Two Men’s World – an Analyses of Godfather

Wen 1 Hang Wen Dr. Nirmal Trivedi English 1102 January 30th, 2010 Two Men’s World —-An Analyses of Godfather and Apocalypse Now Godfather and Apocalypse Now, both are great movies, and both are the first windows, through which I first saw America. At the first sight, these two movies seem to have a lot of similarities: both are one of the best hits in history, both starred by Marlon Brando and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, both slow-paced and 3-hour long, and both had a deep influence in the American society.On the other hand, two movies have so little in common: one is talking about the Mafia in New York, yet the other is demonstrating the wars in the Indo-China Peninsula; one is completely rational and calm, where the old Don hearing that his son was killed, just showed his grief for one second and then turned to business, yet the other went to another extreme, showing an entire insane world, where men were either mad or going mad.However, if we examine the two mo vies carefully and only grasp the kernel, we’ll find that both movies are actually between two men Don Vito Corleone and his counterpart in the other film Colonel Kurtz, who are both strong in mind, worshipped by people and is the center of power in his world, Thus, both movies together, the Godfather Wen 2 and Apocalypse Now are demonstrating a two-man world, filled with philosophy, wisdom and a strong will. Let’s look at the Godfather, Don Vito Corleone first.Don Corleone appeared at the very start of the film, which was the wedding party of Don’s daughter Coney, and the beginning scenes already fully demonstrated the Godfather’s high and divine place. As Sicilians never refused any requests on a wedding day, many people came to the Godfather for â€Å"justice†, one of whom was Bonasera, an Italian-American undertaker. The film started by his famous line, â€Å"I believe in America†, at which time the screen was still dark; then his face a nd forehead appeared on the screen, and he continued â€Å"America has made my fortune†.However, America failed to give him justice: His daughter was beaten to disfigurement and almost raped but the suspects only received a suspended sentence. Thus he came to Godfather, who was awed y because of not only his personally charm but also influence and deterrence. Interesting the reply of the Godfather was that he didn’t agree or decline at the beginning, but he began to mock that Bonasera never treated him as a friend and never invited him to cafe. Sadly, the obtuse Bonasera didn’t get Godfather’s message, and proposed that he could pay money.Then the Godfather had implicitly pointed out:†If you'd come to me in friendship, then the scum that ruined your daughter would be suffering this very day†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ † Then the most interesting scene comes: When Bonasera tentatively asked â€Å"be my friend†, Godfather did not answer and was just ca sually looking around; Finally Bonasera realized what he should do: he then bowed, kissed Corleone’s hand and called him â€Å"godfather†. And Corleone replied with â€Å"Good†, which was enough to bring justice to this Wen 3 poor undertaker.From the dialogue above, it is not hard to get the implicit message from the Godfather, that though he was asking people to come in â€Å"friendship† and to treat him to a cafe just like a friend, he did not really want to people do so; Every action he did and every word he spoke was suggesting that they did not deserve to call him â€Å"Corleone†, instead they should call him â€Å"Godfather† and bow and kiss his hand. It is this kind of worship, that though he stays close to you, he is always overlooking at you and that though he never forces you to do anything, he just makes you fear.Colonel Kurtz, also portrayed by Marlon Brando, built a similar worship in the other movie Apocalypse Now. Opposite fro m the Godfather, Colonel Kurtz did not appear until the last part of the movie. His image, however, has been impenetrate through the movie, though is vague most of the time. In this 3-hour-22-minute film, the first 2 hours and 28 minutes was used to describe Willard’s journey up the Nung River from Saigon to the remote Cambodia jungle, in which we only knew that Colonel Kurtz was probably mad and built a so-called colony. However, the feeling of madness and fear was augmenting among Willard’s team.They lost two men and became so nervous that they shot to the innocents. They saw the soldiers along the river losing control and going mad and finally they went mad themselves: Lance painted him with powders and did yoga anomicly. In such condition, they reached their final destination. On the fog-wreathed water, a group of people with mysteriously painted faces disciplinarily lined up in the river-boat; and half-naked corpses were hanged on the trees by the river. With the cryptic background music, the one-minute-long scene for the first time portrayed the colony that Colonel Kurtz had built. Wen 4People seemed to be submissive and unconscious and an atmosphere of fear and sacred was in every corner. Though Colonel Kurtz still did not show up, he had brought an inenarrable horror to everyone, as Willard described: â€Å"Everything I saw told me that Kurtz had gone insane. The place was full of bodies – North Vietnamese, Vietcong, Cambodians. If I was still alive, it was because he wanted me that way. † What a power Kurtz had put on this land. Then appeared the photojournalist, who being a big fan of Colonel Kurtz, crazy himself and hanging 4 cameras on his neck. Through his word, we knew Kurtz’s social standing here. Very cool†¦Very cool†¦But he can be friendly†Ã¢â‚¬ You don’t judge him†Ã¢â‚¬ He’s gone to the jungle. He disappears with his people. He forgets himself for his people†. Colo nel Kurtz was worshipped by the people here; he was their god and mainstay for their lives. He received the same kind of worship as the Godfather and they both demonstrated the same power which is a combination of personal charm and strength, making people coming to them, bowing their backs and bending their knees, without pushing them. They were just like producing a magnetic field around them, separating them from others and making them divine.They were both calm and did not talk too much, because they expected others to get the message from their eyesight and even from any tiny actions of them. And when it comes to a time they had to show their strength, they were still calm and elegant. The Godfather sent Tom Hagen to Hollywood to get his godson Johnny Fontane the leading role of a film. The director Jack Woltz, who was also powerful and even had dinner with the president, obviously did not regard this as a matter and arrogantly rebuked Tom Hagen’s proposal. Tom left peac efully for â€Å"Mr.Corleone is a man who insists on hearing bad Wen 5 news immediately†. But in the next morning, he found the decapitated head of his beloved stud horse in his bed with him. And a week later, Johnny called back to say that he got this role. Godfather himself even didn’t appear in this event, but his great power could be felt. Even fewer scenes were in Apocalypse Now to directly demonstrate the power of Colonel Kurtz, except one midnight Colonel Kurtz grasped the Chef’s (who had been with Willard through the journey) head and silently put it between Willard’s two legs.Willard then woke up and screamed. For the first time in the movie, Willard showed some kind of fear and horror. Colonel Kurtz calmly watched him and walked away. Even without word, Kurtz let Willard know that if anyone was alive it was because that he let him alive and that if he was killed it was because that he let him to be killed. Generally speaking, two films demonstra te the main characters’ power in an indirect way, most from the third person’s angle, partly because that their power was too overwhelm to depict directly.Their power and worship received is essentially the same. Just as I have mentioned above, both are due to their personal character and magnet. However, some people may say that these two characters are essentially different, because Godfather is extremely rational but Colonel Kurtz is always characterized by the word â€Å"mad† or â€Å"insane†. This reasoning is not true. Colonel Kurtz is not that a mad man that you usually see in an asylum. He knows what he is doing and his logic is clear. And most important, he has his own philosophy, such as what he told Willard â€Å"We must kill them.We must incinerate them. Pig after pig. Cow after cow. Village after village. Army after army. And they call me an assassin. What do you call it when the assassins accuse the assassin? Wen 6 They lie. They lie, and w e have to be merciful, for those who lie. Those nabobs. I hate them. I do hate them. † People in the movie say that he is insane because they do not understand his philosophy and the way he speaks: most of the time, he seems to be like talking to himself. He is really in his own spiritual world. But isn’t the Godfather?Don Corleone also has his own view of the world and is stick to it, such as â€Å"be close to your friend but closer to your enemy† and â€Å"Women and children can be careless, but not men†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ † He is so stick to his own value that he refused to get involved into the narcotics business, which resulted in big trouble, and he also conceals himself in his own world by saying â€Å"Never tell anyone outside the Family what you are thinking. † On the other hand, the Godfather and Colonel Kurtz are indeed different. Though with equal power and intelligence, Godfather seems to live in happiness while Kurtz in great pain.The last w ord of Godfather is â€Å"The world is so beautiful†, but the last word of Kurtz is the famous â€Å"The horror†¦The horror†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Then what is it that causes such a difference? The journalist gave one answer, â€Å"He’s clear in mind, but mad in soul†. And my answer is â€Å"the family†. Fighting away from home, Colonel Kurtz got no support from family, where everyone truly loved him. From his letter to his son (â€Å"I'm afraid that both you and your mother would have been worried for not hearing from me these past weeks. But my situation here has become a difficult one. I've been officially accused of murder by the Army.The alleged victims were four Vietnamese double agents. We spent months uncovering and accumulating evidence. When absolute proof was completed, we acted, we acted like soldiers. The charges Wen 7 are unjustified†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. †) and his conversation to Willard (â€Å"I worry that my son might not understand what I 've tried to be. And if I were to be killed, Willard, I would want someone to go to my home and tell my son everything – everything I did, everything you saw†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Willard, you will do this for me†) we can derive that he received unjustified charges in military but his wife and son did not understand him.Then he gradually isolated himself and escaped to this little-known place and ruined it. Alone and lonely, great pain he suffered and finally went insane. The Godfather, however, has always been putting the family at the first place, just as he said â€Å"If you never spend time with your family, you would never be a man†. He detested any disloyalty to the family and asked his sons to stick to this rule. He had a wonderful and happy family himself. He died when playing with his grandson, and found â€Å"the world is so beautiful†.In conclusion, both Don Corleone and Colonel Kurtz are great man, who are powerful and influencing people around t hem in a special way. They both have their own philosophy and spiritual word. They are quite similar in many ways except that the Godfather has a happy family, which makes their lives ending in so different ways. Wen 8 Works Cited Godfather. Dir. Francis Ford Coppola. Perf. Marlon Brando and Al Pacino. Paramount Pictures, 1972. DVD. Apocalypse Now (Redux version). Dir. Francis Ford Coppola. Perf. Marlon Brando and Martin Sheen. United Artists, 2001. DVD.

Software Engineering

SOFTWARE ENGINEERING PROJECT – I INTRODUCTION: The goal of this paper is to analyze about three major software projects namely †¢ The London Ambulance System †¢ The Virtual Case File †¢ The Automatic Baggage System By analyzing these software projects and the software engineering principles followed, the key factors responsible for the software projects failure can be understood. Each of these projects has failed miserable as they didn’t follow proper software engineering principles. In this term paper the following projects have been studied and reason for their failures are identified.Finally there is a comparison off all the three software projects studied. The methodology followed in writing this term paper is reading the following reference materials available in the internet and extracting the key points for the failures of the software projects. The papers referenced for writing the following term paper are 1. H. Goldstein. Who Killed the Virtual C ase File? IEEE Spectrum, Sept. 2005, pp. 24–35. 2. Statement of Glenn A. Fine, Inspector General, US Dept. of Justice, 27 July 2005. 3. A.Finkelstein and J. Dowell. A Comedy of Errors: the London Ambulance Service Case Study. 4. Report of the Inquiry into the London Ambulance Service (February 1993), by A. Finkelstein, 5. Richard de Neufville. â€Å"The Baggage System at Denver: Prospects and Lessons,† Journal of Air 6. Barry Shore. â€Å"Systematic Biases and Culture in Project Failures,† Project Management Journal CONCLUSION: The conclusion after studying these three papers, for any software projects the good principles of software engineering should be followed. The software development process should be properly planned with achievable and realistic deadlines. All the three projects had poor planning with unrealistic deadlines. †¢ Great importance should be given to the requirements gathering phase and it should not be changed during the middle of the d evelopment †¢ Developers should develop the projects with proper coding standards so that there is no issue during the integration of different modules. †¢ Time critical projects should require critical and solid reasoning as well as good anticipation of problems and perform risk management. The schedule of the software projects should have good portion of time in testing the software product developed. †¢ Finally, as far as possible keep the complexity of the system to manageable levels and tested effectively. LONDON AMBULANCE SYSTEM In October 1992 the Computer Aided Despatch (CAD) system developed by Systems Options was deployed for the London Ambulance System (LAS). The goal of the software system was to automate the process of the ambulance service for the London Ambulance System (LAS) in the city of London, United Kingdom.The implemented project was a major failure due to variety of factors. The Each component of good state of the art has been ignored, each guid eline of the Software engineering has ignored by the management and authorities’ neglected basic management principles. The working of the LAS can be summarized as: the system gets request by phone calls and sends ambulance based on nature, availability of resources. The automatic vehicle locating system (AVLS) and mobile data terminals (MDT) was used to perform automatic communication with ambulances.Some of the major reasons for the failure of the London ambulance system can be stated as: †¢ The deadline given for the completion of the project was six months. The project of such big magnitude cannot be completed within a small deadline. †¢ The software was not fully developed and incomplete. The individual modules were tested, but the software was not tested fully as a integrated system. †¢ The resilience of the hardware under a full load condition had not been tested before the deployment of the software. The flash cut over strategy was used to implement the system which was a high risk and moreover it didn’t have any backup systems to revert on failure. †¢ Inappropriate and unjustified assumptions were made during the specification process of the project. Some of the few assumptions that were made are : ? Complete accuracy and reliability of the hardware system. ? Perfect location and status information. ? Cooperation of all operators and ambulance crew members. †¢ Lack of consultation with the prospective users of the system and subject matter experts. The Software requirement specification was excessively prescriptive, incomplete and not formally signed off. †¢ The London Ambulance system underestimated the difficulties involved in the project during the project blastoff phase. †¢ Inadequate staff training. The crew members were not fully trained on the operation of the new software and their prior experience was not used in the newly developed software. The Report of the Inquiry into the London Ambulance Service by Anthony Finkelstein also gives us more information about the failure of the system. Some of the are listed below as follows: It states that â€Å"the CAD system implemented in 1992 was over ambitious and was developed and implemented against an impossible timetable†. †¢ In addition, the LAS Committee got the wrong impression, that the software contractor had prior experience in emergency systems; this was misleading in awarding the contract to systems options. †¢ Project management throughout the development and implementation process was inadequate and at times ambiguous. A major project like this requires a full time, professional, experience project management which was lacking. The computer system did not fail in a technical sense, the increase in calls on October 26 and 27 1992 was due to unidentified duplicate calls and call backs from the public in response to ambulance delays. †¢ â€Å"On 4th November 1992 the system did fail. This was cause d by a minor programming error that caused the system to crash†. VIRTUAL CASE FILE SYSTEM The primary goal of the Virtual case file (VCF) system was to automate the process of FBI paper based work environment, allow agents and intelligence analysts to share vital investigative information, and replace the obsolete Automated Case Support (ACS) system.In ACS tremendous time is spend in processing paperwork, faxing and Fedexing standardized memo. Virtual case file (VCF) system was aimed at centralizing the IT operations and removes the redundancy present in various databases across the FBI system. In September 2000 the FBI Information technology upgrade project was underway. It was divided into three parts. †¢ The Information Presentation Component †¢ The Transportation Network Component †¢ User Application Component The first part involved distribution of new Dell computers, scanners, printers and servers.The second part would provide secure wide area networks, al lowing agents to share information with their supervisors and each other. The third part is the virtual case file. The Virtual Case File system project was awarded to a US government contractor, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC). The FBI used cost plus – award fee contracts. This project was of great importance because the FBI lacked the ability to know what it knew; there was no effective mechanism for capturing or sharing its institutional knowledge. This project was initially led by former IBM Executive Bob E. Dies. On 3th December 2003, SAIC delivered the VCF to FBI, only to have it declared dead on arrival. The major reasons for the failure of the VCF system can be summarized as: †¢ The project lacked clearly defined schedules and proper deadlines, there was no formal project schedules outlined for the project and poor communication between development teams that was dividing into eight teams to speed up the project completion. †¢ The softwa re engineering principle of reusing the existing components was ignored. SAIC was developing a E – mail like system even though FBI was already using an off – the – shelf software package. The deployment strategy followed in implementing the system was flash -cutover. It is a risky way a deploying a system as the system would be changed in a single shot. †¢ The project violated the first rule of software planning of keeping it simple. The requirement document was so exhaustive that rather of describing the function what it should perform it also stated how the functions should be implemented. †¢ Developers coded the module to make individuals features work but were not concerned about the integration of the whole system together.There was no coding standards followed and hence there was difficulty in the integration process. †¢ The design requirement were poorly designed and kept on constantly changing through the development phase. The high level documents including the system architecture and system requirements were neither complete nor consistent. †¢ Lack of plan to guide hardware purchases, network deployments, and software development. †¢ Appointment of person with no prior experience in management to manage a critical project such as this was grave mistake, appointment of Depew as VCF project manager. Project lacked transparency in the work within the SAIC and between SAIC and the FBI. †¢ Infrastructure including both the hardware and network was not in place to test thoroughly the developed virtual case file system by SAIC which was essentially needed for flash cut off deployment. †¢ The requirement and design documentation were incomplete, imprecise, requirement and design tracings have gaps and the maintenance of software was costlier. †¢ According to the report by Harry Goldstein, â€Å"there was 17 ‘functional deficiencies’ in the deployed Virtual Case File System†.It didn’t have the ability to search for individuals by specialty and job title. All these above factors contributed to the failure of the Virtual Case File System which wasted a lot of public tax payers’ money. AUTOMATIC BAGGAGE SYSTEM The automatic baggage system designed for the Denver International Airport is a classic example of a software failure system in the 1990’s. With a greater airport capacity, the city of Denver wanted to construct the state of art automatic baggage handling system. Covering a land area of 140 square kilometer the Denver airport has 88 airport gates with 3 concourses.The fully automated baggage system was unique in its complexity because of the massive size of the airport and its novel technology. The three other airports that have such systems are the San Francisco International Airport, International airport in Frankfurt and the Franz Joseph Strauss Airport in Munich. This project is far more complex than any other projects, because it has 12 times as many carts as in exiting comparable system . The contract for this automatic baggage system was given to BAE automated systems. In 1995 after many delays, the baggage system project was deployed, which was a major failure.The baggage carts derailed, luggage was torn and the system completely failed. But the system was redesigned with lesser complexity and opened 16 months later. GOALS OF THE PROJECT: The system calls for replacing the traditional slow conveyor belts with telecars that roll freely on underground tracks. It was designed to carry up to 70 bags per minute to and from baggage check-in and checkout at speed up to 24 miles/hour. This would allow the airlines to receive checked baggage at their aircraft within 20 minutes. The automatic baggage system was a critical because the aircraft turnaround time was to be reduced to as little as 30 minutes.The faster turnaround time meant more quickly the operations and it increases the productivity. The installers are quoted has having planned â€Å"a design that will allow baggage to be transported anywhere within the terminal within 10 minutes†. PROJECT SCOPE: The International airport at Denver three concourses and initially it aimed at automating all the three concourses. But later the concourse B was alone designed to be made automatic. The project was later redefined to handle only outbound baggage. It does not deal with the transfer of bags. STAKE HOLDERS:The major stake holders in the project can be identified as: †¢ The Denver International Airport Management. †¢ The BAE Automated Systems. †¢ The Airline Management. The project blastoff according to Robertson & Robertson states that during this phase it has to identify all the stakeholders and ask their inputs for the requirements. In the ABS System the Airline Management was not made to involve in the blastoff meetings to provide their inputs and excluded from the discussions. As well as the risk should be anal yzed properly during the blast off which was also a draw back in this system.This was a perfect example of failure to perform risk management. The cost estimation of the project was incorrect as it exceeded the estimated cost during the development. So, Aspects in which the project blastoffs were not addressed can be summarized as follows: †¢ The underestimation of complexity †¢ Poor stakeholder management †¢ Poor Design †¢ Failure to perform risk management There were only three â€Å"intense† working session to discuss the scope of the project and the agreement between the airport management and BAE automated systems.Although BAE automated systems had been working in the construction of the baggage system in concourse B for United Airlines, the three working session is not sufficient to collect all the requirements for the construction of the automate baggage systems. This shows clearly a poor software engineering principle because requirements are the k ey base factors for the project to be built upon. Reports indicate that the two year deadline for the construction of the automatic baggage system is inadequate. The reports that showed that project required more than two years are as follows: â€Å"The complexity was too high for the system to be built successfully† by The Baggage System at Denver: Prospects and Lesson – Dr. R. de Neufville Journal of Air Transport Management, Vol. 1,No. 4, Dec, pp. 229-236,1994 †¢ None of the bidders quoted to finish the project within two years. †¢ Experts from Munich airport advised that a much simpler system had taken two full years to complete and it was system tested thoroughly six months before the opening of the Munich airport. Despite all this information the decision to continue with a project was not based on the sound engineering principles.ABS REQUIREMENT DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION The Automatic Baggage System constructed by the Airport Management was a decision taken two years before the opening of the new Denver International Airport. Initially the concourse B meant for United Airlines was supposed to be constructed by the BAE Automated Systems and all other airlines had to construct their own baggage handling mechanism. Later the responsibility was taken by the Denver Airport Management to construct the Automatic Baggage System.The integrated nature of the ABS system meant that airport looks after its own facility and has a central control. The BAE plan to construct for the concourse B was expanded to the other three concourses which was a major change in the strategy of the airport construction. Moreover the airport management believed that an automated baggage system would be more cost effective than manual system given the size of the massive airport. During the development phase the requirements kept on changing which added additional complexity to the project. Though in the contract there was learly statement no change in requiremen t would be accommodated, they accepted the changes to meet the stakeholder needs. For example the addition of the ski equipment racks and the addition of maintenance track to allow carts to be serviced without being removed from the rails and able to handle oversized baggage. The baggage system and the airport building shared physical space and services such as the electrical supply. Hence the designers of the physical building and the designers of the baggage system needed to work as one integrated team with lot of interdependency.Since the construction of the airport was started initially the building designers made general allowances in the place where they thought the baggage system would come into place. Hence the designers of the automatic baggage system have to work with the constraints that have already been placed. For example sharp turns were supposed to be made due to the constraints placed and these were one of the major factors for the bags to be ejected from the carts. The design of the automatic baggage system â€Å"Systematic Biases and Culture in Project Failures†, a Project Management Journal is as follows. Luggage was to be first loaded onto the conveyor belts, much as it is in conventional baggage handling system. †¢ These conveyors would then deposit the luggage in the carts that were controlled by computers. †¢ The luggage would travel at 17 miles per hour to its destinations, as much as one mile away. †¢ The automatic baggage system would include around 4000 baggage carts travelling throughout the airport under the control of 100 computers with processing power up to 1400 bags per minute. However the design with the above architecture failed as it was not able to handle variable load.It was also suffering from various problems they are identified as: †¢ The software was sending carts out at the wrong times, causing jams and in many cases sending carts to the wrong locations. †¢ The baggage system continued to unload bags even though they were jammed on the conveyor belt. †¢ The fully automated system may never be able to deliver bags consistently within the times and at the capacity originally promised. †¢ In another case the bags from the aircraft can only be unloaded and loaded into the unloading conveyor belt is moving, this belt moves only when there are empty carts.Empty carts will only arrive after they have deposited previous loads; this is a cascade of queues. †¢ Achieving high reliability also depends on the mechanical and the computers that controlled the baggage carts’ reliability. †¢ Errors may occur during reading or transmitting information about the destinations. There may be various scenarios during which these errors can take place. Some of them are listed as below. 1. The baggage handler may place the bag on the conveyor with the label hidden. 2. The baggage may have two labels on it. one from the previous flight. 3. The labels may be muti lated or dirty. . The label may not lie in the direction of the view of the laser reader. 5. The laser may malfunction or the laser guns stop reading the labels. †¢ The reading of information is vital in the automatic baggage system since the whole system is dependent on the information transmitted from reading of the labels and this information must be transmitted by radio to devices on each of the baggage carts. †¢ There is no available evidence of effective alternative testing of the capability of the system to provide reliable delivery to all destinations under variable patterns of load.This variable demand made in the system is famously called as the line balancing problem. That is, it is crucial to control the capacity of the system so that all lines of flow have balanced service. This problem can be avoided by eliminating situations where some lines get little or no service, to avoid the possibility that some connections simply do not function or in other words cont rol the emptiness. This failure also was because the entire system was developed within a two year deadline and hence the automatic baggage system was not testing completely with variable loads.Lack of testing also is a major reason for this failure. These all are the major factors that led to the failure of the automatic baggage system in Denver international airport. Subsequently a much less complex system was design and implemented sixteen months later. This newly designed system had the following functionality as follows: †¢ Serve only one concourse, the concourse B for United Airlines. †¢ Operate on half the planned capacity on each track. †¢ Handle only outbound baggage at the start. †¢ Not deal with transfer bags. COMPARISON OF ABS, VCF and LAS PROJECTS All the management teams of the three projects wanted the software system to be built quickly without taking into consideration of the system requirement. †¢ Hence all the system had unrealistic deadli ne to be met. †¢ Because of these unrealistic deadlines the system didn’t follow proper software engineering standards and principles. †¢ In all the three projects during the project blastoff phase the requirements gathering activity was not proper and incomplete, due to which the requirements kept on changing during the development phase. †¢ Lack of consultation with the stake holders and prospective users. All the three projects Software requirement specification was excessively prescriptive, incomplete and not formally signed off. †¢ All the three systems were not properly tested before deployment due to lack of time and tight schedules. The timeline was not reasonable for any of the projects. †¢ There was poor communication between the developers, customers and the clients in all the projects. †¢ The identification of the stake holders and collecting requirements from the stake holders and subject matter experts was not proper and incomplete. ASPECTS |ABS |VCF |LAS | |DEPLOYMENT STRATEGY |It was deployed in a single phase|Flash Cutover strategy was used in|Flash Cutover strategy was used | | |with a major failure of the |replacing the ACS System |in replacing the existing System | | |system | | | |PROJECT SCHEDULE/DEADLINE |Had a very tight schedule of two |Over ambitious schedule |Had a very tight deadline, two | | |years to implement | |years(1990 – 1992) | |PROJECT PLANNING |Poor Planning, The system was |Poor Planning and constantly |Good Engineering practice were | | |decided to be developed two years|changing milestones |Ignored | | |before the completion of the | | | | |airport | | | |SOFTWARE REQUIREMENT SPECIFICATION |Kept on changing to meet the |Slowly changing design |On the fly code changes and | | |needs of the stake holders |requirements |requirement changes | |PROJECT BLASTOFF |There was only three intense |The project blastoff phase didn’t |It left out the view of the | | |session to colle ct the |collect all the requirements |customers and subject matter | | |requirements which is inadequate |properly |experts | |REUSABLITY |This system didn’t have any back |They already had e-mail like |The existing communication | | |up system to reuse |system which could have been |devises in the ambulance system | | | |reused but new mail system was | | | | |written | | |CODING/TESTING |The system was not tested with |The software system followed the |Backup dispatch system not tested| | |variable load |spiral developmental model and not|and the overall software not | | | |tested as a whole |system tested | |SYSTEM DESIGN |The system design was too complex|The system was not base lined and |The System design was incomplete | | | |kept on changing | | |BUGS |System was unable to detect bugs |59 issues and sub issues were |81 Know Bugs in the Deployed | | | |identified |System | |ASSUMPTIONS/ |It was dependent on computers |No major assumptions were made in |Perfect location information and | |DEPENDENCY |that controlled the baggage cars |this project |dependent on the MDT | | | | |communications | PERSONAL REFLECTION: †¢ After reading all the three projects I now understand that development of software not necessary has to be coding the software properly but there are various aspects apart from coding like requirement gathering, risk analysis, testing. †¢ The requirements gather should plays a vital role in software development and it has to be properly made in consultation with all the stakeholders, customers of the software. †¢ Understanding the complexity of the software being developed. †¢ Proper planning and schedule of events for the development activities. Deadlines for the software development should be realistic and achievable †¢ Use of any of the software engineering models for the development like waterfall model, Bohms’ spiral model, incremental work flow model or agile software development. †¢ Last but not the least the software developed should be thoroughly tested for finding out flaws in the development and fixing them. REFERENCES: 1. H. Goldstein. Who Killed the Virtual Case File? IEEE Spectrum, Sept. 2005, pp. 24–35. 2. Statement of Glenn A. Fine, Inspector General, US Dept. of Justice, 27 July 2005. 3. A. Finkelstein and J. Dowell. A Comedy of Errors: the London Ambulance Service Case Study. Proc. 8th Int.Workshop on Software Specification and Design (IWSSD96), pp. 2–4, Velen, Germany, 1996. 4. Report of the Inquiry into the London Ambulance Service (February 1993), International Workshop on Software Specification and Design Case Study. Electronic Version Prepared by A. Finkelstein, with kind permission from the Communications Directorate, South West Thames Regional Health Authority. 5. Richard de Neufville. â€Å"The Baggage System at Denver: Prospects and Lessons,† Journal of Air Transport Management, Vol. 1, No. 4, Dec. 1994, pp. 229–236. 6. B arry Shore. â€Å"Systematic Biases and Culture in Project Failures,† Project Management Journal, Vol. 39, No. 4, 2008, pp. 5–16.

Social Networking And Its Effects On Young Generation Essay

Social Networking Sites is a web-based service, with a large online community. Websites like Face book, MySpace or Twitter provide social networking services like bring people together all over the world by allowing them to get to know each other. This interaction is likely to include families, friendship and romantic and group relation. With the help of networking, it can help people make friends and to search to find some personal relationship and families can stay in touch more easily. Nowadays, huge number of people connects to networking sites and it also increases the number of relationship. The websites combine many internet features into one: personal profile, blogs, places for photos and videos, the latest news about music groups, user groups, and more. People use social networking sites to developing business contacts and maintaining contact with them. Websites like LinkedIn can be convenient place for professionals to meet and talk about business. Developing business conta cts on the internet is most of the time easier and faster than offline. Aims The aim of the study is explain the Importance of participating in internet groups and interactive with others and one-on-one from the individual self concept and social relationship. This research also tell how the knowledge is to be explored and social action is to be taken which shall be carried out in the field so this research aims at understanding transformation reconstructing and striving for an understanding of the whole. So approach which suites my question is qualitative research and the primary aim of this investigation is to study the people interaction on internet as we all know the now days people have been curious about how the powerful new information and communication media known as internet interaction is going on in the society. Objectives Promote your business using social networking sites. Effects of social networking websites on the young generation. Safety sites of young generation. Advantages and Disadvantages of Social networking sites. Literature review Internet is first and foremost communication technology with the potential to  change people social interaction. Internet adoption in homes has grown rapidly since the early 1990’s. For Example by 2003 63% of American had used the internet. In 1990s, Information technology experts expected the internet to be consigned to the trash heap of history. Internet has become an essential part of our lives; many websites have facility ways for people to keep in touch in the form of social networking. Social networking sites are the way for interact with new people and to make connections as well as share photos, videos, and activities with each other (Red Sox Nation†, Northern California†).. In the past 5 years, such sites have rocketed and millions of people use networking sites. According to Amanda Lenhart and Mary Madden indicates that 55% of online teenagers have created a personal profile online, and 55% have used networking sites like MySpace and Face book. A social networking site includes both the exchange of information among individuals and group online. Expression also represents a view perspective, reflection, or quality of the individual or groups. Social networking is more focussed on individual relations and goals than is city and community involvement and networking with specific others whom one either knows initially or eventually comes to know. This interaction is likely to include families, friendship and romantic and group relationship. Video-sharing site is an also place where humans can make connection with one another. YouTube also allows a user to add another user as his or her friend. Expressions refer to the material that is created by individual or groups to reflect their views, interests or talents. Mainly internet based on social networking sites to build the personal and relationship and give the meaning to people’s lives. This sites help to people allow creating social relationship and it also used to fin d new friends in new locate. There are many ways the internet can be used for social relationship as follows are: – Online chatting Online dating Finding life partners Online friendship Many more Online chatting By using online chatting on internet many friends and relatives have come  closer and to know very well to each other. Calling is very expensive and people can’t afford to call. With the help of networking sites, people can connect to their relatives and get to talk each other very easily and they can see each other and chat through internet. Online dating Social networking websites are a great way of meeting people new people all over the world. Now days, people are meeting and dating on the internet. People can chat to somebody anytime, anyplace and anywhere. They are having huge relationship with others, so they will ask they will not go out with them because they are dating to someone. Finding Life partners Social sites focus on many different aspects of life, which makes it easier to find and make connections with other people who share common goals and interests, including love. By using traditional forms of marriage creation mainly of arranged marriages, internet has slowly being modified to the arrange marriage because it can serve the strength of tradition especially when modern condition of technologies seen to in decide tradition. Friendship Circle By using these sites instant messaging it allows cheap chatting between people and among group of friend or family. It also offers a good way of communicating with friends nearby or far away, without worrying about time or cost. This activity leads to vast expression of contact and interactivity many people enjoy ready for outcomes relationship. I just like keeping up to chat with somebody and it makes me feel very great to know somebody and to make new connection. So in this research the evidence strongly suggest that the internet has already been used to powerful enhance the social relationship. The importance is social and is creating both individual level and collective level social capital. Networking sites also used for developing business contacts and to make connections with them. Websites like LINKEDIN can be suitable place for professionals to meet and talk about business. Developing business on the internet is the most of the time easier and faster than offline. Social networking sites are also promoting a business to a wider audience and global marketing .Nowadays, the majority of business at least one kind of online presence. All the above reason   that the easy and rewarding interaction with other people, as well as the personal or professional gain that people obtain from joining social networking sites. These sites succeed at making everyone part of global society. In our research, social networking sites can effects on the young generations. As a result, social networking websites have extensive attraction for youngsters with the number of users growing daily. In 2007, Pew Internet and American life Project report that 55% of online teens have a personal profile (facebook, twitter, orkut) on this kind of website. Today, youngsters attract these site s just because of this websites combine many features into one like personal profile, blogs, videos and photos sharing, and many more. Along with these benefits come some risks. As conclude that there are number of cases for harassment or sexual advances. Most of these sites are open to all, especially MySpace or face book which means that teenagers could be exposed our personal information and our identity to someone. Cyber-bulling and harassment are more often commit by other youngsters and mostly tend to happen most to older girls and either gender who have a strong online presence. There so many several forms like posting threatening messages, publishing private messages, e-mails or text messages, posting embarrassment photos and many more. Another risk is identifying theft, which means somebody can enter your personal profile they can know about everything like, your name, birthdates and your location. So today, it’s very rare for harassment to all over the world but it can still be a cause of emotional distress for youngsters. As a result, most social networking sites have privacy controls in place, but youngsters hardly ever use them. If you can do active monitoring of profiles and behaviours catches some hackers, but no t all of them. Here some tips of safety sites for young generation as well as child also when they created our profile it make sure they understand not to post personal information like home address, birthdates, email address, mobile number etc because this information is private to them and not for sharing. And also explain that what gets put on the internet can live forever its means if you remove your picture later it may have been copied by someone else and misuse of your picture also. The main safety tips are that you should use for password for your profile and make sure their password cannot be easily guessed. Survey results show that percentage for adults with profile on social networking sites September   data. In this graph shows that adults in all age group favour for face book by a wide margin, with older adults preferring it slightly more. In 73% of all adults 18 and older have use face book as well as adults 30 and older has 75% and young adults 18-29 has 71% who use social networking sites have a face book account. In contrast, 48% of all adult social network users have a MySpace account. Young generation is much more using MySpace with 66% but only 36% of the 30 and older bracket. In other rates for professional networking sites LinkedIn are the reverse of MySpace. 14% of all adults 18 social networking sites users have LinkedIn account, which breaks down to 7% of adult 18-29 and 19% of adults 30 and older. In conclude that the highest percentage of internet users have use face book in social networking sites the second sites used is MySpace and other LinkedIn sites. Advantages of social networking sites The most common advantages of social networking sites, it is the good way for communicate with new people and to make connections as well as share photos, videos ,blogs, services and activities with each other. It’s also build the personal relationship and give the meaning to people’s lives. Social networking sites are also promoting a business to a wider audience and global marketing. By joining different communities, now people can easily know about the latest news related to that community. And the best parts of this that advice is free u don’t need to pay any euro. Experts and your friends always ready to give you advice and share information with you. Here some most common positive things that has to make social networking really popular among people and spread smiles. Disadvantages of social networking sites There are some major disadvantages of networking sites that Security is the topmost matter of social networking sites which we used more. There are some people who always search for fake identity, which means somebody can enter your personal profile they can know about everything like, your name, birth date, email address and your location. So today, it’s very rare for harassment to all over the world. It is always advisable to don’t provide your entire identity information online otherwise it makes our life spoil. Methods of Research: Philosophy of research There are many different types of research philosophies used by researchers like positivism, realism, interpretive, objectivism, subjectivism, pragmatism, functionalist, interpretive, radical humanist and radical structuralism. There are two types of realism direct and critical and the meaning of direct is â€Å"what you see is what you get†. Critical realism is the real world images of things and theory suggests data which specify technique at back observables. It means before data collection selection the selection of theory is must and then collection of data according to requirement (Saunders et al, 2007). Types of Research There are two main type of research approaches qualitative and quantitative research. Quantitative research, by definition deals with quantity and relationships between attributes; it involves the collection and analysis of highly structured data in the positivist tradition (Bowling 1997) .This method of research is appropriate in situations in which there is pre-existing knowledge which will permit the use of standardized data collection methods like survey, questionnaires.(Bowling 1997). Qualitative is an empirical research in which data is in text form rather than in number form. Qualitative method as opposed to quantitative used to collect and analyze the information in as many shapes, mostly non numeric. Main focus of this technique is to explore as feasible in detail, idea is to attain deepness instead of breadth (Blaxter ET at, 2007). I will use qualitative method of research here. The strength of this approach is the capability to study people in the field. Qualitative research describes words rather than numbers, the equality of social phenomena through observation. I am using in depth interviews and questionnaire and discussion group at the same time for collecting my research data. . Methodology The methodology shall be illustrative qualitative using a case study methodology. This method offers an opportunity to study a particular subject and this can be used to express theories. Case study is a strategy for doing research method which involves an empirical investigation of a specific  occurrence within its real life context using multiple source of indication.

Technology and the Education of Young Children Assignment

Technology and the Education of Young Children - Assignment Example OR) for Infants and Toddlers is an assessment tool consisting of forms and software, both which can be used to study the every-day development of children from the ages of 6 weeks to 3 years. It is featured in the Highscope Website. Unlike other assessment tools, which primarily focus on the infants and toddlers’ problems as well as deficits, COR gives a wholesome picture of each child’s developing abilities. The assessment programs, The Infant Toddler Social Emotional Assessment (ITSEA) and Brief Infant Toddler Social Emotional Assessment (BITSEA), along with ITSEA/BITSEA Scoring assistant software are sold in the Pearson Canada website. The programs along with the software are mainly used to assess the mental and social development of infants and toddlers. Particularly used for children in the age-group of 12 to 35 months old, it aids the parents to find whether their children exhibit atypical behaviors, show signs of disorders like autism, etc., so it can be corrected. The kindergarten readiness test, featured in the website School Sparks, consists of multiple choice questions for preschoolers and kindergarteners. These questions are from eight developmental areas, which are important to children’s success in the preschool period as well as kindergarten. After completing this test and seeing the personalized commentary about their children’s performance, parents can fine tune their wards, so they are well prepared for kindergarten. This skill assessment test, featured in the website Kinder IQ, consists of around 16 to 20 fun plus flash based questions, which can be done by the kindergarten aged children alone, or with the aid of parents. The questions are from different kindergarten learning areas, and their answers can provide insight into the children’s core knowledge. At the same time, it also highlights those aspects that can be further developed. The Infant-Toddler Developmental Assessment (IDA), sold in the website Pro-Ed, is a

Should UK police remain unarmed Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Should UK police remain unarmed - Essay Example They deliberate upon the fact that the existing threats luring over UK call for sustained defense, carrying of arms is an integral part. This would not only introduce arms in the police, but having ex-soldiers would give it a militarized look that would essentially be dictating order rather than maintaining order. Secondly, they advocate that the relationship ship between armed crime in Britain versus the number of policemen trained with armed is inversely proportional over the past five years. They present this as a glaring proof and reason to reverse the strategy on gun use for police, and start being more pro active in the situation. The interesting implication in this context is the fact that regardless of the number and level of trained officers, what shall be relevant is whether they are allowed to carry weapons or not! Another important point to their stance is when they narrate, "In 2003-04 there were 11,630 assaults on police in England and Wales, equivalent to a policeman or woman attacked every 45 minutes." This in turn gives a very defenseless impression of the police and gives them a more potent reason to ask for weapons during duty. Those who can't protect themselves, inherently can't do anything for others! This arti This article, being written shortly after the killing of the police woman is forceful to the extent of emotionalism. Though concrete in its presentation, yet the opposition may state in contradiction that one incident alone can do little to change the decades of policy formulation of the policing service in Britain. Nonetheless, it elucidates a very strong stance unto the dire need and necessity of the police to be armed adequately. Review 2 'The Bombing and Human Rights', posted at the World Socialist Website argues against the unquestionable power available to the British police these days, on account of weapon handling, searches and arrests. Julie Hyland writes just weeks after the infamous London bombings, influenced deeply by the innocent killing of a Brazilian national by the police. This text hence ardently cautions against the use of fire arms by the British police. "The country that long prided itself on a tradition of unarmed policing has become one in which armed police are empowered to act with impunity," is the unequivocal opinion of the writer. She is of the belief that uncontrollable political and security circumstances have given the police incontrollable rights; something that is intolerable for any profession in the society. Something that is beyond control is not likely to produce any level of control itself. Not only has this broken the traditions of the UK police, but also has given them the blind license to practice as they please. The article further highlights that the metropolitan police commissioner, following the aforementioned killing went on record to have said, "Even more innocent people could be killed." This instills unparalleled amounts of fear and horror in the minds of ordinary civilians, specially the minority communities. The rights and sanctities of the people at large is considered to be devastated if their protectors start portraying such views. In addition, this helps the British public at large to lose their faith and trust in the

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

Discrimination - Essay Example Being of the minority of Chinese descent living in the United States, I am often subjected to racial discrimination on matters that might not even relate to me personally. Such prejudice is a result of the generalized misconceptions (Ruchlis 2) that people have fostered about the Chinese population in the United States, and I often fall victim to such stereotypic prejudice (Ruchlis 1). Working as a cashier in a store, one day I was faced with a situation in which a white lady made a ride remark about my ethnicity. Our store has a policy that customers can only use a card to make a purchase if the bill amounts to a minimum of three dollars. This lady bought a lollipop and wanted to make the payment through a credit card. I politely explained to her that this was not possible since her transaction did not amount to the minimum set by our store manager. Instead of trying to abide by this rule, she commented that such a behavior was typical of â€Å"you Chinese people†. I was disa ppointed and heartbroken by this comment, as it was not my fault and I had no way of assisting her. Nevertheless, I was viewed as a troublemaker for the customers just because of my ethnicity. I feel that had the cashier been a white native, he or she would not have been subjected to such comments by the same customer. This is an example of the social prejudice that people nurture in their hearts when they have too little information about a group of people whom they have to deal with on a daily basis (Ruchlis 2).... This discrimination, according to Ruchlis, forms the third level of social prejudice (8). On the other hand, I sometimes act as a perpetrator, too, practicing social discrimination and prejudice against certain groups of people that I either do not like or do not feel comfortable with. I have often held a negative view about the black population of the area that I live and work in. Some of this discrimination has resulted due to unpleasant experiences that I have had with that group (Ruchlis 2), and those feelings of resentment have been augmented by the general views of my friends and the people around me about the black populace (Ruchlis 4). I generally believe them to be rude and stingy, and although I am well aware that holding such negative notions about a community in general is faulty on my part (Ruchlis 3), I still keep on harboring such feelings. For instance, just recently a black lady came to our store to buy groceries. It was the first time she had come, so she needed som e directions as to the location of certain items and some help with choosing among the options. Although I assisted her, my manner was very rude. I did not address her as â€Å"ma’am† or â€Å"lady†, rather I answered her questions in merely â€Å"yes† and â€Å"no†, and overall had a very exasperated air to me. Thinking that she would be so stingy as to deny me any tip for assisting her, I did not put my best foot forward, and did not give her my best advice. Nevertheless, she was very sweet of me, and on her way out at the counter, she gave me a handsome compensation for helping her, which was very surprising for me. She has not visited the store since then, so

Technology and Logistics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Technology and Logistics - Essay Example In the IT landscape of an organization, a TMS usually â€Å"sits† between the order processing system and the warehouse management system of an ERP. Ideally, TMS should include both the inbound as well as outbound orders. Load Consolidation: Organizations can reduce their transportation costs by consolidating on various considerations such as routing, delivery date, capacity, customer preferences etc. This will help in reduction of both billable as well as payable freight costs. Route Planning and Scheduling: This enables an organization to find out the most efficient and cost-effective route plan. Using this functionality, an organization can assign orders and customers to routes, move orders and customers between routes, rearrange route sequences, establish balanced zones and territories, and pool equipment and driver resources according to established business rules. Freight Audit and Payment: A TMS allows calculation of full bottom-line freight costs and evaluation of rating and service options. This enables a supply chain manager to improve its freight audit accuracy. Generally, a TMS is integrated with ERP and other Financial systems of the organization to give a complete picture throughout all the departments of the organization Freight Procurement: This feature of a TMS helps organizations to manage the various types of bidding processes such as incremental bidding, multi-round bidding and expressive bidding. It facilitates online bidding from 3PLs Multi-modal Transportation: A TMS also allows an organization to choose between various modes of transportation including ocean, rail, air, road, barrage and ferry etc. and arrive at the best combination of modes to increase efficiency. Shipment Tracking and Trace: This feature allows customers as well as managers to track their consignment online. The almost real time accurate tracking enables efficient sharing of relevant

Intended meaning in words Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Intended meaning in words - Essay Example For the fact, efforts to guard against words, to set up barriers, to act defensively, are destined to failure. Even if acceptance of racial words by their target groups has some negative components, it is eventually the only practical option available to them because it is the only option that fights back rather than just trying to resist. The claim that approval of racial words by their targets is becoming popular, at least in the sense it is frequently used, is far from the truth. Modifying the connotations of these words to include, as Gloria Naylor puts it, "a disembodied force that channeled their past history of struggle and present survival against the odds into a victorious statement of being† (Naylor 408) this is not satisfaction with defeat. Naylor’s family gives both positive and negative meanings to the word "nigger." The group toward whom they are least respectful, whether they are using the word or not are not blacks or whites in general but rather blacks with "a lack of self-respect.†Use of "nigger" to describe this group does not identify the speaker with that condition it rather, separates him or her from it. In other contexts this word carries other meanings, but this particular context proves that it need not relate to the same group with every use. Words as Naylor mentions are nothing more than "a nonsensical arrangement of sounds or letters that assigns meaning." (Naylor 406) Even if words can carry connotations of discrimination there is no subconscious accepted meaning of the word there is only an intended meaning and a method for passing on that meaning to a particular audience. Christine Leong adds on this with

Food Marketing Related with Obesity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Food Marketing Related with Obesity - Essay Example This essay "Food Marketing Related with Obesity" outlines how the food advertising influenced the level of obesity. In the US, it is estimated that almost $2 billion is spent by the food and beverage industry annually towards marketing the beverages and food to the adolescents and children. The Institute of Medicine report advanced that the food and beverage advertising have effects on the food choices, diets, food purchase requests, and health of the children. According to Bouchard (62), â€Å"the food markets and its impacts have been established to vary by ethnicity†. For example, in America, the food marketing is more prevalent in the Latino and Black communities. Research indicates that every day, the Black children are exposed to twice as many high calorie advertised food commercials as White Children (Bouchard 62). The food products that are marketed most to the Blacks are the low nutrition high calorie foods and beverages. The Latinos are the main target for the marketers as a result of their relative spending power and population growth. It has been established that nearly 84 percent of children targeted marketing on Spanish-language TV promote food stuffs having low nutritional values. Within a three year period between 2010 and 2013, the research revealed that the overall advertising expenditures by the fast food restaurants on Spanish TV had increased by 8 percent. Moreover, the low income Latino neighborhoods bear nine t imes more outdoor sugar drinks and fast food advertising compared to the high-income White neighborhoods.

Competitive Advantage Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Competitive Advantage - Case Study Example This paper will compare and contrast the competitive advantages of renowned engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce Plc (Rolls-Royce) and retail store giant Tesco Plc (Tesco). Traditionally, the competitive advantage business organizations can be fully identified by conducting a value chain analysis. However, recognizing the numerous changes in the businesses' market environment, this paper will also complement value chain analysis with a method introduced by Shawn Cartwright, the value web analysis. It should be noted that this tool brings into consideration the analysis of competitive advantage of dotcoms or firms whose operations are conducted online or whose brick and mortar strategies are complemented by online presence (Cartwright and Oliver 2000). This report will be organized as follows. The first section will take a look at the operations of Rolls-Royce Plc. A brief organizational profile will be presented together with the company's identified core competencies. The paper will then evaluate Rolls-Royce's competitive advantage in light of the value chain and the value web analysis. The second section will also evaluate Tesco Plc in the same manner. This paper will conclude with a comparison and contrast of the previously identified competitive advantages. Rolls-Royce is currently the world's second largest airline engine manufacturer beh... Aside from aero-engine, the company is also involved in other industries like defence, marine, and energy markets. The business organization traces its origin in 1971 and was founded by Henry Royce and CS Rolls. With its humble beginning, it has now ascended in the global business marketplace with its cutting edge technology and diverse product offerings. The company is not just a provider of high-quality products but also offers unmatched after sales service to its clients. Its market base spans over 120 countries around the globe, becoming a significant supplier of engine to important customers worldwide. Also, in order to complement its product, Rolls-Royce has established online presence through Aeromanager in offering aftermarket services. 2.1 Core Competencies The success of Rolls-Royce in the global aero-engine industry is attributed to its core competencies. A core competence, according to Prahalad and Hamel (1990) is something that a firm can do well and meet three specific conditions: "it provides customer benefit; it is hard for competitors to imitate; and it can be leveraged widely to many products and market." A company's core competencies are the capabilities which the company needs in order to build a competitive advantage. In the case of Rolls-Royce, its core competency is apparently in the production of engine. It should be noted that the expertise of the business organization in the creation of aero-engine is applied to a wide range of industries where it operates such as defence, marine, and energy. With the company's expertise in the production of a single product engine, Rolls-Royce, with its technological is able to transform this engine into one which can be used in other industries. It should be noted that all the end

Brand Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4500 words

Brand Management - Essay Example rand of its retail business, and it is the largest division in the Cooperative Group and it is one of the largest food retail chains in the country of United Kingdom. The strategy adopted by the group is to mainly serving the local communities with small stores, in line with the objectives of cooperative movement, rather than competing with the bigger supermarkets. Members of The Co-operative Group get rebate on the value of purchases made from the cooperative retail stores. The brand concept of the group, for example in the case of Co-op 99Â  brand tea, portends success of a comprehensive strategy that may be adopted for its foods business, to leverage its strengths goodwill in the market. The products with Cooperative brands already appearing with its own labels are available throughout the country in their own stores and other retail cooperative societies. A strategy for consolidation of the brand image and brand value at this stage would enhance the brand identity, recognition, image and positioning relative to the competing products. Brand image denotes the respectability or the status of the products or services as perceived by the consumers. Brand represents character, quality or attributes in respect of the products or services which is very important for the manufacturers or service providers to position the product or services in the market place or differentiate them from the others. Every entrepreneur tries to introduce unique features to strike a chord with the customers with varied expectations, requirements, aspirations and psychological needs. In creation of a brand, building unique features into the products or services plays a basic and important role. Establishing the brand in the market place involves creating awareness about the products in the minds of the consumers. Creation, establishment and maintenance of the brand could be called as brand management. There are so many factors involved in a brand to be successful in the long

Akhenaten Family Background Essay Example for Free

Akhenaten Family Background Essay Describe the family and family background of Akhenaten. In your answer refer to: the 18th dynasty pharaohs, his mother, his brother, Akhenaten’s wives, particularly Nefertiti (her origin and roles) and his children. Assess their importance to the pharaoh. In your answer refer to at least four sources, ancient and modern. You can also show diagrams if you wish. (500-550 words) Akhenaten was the tenth pharaoh of the 18th dynasty; he reigned over New Kingdom Egypt for approximately 17 years. Akhenaten was the son of Amenhotep III and his chief wife, Queen Tiy. Scholars agree that Amenhotep III and Queen Tiy had four known daughters and two sons, Thutmoses and Akhenaten, who was originally named Amenhotep IV. Akhenaten was a sheltered child and appeared to be rejected by his father as he was rarely included in portraits of the family and was never taken to any public events unlike his brother, Thutmoses, as he was not assumed to take the throne. Akhenaten became pharaoh after the death of his father Amenhotep III in 1352BC, as Thutmoses had died prematurely. It is believed that Akhenaten was already married to Nefernefruaten- Nefertiti when he came to the throne. Nefertiti’s origin or parents are unknown, there are two main theories of her origin, and the most accepted is that Nefertiti is the daughter of Ay, vizier to various pharaohs of the 18th dynasty and the assumed brother of Queen Tiy. This is believed as Nefertiti’s nurse was the wife of Ay, as well as references that Nefertiti’s sister, Mutnojme, is prominently featured in the reliefs of Ay’s tomb. Another theory is that Nefertiti was the Mitannian princess sent to Egypt for a diplomatic marriage, referred to as ‘Tadhukhipa’, this is supported as Nefertiti means â€Å"the beautiful woman has come†. Nefertiti was Akhenaten’s chief wife and it is clear that Akhenaten valued his beloved wife, in his tomb he referred to her as ‘the mistress of his happiness’, and according to C. Alfred on one of the boundary stelae at Amarna he describes her as â€Å"Fair of Face, Joyous with the Double Plume, Mistress of Happiness, Endowed with Favour, at hearing whose voice one rejoices, Lady of Grace, Great of Love, whose disposition cheers the Lord of Two Lands†. In Akhenaten’s tomb and in tombs of the nobles, Nefertiti is depicted as equal to the pharaoh, in Akhenaten and the Amarna Bradley states â€Å"she’s is treated as the king’s partner not only in their family life but in religious and political life as well†, unlike other pharaohs there are also many family reliefs depicting Akhenaten, Nefertiti and their six daughters making offerings to the Aten; no son was ever depicted in reliefs. Akhenaten and Nefertiti are accepted to have had six daughters together. They were Meritaten, Meketaten, Ankhensenpaaten, Nefernefruten-tasherit, Nefernefure and Setepenre. Meritaten ‘beloved of Aten’, married Akhenaten’s successor, Smekhkare. Around year 15 of Akhenaten’s reign, Meritaten was given the rank of ‘Mistress of the House’ and favourite of the King, at this time she was depicted performing certain religious rituals in the temple of the Aten. Meketaten ‘protected of Aten’ possibly died at childbirth (Alfred) or at the age of eleven (Redford), mourning scenes of Akhenaten and Nefertiti are depicted in the king’s tomb. Ankhensenpaaten ‘her life is in the Aten’, married Tutankhamun and became Ankhensenamun. Nefernefruaten-tasherit ‘Nefernefruaten Junior –after Nefertiti’, Nefernefrure ‘beautiful as the beauty of Re’, and Setepenre ‘chosen of Re’. What happened to the youngest three daughters is unknown. In addition to Nefertiti, Akhenaten had many other minor wives that he inherited from Amenhotep III’s harem as well as those he would have selected himself. Of particular importance is Kiya, one of Akhenaten’s minor wives. Her full origin is unknown, but she seems to have come from an official family with links to the royal household. In Akhenaten’s inscriptions Kiya was described as the greatly beloved wife of the king, this was purely an acknowledgement of her position as secondary wife and in particular as the mother of royal children. She is believed to be the mother of Tutankhaten (later Tutankhamen) and possibly Smenkhkare, who succeeded Akhenaten’s reign. It appears Kiya was a favourite of Akhenaten’s for a reasonably long time. Describe the building projects of Akhenaten in East Karnak, near the traditional capital Thebes, and Akhetaten (his new cult centre). Describe the features of the buildings and account for the stylistic changes, especially to do with the worship of the Aten. In your answer include evidence from sources ancient and modern. You can use diagrams and maps if you wish. When Akhenaten came to power in 1353BC instead of holding the holistic New Kingdom Egypt builder-warrior pharaoh, Akhenaten focused on his building projects and the establishment of Aten worship in New Kingdom Egypt. In the first year of his reign Akhenaten ordered that his father’s construction project be completed, this was typical of New Kingdom pharaohs. This project was of two decorated pylon gateways at the temple of Amun-Re at Karnak. The relief scenes carved on the pylon at this time show Akhenaten in a traditional way, they also depict the Aten as a falcon-headed god. In the second year Akhenaten ordered the construction of four temples dedicated to the Aten to be built at East Karnak, outside the enclosure wall on the east of the Great Temple of Amun-Re. These temples were Gempaaten – ‘sun disk is found’ , the Mansion of the Ben-ben stone, Rud-menu – ‘Sturdy are the Monuments of the sun-disk Forever,’ and Teni-menu – ‘Exalted are the Monuments of the sun-disk Forever’. The Gempaaten was an open rectangular court approximately 300m by 200m enclosed with a mud-brick wall, surrounding this was a roofed colonnade. The temple itself was adorned with colossal statues of Akhenaten. The decorative scenes shown in the temple showed a celebration of the Heb-sed festival in the second and third year of the king’s reign. According to an unknown source in the depictions of the first year the ritual was enacted before officials from all the districts and the gods of Egypt, whose statues had been brought from near and far to be placed in shrines. Akhenaten offered to the gods individually and was accepted by each to continue ruling. However, in the Heb-sed festival of the third year all the shrines of the gods of Egypt are replaced by the Aten and Akhenaten in the reliefs. Typically when a pharaoh is being depicted with a god he is either drawn equal or depicted kneeling to the deity, but as the sun-disc is shown at the top of relief scenes Akhenaten’s single standing figure becomes more prominent. There is no firm evidence of the other three Aten temples purpose or location at Karnak, as they were destroyed and the building materials were reused in later pharaohs building projects. It is believed that the Mansion of the Ben-ben stone was built for Nefertiti, the Ben-ben stone is typically depicted as a pyramid shaped stone, but in this temple it was shown as an obelisk. In the relief scenes Nefertiti is portrayed making offerings to the Aten as this role was generally undertaken by Akhenaten, these reliefs were the first to include Nefertiti in the triad of the Aten. A major change in the depiction of Akhenaten began to appear in these temples, he was no longer portrayed as the tradition pharaoh but instead his face become elongated, he showed very little upper body tone and had a pot belly. However large and remarkable Akhenaten’s Aten temples were, they would never be able to overcome the dominance of Amun at Karnak. This issue led to Akhenaten’s desire to form a new capital city entirely devoted to the Aten sun-disc. In year six of his reign Akhenaten selected a site halfway between Memphis and Thebes, where the cliffs on the east bank form an amphitheatre opposite from the river Nile, this naturally occurring amphitheatre was 13km in diameter and 5km wide. Akhenaten set up boundary stelae to mark the limits of his new city in every directions, he affirmed that the ground did not belong to any deity and it was the Aten himself who had revealed the land to Akhenaten. On the boundary stelae the king states the city is to be called Akhetaten meaning ‘the Horizon or seat of the Aten’, the message on the stelae mentions the temples Akhenaten intends to construct in the city – A House of the Aten, a Mansion of the Aten, a Sunshade of the Queen and a House of Rejoicing for the Aten in the Island. Evidence of most of these temples and buildings has not been found or confirmed. Akhetaten was divided into several main building regions; these included the Main city – with the royal palace and temples, the North Suburb, South city, Maru-aten (Southern Palace), a workers village and rock cut tombs. The Great Temple of the Aten was built as the centre of worship in Akhetaten. The building was an 800m by 300m open roofed rectangular court, similar to the Gempaaten in layout but much larger. The temple was not open to the public and only the royal family or high priest could enter into the Great Temple of the Aten. R. J. Unstead states the temple was designed in a processional way; entrance to the temple was from the west between two tall pylons, this entrance let into a small courtyard, ahead of this was the House of Rejoicing or Per-Hai. This was a hall filled with columns and adorned with reliefs of Akhenaten and Nefertiti. From Per-Hai you reach the next part of the temple Gem-Aten ‘finding of the Aten’, this courtyard contained rows of mud brick offering tables. Ahead of the Gem-Aten is the entrance to a long narrow court with a raised altar, beyond this alter is then entrance to another court, followed by a second and finally into three smaller sanctuary or garden courts. Each court of the temple, aside from the Gem-Aten had its own altar and colossal statues of Akhenaten as well as representations of the Aten on wall reliefs. There was no exit at the other end of The Great Temple so the procession of Akhenaten, Nefertiti and the Aten priests had to turn around and exit through the west entrance.

Continuous Personal Development Criteria

Continuous Personal Development Criteria Continuous professional development (CPD) A case study to examine why we need to have set criteria as to what constitutes continuous professional development. This paper sets out a proposal to establish the means by which certain hypotheses around Social Work CPD may be tested, through primary research. It does so substantively through a limited, ‘pilot’ survey of the views of Social Workers themselves, focusing on the value and nature of their own current and previous CPD experience. The latter were also invited to comment on proposals for alternative frameworks for SW CPD. The objective of this process was to evolve specific lines of enquiry and areas of interest for wider research. As recent research by Doel et al. argues, ‘At an individual level there is clear evidence that professional development is highly valued, and that participating in these opportunities is more likely to increase confidence, but not for everyone.’ (Doel et al., 2008: p.563) The question is, what kind of CPD is most valued by practitioners themselves, and who determines the types of development paths they follow? Does the element of c hoice determine the utility of particular CPD for individual practitioners? How far does the current atmosphere of assessment and ‘managerialism’ impinge upon self-determination in professional development? The issue of self-determination is a theme from the secondary literature which is embedded in this research. As MacDonald et al. argue, ‘†¦social work as an activity can be understood as an integral part of the modernist project of governance developed and institutionalised in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ (MacDonald et al., 2003: p.195). Whilst this can be readily accepted, it arguably masks the dynamic of client age which government maintained, not only over social work, but other professional groups. The latter were invariably involved in some form of campaign to exert leverage on official circles for recognition in institutional terms. ‘In Britain, social work looked directly to the state for its legitimization†¦Accordingly, the political opportunity provided by the publication of the Kilbrandon and Seebohm Reports was seized by proponents of the professional social work project, who campaigned for the implementation of the Reports, f or example through the Seebohm Implementation Action Group.’ (MacDonald et al. 2003: p.198). As this suggests, Social Work was liable to be co-opted into the social projects of the state on a utilitarian basis, with reciprocal implications for the independence of the profession. As Jordan and Jordan point out, ‘In essence, social work is not a means of implementing policy formally and directly, but of mediating the local conflicts generated by new programmes, and engaging with service users over how to fit new measures to their needs.’ They further argue that, ‘It is a waste of its potential for these tasks to treat it as a crude instrument for the imposition of government rules or the quasi-scientific application of research findings.’ (Jordan and Jordan, 2000: p.10). What are the implications of this tension for CPD in SW? Potentially considerable, it is argued here. The debate around Social Work education has become focused on whether †¦Ã¢â‚¬Ëœthere has been the supplanting of education by training: the sequestering of discourses of depth by those of surface: the setting aside of knowledge for skills, and the general triumph†¦of ‘competencies’ over the complexities of abstraction.’ (Webb, 1996: p.186) It follows from this that the definition of ‘useful’ CPD represents a continuation of such debates through other means: another area through which to contest who exactly defines what is relevant, or ‘best’ practice, in terms of developing solutions for practitioners and service users. How far, for example, do such resources merely reflect the ideas of Lisham, that official ideas about practice ‘†¦tend to be externally imposed and based more on the requirements of managerial control and less on the professional responsibility to evaluate practice and policy and thereby increase their effectiveness.’ (Lisham 1999: p.4). Subsumed within this is a more subliminal question, which is, where is the space in which SW practitioners can express their views or develop dialogues about professional issues? It would appear that we now have a situation where the parameters defined by the GSSC represent the only ‘legitimate’ channels for debat e. Methodology and Research Issues In essence the research enquiry followed two themes, one evaluative, one predictive. Within both, it was intended to elicit views without any leading or rhetorical influence, although current conditions in public sector SW may make this difficult to achieve, as will be discussed below. The specific evaluative enquiry offered practitioners the opportunity to briefly assess their own level of satisfaction with their current and previous CPD. The specific predictive proposal made was that CPD be more focused, through the establishment of an agreed range of activities, designed to augment and enhance SW practice. The overall theme of this was to explore the idea that CPD could be more relevant to SW practice, in the perception of practitioners themselves. This proposal acknowledges the necessity for inclusion of both positivist (quantitative) and phenomenological (qualitative) elements in the enquiry. These labels are arguably less important than the characteristics they represent however. These will explored in more detail below, but it is important here to identify the positivist paradigm as supposedly value-free, and the phenomenological as (in relative terms) value bearing. Obviously, these two model absolutes represent the research ideal, and should not, in any case, be assumed to correlate with the parallel categories of objectivity and subjectivity. Research paradigms in either category would arguably rely on objectivity for their integrity and utility. It is here that the design and operation of a particular model will attract the most stringent scrutiny, especially from its assessors or counter-theorists. Also, when ascribing the different paradigm labels to particular research strands and evidence, it is perhaps important to consider Collis and Hussey’s idea of an unavoidable symbiosis between the two. ‘Although we have identified two main paradigms, it is best to regard them as the two extremes of a continuum. As you move along the continuum, the features and assumptions of one paradigm are gradually relaxed and replaced by those of the other paradigm.’ (Collis and Hussey 2008: p.48). In other words, the quantitative and qualitative paradigms become less discrete and more difficult to distinguish, once the process of interpretation begins. Absolute objectivity is maintained with difficulty, even in the context of an exacting statistical survey: meanwhile purely qualitative work starts to move along the continuum, as soon as repetitive patterns are sought for collateral in phenomenological terms. Various interpretations are possible in any statistical model, whilst even the clearest qualitative conclusions are arguably subject to bias, as soon as a possible conclusion begins to fram e subsequent enquiries. As Patton argues, ‘A paradigm of choices rejects methodological orthodoxy in favour of methodological appropriateness as the primary criterion for judging methodological quality.’ (Patton 1990: pp.38-39). In terms of this study, the methodological issues are basically two-fold. In the first instance, we have a very small sample of data in proportion to the overall scale of what is potentially a national issue. The sample employed here was obtained from one area, and so is immediately vulnerable to the charge that it fails to analyse possible regional variations in both strategy and best practice. Although it reflects differentiated levels of satisfaction with the CPD process, it does not incorporate the views of those who might express – with varying objectivity – the most exacting critiques: i.e., those who have left the profession due to dissatisfaction with the career structure, or CPD possibilities. In the second instance, we have three discrete form of data to integrate, i.e. binary yes/no questionnaire responses, written answers, and more in-depth, qualitative interviews, as well as information from secondary sources. The necessary fusion of these sources in a coge nt form inevitably becomes an editorial process, vulnerable to charges of subjectivity and bias. This is arguably what Ely refers to as the ‘teasing out’ what is considered the ‘essential meaning’ of the data obtained. (Ely, 1991,p.140). (Quoted in Wright et al 1995). This, arguably, is especially pertinent because we are researching a matter of public policy, where positivist data tends to be adapted to value judgements by governments, and governing bodies. As Denzin and Lincoln point out, ‘Qualitative research is inherently multi-method in focus†¦However, the use of multiple methods†¦reflects an attempt to secure an in-depth understanding of the phenomenon in question. Objective reality can never be captured. We know a thing only through its representations.’ (Denzin and Lincoln, 2005: p.5). In term of representation, the specific enquiries made here are designed to produce data at micro level, although their collective implications may have a meso function in terms of the local negotiation of control over CPD standards and access. Only a numerically wider and more varied study could produce data which might function at macro level. However, the eventual connection between micro and macro is implicitly accepted here: as Strauss and Corbin point out, ‘†¦the distinction between micro and macro is an artificial one.’ (Strauss and Corbin, 1998: p.185). The point is though that this limited sample cannot establish such tautology in absolute terms, only suggest ways in which it may be researched further. To these two empirical issues may be added more complex ethical issues around confidentiality and contractual obligation. To employ the current parlance of Human Resources Management, all employees have a ‘psychological contract’ with their management, wherein informally agreed tenets of ‘fairness’ operate. As Williams indicates. ‘..this interpersonal aspect to fairness reminds us that there is a social basis to the exchange relationship between employer and employee and we might expect this to be part of the psychological contract.’ (Williams, 1998: p.183). It has to be conceded that any debate engendered around CPD has the potential to impinge upon the either side of the psychological contract, a fact which may influence and limit the format of questions. 30 brief questionnaires were sent out, of which 22 were returned: three of these respondents agreed to be interviewed, and the same interview pro-forma was employed in each context. There were 14 female respondents and 8 male: in keeping with contemporary guidelines, age was not elicited. The criteria for subject selection was that the respondent should be an established practitioner, i.e. have at least two years service, but no managerial responsibilities. The interviewees were invited to participate and the customary protocols followed in terms of permission to use the material, based on anonymity and the right to withold use of the material. Analysis and Findings The mode of analysis employed was substantially one of triangulation. The binary responses were tallied and are expressed as percentages. In Question 4 the written responses were sorted into those supportive, unsupportive and uncomitted with regard to the proposal (of an agreed ten-part choice of CPD activities). Based on this polarisation, qualitiative responses were then taken from the interview transcripts to illustrate and expand upon the themes identified. 22.75 per cent of respondents agreed that 90 hours of CPD was sufficient for SW’s over a three year period: 18.2 per cent thought it insufficient, whilst a majority, 59.15 per cent thought the whole idea of a prescribed amount of hours too arbitrary. 18.2 per cent considered that the current SW guidelines were effective, with an equal amount disagreeing with this proposition. A majority – 63.7 per cent expressed the view that some kind of change was necessary. Only 13.65 per cent of respondents thought that the CPD options available to them personally had been sufficient for their needs as a practitioner. 27.3 per cent meanwhile thought such resources had been insufficient. 22.75 per cent thought the available CPD had at least been consistent, whilst 36.4% disagreed with this idea. The written responses still produced a fairly polarised set of information. 35 per cent of those who answered supported the idea of being able to select their own CPD activities from a ten choice range. Of the latter, a majority gave some kind of indication that they saw within such a development the opportunity for gaining more control over their own professional development. This was evident from responses such as ‘Yes, great idea, assuming practitioners are involved in drawing it up’, and ‘Yes, perfect. If we get to choose what’s on the list, otherwise its just another form of management control, and we already have too much of that.’ (Appendix 3). Interestingly, the same concern underpinned the rationale of the 55 per cent who did not support the idea. As one respondent put it, ‘I don’t think it could work because CPD is all about standardisation, this idea involves too much individual choice for the ‘powers that be’ to a ccept it.’ This was expressed more directly in the views of another, who remarked that No. CPD just ticks a management box, it doesn’t really help me, so I don’t want four or ten or whatever it is boxes to tick.’ (Appendix 3). The 10 per cent who were uncommitted raised concerns about relevance and the numbers of available options. (Appendix 3) The twenty two tallied responses to Question 5, about practitioners preferences for CPD areas, produced an overwhelming choice for a specific vocational focus in the form of Multi Agency Working, at 36.4 per cent. All of the nine other activities suggested scored 9.1 and 4.5 per cent respectively. (Appendix 3) As might be expected, the interview questions produced the most detailed qualitative data. When asked to evaluate the personal importance of CPD for them, two respondents identified pressure of work rather than management imposition as the main impediment to their pursuing more professional development. The first respondent stated that it was ‘Very Important. I know I don’t spend enough time doing it very often, but that’s just the nature of the job at the moment, where we are all running to stand still. It’s very difficult to commit a worthwhile timetable of CPD when you know for a fact that you won’t actually do half of it, due to unforeseen commitments.’ . The second respondent meanwhile acknowledged that it was ‘†¦Not as important as it probably should be. It’s a box I know I should tick, but in a department where we can’t even recruit at the moment, it’s not a priority. Sorry.’ (Appendix 5). The third respondent explained their lack of commitment to CPD in terms of their lack of control over it: ‘I know it’s vital, but who is it for exactly? If it’s just stuff they think I should be doing, rather than what I want to do, then I could well live without it.’ (Appendix 5). In terms of the specific proposal, i.e. that of providing practitioners with a framework of choice for CPD, the responses were varied. Respondent 1 replied, ‘I can’t think of ten†¦.for me personally at the moment, it would be team-building, and risk assessment, plus maybe multi-agency working.’ (Appendix 5). Respondent 2 indicated ‘Communication, risk assessment, leadership, policy development’ as their preferred foci. Respondent 3 indicated interest in ‘IT skills, communication, multi-agency working, risk assessment’, adding that ‘†¦.the list is endless!’ (Appendix 5) Provisional Conclusions Concerns about who would take responsibility for more liberal and diffuse CPD should be noted here, as in the response , ‘Who would supervise it? I’ll bet it would just be an extra job dumped on somebody like me.’ (Appendix 3) Such objections reflect trends in management which have already been highlighted in the related literature. As Watson points out, ‘The drive for local and central government to modernise and become more accountable has led to a rise in responsibilities of managers for performance management and transparency in decision making.’ (Watson, 2008: p.330) The extent of interest in multi-agency working as a useful area for practitioner CPD, is something which has already been noted in the related literature. As Farmakopoulou has indicated, ‘The main inter-organizational inhibitory factors were related to structural difficulties and lack of joint training. Education and social work departments embody different statutory responsibilities†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ (Farmakopoulou 2002: p.1064). Whilst this specific point is obviously vocationally limited, a wider one about inter-professional cooperation may arguably be abstracted from it. In terms of generalisability, it has to be acknowledged that this research and its findings is vulnerable to usual charges of subjectivity which may be levelled at triangulation. As Denzin and Lincoln concede, ‘Triangulation is the simultaneous display of multiple, refracted realities. Each of the metaphors â€Å"works† to create simultaneity rather than the sequential or linear. Readers and audiences are then invited to explore competing visions of the context, to become immersed in and merge with new realities to comprehend.’ (Denzin and Lincoln 2005: p.6). However, in terms of putative research questions, enough areas of potential interest have arguably been identified to warrant further investigation. Themes would be†¦ Involve a larger cohort of respondents. Involve local management as respondents, to obtain views from both sides of the ‘psychological contract’. Involve the GSCC on their views about possible change. APPENDIX ONE: Questionnaire. Are you male †¦.. female†¦.. For each question, please indicate the statement with which you agree most by ticking it. Question 1. a. 90 hours CPD is sufficient for a SW Practitioner over three years. b. 90 hours CPD is insufficient for a SW Practitioner over three years. c. 90 hours is far too arbitrary an amount of CPD for a SW   practitioner: it should be varied for individuals. Question 2. a. Would you agree that the current SW CPD guidelines are effective? b. Would you disagree with the idea that the current SW CPD   guidelines are effective? c. Do you think that changes are necessary in current SW CPD? Question 3. a. Has the available SW CPD been sufficient for your needs as a   practitioner? b. Has the available SW CPD been insufficient for your needs as   practitioner? c. Has the available SW CPD been consistent? Inconsistent? à ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚   Question 4 : Please explain why you would support OR not support the idea of a ten-criteria list from which to select SW CPD activities? †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ Question 5 : Which areas of professional competence would you include in a ten-criteria list? †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ APPENDIX 2: Tables of Questionnaire Results. Question 1. 90 hours CPD is sufficient for a SW Practitioner over three years. 90 hours CPD is insufficient for a SW Practitioner over three years. 90 hours is far too arbitrary an amount of CPD for a SW practitioner: it should be varied for individuals. 5 4 13 Question 2. Would you agree that the current SW CPD guidelines are effective? Would you disagree with the idea that the current SW CPD guidelines are effective? Do you think that changes are necessary in current SW CPD? 4 4 14 Question 3. Has the available SW CPD been sufficient for your needs as a practitioner? Has the available SW CPD been insufficient for your needs as practitioner? Has the available SW CPD been consistent? Has the available SW CPD been inconsistent? 3 6 5 8 APPENDIX 3 Question 4 : Please explain why you would support OR not support the idea of a ten-criteria list from which to select SW CPD activities? Why ten? It should be about relevance, not a number. Yes I would, but only if I got to choose them, so they were relevant to my needs. No, because it would expand what is already a drain on my time. I don’t think it could work because CPD is all about standardisation, this idea involves too much individual choice for the ‘powers that be’ to accept it. No: who would enforce or administer it? Yes, although why settle on that number? Yes, great idea, assuming practitioners are involved in drawing it up. Yes, perfect. If we get to choose what’s on the list, otherwise its just another form of management control, and we already have too much of that. Yes, if we can get everyone to agree on it. No. It sounds to me like the thin end of a very large wedge which I’ll have to fit into my diary. No. I’m still trying to catch up with my existing CPD, so I definitely don’t need any more. No. One CPD target is enough, I wouldn’t want any more than that. Yes, if it happens, but I can’t see it. No. Wouldn’t this just be more ‘big brother’ stuff from the GSSC? No. I imagine the bureaucracy the government would create around it. No. Who would supervise it? I’ll bet it would just be an extra job dumped on somebody like me. I like the idea in principle, but I think a smaller number of options would be more helpful. No, because I think the current system is OK, and manageable within realistic constraints of time. No. CPD just ticks a management box, it doesn’t really help me, so I don’t want four or ten or whatever it is boxes to tick. Yes, its just what we need to give us more of a voice in our own professional development. The 20 written responses obtained for Question 4, though qualitative in nature, have been sorted into three categories: supportive, unsupportive, and uncommitted. Supportive: 35% 2.Yes I would, but only if I got to choose them, so they were relevant to my needs 6. Yes, although why settle on that number? 7. Yes, great idea, assuming practitioners are involved in drawing it up. 8. Yes, perfect. If we get to choose what’s on the list, otherwise its just another form of management control, and we already have too much of that. 9. Yes, if we can get everyone to agree on it. 13. Yes, if it happens, but I can’t see it. 20. Yes, its just what we need to give us more of a voice in our own professional development. Unsupportive 55% 3. No, because it would expand what is already a drain on my time. 4. I don’t think it could work because CPD is all about standardisation, this idea involves too much individual choice for the ‘powers that be’ to accept it. 5. No: who would enforce or administer it? 10. No. It sounds to me like the thin end of a very large wedge which I’ll have to fit into my diary. 11. No. I’m still trying to catch up with my existing CPD, so I definitely don’t need any more. 12. No. One CPD target is enough, I wouldn’t want any more than that. 14. No. Wouldn’t this just be more ‘big brother’ stuff from the GSSC? 15. No. I imagine the bureaucracy the government would create around it. 16. No. Who would supervise it? I’ll bet it would just be an extra job dumped on somebody like me. 18. No, because I think the current system is OK, and manageable within realistic constraints of time. 19. No. CPD just ticks a management box, it doesn’t really help me, so I don’t want four or ten or whatever it is boxes to tick. Uncommitted 10% 1.Why ten? It should be about relevance, not a number. 17. I like the idea in principle, but I think a smaller number of options would be more helpful. Question 5 : Which areas of professional competence would you include in a ten-criteria list? Team Building skills 2 Leadership skills. 2 Multi-Agency Working. 8 IT skills. 1 Risk Assessment. 2 Intercultural Skills. 2 Communication Skills. 1 Policy Development. 2 Strategic Development. 1 Self-Reflection: being a reflective practitioner. 1 APPENDIX 4: Interview Pro-Forma. Time in SW†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ Current Post†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ Question 1. How important is CPD to you as a Practitioner? †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚ ¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ Question 2. Would you change any aspect of current CPD practice? †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚ ¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ Question 3. What do you see as the principal issues in current SW CPD practice? †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚ ¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. Question 4. Could you identify some of the areas you would include in a ten-item range of activities for SW CPD? †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚ ¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ APPENDIX 5: INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS. Question 1. How important is CPD to you as a Practitioner? Respondent One: Very Important. I know I don’t spend enough time doing it very often, but that’s just the nature of the job at the moment, where we are all running to stand still. It’s very difficult to commit a worthwhile timetable of CPD when you know for a fact that you won’t actually do half of it, due to unforeseen commitments. Respondent Two: Not as important as it probably should be. It’s a box I know I should tick, but in a department where we can’t even recruit at the moment, it’s not a priority. Sorry. Respondent Three: I know it’s vital, but who is it for exactly? If it’s just stuff they think I should be doing, rather than what I want to do, then I could well live without it. Question 2. Would you change any aspect of current CPD practice? Respondent One: Not all of it, as some of it can be very good. I would definitely give people more choice, and the group/team learning idea is a very good one. Respondent Two: Personally, I think it’s all about resources: I mean, I’d let people timetable for it, and relate it closely to what they needed as practitioners†¦but†¦that would cost money: money which, as far as I can see, we just don’t have at the moment. Respondent Three: Yep†¦I’d I either get rid of it†¦.or do it properly†¦I can’t see either happening at the moment though. Question 3. What do you see as the principal issues in current SW CPD practice? Respondent One: Time. All the time it’s an add-on, when it really needs to be a practice-centred activity which you could timetable for, and really concentrate on. Respondent Two: For me its all about relevance and real value. I can spend any amount of time becoming a more reflective practitioner, but that doesn’t help me if my case-load is increasing while I’m doing it. Respondent Three: Well, I can only comment on what they are for me†¦.the real issue is, a lot of what I get given – or I should say, is inflicted upon me – as CPD, has very little to do with my case-load and the real problems I face. Maybe its because I’m old-school, pre-graduate and all that. Yes it’s all very interesting, but, well, I’m not an academic! There, I’ve said it! This is what I do, and no amount of CPD seems to change that. Question 4. Could you identify some of the areas you would include in a ten-item range of activities for SW CPD? Respondent One: I can’t think of ten†¦.for me personally at the moment, it would be team-building, and risk assessment, plus maybe multi-agency working. Respondent Two: Communication, risk assessment, leadership, policy development. Respondent Three: IT skills, communication, multi-agency working, risk assessment†¦.the list is endless! 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Doel, M., Nelson