond that age, physiological transformations in the brain force it to lose its capacity to intake new functions of acquiring a new language. For persons that have been deprived off the ability for linguistic input require a trigger that enhances the acquisition of the first language and this occurs at a critical period. Zafar and Meenakshi (2012) cite a case in which a 13 year old girl that had been abused and kept away from any languages was rescued; unfortunately, regardless of the numerous efforts to teach her the first language so as she would communicate, Genie never learnt the languag e. This finding led to a long and controversial debate which sought to determine the appropriate time in which an individual can acquire a new language. In other words, scholars held that there is a critical period at which an individual can acquire a new language and it is controlled by the physiological transformations that take place in the brain. The explanation given is that as an individual becomes older, the level of self-conscious increases and it hinders the ability to learn a second language. The sensitive

Coalitions in Europe Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Coalitions in Europe - Essay Example Discussing the history of coalitions, it is important to look through and analyze all the pros and cons of this approach. Analyzing the examples of two countries, the given paper will prove that coalition is not the best form of government for all the European states. Considering the importance of coalitions in Europe, it is essential to discuss the experience of England. Twice in its history England had to make difficult choice related to the formation of coalition government. The first time was after the World War II and the second in 2010, when David Cameron was the Prime Minister of the UK. Speaking about the after war period, it is essential to mention that human factor played a very important role, when the consequences of war such as great panic were considered. Introducing changes into the governmental system seemed the only correct and appropriate decision. According to David Cameron, the economic setback was the reason or motive force for this decision. No one can state for sure that this method or change could be beneficial for country in general. However, â€Å"the coalition could, and should, embark on new reforms, chipping away at the green belts that constrain development around big cities, for example. But its main task is to see through the revolution that it started in 2010. The programme is hugely ambitious, especially given the lack of money available. It is also broadly right—and some reforms that are not right, such as the elected police commissioners, cannot now be reversed. Even health reform can be rescued. Finishing the job would be good for Britain† (Britain’s coalition government. Divided they fall) Zakocs and Edwards state that in case when single party does not gain the majority during the elections, the variant with creating a different parties coalition and as a result provide the parliamentary support is the best one. Coalition is the most typical form of governments in Europe. This tendency is pretty unders tandable as all the political powers tend to fight for every seat in the parliament and by the means of coalition they obtain the possibility to get most of them. Ireland, Italy and Germany have the coalition government. The main dispute that arises is what is more favorable for country and what type is the most suitable. â€Å"Quite generally, a priori indices of voting power aim to illustrate the influence of actors deriving from weighted voting schemes. In their more traditional forms, they do not attempt – as this sometimes appears to be assumed – to provide a measure for the â€Å"effective power† of actors in a specific policy situation and policy domain. This latter aim can generally better be pursued by approaches related to the spatial theory of voting, assuming specific constellations in the distribution of preferences among actors and institutions† (Bilal & Hosli, 1999). Analyzing England as an example it is possible to make a conclusion that i n difficult times the tendency to create coalitions appeared in order to overcome these difficulties. Certainly, there are explanations for such behavior or pattern. One of them is wish or necessity to work or better to say to interact with one another, like one team. According to Marie Hojnacki, â€Å"This [strategic engagement in coalitions] is especially true today because the growth in the number and diversity of organized interests in national politics has made it more difficult for any one group to dominate the decisions made within a particular policy area. To be effective, rational group leaders must choose strategies that enhance their chances for advocacy success.†

Political Environment Case Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Political Environment Case - Essay Example The following concerns are hereby addressed: Response to the Letter One would first acknowledge support and congratulatory greetings to the new governor to indicate that one is not a detractor, nor a political enemy. It would be emphasized that any current policies and procedures would be appropriately justified to ensure that these are aligned with his administration’s thrust on addressing security and enhanced inmate programs. One would simply note that the currently implemented policies conform with the 1984 Justice Assistance Act which apparently removed previous restrictions and were inmates are enjoined to do productive work (Peak, 2007). Likewise, there were apparent recommendations enforced by the American Jail Association that encourages training programs, which are consistent with the educational and vocational programs currently implemented in the state prisons. ... One could present current statistics of improvements and therefore justify and rationalize that tighter and tougher policies and programs are not effective means to improve the current situation and condition of state prisons. As emphasized in the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995, state prisons are encouraged â€Å"to provide for appropriate remedies for prison condition lawsuits, to discourage frivolous and abusive prison lawsuits, and for other purposes† (Peak, 2007, p. 255). As such, imposing tighter and tougher inmate policies would expose the state prisons to potential lawsuits that would be detrimental to the image of the state and of the new governor, who openly suggested these measures. Thus, aside from instituting tougher inmate programs, the current education and vocational programs which would capitalize on making the inmates productive would be more beneficial in the long run. Internal and External Support Therefore, rather than outrightly dismantling current p olicies and programs that have been effective and deemed successful, one would seek support from both internal and external stakeholders. From internal sources, one would solicit support from prison staff and personnel through a formal letter or correspondence and enjoining them to openly validate the progress and effectiveness of these current programs to the newly elected governor. They could send formal letters and copy furnish these correspondences to the local publications to make the new governor aware the all current programs and policies are transparent and effective. Likewise, external support could be solicited from the local community members who benefit from reduced recidivism of prisoners and for teaching them vocational and

Quality Management Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Quality Management - Research Paper Example Due to heavy losses incurred in the past five months, the bookshop is undergoing a change in management structure. The change is to take effect from next month and it will only involve the replacement of the accountant. Leadership team: The management team involved in implementing the success of the bookshop is the priest who is the chief executive officer. The manager is the chairman of the senior youth group of the church. Finally the accountant is any qualified senior youth member. The priest is the chief executive of the bookshop. His responsibility is overseeing the running of the business from the management to the actual transactions. He is the chief advisor to the manager. He authorizes orders and co-sign major documents together with the manager. He chairs all executive meetings of the bookshop. The manager is the authoritative head of the bookshop. His responsibility ranges from decision making to planning. He is involved in the daily running of the business at the management level. He oversees all the operations of the bookshop and he is the reporting figure of the bookshop. The accountant records every transaction in the bookshop. He is responsible for all the bookkeeping in the bookshop. He ensures all the legal regulations of operating a bookshop are followed. He updates the inventory control ledgers and advice on order quantities and periods. Culture: The culture of the senior youth bookshop is the principles, integrity and values. The value of the bookshop is the customers, staff members and all the other stakeholders. The Principles are to offer the best customer service and products. Also to ensure the books and products offered are the best quality available in the market. The integrity of the bookshop is charging fair prices and fair business practices. The changes needed are: (1) restructuring the management structure. (2) Improving the selling strategies of the bookshop. Existing improvement initiatives: The initiatives are to improve

The urgent need of Reformation of the Philippine Political Party System from Multi- Part to Two- Party Essay Example for Free

The urgent need of Reformation of the Philippine Political Party System from Multi- Part to Two- Party Essay REFERENCES Abueva, J. V. De Guzman, R. P. 1969. Foundations and Dynamics of Filipino Government and Politics. Manila: Bookmark, Inc. Aceron, J. 2009. Reforming the Philippine Political Party system: ideas and initiatives, debates and dynamics. Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) Almonte, Jose. 2007. To Put Our House in Order: We Must Level the Playing Field. Metro Manila, Philippines: Foundation for Economic Freedom Bernas, Joaquin. 2007. The Philippine Constitution for Ladies, Gentlemen and Others. Manila: Rex Book Store. Butwell, R. 1963. Southeast Asia Today and Tomorrow: A political analysis. Praeger Publisher Janda, K., Berry J. M. Goldman J.1992. The Challenge of Democracy in America.3rd edition. Houghton Mifflin Company Inc. Heywood, Andrew. 2002. Politics (Second Edition). Hampshire and New York: Palgrave Foundation. Hinton, H. C., Ike, N., Palmer, N. D., Callard, K., Wheeler, R. S., Kahin, G.1963. Major government of Asia.2nd edition. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. Kearney, R. N.1975. Politics and Modernization In South and Southeast Asia. Cambridge: Schenkman Publishing Companies, Inc. Lawson, Kay. 1989. The Human Polity: An Introduction to Political Science (Second Edition). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. Nohlen, D. 1984. Elections and Electoral System. Bonn, Germany: Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. Rocamora, Joel. 1997. The Constitutional Amendment Debate: Reforming Political Institutions, Reshaping Political Culture. In Glenda Gloria (ed.). Shift. Quezon City: Ateneo Center for Social Policy and Public Affairs. Schwartz, R. L., Phoenix, T.2001. Learning Perl. Retrieved from http://ebookbrowse.com/llamas-english-phd-2001-pdf-d426724738 Weissenbach, K. 2010. Political parties and party types- Conceptual approaches to the institutionalization of political parties in transitional states: The case of the Philipines. Makati: Konrad- Adenauer- Stiftung Manila Office. Zaide, G. F.1957. Philippine Political and Cultural History. Vol. 2. Manila: Philippine Education Company. Zaide, G. F. Zaide S. M.1969. Government and Politics of the Republic of the Philippines. ALCA Publishing Co. The urgent need of Reformation of the Philippine Political Party System from Multi- Part to Two- Party* _______________________ *A library research paper submitted to Ms. Victoria Jean R. Ella in partial fulfillment of the requirements in ENG 2 (College Writing in English). Second Semester 2012-13. University of the Philippines Los Baà ±os, College, Laguna. Alexis De Tocqueville, a French political thinker, historian and the author of the book Democracy in America, told that, ‘In politics, shared hatreds are almost always the basis of friendships’ (as cited in Janda, 2002, p. 271). The definition and formation of a party system can be dissected in this quotation of De Tocqueville. The friendship referred in the quotation is a well-established one, unified by the ‘shared hatred’ that would mean the shared ideals and principle of a party. Thus, a political party is an  association of politicians seeking power in the government to exercise their ethics and ideology for the common good of citizens. A party is also like an embodiment of the voters’ needs and wishes to the government. They choose some of its members as representatives to be candidates during elections as to secure position in the government. These representatives now will present the agendas and programs to the voters and the characteristics of efficient socialization and mobilization of a party will be tested. The latter pertains to the addressing of public welfare while socialization and mobilization is the capacity to organize in order to help those in poor status. The electorate then will select the candidate in their hearts by ballot. Hence, a party can develop through the ideas in religion, business, agriculture and other aspects. (Heywood, 2002) Political parties in a network of relationships are called party system. It should be taken note that a party system is not merely a group of political parties. There is a certain standard to be considered before warranting if it is a party system or not. The number and size of the party is the first thing to be considered. It is relevant in the electoral process as it will serve as a reference to the chances of each party to gain power. Aside from this, the number of party is related to the naming of the different types of party systems. The second consideration is the relationship possessed among each party, if it is interconnected with harmony and cooperation or with discord and conflict. Stability and the degree of orderliness must be characterized by a genuine party system. (Heywood, 2002) In c ontemporary times, there are four main types of party system. Chinese Communist Party is an example of one- party system characterized by monopoly of government power. Two- party system is characterized by two parties competing for different positions in the government to secure power. This kind of system is practiced in USA and UK. Dominant party system is not really well- known due to some people confusing it to the one- party system. The difference is that parties are competing for power but there is a dominant party prevailing for a long period of time. The multiparty system is the type wherein there are more than two parties competing for power. (Heywood, 2002) Philippines is one of those countries using the multiparty system. There are many registered parties in the country but is characterized by low esteem and perceived as â€Å"selfish, dishonest, biased and incapable of recruiting quality leaders†Ã‚  (Lawson, 1989). The situation of political parties in the Philippines according to Rocamora â€Å"are not divided on the basis of long-term upper class interests, much less the interests of the lower classes†(Rocamora, 1997). Instead, â€Å"they are temporary and unstable coalitions of upper class fractions pieced together for elections and post-election battles for patronage. They come together only to put down assertions of lower class interests. The rest of the time they maneuver in particularistic horsetrading and the perennial search for deals.† According to Aceron (2009), Philippine parties are still far from reality as they are performing well the functions of candidate selection, leadership formation, interest aggregation and agenda development, for this reason, this library research paper was written to inform the Filipinos and to persuade them to take an urgent measure to address this big problem by reforming our party system from multi- party to a two- party system. The history of the party system in the country is notable due to Americans intervention during colonial rule (Butwell, 1963). Furthermore, it is said to be historically and culturally rich. The existence of party system can be traced during the Spanish regime. It was happened shortly after the â€Å"Cry of Balintawak† in August 26, 1896. The clash between Emilio Aguinaldo, warlord of Cavite and Andres Bonifacio, founder of Katipunan during the first presidential election created two political parties. The Magdiwang under Bonifacio while the Magdalo lead by Aguinaldo. Soon, the hostility between these to parties reached to its limit and caused the death of Andres Bonifacio . During the war of Philippine Independence (1899- 1902), a rivalry was formed between the ‘pacifists’ led by Dr. Pedro A. Paterno and Felipe Buencamino Sr. and the ‘irreconciliables’ led by Apolinario Mabini and Gen. Antonio Luna. The pacifists favored the American government while the irreconciliables still struggled to achieve independence. (Zaide, 1969) Americans established our party system into a well- organized one. In December 1900, the first political party called Federal Party formed with American authorization due to Federal Party favored the United States over the independence (Zaide, 1957). This party was later dissolved due to failure implementation of its earliest platforms. The remnants of the Federal Party joined together to formed the Partido Nacionalista which the  main objective is to obtain independence. Sergio Osmena was the first Nacionalista leader while Manuel Quezon was the second- in- command. The former Federal Party, now called Partido Progresista was utterly defeated before the elections. The Partido Nacionalista and Partido Progresista were the two major competing parties from 19907 until the early 1930’s. Later, the Progresista dissolved in 1931. Soon after, minor parties made an appearance which did not lasted too long. (Abueva, 1969) There was no opposition party during Japanese occupation (1942- 1946). After the World War II, Nacionalistas broke into two groups: the Nacionalista party and the Liberal party. Former president Elpidio Qurino represented the Liberal party in 1949 presidential election and won. Due to the rumor of denominating of Quirino, the Democratic party was formed in 1953. Carlos P. Romulo, a presidential candidate competed against Ramon Magsaysay of Nacionalista which lead to Magsaysay won the election. After Magsaysay’s death, his supporters formed a party called Progressive Party of the Philippines, later renamed Grand Alliance led by Pres. Carlos P. Garcia. The party was successful at first as it won about 20 percent of the vote in 1957 but in 1961, the national leaders of PPP- GA switched to the more organized Liberal party. Those leaders who switched run for national offices and won in the next elections. (Abueva, 1969) In 1961 presidential election between former presidents Diosdado Macapagal and Carlos Garcia served to reform the nature of Filipino politics specially our party system. Garcia was defeated due to Macapagal’s platforms resemblance to Magsaysay wherein they both believed that economic success in the country can be attained without the intervention of the government. The Nacionalista, however, seeked for rapid industrialization. (Abueva, 1969) In modern era, these parties are described as a â€Å"temporary political alliances† and the worst is being merely a â€Å"fans club† (Aceron, 2009). We cannot blame those people for their comment because this is the truth. Our party and party system can be called to such title but they are really far from what they should be to be able to play their significant role for the development of the Philippines. .Philippine parties are far more different of what political parties should be. It is characterized by a personality and money  based kind of politics with â€Å"selfish, dishonest, biased and incapable of recruiting quality leaders (Lawson, 1989). They do not fulfill the function of representing the people’s need and wishes and interest aggregation. Consequently, the public often views efforts aimed at party-strengthening as mere attempts to further entrench traditional politics and elite interests. This is perhaps the greatest challenge in changing the country’s party syste Philippines parties are described as a â€Å"temporary political alliances† and the worst is being merely a â€Å"fans club† (Aceron, 2009). We cannot blame those people for their comment because this is the truth. Our party and party system can be called to such title but they are really far from what they should be as they are seemingly forgot their significant role for the development of the Philippines. Given the way party politics is practiced in the Philippines, it is no surprise that the impact of political parties has not been favorable to democratization. â€Å"Because of its weaknesses, the party system,† according to Almonte, â€Å"has failed to offer meaningful policy choices—and so to provide for orderly change† (Almonte, 2007). If we follow Nohlen who defines the party system as â€Å"referring to number of parties, relative strength, ideological dimen sions and distances of competing parties† (Nohlen, 1984), the Philippine party system can thus be described as multi-party, fluid, non-ideological, non-participatory and not offering programmatic choices. The multi- party system composed of many political parties competing government position. Thus, this system reduced the opportunity to grab position. One of the important strengths of this system is that â€Å"they create internal checks and balances within government and exhibit a bias in favor of debate, conciliation and compromise† (Heywood, 2002). Coalition formation is the process of maintenance to make sure that the parties’ principles and ideas must be taken account. Unfortunately, this strength can be turned into a flaw if this coalition formation failed. Another problem is the lack of clear ideological alternatives due to a dominated political center. The Philippines as of now is still using the multi- party system. Since political parties were established, our country used the two- party system (Zaide, 1969). The truth is that the Philippines is the only country in which a two- party system has developed since Independence.(Butwell, 1963) It was shown in the history of our country’s party such as in the case of Ramon Magsaysay , a member of Liberal party but he was chosen as a presidential candidate for Nacionalista party. This same goes as well with the late Ferdinand Marcos who also was with the Liberal party but was chosen to be a candidate for the Nacionalistas. Therefore, our party system is characterized by an inter- party switching and this became a common thing among politicians until today.(Kearney, 1975) The two – party system is composed of two major parties seeking government power. Examples of countries using this kind of system are the USA and UK. USA’s Republicans and Democrats are the two major parties. Thus, entailing a greater chance to win. Two- party system is the surest way to achieve an effective, centralized government. This system might lead to a party government which is characterized by stability, choice and accountability. It is an ideal type of system of system to be re placed in the unorganized, decentralized party system. This prevailed in the UK in the 1950’s and 1960’s. But like the multi- party system, it also has its own flaw. One flaw is that what happens if the two major parties tend to be evenly matched collide. It might lead to the voters hesitations or doubts to which party will really represent them. Another flaw is the limited choice of only two programmes each party will propose during election campaigns. Thus, again will give a hard time for the voters to decide. (Heywood, 2002) Japan is another example of a country practicing the two- party system. Their system is highly centralized in terms of structure. The national offices are subdivided into prefectural and local party offices. ( Hinton, 1963) Another reason for changing from the multi- party into a two- party system is that the opposition candidates are using ‘space goat’. They proclaimed all the evil deeds that the administration and as they do so, people believed and sympathized with them. At the time they win in the election, they tend to overlook the simple but significant problems that must be immediately addressed such as land laws, divorce and etc. Thus, the country cannot sacrifice the level of democracy. (Weissenbach, 2010) Parties do not really select their own candidates but instead these candidates only using the party’s power and connections for their own advantage to win the election. (Aceron, 2009)Thus, there is wide gap between standard and  practice in terms of political party. Another concern in the Philippine elections is that it became the process of pure evil doings. Candidates from different parties tend to used money in order to win and voters unfortunately, was being the base of who will they vote and not on what a party’s platforms and leadership credentials. To address this problem, Philippine party- system will be devised into â€Å"personalistic politics and the rule of guns, gold, and goods, and would serve as ‘a ‘germ’ for a parliamentary form of government† (Schwartz, 2001) to achieved a real party – system. This experiment was not successful due to Comelec’s lack of concern for organizational credentials in registering party- list groups. Instead, our party system became more plaque of by issues and controversies. This experiment implies that the country must change into two- party system since the Philippines current party system is not effective enough to represent all Filipinos. This is due that our country has a plurality system which means that the highest number of votes is used to determine the winners. The multi- party system and the plurality system is negatively correlated. For instance, after the Martial Law Filipino voters’s trust for the delicacy of each presidential candidate. Evidences tell that plurality goes well with the two party system since the latter gives a wall of distinction between each parties. In fact, it is expected that a plurality/ majority electoral system will produce a two-party system (Nohlen, 1984). Hence, the combination of the Philippine multi- party system and plurality elections is a flaw combination. With this, parties could hardly develop; simply because the leadership of the government resulting from the elections does not reflect the party performance in the elections. If it was a multi-party system in a proportional representation electoral system, the number of votes garnered by the party determines the number of seats it occupies in the government. But in a plurality election with multi-party system, though an infinite number of political parties is allowed, the result of the elections would  only yield two kinds of parties: a losing party and a winning party. The link between the result of the elections and the configuration of leadership in government is diluted. Another solution they tried is the Republic Act No. 7941 or Party- List Act. It is a law which winners are determined based on the percentage of votes a party gets out of the total number of votes cast for the party list (Aceron, 2009). According to renowned constitutionalist Joaquin Bernas (2007): â€Å"The 1935 Constitution and the Philippine election law up to the 1987 Election Code gave a preferred position to the two major political parties. This was the two-party system. The clear impression, which had emerged from the constitutional scheme prior to the 1987 Constitution was that the electoral system planned and plotted to insure the perpetuation of the party in power. The 1987 Constitution once again makes a try at promoting a multi-party system or open party system. The party-list system, already discussed under Article VI, is meant to be an instrument for fostering the multi-party system. â€Å" As per the evidences presented, the current Philippine party system still lacks of genuine power to work for the common good of our country. Philippines used to be two- party system and as we all know those times were our country proved to be in a good in terms of economy and leadership. Therefore, Philippines must change to two- party system in order to achieve a centralized, effective and organized system that will work for the common good and well- being of their fellow Filipinos without sacrificing the level of democracy.

Engineering procurement and construction

Engineering procurement and construction Integrated Project Teams With Multi Office Execution, A Study Of EPC Projects In Canada Abstract Engineering procurement and construction (EPC) projects in the Canadian oil and gas industry have gained significant economic importance due to rising hydrocarbon commodity price. The oil and gas industry in Alberta has planned to spend approximately 142 billion dollars (Government of Alberta, 2010) within the next two decades on capital projects. Alberta has recognized the shortage of human resources during peak economic activities, to execute mega capital projects. Multi office execution (MOE) is a way forward for all the major EPC houses in Canada to meet the demands of Clients within budget and on schedule. Further, it has been identified by the industry needs that integrated project teams are critical to the success of these complex oil and gas projects. In this environment, project management techniques need to be adapted to match project complexity. This paper will provide much insight through case studies related to project teams in multi office execution, and review the existing literature body of knowledge. An analysis is presented based on the project management knowledge areas. Recommendations are made based on this analysis. The objectives of this paper are to review literature related to managing MOE projects and to determine the keys to success and areas that need improvement in MOE. Introduction Alberta oil and gas industry has gained significant economic importance over the past decades. In 2010, it is estimated that the industry has an inventory of 57 capital oil and gas projects with a total value of 142 billion dollars (Government of Alberta, 2010). Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) companies have been providing oil and gas owner companies with expertise and resources to execute these capital projects. Under current market condition, the oil and gas owner companies want the EPC companies to share more risks. More and more projects are based on lump sum and fixed-fee contracts and are executed under lower budgets and tighter schedules. To stay competitive, many EPC companies have adopted global execution business model. Work is carried out in multiple offices or even by multiple organizations (Macquary, 2003). Cost saving benefit is achieved by allocating project scopes to high-value low-cost offices in other provinces or other countries. The companies may develop a partnership with other companies with specific technical expertise or local business expertise in order to gain market share in a new or emerging market. The MOE improves resource availability under booming economy, where resource shortage becomes a sig nificant problem in executing large projects. Despite several benefits, MOE projects can be very challenging to manage. Although the project management methodology is applicable to both single-office and multi-office projects (Cowle et al, 1995), the multi-office projects require particular emphasis on some of the project management processes. The objectives of this paper are to review literature related to managing MOE projects and to determine the keys to success, challenges and areas that need improvement in MOE. Interviews with project management experts from the EPC industry who have experience managing multi-billion dollar MOE projects provided insights into MOE best practices. The interviews were designed based on project management knowledge areas established by Project Management Institute or PMI (Project Management Institute, 2004) in order to present the findings using internationally accepted framework. These knowledge areas are: project integration management, project scope management, project time management, project cost management, project quality management, project human resource management, project communication management, project procurement management, and project risk management. The paper is organized as follows. Section 2 reviews literature related to MOE. Section 3 briefly describes methodology and the MOE projects studied in this paper. Keys to success and challenges for MOE are discussed in Section 4. This is followed by conclusions in Section 5.   Literature Review Multi-Office Execution Concepts Engineering and Construction Risk Institute (2009) defines two main elements of a multi-office executing organization: 1) Lead office which is an office that provides leadership and has overall responsibility for the execution of the project; 2) Support office which is an entity participating in the project under the overall management and supervisory control of the lead office. The multi office execution strategy is found to be popularly framed within concepts such as virtual teams and offshore outsourcing (off shoring). A common definition available for a virtual group/team is a group of geographically and temporally dispersed individuals who are assembled via technology to accomplish an organization task. Joseph (2005) specifically defines Global Virtual Engineering Team (GVET) as a group of geographically dispersed individuals organized through communication and information technologies that need to overcome space, time, functional, organizational, national, and cultural barriers for the completion of a specific engineering task. According to Joseph (2005), the following comparison can be made between a virtual team and a conventional team. The most critical and important feature of virtual teams is that they cross boundaries of space. Whereas the members of traditional teams work in close proximity to one another, the members of virtual teams are separa ted, often by many miles or even continents. Although many traditional, localized teams also communicate through computerized communication media, technology such as video conferencing is typically used by virtual team members to supplement their rare face-to-face communication. In physically collocated teams, members of the team are likely to have similar and complementary cultural and educational backgrounds since they have gone through the same recruitment and selection procedures as they are employed by the same organization. In a virtual team the members may vary in their education, culture, language, time orientation and expertise. There can also be conflicting organizational and personal goals among the members of a virtual team. Multi-office execution also can be part of off shoring when local EPC companies subcontract project activities to branches or a different company in a foreign country. Off shoring is an extreme version of outsourcing, and it refers to the transfer of production/service capacity from a site within a country to a site in another country and then importing back for national consumption of goods and services that had previously being produced locally (Goff, 2005). Off shoring business operations offer a potential for 15-20% cost savings, but further analyses show that organizations that properly plan and operate offshore initiatives can reap substantially higher rewards (Fox and Hughes, 2008). According to Goff (2005) the benefits of off shoring for large companies include: maintaining or increasing profitability by reduced labor costs if resources with the same or higher level of expertise can be obtained in the foreign countries; maintaining its competitive position or even protecting it from going out of business; and increasing the market share of a company by improving their capacity and utilizing available in-house resources to more value added ventures. Canada ranks high among most attractive host countries for companies wishing to locate abroad to improve their financial position according to the offshore location attractive index (Goff, 2005). The multi-office execution has been made possible and successful, solely due to the advancements in the information and communication technology. With the rapid advancement of the electronic age the ability to staff a project from multiple offices has gone from a dream to a practical reality (Cowle et al, 1995). The latest developments in communication technology such as teleconferencing, video conferencing and host of other online applications coupled with ever increasing speed of data, voice and video transfer literally eliminate distance barriers. According to Macquary (2003) we are at a point in time where information technology is allowing us to change many of our traditional way of doing work. Hence it is possible to create an organizational structure agile enough to accept them and quickly apply them to add value. MOE Driving Forces Economy conditions are the main driving forces for the MOE strategy (Macquary (2003), Joshep (2005), Global Insight USA (2004), and Engineering and Construction Risk Institute (2009)). Under booming economy, labor shortage becomes a problem for many organizations and the MOE is a way to acquire project teams from other remote offices or even other companies. The MOE strategy is also used to add resources in order to meet tighter/compressed project schedules. On the other hand, slower economy growth demands constant vigilance over cost. Companies with global operations often allocate or outsource work to high-value low-cost offices, especially when qualified resources with lower wages are available. For instance, offices in India, China or Far East countries could be candidates for such support offices. Company policy to gain market share is another driver for MOE strategy. Companies can setup offices in other countries or develop business partnership with local companies to capture global or emerging markets. A joint venture between companies (or even competitors) with complementing expertise to take on a project that requires diversified expertise is also another driver for MOE. Other driving forces are: development in technology such as internet connections and other communication tools; a need to free resources for core business or higher value purposes; change in educational trend which results in smaller number of graduates in some studying fields (Joseph, 2005). Managing MOE Projects Engineering and Construction Risk Institute (2009) suggested issues to be addressed for MOE projects during sales/pre-execution, project mobilization, project execution, and project completion phases. Key issues are: early engagement with the client to obtain agreement to MOE and address clients concerns; early engagement of the support offices; clear definition of scopes and responsibilities for individual offices and kick-off meetings; alignment of work processes, deliverables, and reports; selecting suitable key project roles who are opened to MOE; and communication plan. Joseph (2005) has identified technology, management, organization, project control and team communication as important items to consider in global virtual team formation and execution. Clear and frequent communication, periodic face-to-face meetings, good communication tools and compatibility in information technology, standard work processes and communication procedures, and clearly defined scope expectations are named as top success criteria for multi-office execution. Whereas lack of or poor communication, lack of face-to-face meetings, lack of understanding of local work practices/ cultural differences and/or language issues, lack of management involvement experienced leadership, changes not handled properly, slow response to changes, incompatible or poor technology including hardware and software are top failure factors found within EPC industry for multi-office execution. Chinowsky and Rojas (2003) outlined the top 10 management issues that must be addressed when initiating and maintaining virtual teams. They are categorized as Team issues and Process issues. Team issues include: initial face-to-face meetings are required to develop a sense of ‘‘team, managers must visit remote participants during the course of the project, trust between team members is difficult to establish when operating in a virtual environment, and virtual team leaders should be selected with an acknowledgment of the unique demands placed on distributed teams. Process issues includes: project objectives must be restated and reinforced frequently to ensure that all members remain focused on a common outcome; conflicts must be addressed quickly to prevent unresolved issues from interfering with communications; discussions on decisions will be more difficult as participants continue discussions via electronic media; expectations of each team member must be stated clearly to assist the members as they work independently; team member workloads should be monitored to ensure that significant increases do not occur due to increased electronic communications; and regular training must occur equally for all members of the virtual team. Methodology And Studied MOE Projects The methodology used in this paper to gain insights into MOE best practices and challenges is interviewing project management experts who have experience managing MOE projects in EPC industry. The interviews were designed using project management knowledge areas: project integration management, project scope management, project time management, project cost management, project quality management, project human resource management, project communication management, project procurement management, and project risk management. The project management knowledge areas are identified by its knowledge requirements and described in terms of their component processes, practices, inputs, outputs, tools, and techniques (Project Management Institute, 2004). The two major reasons for the projects to implement MOE strategy found in this paper are resource constraint and cost saving. All of the projects discussed in this paper were executed during the booming economy (i.e. high oil price) and manpower shortage became a problem for many projects. Therefore, the MOE beame a necessary strategy to acquire project teams with required skills from locations with more resource availability. To save cost, project scopes were allocated to high-value low-cost offices in either other provinces or other countries (e.g., India and China). Cost benefit was achieved in both cases. Some of the projects allocated â€Å"less technical† work such as cloning design work and closing project work to these support offices. Another driving force identified is a company strategy to expand and maintain national or global operations. The MOE strategy is used to balance resource utilization. In booming economy, work is allocated to reduce workload at some offices. During an economy down turn, work is allocated to maintain support offices as it is more economical than closing the support offices and rebuilding them when demand resumes. Engineering work is usually allocated among lead and support offices. For better coordination, a procurement organization is usually setup in the offices that perform engineering design. However, smaller projects may choose to have only one procurement organization in the lead office. Construction is mostly executed by the lead office. However, some construction scopes (e.g., fabrication and modularization programs) may be subcontracted to local or international third-parties, therefore they are considered as MOE. Prime contract management/ legal functions are usually executed by the lead office only. Other project functions such as Project Management, Project Controls, and Document Management are executed from the lead office. However, depending on the size of the project and project strategy, these functions may also be executed from other support offices. Keys To Success Challenges In MOE Further discussion on keys to success, challenges, and areas required improvement for MOE projects is divided into 9 subsections per Project Management Knowledge Areas (Project Management Institute, 2004): project integration management, project scope management, project time management, project cost management, project quality management, project human resource management, project communication management, project procurement management, and project risk management. The discussion is summarized at the end of this section. Project Integration Management For MOE projects, the lead office is normally responsible for developing the project charter and preliminary project scope statement. This is due to closer contact with the Client. Furthermore, at the early stage of the project, the support offices may not have been involved yet. It is important that the project management team provides MOE justification to gain support from the Client. It is recommended that the project management plan developed during the planning phase addresses the MOE strategy including high-level justification, organization, resource utilization and scope allocation. Some projects may choose to develop a separate subsidiary plan which addresses MOE issues such as scope allocation, responsibility, and communication in more detail. The MOE brings many challenges in monitoring and controlling project work. All offices should take responsibility for their own work but the lead office must take the responsibility to monitor and control overall project work. Managers in the lead office need to understand their roles in monitoring and controlling project work even though the work may be executed by the support offices. Basic communication approaches such as regular phone calls and VDO conference meetings and information systems that allow progress information to be collected from support offices are used for monitoring and controlling project work. Project changes should be managed and controlled centrally by the lead office. Changes are initiated from all offices but only the lead office should have authorization to approve changes. The approved changes need to be captured and project plans (e.g., budget and schedule) are adjusted accordingly. It is important that no office should start executing the changes before they are approved even if the changes are initiated by the Client. Closing project is identified in this paper as one of the major challenges in MOE. Each office is normally responsible for closing the work under their scopes. However, the support offices have smaller scopes of work, therefore they usually de-staff earlier than the lead office. If the support offices de-staff before the close out is complete, the work is transferred to the lead office which may not have sufficient background understanding to properly close out the work/scope. To avoid this circumstance, the projects must plan and execute the project closing process carefully. It is also important that sufficient budget is allocated for the project closing process. Electronic archiving of project documents is recommended to facilitate the project closing. Other challenge identified for project closing process is lessons-learned management. Lessons learned from all offices need to be captured, analyzed for follow-up actions or recommendations, archived, and internally published. Lessons learned are proprietary and required careful review before they are published to avoid any commercial or legal impacts. Some EPC companies may have a corporate function dedicated to manage lessons learned from all projects. If not, the project management team in the lead office should be responsible for managing lessons learned from all offices. As this is a part of project closing, management of lessons learned needs to be planned, scheduled and have budget provided for like other project work. Project Scope Management After the preliminary project scope statement is developed, the project scope must be further refined. Scope allocation among the offices is a major part of scope management for MOE projects. Depending on the types of projects, the scope can be further divided vertically or horizontally. For example, oil and gas facility construction projects normally divide scope vertically by geographical areas of the facilities while power plant construction projects usually divide the scope horizontally, by specialized technical systems such as steam lines, control systems, rotating equipments, etc. Nevertheless, the project scope should be divided in the fashion that requires as little coordination as possible. In reality establishing a balance between MOE scope division and effort to coordinate the project scopes becomes a fine art for the project management team. Several criteria are used to allocate the scopes among the multiple offices. These include expertise and experience, cost, resource availability, and organizational strategy. The lead office is mainly responsible for scope allocation. It is identified in this paper that clear understanding of scope is one of the key elements to successful MOE. Therefore, it is highly recommended that the lead office organize kick-off meetings to engage the support offices as soon as possible in order to develop the scope definition and WBS. It is crucial that these processes are a joint effort between the lead office and support offices. This will develop a better understanding of the scope and a sense of ownership for the support offices which will later benefit the scope control process (e.g., recognizing scope changes and their impacts). Tools that are used for scope planning are responsibility matrices that clearly indicate the responsibility among the offices at project deliverable level (e.g., division of responsibility, material assignment schedule, control and monitoring needs, etc.). Detail responsibility to verify and accept the project deliverables can also be included in the responsibility matrix. Critical deliverables are accepted directly by the lead office for review before transferring to the Client, while the other deliverables can be submitted directly by the support offices to the Client. However, the lead office has overall responsibility to ensure that the project deliverables are completed as per project scope. The scope should be controlled centrally by the lead office as a part of integrated change management discussed in the previous section. As a result, it is important that the lead office has a good understanding and control of the scopes that are performed by all offices. Project Time Management Project work broken down into tangible components and assigned to a resource is essential for schedule development. Project schedules should be developed by the lead office in close communication and cooperation of support offices. The lead office usually initiates high-level schedule which contains major project milestones usually knows as master schedule, then the support offices provide detail information (e.g., activity sequence, activity resource estimating and activity duration estimating) to be incorporated into the master schedule. Once the project schedule is developed and adopted as a time management tool, activity status information required to update this schedule is collected from all offices. It is important that all offices follow the master project schedule. Use of universal scheduling tools that provides visibility to all offices particularly benefits the MOE execution. Communicating and resolving schedule misalignments among offices is considered to be one of the challenges for MOE. Therefore, it is recommended that the master schedule control is centralized and the lead office assign personnel to coordinate schedule information from all offices. Project Cost Management Cost estimating is a significant activity during the early execution of the project. During the early stage the scope and responsibilities are with the lead office, therefore the cost estimating is also performed by the lead office. Early estimates are conceptual estimates with some details (e.g., major equipment cost, estimated bulk quantities and construction cost). When further design development takes place and if significant scopes are allocated to support offices, area estimators could be assigned to provide input to the lead estimating team. Detail estimates are developed when significant engineering is completed. Input and feedback from all the execution offices are used in developing detail estimates. Once the detailed estimates are approved and implemented each support office is responsible for its scope of work. Typically, total cost management and final reporting remain the responsibilities of the lead office. Cost control strategy can be either centralized or decentralized, depending upon the scope splits, project staffing, level of effort needed to control and report project cost. For instance, if a support office is allocated a small scope (e.g., the support office only produces isometric drawings), total cost control can be performed by the lead office. On the other hand, if a support office has significant scope (i.e. a complete plant area), cost control for that area can be assigned to the support office with periodic reporting to the lead office. Regardless of centralized or decentralized cost control strategy, the lead office has a responsibility to control and report to the Client overall project cost. Project Quality Management The quality planning should be initiated by the lead office with consideration to Clients quality standards and requirements. Project quality assurance and quality control are typically executed by all offices. For the MOE projects that involve support offices from foreign countries or from different companies, different quality practices may be allowed as long as they comply with the project quality management plan. In case the quality assurance and control of support offices do not comply to project quality plan, the lead office may need to execute these two processes as appropriate. Project Human Resource Management For MOE projects, the lead office should initiate the human resource planning by providing allocated man-hour budget to the support offices. Factors such as capability, reliability, quality, and expertise of the support offices should also be considered when developing the budgets. Then the support offices are responsible for developing their own staffing plans. The lead office should also ensure that: the budgets allocated to the support offices are appropriate; all managers are trained to do staff planning; and the staffing plans developed by the support offices align with project plans (e.g., budget, schedule, and scopes of work). As leadership is crucial for project success, the project lead roles (e.g., engineering leads) in the support offices should be identified early. These lead roles provide direction to the teams and are communicating channels between the lead office and the support offices. Some projects may instead select to assign a coordinating role for smaller scope of work allocated to the support offices. Lead offices may influence staff assignments at support offices especially for the lead positions. However, the support offices are usually responsible for acquiring their own project teams for the reasons that they have better knowledge and understanding of their staff as well as they are directly responsible for the staff career development. MOE projects have to overcome many challenges in developing the project team. Phone calls and meetings between offices in different time zones are more difficult to arrange while communicating only via emails may not be an ideal approach to develop a working relationship. Cultures and languages also add challenges to communication. It also takes time to develop trust and working relationship between offices which is a challenge for offices that have never worked together before or offices that have high-turnover or are downsized. Other challenges are standardizing or aligning work processes. This paper identifies that having staff from the leading office visit support offices at regular intervals and vice versa is an effective approach to build project team for MOE projects. These visits could be for training, meetings, or trouble shootings. The project should arrange these visits as often as possible during the project life cycle. VDO conference is also recommended as a more effective meeting tool than just a phone conference. The project management should be instrumental in arrange all-office team building activities such as project progress presentation, discipline presentations and recognition and reward program. Each office is responsible for managing its own staff. However, the lead office needs to manage overall performances of the support offices. Cultural difference should be considered for appropriate management style. It should also be noted that the performances between offices should not be compared without understanding the legitimate factors that may impact the performance from each office (e.g., expertise experience). Other challenge found in managing the MOE team is that delivery and performance issues (e.g., rework, delay, or actual amount of remaining work) may not be communicated to the lead office. These are often driven by fear of negative consequences such as losing work. Therefore, it is important to set reasonable performance targets based on capability of the support offices and the lead office provides support in solving any performance issues such as training and trouble shooting. Project Communication Management As a part of communication planning, it is recommended that the stakeholder analysis is performed for all offices to determine the project communication requirements. Communication planning should address information, information originator, information receiver, frequency, and communication medium. It is important that the lead office is the only point of contact for handling commercial and contractual matters. When appropriate, mass communication methods such as group email, project portal, shared drive are recommended for MOE projects. It is important that project changes (e.g., revisions) are communicated with high priority between offices to prevent rework, especially if work is shared between multiple offices (e.g., outputs from one office become inputs for the other offices). To facilitate the information distribution during the execution phase, the use of information distribution matrix is recommended. The matrix determines the list of employees that the information is to be distributed to and is managed by document management group. Overall project performance reporting should be a responsibility of the lead office with inputs from support offices. The performance reporting should be included in the communication management plan. Reporting schedule and format should be developed and agreed upon by all offices. Necessary trainings (e.g., use of tools to collect performance information, data gathering and data analysis) should be provided to all offices to ensure reporting accuracy and consistency. Project Procurement Management One of procurement decisions to be made at the beginning of an MOE project is purchasing and managing strategy for each material commodity. It is generally more economical that bulk material (e.g., bulk piping materials, steel, and cables) requirements from all offices are consolidated and purchased together by the lead office. However, commodities that require customized engineering design such as mechanical and electrical equipments may be managed more effectively if they are procured by the same engineering office. After the decisions are made, the procurement organization then can be setup to support the commodity management strategy. It is a best practice to have procurement organizations in all engineering offices. However, some smaller projects may choose to setup only one project procurement organization in the lead offices. Subcontract function (which is a part of procurement management per project pr

Airline Reservation System Ars Software Requirements Specifications Computer Science Essay

Airline Reservation System Ars Software Requirements Specifications Computer Science Essay Airline reservations system (ARS) is a online software application used to reserve and retrieve information and perform transactions related to air travel. Originally designed and performed by airlines, ARSes were later developed for the use of travel agencies. Major ARS operations that book and sell tickets for multiple airlines are known as Global distribution systems (GDS). Airlines have divested most of their direct holdings to dedicated GDS companies, who make their systems accessible to consumers through Internet gateways. Modern GDSes are providing the services like booking hotel rooms and rental cars as well as airline tickets. They also provide access to railway reservations in some markets although these are not always integrated with the main system. REQUIREMENTS DOCUMENT First we are developing a Software Requirements Specification (SRS) document that specifies what an airline reservation system should and should not do. The SRS document is divided into five sections namely System Objectives Mainly we discuss the goals and objectives of the system categorized based on the viewpoint of the airline company and the customer. They help in a top-down development of the SRS. System Context This section clearly depicts the environment and boundaries of the ARS and the entities with which it interacts. It helps us see how the system fits into the existing scheme of things. What the system will do by itself and what it expects other entities to do is clearly delineated. Functional Requirements These requirements states the functions of the system what it should do and what it should not. This will includes the most common requirements of the customer in addition to some additional features. like reserving tickets, rescheduling tickets etc. Freedom from ambiguity and navigability were kept in mind while documentation. A consistent terminology has been followed throughout and the terms are explained in the appendix. The subsections follow a logical sequence that reflects the real world. For example, a customer cannot reschedule a ticket unless he has bought one earlier and cannot buy one unless he has checked its availability. Non-functional Requirements These are quality requirements that stipulate the performance levels required of the system for various kinds of activities. Numerical lower and upper limits set conditions on the response times, access times etc of the system. Sometimes, tradeoffs are necessary among various non-functional requirements. Future Requirements As technology improving day to day,users needs are also increasing.so we have to update our applications time to time in order to satisfy the customers.These are the specifications which are not provided for now in the current version of ARS but which could be incorporated into future versions. Some of these need advanced technologies and interfaces with other systems. The ARS could be designed in future to enhance the existing capabilities or add entirely new ones. The assumptions and limitations of the ARS have been interspersed in the SRS to present the same in their proper context. REQUIREMENTS ANALYSIS DOCUMENT 1. System Objectives 1.1 The Airline Reservation System (ARS) is a software application to assist an airline with transactions related to making ticket reservations, which includes blocking, reserving, canceling and rescheduling tickets. 1.2 From the viewpoint of the airline 1.2.1 Minimize repetitive work done by the system administrator and reservation clerks. 1.2.2 Maintain consistency among different access modes, e.g. by phone, by web, at the information desk and across different physical locations. The users should be basically taken through the same steps by the system as they go through in conventional desk-reservation systems. 1.2.3 Maintain customer information in case of emergency, e.g. flight cancellation due to inclement weather. The profile can also be used by the airline company to track user preferences and travel patterns to serve them better, plan routes, for better marketing and efficient scheduling of flights. 1.2.4 Maximize the revenue of the airline company by various means: 1.2.4.1 Increase awareness among frequent travelers about various special offers and discounts. 1.2.4.2 Minimize the number of vacant seats on a flight and maximize flight capacity utilization. 1.2.4.3 Maintain the capability to adopt a flexible pricing policy. The price of the tickets should be dynamically determined based on how early, before the date of departure, the customer buys the ticket. 1.3 A survey conducted by airline companies shows that users of an existing reservation system would respond favorably to an ARS that satisfied or helped them satisfy the following objectives: 1.3.1 Reduce effort and frustration for travelers in scheduling a trip, especially by reducing the search effort for the flight they need to take. 1.3.2 Show all possible combinations and itineraries available for a pair of origin-destination cities. 1.3.3 Reduce redundancy in the information required from the customers in order for them to buy tickets, create user accounts etc. 1.3.4 Check the validity of input data and give a feedback to the user in case of errors or inconsistency. 1.3.5 Provide flexible access modes to users internet, telephone, PDA. 1.3.6 Protect customers privacy concerns. 1.3.7 Make it easy for travelers to check the ticket status or make changes to their trip. 2. System Context 2.1 The ARS will provide the following types of easy-to-use, interactive, and intuitive graphical and telephonic interfaces. 2.1.1 The ARS will provide an easy-to-use, intuitive Graphical User Interface (GUI) as part of the Clerk/Administrators working desktop environment. 2.1.2 The ARS will also provide an interactive GUI, on the World Wide Web for the general customers. The above two ARS interfaces shall help provide the following functionalities to the users access to the ARS to check the flight schedule, availability of seats, ticket price and to block, reserve, cancel, and reschedule tickets. The ARS will also provide an easy-to-use, simple telephonic user interface, which can be accessed by the customers through telephone or cell phone from anywhere. This interface shall provide access, only to the following functionalities, namely, check flight schedule and check ticket status including any change in the flight timings. The functionality available through this telephonic interface is limited because of security constraints. 2.2 The system and its environment and the interactions between them are depicted in the diagram below. DB-Reservations Flight Schedule Database Customer Via Web DB-User DB-Schedule I N T E R F A C E CW DB-Geography ARS software INTERFACE Cp Customer Via Phone INTERFACE A Administrator The closed boundary above clearly delineates the system and the environment. The diagram shows the interactions between the ARS software and the databases inside the system. There are three databases internal to the system and which the system maintains. DB-user is the database containing all the personal information of the registered users of the ARS. This can be updated by the user by logging in to the system. Information from this database is used during transactions like charging the credit card etc. DB-schedule is a copy of the flight schedule database. The latter exists independently and is updated by a flight scheduler system which is out of scope of the ARS. DB-schedule is updated with the latest status of the flight schedule database whenever there is any change in the latter. For example, if a flight has been added to the schedule between two cities on Tuesdays, DB-schedule gets updated with this change through a process with which we are not concerned. It is external to th e system and is out of the scope of this SRS. DB-schedule also contains the base prices of tickets for various flight numbers. DB-reservations are a database containing information regarding the number of seats available on each class on different flights. It has provision for marking how many of the reserved seats have been blocked but not yet bought. DB-reservations should update itself using DB-schedule, for example, if a new flight is added. DB-geography is a database, which contains information about the cities and towns serviced by the airline. The distance between all cities and towns is contained in a matrix form. There are three interfaces, one for the administrator, one for the customer via web and another for the customer via phone. The administrator can update DB-schedule with any changes in the base prices of flight tickets. The system uses a pricing algorithm and dynamically determines the actual price from this base price depending on the date of reservation vis-Ã  - vis date of departure. The customer interfaces (web and phone) enable multiple functions which are described in the following section section 3. 3. Functional Requirements User Accounts Registration and creation of user profile Checking Availability Making Reservations/Blocking/Confirmation Confirm Ticket Reschedule Ticket Cancellation Update Profile View Ticket Status Query Flight Details Telephone access User Accounts The passenger, who will henceforth be called the user, will be presented with 3 choices by the reservation system, as the first step in the interaction between them. A user can choose one of these and his choice would be governed by whether he is a guest or a registered user and whether he wants to check the availability of tickets or also block/buy them. The terms registered user and guest are described below. A user who has traveled by the airline earlier would have been given a user id and a password. He would have his personal information stored in the database referred earlier as DB-user. This personal information would be henceforth referred to as profile. Such a user with a profile in DB-user shall be called a registered user. A registered user will be able to check the availability of tickets as well as block/buy a ticket by logging into the system. A new user, on the other hand, would either have to register himself with the system by providing personal information or log into the system as a guest. In case of a, the new user becomes a registered user. In case of b, the new user would remain a guest. A guest can only check the availability of tickets and cannot block or buy tickets. But a registered user can also act as a guest if he only wants to check the availability of tickets. Availability of tickets always refers to viewing the flight schedule for given days, the price of tickets and any discount offers. The system shall present the user with an option to exit from the system at any time during the following processes. Registration and creation of user profile The system shall require a user to register, in order to carry out any transactions with it except for checking the availability of tickets. It will ask the user for the following information at the least a user id, a password, first name, last name, address, phone number, email address, sex, age, preferred credit card number. The system will automatically create a sky miles field and initialize it to zero in the users profile. Checking Availability After logging in a user (either a registered user or a guest), the system shall request him to enter the following details origin city and destination city. City is a generic term and refers to a city or town as the case may be. The origin and destination cities would be entered as text. The system shall now refer to the flight schedule database, referred to as DB-geography earlier, and check if there is any ambiguity with the names of the cities. In case there are more than two cities with same name as entered by the user, the system shall list all of them (with more qualifications) and ask the user to select one of them. In case, either the origin or destination cities are not listed in DB-geography as being directly serviced by the airline, the system shall suggest the nearest city to which service is available, including the distance of the destination city from this nearest city. After the origin and destination cities are ascertained, the system shall now access the flight schedule database, referred to as DB-schedule , and checks if there is a direct operational service between the two cities. If not, the system shall suggest possible routes and transfer points using a route selection algorithm. The user shall now be presented with a choice of either selecting one of the routes. In case he selects a route, the system shall fill in the intermediate stop over points and create a multiple trip itinerary for the user. The system shall now ask the user to enter the following details class, one-way or round trip, departure date and the number of adult passengers, children and senior citizens. Class refers to business class/first class/club class/smoking/non smoking. This choice shall be made by the user through a drop down menu indicating all the possible combinations of choices. One-way/round trip shall be either a drop down menu or a check box selection. Departure date refers to either a single date or a range of dates, entered through a calendar-like menu. This menu shall not show dates in the past or those dates that are too ahead in the future(as determined by the airline policy). In case, the trip is a round trip, the system shall also ask the user to enter the departure date on the return trip. Having taken all the above input from the user, the system checks for any false entries like the departure date on the return trip being earlier than the departure date on the onward trip. In case of incompatibility, the system shall display a suitable error message and prompt the user to enter the information correctly. Having taken all of the information ,the system shall now access the flight schedule database DB-schedule and queries it using the input provided by the user. The system queries the reservation database DB-reservations to check which of the flights on the schedule have seats available. The system displays the results in a suitable form (a tabular form) with the following information depicted for each flight number the flight number, departure time in origin city, arrival time in destination city, the duration of the flight (taking into account the possibility of a change of time zone) and the number of seats available on that flight. There can be several flights between two cities and all of them will be listed for the particular date that the user wants to depart from the Origin City. In case, the user has entered a range of dates, the system shall display all the flights for all those dates in the range. If the user has requested a round trip, the system shall display two tables one for the onward trip and one for the return trip. There will be a check box in front of each line in the table representing a flight with available seats. The user is now asked to check one of the boxes reflecting a choice of a flight number and time. In case of a round trip, the user is asked to check one box each in the two tables. The system shall now display the price of the ticket for the trip. This will be the sum of the prices for all the members of the travel party being represented by the user. The system shall also list any rules regarding the cancellation of tickets what percentage of the price will be refunded within what date ranges. This will be displayed as a table. Making Reservations/Blocking/Confirmation After having taken the user through the, Checking Availability, The system will now ask the user if he wishes to block/buy the ticket. If yes, and if the user has been a guest, he will have to first register and become a registered user and then log onto the system. If the user is already a registered user, and if he has logged on already, he can block/buy the ticket, but if he has been acting as a guest, he will have to log on. Having ensured that the user is logged on validly according the system compares the departure date with the system date. If the departure date falls within 2 weeks of the system date, the system informs the user that he has no option to block the ticket and asks him if he would like to buy it. If the difference between the departure date and system date is more than 2 weeks, the system asks the user if he would like to block or buy the ticket. The system informs the user that he can block the ticket at no cost now. It also informs him that if he chooses to block the ticket, he should make a final decision before 2 weeks of the departure date. The system shall send an email to the user, 3 weeks before the departure date as a reminder, in case he decides to block the ticket now. Having taken the input from the user, the system shall now proceed to update the reservation database DB-reservation. It will decrement the number of available seats on the particular flight for the particular class by the number of travelers being represented by the user. In case of a blocking, the system makes a note of it in the database to be used if the user doesnt turn up before 2 weeks of the departure date. It generates a blocking number and displays it for the user to note down. In case the user buys the ticket, the system accesses his profile and charges the price of the ticket to his credit card number. It simultaneously generates a confirmation number and displays it to the user for him to note down. The ticket has been reserved. It adds the mileage of the trip (accounting for the number of travelers) to the skymiles in his profile. Confirm Ticket A user who has earlier blocked a ticket after going through the previous steps required to either confirm the ticket before two weeks of the departure date or the ticket stands cancelled. To let the user confirm a ticket, the system shall first log him on and ask for his blocking number. Then it accesses DB-reservation and removes the check mark, which so far represented a blocked seat. The seat is now confirmed and reserved for the user. The system accesses DB-user and charges the price of the ticket to the credit card number of the user. It simultaneously generates a confirmation number and displays it for the user to note down. The ticket has been reserved. It adds the mileage of the trip (accounting for the number of travelers) to the skymiles in his profile. Reschedule Ticket The system shall present the user with an option to re-schedule his travel partys trip. In order to do this, the system first logs on the user and requests his confirmation number. It will not allow a user to reschedule a blocked ticket but only a confirmed ticket. Using this, it queries DB-reservation and presents the details of the trip to the user, including but not limited to origin city, destination city, date of departure and date of arrival (in case the trip is a round trip). The system shall now ask the user to select new dates from the calendar-menu. In case, there are no available tickets for the dates entered, it displays a suitable message informing him that rescheduling to that date is not possible. In case there are tickets available, the system asks the user to select the flight number for the trip (another for the return trip if the trip is a round trip) and proceeds to update the database. The system accesses DB-reservation and decrements the number of available seats on the flight(s) by the number of members in the users travel party. It then increments the entry for the previous flight by the same number to reflect an increase in the available seats on it as a result of the rescheduling. The system now checks if there is any difference in the prices of the tickets. If so, it accesses DB-user and charges or credits the credit card as the case may be. The system generates a new confirmation number and displays it to the user. Cancellation The system shall also give the user an option to cancel a confirmed ticket or a blocked ticket. The latter case is simpler and will be dealt with first the system shall first log on the user and request the blocking number. Then it accesses DB-reservation and updates it by incrementing the number of available seats by the number of people in the users travel party. In the former case, i.e., for a confirmed ticket, it asks for the confirmation number and accesses DB-reservation and presents the details of the trip. It then lists the applicable rules for cancellation of tickets and depending on the system date and the departure date, it displays the % of the amount that would be refunded if the user cancels the ticket. After the user cancels the ticket, the system generates a cancellation number and displays it for the user to note down. It accesses DB-reservation and updates it by incrementing the number of available seats on that flight by the number of travelers in the users party. It accesses DB-user and credits the refund amount to his credit card number. The system then deducts the mileage of the trip (taking into account the number of travelers in his party) from the sky miles in his profile. Update Profile The system shall enable the user to update his profile at any time. Changes can be made in fields including but not limited to address, phone number and preferred credit card number. View Ticket Status The system shall allow a user to view all information about his trip. After logging him on, it asks for his blocking number or his confirmation number. It accesses DB-reservation and retrieves the details of the trip and presents them to the user in a convenient format, including any last minute changes to the flight timings etc. Such changes will be highlighted. Query Flight Details The system shall allow any user (registered or non registered) to access the details about the arrival and departure times of a flight by requesting the user to input the flight number and date. The system accesses DB-schedule and presents the time of arrival and departure. Telephone access The system shall be accessible through a touch-tone telephone. The telephonic interface shall, at the least, provide the customer with the facility to check availability of tickets and query flight details. The system shall walk the customer exactly through steps 3.3 and 3.9 respectively but through a telephonic interface. Non-functional Requirements Performance Response time of the Airline Reservation System should be less than 2 second most of the time. Response time refers to the waiting time while the system accesses, queries and retrieves the information from the databases (DB-user, DB-schedule etc) (A local copy of flight schedule database is maintained as DB-schedule to reduce this access time) ARS shall be able to handle at least 1000 transactions/inquiries per second. ARS shall show no visible deterioration in response time as the number of users or flight schedule data increases Reliability ARS shall be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week ARS shall always provide real time information about flight availability information. ARS shall be robust enough to have a high degree of fault tolerance. For example, if the user enters a negative number of passengers or a value too large, the system should not crash and shall identify the invalid input and produce a suitable error message. ARS shall be able to recover from hardware failures, power failures and other natural catastrophes and rollback the databases to their most recent valid state. Usability ARS shall provide a easy-to-use graphical interface similar to other existing reservation system so that the users do not have to learn a new style of interaction. The web interface should be intuitive and easily navigable Users should be able to understand the menu and options provided by ARS. Any notification or error messages generated by ARS shall be clear, succinct, polite and free of jargon. Integrity Only system administer has the right to change system parameters, such as pricing policy etc. The system should be secure and must use encryption to protect the databases. Users need to be authenticated before having access to any personal data. Interoperability ARS shall minimize the effort required to couple it to another system, such as flight schedule database system. Future Requirements Support for waiting list functionality ARS shall be made more flexible in ticket reservation handling, and shall accept waiting list for reservation.The waiting list handling capability of ARS shall be made more advanced, by enabling it to send requests to the Flight Scheduler to schedule extra flights, depending on the demand in a particular corridor, and providing the wait listed passengers with a new flight. The telephonic interface of the ARS shall be improved to support more functionality like allowing the customers to cancel a ticket etc., by incorporating security measures. ARS shall be made more dynamic and helpful to the users by enabling it to send instant messages to the passengers, of a cancelled or rescheduled flight, through email, phone, Fax etc., informing them about the change, and providing them with other feasible alternatives. Information about the kind of meals served in a flight and the type of entertainment offered on a flight should be incorporated into the system.Provide service integration with auto rental agencies and hotel chains. Interface for the travel agents shall be provided in the future versions with additional features like informing them of any availability of seats on a flight which was earlier booked to capacity. Choices like aisle or window seats shall be provided to the users. The ARS shall be able to handle the situation where flight services are available to multiple airports in a single city.