Come in-Ahhh Merciii Essay

Scene V, Blanche: â€Å"Come in†-â€Å"Ahhh Merciii† Discuss this extract in relation to the rest of the text paying attention to structure, form and use of language. The ending section of scene five of Tennessee Williams’s play ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ has provoked much confusion and debate as to the writer’s motives in regards to the portrayal of Blanche. One school of thought on the matter is that, in spite of the fact that Williams largely based the character of Blanche upon himself his primary aim in the play is to punish her for her failure to show empathy towards her homosexual husband Allan. Williams was of course a homosexual himself, living in a largely homophobic world where gayness was not a talked about subject. He often brought the issue up in his other works such as ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’ where the characters Brick and Skipper and both portrayed as possible homosexuals. Blanches lack of empathy and compassion are highlighted once again in this extract when she totally fails to take into account the feelings of a second young man, and instead uses him to live out her fantasies of desire for her late husband. During the exchange between Blanche and the young man she is portrayed as seductive and dominant â€Å"I want to kiss you† making it clear that she is the one initiating the situation, this is a dramatic contrast to her normal persona around other men such as Mitch and Stanley where she makes herself out to be both innocent and pure. This extract is one of the places where her illusion starts to slip and her past actions are hinted at to the audience. Blanches reaction to you young mans mention of cherry soda â€Å"you make my mouth water† has a strong sexually reference, a cherry being a metaphor for virginity, which probably only Blanche is aware of. This shows that she is simply playing games with the young man using him for her own enjoyment. In the next scene Blanche treats Mitch in a very similar way, after discovering that he does not speak French she says â€Å"Voulez-vous couches avec mo ice soir? † meaning ‘would you like to sleep with me this evening? ‘ which is the call of a French prostitute. The lack of consideration that Blanche shows towards both men and the way she appears to be using them both (The young man for a thrill and Mitch for security) hints not only towards the fact that in the past she has sought remedies for her loneliness with strangers but also supports the metaphor presented later in the play of Blanche being a tarantula trapping her victims in a web of illusions â€Å"Yes a big spider! That’s where I brought my victims†. Another example of how Williams is using this scene to condemn Blanches can be found by looking at the actions of the young man. During the scene he speaks nervously and makes frequent glances towards the door portraying his wish to escape form Blanches and making it obvious that he is uncomfortable with the situation. â€Å"Well I’d better be-â€Å". When describing the young man Blanche repeatedly uses the word young and also calls him lamb, this not only enforces his youth to the audience but also the fact that Blanche is aware of how much younger than her he is. The final and perhaps most damming piece of evidence towards Blanche is her reaction towards Mitch at the end of the scene, where, having just kissed a young boy she greets the man she is hoping to marry with open arms, reverting back to her old illusion of purity. This shows her as uncaring and manipulative towards both parties, in the she takes on the roll of two completely different people to get what she wants. It also presents a hint that Blanche is lying about her sexual history. Blanches actions in this extract could also be seen as an example of deliberate cruelty, in so far as she is willing to take advantage of a confused and reluctant young man just for her own pleasure. Blanche has of cores been guilty of deliberate cruelty in her past when she spoke of her revulsion towards Allan â€Å"I know. I saw. You disgust me. † leading to his suicide. Deliberate cruelty is something that Blanche states that she despises and has â€Å"Never been guilty off† making her seam rather hypocritical. Some might argue in fact that Williams is in fact using this extract to elicit the audience’s pity towards Blanche as opposed to their condemnation. Throughout the play reference has been frequently made to Blanches declining mental state, such as when Stanley takes the letters written by Allan away from her and she becomes hysterical. Williams gently reminds the audience of this in numerous ways throughout the extract. For a start, in reference to the lighter Blanche uses the word â€Å"Temperamental†, which is a very unusual description and probably intended to reflect upon her mental state. During the later part of the scene the convocation is accompanied by the Blue Piano, a recurring sign of Blanche’s guilt, misery and mental declination. It features at many points in the play, usually during periods of anguish for Blanche such as when she is reminiscing about the loss of Bell Reve to Stella. Blanche’s crumbling mental state is not helped by her alcoholism, another one of Williams’s personality traits that feature throughout his plays, such as with Brick in ‘Cat on a hot tin Roof’. Although Blanche isn’t actually drinking in this extract the audience knows that she has drunk earlier in the scene â€Å"a shot never does a coke any harm† and are shown how drink can make people do things be the actions of the drunken Negro woman just before the young man arrives. â€Å"The negro woman cackling hysterically, swaying drunkenly comes around the corner. † Williams may also have been trying to make the audience sympathise with Blanche’s paranoia about her appearance and desperation to feel young again. Earlier is the scene the audience sees Blanche looking in the mirror she is later to smash, showing emphasising her fragility about her looks. She also talked to Stella about her fading appearance â€Å"I – I’m fading now†. The audience has also been privy to Blanches hatred of light â€Å"I can’t stand a naked light bulb† and her need to hear positive remarks about her appearance â€Å"I was fishing for a compliment Stanley†. Another factor that must be considered is that previously in the scene Stanley has begun to tear down the illusions Blanche weaves to protect herself be hinting that he knows about her past actions (Again hinting that Blanche is lying about her past) â€Å"Shaw is under the impression that he met you in Loral† leaving her exposed and in a state of hysteric shock shown by her frequent pauses in sentences and trembling â€Å"her hand shakes so it almost slips form the glass†. Perhaps the most likely explanation for this why this scene seems to show Blanche is two contradictory lights however is that Williams is deliberately leaving it ambiguous, allowing the audience to decide upon their own feelings towards Blanche, and that the true purpose of this scene is to prefigure the revelations about Blanches past, particularly her relationship with the 17 year old boy that lost her her job.

Life Span Perspective on Human Development Essay

In this essay I will touch on several different theories of human development and growth as well as their theorist. I will show how hereditary and environment play a vital role in human development and identify a few aspects of life span perspectives. Psychosexual Theory One theorist was Sigmund Freud who believed that the development of sexual personality or libido was the development of personality. Freud beliefs were that every individual goes through five stages that further form your personality. The first stage or the earliest is the oral stage which includes sucking and drinking, sexual drive is focus around the mouth, later on leading to more aggressive biting, chewing, sucking of thumb and later years of possible cigarette smoking. The second stage is the anal stage or the toddler stage. His stage is actually broken down into two parts; the first part is called the expressive period in which the child takes pleasure in having a bowel movement. The other part to the second stage is the retentive stage where they will store their feces. The Phallic stage is where children gain pleasure from stimulation there private area, this also is a time were the child will begin to identify with either mother or father depending on the sex of the child. This will help to identify gender roles. The latency stage is the puberty stage where teens find a more acceptable way channeling their sexual aggression. The last stage is the Genital stage in which the adult has reach sexual and emotional maturity. Ego Development Ego development theory was created by Erik Erikson. Erikson believed our personality is formed from opposites such as dependant or independent, aggressive person or passive person, are just an example of a few. Erikson stated that some of these traits you are born with others are learned. Erikson based his theory off the study of the Sioux Indians during this study he learned that behavior and the Indians culture played a great part in there world. Erikson organized life in stages from birth to death, in this theory Erikson theorized that children who had a difficult childhood, versus a child who did not have so many challenges. First stage birth to 18 months trust versus mistrust in this stage we as babies will either learn to trust and have confidence or mistrust and have a feel of worthlessness. Early childhood stage 18 months to 3 years Autonomy versus shame, in this stage children start to master some of the skills on their own their independency kicks in and it also at this stage they may be easily shamed. Ex. (toilet training). 3 years to five years is the intuitive versus guilt, 6 years to 12 years is the industry versus inferiority, 12 to 18 years identity versus role and then there are three more stages after that. Environmentalist Theory John Watson, Skinner believed that a child environment shapes what they learn and environment. Depending on how and where you were raised will determine how you react to things. It was believed that be more stable learning environment will help develop normal stages of growing up. Children seem to learn best through rote activities were the recite colors, alphabet, numbers their address and telephone. When children don’t take to this form of learning they are said to have a learning problem or disability such as ADD. Conclusion In conclusion I agree with every theory except for Sigmund Freud psychosexual theory, I felt a little uncomfortable with some of the points, I do not believe that any part of the sucking, drinking, or chewing as a infant has anything to do with sexual drive. I think it all had to do with surrounding to your environment weather you be an adult of infant. The Theory that I agree with the most is John Watson, Skinner the environmentalist theory, I believed that children learns through things being repetitive, I feel that a good environment breeds a stable child then there are the exceptions. Carlson, Neil R. Psychology: The Science of Behavior. Boston: Allyn, 1990 Gleitman, Henery. Psychology. New York: Norton, 1991 Western, Drew. Psychology: Mind, Brain, Culture. New York, 1999.

Bigfoot: in Search of the Truth Essay

Bigfoot is, without a doubt, the most recognized mystery in all of North America. The apelike being has reportedly been sighted thousands of times since the beginning of the 19th century. According to eyewitness testimonies, Bigfoot, also known as Sasqautch, is a gigantic beast that towers in at eight feet tall and weighs as much as six hundred pounds. Reports also say that the monster’s form is well built and usually covered in a thick, brownish fur. Many have asked if such a creature could possibly be roaming through the wilderness of North America and around the world, and the answer is yes. The amount of evidence supporting such a creature’s existence is astonishing. From footprint casting and fur samples to video evidence and numerous human sightings, Bigfoot’s existence cannot be doubted. There are three pieces of evidence supporting the existence of Bigfoot, the first of which is the thousands of eyewitness accounts. The first recorded sighting occurred in 1870 near a small town in California. The town newspaper, the Antioch Ledger, reported that a â€Å"gorilla man† or â€Å"wild man† had been sighted in the woods near the town. The paper deemed it unsafe to travel outside unless absolutely necessary because of the beast. Next, in 1901, a lumberjack on Vancouver Island reported seeing a â€Å"man beast† washing itself in a river near his base camp. The courageous lumberjack decided there and then to approach the beast and confront him. The strange â€Å"monkey man† quickly fled, though, as the man approached the river. Upon examining the tracks left behind, the lumberjack concluded that the prints were almost identical to that of a human, except for the extremely large size. After the incident, many reports began pouring in from the Vancouver area of Canada. The residents of the area became well aware of the existence of a very elusive creature in the area, and it was they who first coined the term Bigfoot. By 1960, thousands of reports on the existence of Bigfoot flooded in from all over the United States. The sightings usually occurred in mountainous, woodland areas near rivers and streams. Many thought that those who claimed such things were crazy, but it was at this time that the inevitable happened: Bigfoot was captured on film. On October 20, 1967, Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin, two Bigfoot researchers, were horseback riding in the dried river bed of Bluff Creek in Northern California. It was an area with an extraordinary number of sightings, but the two did not believe what they saw next. There before them, kneeling in the dried creek bed was Bigfoot. The creature spooked the men’s horses which forced them to dismount. They quickly grabbed their video camera and started filming. The beast slowly stood up, looked around, and then proceeded to stroll off into the woods. The film was soon released to the press and caused quite a commotion around the world. Researchers quickly arrived on the scene and found that the sequence of events had happened just as the tape had shown. Studying the film, it was also concluded through the creature’s movements, that its neuromuscular system was of something not human. Furthermore, it was determined that human reenactment was not possible because a suit so sophisticated and detailed could have been made by only two manufacturers in the United States, but both companies denied all allegations against them (Bigfoot). After the study was concluded, there were still many skeptics on the whole ordeal. These skeptics have suggested that the first two pieces of the puzzle are not enough to prove the existence of a new type of creature. The numerous stories and reports are believed to have been made up and the video footage faked. There is evidence that cannot be ignored, though. That evidence is the physical remains that have been collected over time. This physical evidence includes footprint castings, and samples of fur and feces, all of which have been found to be something not known to modern science. According to many experts, including Dr. Henner Farenbach, director of the Oregon Regional Primate Center, the collected evidence supports the existence of an animal that has not been classified scientifically. He also states that every specimen from over the last 60 years is nearly identical to the next, making the theory of Individual pranksters responsible for a hoax nearly impossible (Sasquatch FAQ). Besides this fact, tracks studied by researchers from institutions, such as Washington State University, Ohio State University, Yale, and even the University of London, have been found to follow the law of the Gaussian Distribution of Weight. This means that the footprints have a life-like shape and the distribution of weight over the print is correct. All of these facts are bittersweet though, since sample specimens have nothing to be compared to since no actual creature specimen has been collected. It can be concluded, however, that these remains did not come from any animal currently known to modern science. Bigfoot’s existence can no longer be denied. No longer is it a question of Bigfoot being real, but rather a question of man’s capability in being able to believe the truth. The facts cannot be mistaken. Besides being seen time and time again, video footage has been collected. This alone is enough to make many believe, but for the rest, the physical evidence is unmistakably real. As the theory progresses, more and more credible researchers come forward to show support in such a creature’s existence. They do this at the risk of losing their own credibility. None, however, are capable of an explanation for Bigfoot’s uncanny ability to remain hidden from human observation, the nature of which remains to be a question. Perhaps, though, as more and more people start to believe in the truth, questions will be answered and the mystery solved.

Premium Travel Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Premium Travel - Case Study Example If energy prices decrease, the opposite will be true. Political climate is especially important for Premium Travel. Many of the destinations are in the Mediterranean region. If these areas maintain relative political calm, more people will choose these places for travel as opposed to more traditional vacation spots. If these areas experience relative instability, the opposite will be true. Today, the world economy is so interlaced that hardly an area remains unaffected by change in any other area. So, it goes with tourism. If people have less disposable income, they are less able to fund exotic vacations and may stick with more local attractions; however, if we experience global prosperity, then it is more likely people will spend their vacations more lavishly. Some of the factors that will affect Premium Travel in the future include energy prices, political climates, and the world economy. These external environmental factors will interact to form challenges for Premium Travel over the next few years.

Nokia Information Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Nokia Information - Essay Example Key Points & Key Information The vision of the company is to ‘connect the people’ i.e. connecting ‘we’ and not merely individuals. The company aims to become the leader in mobile solutions. The strategy of the company is to â€Å"create irresistible solutions† through the use of vibrant ecosystems in alliance with the partners (Nokia-f, 2009). Presently Nokia is the top mobile devices manufacturer in the world. In 2009 the volume of mobile devices of the company was 432 million units. In this year the net sales and operating profit of the company was reported at EUR 41 billion and EUR 1.2 billion respectively. Nokia has a strong R&D unit in nearly 16 countries. Its R&D investment amounted to EUR 5.9 billion and employs 37020 people for its research oriented work (Nokia-a, 2010). Management approach, the company, its people The success of the company is based on the commitment and talent of its employees. Nokia works continually towards creating a work place that gives opportunity to the men and women of different ethnic or cultural backgrounds. The company is known for providing excellent career development opportunities and is strongly committed towards high ethical standards towards its employees. By the close of 2009 the company had 55000 employees of 115 different nationalities. In the company’s workplace the women account for 41 percent of the employees. At least half of the company’s senior managers are non-Finnish. The company’s operations are spread across a number of markets. This has also had an impact on the ways of working and cultural fabric of its employees. The management of the company views cultural diversity to bring in a sense of competitive advantage. It is of the view that team diversity leads to better... As the essay stresses the vision of the company is to ‘connect the people’ i.e. connecting ‘we’ and not merely individuals. The company aims to become the leader in mobile solutions. The strategy of the company is to â€Å"create irresistible solutions† through the use of vibrant ecosystems in alliance with the partners. From the paper it is clear that the success of the company is based on the commitment and talent of its employees. Nokia works continually towards creating a workplace that gives opportunity to the men and women of different ethnic or cultural backgrounds. The company is known for providing excellent career development opportunities and is strongly committed towards high ethical standards towards its employees. The company has a reward program in place that gives recognition on the basis of performance of team and individuals. The Investing in People (IIP) policy of Nokia enables it to match the employees’ aspirations with the company needs. The company holds Structured IIP discussion every year where the objectives for a period are framed. The management and control of Nokia is shared among the company’s shareholders, Board of Directors, Executive Board and President. The Board members are accountable to the company shareholders. It responsibilities are more active in nature. These include managing the composition and structure of its top management, monitoring of legal matters and risk management of operations. The duties of the Board include appointment and discharge of CEO, CFO and other members of the company’s Group Executive Board.

Corporate Social Responsibility Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Corporate Social Responsibility - Term Paper Example The concept of corporate social responsibility is underpinned by the specific idea or principle that the organizations around the globe cannot act as the isolated economic units operating in the detachment from the broader society. Traditional and old views about survival, profitability, and competitiveness have been swept away through the concept of CSR (Fukukawa, 2011, p.121). In the past, the governments of the developed and developing countries strongly relied on the regulation and legislation to deliver environmental and social objectives in the competitive business sector. Recoiling government resources, integrated with the regulation’s distrust has guided to the exploration of non-regulatory and voluntary initiatives. Growing demand for the corporate disclosure from the stakeholders including suppliers, employees, investors, communities, activist organizations, and customers are pushing business towards the CSR initiatives. Recently several investors are changing the wa y of the performance assessment of the organizations. Investors are making their investment decisions based on various criterions that include ethical concerns. According to the report of social investment forum, more than 2 trillion US dollars valued assets invested in the portfolio linked to the social and environmental responsibility. The organizations are trying to maintain proper business ethics in their business practices in order to motivate and attract shareholders and investors. In addition, employees within the organization are increasingly looking beyond several employment benefits. Effective and skilled employees are the strongest asset of an organization. Therefore, it is important for the organization to retain skilled, experienced and effective employees. The organizations are trying to motivate their employees by providing employment benefits and taking care of their professional and personal needs. In this competitive business environment, it is important for the or ganization to retain skilled employees. Moreover, the organizations are trying to maintain an effective relationship with the suppliers.  

Leadership and management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 6

Leadership and management - Essay Example For the purpose of analysis, the leadership and management style of TESCO Plc will be critically reviewed in the light of role of leadership in management, the difference between leadership and management, theories and practices of management related to TESCO Plc. TESCO Plc is a multinational superstore in food retailing industry operating in more than 12 countries across world. Strong leadership and management have driven the company to operate successfully in the UK as well as in Europe, Asia and North American Market since 1919 (TESCO Plc, 2014). The nature and style of leadership pursued by TESCO Plc will be discussed below. As a result of operating since 1919 in the UK market, TESCO Plc has encountered various transformational and structural changes from time to time. Such changes largely affects the organizational framework; therefore effective leadership is defined when the leads become successful in efficiently managing resistance to change among all the employees (Grieves, 2010). With the skill and knowledge gained from long experience of working in corporate environment, leaders always tend to formulate strategies and bring required changes in align with the economic condition and industry position. The leaders also identify the potential barriers which may arise in the time of incorporating change process and take initiatives to address such issues well in advance. Experts have recognized certain traits which are inevitable for a leader to manage and control organizational changes. Those traits are attributed in the tabular format. Role of leadership also changes in the various stages of change process. For instance, logical influence is required to be implemented on employees in the planning stage of change process whereas in the introduction and maintenance phase, supportive leadership style should be exercised for minimizing resistance to

One journal and one assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

One journal and one assignment - Essay Example During the 1960s, young women were prevented from wearing pants irrespective of whether it was formal or informal occasion. However, modern women were advised to wear blue jean during their leisure activities. Based on Manzano (2009) the Alpargatas brand was designed to attract the Far West girls. After the Argentine revolution in mid 1960, there were stringent cultural expressions especially for the mini-skirts. From the article, it illustrates the emergence of modern wear and cultural diffusions. Women began to wear miniskirts and blue jeans as a symbol of feminine beauty which encompassed the displaying of erogenous zones (Manzano, 2009). The unisex tradition emerged due to resemblance of the sexes dress codes. Blue jeans and long hair depicted the unisex fashion among the youths Poet Hector Negro pointed out that blue jeans highlighted youth presence in the Argentine virtual culture. In mid 1970, blue jean was exclusively won by the young to express youthfulness. As a result, blue jean generation necessitated the vindication of informality and casualness in today’s culture (Manzano, 2009). 2. It is a superb upscale retail store dealing with clothing lines and other accessories. The chain store offers casual wears, work clothes, designer wear, active wear and sports clothing. In its artistic elements, the retail store specializes in men and women designer clothes. The designer wear includes custom made luxury clothes and bridal gowns (Spector & McCarthy, 2012). 3.The retail store targets the upscale millennium aged consumers. The fashion store aims at middle income to high income level consumers based on the clothing lines, services and its competitive prices (Spector & McCarthy, 2012). 4.The clothes are being advertised through an image. The company hires and employs professional models to advertise their clothing lines. Furthermore, the company also participates in fashion exhibits to market their clothing lines (Spector &

Production Plan for Riordan Manufacturing Essay - 2

Production Plan for Riordan Manufacturing - Essay Example That means that the company aims at [providing the best relationship with the company and that will enhance the client customer relationship. The company believes that relationships that are long term should be sorted by maintenance of a rigorous control that is of a high quality and that should be responsive to the attitude in the execution of the business and the setting of prices that are reasonable. The company also maintains an employee team that is team oriented and innovative in working. The company maintains an innovative team by making sure that it has employees that are properly supported and well informed and the company ensures that the climate that is provided in the working area is focused on viability that is long term. The company has a future that is based on achievement and maintenance of profitability in an attempt to assure that human and financial capital is available so as to encourage growth in the company (Riordan manufacturing.com) The company is a manufacturer of plastics and it employees more than 550 people and it has a projected earnings that is equivalent to $46million. The company is owned by Riordan industries which have a total revenue base that is greater than $ 1 billion. The products that are manufactured by the company include beverage containers that are plastic, customized plastic parts and fan parts that are made of plastic. The company operates 3 entities that are based in Michigan, California and Georgia and a joint venture that is based in china. The operating entities have systems that are independent and they have the following components; The entity that is based in san Josà © is licensed for integration of windows based on ERP manufacturing, financial management and distribution of software application that are designed for processing plastics and assembling of the manufactured products. However, the given license usually does not include the

Accolade vs Sega Essay Example for Free

Accolade vs Sega Essay Accolade would definitely be wrong in every aspect of this story. Accolade’s lawyer’s argument that Sega’s security codes were an interface standard is also wrong in a lockean based economy. This is because interface standards are publicly owned by everybody and can be duplicated without permission. Nothing is publicly owned in a Locke based perspective. The utilitarian view would also favor Sega’s software code as being private property, but for different reasons. This view suggests if Sega didn’t have property rights to its genesis and affiliated profitability, then Sega would lose incentive to create new ideas beneficial to the marketplace. This theory of utility also suggests Accolade and Sega should both have taken a different approach to how they did business, or lack of business, with each other. Sega should have granted accessibility to its gaming console for a small fee. This would have made Sega and Accolade more profitable to society because Accolade’s games would benefit Sega’s industry. The Marxist theory would take Accolade’s side to this story. This theory would suggest the software that Accolade decoded belongs to the general public for their benefit to make a profit. Sega owns only the game console and not the software that is used to run it. Accolade’s lawyer’s argument that the software is an interface standard would stand lawful. I personally agree with the utility theory most because if there wasn’t any incentive for new ideas and technology, then there wouldn’t be any. People and companies put a lot of effort and resources into new ideas. A person would not put any time and effort into a good idea, especially if they cannot make any money from it. He or she could not make any money off of their idea because people would just steal their idea and profit from it themselves. If there were no copyrights or patents protecting ideas, we could all be living in an unindustrialized world. I believe Locke’s theory of private property is most appropriate for this case besides the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals final decision that agreed with Accolade. Sega was using the lockean approach to private property with its security software. Accolade duplicated their software code without permission and infringed on Sega’s copyright. The story, in the end, basically agreed to Sega’s argument. 2. I believe Accolade Stole Sega’s property because American law has held to the theory that individuals have a right to do what they want with their property, and government has no right to interfere with an individual’s private property even for the good of society. Accolade would’ve benefited from using Sega’s product, but the law states it is Sega’s property, and they can do what they please with certain legal constraints. Sega did not grant Accolade a license to market games on their property. If Sega did grant them a license, then it would not be stealing. If I did not grant a person permission to use my car for their benefit and they drove off with it, I would call the police because someone stole my car. 3. I believe Accolade went too far in trying to reverse engineer Sega’s source code because Accolade already knew Sega didn’t want them marketing games on their new gaming console. If Sega wanted Accolade games on their console platform, wouldn’t Sega license them to do so? Sega specifically made that security code so game companies like Accolade would not benefit from Sega’s property. Sega wanted to be the sole maker of games for their console and they had the right to do that with their copyrighted property. With that said, I believe Accolade reverse engineered the software knowing it was morally wrong. I do not believe a company has the right to reverse engineer any product it wants. Taking an all ready thought of idea and creating a new product is different than copying another product verbatim. Reverse engineering affects the theory of utility. The incentive to come up with new ideas would be lost because there would be no reward for it. Let’s say Microsoft had the ability to create a new operating system and knew it could be reverse engineered the day they released it to the public. Would Microsoft put forth the effort, time, and resources to make this new product? I know I wouldn’t because Microsoft’s competitors could produce the same product with less overhead. This would be giving Microsoft’s competitors an advantage because they could sell the same product for less money. This would potentially put Microsoft out of business. Economies inevitably couldn’t evolve to serve societies better. Works Cited Velasquez, Manuel G. Business Ethics: Concepts and Cases. 7th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2012. Print.

Agile Project Management

Agile Project Management Agile project management has been in use in software projects over the last number of years, but lately it has been incorporated into many different types of projects such as the military, telecommunications and retail. (Scrum Alliance). This paper focuses on using agile project management techniques in the telecoms industry. Jim Highsmith and Gary Chin are two advocates of agile project management, Highsmith (2004) claimed that the agile project management framework which consists of five phases, each with supporting practices. The five phases are Envision, Speculate, Explore, Adapt, and Close. Each of these phases has to be implemented in order otherwise the project will not strictly follow the agile process. Agile proposes to deal with a project in small development cycles; self managed teams, customer collaboration and iterations. It also proposes to have an end product for testing at the end of each iteration, so the customer or end user can see what direction the project is goi ng. Scrum is a project management framework and is ideally suited for projects with high uncertainty. It is used on some of the worlds largest telecommunications development projects such as British Telecom and Siemens because of its high productivity with distributed and outsourced development teams. 2 What is agile project management? Agile project management has been defined as short cycles of product development that deliver incremental updates of the product rapidly based on the changing needs of the customer. This methodology is the opposite of waterfall project management, which values extensive planning and pre-production. (Labine, 2010) The agile approach consists of a number of stages including rapid iterative planning and development cycles allowing a project team to constantly evaluate the project and obtain immediate feedback from users or stakeholders allowing the team to learn from their experiences after each cycle. After the streamlined planning requirements, definition and solution design phase is completed to get the project underway iterations or more detailed planning requirements are created. This allows for immediate modifications of the product as customer views change. Agile project management requires a dedicated full time team including a customer or end users. (Haas, 2007). Agile project management differs to traditional project management in the approach; agile promotes self managed teams with the project manager taking more of a leaders role rather than a managers role. The main priorities of an agile project manager are to gather all the information from stakeholders and integrate a plan, advise the team of estimates, make decisions, build and sustain a teams culture and ensure teams stick to the process, customer relationship, check progress and plans and to communicate the teams progress. (Thomas, 2008) With agile project management both the project team and the stakeholders actively work together to understand and prioritise functionality. The agile project management life cycle can be seen in figure 1. This identifies how the plan, develop, learn and evaluate phases all fit together. Agile management uses an approach with short iterative cycles, they are based on the theory of plan, do, check and act. These cycles happen at different levels, each day, each time box, each release and each project. Agile demands team look at how fast they are progressing and adjust accordingly. Agile management methods are used when the project value is clear and the customer actively participates throughout project. (Thomas, 2008) Figure 1. Agile project management life cycle model Agile management concepts Haas (2007) identified the key elements that provide the basis for agile project management as visual control, co located high performing teams, test driven development, adaptive control, collaborative development, feature driven development, leadership and collaboration, a move from cost to revenue focus and lessons learned. Vision control assists teams in organising work in projects. Publishing time plans and progress charts allow the team to view the projects the same way and to clearly see where the project is at. Co located high performing teams greatly increases the quality of coordination and communication. Project managers need to have everyone working together in a collaborative manner. Agile teams develop test plans and at the same time they define requirements. If a requirement isnt testable then it is not fully developed. Adaptive Control tries to have everyone on the team adapting to different situations. The project manager acts a leader not a task manager, they work with the team establishing working relations and setting the team ground rules. Agile team members have to be able to continuously adapt to improve their methods as lessons learned from previous cycles are incorporated into the next iteration. Collaboration is needed among all team members to get the best results from the team, they also need to document feedback and implement learnings on the next iteration. Feature driven development greatly reduces complexity and allows teams to focus on one feature at a time. Leadership and collaboration rather than command and control facilitate leadership in a team rather than traditional management. The project manager aims to remove and resolve any problems the agile team encounters. The business analysts manage the business benefits of the project and continuously focus the agile team on the business needs. The move from cost to revenue focus features prioritise based on value such as increased revenue to market share. The lessons learned program is completed after each cycle here the teams hold a lessons learned session to determine where improvements can be made for the next iteration. The team adapts to how members work together to improve the team performance. (Haas, 2007) 2.2 Five stages of agile project management With agile project management the focus is on continuous innovation to deliver project requirements. The product should also be adaptable to facilitate future customer requirements. Agile also strives to have both people and process adaptability to respond rapidly to product and business change. It focuses more on revenue than cost so that that the project supports business growth and profitability. Highsmith (2009) one of the founders of the agile alliance published, Agile project management: creating innovative products, in this he identified five stages of agile project management. Highsmith defined the five stages of agile project management as: 1. Envision: How to determine the product vision, the project objectives and constraints, the project community and how the team work together. 2. Speculate: Developing a capability and or feature based release plan to deliver on all aspects of the vision 3. Explore: To plan and deliver project running tested stories in a short iteration, constantly seek to reduce the risk and uncertainty of the project. 4. Adapt: Review the delivered results, the situation and the teams performance and adapt as necessary. 5. Close: Conclude the project, pass on the key learnings and celebrate. Envision: This phase creates a vision for the project team that covers what, who and how. If theres no vision phase, this means that the rest of the properties of agile project management are a wasted effort. The envision phase is a critical success factor early in any project. Team members need a vision to determine who will be involved, customers, members, management, stake holders and envision how to work together as a group. The purpose of the envisioning phase is to clearly identify what is to be done and how work is to be accomplished. The envision stage has four practices, product vision, project objectives and constraints, project community and approach. Product vision allows member of the team to fully understand their project. Teams should have a clear product vision and the product vision should be revisited regularly. Project objectives include a project data sheet, this is a single-page summary of key business and quality objectives, product capabilities, and project management in formation. A project data sheet contains clients, customers, project leader, product manager, executive sponsor and the project objective statement. The project objective statement includes the capabilities, quality objectives and risks that can impact on the project. The project community includes getting the right people for the job. In Agile project management the team members need to have an appropriate technical ability, be team players and be self disciplined. The final step in the product vision stage is how the team will deliver the product, between working as a team with developers and major stakeholders in the project. For large projects a meeting is usually needed to discuss the product vision. After the envision phase the team has reviews to ensure they fully understand the vision. (Highsmith, 2009) Speculate: The speculate phase consists of gathering initial based requirements for a product and defining a workload as a backlog of product features. In the speculative phase, the team design their iterations. Iterations are the planned stages of work in the project and each iteration has a timeline and a plan. The agile plan is to have a product at the end of each iteration. This would involve the stories, tests, and documentation being packaged to be deployed. Iterations are used to concentrate on small pieces of work that depend on the type of project being completed. Estimating project costs and generating administrative and financial information are also done in this phase. Within the speculate phase plans have to be able to adapt to change as customers understanding of their requirements change, work efforts vary and people can leave or join teams. This phase establishes a target and a direction for the team. During this phase the team should have an understanding of the prod uct structure, and the release plan. Agile project speculating helps the project team to answer some of the following questions. Determine how the product and its features will evolve in the current release Balance anticipation with adaptation as the project unfolds Focus on the highest-value features early in the project Think about the business goals, project objectives, and customer expectations Provide necessary cost and schedule information to management Coordinate interrelated activities and features across teams Consider alternatives and adaptive actions Provide a baseline for analyzing events that occur during the project Explore: Agile project management focuses on agile leaders tasks of creating self organising, self disciplined teams that deliver products. Iteration management covers planning and management during iteration cycles. The main explore activities are iteration planning and monitoring, technical practices and project community. Iteration planning and monitoring consists of three main activities: iteration planning, workload management, and monitoring iteration progress. The primary responsibility for managing this work lies with the iteration manager. The iteration manager may also facilitate meetings such as retrospectives held at the end of each iteration, several practices can be applied generically to many types of products-both hardware and software. These generic technical practices are driven by the desire to keep quality high and the cost of change low. The four most common technical practices are simple design, continuous integration, ruthless automated testing, and refactoring . (Highsmith, 2009) Adapt: In the adapt phase the results are reviewed from customer, technical, people and process performance, and project status perspectives. The analysis looks at the actual versus planned project. The results of adaptation are fed into a re-planning effort to begin the next iteration. After the envision phase, the loop will be speculate, explore and adapt with each iteration successively refining the product. Control and correction are common terms applied to this phase. Plans are made, results are monitored and corrections are made implying what plans were right and the actual results. Adapt implies modification or change rather than success or failure. In agile project management responding to change is more important than following a plan. (Highsmith, 2009) Close: Projects are partially defined by the presence of both a beginning and an end. The key purpose of the close phase is the learning and the incorporation that learning into the work of the next iteration or passing it on to the next project team. This phase is the final step in the project, and is often overlooked. Finalising documentation, support material release notes and financial material all have to be tidied up before a project can close. In software projects the project is usually archived for safe keeping. In agile project management when closing a project it is important to have a project retrospective. This helps the team learn about its dynamics and intra team learning activities. It also allows the team to talk about what went well in the project and where it hit obstacles. (Highsmith, 2009) 3 Scrum project management Scrum project management approach embraces the agile iterative and incremental practices. Scrum can be used on projects of any size. It can manage XP projects, where XP projects uses customer on site with this the project team can be sure they are creating what the customer wants. SCRUM is revolved around simplicity, resulting in the delivery of a product that moves the project forward. It works on small pieces of the project at a time, these are known as iterations. Each iteration consists of some requirements gathering, analysis, design, development and testing combining to create an iterative release cycle. (Murphy, 2004) Scrum has three defined roles, the product owner, scrum master and the project team. The product owner is generally the product manager. The scrum master is the project manager or team leader. They enact scrum values and practices. They are responsible for issues that may hold up the project. The project team should consist of between 5-10 members. The team should include cross-functional team members, involving individuals from a multitude of disciplines including designers and developers. The scrum product backlog records the project requirements that are defined by the product owner. The project team creates a sprint backlog that comprises of product backlog items that they believe can be completed in a thirty day period. After thirty days the team should have a shippable product. (Murphy, 2004) The product owner, scrum master and the project team make rough estimates of how long each item will take. This SCRUM process can be seen in figure 2. Figure 2 The Scrum Process Scrum daily meetings are time limited, the daily Scrum meeting is typically confined to 15 minutes. Only extraordinary projects should require more than 15 minutes. The purpose of the Daily Scrum meeting is to answer Scrums three questions: What did you do yesterday? What will you do today? What obstacles are in your way? At the end of each sprint, a sprint review meeting is held. Again this meeting is time boxed. The team presents what they have developed during the sprint to the product owner. after the sprint review and prior to the next sprint planning meeting the scrum master holds a sprint retrospective meeting with the team. The scrum master encourages the team to revise within the scrum process framework and practices, its development process to make it more effective for the next sprint. (Murphy, 2004) 4 Agile project management in the telecommunications industry Agile methods like Scrum can be applied to any project to help deliver improved results. (Mac Iver, 2009). Many telecommunications companies utilise scrum techniques. This can be seen in the case study at TechCore. (Schwaber, 2004). Previous to the implementation of scrum the company could not see its priorities. By creating a product backlog this allowed the company to see that revenue could be made by focusing attention on product development. Within four months of implementing Scrum, the company had achieved its goals and the company prospects had improved. Before the implementation of scrum, TechCore had day log review meetings where the manager would impart his knowledge and direction to the development engineers. These meeting often went off track taking up the full teams day. With scrum the manager got involved in daily scrum meetings, with this they identified that teams werent taking and individual problems were holding up the project. As each engineer reported his or her st atus, Michel the project manager saw that if he focused his attention on product development, he could expedite design decisions, ensure that the correct path was taken, and actually get involved in the critical business of his company. He focused his efforts on helping the team with its short-term problems, which were all related to preparing the subsystem for the show. The daily scrum meetings also highlighted supply chain problems where engineers were waiting for component deliveries. Once this problem was identified the project manager employed two junior engineers to work with supply chain to identify and source components as quick as possible so there was no delay to the project and it freed up senior engineers time from dealing with these smaller matters. (Schwaber, 2004). The scrum project management technique has also been used in a nationwide WAN upgrade project as seen in Appendix 1, this project involved upgrading up to four hundred sites all over Ireland, each site need ed new network equipment installed including routers and switches and all sites had to be visited individually. All network equipment had to be configured before the site visit. This was one of the biggest projects undertaken by the project manager interviewed in Appendix A. By implementing Scrum the team of six people, the scrum master and the project manager all had a clear and concise understanding of what was happening at any given time. The teams were split up into three groups of two pairs. With this the project manager hoped that the pairs would work together in both configuring and installing the network equipment. The map of Ireland was divided into geographical sections, these sections were each going to represent a sprint, which would take approximately five weeks to complete. Each area was then assigned to a team. The first week of the sprint all staff were office based, configuring network equipment, for the remaining four weeks of the sprint the three teams were on sit e. Daily sprint meetings were held in the office which was ideal, as all members shared an office, these meeting were quick, clear and concise, covering what has been done today, what the plan for the rest of the day was and if there were any problems holding up the project. Once the teams were on site, a quick conference call between the teams and the scrum master covered the daily sprint meeting. With this the teams were always in contact and could share problems, solutions and new ideas. The main problem the teams ran into was if a team member was off work due to holidays or sick leave, where this happened, the scrum master could easily fit into any of the three teams, and carry out the work of the scrum master and the technician on the ground so that the project could stay on target for the specific dates that were outlined in the scrum backlog at the beginning. He identified that this may not be ideal in other SCRUM projects, but it works in this situation. At the end of the five week cycle the team and mangers would have a sprint review meeting, in this they identified where they were seeing recurring problems, what extra equipment or tools were required and how the process could run more smoothly. After the first sprint review meeting all three teams had small problems but improvised to complete what they had planned to do. During the sprint retrospective each team had different problems including faulty network equipment, lack of tools and no access to the communications room in buildings, once these were identified the scrum master found solutions to them and the same problems didnt reoccur. 5 Conclusion After researching this topic, there is not a lot of documentation of agile project management in the telecoms industry. Companies such as BT and Siemens have successfully implemented agile techniques into their software development teams, but they have not documented using agile in implementing their telecoms projects. One case study completed at Techcore an American telecommunications company (Schwaber, 2004) that has successfully implemented agile project management; from this case study before the implementation of agile the CEO of the company was trying to run all aspects of the company but was failing miserably. Once agile methodologies were implemented it became evident where and why their projects were failing as the CEO was trying to run all aspects of the company at the same time, and no are was given priority over any other. The development of the product backlog and the implementation of daily SCRUM meetings proved to be beneficial from day one. SCRUM also identified where time was being lost in the procurement of components as engineers were often left waiting for equipment resulting in the project being held up. The interview with the project manager from Appendix A also identifies how implementing SCRUM in a telecoms project was a success and the results were obvious very early on in the project. In this WAN upgrade project, the project managers implemented SCRUM, split the team of six into pairs, designed a product backlog, separated the project into sprints, held daily meetings as well as sprint review and sprint retrospective meetings. The project is still ongoing but as of this moment both project managers and senior managers have identified this project as a success. If agile is implemented in stages covering the envision, speculate, explore, adapt and close phases identified by Highsmith, the project proves to be successful, but if any of the five processes are missed the project may not prove to be as successful.