Learning styles Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Learning styles - Essay Example This climate has led to an interest in the learning styles of students. There are four main styles of learner, identified by Kolb and developed his Learning Style Inventory (LSI) to establish an individuals relative emphasis on each of the four styles. Kolbs LSI is based on the work of John Dewey, Kurt Lewin, and Jean Piaget. John Dewey emphasized the need for learning to be grounded in experience. Kurt Lewin stressed the importance of active learning, and Jean Piaget articulated a theory of intelligence as the result of the interaction of a person and his or her environment (Jarvis, Holford, Griffin, 2003, 171). Kolbs learning style model separated learners on the basis of four steps of learning defined from a two-dimensional model. The first dimension is based on task, and the second dimension is based on the soul or ego. The dimension based on task ranges from performing tasks to observing tasks. The model is usually shown with the task dimension displayed horizontally and the soul dimension displayed vertically. The four resulting quadrants are labeled with four steps to learning and four personal learning styles. The four steps to learning are labeled (1) concrete experience, (2) reflective observation, (3) abstract conceptualization, and (4) active experimentation. The four personal learning styles are (1) theorists, (2) pragmatists, (3) activists, and (4) reflectors (Race, 2005, 52). The personal learning style labeled theorist represents a person who likes to learn using abstract conceptualization and reflective observation. Theorists strength lies in the ability to create theoretical models. They prefer case studies regarding Accountancy or law, theory readings, and thinking alone. This learning style is characteristic of those gravitating toward basic science and mathematics. The theorist adapts and integrates observations into complex but logically sound

ANALYSIS OF THE MOVIE TABLOD Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

ANALYSIS OF THE TABLOD - Movie Review Example the old style of interviewing or reporting, where the audience has the same feeling of listening the story as the filmmaker experiences while listening it. The fact that I like about the documentary is that Morris trains the Camera on McKinney. In this way, McKinney tells her story on her own. She highlights different aspects of the case, yet she can be observed not telling the truth or hiding things at some places as she forces so intently to believe her story (Tabloid). Morris has used different strategies to gain audience’s attention such as he has added a bit of tabloidism himself to make it more appealing. He has also used different clips of the movie named ‘The Godmakers’ that gives the better insight about the role of Mormons and their work. He has made use of attractive headlines one after another in order to keep audience interest  in  the movie such as different journalists  and reporters resembled  the chained up position of Kirk Anderson as ‘Spread-Eagle’. In that way, the phrase flashes on the screen each time he does

The Struggle Of Oil In America Essay Example for Free

The Struggle Of Oil In America Essay Introduction Since its discovery 150 years ago, petroleum oil has become lifeline of the world, the functional equivalent of blood in the human body. The mechanism driving the entire transportation system from automobiles, airplanes, railways, ships to space rockets is based on utilization of energy of petroleum oil. Petroleum products are also extensively used in a number of infrastructure industries that form the core of industrial processes and basis of existence of modern world. However, the petroleum resources of world are very limited and they cannot endlessly meet human demands. Various estimates have put the total extractable oil stock to exist for another 50-75 years if world continues to consume them at present rate. After that the cost of extraction of remaining petroleum products would become much more than the benefits obtained them and world would require new resources of energy to exist. These concerns have already spawned intense research in alternative technologies to meet the future energy needs in the face of an impending petroleum crisis. United States of America is world’s leading consumer of petroleum products accounting for approximately 25 % of total consumption of petroleum oil world over. In 2003, world’s consumption of petroleum oil stood at around 80 million barrels per day, out of which US’s share was close to 20 million barrel (Hirsch, Bezdek, Wending, 2005). To meet these huge petroleum demands US depends crucially on oil imports that is well above 50 % today and continuing to rise upward. This overwhelming dependence on imported oil poses various strategic and security challenges for US interests in the long run. The sharp oil price increases of 1973 and 1979-81 serve as testimony to the dangers of import dependence. Further as the oil sources would continue to deplete, the prices of oil would steadily and inexorably rise until the level when world is faced with an acute fuel crisis. Based on these observations it’s vital that U.S explores alternative technologies and fuels to sustain its development and growth structure. Oil Imports The continuous rise in U.S oil consumption has forced it to rely increasingly on imported oil to meet its expanding requirements. In the past 50 years, oil consumption fell just on two occasions that were marked with international increase in prices of oil, in 1973 and 1979-81.. Domestic production of oil that peaked in 1971 has fallen since then while oil imports have continued to rise, crossing the domestic supplies in 1994 (EIA, 2005). The net imported oil share in the net oil consumption was 34.8 percent in 1973 which went lowest at 27.3 percent in 1985 but since then it has continued to rise against a dropping domestic production levels (Reaardon, 2002). The upward trend in oil consumption and consequently in oil import have continued to take place despite multiple efforts and policy intervention that government has tried to introduced (Deutch J, Schlesinger J.R, and Victor D.G., 2006, 29). As of today with its 20 million barrel per day consumption U.S is the largest consumer and importer of oil, surpassing the combined consumption of Japan, Germany, China, Russia and South Korea (Reardon, 2004).. The share of oil in total energy produced in USA is just 17.2 percent while in consumption it rises to 40 percent that explains the need for huge oil import. Imports constitute 11 million barrels per day that is more than the aggregate oil import of Japan, Germany, and South Korea (Reardon, 2004). For oil imports U.S relies heavily on Canada, Venezuela and Middle east oil with Canada being the single largest exporter country of oil to U.S. However as a group the OPEC dominates among all the exporters supplying more than 50 percent of total oil imported by U.S (Petroleum Navigator, 2006). The total petroleum imports for U.S stood at over 5 billion barrels in 2005 out of which crude oil constituted 3.69 billion barrels which means that oil accounts for almost three-fourth of the total imports (Petroleum Navigator, 2006). Finished petroleum products constituted the second largest import segment with close to 15 percent contribution. The bulk of the oil consumption takes place in the transportation sector, which accounts for the 69 percent of the total oil consumption in US (Basic Petroleum Statistics, 2007). Overall there are five major sectors accounting for petroleum oil consumption. These sectors, along with their consumption share in year 2005 are (Petroleum-EIA, 2006) Domestic/Household: Consumption in 2005 was 869 thousand barrels of petroleum per day Commercial: 386 thousand barrels of petroleum per day Industrial: 5061 thousand barrels of petroleum per day Electric Power production: 545 thousand barrels of petroleum per day Transportation: 13, 825 thousand barrels of petroleum per day. A breakup of consumption pattern in the transportation sector reveals that consumption stands highest for motor gasoline. Average daily consumption of motor gasoline in U.S, according to Petroleum data (EIA, 2005) is 8933 thousand barrels per day. Distillate fuel oil is the second most consumed petroleum product with daily consumption at 2817 thousand barrels. These figures give a realistic view of inevitable oil import dependency U.S for present and future if it carries on the present rate of consumption. Indeed the chances to curb the massive oil imports are slim considering the fleet of 210 millions vehicle that depend solely upon motor gasoline for their functioning (Hirsch R.L, Bezdek R, Wending R, February 2005, 4). As on 1st January 2006, the total proven oil reserves with U.S was just 21.6 billion barrels, which implies that in future U.S would be forced to rely almost completely on oil imports for its entire transportation requirements. As the closer sources shall run dry, U.S’ dependency would shift to further sources from where oil must be transported over vulnerable supply lines, leading to rise in global oil price. The greater risk is certainly compromising with U.S national interests. The oil supply lines would always be at risk against subversive elements requiring another set of huge investment in ensuring safe transportation of oil to U.S onshore facilities. It will also place U.S interests in the hands of oil cartels such as OPEC that may freely manipulate oil supplies according to their own interests. The shortage of oil would be more manifest in coming times as oil demands are growing world wide, especially in China and India with rapidly expanding economy, transportation system and consequently requirement of petroleum oil. Even at present consumption rate there are grave uncertainties on the secure prospects of future supplies within next 50 years time frame, and the rising consumption rates threatens to bring the approaching crisis nearer. United States is thus faced with a great responsibility to secure its future interests without sacrificing its present requirements and needs. This issue forms the topic of the next section. Part II: Alternative fuel technologies The impending oil crisis has finally stirred policy makers in US. A number of approaches are suggested that include a. imposing taxes on oil consumption b. using tradable gasoline permits and c. exploration of new sources of oil ( Deutch J, Schlesinger J.R, Victor D.G. 2006 ). However, the pressing need of situation demands measures that would sustain the present structure while safeguarding the future against depleting sources and rising petroleum prices. As the world’s oil reserves are finite, even measures such stagnating oil consumption and using oil more efficiently are just helpful in delaying the inevitable without offering any permanent solution to the issue. Oil reserves are going down steadily and within a couple of decades prices will soar up inexorably disrupting the economy, industry and society in turn. The only practical solution to this problem is technological innovations in energy field that can reduce dependence on petroleum oil by providing alternative and sustainable sources of energy. It shall serve two immensely useful purposes that are a. minimizing U.S dependence on foreign oil and b. preventing the environment from damages associated with use of petroleum oils and products. The certainty of oil exhaustion has inspired efforts from both government and corporate sector to research and develop the new fuel technologies as a providential measure for survival, growth and progress in forthcoming days of oil crisis. Past decade has seen great thrust on technological researches in alternative fuels. Various new techniques and models have already been introduced in the market to test their viability and capacity to successfully replace petroleum as chief source of energy. Most of these innovations are specifically aimed at transportation sector owing to its liability as chief consumer of petroleum oil and as principle cause of soaring oil imports. Due to distinct requirements of different sectors in transportation, the technologies vary. Passenger vehicles, public transport vehicles and freight transportation carry specific needs that are difficult to be met by a single alternative fuel technology.   Some of the major and most popular of these technologies, where majority of research and development has taken place, are (Aldrich, 1996) 1.Hybrid Vehicle, 2. Bio-diesels 3. Ethanol 4. Hydrogen and 5.Solar energy Following section discusses the technology used in each of these new vehicle-systems and their benefits over conventional gasoline based internal combustion engine. Hybrid Vehicles: As the name suggests, hybrid vehicles combine dual technologies for their operation. Technically they are hybrid electric vehicle with an electric motor that drives the vehicle (Hoogma, Kemp, Schot and Truffer, 2002, 41 ). In the case of a typical electric vehicle, hydrogen fuel cell or chemical batteries such as advanced sealed lead battery, nickel cadmium and lithium ion are used for auxiliary power (Aldrich, 1996). However in the hybrid electric vehicles, the electric drive technology is combined with a gasoline-based power generator for running the electric motor and charging the batteries. Hybrid vehicles are either full hybrid or mid hybrid. A full hybrid vehicle can move forward from standstill purely on electric power while a mid hybrid requires gasoline power for initial movement, although both technologies concentrate on maximum utilization of electric motor power while reducing the use of gasoline as far as possible (Hybrid Terms, 2007). The electric motor and internal combustion engine (ICE) are connected either in parallel or in series in a hybrid vehicle. In parallel hybrid cars, power to engine is supplied by both the electric motor and internal combustion engine while in the series hybrid car the gasoline engine powers the electric motor and batteries to generate electricity, without directly providing power for the vehicle (Hybrid Electric Vehicles, 2007). There is another category of hybrid vehicles, called as ‘plug-in hybrid’ that can operate as a full electric vehicle. They require some additional batteries and use electricity net to charge the batteries thereby minimizing gasoline use to its lowest possible levels (Hybrid Terms, 2007). All hybrid electric vehicle use computer that constantly monitors speed, power required and charge conditions of batteries (Hybrid Electric Vehicles, 2007). Bio-diesel: Bio-diesel, as the term suggests, is a type of renewable fuel obtained by agricultural products and used as fuel in heavy-duty vehicles. The major sources currently under research for bio-diesel are soybean, rapeseed, corn, cottonseed, peanut, sunflower, and canola (Aldrich, 1996, 85). The process of making bio-diesel involves use of an alcohol such as methanol which is treated with oil of selected agricultural produce to form glycerin followed by separation of fatty esters, recycling of excess alcohol and purification of esters to produce a fuel that bears remarkable closeness to diesel, however with higher octane number (Aldrich, 1996, 85). Currently bio-diesel is used when blended with petroleum diesel, especially in European markets, with commendable results. Ethanol: Ethanol as a very long history as an alternative fuel, and it was tried in even 1880 as a fuel option for Ford cars (Aldrich, 1996, 51). Ethanol is derived from agricultural produces by process of fermentation and distillation to form a high-octane liquid fuel. Normally ethanol is not used alone as a fuel, instead it is blended with gasoline in ratio of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline to form a fuel E-85, which is approved as an alternative fuel in US (Ethanol, 2007). The vehicles run on this fuel are called as flexi fuel vehicles. Ethanol has emerged as a successful alternative to fossil fuels in Brazil where more than 4 million vehicles on ethanol based fuel and it is finding increasing application in US as well. The benefits of using ethanol are multifold and they include (Ethanol, 2007) Hydrogen: There are great interests in using hydrogen as fuel in transport industry due to the great flexibility of options and performance it offers. Hydrogen can either be used as fuel in place of gasoline in internal combustion engine or it can be used as energy carrier in fuel cells, the latter being the major research area in automobile sector (Aldrich, 1996, 87). Solar Power: Use of solar power as energy in transportation sector has been subject of intense technological research. While the solar energy has found wide application as domestic energy supply, there are difficulties in their application in transport sector. Photovoltaic cells, that absorb sunrays to provide electricity, are inefficient under the current technology strains and unable to generate even a fraction of required power to drive a normal passenger vehicle. However, solar power has turned as a dependable source of energy in areas other than transport. All the initial costs are high in maintaining a solar energy power plant, its been shown that with increasingly sophisticated technology and wider application the cost of installation as well as generation of electricity can get comparable to normal power plants (Borowitz, 1999,112). Mass Transport System Apart from introducing alternative fuel and technologies to replace and minimize fossil fuel consumption, another area where fuel consumption can be easily reduced is creating a more robust and functional public transport and mass transit system. It is cost effective and time consuming to redesign the existing public transport system, especially in major cities, to cut down fuel consumption by reducing number of vehicles on the road. While airplanes are already a popular and heavily used long distance intercity mass transit system, there are many available areas of intervention in short distance intercity and intra-city transport to provide fast and reliable transit facilities while simultaneously reducing traffic, freeing up space on roads and parking and moderating fossil oil consumption. The transportation system of US, excluding freight transport, is presently divided in two broad categories a. privately owned individual all purpose vehicle transport system and b. public transport system consisting of buses, trains, trams, and metros under the control and maintenance of public administration and public transport companies ((Hoogma, Kemp, Schot and Truffer, 2002, 36-37). Public transport system is usually characterized by low cost, fuel-efficient transit system capable of carrying large number of people on a fixed route (ibid). It has been felt over time that a sustainable and efficient fuel policy needs to incorporate advanced public transport system as one of its key focus area. To improve the services of public transport system, increase its popularity and acceptance among people and highlight its role as an efficient and fuel incentive mode of travel, public authorities and corporations are required to introduce some important policy and technological measures. Three policy measures as highlighted by Hoogma, Kemp, Schot and Truffer (2002, 43)   are 1. Developing an integrated public transportation system where a single ticket can be used to commute irrespective of the number of switchovers made in the process. 2 Development of strong travel information structure in the public transport system, which can help people to navigate to their destinations easily. 3. Providing easy payment facility such as smart cards. These policies would greatly enhance the image and services of public transport system. Additionally the light rail and bus services can be expanded to cover specifically high traffic and downtown areas of major cities. An integration of public transport and private vehicle system can be achieved by providing sufficient parking space at stations and depots of public transport system. It would encourage people to use their private vehicles to access public transport system, resolving one of major issues of limited accessibility involved with mass transit system. Conclusion When fossil fuels were discovered around 150 years back, the existing technologies of steam engines were unable to utilize them. However, soon completely new technologies were developed in the face of these new energy sources and they were used to capitalize on the energy content and efficiency of fossil fuels. Soon petroleum fuels revolutionized the way the world moved and worked. The past 100 years of consumption has comprehensively depleted non-renewable petroleum deposits and estimates give another 50 more years before the remaining available sources would get almost exhausted. This fact is indeed a cause of concern, but only if viewed from existing technological frame. Declining petroleum resources offer the signal that its time to make transition towards different energy sources. Countries that would fail to read this signal or close their eyes to it are certainly heading for a major crisis. But fortunately US has the capacity to read these signals and develop reliable intermediate technologies and systems such as hybrid electric vehicle, ethanol and public transit systems that would considerably reduce fossil fuel consumption without adding to infrastructure cost thereby extending the life period of petroleum reservoirs. Meanwhile research can take place on new age technologies such as fuel cell and solar photovoltaic cells to complete replace fossil fuels as a source of energy. It is possible that if government and industry institute providential policy measures, there would be a host of alternative technologies in transportation sector by the time petroleum oil would get exhausted. But the question is that has US opened its eyes to the approaching crisis of oil shortage and if so, then what are the policy measures that are being taken to avert and stultify the crisis. Depleting oil resources are a reality, and it is certain that within decades oil prices would climb to astronomical height, bringing the entire present system to standstill. The whole structure of US is running efficiently on the energy of petroleum and it would collapse if this energy dries up. The responsibility to start transition towards new system, however, is not only of government but of every person because the future of crisis would be a common future. It would a collective exercise upon to use alternative technologies in their personal life, make maximum possible use of mass transit system and send the message to government and industry that people are ready for the great shift from petroleum oil. Reference Reference Basic Petroleum Statistics. Jan 2007. Energy Information Administration. 31st Jan. 2007 http://www.eia.doe.gov/neic/quickfacts/quickoil.html Benefits of Public Transport System-An Overview. 1st Feb-2007. American Public Transportation Association. 1st Feb 2007. http://www.apta.com/research/info/online/ben_overview.cfm Bob Aldrich.. ABCs of AFVs: a guide to alternative fuel vehicles. California Energy Commission, Sacramento-CA. April 1996. 1st Feb 2007 http://www.p2pays.org/ref/26/25156.pdf Borowitz, Sidney.   Farewell Fossil Fuels: Reviewing Americas Energy Policy.: Plenum Trade: New York: 1999 Deutch J, Schlesinger J.R, Victor D.G. 2006. Consequence of U.S Oil Dependency: Report of an Independent Task Force. 30th Jan. 2007 http://www.cfr.org/content/publications/attachments/EnergyTFR.pdf Ethanol. 2007. Alternative Fuel Data Center. US Department of Energy. 1st Feb, 2007, http://www.eere.energy.gov/afdc/altfuel/ethanol.html Faupel Karen and Al Kukri, 2002. Biodiesel: A Brief Overivew. NCAT Agricultural Specialist. 1st Feb, 2007. http://www.msenergy.ms/biodiesel.pdf Hirsch R.L, Bezdek R, Wending R. February 2005. Peaking of World Oil Production: Impact, Mitigation, Risk Management. 30th Jan. 2007 http://www.pppl.gov/publications/pics/Oil_Peaking_1205.pdf Hoogma Recmo, Rene Kemp, John Schot, Bernhard Truffer.   Experimenting for Sustainable Transport: The Approach of Strategic Niche Management.: Spon Press: New York: 2002. 36 Hybrid Electric Vehicles. Feb 2007. Hybrid Electric Vehicle: Implementing Agreement. International Energy Agency. 1st Feb, 2007. http://www.ieahev.org/hybrid.html#Anchor3 Hybrid Terms. HybridCars.com. 1st Feb 2007 http://www.hybridcars.com/types-systems/hybrid-terms.html Petroleum. July, 2006. Annual Energy Review-2005. 31s Jan, 2007 http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/aer/petro.html Petroleum Overview, 1949-2005. Annual Energy Review.31st Jan, 2007 http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/aer/petro.html Prospects For A Hydrogen Economy. Oct. 2002. Postnote. Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology. 1st Feb, 2007. http://www.parliament.uk/post/pn186.pdf Reardon Jack. .An Institutionalist Critique of the Bush Administrations Journal of Economic Issues. Volume: 38. Issue: 2. Publication Year: 2004. Page Number: 449+ Sanna Lucy. Driving the Solution: Plug-in Hybrid Vehicles. EPRI Journal. 1st Feb 2007. http://www.calcars.org/epri-driving-solution-1012885_PHEV.pdf U.S. Imports- Petroleum Navigator.Energy Information Administration. 31st Jan 2007 http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/pet_move_impcus_d_NUS_Z00_mbbl_m.htm

Two Object Oriented Methodologies Booch And Rambaugh Information Technology Essay

Two Object Oriented Methodologies Booch And Rambaugh Information Technology Essay In this paper Object-oriented System development methodologies i-e Booch, Rambaugh, are reviewed and compared with each other with a focus on their development processes. We have developed a framework based on a set of criteria to compare the two methods. The aim of this comparison is to better understand the core philosophies and processes of each method, and internal activities that each method provides. The aim of this descriptions and comparisons are not to criticize the philosophies of theses methodologies, but to give a description of the two methodologies that will facilitate the readers to better understand each methodology, and to what extent the two methodologies are object oriented. And also this comparison provides an ease in selecting and evaluating each methodologys process. (doc1)The software engineering field has been evolving over the past thirty years, but it has never completely solved the software crisis. Software development methodologies, as an essential element of the discipline of software engineering, have also evolved from the shallow and informal methodologies of the late 1960s to the object-oriented methodologies of the 1990s and the new millennium (doc1). There is a rapid development in the object oriented paradigm during the past years and the important reasons for such rapidness are that the real world applications are modeled in a better way as well as the object oriented paradigm enables the reusability of different artifacts during the development of a software system. Object oriented system development approach facilitates the re-use of software components. A system developed with Object Oriented Methodology (OOM) on component basis can re-use the existing components effectively, and as well as its components can be shared by some other systems too. One can achieve higher productivity, better quality and low maintenance cost by adopting the OOM. Since, the object-oriented methodologies (OOM) are still growing and continue to evolve, and there are a number of popular OOMs circulating around, but none of them is widely accepted. The software community is yet not agreed upon several fundamental issues. (1) A methodology is a systematic collection of techniques guidelines for how to build, buy, maintain and/or enhance software products. A methodology provides a basis for communication, a toolkit of techniques and a basis for repeatable, reliable software engineering. The term, method, refers to an approach to activities generally adhering to common principles [14]. Object-oriented software development methodologies, starts from the appearance of hybrid methodologies, then move to seminal methodologies, and the development of integrated (third-generation/heavyweight) methodologies and their agile (lightweight) counterparts. The following are the categories of Object oriented methodologies [15]: Seminal: Shlaer-Mellor, Coad-Yourdon, RDD, Booch, OMT, OSA, OOSE, BON,Hodge-Mock, Syntropy, Fusion; Integrated: OPM, Catalysis, OPEN, RUP/USDP, EUP, FOOM; Agile: DSDM, Scrum, XP, ASD, dX, Crystal, FDD; Although the promises, that the object-oriented software development provides, are based on solid grounds but still there is a confusion among the organization on when and how to invest in this new technology and also whether to invest or not. One of the reason for such confusion is that a great number of methodologies have been evolved during the last years. The other reason for confusion is closely related to the attractiveness of object-oriented software: Many vendors sticks the label object-oriented to their products without delivering important features as King (1989, p. 24) states: If I were trying to sell (my cat) I would argue that he is object-oriented. Research Problem The research question we are going to answer is: To what extent the two Object Oriented Methodologies: Booch and Rambaugh methodologies are Object Oriented and to what extent the methodologies help the software development organizations?. The selection cretaria for the the above two OOM is mentioned in the section 1.4.2. Since the object oriented paradigm evolved in different areas of the software development simultaneously, therefore fundamental concepts were different in different methodologies and were not completely standardized. Each OOM developed in a particular software domain such as real time systems and Information systems, although some cross-over exists in some concepts among the methodologies. Therefore, some methodologies are best in the development of applications that belong to the domain for which the methodology is evolved, while other can be used more generally. Even though OOM that evolved in the same domain may differ enough in different concepts such as process and notation and as a result can effect the software engineering goals. Motivation In the recent years, an overwhelming popularity of object oriented analysis and design has been witnessed. This phenomenon is evidenced by the number of papers and articles that are published in various conference proceedings, journals, books, and other forms. But There are still a large part of the business world that uses traditional software development approach for applications development. And on the technology side, there is an extensive development in the area of Object-Oriented technologies that promises better quality and productivity through reusability, and also encourages team work. The following observation is made in a survey [] about the organizations that uses OOM, performed by Sumit: A recent survey of IS managers revealed that 39% of organizations have adopted OO technology in some form. Nonetheless, OO development methodologies are used in only 5% of IS projects are developed in OO methodologies (Glass, 1999). For a specific application the first task is to decide which methodology is most appropriate for its development. Sometimes we may have to adapt different methodologies. Therefore an organization, that wants to switch to object oriented technology, faces one important question: which OOM is appropriate and should be chosen? A systematic comparison of available OOMs can answer such a question in a better way before selecting one of them. There are number of papers and articles that compare different aspects of the OOMs such as the reusability, documentation and others. So there is a need for the comparison which considers their system development core philosophy including all the concepts that methodologies provide in their development process. Unfortunately, the comparison of these methodologies is complicated because each OOM has its own set of definitions of the techniques, concepts, notations and are composed of informal descriptions, therefore the comparison of the methodologies depends largely on the interpretations and perceptions of the person who performs the comparison[10]. Such a comparison facilitate the organization that are developing software with traditional approach and now these organizations want to switch from the traditional software development approach to object oriented approach.. We also want to improve the understanding of these methodologies through this comparison, and to provide an ease in selecting, and evaluating the methodologies. The other purpose is to provide knowledge to the individuals that are interested to get the knowledge about object-oriented concepts, to what extent the two methods are object oriented, and how they relate to one another. Such interest in some cases is academic (e.g., students). Similarly individuals in companies or organizations want to evaluate and select a methodology to be used in software development process. We believe that sometime these groups are given short time and resources to make this decision, therefore comparisons like this will provide a shortcut means of selection. Research Methodology and comparison issues First we will review the existing software development methodologies (seminal methodology) that are object-oriented. We will study their system development processes to get a knowledge base about the object oriented technology. The purpose of this study is to understand their system development processes and internal activities involved in these development processes. Then we will review the two methods using a process-centered template, where we will summarize the two methodologies, and the activities and techniques discuss in the two methodologies will be highlighted. In the second step we will evaluate and compare Booch and Rumbaugh Object Oriented. We will use books, journals, proceedings, and internet sources as the data sources about the object oriented methodologies and ongoing research to gain the knowledge base. This report compares the two object oriented methodologies: Booch method and Rambaugh method, by considering their system development core philosophy. A research has been done in Hewlett Packard Laboratories by Arnold and his colleagues [1], in which several comparing criteria are defined in the form of questions for comparing Object oriented Methodologies. These comparing criteria are based on the concepts, notations, process, and pragmatics of the OOM methodology. Influenced by the above research, this report presents a framework to compare the two selected methodologies using the same set of criteria form the above research. The framework uses these set of comparing criteria for comparing the concepts, notations, process, and pragmatics of the two selected methodology which are defined in the section 1.5.1 under the heading of comparison variables. Using such framework helps us to avoid misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the two methods during the comparison process. Based on this framework, the two methods are extensively compared. The results are presented in a set of tables. Since the results are in tabular form so the similarities and differences as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the two methods can easily be seen. Comparison Variables As mentioned above, this report uses four main categories of the two methodologies in the comparison which are defined as follows: Concepts: Concepts are related to the conceptual underpinnings of the methodology that makes it object-oriented, and explians how the concepts such as object, class, state, inheritance, aggregation, and information hiding are defined and dealt by the methodology? Process: The methodology describes what steps to be taken and in what order to accomplish certain task in develoment process. How well the methodology specifies the process varies largly from methodology to methodology. Notation: The methodology describes tecniques (textual, and /or graphical) to capture and represent information within the development process. Some methodologies describe graphical techniques only, while others specify the form and content of whole documents. Pragmatics: The pragmatic criteria concentrate on nontechnical features. Pragmatics covers issues like needed resources, language suitability, learning of the CASE tools, required expertise, and domain applicability.(8) Comparison variables are listed in Table 1 under each category. The selection criterion for these variables is objectiveness. The aim of this report is to do the objective comparison of methodologies. That is, hard facts are produced by these variables about a methodology showing that a methodology either supports or does not support these variables. This selection criterion has one limitation. That is, no fine grained information regarding a variable is provided in this report for the comparison. Typically, the degree to which a methodology supports a variable is not answered in this comparison. In order to alleviate this shortfall for some variables, the report distinguishes explicit methodology support from implicit methodology support in the comparison and provide fine grained information if appropriate. The definitions of these variables in Table I are delayed until Section 3 when the selected OOADMs are compared. Table 1: Comparison variables Category Variables Concepts Class/Object, Abstract Classes, Meta-Classes, Encapsulation, Inheritance, Association, Aggregation, Methods/Messages, Type of Communications between objects and classes, Concurrency Process Development Process Deliverables, Development Context, Aspects of the Development Life-Cycle, Partitioning Mechanism, The Life-Cycle of the Methodologies Notations Static Concepts, Dynamic Concepts, Explicit Rules for Notations Symbols Pragmatics System Size, Programming Languages Support Selection of OOMs As mentioned above that this report compare the following two OOM for comparison. Object-Oriented Modeling and Techniques by J. Rumbaugh, et al. [Rumbaugh 91] Object-Oriented Analysis and Design by G. Booch [Booch 94] The selection of OOMs is based on three criteria. First the Object Oriented Methodologies (OOM) must be published in text book form so that adequate information is available for our comparison; which narrowed down our selection to those OOMs that are available in the text book form. Second the OOMs should be well-known and must be accepted by the software development community as real object-oriented methodologies. Third the methodologies must be supportred by CASE tools. The two OOM, selected in this report for camparison, fulfill and satisfy the three criteria [1, 10]. Both Booch, and Rumbaugh, which are the most widely used OOM, have evolved either from the real time domain or information processing domain and also are used in general. The two methodologies has gained significant attention so far in the software development community and are well documented at the same time. These criteria might exclude some well-known OOMs or recent developments in the OOM, but sufficiency, maturity and general acceptance of methodologies are the primary requirements for software development practice. Literature review Limitation This paper evaluates the aforementioned methods by scoring them against a set of criteria. It is not the goal of the paper to answer the question which one is the best? But rather to show the differences between methods and to allow conclusions be drawn as to their applicability. Remaining of report is divided into four sections. Section 2 provides a brief introduction of the two methodologies. Section 3 contains the comparison of the two methodologies. Section 4 presents the conclusion for the comparison of the two OOMs. Finally, section 5 contains the references to the literature used for this research. Brief introduction Of the Booch And Rambaugh (OMT) Methods Booch (1991, 1994) Booch introduced object oriented methodology in his book published in 1991. He was the first one to give the idea of the object-oriented approach in software development process, which he called system design [2][3]. He was popular at that for his landmark paper [Booch 1986] and for the work on Ada program design. He then introduced the analysis methodology to his design and extended his design model as a repeating process which he called The Micro Process) within a development process which is referred as The Macro Process. The macro process is shown in the figure 1 below as prescribed by Booch which is a self-iterative process Figure 1- The Macro Process -Booch [1994] These two processes are discussed in the next sections. The Macro Process The macro process consists of the following steps [2] [3] [4]. 1. Establish core requirements for software (conceptualization). 2. Develop a model of the systems desired behavior (analysis). 3. Create architecture for the implementation (design). 4. Evolve the implementation through successive refinements (evolution). 5. Post-delivery evolution management (maintenance). The Micro Process The micro process consists of the following activities as shown in figure 2 below [2] [3] [4]: The classes and objects are identified at a given abstraction level. Figure 2-The Micro Process Booch [1994] 2. Previously identified classes and objects meanings are established by defining the Semantics for every class and object, as well as the behavior of the system and its components are determined. 3. The interface of classes and objects as well as their implementation are specified. Decisions about the representation of the classes and objects are made in design model. Rambaugh OMT (1991) Rumbaugh introduced Object Modeling Technique (OMT) in 1991.OMT consists of following three major models and then it defines a method for integrating them [11] [12]. 1. The Object Model 2. The Dynamic Model 3. The Functional Model The object model In this model, Objects static structure and relationships among these objects are determined within a system. The following are the main concepts used in this model: object class operation attribute association aggregation Inheritance Dynamic model This model gives a description about the dynamics of the objects and their changes in states. This model shows the essential characteristics that change over time in a system by observing the objects behavior over time, and by exploring control and events flow among the objects. The control aspects of a system are specified and implemented in this model. The following are the main concepts in this model: state sub/super state event activity action Functional model This model shows information about the data flow within a system and the outside world. The following are then main concepts of this model: process data flow data store actor (source/sink) control flow OMT consists of five phases. 1. Analysis 2. System Design 3. Object Design 4. Implementation (coding) 5. Testing OMT processes considers the primary features in the first three phases of development (i-e Analysis, System Design and Object Design) and are explained in following sections. The following figure 3 shows these processes. Figure 3.-The OMT process- Derr [1995]. 1. Analysis this phase goal is to build a comprehensible and correct model according to the real world situation. The initial problem statement is developed from the requirements of the users and information that are provided by developers and managers. The analysis phase produces the following deliverables [11] [12]: Problem Statement Object Model, which consists of Object Model Diagram and data dictionary Dynamic Model, which consists of State Diagrams and Global Event Flow Diagram Functional Model, which consists of Data Flow Diagram and constraints 2. System design on the bases of architectural design of the system and problem domain, the system is partitioned into subsystems. The following are the system design phase deliverables: System Design Document: consists of architectural design of the system and high-level strategic decisions for implementing data stores in the form of data structures, files, and databases. 3. Object design based on the analysis model, the goal of this phase to provide Implementation details that include the domain infrastructure classes along with the internal objects needed for implementation. The following are the object design phase deliverables: Detailed Object Model Detailed Dynamic Model Detailed Functional Model 4. Implementation in this phase the system that is designed so far is translated into programming language code and hardware. 5. Test The entire System that is developed is verified in this phase. Testing includes system level and scenario based tests. Comparison Of Booch and Rambaugh methods The framework used in this paper is considering the following major areas of each methodology for comparison: Concepts Process Notations Pragmatics 3.1 Concepts A method to be consider as object oriented, it should support concepts that are related to the object oriented methologies. This comparison provides help in evaluating the method to the extent it is is object oriented. Therefore , in this paper we are comparing object oriented concepts of the two methodologies, Booch and Rambaugh, in the following categories. Concepts, such as Class, Object, etc. The relationships such as Inheritance and Aggregation Types of communications between objects and classes. Concurrency mechanisms Object is the fundamental concept of every object-oriented method, that must be supported by the method. An object encapsulates its internal state (or attributes) and provides a set of operations (methods/messeges) as an interface for manipulating the state. Whereas a class is a template which describes the attributes and interface of a set of objects. Object instances are produced by defining class variables.[5] Table 1 lists comparison of the object oreinted concepts that both methodology provides. A Y in the box for each concept represents that an artifact is provided by the coresponding methodology. Table 1. Object Oriented concepts Method Rumbaugh Booch classes/objects Y Y abstract classes Y Y meta-classes Y Y Encapsulation Y Y single inheritance Y Y multiple inheritance Y Y Aggregation Y Y Association Y Y methods/messages Y Y Total 9 9 Real world is concurrent, so object oriented methods often uses concurrent objects in the analysis phase to model it. Objects remain in passive mode, until an operation is invoked by another object to bring them in active mode. If there are more than one thread of control associated with active object, then it is called internally concurrent object. Therefore object oriented methods should support ways to access the shared data in concurrent systems.[5] Table 2. Concurrency Method Passive Active internally concurrent Rumbaugh Y Y Y Booch Y Y Communiication provides information flow and synchronization between objects that are involved in the communication. In Synchronous communication the sender object send a messege to the reciever object and suspend execution until it receives an aknowlegment message from the reciever, whereas in asynchronous communication the sender does not wait for the aknowlegment and continues its execution. Sequential systems uses procedural call whereas concurrent object systems uses remote procedure Call for communication. Table 3. Communication Method Synchronous Asynchronous Procedural Remote procedure Rumbaugh Y Y Y Booch Y Y Y Process 3.2.1. Deliverables that are produced during the Development Process: A number of different types of deliverables are generated during the development process of a system. These include a number of specifications likely requirements, analysis, design, subsystem, and test cases. Particularly, in object-oriented development process, object and classes specifications are very important. Following criteria is used to find out the deliverables that each methodology generates during the development process: 0 shows no deliverable is generated. 1 shows deliverable is generated, but details are not provided. 2 shows deliverable is generated and also well defined. 3 shows deliverable is generated, a definition is provided, and an example is given. 4 shows deliverable is generated, a definition is provided, and an example is given, and a definition for the process is provided. 5 shows deliverable is generated, a definition is supplied, an example is given, a definition for the process is provided, and heuristics are provided. The following table 4 represents the results of this evaluation: Table 4: Development process deliverables Method Rumbaugh Booch Requirement Specification 2 1 Design Specification 2 2 Test Cases 0 0 Object/Class Specification 5 1 Subsystem Specification 0 1 Totals 9 5 3.2.2. Development Contexts A set of constraints occur during the development process which are established by development context. The following criteria are used to evaluate that whether each methodology explicitly discusses the constraints that are established by the development context, or not within the method. A Y in the With Prototyping column shows that prototyping is discussed explicitly in the methodology. A Y in the As Prototyping indicates that prototypes iteratively deliver the system and methodology produces prototypes into production. A Y in the With Reuse shows that the methodology explicitly incorporate the reuse products into the method The For Reuse indicates whether the methodology delivers reusable products for other processes or not. Table 5: Development Context Method Rumbaugh Booch With Prototype Y As Prototype With Reuse Y Y For Reuse Partial Y Aspects of the Development Life-Cycle The whole development life cycle of a methodology gives us a suggestion about the completeness and consistency of the methodology. If a methodology covers all aspects of the development lifecycle during the development process then it ensures the completeness and the consistency of the methodology and it is useful to the organization as a complete and consistent methodology. Therefore, complete life cycle coverage is very important to a life cycle with a limited coverage. Following table 6 values shows these aspects: 0 shows this feature is not covered. 1 shows this feature is covered, but with no details. 2 show this feature is covered with definition. 3 shows this feature is covered, a definition is given with an example (at least one). 4 shows this feature is covered, a definition is given with an example (at least one) and with defined process. 5 shows this feature is covered, a definition is given with an example (at least one) and with defined process, and heuristics are provided. Table 6: Development process life cycle coverage Method Rumbaugh Booch Domain Analysis 0 4 Requirement Analysis 5 2 Enterprise Modeling 0 0 Design 5 5 Implement 3 4 Test 2 0 Total 15 15 In software engineering Extensibility of the system design is a systematic measure of the ability to last or continue. A level of efforts is required to extend a system in range or scope. Table 7: Extensibility Method Completeness Consistency Extensibility Rumbaugh Y Y Y Booch N N N Table 8: Process properties Method Well-defined steps(process) Pure or hybrid Traceable across lifecycle Rumbaugh Y H Y Booch Partial P Partitioning Mechanism When system size increases, then at a particular time, the visibility of certain information about the objects of interest is very crucial and to limit this visibility a partitioning mechanism is required. Each methodology was studied carefully to seek such mechanisms it provides. So the information in the table below was the outcome. Table 9: Partition mechanism Method Partitioning Mechanism Rumbaugh Subsystems Booch Subsystems The Life-Cycle of the Methodologies The development life-cycle of each methodology was carefully reviewed so as to determine that whether the methodology follows a sequential (i-e Waterfall), iterative or recursive strategy because it is the crucial requirement for project planning. Otherwise it will yield unexpected results with high risk and would lead to total failure. The following table 10 shows that which methodology follows what strategy. Table 10: life cycle property Method Recursive Iterative Sequential Rumbaugh Y Booch Y 3.3 Notations 3.3.1. Static Concepts Each methodology was reviewed to determine that how each methodology represents the following concepts: Aggregation: what are the components an object is a composed of. Communication: How the classes or objects communicate with each other(i-e by sending message to one another) Specialization: An object is represented as a generalization, or specialization, of another class or object? Module Interfaces: The physical implementations of objects Qualifications for Reuse: How much each methodology encourages the reuse of different components of development process. These concepts within each methodology indicates that how the models are used. The table 11 below shows the notations for these concepts. Table 11: Static Concepts Method Rumbaugh Booch Aggregation Object Model Class Diagram Specialization Object Model Class Diagram Communication Scenario Class Diagram Module Interfaces Module Qualifications f

Foreign Language Essay :: Foreign Languages Essays

Foreign Language Essay Innehà ¥llsfà ¶rteckning Innehà ¥llsfà ¶rteckning  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  2 Inledning  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  3 Sammanfattning  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  4 Allmà ¤nt  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  5 Japans industriella  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  6 struktur Faktorer som bidragit  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  11 till Japans framgà ¥ngar Jà ¤mfà ¶relse mellan  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  14 Sverige och Japan Kà ¤llfà ¶rteckning  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  18 Bilaga  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  19 Inledning Sverige à ¤r nu i en djup là ¥gkonjunktur, med massor av "sparpaket". Dà ¤rfà ¶r tyckte jag att det skulle vara intressant att titta pà ¥ just en av và ¤rldens stà ¶rsta och starkaste marknadseko ­nomier och se vad som skiljer den mot Sverige. Jag valde inte USA utan Japan som kommer lite i skymundan mot den stora jà ¤tten i Và ¤st. Jag kommer att ta upp lite om fà ¶retagsstruktur d v s om de à ¤r konglomerat eller ej, stort eller litet o s v. Sedan tà ¤nkte jag ta upp lite om instà ¤llningen till arbete hos japanerna, d v s hur deras tra ­ditioner à ¤r i fà ¶rhà ¥llande till arbetet. Pà ¥ det hà ¤r sà ¤ttet tà ¤nkte jag pà ¥visa vad som gà ¶r Japan till en rela ­tivt solid ekonomi. Jag vill ocksà ¥ visa vad som gjort att Japan har haft sà ¥ otroliga framgà ¥ngar speciellt efter andra và ¤rldskriget. Sammanfattning Japan à ¤r ett relativt litet land, men à ¤ndà ¥ har det utvecklat en và ¤l ­digt stark ekonomi. Bristen pà ¥ tillgà ¥ngar och det isolerade là ¤get har lett till att japanerna mà ¥ste ha en effektiv handel à ¶ver grà ¤n ­serna. Japan har ett và ¤lutvecklat industridepartement som samarbetar dagligen med industrin och fungerar som ett samordnings- och rà ¥dgivningsorgan. De stora industrigrupperna stà ¥r fà ¶r hà ¤lften av Japans fà ¶rà ¤dlings ­và ¤rde, men bara ca 1/5 av sysselsà ¤ttningen. Detta beror frà ¤mst pà ¥ att industrigrupperna tillà ¤mpar livstidsanstà ¤llning och seniori ­tets ­systemet vilka à ¤r mycket kostsamma, men ger mà ¥nga fà ¶rdelar bl a effektiva arbetare. Industrigrupperna samarbetar med smà ¥- och medelstora fà ¶retag, de hjà ¤lper dem med bl a finansiering och rà ¥d ­givning. I gengà ¤ld arbetar de mindre fà ¶retagen lojalt fà ¶r de stora och blir som ett slags sà ¤kerhetsomrà ¥de fà ¶r dem. De flesta japanerna sparar fà ¶r en oviss framtid, dà ¤rfà ¶r att de ej har nà ¥gon speciell social trygghet genom staten, endast en folk ­pension pà ¥ ca 3816 kr/mà ¥nad. Genom detta sparande blir ban ­kerna enormt kapitalstarka och dà ¤rfà ¶r à ¤r just de 4 stà ¶rsta banker ­na i và ¤rlden ja ­panska. Det genomsnittliga sparkapitalet fà ¶r en japansk familj à ¤r ca 354 000 kr. Deras marginalskatt à ¤r endast ca 10% vilket moti ­verar à ¶vertidsarbete och mer sparande, dà ¤rfà ¶r arbetar japanerna ca 6 h mer à ¤n t ex europà ©er. Det finns mà ¥nga faktorer som har bidragit till Japans framgà ¥ngar framfà ¶r allt efter andra và ¤rldskriget bl a den stabila stà ¤llningen in ­ternationellt, den effektiva inrikespolitiken, nà ¤ringssystemet, styr ­ningen av fà ¶retagen och de effektiva arbetarna. Jà ¤mfà ¶r man Sverige och Japan sà ¥ à ¤r det, det lite stà ¶rre landet med 8 miljoner inv. mot det lilla landet med en enorm befolkning pà ¥ 125 miljoner.

Objectivity in Journalism Essay -- Reporter News Reporting Events Essa

Objectivity in Journalism Public journalism has changed much during its existence. Papers are striving to actively involve readers in the news development. It goes beyond telling the news to embrace a broader mission of improving the quality of public life. The American style of journalism is based on objectivity and separates us from the bias found in most European partisan papers. American journalism is becoming too vigilant in being objective that the dedication to investigating stories tends to be missing in the writing. Public journalism works to incorporate concepts from partisan and objective writing to increase the flow of information and improve the quality of public life. The partisan press is presented as an opinion newspaper which generally argues one political point of view or pushes the plan of the party that subsidizes the paper.1 This style is dominantly used in Great Britain. Leonard Doyle, the foreign editor at The Independent in London, feels that this is the best style of delivering news. Partisan journalism strikes at the passion and immediacy of the subjects covered in the news. The reports are based on more narrow discoveries of facts and evidence. The partisan news is very competitive which in turn creates popularity for reading the papers. Doyle says that the British are among the best informed in the world.2 The 20th century American style of news deals with objectivity. This style distinguishes factual reports from opinion columns. Reporters strive to remain neutral towards the issues they cover, and allow readers to make their judgments.3 The Washington Post?s Michael Getler describes that news that is most beneficial should be delivered in a method that is bey... ...se information that is bias and opinionated. The most notable aspect in European partisan papers is that one can sense the desire and interest the writer has in the topic by their opinions and explanations. I feel that if Americans took the European approach, more people would be attracted to reading papers and interacting with the information they are given, and in turn there could be a better informed nation. Works Cited ?Brits vs. Yanks: Who Does Journalism Right 2004. Columbia Journalism Review. Issue 3: May/June. . Campbell, Richard. Media & Culture: an introduction to mass communication. Bedford/St. Martin?s: Boston, N.Y. 2005. Cunningham, Brent. ?Re-thinking Objectivity.? 2003. Columbia Journalism Review. Issue 4: July/August. . Objectivity in Journalism Essay -- Reporter News Reporting Events Essa Objectivity in Journalism Public journalism has changed much during its existence. Papers are striving to actively involve readers in the news development. It goes beyond telling the news to embrace a broader mission of improving the quality of public life. The American style of journalism is based on objectivity and separates us from the bias found in most European partisan papers. American journalism is becoming too vigilant in being objective that the dedication to investigating stories tends to be missing in the writing. Public journalism works to incorporate concepts from partisan and objective writing to increase the flow of information and improve the quality of public life. The partisan press is presented as an opinion newspaper which generally argues one political point of view or pushes the plan of the party that subsidizes the paper.1 This style is dominantly used in Great Britain. Leonard Doyle, the foreign editor at The Independent in London, feels that this is the best style of delivering news. Partisan journalism strikes at the passion and immediacy of the subjects covered in the news. The reports are based on more narrow discoveries of facts and evidence. The partisan news is very competitive which in turn creates popularity for reading the papers. Doyle says that the British are among the best informed in the world.2 The 20th century American style of news deals with objectivity. This style distinguishes factual reports from opinion columns. Reporters strive to remain neutral towards the issues they cover, and allow readers to make their judgments.3 The Washington Post?s Michael Getler describes that news that is most beneficial should be delivered in a method that is bey... ...se information that is bias and opinionated. The most notable aspect in European partisan papers is that one can sense the desire and interest the writer has in the topic by their opinions and explanations. I feel that if Americans took the European approach, more people would be attracted to reading papers and interacting with the information they are given, and in turn there could be a better informed nation. Works Cited ?Brits vs. Yanks: Who Does Journalism Right 2004. Columbia Journalism Review. Issue 3: May/June. . Campbell, Richard. Media & Culture: an introduction to mass communication. Bedford/St. Martin?s: Boston, N.Y. 2005. Cunningham, Brent. ?Re-thinking Objectivity.? 2003. Columbia Journalism Review. Issue 4: July/August. .

Three in the Middle: the Experience of Making Change

Micro Switch, founded in 1937 and acquired by Honeywell Inc. in 1950, is a division that has long been known as an innovative industry leader in switches, sensors and manual controls. During the transition from electro-mechanical to electronic and solid state, Micro Switch enlisted the assistance of 49 year Honeywell employee to maintain their competitive edge within an ever changing market. With an internal shake up intended to preserve the organization’s reputation, as well as improve their downward decline, middle managers are left to ponder if â€Å"something had gone wrong, or as this the way a successful change was supposed to feel† (Lenan, Stone, 2008, pg. 194, para. 1). Case Summary and Problem Definition Economic issues began arising during the switch from electro-mechanical to electronic and solid state during the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. The apparent regression was in full force by 1985 and it took two years of plummeting for Micro Switch to enlist the help of Ramon â€Å"Ray† Alvarez in 1897. Alvarez had created a significant track record for himself and thus reinforced this decision. He had not only been a Honeywell employee for 49 years, but also a history of turning around two other Honeywell divisions. Alvarez developed a three year plan to not only reignite Micro Switch’s competitive edge, but to also facilitate performance excellence. Despite his reputation for being psychologically intimidating, Alvarez was able to move cautiously enough in the beginning to gain support from senior managers, but did not necessarily set the tone for factory workers and lower level employees. In this three year plan, Alvarez devised three different strategies to go about achieving this mission. First was to create a mission statement as well as a new vision: â€Å"growth through quality solutions to customer needs† (Lenan, Stone, 2008, pg. 194, para 3). Second, was to establish a scrupulous annual strategic planning process that allowed Micro Switch to become more competitive, quicker to respond, and monetarily savvy. Third was the development of APEX, Achieve Performance Excellence, a model that would not only act as the focal point of this change, but would allow Alvarez to continue to fine tune Micro Switch’s strategies during later years. In its first year APEX was intended to encourage nearly 4,000 employees that the change was an urgent matter, and increasingly more necessary than ever before. APEX focused on giving employees specific ways to strive for quality and distinction by creating an employee suggestion system, as well as awards for employees that met performance objectives. Quality and performance was the heart of this transition and by 1990, APEX became much more sophisticated. The Building Block Councils was developed during this time and was comprised of an arrangement of committees and councils. Their primary objective was to encourage division wide involvement in a variety of strategic areas by creating six councils that implemented new standards to their designated area. These areas were the customer satisfaction council, quality council, goals council, awareness council, training council, and recognition council. Upon reading the observations of three high level managers who also served as chairs on many of the new councils, it becomes evident that the plan brought forth by Ray Alvarez in fact had many short comings. The first three year plan focused on symptoms not actual problem and according to Rick Rowe, another Micro Switch director, â€Å"the easy changes had already been made. Now the company had to tackle deeply ingrained behaviors and processes which were holding the division back from reaching its goals† (Lenan, Stone, 2008, pg. 200). Alvarez in many ways, did not focus on separating immediate symptoms from the actual underlying problems. Focusing on symptoms may achieve more approval in the beginning, but this will begin to dissipate once people realize that the basic core problem never went away. As indicated above, Alvarez did an exceptional job announcing the change, implementing APEX, and encouraging division wide involvement through Building Block Councils. That being said, the Building Block Councils focused around middle and higher level managers, not lower level employees, and thus lower level employees were not immediately included in the process. This would later change as Deb Massof, a new director brought on by Alvarez and often seen as an outsider, tirelessly attempted to encourage employee involvement. Massof’s initial utcasting was the symptom of an underlying culture clash problem that should have been dealt with right away. When trying to have meetings to get employees involved in the strategic planning process, Massof asserts that she just got blank stares from employees. Lower level employees should have been informed that some things were going to change; according to Massof’s account, it appears as though no one ever actually told them they w ould be doing away with the top down approach. This may have been hindrance in this situation. If this change had been formally communicated, just by some employees hearing this, their involvement and productivity may have increased significantly. Due to the fact that prior to Alvarez, Micro Switch operated under a top-down bureaucratic management structure, and he should have considered that Micro Switch had likely attracted employees that had not only accepted this, but became increasingly comfortable with that approach, as well. However, they did not anticipate this, and this led to a great deal of resistance to the change itself. Massof has indicated that she was eventually successful in developing cross functional business teams, but states that initially thinking independently was exceptionally unusual for nearly all of the employees and most of them couldn’t even comprehend why they were being pressed to do so. Communication of expectations and really communication in general could have improved the efficiency of this situation vastly and could have got lower level employees on board a lot quicker. Case and point, Massof stated that in July of 1990, her unit completed their second strategic plan with no complaining, and brought a â€Å"new level of skill and detail to the task† (Lenan, Stone, 2008, pg. 202, para. 3). In addition to this, they were also able to establish benchmarks during their second strategic plan. Measurability is an essential aspect of the change process and yet Ellis Stewart, another Micro Switch director, indicated that his team felt as though they were not able to see any of their progress despite their efforts. What we need is some growth to take advantage of all the work we’ve done† (Lenan, Stone, 2008, pg. 204, para. 2). Due to the fact that Stewart’s business unit had not established any benchmarks, short term goals, or measurability to illustrate short term wins, they had trouble maintaining motivation and upholding morale. The next underlying problem is the lack of direction. According to Massof, â€Å"I do think people want to change. They do want to do good. But they’re real frustrated at not knowing what to change† (Leban, Stone, 2008, pg. 200). Without actually saying it, Massof illustrated that there really was not a fruitful plan set in place, let alone one that included employees in the planning stages. Alvarez did a wonderful job creating a sense of urgency with Micro Switch directors, establishing a vision, and goals. The fundamental problem lied not within the â€Å"why† part, the â€Å"why† part was clearly understood. Rather, the main issue is that lower level employees were not steered in the right direction and obviously were not an integral part of the change process as they didn’t even understand what they needed to change. Starting with why is of course important, but the â€Å"what† aspect, arguably just as important if not more, is what actually sets people in the right direction. The next core problem is that the change implemented was not small and manageable. During Massof first 18 months with Micro Switch her highest priority in her business unit was â€Å"making up for fifteen years of no investment and no new products†¦ to compensate for years of neglect; and to start drawing people into both the revitalization process and daily operations in ways they had never done before† (Leban, Stone, 2008, pg. 01). This is hardly what one would consider a small manageable change; Massof’s business unit didn’t even understand their own customers anymore. In addition, there was no use of a project manager or consultants to help them with market research, and thus no one to keep them on track and remind of what the goal actually was. Trying to gain support for the culture shift was a large problem during the change process, and although Alvarez often encouraged autonomy, this was not always the case. The new and improved Micro Switch was expected to perform with a sense of urgency and thus work was expected to be not only that of high quality, but done as quickly as possible. Ellis Stewart, head of Building Block Council on Training, swiftly and efficiently developed a new employee training program known as APEX College, and was reprimanded for â€Å"acting without authorization. † For change to be successful it is imperative there are no wavering expectations and mixed signals being sent and authority must be given with responsibility. Review Alternative Courses of Action, Make Recommendations, and Implement Listed previously in the section above, are ten evident problems and in this section, each problem will be lumped together based on similar underlying issues into five categories, reiterated and then recommendations will be made. 1. The initial focus was placed on symptoms not problems. Changes were not small and manageable. Lack of project manager, etc. Focusing on underlying problems is a crucial step in the change process. Many organizations, who aim to change aspects of their business whether it is internally or externally, tend to focus on the symptoms because of their obviousness. Although as stated previously, tending to symptoms may gain more initial acceptance and approval, the change will fall short in the end as the realization that nothing actually changed, sets in. My recommendation is to dig deep and not look for a â€Å"band-aid† solution, but rather one that tackles deep rooted issues. I also think in this situation, bringing in outside assistance would be increasingly prudent. Analysts, project managers, and other like professionals generally have the ability to point out core, fundamental issues that have either been ignored or simply not accepted by the organization. Meaning that, many organizations suffer from certain issues that become the big elephant in the room that no one talks about, or it’s an elephant that only lower level employees see, but cannot point out due to the organization’s management style. In the case at hand, it seems as though nearly all of Micro Switch employees didn’t even realize many of the issues because they weren’t expected to, and thus because no one questioned it, it was never brought to anyone’s attention. This is precisely why I feel an outsider, who is actually hired and contracted to provide a service that points the underlying problems out would be extremely useful. . Communication was poor and employees were not told the culture was going to change. Employees were not actually an integral part of the change process, despite announcements stating otherwise. The tone of the change process was set, but employees had no direction. (What should be changed what shouldn’t). Lack of Clear Expectations. Communication is essential in many areas of life, and businesses are certainly not the exception. A successful change requires buy-in from staff, and this includes all differing levels of employees understanding their roles. In this case, my first recommendation would be to inform employees of how Micro Switch used to operate, very top down. By Alvarez simply assuming that employees knew that Micro Switch had previously operated under a Theory X type of management structure, he set a number of the employees within the organization up to fail before they could succeed. In some instances, this can be helpful, but in business when time is of the essence and truly invaluable, the stumble that occurred could have been prevented. The next step would be to illustrate what the new Micro Switch structure would look like. This is what is used to be, this what we’re changing, and these are the expectations, type of deal. Now, these things are important notions to communicate, but role understanding is where Micro Switch actually began to see a lot of issues. If employees do not understand what they need to be changing, what their roles are, and what the expectations are, then the change cannot be implemented. Lastly, this should all be communicated verbally, and in writing. Each employee should receive a packet of information and be briefed over and over again about the upcoming changes. After it is made exceptionally clear, each employee should sign a waiver of sorts, indicating that they understand not only why the change is taking place, but more importantly, what their role is in the process, what is going to change, and what the expectations are related to their own job duties. Delegating tasks to help employees during this process is crucial, and therefore communication does not need to be administered by just one individual. Having a plan and communicating that plan would help Micro Switch in terms of efficiency and gaining approval at a quicker rate. 3. Resistance to the culture change imposed was not anticipated in advance. Massof indicated that Micro Switch was in a time warp and their extreme resistant to change was deeply ingrained in Micro Switch’s culture. Resistance in contrast, to the previous issue listed above, is something that should have been assumed. In this case, my recommendation again, begins with communication. Considering the employees’ perspective and asking them until face to face is a question that should be tackled initially to help develop a plan to fill in perception gaps. Resistance is not always a bad thing and in the case at hand, anticipating this could have helped Alvarez really communicate what was going to be changed, thus making the implementation process a lot smoother. After this, tracking perception is vital and although Alvarez attempted to have employee feedback system, it did function in an efficient manner. Not a great deal of information was give about the system, which leads me to believe that it was not very thought out. Resistance can be caused by a lack of understanding, not necessarily disapproval and this proved to be true in this case. 4. Lack of measurability. In any change, measurability is a key factor. My recommendation would be to create project goals and use the scorecard approach. Alvarez did a great job dealing with education, but only dealt with part of the performance aspects. The development of APEX should just be starting point, but how will Micro Switch know if it’s successful if it’s not measured and tested. I would also implement short term goals to prevent loss in momentum, as stated by Ellis previously, employees at all levels need to see growth. This is illustrated through measurability. 5. Lack of authority with responsibility Successful change must be driven by support from top management, involve employees and project managers. I would begin by using a combination of Change Theories E and O thus accepting the paradox between hard side of change and the soft side change. Alvarez left a lot of gaps in his plan, and most his plan involved the softer, internal side of the organization. This issue ties a lot into communication, clear guidelines, and concise expectations; however, it is still important mention on its own due to the account given earlier by Stewart. Follow-up and Evaluate In order to evaluate this process, I would focus primarily on the balanced scorecard approach. This strategic management system enables organizations to focus on their vision, strategy and their measurement. Balanced scorecards also offer a structure for communicating how employees are expected to execute the strategy. Micro Switch employees at various levels felt they had nothing to show for their work. This technique could have cleared up a lot of confusion during the Micro Switch change and increased their efficiency exponentially. In addition to the clarity provided, this system would also illustrate their progress in tangible terms. This process includes four different areas of measurement, financial, customer, internal operations, and learning and growth. Therefore, this measurement system should satisfy the needs of employees at various levels and shareholders well, because as its title indicates, it’s well balanced. This approach indicates that although financial measurements are of extreme importance, they cannot take the place of intangible assets. Following the guidelines of the balanced scorecard approach from this point, I would make the strategy explicit, choose the measures, define and refine, and deal with people. Once these have been established, the work needs to be divided up into two interfaces, differentiation and integration. Differentiation refers to the degree of similarity or difference represented by the design of the work units†¦the way an organization coordinates the work across work-units is the integration† (Lenan, Stone, 2008, pg. 66). Conclusion Although Alvarez did implement some great ideas during the beginning of his time at Micro Switch, the shakeup led many middle managers to ponder if something had gone wrong. In the end, it’s not necessarily that anything implemented had gone array, but rather that there were many gaps in the planning that needed to be filled in. Initially, this wasn’t as evident but as excitement began to dissipate and employees struggled to understand what their new roles were within the organization, the holes in the plan became clearly evident. Developing APEX set Micro Switch on the right track, but left a lot to be desired with the way things were handled (or not handled) internally. By merely adding communication, a project manager, goals, and measurements, Micro Switch employees at various levels would have likely felt a lot more optimistic with the end result.