Improving the quality of life for mutiple sclerosis patients using the Essay

Improving the quality of life for mutiple sclerosis patients using the nursing-based home visting model - Essay Example The paper has identified the population under study as the people who live in Arulcara, have been treated with multiple sclerosis, are between zero and eighteen years, and have been registered with the multiple sclerosis association (Akkus, & Akdemir, 2012). This is an efficient description although it has not identified the total number of people who are in the population. The study has not also identified the sampling design that it used to determine the members of the association who were to be included in the sample (Polit, & Beck, 2013). The research only identifies the number of participants who were included in the sample to be fifty eight. The research used a power analysis to determine the sample size, and this analysis indicated that forty five patients under study were supposed to provide a power of 90% (Akkus, & Akdemir, 2012). Since the study did not identify the total number of participants in the population, it is impossible to conclude whether the sample size was repr esentative of the whole population. However, since the study indicates that all the patients were literate, it means that the illiterate victims of the disease were not represented. According to Akkus and Akdemir (2012), the study used two methods of data collection that include a general questionnaire and a symptom evaluation form. The investigator issued the questionnaire and the symptom form to the patients who then filled them by answering the questions. The research indicates that the questions that patients did not understand were either corrected or excluded from the questionnaire (Akkus, & Akdemir, 2012). The exclusion of misunderstood questions may mean that the information given was insufficient and unreliable. The investigators also observed the patients during all the visits, but the study does not indicate whether they recorded their

What evidence in the play can be interpreted as Mercutios Essay Example for Free

What evidence in the play can be interpreted as Mercutios Essay What evidence in the play can be interpreted as Mercutio’s affections toward Romeo being more than platonic? Discuss. ‘Romeo and Juliet’ a tragic romance written by William Shakespeare depicts the love between the two characters Romeo and Juliet. Other forms of love between characters are also present in the play, one of the most notable being the ambiguous relationship between Romeo and his flamboyant best friend Mercutio. Through a series of character interactions and character portrayals, Mercutio’s sexuality is left indistinct and his affections towards Romeo can be seen as homoerotic in nature. Romeo and Mercutio have a tendency to tease and banter with each other throughout the play. Mercutio’s teasing in particular could be interpreted as a form of homoerotism considering the large amounts of innuendo and references to Romeo’s phallus used. â€Å"To raise a spirit in his mistress circle Of some strange nature, letting it there stand Till she had laid it and conjured it down;† (Act 2, scene 1) Though this type of banter could be interpreted as normal amongst men their age, due to Mercutio’s ambiguous sexual orientation, it can be considered a form of flirting, especially when you take into consideration Mercutio’s attestment for the opposite gender and love between a man and a woman. Early on in the play, Mercutio is shown to have an aversion to women as well as heterosexual love. One of the clearest examples of Mercutio’s hostility towards women is shown in act 2, scene one when Benvolio and Mercutio are searching for Romeo after the party at the Capulets. â€Å"I must conjure him. I conjure thee by Rosalines bright eyes, By her high forehead and her scarlet lip, By her fine foot, straight leg and quivering thigh And the demesnes that there adjacent lie, That in thy likeness thou appear to us! †(Act 2, scene 1) Mercutio starts mocking Romeo’s feelings for Rosaline as well as insulting her by listing her body parts in a crude manner. Mercutio’s aversion towards women and love is also quite prominent in his Queen Mab speech which outside of being a ‘fairy’ is also a reference to whores during Elizabethan times. The speech starts off as more of a flight of fancy but steadily becomes darker the further he gets. â€Å"This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs, That presses them and learns them first to bear, Making them women of good carriage: This is she† (Act 1, scene 4) This passage could be interpreted as women losing their virginities as well as going into prostitution. Mercutio makes a stab at women through generalising them as whores, as well as stating how love is insignificant, nonsensical and corrupting. This is shown through the emphasis on Queen Mab’s small size, the fairy’s ability to confirm what ever vices that dreamers are addicted to and how the description of Queen Mab itself is complete nonsense. His aversion to women and heterosexual love could be interpreted as a sign of homosexuality, or at the very least bisexuality; Mercutio’s disrespect for the opposite gender is shown to be indiscriminate when involving matters in concern to Romeo. All women that Mercutio is seen interacting with or acknowledging in the play are insulted and ridiculed by him; the fact that they have all wanted Romeo’s company or have been subjected to Romeo’s affections is what they all have in common. â€Å"NURSE If you be he, sir, I desire some confidence with you. †¦ MERCUTIO A bawd, a bawd, a bawd! so ho! ROMEO What hast thou found? MERCUTIO No hare, sir; unless a hare, sir, in a lenten pie, that is something stale and hoar ere it be spent. An old hare hoar, And an old hare hoar, Is very good meat in lent But a hare that is hoar Is too much for a score, When it hoars ere it be spent. Romeo, will you come to your fathers? well to dinner, thither. † (Act 2, Scene 4) In this scene, Mercutio is shown to immediately interrupt the conversation between the other two characters once Romeo has lost interest in teasing the nurse, and the nurse has shown interest in conversing with him in private. Mercutio’s insults and teasing become bawdier as he tries to draw the groups attention and in turn Romeo’s attention towards him rather than the nurse as he continues to mock her. This act could be seen as an adverse reaction to the possibility of Romeo romancing another woman, or even the possibility of him romancing the nurse herself. A similar attitude is taken up by Mercutio concerning other women in Romeo’s life, as shown with Rosaline. The callous and unseemly way that Mercutio treats women who associate with Romeo could be seen as a form of jealousy, and thus his possible homoerotic affections for his best friend; characters such as Tybalt make allusions to the possibility of Mercutio’s non-platonic affections towards Romeo right before the play’s climax. Mercutio’s death scene, aside from being the climax of the play, has the most allusions to Mercutio’s affections towards Romeo being more than platonic. â€Å"Mercutio, thou consortst with Romeo† (Act 3, scene 1) This line spoken by Tybalt suggests the possibility of Mercutio’s homosexuality. Tybalt starts insulting a passive Romeo which results in a brawl between Mercutio and Tybalt, stemming from Mercutio’s need to defend his friend’s dignity and outrage at Romeo’s unresponsiveness to the insults. The brawl between the two, along with Mercutio’s resulting death, is seen as completely unnecessary as Tybalt is making no direct insult to Mercutio’s person, only Romeo’s. The need that Mercutio had felt to defend Romeo’s dignity could be seen as the manifestation of romantic feelings towards his best friend due to how unnecessarily far he’d taken his brawl with Tybalt and how it had resulted in his death. Through these series of events and character interaction such as Mercutio’s teasing of Romeo, his aversion to women, love, senseless death borne out of want to defend Romeo’s dignity and the possibility of him being homosexual, that Mercutio’s love for Romeo could be concluded as being more than just platonic. ________________ ROMEO AND JULIET ESSAY- VERSION 2. What evidence in the play can be interpreted as Mercutio’s affections toward Romeo being more than platonic? Discuss. ‘Romeo and Juliet’, a tragic romance written by William Shakespeare, depicts the love between the two characters Romeo and Juliet. Other forms of love between characters are also present in the play, one of the most notable being the ambiguous relationship between Romeo and his flamboyant best friend Mercutio. Through a series of character interactions and character portrayals, Mercutio’s sexuality is left indistinct and his affections towards Romeo can be seen as homoerotic in nature. Romeo and Mercutio have a tendency to tease and banter with each other throughout the play. Mercutio’s teasing in particular could be interpreted as a form of homoerotism considering the large amounts of innuendo and references to Romeo’s phallus used. Said references to Romeos phallus appear when Mercutio, in an attempt lure Romeo out of hiding, begins to talk of Romeo raising a spirit in his mistress circle and letting it there stand / Till she [Rosaline] had laid it and conjured it down (William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 1, Line 26). Though this type of banter could be interpreted as normal amongst men their age, due to Mercutio’s ambiguous sexual orientation it can be considered a form of flirting, especially when you take into consideration Mercutio’s attestment for the opposite gender and love between a man and a woman Early on in the play, Mercutio is shown to have and aversion to women as well as heterosexual love. One of the clearest examples of Mercutio’s hostility towards women is shown in when Benvolio and Mercutio are searching for Romeo after the party at the Capulets. Mercutio starts mocking Romeo’s feelings for Rosaline as well as insulting her by listing her body parts in a crude manner. He describes her fine foot, straight leg and quivering thigh (Act 2, Scene 1, Line 21) amongst other body parts considered uncouth to talk about during his time period. Mercutio’s aversion towards women and love is also quite prominent in his Queen Mab speech which outside of being a ‘fairy’ is also a reference to whores during Elizabethan times. The speech starts off as more of a flight of fancy but steadily becomes darker the further he gets. Mercutio makes references to women losing their virginities and going into prostitution when he talks of when maids lie on their backs / That presses them and learns them first to bear (Act 1, Scene 4, Line 96). Mercutio makes a stab at women through generalising them as whores, as well as stating how love is insignificant, nonsensical and corrupting. This is shown through the emphasis on Queen Mab’s small size, the fairy’s ability to confirm what ever vices that dreamers are addicted to and how the description of Queen Mab itself is complete nonsense. His aversion to women and heterosexual love could be interpreted as a sign of homosexuality, or at the very least bisexuality; Mercutios disrespect for the opposite gender is shown to be indiscriminate when involving matters in concern to Romeo. All women that Mercutio is seen interacting with or acknowledging in the play are insulted and ridiculed by him; the fact that they have all wanted Romeo’s company or have been subjected to Romeo’s affections is what they all have in common. In the second act, Juliets nurse approaches Romeo and expresses her interest in speaking with him alone. Mercutio, seeing that Romeo had lost interest in teasing the nurse, instantly interrupts the conversation by calling the nurse a bawd (Act 2, Scene 4, Line 115), followed by an indecent song on a girl who prostitutes herself. Mercutio’s insults and teasing become bawdier as he tries to draw the group’s, and in turn Romeo’s, attention towards him rather than the nurse as he continues to mock her. This act could be seen as an adverse reaction to the possibility of Romeo romancing another woman, or even the possibility of him romancing the nurse herself. A similar attitude is taken up by Mercutio concerning other women in Romeo’s life, as shown with Rosaline. The callous and unseemly way that Mercutio treats women who associate with Romeo could be seen as a form of jealousy, and thus his possible homoerotic affections for his best friend; characters such as Tybalt make allusions to the possibility of Mercutio’s non-platonic affections towards Rome right before the play’s climax. Mercutio’s death scene, aside from being the climax of the play, has the most allusions to Mercutio’s affections towards Romeo being more than platonic. Tybalt suggests the possibility of Mercutio’s homosexuality when he says that Mercutio consortst with Romeo (Act 3, Scene 1, Line 42). Tybalt starts insulting a passive Romeo which results in a brawl between Mercutio and Tybalt, stemming from Mercutio’s need to defend his friend’s dignity and outrage at Romeo’s unresponsiveness to the insults. The brawl between the two, along with Mercutio’s resulting death, is seen as completely unnecessary as Tybalt is making no direct insult to Mercutio’s person, only Romeo’s. The need that Mercutio had felt to defend Romeo’s dignity could be seen as the manifestation of romantic feelings towards his best friend due to how unnecessarily far he’d taken his brawl with Tybalt and how it had resulted in his death. Through these series of events and character interaction such as Mercutio’s teasing of Romeo, his aversion to women, love, senseless death borne out of want to defend Romeo’s dignity and the possibility of him being homosexual, that Mercutio’s love for Romeo could be concluded as being more than just platonic.

Avoiding Project Failure Dissertation

Avoiding Project Failure Dissertation ABSTRACT Project management have become increasingly important in the development of any nation. Various organisations have used project management techniques as a means of bridging the gap between failure and success in implementation of projects. Despite this increasing awareness of project management by organisations, projects still fail. The purpose of this dissertation is to systematically investigate the causes of project failure and how these can be prevented, managed, or controlled. Research studies investigating the reasons why projects fail, has been ongoing for years, with various researchers, organisations and project management institutions, providing lists of reasons, which they believe, are the cause of project failure. However, despite these lists projects continue to fail, Atkinson (1999). This research is done with the anticipation of not only adding information to the body of knowledge already in existence, but also examining the major issues currently causing project failure; this will help organisations effectively manage projects. To determine how to avoid project failure the criteria for measuring project success has to be properly determined and agreed upon; the major criteria commonly used are; cost, time and quality. Then the causes of project failure need to be determined. This study also examined generalisations made from existing literature about causes of project failure and methods of avoiding project failure using three construction case studies in United Kingdom. This is a secondary or desk research, which involves the collecting and analysis of secondary data, or data that already exists, from which inferences have been made, and conclusions drawn. CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1Research background Projects make a vital contribution to industrialisation and hence the growth of a nations economy. The importance of projects in the development of any nation cannot be overemphasized. This is demonstrated in various literatures explaining the success and failure of projects. Although projects are said to be important, its implementation can be an uphill task. Various researchers have discussed project management as a technique to help prevent against failure in projects. Others have established checklists to help prevent failure. Despite the increased project management awareness and these checklists, some projects still fail, Atkinson (1999). All projects are constrained by inherent risks; knowledge of these risks will play an important role in achieving success and avoiding failure. Usually projects consist of three stages consisting of the approval, execution and evaluation stages. If any of these stages is not managed properly it may result to the failure of the entire project. Failure or Success in projects is a multi-dimensional issue and may be influenced by so many factors. Some projects may have failed in project management practices including cost overrun, scope creep, delay in schedule etc, and other projects may fail in procurement practices. Despite these failures in the following areas the project may still be perceived as successful by the end users. An example is Wembley Stadium; despite all the issues associated with the project in terms of project management and procurement practices, it is still perceived to be successful and a state of the art stadium by the end users. This may result from the fact that it has hosted world class sporting events. Usually, projects are designed to meet stakeholders objective. These objectives define the criteria for success of that project, and projects not satisfying these objectives are deem to fail. Effective communication and clarity in the stakeholders objective is vital to the project manager. This thesis examines the causes of project failure and how these can be prevented, managed or controlled. It discusses project failure and success with the help of case studies in order to identify the critical success factors and reduce failure in the implementation of projects. This research is done with the anticipation of not only adding information to the body of knowledge already in existence, but also in defining the criteria for project success and identifying the variables involved. This will help organisations effectively manage projects. 1.2 Aim The aim of this research is to carry out appraisal on the causes of project failure and the appropriate methods of avoiding project failure. This aim is intended to be achieved with the following objectives. 1.3 Objectives To provide a review of project management To analyze success criteria for projects To explore factors that causes project failure or success To examine methods of avoiding project failure 1.4 Scope This research is based on construction projects executed in the United Kingdom over the last two decades. 1.5 Research Structure Chapter One, Introduction this introduces the research; topic highlighting the aim, objectives and scope of the research. Chapter Two, Literature review critically reviews the existing Literature regarding the subject. It establishes the definition of project success and the success and failure criteria / factors. Chapter Three, Methodology describes the methodology used to undertake this research. It demonstrates the fact that secondary data was mostly used in undertaking this research. Chapter Four, Case Studies Case studies on projects from the UK construction Industry were discussed in this Chapter. These case studies were analysed and linked to the literature review chapter. Chapter Five consists of the analysis of the discussion and findings. This is derived from critically analysing the Wembley, Heathrow terminal five (T5) and Holyrood case studies. Chapter Six, Conclusion and Recommendation: This chapter concludes the research and suggests directions for further research. CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Introduction The importance of avoiding project failure in a rapidly evolving project-driven 21st century cannot be over-emphasized. Attempts to understand the causes of project failure and/ or success have proven problematic, despite attempt by many practitioners and academics over the years. Project demands have constantly increased over the last decade and have driven our society into a constantly changing environment. Despite attempts to make project appraisal and delivery more rigorous, a considerable proportion of delivery effort results in project that does not meet user expectations and are consequently rejected. In our view this can be attributed to the fact that few organisations have the facilities, training and management discipline to bring project to successful completion. Project success does not come easily; much has been contributed over the last decade to our understanding of the nature of and reason for successful and unsuccessful project completion. In addition many projects fail to complete at all. Sometime failure to satisfy all the original goals of a project can still be regarded favourably if the main sponsor is not satisfied with the outcome and the key stakeholders have gained in some way. Generally, the key development considerations are to have the goal clearly defined, to plan how to realize the goal and implement the plan. Developing an alternative methodology for project management founded on stakeholders, senior management support and proper planning should lead to a better understanding of the management issues that may contribute to the successful delivery of projects. This literature review is aimed at carrying out appraisal on the causes of project failure and the appropriate methods of avoiding it. It begins with key definitions, then analysis of causes of project failure and project success. Then it looks at success factors and criteria; also examine ways of avoiding project failure. The chapter ends with summary of the discussion. 2.2 What is a Project? Gary and Larson (2008:5) defined project as â€Å"a complex, non routine, one-time effort limited by time, budget and resource, and performance specifications designed to meet customer needs. This is in contrast to how an organisation generally works on a permanent basis to produce their goods and services. For example the work of an organisation may be to manufacture a vehicle on a continual basis, therefore the work is considered functional as the organisation creates the same products or services over-and -over again and people hold their roles on a semi permanent basis. A project can be defined as having constraints (usually centred around time and resources, but also including all aspect of the process and the outcome); projects are processes that in many circumstances are core business for organisation. The diagram below show different levels in project management. 2.3 What is Project Management? According to Gray and Larson (2006) Project management is a task derived from an organisation that enables professional project managers to use their skills, tools and knowledge to plan, execute and control a unique project within a limited lifespan by meeting the specification requirements of the organisation. Since the outcomes of the capital projects have strategic implications on the success and profitability of the business, the ability to deliver based on pre-determined objectives should be critical to the companys success. And yet one-third of all the oil and gas projects exceed budget and time projections by more than 10 percent. Failure to deliver big projects on budget and on schedule is highly publicized and damage the companies profile with capital markets that predictability and strong returns. Continual use of traditional project management techniques will not alter this trend. Companies that want to change and improve on their performance with critical capital projects will need to adopt new techniques. Munns and Bjeirmi (1996) also defined project management as a process used as a control to achieve the project objectives by utilizing the organisational structure and resources to manage a project with the application of tools and techniques, without disrupting the routine operation of the company. ‘Project management is the discipline of managing all the different resources and aspects of the project in such a way that the resources will deliver all the output that is required to complete the project within the defined scope, time, and cost constraints. These are agreed upon the project initiation stage and by the time the project begins all stakeholders and team members will have a clear understanding and acceptance of the process, methodology and expected outcome.(http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/introduction-project-management.html accessed on 30/06/09) Project management has been defined as â€Å"the process by which projects (unique, complex, non- routine, one-time effort limited by time, budget, and resources) are defined, planned, monitored, controlled and delivered such that the agreed benefits are realised† (APM, 2006:3) Other definitions have been offered, Reiss suggests that a project is a human activity that achieves a clear objective against a time scale, and to achieve this while pointing out that a simple description is not possible, he suggested that project management is a combination of management and planning and management of change. Despite all the suggestions about what is project management, the criteria for success, namely, cost, time, and quality remain and are included in the actual description. Meaning that Oisens definition of project management was either correct, or as a discipline, project management has not really changed or developed the success criteria over 50 years. Therefore project management is a learning profession. The significant point from all the definitions and suggestions of project management is that while the factors have developed and adopted, changes to the success criteria have been suggested but remain unchanged. In 2008, a survey undertaken by Booz Allen Hamilton (project management consultant) which comprises of 20 companies in engineering, procurement and construction; shows that 40 percent of all projects executed where faced with cost overruns and behind schedule. These overrun in cost and schedule has led to clients dissatisfaction on project performance; this view also agree with the research of M J Lang (1990). Therefore effective project management is very vital in such a volatile business environment. 2.4 Project Management Methodology Generally, projects are split into three phases Initiation, implementation and closure. Every stage of a project has multiple checkpoints which must be met before the starting of the next stage. The degree to which a project will be managed depends on the size of the project. For a complex project in a large organisation that involves a number of people, resources, time and money, a more structural approach is needed, and there will be more steps built into each stage of the project to ensure that the project delivers the anticipated end result. For a simple project in a small organisation, agreed milestones, a few checklists and someone to co-ordinate the project may be all that is required. 2.5 Defining Project Failure From Penguin English Dictionary (1992), failure is define as unsuccessful project that fails to perform a duty or an expected action, non-occurrence or non-performance. Whereas success can be defined as the achievement of something desired, planned or attempted (Cambridge Dictionary, 2007). It is also said that success is an event that accomplishes its intended purpose (dictionary.com, 2007). Anything short of that is failure. Project failure is an unpleasant event that cost large amount of money to the organisation. 2.6 Causes of Project Failure Pinto and Mantel (1990) carried out a research on the causes of project failure and revealed a good explanation that encompasses both internal efficiency and external effectiveness. They state that project failure is a vague concept, which has evoked much as to its definition, as the case with the definition of project success. A project is considered a failure â€Å"whenever a project does not meet the expectations of the stakeholders†. This has lots of impact to both the organisation and all stakeholders to the project. They include: cost and time overruns, quality degradation, frustration and stress, sometimes resulting to people quitting, low corporate market value, low public opinion and negative media campaigns. The total effect can be very costly to the organisation; at times even force the company into closure. Bienkoski (1989) identified ten factors that can lead to project failure and they are: * Lack of change management- happens when there is no method to handle or recognise changes. * Communication- causes delay or even failure since team members do not have the information they needed, issues or changes do not get escalated, project reporting is sluggish * Inadequate resources- Task take longer than expected to complete, deadlines and milestones get missed, and project completion date comes into jeopardy, one end of working more than necessary (double shift) to get the work done * No one is in control, not even the project manager, who is assigned to the project but not given the free hand to manage the project. This is most problem encounters in matrix organisation * Project lacks structure caused by things such as critical tasks being under rated * Inaccurate estimates. A top- down plan causes constraints on the prediction of the cost of the project * Poor risk management. The project initiation stage is not properly planned * Insufficient non-resources are not allocated to the project; for instance, it is not possible for a project to succeed if the right resources are made available for that project * Incompetent project management skill * Project changes from its original objective and goals. This can occur due to additional requirement from the client Pinto and mantel (1990) argue that the major causes of project failure are changes in the project environment, as it goes out of hands of the management. 2.7 Defining Project Success Lewis (2005) states that project success can be defined as meeting the required expectation of the stakeholders and achieving its intended purpose. This can be attained by understanding what the end result would be, and then stating the deliverables of the project. Shenhar et al. (2001) state the opposite: that project success is commonly judged by time and budget goals criteria, whereas in some cases this does not apply to some projects. Thiry (2006) argues that project success can only be defined if executives are able to consider the contribution of benefits and if the project is able to achieve these measures in relation to resources, competencies and complexity within the project parameters. 2.8 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) as a Measurement for Project Success The purpose of the KPIs is to enable measurement of project and organisational performance throughout the construction industry (The KPI Working Group 2000). Collins (2000) advocates that the process of developing KPIs involves the consideration of the following factors: * KPIs are general indicators of performance that focus on critical aspects of output or outcomes * Only a limited, management number of KPIs is maintainable for regular use. Having too many (complex) KPIs can be time-and resource-consuming * The systematic use of KPIs is essential as the value of KPIs is almost completely derived from their consistent use over a number of projects * Data collection must be made as simple as possible. * A large sample size is required to reduce the impact of project specific variables. Therefore, KPis should be designed to use on every building project. * For performance measurement to be effective, the measures must be acceptable, understood and owned across the organisation * KPIs will need to evolve and it is likely that a set of KPIs will be subject to change and refinement * Graphic delays of KPIs need to be simple in design, easy to update and accessible. Key Performance indicators for measuring project success can be illustrated with the help of the diagram below (Albert Ada, 2004). They identified the following as the measurement of project success: Cost, time, quality, commercial profitable/value, environmental performance, user expectation/ satisfaction, health and safety and participants satisfaction. This will help in explaining what the project success might mean to different stakeholders. Key Performance Indicators Dvir et al. (2003) state that the ranking of success is a one-sided judgement, as the definition of success is difficult to define, because it has different meanings for different people; thus, the criteria of success should reflect the diverse interest and view that lead to a multi-dimensional and multi-criteria approach. Baccarini (1999) states: that success entails â€Å"hard† criteria which often linked with cost, time and quality. He also states that hard criteria which can be easily measured can lead to some form of substantial agreement. In contrast, soft criteria are known to be one sided, restrained and not easily assessed. This implies that project success is a fantasy of the mind and only an individual can turn such vision into reality. A contrasting view from Westerveld (2000) defined project success as â€Å"the satisfaction of all the stakeholders, meaning that as long as the stakeholders are pleased with the outcome and gain profits or revenue from the project, then it is classed as a success. One of the Squares root corners, organisational benefits, drew much attention because of its significance and it was further analysed. Kerzner (2001, p6) suggests three criteria from the organization perspective in order for a project to be successful. The first is that it must be completed with minimum or mutually agreed upon scope changes, even though stakeholders constantly have different views about projects results (Maylor, 2005, p288). Secondly â€Å"without disturbing the main work flow of the organization because a project has to assist organisations everyday operations and try to make them more efficient and effective. Finally, it should be completed without changing the corporate culture even though projects are almost exclusively concerned with change with knocking down the old and building up the new (Baguley, 1995, p8). A project managers main responsibility is to make sure that he delivers change only where is necessary, otherwise he is doomed to find strong resistance from almost all organisational departments (Kerzner, 2001, p158) which ultimately could lead to project failure. A more structured approach to project success is grouping the criteria into categories. Wideman (1996, p3-4) describes four groups, all of them time dependent: internal project objectives (efficiency during the project), benefit to customer (effectiveness in the short term), direct contribution (in the medium term) and future opportunity (in the long term). The characterization of ‘time dependent is based on the fact that success varies with time. Looking at the future benefits of the organisation can be really difficult, because in some cases they dont even know what they want, yet it is vital to know what the project is trying to achieve after completion time so that success criteria are clearly defined in the early stages. This is quite a different approach, because the focus moves from the present success criteria to the future, in a way that a project can be unsuccessful during execution if it is judged by criteria like cost and quality, but in the long term it can turn to be a thriving story. A good example of this hypothesis is hosting the Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, which received mass criticism both during the planning period, due to delays in construction time, and when it was finished, due to huge cost. But the benefits that Greece will gain from the Olympic Games can be fully understood after 5 or maybe 10 years from the hosting year (Athens2004.com). All the above success criteria should be simple and attainable and, once defined, they should also be ranked according to priority (Right Track Associates, 2003). Straightforward criteria are easy to understand by everyone involved in the project and therefore commitment is guaranteed. Unrealistic criteria can put a ‘failure label on many projects because of the unreachable standards, can generate low team esteem and team performance in future projects and finally generate unfair disappointment among stakeholders. As for priority issues, it is inevitable that things will go wrong and the project manager will be in a tough situation where he must make the right decision having in mind that he has to sacrifice the least important success criterion. Also Shenhar et ‘al (1997) are of view that project success can be seen from the four area: Project efficiency, impact of the project to the customer, business success and finally what the project holds for the future. This was further explain in the diagram in 3. 2.9 Defining Project Success Factors and Project Success Criteria Muller and Turner (2007) defined the two components of project success in relation to the use of project management as follows: Project success factors are the elements of a project that can be influenced to increase the like hood of success; these are independent variable that makes success more likely. Project success criteria are the measures by which judge the successful outcome of a project; these are dependent variable which measure project success. We often hear or read about various success stories. But what is success and what criteria should organizations use to identify success? What factors lead to a successful project? The purpose of this study is to define project success criteria, clarify their difference with success factors and analyse their importance in project management methodology. One of the vaguest concepts of project management is project success. Since each individual or group of people who are involved in a project have different needs and expectations, it is very unsurprising that they interpret project success in their own way of understanding (Cleland Ireland, 2004, p2). For those involved with a project, project success is normally thought of as the achievement of some pre-determined project goals (Lim Mohamed, 1999, p244) while the general public has different views, commonly based on user satisfaction. A classic example of different perspective of successful project is the Sydney Opera House project (Thomsett, 2002), which went 16 times over budget and took 4 times more to finish than originally planned. But the final impact that the Opera House created was so big that no one remembers the original missed goals. The project was a big success for the people and at the same time a big failure from the project management perspective. On the other hand, the Millennium Dome in London was a project on time and on budget but in the eyes of the British people was considered a failure because it didnt deliver the awe and glamour that it was supposed to generate (Cammack, 2005). In the same way that quality requires both conformance to the specifications and fitness for use, project success requires a combination of product success (service, result, or outcome) and project management success (Duncan, 2004). The difference between criteria and factors is fuzzy for many people. The Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary describes a criterion as a standard by which you judge, decide about or deal with something while a factor is explained as a fact or situation which influences the result of something. Lim Mohamed applied those definitions to project success and illustrated the difference. It is clear now that critical factors can lead to a series of events which ultimately meet the overall success criteria of the project, so they should not be used as synonymous terms. Project success can be seen from two different perceptive, the micro and macro viewpoint (Lim Mohamed, 1999). This can help in better understanding of what project success means to different people. 2.9.1 Success Criteria Many lists of success criteria have been introduced in the previous decades by various researchers. Primal success criteria have been an integrated part of project management theory given that early definitions of project management included the so called ‘Iron Triangle success criteria cost, time and quality. (Atkinson, 1999, p338) Atkinson continues that as a discipline, project management has not really changed or developed the success measurement criteria in almost 50 years. To meet the urgent need of modernizing the out of date success criteria, he suggest the ‘Square Route ( 3) success criteria instead of the ‘Iron Triangle, where he groups the criteria that other academics have proposed. The main change is the addition of qualitative objectives rather than quantitative, namely the benefits that different group of people can receive from the project. These benefits are seen from two perspectives, one from the organisational view and one from the stakeholders view. It is obvious that each part will have benefit differently from projects. For example one organisation can gain profit through achieving strategic goals when a project is completed and at the same time these goals have a serious environmental impact in the stakeholders community. This means that a successful project must bargain between the benefits of the organisation and the satisfaction of end users. The fourth corner of the ‘Square Root is the Information System which includes the subjects of maintainability, reliability and validity of project outcomes. Belassi and Tukel (2001) are of the opinion that criteria for measuring project success/failure can grouped into two groups: the factor and system response groups. The identified factor groups are: factor related to project manager, factor related to project team members, factor related to the project itself, the organisation handling the project and the factor related to the external environment in which the project takes place. The diagram below shows this in more detail. 2.9.2 Success Factors As mentioned earlier; success factors are those inputs to the management system that lead directly or indirectly to the success of the project or business (Cooke-Davies, 2002, p185). Some project managers intuitively and informally determine their own success factors. However, if these factors are not explicitly identified and recorded, they will not become part of formal project management reporting process nor they become part of the historical project data (Rad Levin, 2002, p18). Belassi Tukel (1996, p144) classified these factors into 5 distinct groups according to which element they relate to. 2.9.2.1 The Organization Top management support is the principal success factor for many independent research groups (Tukel Rom, 1998, p48) (CHAOS Report, 2001, p4) (Cleland Ireland, 2002, p210) (Tinnirello, 2002, p14), which means that no project can finish successfully unless the project manager secures true support from the senior or operational management. It is extremely difficult to work in a hostile environment where nobody understands the benefits that the project will deliver to the organisation. Stakeholder management and contract strategies (number of and size of the contracts, interface between the different contracts and the management of contracts) are separate success factors which are also considered part of organization issues (Torp, Austeng Mengesha, 2004, p4). 2.9.2.2 The Project Manager Having a project manager is not going to guarantee the success of a project. He must have a number of skills to use during the project to guide the rest of the team to successfully complete all the objectives. In the 2001 CHAOS report (The Standish Group International, 2001, p6), business, communication, responsiveness, process, results, operational, realism and technological skills are mentioned as some of the most important skills a project manager should have to deliver success. However, more resent research by Turner and Muller (2005, p59) has concluded that the leadership style and competence of the project manager have no impact on project success. It is very interesting to investigate why a highly respectable professional body for project managers published such a contradictive position. A possible answer could be found in the fact that project managers results are difficult to prove and even more difficult to measure. If the project is successful, senior management will probably claim that all external factors were favourable. On the contrary, if it turns to be a failure, project manager easily becomes the scapegoat. 2.9.2.3 The Project Team Project managers are very lucky if they have the option to choose their project team. More often, their team is inherited to the project from various sectors of the organisation. It is vital to have a good project team to work with, with core skills that can be evolved to core competences and capabilities for the whole organisation. All m Avoiding Project Failure Dissertation Avoiding Project Failure Dissertation ABSTRACT Project management have become increasingly important in the development of any nation. Various organisations have used project management techniques as a means of bridging the gap between failure and success in implementation of projects. Despite this increasing awareness of project management by organisations, projects still fail. The purpose of this dissertation is to systematically investigate the causes of project failure and how these can be prevented, managed, or controlled. Research studies investigating the reasons why projects fail, has been ongoing for years, with various researchers, organisations and project management institutions, providing lists of reasons, which they believe, are the cause of project failure. However, despite these lists projects continue to fail, Atkinson (1999). This research is done with the anticipation of not only adding information to the body of knowledge already in existence, but also examining the major issues currently causing project failure; this will help organisations effectively manage projects. To determine how to avoid project failure the criteria for measuring project success has to be properly determined and agreed upon; the major criteria commonly used are; cost, time and quality. Then the causes of project failure need to be determined. This study also examined generalisations made from existing literature about causes of project failure and methods of avoiding project failure using three construction case studies in United Kingdom. This is a secondary or desk research, which involves the collecting and analysis of secondary data, or data that already exists, from which inferences have been made, and conclusions drawn. CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1Research background Projects make a vital contribution to industrialisation and hence the growth of a nations economy. The importance of projects in the development of any nation cannot be overemphasized. This is demonstrated in various literatures explaining the success and failure of projects. Although projects are said to be important, its implementation can be an uphill task. Various researchers have discussed project management as a technique to help prevent against failure in projects. Others have established checklists to help prevent failure. Despite the increased project management awareness and these checklists, some projects still fail, Atkinson (1999). All projects are constrained by inherent risks; knowledge of these risks will play an important role in achieving success and avoiding failure. Usually projects consist of three stages consisting of the approval, execution and evaluation stages. If any of these stages is not managed properly it may result to the failure of the entire project. Failure or Success in projects is a multi-dimensional issue and may be influenced by so many factors. Some projects may have failed in project management practices including cost overrun, scope creep, delay in schedule etc, and other projects may fail in procurement practices. Despite these failures in the following areas the project may still be perceived as successful by the end users. An example is Wembley Stadium; despite all the issues associated with the project in terms of project management and procurement practices, it is still perceived to be successful and a state of the art stadium by the end users. This may result from the fact that it has hosted world class sporting events. Usually, projects are designed to meet stakeholders objective. These objectives define the criteria for success of that project, and projects not satisfying these objectives are deem to fail. Effective communication and clarity in the stakeholders objective is vital to the project manager. This thesis examines the causes of project failure and how these can be prevented, managed or controlled. It discusses project failure and success with the help of case studies in order to identify the critical success factors and reduce failure in the implementation of projects. This research is done with the anticipation of not only adding information to the body of knowledge already in existence, but also in defining the criteria for project success and identifying the variables involved. This will help organisations effectively manage projects. 1.2 Aim The aim of this research is to carry out appraisal on the causes of project failure and the appropriate methods of avoiding project failure. This aim is intended to be achieved with the following objectives. 1.3 Objectives To provide a review of project management To analyze success criteria for projects To explore factors that causes project failure or success To examine methods of avoiding project failure 1.4 Scope This research is based on construction projects executed in the United Kingdom over the last two decades. 1.5 Research Structure Chapter One, Introduction this introduces the research; topic highlighting the aim, objectives and scope of the research. Chapter Two, Literature review critically reviews the existing Literature regarding the subject. It establishes the definition of project success and the success and failure criteria / factors. Chapter Three, Methodology describes the methodology used to undertake this research. It demonstrates the fact that secondary data was mostly used in undertaking this research. Chapter Four, Case Studies Case studies on projects from the UK construction Industry were discussed in this Chapter. These case studies were analysed and linked to the literature review chapter. Chapter Five consists of the analysis of the discussion and findings. This is derived from critically analysing the Wembley, Heathrow terminal five (T5) and Holyrood case studies. Chapter Six, Conclusion and Recommendation: This chapter concludes the research and suggests directions for further research. CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Introduction The importance of avoiding project failure in a rapidly evolving project-driven 21st century cannot be over-emphasized. Attempts to understand the causes of project failure and/ or success have proven problematic, despite attempt by many practitioners and academics over the years. Project demands have constantly increased over the last decade and have driven our society into a constantly changing environment. Despite attempts to make project appraisal and delivery more rigorous, a considerable proportion of delivery effort results in project that does not meet user expectations and are consequently rejected. In our view this can be attributed to the fact that few organisations have the facilities, training and management discipline to bring project to successful completion. Project success does not come easily; much has been contributed over the last decade to our understanding of the nature of and reason for successful and unsuccessful project completion. In addition many projects fail to complete at all. Sometime failure to satisfy all the original goals of a project can still be regarded favourably if the main sponsor is not satisfied with the outcome and the key stakeholders have gained in some way. Generally, the key development considerations are to have the goal clearly defined, to plan how to realize the goal and implement the plan. Developing an alternative methodology for project management founded on stakeholders, senior management support and proper planning should lead to a better understanding of the management issues that may contribute to the successful delivery of projects. This literature review is aimed at carrying out appraisal on the causes of project failure and the appropriate methods of avoiding it. It begins with key definitions, then analysis of causes of project failure and project success. Then it looks at success factors and criteria; also examine ways of avoiding project failure. The chapter ends with summary of the discussion. 2.2 What is a Project? Gary and Larson (2008:5) defined project as â€Å"a complex, non routine, one-time effort limited by time, budget and resource, and performance specifications designed to meet customer needs. This is in contrast to how an organisation generally works on a permanent basis to produce their goods and services. For example the work of an organisation may be to manufacture a vehicle on a continual basis, therefore the work is considered functional as the organisation creates the same products or services over-and -over again and people hold their roles on a semi permanent basis. A project can be defined as having constraints (usually centred around time and resources, but also including all aspect of the process and the outcome); projects are processes that in many circumstances are core business for organisation. The diagram below show different levels in project management. 2.3 What is Project Management? According to Gray and Larson (2006) Project management is a task derived from an organisation that enables professional project managers to use their skills, tools and knowledge to plan, execute and control a unique project within a limited lifespan by meeting the specification requirements of the organisation. Since the outcomes of the capital projects have strategic implications on the success and profitability of the business, the ability to deliver based on pre-determined objectives should be critical to the companys success. And yet one-third of all the oil and gas projects exceed budget and time projections by more than 10 percent. Failure to deliver big projects on budget and on schedule is highly publicized and damage the companies profile with capital markets that predictability and strong returns. Continual use of traditional project management techniques will not alter this trend. Companies that want to change and improve on their performance with critical capital projects will need to adopt new techniques. Munns and Bjeirmi (1996) also defined project management as a process used as a control to achieve the project objectives by utilizing the organisational structure and resources to manage a project with the application of tools and techniques, without disrupting the routine operation of the company. ‘Project management is the discipline of managing all the different resources and aspects of the project in such a way that the resources will deliver all the output that is required to complete the project within the defined scope, time, and cost constraints. These are agreed upon the project initiation stage and by the time the project begins all stakeholders and team members will have a clear understanding and acceptance of the process, methodology and expected outcome.(http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/introduction-project-management.html accessed on 30/06/09) Project management has been defined as â€Å"the process by which projects (unique, complex, non- routine, one-time effort limited by time, budget, and resources) are defined, planned, monitored, controlled and delivered such that the agreed benefits are realised† (APM, 2006:3) Other definitions have been offered, Reiss suggests that a project is a human activity that achieves a clear objective against a time scale, and to achieve this while pointing out that a simple description is not possible, he suggested that project management is a combination of management and planning and management of change. Despite all the suggestions about what is project management, the criteria for success, namely, cost, time, and quality remain and are included in the actual description. Meaning that Oisens definition of project management was either correct, or as a discipline, project management has not really changed or developed the success criteria over 50 years. Therefore project management is a learning profession. The significant point from all the definitions and suggestions of project management is that while the factors have developed and adopted, changes to the success criteria have been suggested but remain unchanged. In 2008, a survey undertaken by Booz Allen Hamilton (project management consultant) which comprises of 20 companies in engineering, procurement and construction; shows that 40 percent of all projects executed where faced with cost overruns and behind schedule. These overrun in cost and schedule has led to clients dissatisfaction on project performance; this view also agree with the research of M J Lang (1990). Therefore effective project management is very vital in such a volatile business environment. 2.4 Project Management Methodology Generally, projects are split into three phases Initiation, implementation and closure. Every stage of a project has multiple checkpoints which must be met before the starting of the next stage. The degree to which a project will be managed depends on the size of the project. For a complex project in a large organisation that involves a number of people, resources, time and money, a more structural approach is needed, and there will be more steps built into each stage of the project to ensure that the project delivers the anticipated end result. For a simple project in a small organisation, agreed milestones, a few checklists and someone to co-ordinate the project may be all that is required. 2.5 Defining Project Failure From Penguin English Dictionary (1992), failure is define as unsuccessful project that fails to perform a duty or an expected action, non-occurrence or non-performance. Whereas success can be defined as the achievement of something desired, planned or attempted (Cambridge Dictionary, 2007). It is also said that success is an event that accomplishes its intended purpose (dictionary.com, 2007). Anything short of that is failure. Project failure is an unpleasant event that cost large amount of money to the organisation. 2.6 Causes of Project Failure Pinto and Mantel (1990) carried out a research on the causes of project failure and revealed a good explanation that encompasses both internal efficiency and external effectiveness. They state that project failure is a vague concept, which has evoked much as to its definition, as the case with the definition of project success. A project is considered a failure â€Å"whenever a project does not meet the expectations of the stakeholders†. This has lots of impact to both the organisation and all stakeholders to the project. They include: cost and time overruns, quality degradation, frustration and stress, sometimes resulting to people quitting, low corporate market value, low public opinion and negative media campaigns. The total effect can be very costly to the organisation; at times even force the company into closure. Bienkoski (1989) identified ten factors that can lead to project failure and they are: * Lack of change management- happens when there is no method to handle or recognise changes. * Communication- causes delay or even failure since team members do not have the information they needed, issues or changes do not get escalated, project reporting is sluggish * Inadequate resources- Task take longer than expected to complete, deadlines and milestones get missed, and project completion date comes into jeopardy, one end of working more than necessary (double shift) to get the work done * No one is in control, not even the project manager, who is assigned to the project but not given the free hand to manage the project. This is most problem encounters in matrix organisation * Project lacks structure caused by things such as critical tasks being under rated * Inaccurate estimates. A top- down plan causes constraints on the prediction of the cost of the project * Poor risk management. The project initiation stage is not properly planned * Insufficient non-resources are not allocated to the project; for instance, it is not possible for a project to succeed if the right resources are made available for that project * Incompetent project management skill * Project changes from its original objective and goals. This can occur due to additional requirement from the client Pinto and mantel (1990) argue that the major causes of project failure are changes in the project environment, as it goes out of hands of the management. 2.7 Defining Project Success Lewis (2005) states that project success can be defined as meeting the required expectation of the stakeholders and achieving its intended purpose. This can be attained by understanding what the end result would be, and then stating the deliverables of the project. Shenhar et al. (2001) state the opposite: that project success is commonly judged by time and budget goals criteria, whereas in some cases this does not apply to some projects. Thiry (2006) argues that project success can only be defined if executives are able to consider the contribution of benefits and if the project is able to achieve these measures in relation to resources, competencies and complexity within the project parameters. 2.8 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) as a Measurement for Project Success The purpose of the KPIs is to enable measurement of project and organisational performance throughout the construction industry (The KPI Working Group 2000). Collins (2000) advocates that the process of developing KPIs involves the consideration of the following factors: * KPIs are general indicators of performance that focus on critical aspects of output or outcomes * Only a limited, management number of KPIs is maintainable for regular use. Having too many (complex) KPIs can be time-and resource-consuming * The systematic use of KPIs is essential as the value of KPIs is almost completely derived from their consistent use over a number of projects * Data collection must be made as simple as possible. * A large sample size is required to reduce the impact of project specific variables. Therefore, KPis should be designed to use on every building project. * For performance measurement to be effective, the measures must be acceptable, understood and owned across the organisation * KPIs will need to evolve and it is likely that a set of KPIs will be subject to change and refinement * Graphic delays of KPIs need to be simple in design, easy to update and accessible. Key Performance indicators for measuring project success can be illustrated with the help of the diagram below (Albert Ada, 2004). They identified the following as the measurement of project success: Cost, time, quality, commercial profitable/value, environmental performance, user expectation/ satisfaction, health and safety and participants satisfaction. This will help in explaining what the project success might mean to different stakeholders. Key Performance Indicators Dvir et al. (2003) state that the ranking of success is a one-sided judgement, as the definition of success is difficult to define, because it has different meanings for different people; thus, the criteria of success should reflect the diverse interest and view that lead to a multi-dimensional and multi-criteria approach. Baccarini (1999) states: that success entails â€Å"hard† criteria which often linked with cost, time and quality. He also states that hard criteria which can be easily measured can lead to some form of substantial agreement. In contrast, soft criteria are known to be one sided, restrained and not easily assessed. This implies that project success is a fantasy of the mind and only an individual can turn such vision into reality. A contrasting view from Westerveld (2000) defined project success as â€Å"the satisfaction of all the stakeholders, meaning that as long as the stakeholders are pleased with the outcome and gain profits or revenue from the project, then it is classed as a success. One of the Squares root corners, organisational benefits, drew much attention because of its significance and it was further analysed. Kerzner (2001, p6) suggests three criteria from the organization perspective in order for a project to be successful. The first is that it must be completed with minimum or mutually agreed upon scope changes, even though stakeholders constantly have different views about projects results (Maylor, 2005, p288). Secondly â€Å"without disturbing the main work flow of the organization because a project has to assist organisations everyday operations and try to make them more efficient and effective. Finally, it should be completed without changing the corporate culture even though projects are almost exclusively concerned with change with knocking down the old and building up the new (Baguley, 1995, p8). A project managers main responsibility is to make sure that he delivers change only where is necessary, otherwise he is doomed to find strong resistance from almost all organisational departments (Kerzner, 2001, p158) which ultimately could lead to project failure. A more structured approach to project success is grouping the criteria into categories. Wideman (1996, p3-4) describes four groups, all of them time dependent: internal project objectives (efficiency during the project), benefit to customer (effectiveness in the short term), direct contribution (in the medium term) and future opportunity (in the long term). The characterization of ‘time dependent is based on the fact that success varies with time. Looking at the future benefits of the organisation can be really difficult, because in some cases they dont even know what they want, yet it is vital to know what the project is trying to achieve after completion time so that success criteria are clearly defined in the early stages. This is quite a different approach, because the focus moves from the present success criteria to the future, in a way that a project can be unsuccessful during execution if it is judged by criteria like cost and quality, but in the long term it can turn to be a thriving story. A good example of this hypothesis is hosting the Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, which received mass criticism both during the planning period, due to delays in construction time, and when it was finished, due to huge cost. But the benefits that Greece will gain from the Olympic Games can be fully understood after 5 or maybe 10 years from the hosting year (Athens2004.com). All the above success criteria should be simple and attainable and, once defined, they should also be ranked according to priority (Right Track Associates, 2003). Straightforward criteria are easy to understand by everyone involved in the project and therefore commitment is guaranteed. Unrealistic criteria can put a ‘failure label on many projects because of the unreachable standards, can generate low team esteem and team performance in future projects and finally generate unfair disappointment among stakeholders. As for priority issues, it is inevitable that things will go wrong and the project manager will be in a tough situation where he must make the right decision having in mind that he has to sacrifice the least important success criterion. Also Shenhar et ‘al (1997) are of view that project success can be seen from the four area: Project efficiency, impact of the project to the customer, business success and finally what the project holds for the future. This was further explain in the diagram in 3. 2.9 Defining Project Success Factors and Project Success Criteria Muller and Turner (2007) defined the two components of project success in relation to the use of project management as follows: Project success factors are the elements of a project that can be influenced to increase the like hood of success; these are independent variable that makes success more likely. Project success criteria are the measures by which judge the successful outcome of a project; these are dependent variable which measure project success. We often hear or read about various success stories. But what is success and what criteria should organizations use to identify success? What factors lead to a successful project? The purpose of this study is to define project success criteria, clarify their difference with success factors and analyse their importance in project management methodology. One of the vaguest concepts of project management is project success. Since each individual or group of people who are involved in a project have different needs and expectations, it is very unsurprising that they interpret project success in their own way of understanding (Cleland Ireland, 2004, p2). For those involved with a project, project success is normally thought of as the achievement of some pre-determined project goals (Lim Mohamed, 1999, p244) while the general public has different views, commonly based on user satisfaction. A classic example of different perspective of successful project is the Sydney Opera House project (Thomsett, 2002), which went 16 times over budget and took 4 times more to finish than originally planned. But the final impact that the Opera House created was so big that no one remembers the original missed goals. The project was a big success for the people and at the same time a big failure from the project management perspective. On the other hand, the Millennium Dome in London was a project on time and on budget but in the eyes of the British people was considered a failure because it didnt deliver the awe and glamour that it was supposed to generate (Cammack, 2005). In the same way that quality requires both conformance to the specifications and fitness for use, project success requires a combination of product success (service, result, or outcome) and project management success (Duncan, 2004). The difference between criteria and factors is fuzzy for many people. The Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary describes a criterion as a standard by which you judge, decide about or deal with something while a factor is explained as a fact or situation which influences the result of something. Lim Mohamed applied those definitions to project success and illustrated the difference. It is clear now that critical factors can lead to a series of events which ultimately meet the overall success criteria of the project, so they should not be used as synonymous terms. Project success can be seen from two different perceptive, the micro and macro viewpoint (Lim Mohamed, 1999). This can help in better understanding of what project success means to different people. 2.9.1 Success Criteria Many lists of success criteria have been introduced in the previous decades by various researchers. Primal success criteria have been an integrated part of project management theory given that early definitions of project management included the so called ‘Iron Triangle success criteria cost, time and quality. (Atkinson, 1999, p338) Atkinson continues that as a discipline, project management has not really changed or developed the success measurement criteria in almost 50 years. To meet the urgent need of modernizing the out of date success criteria, he suggest the ‘Square Route ( 3) success criteria instead of the ‘Iron Triangle, where he groups the criteria that other academics have proposed. The main change is the addition of qualitative objectives rather than quantitative, namely the benefits that different group of people can receive from the project. These benefits are seen from two perspectives, one from the organisational view and one from the stakeholders view. It is obvious that each part will have benefit differently from projects. For example one organisation can gain profit through achieving strategic goals when a project is completed and at the same time these goals have a serious environmental impact in the stakeholders community. This means that a successful project must bargain between the benefits of the organisation and the satisfaction of end users. The fourth corner of the ‘Square Root is the Information System which includes the subjects of maintainability, reliability and validity of project outcomes. Belassi and Tukel (2001) are of the opinion that criteria for measuring project success/failure can grouped into two groups: the factor and system response groups. The identified factor groups are: factor related to project manager, factor related to project team members, factor related to the project itself, the organisation handling the project and the factor related to the external environment in which the project takes place. The diagram below shows this in more detail. 2.9.2 Success Factors As mentioned earlier; success factors are those inputs to the management system that lead directly or indirectly to the success of the project or business (Cooke-Davies, 2002, p185). Some project managers intuitively and informally determine their own success factors. However, if these factors are not explicitly identified and recorded, they will not become part of formal project management reporting process nor they become part of the historical project data (Rad Levin, 2002, p18). Belassi Tukel (1996, p144) classified these factors into 5 distinct groups according to which element they relate to. 2.9.2.1 The Organization Top management support is the principal success factor for many independent research groups (Tukel Rom, 1998, p48) (CHAOS Report, 2001, p4) (Cleland Ireland, 2002, p210) (Tinnirello, 2002, p14), which means that no project can finish successfully unless the project manager secures true support from the senior or operational management. It is extremely difficult to work in a hostile environment where nobody understands the benefits that the project will deliver to the organisation. Stakeholder management and contract strategies (number of and size of the contracts, interface between the different contracts and the management of contracts) are separate success factors which are also considered part of organization issues (Torp, Austeng Mengesha, 2004, p4). 2.9.2.2 The Project Manager Having a project manager is not going to guarantee the success of a project. He must have a number of skills to use during the project to guide the rest of the team to successfully complete all the objectives. In the 2001 CHAOS report (The Standish Group International, 2001, p6), business, communication, responsiveness, process, results, operational, realism and technological skills are mentioned as some of the most important skills a project manager should have to deliver success. However, more resent research by Turner and Muller (2005, p59) has concluded that the leadership style and competence of the project manager have no impact on project success. It is very interesting to investigate why a highly respectable professional body for project managers published such a contradictive position. A possible answer could be found in the fact that project managers results are difficult to prove and even more difficult to measure. If the project is successful, senior management will probably claim that all external factors were favourable. On the contrary, if it turns to be a failure, project manager easily becomes the scapegoat. 2.9.2.3 The Project Team Project managers are very lucky if they have the option to choose their project team. More often, their team is inherited to the project from various sectors of the organisation. It is vital to have a good project team to work with, with core skills that can be evolved to core competences and capabilities for the whole organisation. All m

Analysis of Death of Ivan Ilych Essay -- essays research papers

Letting Pain Be   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  To many individuals the word â€Å"progress† has a positive meaning behind it. It suggests improvement, something humans have been obsessed with since the dawn of society. However, if closely examined, progress can also have a negative connotation as well. While bringing improvement, progress can simultaneously spark conformity, dependency, and the obsession of perfection within the individuals caught in its midst. It is this aspect of progress within modern society that negatively affects Ivan Ilych, Leo Tolstoy’s main character in The Death of Ivan Ilych. Ivan’s attempt to conform to modern society’s view of perfection takes away his life long before he dies. Furthermore, his fear of death and reactions towards it reflects modern society’s inability to cope with the ever present reminder that humans still suffer and die, despite all attempts to make life painless, perfect, and immortal.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Although we as a society have advanced and made people’s lives easier, our mental suffering is as present as ever, due to our incessant need to have everything perfect. We seem to forget that the fascination of living comes from the imperfect and the unexpected. In her essay â€Å"On the Fear of Death† Elisabeth Kubler-Ross suggests that the modern age, while increasing life span and ease of life, has at the same time given way to a â€Å"rising number of emotional problems,† amongst the living (Ross 407). She also suggests that because of modern society’s progress, there has been an increased anxiety towards death. While Ross is writing for twentieth century society her ideas apply to the nineteenth century as well, when Tolstoy wrote The Death of Ivan Ilych.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ivan Ilych is living during the industrial revolution, a time of technological advancement, that mainly advances the upper class, which he is apart of. Ivan’s number one priority in life is to be comfortable and to do the correct thing at all times. Every decision he makes, including who he chooses to marry, is with the intent that it does not damage his â€Å"easy, agreeable, and always decorous character of his life,† (Tolstoy 213). Ivan is convinced that the best way to have an easy and agreeable life is to be wealthy, marry a woman from his own class, and live in a house full of modern conveniences and luxury. Ironically, it... ...roduction of Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, Vol. 44 it is stated that â€Å"Ivan Ilych’s passage from life to death also entails a passage from falseness to truth†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (326). One could also look at this in a different light. From a physical perspective Ivan does go from life to death, from perfection to imperfection, but from a spiritual perspective it is actually the opposite. It takes the death of Ivan’s physical self to finally see what is important, his spirituality, his ‘divine spark.’ This, he finally realizes, is what true perfection is. Hence, Ivan is able to see past the falseness of conformity in the end and no longer fear death.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In his last moments of life, Ivan sees light instead of death. His final audible words are â€Å"What joy!† despite the pain he feels. This epiphany that he has happens in a single moment and in a sense makes him finally come alive. Thus, right before his final breath Ivan is able to say to himself â€Å"Death is finished, it is no more!† Death no longer has a hold on him because the quest of perfection no longer does. Ivan has finally decided, after a lifetime of denying it, to â€Å"let the pain be.†Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Analysis of Death of Ivan Ilych Essay -- essays research papers Letting Pain Be   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  To many individuals the word â€Å"progress† has a positive meaning behind it. It suggests improvement, something humans have been obsessed with since the dawn of society. However, if closely examined, progress can also have a negative connotation as well. While bringing improvement, progress can simultaneously spark conformity, dependency, and the obsession of perfection within the individuals caught in its midst. It is this aspect of progress within modern society that negatively affects Ivan Ilych, Leo Tolstoy’s main character in The Death of Ivan Ilych. Ivan’s attempt to conform to modern society’s view of perfection takes away his life long before he dies. Furthermore, his fear of death and reactions towards it reflects modern society’s inability to cope with the ever present reminder that humans still suffer and die, despite all attempts to make life painless, perfect, and immortal.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Although we as a society have advanced and made people’s lives easier, our mental suffering is as present as ever, due to our incessant need to have everything perfect. We seem to forget that the fascination of living comes from the imperfect and the unexpected. In her essay â€Å"On the Fear of Death† Elisabeth Kubler-Ross suggests that the modern age, while increasing life span and ease of life, has at the same time given way to a â€Å"rising number of emotional problems,† amongst the living (Ross 407). She also suggests that because of modern society’s progress, there has been an increased anxiety towards death. While Ross is writing for twentieth century society her ideas apply to the nineteenth century as well, when Tolstoy wrote The Death of Ivan Ilych.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ivan Ilych is living during the industrial revolution, a time of technological advancement, that mainly advances the upper class, which he is apart of. Ivan’s number one priority in life is to be comfortable and to do the correct thing at all times. Every decision he makes, including who he chooses to marry, is with the intent that it does not damage his â€Å"easy, agreeable, and always decorous character of his life,† (Tolstoy 213). Ivan is convinced that the best way to have an easy and agreeable life is to be wealthy, marry a woman from his own class, and live in a house full of modern conveniences and luxury. Ironically, it... ...roduction of Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, Vol. 44 it is stated that â€Å"Ivan Ilych’s passage from life to death also entails a passage from falseness to truth†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (326). One could also look at this in a different light. From a physical perspective Ivan does go from life to death, from perfection to imperfection, but from a spiritual perspective it is actually the opposite. It takes the death of Ivan’s physical self to finally see what is important, his spirituality, his ‘divine spark.’ This, he finally realizes, is what true perfection is. Hence, Ivan is able to see past the falseness of conformity in the end and no longer fear death.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In his last moments of life, Ivan sees light instead of death. His final audible words are â€Å"What joy!† despite the pain he feels. This epiphany that he has happens in a single moment and in a sense makes him finally come alive. Thus, right before his final breath Ivan is able to say to himself â€Å"Death is finished, it is no more!† Death no longer has a hold on him because the quest of perfection no longer does. Ivan has finally decided, after a lifetime of denying it, to â€Å"let the pain be.†Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  

The Inevitability of Suffering in James Baldwins Sonnys Blues Essays

The Inevitability of Suffering in James Baldwin's Sonny's Blues Everyone likes to feel safe. We try to protect ourselves and those we love, to make them feel safe as well. The idea conveyed about safety in James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues" is that there is no such thing. The narrator of this story had thought that his brother Sonny was safe. Or at least, that was what he had made himself believe. "I told myself that Sonny was wild, but he wasn't crazy. And he'd always been a good boy, he hadn't ever turned hard or evil or disrespectful, the way kids can, so quick, so quick, especially in Harlem. I didn't want to believe that I'd ever see my brother going down, coming to nothing, all that light in his face gone out, in the condition I'd already seen so many others" (48). But Sonny hadn't been safe from drugs, or the streets, or any of the things his brother had been sure he was immune to. He had been arrested for using and peddling heroin. Sonny's friend, the boy we meet later, had thought the same thing as Sonny's brother had. " 'I thought Sonny was a smart boy...too smart to get hung'" (49). But they were both wrong. It had been Sonny's brother's responsibility to look out for Sonny from the time Sonny was born. "When he started to walk, he walked from our mother straight to me. I caught him just before he fell when he took the first steps he ever took in this world" (52). The narrator of the story is Sonny's big brother, so he feels responsible for him. This responsibility is confirmed by their mother on page 55, and the older brother reassures her, "I won't let nothing happen to Sonny" (57). But he fails at this, Sonny leaves and gets into trouble. Perhaps the narrator felt that if he couldn't keep his brother safe,... ...fe. But he couldn't. And indeed, suffering, lack of safety, is unavoidable, and also necessary for some things. "When I was downstairs before, on my way here, listening to that woman sing, it struck me all of a sudden how much suffering she must have had to go through. It's repulsive to think you have to suffer that much" (65). But we do. Everyone does. In fact, "There's no way not to suffer" (65). We are never safe from it. Total safety is not attainable. Not only in Harlem, but everywhere, there are things that are simply not under our control. Try as we might to block out unpleasant things for those around us, we cannot. This is the feeling that Baldwin creates through the story of Sonny and his brother. List of Work Cited Baldwin, James. "Sonny's Blues." The Norton introduction to Fiction. 6th ed. Ed. Jerome Beaty. New York: Norton, 1996. 47-70.

Restriction Enzyme Analysis :: Papers

Restriction Enzyme Analysis Research question: Using only the information from these experiments calculate the number and size of the fragments that would be made using BAMH1 restriction enzyme, and calculate the migration distances of the various fragments. Restriction enzyme used Base pairing fragments Distance Travelled (cm)* Log of base pairs* Example My Group ECO R1 (6 fragments) 21226 7421 5804 5643 4878 3530 1.4 2.0 2.3 2.5 2.9 - 1.7 2.0 2.2 2.3 - - 4.3 3.9 3.8 3.8 3.7 3.5 HIND III (7 fragments) 23130 9416 6682 4361 2322 2027 564 1.4 1.8 2.2 2.7 3.5 3.7 5.8 1.6 1.8 2.1 2.3 2.9 3.1 - 4.4 4.0 3.8 3.6 3.4 3.3 2.8 Predicted figures from my graph BAM H1 (6 fragments) 16842 7233 6770 6527 5626 5504 1.3 2.2 2.5 2.5 2.5 2.8 4.2 3.9 3.8 3.8 3.8 3.7 Results *All figures in table are to 2s.f. I chose to calculate the log of the base pairs because the numbers vary significantly, making it difficult to plot on a graph. By doing this you can put the values into perspective for easy comparison. I will only use the example on my graph, as my results are unclear and inaccurate. I measured the distance from the edge of the gel, where the well ended to the centre of each fragment.

Gay Marriage is Immoral Essay

The debate over the acceptability of the same sex marriage in today’s world has raged on for a number of years now. Both pro and anti same sex marriage activists have been locked in a perpetual tug of war over whether this marriage is ethical or unethical or whether it should be legalized or outlawed. Since the first same sex marriage was given a formal recognition in Denmark, efforts have been stepped up by gay activists to have the same replicated in Europe and in the United States and with considerable success though. The term same sex marriage is used to denote a civil union of people from the same sex, recognized by law and accepted by the society. With all the controversy that has raged over this debate and after a clear analysis of the arguments and counter arguments, this paper maintains that same sex marriages are immoral and defy the natural order of the society. There are a number of reasons that indicate that gay marriages are immoral and should not be in any way recognized by law or by the society. The traditional stand and definition of marriage, a definition that has stood the test of time is that it is union of two consenting people, a man and a woman and not a union of two men or two women. This is the same stand taken by the two important Holy books; the Bible and the Quran. For the law to recognize same sex marriages or the society to purport to support gay unions, it is to go against the conventions as set by religion and traditions. Islam is vehemently opposed to same sex marriages. In the Quran, Muhammad Abu Zahra defines marriage as a contract between a man and a woman with an intention of living and assisting each other. Ibn Uthaimeen also takes a similar comprehensive perspective in regard to marriage seeing it too as a mutual contract entered into by a man and a woman with the sole purpose of bringing up a family. Procreation is core to marriage from an Islamic perspective. Christianity is against the union of gays in a marriage. The motivation behind this opposition stems from the book of Genesis where it says that God created man and a woman so that they can live together and assist each other. God saw that man had grown lonely in the garden of Aden and thought that He could give him a helper. This helper turned out to be a woman. According to the bible, homosexuality is a sin and will be highly punished. The Bible seems to lump homosexuals alongside murderers and thieves, meaning that it highly disapproves of such tendencies. It hence would be a contravention of Christianity for the same church to go ahead and bless same sex marriages (Caramagno, Thomas C, 34). There is a ranging controversy in the modern world when the issue of the same sex marriages comes up especially amongst Christians. Many liberal churches have gone ahead and blessed same sex marriages purporting to get the justification for this from the bible. This is not possible as the bible strongly condemns it, referring to it as an abomination. The new liberal churches are just consumed by the desire to appear modern and accommodating but not driven by the motivation to fulfill bibles promises. The Catholic Church for example has maintained its conservative stand on these issues quoting verses from the bible and not willing to conform to modernity, this is in spite of the fact that a number of bishops and presents have come out in a strong support of same sex marriages. It should be emphasized that in spite of the modern views on gay marriages, the bible still sees it as an immoral practice. The only union that Christianity should recognize is the marriage between a man and a wife (Robert P. George, Jean Bethke Elshtain, 46). A look at the various cultures in the world indicates that they are against homosexuality and by extension same sex marriages. A look at the history of homosexuality shows that it has always been frowned upon in the society, a concept referred to as homophobia. The mid of last century was full of hostilities towards homosexuals who were being subjected to all manner of injustices in the society. This sort of discrimination was cultural based; traditions were against homosexuality in the dominant feeling that it was immoral and also an abnormal practice. This is a notion that still stands in many cultures. Only in the last decades of the last century did this discrimination subside. Cultural relativism posits that our beliefs and practices are direct products of our culture. The dominant cultures are against homosexuality and hence no more accommodating towards same sex marriages. Emmanuel Kant’s philosophy on categorical imperative states that humanity should â€Å"act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law† (James welling, 1993) According to Kant, what is considered moral is one which can be done by everybody under all circumstances. Same sex marriages then are not acceptable if interpreted alongside this line of thinking. Traditionally, the real essence of marriage is procreation. This is something that can be achieved through same sex marriages. Emmanuel Kant could not have approved same sex marriages on the basis that they can not be taken up by whole or greater portion of the society. Similar to the cultural relativism principle is the virtue theory that seeks to lay great emphasis on virtues. The society has clearly demarcated virtues from vices. Stealing and promiscuity are vices that are frowned upon by every orthodox society. Homosexuality has been traditionally considered a vice and hence same sex marriage according to the virtue theory is also unacceptable. There is also the concern that allowing same sex marriage is tantamount to signaling the end of the world in terms of population density. It has been mentioned that religion and traditions recognize procreation as a key factor in marriage. This is one aspect that is clearly missing from gay marriages. It is important to note though that there are laws in some states and countries that allow same sex partners to adopt children. Sociologists have questioned the rationality of such an idea and whether such children will be able to grow up like normal kids. Perfect families comprise of both man and wife who come together to bring up children giving them both maternal and paternal love. Same sex marriages deny children the rights to enjoy this kind of love. There are a number of arguments that have been put forward by the proponents of same sex marriages. One of them centers on freedom association as a basic right. Freedom of choice movement and association are basic rights enshrined in the bill of rights. Discrimination is also an issue tackled in the same breath when human rights come up. By failing to give recognition to same sex marriages, the law and the society are discriminating against the minority. They go ahead and argue that homosexuals are human beings in need of recognition and liberty to do what they see fit without any form of discrimination. To deny them the right to marry like the heterosexuals is a contravention of their rights, privileges and benefits accessible to heterosexual partners in marriage. This is their basic human right (Wolfson, Evan, 19). Proponents of same sex marriages also use the evolution theory to justify its appropriateness. They have noted that the society and traditions have undergone an evolution and the society is gradually becoming more accommodating. Some held notions traditionally have ceased to hold. Polygamy was acceptable in the past but it is frowned upon nowadays. Homosexuality was seen as illegal but now it has become an acceptable practice. Having children out of wedlock is not considered a cardinal sin anymore. Proponents are saying that the same case should happen to the institution of marriage. The traditional idea of marriage as being a union of a man and a woman should also change to include same sex partners to ensure that many people join this holy institution Homosexuality too they argue is not unnatural, it is not unusual as some people claim it is. Homosexuality is a natural behavior deeply ingrained in a person’s genes and hence cannot be controlled. Prohibiting same sex marriages on the basis that people can change their behavior is wrong as it denies them a chance to be in a lasting, loving and faithful relationship as sexual orientation is incontrollable (Chauncey, George, 19). On the issue of its legalization, proponents of same sex marriages scoff at the idea that religion should have a say on whether it should be legal or should be prohibited. They claim that separation of states and religion is a key ingredient to any progressive and democratic nation. The government hence should not have a say on who one should marry or should not marry. This however is an argument that does not hold any water. Though they are right in their claim that the church and the state should be separated, this separation however does not delink totally religion from the process of law making. Laws and government legislations are a product of traditions and practices which to a certain extent are inspired by religion. Religious views have to be incorporated to ensure synergy. The argument on the evolution of societal practices is ill advised, just because changes have occurred and some things frowned upon have become acceptable does not mean that the society has to accept every thing that comes its way even when its inappropriateness has been recognized. Proponents of same sex marriage when they advocate against discrimination and decry their human rights violation. Discrimination against any person for his sexual orientation or gender is not acceptable, but this does not mean that same sex marriage is acceptable, but this does not mean that same sex marriages should be recognized. The societal traditions and values have to be upheld. In conclusion, it is important to note that prohibiting same sex marriages is not in anyway contravening fundamental rights of same sex partners, it is just a way of upholding values, beliefs and ideals entrenched deep in the society. Same sex marriages are immoral as they go against the conventions of the Bible and the Quran, both of which consider it immoral. Same sex marriages go against the traditional institution of marriage as they do not conform to one of its core essential, procreation. Legalizing same sex marriage is tantamount to sanctioning moral erosion and contravention of societal values and ideals. Works Cited Kant, Immanuel; translated by James W. Ellington [1785] Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals 3rd ed. Hackett. 1993, p30. Wolfson, Evan . Why Marriage Matters: America, Equality, and Gay People’s Right to Marry. New York: Simon & Schuster. 2004, 19.