Gang Affiliation and Social Factors Underlying their...

We have discussed gang affiliation and the social factors underlying their deviant behavior, however, the motives for why people engage in this deviant behavior have different sociological theoretical explanations. I will use the following theories to interpret and analyze this cause of deviance. Functionalist theory/perspective The Functionalist theory through the studies of Durkheim, states that society is comprised of a greater network of parts that contributes to its stability. The functionalist theory believes that even a person who contributes nothing positive to society is still an important part of a society that shouldnt be replaced. Functionalists see crime and deviance resulting from structural tensions and a lack of moral regulation within society. This idea is valid in our study of gangs, where crime and related deviant behaviors arise from tensions in social structures. The functionalist theory demonstrates why the lower social class is more inclined to commit crime and deviance. If a functionalist were to study gangs, they would explain how the contribute and/or detract from social stability. Some contributions include separating individuals into different groups, providing an example of deviant behavior, and encouraging the development of institutions of social control. Further, some examples of detracting the stability may include deteriorating social integration and too much liberalism for a society to take. According to the functional perspective, gangsShow MoreRelated The Perpetuation of Negative Images of African Americans through Mass Media1701 Words   |  7 Pagesthat will slit your throat (Moore 57). The mass media has played and will continue to play a crucial role in the way white Americans perceive African-Americans. As a result of the overwhelming media focus on crime, drug use, gang violence, and other forms of anti-social behavior among African-Americans, the media is fostering a distorted public perception of African-Americans. Looking at past examples of African Americans treatment in the media, one can see that the media has become the main perpetratorRead MoreWhat Are the Major Issues That Cause Inner City Youth to Join Gangs and Become Delinquent? Discuss Whether the New Labour Government’s Policies Have Been Effective in Solving These Issues?8138 Words   |  33 PagesSOCIAL POLICY PROJECT MODULE: SS3P02N Question: What are the major issues that cause inner city youth to join gangs and become delinquent? Discuss whether the New Labour Government’s policies have been effective in solving these issues? 2010 Project by: Alice Mutumba Student No: 05038460 CONTENTS PAGE 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Summary The perception that gang culture in relation to youth crime is growing in the UK is intensified by the media, it is very rare to read a daily paper these days withoutRead MoreStephen P. Robbins Timothy A. Judge (2011) Organizational Behaviour 15th Edition New Jersey: Prentice Hall393164 Words   |  1573 PagesOrganizational Behavior This page intentionally left blank Organizational Behavior EDITION 15 Stephen P. Robbins —San Diego State University Timothy A. Judge —University of Notre Dame i3iEi35Bj! Boston Columbus Indianapolis New York San Francisco Upper Saddle River Amsterdam Cape Town Dubai London Madrid Milan Munich Paris Montreal Toronto Delhi Mexico City Sao Paulo Sydney Hong Kong Seoul Singapore Taipei Tokyo Editorial Director: Sally Yagan Director of Editorial Services:Read MoreDeveloping Management Skills404131 Words   |  1617 Pagesmymanagementlab is an online assessment and preparation solution for courses in Principles of Management, Human Resources, Strategy, and Organizational Behavior that helps you actively study and prepare material for class. Chapter-by-chapter activities, including built-in pretests and posttests, focus on what you need to learn and to review in order to succeed. Visit www.mymanagementlab.com to learn more. DEVELOPING MANAGEMENT SKILLS EIGHTH EDITION David A. Whetten BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY Read MoreStrategic Marketing Management337596 Words   |  1351 Pagesevolution of environmental analysis The political, economic, social and technological environments Coming to terms with the industry and market breakpoints Coming to terms with the very different future: the implications for marketing planning Approaches to environmental analysis and scanning Summary 5 Approaches to customer analysis 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 5.9 Learning objectives Introduction Coming to terms with buyer behaviour Factors influencing consumer behaviour The buying decision process

Racial Stereotypes Race And American Culture Essay

Racial stereotypes more or less affect our perceptions toward race, and judge people in a certain frame unconsciously, as Omi set forth in In Living Color: Race and American Culture. It greatly impact the images of minorities on the visual media, which the most direct medium to reflect the popular beliefs. Even though the â€Å"racist beliefs† have â€Å"just recently being reversed†, the portrayal of minorities on visual media is still not exemplary (Horton, et al â€Å"PORTRAYAL OF MINORITIES IN THE FILM, MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRIES†). Taken by Hilary Swift, this photo presents an African American woman, waiting for a bus that can take her to the Kitchen of Love, a food pantry that located in Philadelphia aiming to feed people suffering from hunger. She is currently a volunteer there as stated in the article on New York Times. It happens at dawn so it’s still dark outside. The surroundings give us an idea that it is likely taking place in a black neighborhood. (Stolberg â€Å"Black Voters, Aghast at Trump, Find a Place of Food and Comfort†). At first sight, the photo indeed implies the theme that this African American woman looking forward to helping out the other people in need the community. The color is desaturated and the darkness takes over most part of the picture, which serves as a foil to the woman’s florescent pink jacket. Though the figure is small in the photo because of the extreme long shot, her outfit makes her stand out and grab the audience’s attention immediately.Show M oreRelatedThe Impact Of Music On The Music1386 Words   |  6 Pagescolored artists separating race from music, essentially making race irrelevant in music, became a possibility. The ability to pursue a race-blind industry could be seen as a blessing, especially for African Americans of the era—a group that had been give little, if any opportunity to pursue music. The racial relations during this time, a time where the remnants of slavery were still engrained in the air through segregation, also made records seem as a possible escape from racial prejudice. The possibilityRead MoreEssay on Cultural and Racial Stereotyping1439 Words   |  6 Pages Most people find stereotypes to be obnoxious, especially when they have to do with sensitive subjects like gender or race. â€Å"Stereotyping is a generalization about a group or category of people that can have a powerful influence on how we perceive others and their communication behaviors† (Floyd, 61). Because they underestimate the differences among individuals in a group, stereotyping can lead to inaccurate and offensive perceptions of other people. Although stereotypes are prevalent in almost everyRead MoreMedia s Effect On Black Children Essay1201 Words   |  5 PagesMedia has conditioned society into thinking racial stereotypes are the norm. â€Å"Irish people are drunks† and â€Å"Asians are good at math† are all classic examples of common racial stereotypes. Author Michael Omi of â€Å"In Living Color: Race and American Culture† asserts how media pres entation of minorities establishes peoples perspectives of â€Å"these groups†. However, where do racial stereotypes media portray originate from? It comes from the establishment of America oppressing others. Minorities haveRead MoreRacial Stereotypes And Racial Inequality1657 Words   |  7 PagesI. Introduction To this day there are still many unresolved issues of racial stereotypes and racial inequality throughout the United States. And it is undeniably seen that the world today embraces multi-cultural and sexual orientation, yet there is still an unsupportable intolerance towards ethnicities and difference. The biggest issue in the world today is the struggle for African Americans to end racial stereotypes that they have inherited from their past, and to bridge the gap between acceptanceRead MoreRacial Profiling : A Cause And Effect926 Words   |  4 PagesUnderstanding Racial Profiling: A Cause Effect Analysis of Racial Stereotypes Racism and racial stereotypes have existed throughout human history. The radical belief associated by thinking the skin color, language, or a person’s nationality is the reason that someone is one way or another has become extremely detrimental to society. Throughout human existence it has sparked tension between groups of people and ultimately influenced wars and even caused slavery. Racism in America dates back toRead MoreRacism And Racism1404 Words   |  6 Pageswas promoted through law and social institutions. Using various means of dehumanization, marginalization of African Americans, and creating and legitimizing their image as a lower race, racism has been cultivated in society for hundreds of years. Gradually racism and racial stereotypes were woven into language, science, wide social opinion. The biological interpretation of the race has divided and labeled black by creating special conditions for them at all levels of social organization and hierarchyRead MoreAttit udes, Racism and Culture Essay1521 Words   |  7 PagesPsychology Research Essay: Attitudes, Racism and Culture Focus: Simple interpersonal contact is not sufficient enough to reduce prejudiced attitudes. Prejudice is most likely to be reduced when several factors are in effect. _________________________________________________________ Attitudes are long term ideas individuals hold about themselves, objects, other people and issues. They have three components; affect (feelings), behaviour (actions) and cognition (thoughts). Attitudes are not somethingRead MoreThe Media s Influence On Black Children Essay1151 Words   |  5 PagesThe media has conditioned society into thinking that racial stereotypes are the norm. â€Å"Irish people are drunks† and â€Å"Asians are good at math† are all classic examples of common racial stereotypes. Author Michael Omi of â€Å"In Living Color: Race and American Culture† asserts how media presentation of minorities establishes people perspectives of â€Å"these groups†. But where do these racial stereotypes at the media fingertips originate from? It comes from the establishment of America oppressing othersRead MoreRepresentation Of Diversity : The Birth Of A Nation Essay1449 Words   |  6 Pagesaccepting of all. The way that different cultures as repr esented in media displays that this notion is not accurate. The way in which different cultures are represented in media as a large effect on how we view individuals of different cultural backgrounds. Since it was first creation media has been a medium for the transference and reaffirmation of racially motivated ideologies. One of the first films â€Å"The Birth of a Nation† was created to represent African Americans as predators, and menaces to societyRead MoreWhat Does It Mean?1700 Words   |  7 Pagesof people who look like you in terms of skin colour this is what we often call a race, a distinct group of people that have distinguished genetic or physical appearance, mainly skin colour, hair type and stature can be identified as a race.According to Augie Fleras,†Humans being belonged to a single biological species(homo sapiens) within a larger grouping or genus(homo) (page .173), which clearly means that race is not biological contrast but social construct also meaning that humans are socially

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Management

Question: Discuss about the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Management. Answer: Introduction In this paper, we seek to identify accurate resources relevant to our PICO question. This involves identifying key databases that can provide references for these resources. Emphasis is placed on determining medical databases and resources relevant to the question. The resources identified are assessed to determine their accuracy based on the information provide. In veterans is mindfulness-based therapy effective for treating PTSD? Key Words Alternate Words P Posttraumatic stress disorder Trauma-related disorder I Mindfulness-based therapy Psychological Talk Therapy C Behavioral Therapy Cognitive Therapy O Less traumatic events Decreased arousal Answering the PICO question will require medical resources exploring the topic. These resources can be found in various databases. The most appropriate databases are PubMed and Medscape. PubMed is a free search engine that accesses Medline database which contains abstracts and references on various biomedical topics (PubMed, 2017). The database is maintained by United States National Library of Medicine (NLM). PubMed offers access to references derived from Index Medicus and references to journals such as Science and Annals of Surgery before they were indexed in Medline. It allows users to access recent entries to article records before it is added to Medline. It also offers a set of medical books, NLM records, and PMC citations. The search engine provide records articles links. Some articles can be accessed for free in PubMed or its mirrors (Rutgers, n.d.). It also provides information about various journals available. It is estimated that PubMed has about 27 million records that date back to early 19th century. PubMed has records from 1809 onwards focusing on different medical topics. Over 500,000 new records are added to the database every year. As of January 2017 , over 13 million of the records in the database had abstracts, and millions of other articles were available in full-text. Over 4 million articles are freely available to any user. Medscape is a web resource for professionals in healthcare settings. It provides access to peer-reviewed medical journal articles, medical news, drug information, continuing medical education, custom version of Medline database, and healthcare conference coverage (University of Connecticut, 2017). It also includes a drug database. Content provided in Medscape is free, but users have to register to access it. Medscape contains comprehensive information on a wide range of topics such as drug interactions, medical procedures, diseases and conditions, drugs, and body anatomy (WebMD, 2016). It provides practice guidelines for professional and a health directory for finding physicians. It also provides diagnostic criteria and several calculators related to tests which are organized based on medical specialty. The clinical information on Medscape is contributed by professionals such as leading physicians from top academic medical centers in different countries. Various leading medical schoo ls and institutions such as Baylor College of Medicine partner with Medscape. These databases are conducting a search on the PICO question as they have many quality references that are relevant to the question. The records in the databases are reviewed by committees based on scholarly criteria before being added. This implies that the records available are quality and relevant for different medical specialties. The two databases focus on biomedical and clinical topics which make their content more specific and relevant to our search. Data about articles in the database are provided in a structured manner-author, title, date, etc. This implies that we can accurately retrieve the results we want and the results can be sorted based on date. Additionally, the articles are tagged with essential information about their content and structure. Structured words about the article content and topics are indicated which assists in getting better results for our search. In the database search, PubMed is used to identify results relevant to the PICO question. Action Search Mode Results Limiters Filter Mindfulness-based therapy 44 Title/Abstract Filter Mindfulness-based therapy PTSD 36 Date Publication (2007-Present) Filter Mindfulness-based therapy PTSD 26 Text Word Filter Mindfulness-based effectiveness PTSD 2 Text Word Two results relevant to the PICO question were identified. The articles focused on evaluating the effectiveness of Mindfulness-based therapy in treating PTSD (Marzabadi, 2014,p.228). The first article involves a study that investigates how mindfulness influences the life of victims of war with PTSD. The study includes tests conducted in a Hospital in Iran where 28 victims of war who had PTSD were assessed to determine the impact of mindfulness training. Data was collected using questionnaires and ANOVA measures used for data analysis. The findings of the study are relevant to the PICO question as they support effectiveness Mindfulness-based therapy in treating PTSD and improving the quality of life of victims. The second article involves a report that examined alternative therapies for the treatment of depressive orders which can be applied to PTSD (Williams, 2011). The report identified several mind-body therapies which could be used in PTSD treatment. The key findings indicate that meditation which is part of the mindfulness-based therapy may not be effective in treating anxiety disorders. It indicated high levels of dropout showing that adhering to mindfulness-based therapy may be an issue in a healthcare setting. However, findings for relaxation and breathing training suggested that the therapy may be effective in handling panic disorders. The two articles are relevant to the PICO question as they provide accurate information based on studies conducted that examine the effectiveness of Mindfulness-based therapy in treating PTSD. Conclusion From the study, two databases that could be used to search for resources were identified. The databases identified are healthcare-oriented hence are reputable sources of medical resources. A database search conducted to find resources for the PICO question determined various resources. With limiters, relevant and accurate resources to the question were identified. References Marzabadi, E.A. and Zadeh, S.M.H., (2014). The Effectiveness of Mindfulness Training in Improving the Quality of Life of the War Victims with Post Traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).Iranian journal of psychiatry,9(4), pp.228-236. PubMed. (2017). PubMed. Retrieved from PubMed: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed Rutgers. (n.d). PubMed. Retrieved from Rutgers: https://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/indexes/pubmed University of Connecticut. (2017). MedScape Reference. Retrieved from University of Connecticut: https://rdl.lib.uconn.edu/databases/1061 WebMD. (2016). WebMD Professional Network. Retrieved from WebMD: https://www.wbmd.com/servicesprofessional.shtml Williams Jr, J.W., Gierisch, J.M., McDuffie, J., Strauss, J.L., Nagi, A., Wing, L. and Durham, N.C., (2011). An overview of complementary and alternative medicine therapies for anxiety and depressive disorders.Supplement to Efficacy of Complementary and Alternative Medicine Therapies for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder [Internet]. Washington (DC): Department of Veterans Affairs.

Software Engineering free essay sample

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 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. 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. We will write a custom essay sample on Software Engineering or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page 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 development †¢ 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). T he 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 guideline 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 c rew 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 caused 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, allowing 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 te ams to speed up the project completion. †¢ The software 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 t racings 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 analyzed 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 key 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 requirement 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 electrica l 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 mutilated 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 t o 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 control 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 deadline 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 pro ject 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 th e 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 collect 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 ha d 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 Spe ctrum, 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. Barry Shore. â€Å"Systematic Biases and Culture in Project Failures,† Project Management Journal, Vol. 39, No. 4, 2008, pp. 5–16. Software Engineering free essay sample 3. 3. Why does an iterative process make it easier to manage change? Is every agile process dis- cussed in this chapter iterative? Is it possible to complete a project in just one iteration and still be agile? Explain your answers. An iterative approach enables customers to evaluate regularly, provide feedback, and influence the required changes. (The software team manages change by focusing on a defined increment and postponing any changes until the next increment). All agile processes are iterative. If a project were completed in just one iteration it would not be agile because frequent software delivery is a key characteristic of agile development. 3. 7. Why do requirements change so much? After all, don’t people know what they want? It is difficult to predict in advance which requirement will persist and which will change, It is difficult to predict how customer priorities will change as the project proceeds, and it is difficult for customers to verbalize their software needs until they see a working prototype. We will write a custom essay sample on Software Engineering or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page 3. 13. Does the 80 percent rule in DSDM and the time-boxing approach defined for ASD achieve the same result? Yes. In fact, the time-boxing method is suggested and used by many. It has been adopted by the DSDM, but should be used after the customer agrees to cut features and not quality with some situations. Chapter 4 Questions for Week 2 4. 2. Of the eight core principles that guide process (discussed in Section 4. 2. 1), which do you believe is most important? I think that principle 5 is the most important one because you are able to assess the risk, have a great team, manage change, adapt, and create a quality of work that will provide value for others when you establish mechanisms for good communication and coordination within your team. 4. 7. Why is it necessary to â€Å"move on†? Sometimes if something it iterated continuously, people will not want to hear about it or do it again. It can be very time consuming, thus moving on will allow for some to achieve communication agility. 4. 11. What three â€Å"domains† are considered during requirements modeling? The three domains considered during requirements modeling are information, functions, and behavior.