Leonardo da Vinci Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Leonardo da Vinci - Research Paper Example dia Britannica. 2011). His unlimited desire for knowledge drove him beyond painting. Powered by his superb intellect, keen sense of observation, and mastery of the art of drawing, he studied nature; a line of inquiry that allowed him to pursue dual art and science (Capra 2007). Life of Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo da Vinci was born of the illegitimate relationship of a Florentine notary and landlord, Ser Piero, and a young peasant woman, Caterina (Bortolon 1967). That notwithstanding, Leonardo da Vinci, enjoyed the privileges of a legitimate son and grew up in his father’s estate and received the usual elementary education of those days: reading, writing, and arithmetic (Bortolon 1967). He did not exhibit any particular aptitude for Latin, the key language of traditional learning, and higher mathematic until later in his life. Due to his artistic inclination, which appeared early in life, he father apprenticed him to the renowned artist Andrea Del Verrocchio (Bortolon 1967). He received a multifaceted training that included painting and sculpture as well as the technical-mechanical arts in Andrea Del Verrocchio’s workshop. ... In 1482, Leonardo abandoned two painting projects, The Adoration of the Magi for the monastery of San Donato and an alter painting for the St Bernard Chapel, in Florence and moved to work for the duke of Milan, Duke Ludovico Sforza (Encyclop?dia Britannica. 2011). The prevailing strict academic atmosphere in Milan as well as the duke’s brilliant court and the meaningful project may have enticed him to Milan. Indeed, the 17 years spent in Milan were fruitful. He was highly esteemed as a painter and a sculptor. He completed six works in Milan among which was the famous painting, The Last Supper. He also had an extensive workshop in Milan where he had several apprentices. In addition, he served as a technical adviser in the fields of architecture, fortifications, and military matters, and he served as a hydraulic and mechanical engineer (Capra 2007). Following the victorious entry of the French into Milan, Leonardo left the city probably December 1499 or January 1500. He visited Mantua and Venice before returning to Florence. Upon arrival in Florence, he was accorded a reception deserving of a renowned son. Leonardo devoted his stay in Florence to intensive scientific study (Capra 2007). That notwithstanding, he was still involved in painting. It was during this period, 1503 – 1506, that he painted Mona Lisa (Vezzosi 1997). Upon the invitation of the French governor in Milan, Charles d’ Amboise, Leonardo returned to Milan in May 1506. During his second stay in Milan, he did little work as a painter; rather, he worked as adviser in architectural matters. His scientific activities reached their zenith during this time. The expulsion of the French from Milan in 1513 led Leonardo

Eurozone Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Eurozone - Essay Example 249-256, 2010). Denmark, Sweden, and United Kingdom are the countries, which are a part of the European Union, but they are not a part of Eurozone. The rest of the seven countries will join the Eurozone after fulfilling the requirements. Eurozone came into being on January 1, 1999 with eleven members, which met the criteria. Exactly after two years Greece also joined the Eurozone and today the country is facing huge financial and economic troubles (Sladek, pp. 12, 2010). This would be discussed later in the paper. However, the major objective of the paper is to discuss that why Britain should not join the Eurozone especially considering the recent economic disaster in Greece. Discussion Ever since this debate started, the public opinion in the United Kingdom has been against the adoption of Euro. In the polls of 2005, 57 percent of the people opposed, in 2008, the percentage increased to 59 and in the year 2009, the percentage of people against the euro increased to 68 percent (Lynn, pp. 249-256, 2010).... ld minimize the shocks of the recession, it lowered its interest rates to record low level of 0.5 percent so that investments could be encouraged in the country (Pelagidis & Mitsopoulos, pp. 377, 2011). Furthermore, the devaluation of pound in the international arena in the recent past is exactly what the country needed to boost its economy since it helped the economy to boost its exports. If UK joins the Eurozone then it will lose all hope to make any gains on the possible depreciation of Euro since more than 60 percent of UK’s trade would be taking place with Eurozone countries (Farkas & Murphy, pp. 58-59, 2011). Furthermore, the housing market of UK is such that it responds very quickly to the interest rates since they have high variable mortgages. Therefore, small fluctuations on the interest rate may mean huge effects on the consumer spending and their disposable incomes (Alesina & Giavazzi, pp. 85-89, 2010). Through IMF, UK will contribute almost 1 billion pounds to bail out package of Greece. This figure would have been more than double if Prime Minister David Cameron had not interfered in the process. More importantly, this figure would have even greater if Britain would have been a member of Eurozone. Furthermore, in the wake of the recent events where billions of dollars have been provided to the corrupt and irresponsible Greece government for bailout, there remains no room for second thoughts on the idea that UK should never join the Eurozone. The current crisis in Greece, which is quickly pushing their government to default and the subsequent bailout packages for Portugal, Ireland, and Italy mean that the Euro would lose its value in the international markets and it, is highly likely that investors may also lose their faith in the currency (Pelagidis &

Living as a Christian disciple Essay Example for Free

Living as a Christian disciple Essay Explain how living as a Christian disciple may influence the lives of Christians today. Christianity is an entire way of life. Its not only a part of your life it is your whole life. It is a sense of being with God. It is not a one way system, but in fact a two way bond. Being a disciple of God gives you a sense of who you are. You have the position of being part of Gods children as well as being a child of your parents. This is an incomparable feeling. A Christian is a person who lives their life daily for God. By praying on a regular basis, reacting positively not negatively with people and being an optimistic person rather than a pessimistic one. Christianity focuses a lot on how people treat others. Christianity believes everyone is equal. Nobody is better than someone else, even if they are richer. A disciple believes Christ is with you at all times. To become a Christian you must try and be the best you can be. An example of this would be the story about the Pharisee and the tax collector, having the best humanity. To develop into a Christian you need to know the principles. You need to live your life a certain way. That means you might have to sacrifice a few things but in the long run you will be rewarded. Again you must know how to deal with people. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and, Love your neighbour as yourself. (Luke 10 vs. 27) A person needs to be willing to give up luxuries in order to gain better things. For instance a Christian must give 10% of their total income to either a church or a charity. But the more essential factor is time. Time is more precious than rubies. Time must be taken out of your day to think about God or even the elderly lady next door who lives all alone. Your attitude towards people is very important. Being a Christian affects what career you wish to pursue. Certain professions are considered unethical and therefore are not allowed. A job such as working in an abortion clinic, you are taking away a life which has a right to live, which is unjust. Another job which gives people grief is a traffic warden. A Christian has an important role to play in the family and in the home. There must be peaceful negotiation and they must always remember that children usually learn from the examples of their parents. So as a parent you must do good things and not bad. You must know how to function in a family. To be a dedicated Christian you are required to visit the church on a regular basis and to pray daily. At church Christians have communion, usually once a week. This is red wine and bread which s also called the Eucharist. The Eucharist is the ceremony in which Christs last meal with his disciples is celebrated with bread and wine, the bread symbolizes Jesus body and the wine Jesus blood. Although some Christians do not believe in going to church for example, Quakers and the Salvation Army. Quakers are Christians who do not have set services or have no ceremonies and do not do repeated rituals. The Salvation Army consider that you should be careful and make sure that ceremonies do not become more important than the meaning of the belief or faith. Also the Salvation Army do not drink any alcohol as when they first started the group alcohol was a serious problem, therefore they are not allowed to have communion as it involves wine. There are many noble Christians who have acted as excellent role models, in the past and in the present day. Some of these famous Christian disciples are Oscar Romero, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, Desmond Tutu and many more. I am going to tell you about Desmond Tutu. Desmond Tutu was born in 1931 on the 7th October. He lived in South Africa, a society where coloured people were considered as outcasts, a racist system of apartheid. They had to learn from an early age that their needs were considered less important than the needs of white people. They were not allowed to mix with the white people. For example black children could not go to the same school as a white child and at all times black people had to carry their passbooks to show who they were and if they had a right to be where they were, they also were not allowed to go into cafes or go to beaches and parks. In the street white police officers would look them up and down as if they were criminals. It was hard for children to grow up watching parents and role models being humiliated in this way. Desmond Tutu went to an all black school. He worked willing and was therefore intelligent. He was a kind and gentle boy. At the age of 14 Desmond got Tb. He was put in hospital for 2 years. An English priest called Father Trevor Huddleston visited him every week. Trevor Huddleston had been trying to make the lives of the black people better. He believed apartheid was evil and very unchristian. He opened hostels and nurseries for homeless people o stay in at night. He also defended black people when they were challenged by the police. A life long friendship blossomed between Desmond and Trevor. During his stay in hospital Desmond became more thoughtful and reflective. He had a strong commitment towards Christianity and a spiritual approach to life. Desmond was influenced by humility, gentleness, selflessness from spiritual people like Trevor. After leaving school Desmond decided train as a teacher. He worked as a teacher for a few years but he couldnt stand there and watch his people suffer. He wanted to do something about it. So he left teaching and became a priest. In 1961 Desmond was ordained as a priest. He was given his own parish church and a proper house in an area of slum housing. It was rewarding work, a satisfying job with people who loved him having him as their priest. In 1962 he was offered to go to London to study for a second degree in theology. When he got there he couldnt believe that he was allowed to walk freely and not have to check for signs where they were not allowed. He wasnt searched by police; he didnt have to carry a passbook around with him. He loved it. After 3 years when he returned to South Africa, he found it difficult being a second class citizen again. From the understanding of the Bible he saw that Christianity stresses that all people are equal and that God wants people to be free. As a Christian he felt it was his responsibility to help black people become equal with white people. Two years later Desmond took a job in England. In 1975 he was given the post of Dean in Johannesburg. If he accepted it then this meant he would have to move back to South Africa. This post had always been held by white men so he wanted to make a change and accepted the post. The cathedral had a racially mixed congregation and clergy. Desmond bought in changes to the worship including shaking hands, hugging and kissing your neighbour on the cheek which made many fell more comfortable. In 1978 wealthier black people were starting to be allowed into a few public places but the community as a whole were kept as second class citizens. In one of Desmonds speeches he dramatically promised to burn his Bible on the day that he was proved wrong about apartheid being an evil. Another thing Desmond said in one of his speeches was, At home in South Africa I have sometimes said in big meetings where you have black and white together, look at your hands-different colours representing different people. You are the rainbow people of God. And you remember the rainbow in the Bible is the sign of peace. The rainbow is the sign of prosperity. We want peace, prosperity and justice and we can have it when all the people of God, the rainbow people of God, work together. In 1984 he was awarded in the Nobel Peace Prize in America. Soon the whole world came to see Desmond as a symbol for the fight against apartheid. In 1986 he was further promoted to Archbishop of Cape Town, the first black man to hold this post. In 1989 F.W De Klerk became president. The ban on ANC and PAC was lifted symbolising freedom for all black South Africans after so many years of suffering. In 1993 exclusive white rule finally ended. The result of the first democratic election was that in 1994, Nelson Mandela became the first black South African president. By 1996 there was a new constitution aimed at creating a full racial equality and harmony. The hardest challenge facing bereaved families was not only to forgive those whom had caused their suffering, but to make sure that forgiveness was complete and unconditional as with Christian love. This would mean the new South Africa could grow from strong roots, unaffected by blame and bitterness. I think Desmond Tutu was a good Christian disciple as he helped the black people of South Africa. He bought equality in South Africa which is what God says. He is helping others and spreading the good word of God. He is determined and will not give up when things get tough. Another example of a good Christian disciple is a man called Oscar Romero. He was born in Ciudad Barrios, El Salvador in 1917. He was a Catholic man. He thought the best way to help people would be to serve God as a priest. He frequently visited prisoners in Gaol and he worked with alcoholics He promoted the activities of Alcohol Anonymous. He set up charities to provide aid for the poor and the hungry. Oscar was a respected man. He spoke for the poor, opposed the government, opposed military and opposed rich families who influenced the politicians behind the scene. He was a determined Christian disciple. Romeros aim in life was too help the poor and hungry and the only way he could help them was by making sure the church get a say in politics. He started at a seminary in San Miguel, in 1930. A few months later he was sent to Rome to complete his theological studies. In 1942 he is ordained as a priest. In 1943 he returns to El Salvador having witnessed early years of the Second World War, in Europe. From 1944 he worked as a parish priest but a few months later he was called by the bishop to work as the secretary of the diocese, a post which he held for twenty-three years. During this time most of his pastoral work focused on the cathedral parish. Between 1962 and 1965 Romero was a largely important priest in the diocese. He was in charge of the local seminary and editor of the diocesan newspaper. In 1967 he was appointed as sanctuary, General of the National Bishops Conference, and he moves to San Salvador. Then in 1968 he takes up an additional role for the, Central American Bishops Secretariat. In 1968 the council of Medellin is held in Colombia. In 1970 Romero is made auxiliary assistant bishop in San Salvador. He becomes increasingly aware of the plight of the oppressed and the poor but resists the notion that the church should be too involve d in politics. In 1974 Romero is made bishop of San Salvador. In 1977 he is made Archbishop of San Salvador. It was dangerous to be a Christian in El Salvador. To speak the Gospel message of Gods love for the poor and suffering of the world was to risk persecution. This was a statement the government could not ignore. A person could not claim to be a Christian if he or she ignored the violence against so many in the country or if they ignored the bombings, the illegal detentions, the torture and the callous murders of men, women and children. These murders were seen as a direct attack on the church itself. It was an assault which the Church could not ignore. This is when Romero decided on his course of action. His thinking on religion and politics develops. He sees an increasing need for the church to have a voice in politics and becomes an outspoken critic of injustice and oppression. On the 24th March 1980 Oscar Romero is assassinated. On the 30th March 1980 the, Palm Sunday Massacre, took place. He had the most powerful and influential voice of the Church and he was the spokesperson for the oppressed. Romero believed that the Gospels did not see a division between religion and everyday life. In a world of fear and terror, Romeros preaching of the Gospel message of love and justice was a source of hope for the people. One of the famous things Romero said was, May Christs sacrifice give us the courage to offer our own bodies for justice and peace. His last sermon, on the Sunday before his death, was very significant. In it Romero made a special request to those with belief in God and those of Christian faith. It was a sermon which many believe cost him his life. In the sermon Romero said, Nobody has to fulfil an immoral law. Now it is time that you recover your consciences and that you first obey your conscience rather than an order to sin. We want the Government to understand seriously that reforms are worth nothing if they are stained with so much blood. I beg, I ask, I order you in the name of God: stop the repression. A week after the preaching these words Oscar Romero was assassinated. In the days before the funeral crowds of people flooded into the city. Visitors arrived from all over the world. Not only the Church leaders but also important politicians from many countries were present. Romero had become a respected political as well as religious leader. Nuns and priests were gathered in a very public hunger strike. In protest at the killing of Romero, they were refusing to eat. This showed how great a person he was. There were as many as a hundred thousand people packed in every available space outside the cathedral, waiting for the funeral service. The solemn funeral service began in a dignified manner. During the sermon everyone listened intently to the words of remembrance for Oscar Romero. During his life Romero tried to put such ideals into practice. His religious belief was always a practical matter and his great desire was to see people work together for a better world. Romero shared, with all who would listen a vision of justice in an injustice world. His life and martyrdom are remembered by millions. In a troubled world Romero remains as a sign of hope. Those who killed him may have thought that they would be silencing a powerful voice against injustice in El Salvador. They may have killed the man but the message of justice for all still lives today.

Governance And Ethics In Global Environment Business Essay

Governance And Ethics In Global Environment Business Essay This Assignment is part of ABE post graduate diploma and it is based on the British Petroleum plc a well known natural oil and gas industries. This assignment covers three main areas which include: Corporate Strategy, Governance and Ethics in the Global Environment. Module for ABE (PGD) Business Management assignment. This Assignment highlights and discusses about the ethical and corporate governance factors which are currently affecting the BP. By analyzing internal andexternal resources, environment, governance and ethics of the companyin complete. Evaluating how effectively the BP is managing these factors to achieve its corporate goals. To address the three main areas the assignment has been divided into 4-5 parts: 2.0 INTRODUCTION British Petroleum p.l.c (formerly known as Anglo-Persian Oil Company) is a registered oil and natural gas industry established on 14th April 1909 in United Kingdom. According to BP ultimate (2012), during theearly 1900s the search for oil was began by the Shah of Iran which was discovered in the mid of 1908 and it was known as the first major find in the Middle East. Its also say that BP was considered as a subsidiary of Burmah Oil Company under the name of Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC). However in 1935 it became as the Anglo-Iranian oil company (AIOC). After 45 years of flourishing services, in 1954 the company got registered by the name today we know which is the British Petroleum p.l.c. Although BP does not have a specifically labeled mission statement BPhas published a statement identifying its core interest is said to be progressive, responsible, innovative and performance driven (About.com retail industry, 2012).Each of these words in the statement being the main target of the company, describes its missions. These in general states that Bp creates a user friendly environment between them and their customers and also Bp would like to ensure that the products that they invent would be environmental friendly. British Petroleum plc (BP) markets its products in more than  70 countries and operates  22,400 gas stations worldwide with over nearly 80,000 employees. Being the worlds  third-largest energy company and fourth-largest in terms of revenues  integrated oil concern, It is  vertically-integrated  and is active in every area of the oil and gas industry, including  exploration  and production,  refining,  distribution and marketing,  petrochemicals,  powergeneration  and  trading. It also has major  renewable energy  activities, including in  bio fuels,  hydrogen,  solar  and  wind power (Corporate Watch, n.d). Today BP explores for oil and gas in  30 countries and has proventhat they reserves approximately 18.1 billion barrels of oil equivalent. Moreover, according to Corporate Watch (n.d) they are the largest oil and gas producer in the US and also a top refiner, with stakes in 16 refineries, processing  4 million barrels of crude oil per day. 3.0 METHOD OF INVESTIGATION Main source of information regarding the various strategies adopted by BP to confront competitive and unforeseen challenges like, Gulf of Mexico oil spills disasters was acquired through. BPwebsites, publicationsand International Oil Spill Conference served as the main sources of information on government policies, regulations and laws. Oil drilling regulationsand policiesare taken fromUK, USAand international oil and energy reports and periodic statistical reports published online. Apart from this,Bp annual reports 2011,articles, journal articles, websites, books and magazines. 4.0Literature review Integrated approach to good governance in the interests of a wide range of stakeholdershaving regard to the fundamental principles of good financial, social, ethical and environmental practice. Other developments over the past 10 years which have propelled CSR onto thegovernance agenda include publication of the Association of British Insurers (ABI)Disclosure Guidelines on Socially Responsible Investment (2001) (see page 24 fordetails) and the UK Turnbull report: Internal Control, Guidance for Directors on the Combined Code (2001), the latter which asks companies to consider the following:Are the significant internal and external operational, financial, compliance and otherrisks identified and assessed on an ongoing basis? (Significant risks may, for example,include those related to market, credit, liquidity, technological, legal, health, safety andenvironmental, reputation, and business probity issues).5 In Canada, for example, the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE), seeking to instill public confidence in capital markets and the enterprise system on the heels of the corporate scandals, published a statement, Governance, Values and Competitiveness: A Commitment to Leadership in 2002. They laid out their views on corporate governance, Facts, findings, discussion and analysis with suitable sections and headings; 5.0 Findings Situational Analysis The oil industry has shown great resilience in the face of competitive disasters and the fast evolving (PESTLE): political, social and economic climates, technological environment, Legal and Ecological. According to Cooper et al 1994, it is state critical that the necessary information about the internal and external environment be gathered before a constructive criticism is made. He also argues that the findings are a very minimum to cover the bases of PESTLE investigation, that is to examine the political, economic, social, technological, legal and Ecological changes that may affect the company and the market. Governments provide and enforce the rules including regulations and policies due to Gulf of Mexico oil spill, government are drafting more laws and regulations would required that drilling perform independent audits and hazard assessment designed to reduce accidents caused by Technological and human errors(Alan Levin, USA TODAY Updated  5/10/2010 4:48 PM  ).See PESTLE in Appendix 1,2. 5.1 Political factors: These refer to government policy such as the degree of intervention in the economy BP had one of the biggest engineering, logistical and financial problems the oil industry had ever faced, but the company was up to the challenge. BP also faced a massive political problem, perhaps the biggest such crisis for an oil company operating in the United States since Teddy Roosevelt broke up John D. Rockefellers Standard Oil. BPs failure to grasp the fact that its biggest challenge was in Washington, not the Gulf, has led to a series of gaffes and strategic communications errors that have inflamed public opinion, fanned the political firestorm and dragged the companys share price ever lower the spill cleanup to cost under $30 billion BPs market capitalization is down $100 billion, on expectations it will face fines of up to $30 billion as well as curbs on its business in the United States, its most important market. BPs handling of the spill from a crisis management perspective will go down in history as one of the great examples of how to make a situation worse by bad communications, said Michael Gordon, of New York-based crisis PR firm Group Gordon Strategic Communications. It was a combination of a lack of transparency, a lack of straight talking and a lack of sensitivity to the victims. When youre managing an environmental disaster of this magnitude you not only have to manage the problem but also manage all the stakeholders. The company also failed to tackle its image as a serial safety and environmental offender. That was especially true in the United States where regulators had blamed both a 2005 refinery blast that killed 15 workers and pipeline leaks in Alaska in 2006 on cost-cutting. BPs inability to precisely describe the improvements it has made in its safety and operational culture took us by surprise, BP would have faced public anger and political pressure Dispute on Iran and other middle east countries causes instability on Stock market prices and the crude oil price will 5.2 Economic factors: These include interest rates, taxation changes, economic growth, inflation and exchange rates. As you will see throughout the Foundations of Economics book economic change can have a major impact on a firms behavior. For example:                         higher interest rates may deter investment because it costs more to borrow                         a strong currency may make exporting more difficult because it may raise the price in terms of foreign currency                         inflation may provoke higher wage demands from employees and raise costs                         higher national income growth may boost demand for a firms products Current economical crisis and Euro zone, economic crisis is affecting the BP corporative objective of the company 5.3 Technological factors: New technologies create new products and new processes to drills deep sea. This will increase efficiency and cost effective way to carried out BP business. Latest technology improves BP production and environmental friendly way to operate its business. 5.4 Environmental and Ecological factors: Environmental factors include the weather and climate change. Changes in temperature can impact on many industries including farming, tourism and insurance. With major climate changes occurring due to global warming and with greater environmental awareness this external factor is becoming a significant issue for firms to consider. The growing desire to protect the environment is having an impact on many industries such as the travel and transportation industries (for example, more taxes being placed on air travel and the success of hybrid cars) and the general move towards more environmentally friendly products and processes is affecting demand patterns and creating business opportunities. When an oil slick from a large oil spill reaches the beach, the oil coats and clings to every rock and grain of sand. If the oil washes into coastal marshes, mangrove forests or other wetlands, fibrous plants and grasses absorb the oil, which can damage the plants and make the whole area unsuitable as wildlife habitat.Other Ecological factors include the wildlife animal, marine environment, High Dolphin Deaths, fishing birds and lots of fishes move from that area. 5.4 Legal factors: These are related to the legal environment in which firms operate. In recent years in the UK there have been many significant legal changes that have affected firms behavior. The introduction of age discrimination and disability discrimination legislation, an increase in the minimum wage and greater requirements for firms to recycle are examples of relatively recent laws that affect an organizations actions. Legal changes can affect a firms costs (e.g. if new systems and procedures have to be developed) and demand (e.g. if the law affects the likelihood of customers buying the good or using the service). 6.0 CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY   After the Gulf of Mexico oil spilling incident BP investing billion on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is now prominent and evident more than ever due to the emphasis laid on businesses regarding environmental, social and ethical issues. This is because over the recent years, there have been social, political, ecological and economic pressures on corporate management to pay attention on social and environmental consequences of corporate activities. These pressures motivated the corporate management to actively participate in a wide range of social welfare activities. CSR now-a-days covers almost all issues like the use of child labor; inequality of employment; environmental impact; involvement in local community; products safety; company cultures; brand image and reputation. Apart from this, BPis now disclosing these activities in their annual reports, and one of the parameters to judge the performance of a BP is CSR reporting. CSR is defined by Naylor (1999) and mentioned in the work of Douglas  et al.  (2004) as the obligation of managers to choose and act in ways that benefit both the interests of the organization and those of society as a whole. Fraser (2005) describes CSR as sustainable development which needs to be carried out by all the publicly held companies. These companies need to be responsible not only for their shareholders, but also its stake holders like the employees, customers, suppliers, government and non-governmental organizations. The speech made by BP Senior Advisor Charles Nicholson in 2002 at the CSR Europe General assembly meeting: The boundaries to corporate social responsibility are conceptual. A companys primary responsibility is to its shareholders, to its owners. The boundaries are ideological. A company is not a government. It is not elected. It has no popular mandate. It mustnt confuse its role with the role of others. The boundaries are practical. A company has limited resources, limited expertise and limited reach. A company is not a panacea, a cure-all. The boundaries are influenced by self-interest. Business thrives if the society in which it operates thrives. To neglect this is to put at risk the interests of our shareholders. And however you look at it the boundaries are constantly changing. What was a boundary a few years ago is now a starting point. Bp is leading, accepting responsibilities and demonstrating to building community is a source of human progress through its CSR. At the most basic level it means delivering what we promise. It means being transparent in what we do. It means practicing universal standards of behavior and care and applying the skills we have and engaging constructively in society. Im not implying that business has complete answers. It doesnt, and one of the reasons for taking part in events like this one today is to listen to open a dialogue. Every company will also draw boundaries reflecting its own circumstances, of course. For most the key factors are experience and values. At BP weve defined our values in a document called What We Stand For. 7.0 CORPORATE GOVERNANCE Jonathan Lister (2003), function of Corporate Governance,corporate governance encompasses the policies, initiatives and practices a corporation uses to accomplish its business goals and develop its infrastructure. The functions of corporate governance begin with a corporations shareholders and are passed to the elected board of directors, who are then in charge of developing governance strategies for the company as a whole. According to bp.com/section generic article,Good governance involves the clarity of roles and responsibilities, and the proper utilization of distinct skills and processes. The board is responsible for the direction and oversight of BP on behalf of shareholders and is accountable to them, as owners, for all aspects of BPs business. The board believes that good governance involves the clarity of roles and responsibilities, and the proper utilization of distinct skills and processes. The board therefore focuses on activities that enable it to promote shareholders interests, such as the active consideration of strategy, the monitoring of executive action, and ongoing board and executive management succession. To achieve this, it has developed and approved a set of corporate governance principles which set out its approach in this area. Most writings on governance situate its evolution within the backdrop of the corporate governance scandals at companies such as Enron, WorldCom and Lehman Brothers these two decade and this financial crises, which drove a concern for accountability and transparency amongst corporate leaders and regulators. This, coupled with growing shareholder activism, changing societal expectations about the role of corporations, and the globalization of capital markets, has resulted in a proliferation of governance principles and codes of conduct over the past 15 years. According to experts.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk, the impact of the BP oil spill in Gulf of Mexico has resulted in a fallen its share value by 45% and drop in its credit rating, downgraded by rating agencies such as Moodys, Standard and Poor and Fitch. There are fears that the claims from Americas worst environmental disaster could reach $100 billion.To cover the cost of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill BP has divest some of its noncore assets and reduced its capital investment to raise cash to compensation. The market has analyzed the impact of the Corporate Governance (CG) practices of BP and adjusted accordingly. Corporate governance is a vital issue for firms in the global market. To raise funds to finance their domestic and international growth requires firms to demonstrate strong CG credentials, so that investors do not discount their stock. To ensure all the corporate governance practices BP following one tire board system. 8.0 ETHICS One of the biggest environmental disasters happened around this time. The BP oil spill has left  undeniable impressions on how we view oil drilling and non-renewable sources of energy. This has had a knock-on effect on CSR, PR and marketing. The BP spill is possibly the most high-profile CSR/PR disaster of recent times. It is true that BP has had a questionable safety record, but the spill could have happened to any of the companies operating a deep sea rig. It is the nature of the business and demand for oil has made it profitable for oil companies to take these risks. Of course BP has accepted blame, but it has resulted in PR disasters for the company that has ultimately reflected on its CSR profile as well. A year after the spill BP is still gunning to get back into oil drilling the Gulf of Mexico, this time with higher safety standards. There are still questions about what these standards might be. Residents in the area have reported various health problems.  Of the 954 residents in seven coastal communities, almost half said they had experienced health problems like coughing, skin and eye irritation, or headaches that are consistent with common symptoms of chemical exposure. The aftermath of the spill is still being felt especially on the marine life in the region which in turn affects many livelihoods in the area.   Hundreds of very endangered Kemps Ridley sea turtles have been washing ashore and dead dolphins are showing up at  10 times the normal rate. Right after the spill,  over 6,000 birds, 600 sea turtles and 160 dolphins were killed. Traces of oil have been found in the larvae of blue crabs and researchers have found carcinogens in the water. These carcinogens have also  percolated  through the food chain affecting Gulf shrimp and fish which have been shown to contain toxic hydrocarbons. More than 20% of the endangered blue fintuna spawn  were killed in the spill. Despite the clean-up efforts, the  oil spill has damaged fragile coral reefs and dispersants being absorbed by zoo plankton and fish. The  effects  of the spill in the marshes and coastal areas will still be felt for years to come. A year on, there are still reports of tar balls being washed ashore which no one can verify because BP does not give reporters access to the beach. A year on and the biggest CSR disaster is that BP still has not issued any reports with real transparency regarding their clean-up efforts, compensation and concerns of safety in their operations. 9.0 CONCLUSIONS Despite domestic and international competition PB has managed to retain its position into the Market. This is mainly due to BP ability to successfully implementing Corporativegovernance, CSR/PR and other major changes necessary to overcome the challenges faced by Gulf of Mexico. Second factor is even after this unexpected incident BP had certain exclusivities like market position, investing alternative energy, investing CSR, changing its safety standards, improving corporate governance, taking blames and paying off damages to local and international community might improve its business image. As now BP has completely lost its remaining exclusivities it will face new challenges from Russia and most of the Middle East Countries overchanges in political and economical condition. Therefore good corporate strategy, CSR and good governance will maintain oil price and Alternative energy. 10.0 RECOMMENDATION According to OECD report 2011, There are perceived threats to the BP as well as oil company in future it need to be more proactive to these changes , which can be perceive by the knowledgeable among the corporate: Even after facing major chellges faced by BP, had some exclusivity, with those exclusivities lost it may have to come up with strategies to compete in those areas especially in risk management safety and environmentally friendly way drill. Challenges will keep emerging for this, Bp needs to adopt a learning organization concept to be proactive to change and keep ahead of competition. Increase investment on alternative energy like biofuels, wind and keep close tie on Middle East countries may achieve its corporate strategies. Investing on emerging economies like India, chain and Brazil will give competitive advantages in the near future. Making strategy and policies towards on efficient combustion engines and power train technologies, including hybridization, combined with use of biofuels, could offer the quickest and most effective pathway to a secure sustainability To meet future challenges BP is changing its strategy towards on ethics, CSR and improving its corporate governance. 11. Works Cited Andrew, C and Dirk, M. (2007) Business Ethics: Managing Corporate Citizenship and Sustainability in the age of Globalization. Linda K.Trevino Katherine A.Nelson (2010) Managing Business Ethics Fifth Edition http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/STAGING/global_assets/downloads/I/IC_bp_strategy_presentation_march_2010_slides.pdf http://www.pikeresearch.com/research/pike-pulse-report-biofuels-commercialization-by-oil-majors http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/20/idUS71431+20-Mar-2012+BW20120320 http://experts.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/2010/06/21/corporate-governance-the-bp-saga-and-a-travesty-of-justice/ http://www.afaanz.org/openconf/2011/modules/request.php?module=oc_proceedingsaction=view.phpa=Accept+as+Paperid=224 http://www.zdnet.com/blog/projectfailures/bp-oil-spill-leadership-and-it-failure/9901 http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jun/02/gulf-oil-deepwater-sink-bp http://www.smh.com.au/business/us40b-share-slumpinvestors-sue-bp-20100525-w9e0.html http://www2.accaglobal.com/documents/bpcs.pdf http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-17243097 http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/bp-oil-spill http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/308388/20120303/deepwater-horizon-oil-spill-disaster-bp-transocean.htm http://www.oil-rig-spills.com/ http://www.crrc.unh.edu/deepwater_horizon_blowout/The_Gulf_War_Were_there_any_heroes_in_the_B%5B1%5D.pdf http://www.crrc.unh.edu/publications/RDworkshop-report_FINAL2011.pdf http://www.afaanz.org/openconf/2011/modules/request.php?module=oc_proceedingsaction=view.phpa=Accept+as+Paperid=224 http://www.transworldnews.com/815818/c1/bp-plc-strategy-swot-and-corporate-finance-report-new-company-profile http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2010-05-09-drilling_N.htm Big Oil Revenue Equals More Than 10% of U.S. GDP Big Oil Revenue Equals More Than 10% of U.S. GDP http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20050615005396/en/BP-HSBC-RBS-UK-Companies-Awarded-Top http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/energy-environment/oil-petroleum-and-gasoline/index.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/nov/02/bp-oil-spill-costs-40-billion-dollars http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/17/us-bp-idUSTRE79G0WF20111017 http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jun/07/bp-and-corporate-responsibility http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/smart-takes/corporate-social-responsibility-learning-from-the-bp-oil-spill/8055 http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bp-celebrates-25th-anniversary-of-the-bp-community-scholarship-program-159405915.html http://www.justmeans.com/CSR-Disasters-BP-Spill-A-Year-On/48568.html http://www.mallenbaker.net/csr/CSRfiles/bp.html http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=13903534 11.0 SELF-EVALUATION I happen to come across lots of valuable research work carried by the respected scholar in this field throughout my effort to seek answers to various questions in this field that was not very clear. I noticed that when a difficult concept is assessed in various angles explored by scholars it widens the knowledge of that concept and gives an insight into the grounding of the concept in the field. I came across difficulties and the risk of operating business in global prospective, especially in field of oil business. Most importantly, how well ethicaland corporate governance will help to overcome the challenges facing modern business world.

Mouring in the Victorian Era Essay -- Victorian Era

Mouring in the Victorian Era The actions of Victorians upon a death is a intricate web of rituals and etiquette. In Vanity Fair, William Thackeray gives modern readers a brief glimpse into deep mourning through Amelia Sedley-Osborne. The idea of deep mourning was introduced by Queen Victoria upon the death of her husband, King Albert, who died of typhoid in 1861. At that time and for forty years after(the time of her death), the Queen mourned the loss of her beloved husband. She commanded her court to dress in mourning with her for the first three years post-mortem. Because of the Queen's extreme actions, the Victorians elected to mimic her ethics. After her death, the world came out of mourning and began to change fashion, which began the Edwardian Period. Death Death was a commonplace occurrence in the Victorian Age. "Three of every twenty babies died before their first birthday, and those who survived infancy had a life expectancy of only forty-two years" (Douglas) Death would take place most often in the home. When a death occurs, the entire house stops and takes up deep mourning. Windows are closed. Clocks are stopped. Mirrors were covered. Mirrors were covered because it was believed that a mirror, or reflective surface, could because trapped in it. Bodies would be stored in homes until they were buried. Poor families in their small houses would have to kept the dead in the same quarters as the living until the time of the funeral had arrived. Even children were not sheltered from the deaths around them. They were instructed at all ages on the meaning of death and its rituals. As the Industrial Revolution developed, Middle Class and proper etiquette were defined. Rules and regulations of what was proper was decided... ...ictorianflair.net/VictorianMourning.html http://www.datavista.co.uk/ctic/thread.asp?threadid=39 http://www.gbacg.org/mourning98.htm http://www.msu.edu/user/beltranm/mourning/mourning.htm http://www.victoriaspast.com/LadyinBlack/ladyinblack.htm Works Cited "Death: the Last Taboo." Victorian Era. Australian Museum. 2004. . Douglas, Anne. Victorian Mourning Customs. Pagewise, Inc. 2002 . Hell, Kyshah. "Victorian Mourning Garb." Morbid Outlook. . "Victorian Mourning." Webster Dictionary. 1931. . Weston, Pauline. Mourning Fashion History. Fashion-era. .

Data Mining Essay -- Technology, Data Processing

1 Data Pre-processing 1.1 k-mers extraction Assume Ka = (a1,a2...ak) is a k-mer of continuous sequence of length k, and a = 1,†¦, S, where S is the cumulative number of k-mers in that series. In the case of a sequence of length L, we have L – k + 1 total number of k-mers that can be given out making use of k length window drifting procedure. 1.2 Generation Of Position Frequency Matrices For the positive dataset, 500 sequences were used to calculate k-mer frequencies from three successive windows. The three windows are: (1) window A, from -75 to -26 bp before the polyA site, (2) window B, from -25 to -1 bp before the polyA site, and (3) window C, from 1 to 25 bp after the polyA site. The highly informative k-mer frequencies (HIK) feature vector consisted of cumulated frequencies of all monomer, dimmer, and trimer frequencies for the three regions. This results in 3 regions x 4 monomer frequencies, 3 x 16 dimer frequencies, and 3 x 64 trimer frequencies. Hence, a total of 252 features are obtained. The negative dataset was computed from frequencies in similarly spaced windows, but from the beginning of 500 other independent sequences (windows: A, -300 to -251 bp; B, -251 to -226 bp; and C, -225 to -201 bp 1.3 Background Probability Feature The label space is written as Y = fp; ng indicating that a sequence with a polyA site is detected (positive class label p) or not detected (negative class label n). A classiffier, i.e., a mapping from instance space to label space, is found by means of learning from a set of examples. An example is of the form z = (x; y) with x 2 X and y 2 Y. The symbol Z will be used as a compact notation for X _Y. Training data are a sequence of examples: S = (x1; y1); : : : ; (xn; ... ...clude GC-rich redundant motifs and diffuse motifs that are difficult to detect. Suggestions and Further Research Motif discovery in DNA datasets is a challenging problem domain due to lack of understanding of the nature of the data, and the mechanisms to which proteins recognize and interact with its binding sites are still perplexing to biologist. Hence, predicting binding sites by using computational algorithms is still far from satisfaction. Many computational motif discovery algorithms have been proposed in the past decade. Like most of these algorithms, it shares some common challenges that require further investigation. The first is the scalability of the system for large scale dataset such as ChIP sequences. The scalability is the ability of a tool to maintain its prediction performances and efficiency while the size of the datasets increases.

Business Information Systems

Business Information Systems HA(IT) My questions: 1. Define the concept information system and its constitutive elements; describe the broad categories of computer-based information systems, providing relevant business examples for each category identified; explain how computer-based information systems can support managers at each level of an organisation. 2.Explain the main elements and steps of the project management process and, considering your essay writing as a project, provide a concrete description including numbers for that project; relate the main project management steps to the main phases of the systems development life cycle model; how are the life cycle phases handled in the V-model and the spiral model? 3. What is the Information Systems and Information Technology Function in an organization; what needs to be managed; how can the IS/IT function be organized; what does outsourcing mean and which role does it play in this context?Characters (with spaces) and 1 figure: 2 2645 Question 1 Information Systems To understand and define an Information System (IS) thoroughly, it’s important to separate the two words and understand them separately. Information is produced by processing data so that it is meaningful which can be not only understood by the recipient but also used to meet a specific goal or requirement. To understand information, data needs to be understood as well. Data are raw facts like a specific date or measurement. Data needs to be processed and transformed into information; this process is called the transformation process. E. . data regarding sales of a firm is useless unless putting it in the correct context. But if you sort the sales after type of product, you will be able to see what product has been sold the most. By using data to gain relevant information, it’s possible to reduce the uncertainty of different questions and thereby improve the decision making. A system can be found in every part of the world. A system is a set of interrelated components that work together towards a common goal. The solar system might not a have an obvious goal while a firm might have several goals like gaining profit or making the best product possible.To achieve these specific goals the system will need to obtain inputs and transform these into outputs, like described in the transformation process, data is seen as the input and information as the output. But to transform input into output isn’t enough. The output needs to be relevant compared to the objective(s) of the firm. For systems to be more effective the system can contain a feedback and control stage as well. By using the information we have just gathered it’s possible to define IS. IS is defined as the way people and organizations are gathering, storing and processing information.In a business the IS will contribute to making the correct decisions. But IS isn’t solely used for managers and workers’ decision making it can als o be used in other ways, like feedback for an organization’s quality. Computer-based information systems Today most IS involve Information Technology (IT) to create management information also called computer-based information systems. This is because of the many disadvantages it gives not having a computer-based information system. An IS can be divided into two categories called Operations Information Systems (OIS) and Management Information System (MIS).OIS contains 3 sub-systems each contributing in the daily running of a business. The 3 sub-systems of the OIS are: The Transaction Processing System (TPS), Office Automation Systems (OAS) and the Process Control Systems. The TPS is managing the many transactions occurring on daily basis on the operational level of an organization like withdrawal of money from an ATM, or orders and payments for goods and services. Even though the TPS is marked by a lot of repetitive tasks and routine, the function of it is essential and missi on-critical to an organization. A TPS will e. g. secure that an ATM is running correctly.If a person wants to withdraw money from his account via an ATM, the TPS will make sure that there’s enough money on the customer’s account so that the money can be withdrawn. The transaction will only take place if all tasks in the process can be completed. OAS is a common system within the OIS. OAS refers to the way that basic tasks in an office have been computerized. Before creating, storing and managing information was done physically, but by computerizing the office the time taking to create documents or arrange meetings is done faster, giving more time for the organization to take care of other tasks.The OAS helps making the office more than just an area for typing but an area for exchanging important knowledge about the organization by still reducing costs as well. If a manager wants to set up a meeting instead of giving a paper to each participant, he can choose to send an e-mail to all the participants even though they aren’t at the same location. The process control system deals with large amounts of data created by production processes.The process control system is used to control and support the different manufacturing processes of an organization. The process control system will automatically control the flow of the manufacturing process by a specific limit set by the user, and might e. g. support the production of a standard product like the Model T Ford car. The MIS contains three sub-systems. All three systems are supporting decision-making in a business and are called: Decision Support Systems (DSS), Information Reporting Systems (IRS) and the Executive Information Systems(EIS).DSS uses raw data along with different business models to provide useful information for the manager which he can use for making tactical and strategic decisions, being especially semi-structured or unstructured. The DSS is often created by end-users, because t hey often have the much needed knowledge about the organization compared to a bespoke or on-the-shelf package developed by a third party. An example is the expert system which contains the knowledge and decision making skills of specialists, giving none-specialists enough knowledge to make decisions.In the world of medicine, it’s possible for a nurse to enter the symptoms of a patient. The system will then compare the entered symptoms with all the different symptoms of different diseases already stored in a knowledge base and provide a diagnosis. A problem with the DSS is that the more options the system has the more complex it gets. IRS uses information to produce predefined reports for the day-to-day decision-making. There are two commonly known reports used by the IRS being the periodic and exception reports. The periodic reports is required by decision makers at regular intervals, it can e. . provide a report showing the sales of a product from day-to-day. The exception r eport is only being produced when needed; it might be produced automatically if a performance measure moves outside a predefined range. EIS is mostly used for the strategic decision making by senior managers to monitor, compare and analyze and thereby support the decision-making process of the senior manager. EIS could e. g. notify the senior manager with specific information about a facility anywhere in the world underperforming, giving him enough information to make a decision about the future of the facility.The different IS just described are each used at different levels of an organization. The top leaders of an organization are all placed in the strategic level, where unstructured decisions are a big part of the management. They mainly use EIS to support their decisions but it’s important to notice that their decisions tend to rely on their own knowledge and experience as well. At the tactical level of an organization the expert and decision support systems are used to support the semi-structured decisions being made at this level.The operational level of an organization makes a lot of structured decisions because of their little authority; therefore the TPS is used by the workers at this level on a day-to-day basis. The higher up we come in the organization the more unstructured the decisions are because of the level of authority rises. But this isn’t always true; it is possible to make unstructured decisions at the operational level as well as structured decisions at the strategic level. E. g. in a hospital the doctors (who work at the operational level) often have the authority to make important and less structured decisions.Question 2 The project management process There are three key elements of the project management process being time, cost and quality. BIS (Business Information Systems) projects are likely to consume a lot of time and money and involve many parts of the specific organization; the project manager therefore has a big responsibility for the failure or success of a project and whether or not the project is following the time, cost and quality requirements given. The use of a well-structured project management process has the ability to highly reduce the chance of a BIS projects failure.The project management process has four steps being: Estimation, schedule/plan, monitoring and control, documentation. The estimation step gives the project manager time to plan how much time and effort the project will take to fulfill the given requirements. The overall project requirements will be compared to the available resources. In the early stages of the project it’s often hard for the project manager to give precise estimations because of the great amount of uncertainty, but the project will often be constrained by a deadline or the type of people and hardware available.Effort time and elapsed time is two important terms used to explain the amount of work different tasks will take. Effort time explai ns the total amount of work needed to complete a task while the elapsed time indicates how many calendar days the task will take. A project’s estimation will often change a lot from the start and to the end of a project because of the many constraints and changes that can occur. The requirements might change or hardware might break down, but a good estimation is essential to the success or failure of a project.The schedule/planning step is about determining when a project should be executed; the finished schedule is then called the plan. There are two main terms important to notice called the serial and parallel relationship. The serial relationship describes how some activities have to be completed before another activity can start. The parallel relationship explains how some activities can be totally independent, but that four activities might need to run in parallel before an implementation can occur. Monitoring and control is a very important step which ensures that the t asks of a project are meeting the requirements.This is done by monitoring the different tasks; if the project isn’t running as planned and is deviating from the given requirements, controls might need to be made for the project not to fail. To disseminate the information provided during project execution an essential step is documentation. It’s the project manager’s task to make sure that good documentation is provided from the different parts of the project. With poor documentation or without any information at all, the project might not deliver on time and the expenses of maintenance will most likely increase.It’s also important that the documentation provided is acceptable and understandable. My project: To support my project planning a Gantt chart was made to show an overview of the activities. Project startup describes my first day of the project; I chose my questions and estimated the overall process of the project. I wanted to use three days on eac h question, all though I have to use four days on question 2 because of other homework. My writing will compared to my estimation be finished on the 30-okt and I will thereafter be editing the project. The product has to be finished and delivered on the 2-Nov.If the project isn’t delivered on the 2-Nov the project will fail. The different tasks being question 1, 2 and 3 are in this project all independent but I chose to run them in a parallel relationship with the editing task so that before the editing task can occur, the three questions have to be answered. This gives me an overview of the size of my project and whether or not the project has to be shorter. I have been executing the project as planned so far regarding time (today 22-okt), but looking at the size of my project so far, I’m going need more time than estimated on cutting the project in the editing phase.Relation between the project management steps and the SDLC The main phases of the System Development L ife Cycle (SDLC) are by order: Initiation, feasibility study, requirement analysis, system design, build, implement, maintain and kill. The estimation step is used in almost all of the SDLC stages, and will be used more frequently in some stages depending on the type of project. In the initiation stage of the project the project manager will use estimation to make an overview of the project, estimating the different resources that are required to carry out the project, but the estimation isn’t detailed yet.A detailed estimation will be produced when the project has been determined feasible and is under or close to production. The leader will estimate whether or not the project is feasible at the feasibility stage by using the information granted through interviews and reports. In the analysis stage the requirements for the new system will be specified. After the requirements have been established it’s possible to make a detailed estimation of especially the work requir ed at the design and build phase.The estimations will often be much more precise if timings from the previous projects are available. The scheduling and planning step runs alongside the estimation step. By knowing how much time and effort is needed for the project, it’s possible to make a more precise schedule of the process of the project. It’s important to always have a schedule of the plan for the project, but the most effective schedule will be made after the detailed estimation has been produced at the analysis phase (it can be produced at other steps depending on the project).Once the schedule has been produced, the monitoring and control step will monitor the performance at all of the SDLC stages and ensure that the project is following the schedule/plan and fulfilling the requirements. It’s essential to monitor all of the SDLC stages since deviating from the plan can result in a project failure. Documentation is important during the whole project but esp ecially essential at the development and maintenance phases. This is because most projects are based on team efforts.Not only does the documentation allow monitoring and controlling, but it allows the different members of a development team to disseminate their design information between each other, making their work more effective. The V- and spiral model The V-model’s V describes the graphical overview of the relationship between the different tests and SDLC phases, but the V is also a synonym for verification and validation. The verification will check if there is any better solution to the design of the product, and that the design we are building is without errors or bugs.The validation is used to test the design of the product and check whether the design is fulfilling the requirements. Validation and verification forms the basis for producing tests. The tests shown in the V-model are used during implementation which is why the model has the V-shape. But it’s i mportant to notice that the life cycle phases on the left side have to occur, before the tests on the right side of the model can occur. A concern about the V-model is that it has no maintenance phase, meaning that it’s possible to believe that the product is finished and bug-free when signed off.The SDLC can also be used via the spiral model. The spiral model is an iterative system. The three stages of analyzing, design and coding often tend to be repeated as a part of the prototyping process, and this is why the spiral model was made. The spiral model consists of four main activities: Planning, risk analysis, engineering and customer relation. The model contains all of the elements of the SDLC but it also contains risk assessment. By being able to make several iterations it’s possible to make a more detailed production and to add in new elements to the production because of the repetition. Question 3 The IS/IT functionThe goal of using IS/IT is the hope that it will generate more benefit than the costs used on it. The function of IS in an organization, is to make the management process effective and support it. IT is the tools like hardware and software that the organization uses so IS can run and be built. Managing the IS/IT functions When managing IS there are different areas that need to be managed. It’s important to manage the development of the different business systems. When migrating from one system to another it’s important to have a project leader, as well as to manage and make sure that the migration is going as planned.When inventing end-user applications, it’s important to have management to make sure that the software being produced isn’t full of bugs, and isn’t a reinvention. Other important areas that needs to be managed is the database administration, user support and training, shared services and the IS/IT staffing. It’s also important to manage different areas of IT. Some of the areas that need to be managed are which hardware platforms to use in the organization, the manager might choose to only use the client/server environment.Good network architecture is also vital to an organizations sharing of information, and therefore it’s important that this area is managed. Many organizations use a lot of money on IT, and many big organizations have large amounts of IT including development tools. If this area isn’t managed, new tools being bought might not be compatible with the chosen database management systems or the selected hardware platforms. If an organization is using legacy systems, these needs to be managed so that it can still operate with newer systems (this might be an IS area as well).A final important area to manage is the operations management which contains hardware management, capacity planning, security, technical support, telecommunications and network management. Organizing the IS/IT functions To organize the different functions of I S/IT isn’t easy, but an essential part of making IS/IT more effective in a business. It’s possible to ether centralize or decentralize when organizing the IS/IT function in a business. When centralizing, the IS/IT management will be placed in one specific spot in the organization from where all of the functions of IS/IT will be managed.This could for example be the MIS, which will then be reporting to an IT director or another head of the department. Decentralization is the opposite of centralizing and means that the IS/IT functions will be spread out across the organization by having small IS/IT groups stored in different parts of the organization. It’s hard for organizations to be 100 % centralized or decentralized all though many organizations tend to focus on one of them. Outsourcing Outsourcing is a term used when a company chooses to subcontract a service to a third party. This service can be catering, cleaning, public relations and IS.Outsourcing of IS ma nagement has become a major term in many companies in the world today because of its many benefits and uses. Some of these are cost reduction, quality improvement, risk reduction and to enable a focus on the core business. In a 2009 IBM survey of 2500 CIO’s worldwide 76% of the respondents anticipate to have a strongly centralized infrastructure in five years. A highly centralized IS/IT function does as mentioned before contribute to cost reduction, and having the function in one place makes it easier for companies to take advantage of developments like outsourcing.By seeing more companies outsourcing and more companies wanting to centralize which both contribute to a lower cost might not be a coincidence, and can be a way of saying that IT is more than just a support capacity for the outsourcing/centralizing organizations. Outsourcing plays a huge role in the management process as well. The problem with outsourcing and its relationship with the management process is the impo rtance of making outsourcing work. Outsourcing might be a huge trend, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s going to work.Many company’s outsourcing projects tend to fail because of bad management and contracts with the third-party. The failure of many outsourcing projects can have a connection between the management and organizing of the IS/IT functions. If the management and organizing of the IS/IT functions isn’t managed well or if the company isn’t seeing IS/IT as an important part of the company’s strategy, outsourcing has a bigger chance of failing. Litteraturliste * Business Information Systems, fourth edition, Paul Bocij Andrew Greasley Simon Hickie, 2008 * http://www. omputerworld. com/s/article/347073/Swinging_Toward_Centralization (29-10-2011, klokken 13:10) ——————————————– [ 1 ]. 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Business Information Systems, fourth edition, Paul Bocij Andrew Greasley Simon Hicki e, 2008 s. 351 [ 11 ].Business Information Systems, fourth edition, Paul Bocij Andrew Greasley Simon Hickie, 2008 s. 355 [ 12 ]. Business Information Systems, fourth edition, Paul Bocij Andrew Greasley Simon Hickie, 2008 s. 356 [ 13 ]. Business Information Systems, fourth edition, Paul Bocij Andrew Greasley Simon Hickie, 2008 s. 544 [ 14 ]. Business Information Systems, fourth edition, Paul Bocij Andrew Greasley Simon Hickie, 2008 s. 544 [ 15 ]. Business Information Systems, fourth edition, Paul Bocij Andrew Greasley Simon Hickie, 2008 s. 547 [ 16 ]. http://www. computerworld. com/s/article/347073/Swinging_Toward_Centralization (29-10-2011, klokken 13:10)