Business Management - Diverse Workforce Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Business Management - Diverse Workforce - Essay Example Equal opportunities in may just be a way of making it more palatable in today's climate, may be used to revitalize the equal opportunities agenda (Dickson and Hargie 2003). Also, the manager can cultivate diverse workforce organizational assessment, effective recruiting rules and norms and alternative work arrangements. Managing diversity is usually associated with the creation of a strong corporate culture with an emphasis on commitment, and it is inevitably portrayed as having a strategic and integrated focus. The main challenges faced by a company involve attempts to manage diverse workforce and create positive corporate climate, low cohesiveness and communication problems caused by cultural and language differences, group tension and negative stereotyping (Bateman et al 2003). The main difference between leading and managing is found in management functions managing involves maximization of the output of organization through effective management tools and methods. In contrast, leading is aimed to induce and motivate employees to work towards group goals with confidence and keenness. A leader's actions are devoted to helping a group to attain its objectives. Leading also implies that the leader accepts responsibility for the achievement of the group objective and it is therefore essential for trust and co-operation from both sides to be in evidence all the time. "Leading is focused on influencing people, while the other functions are focused on "resources" in addition to people" (McNamara, 2007). Every effective organization must lead in technology to meet changing economic environment and market demands. Out-of-date technology may lead to plant failure and consequent delays in production. Its new technology achievements and overall business strategy, pote ntial and capability to support high performance environments are the key elements for future developments. Technological forces generate problem-solving inventions. In many cases, technology helps to join material resource and human resources, and fastens this process. Every effective organization must lead in technology in order to resist competition and remain competitive in future. Also, technology allows companies to reduce operational costs and increase productivity. Team Management Effective teamwork depends upon a number of factors including motivation, mutual understanding, cohesiveness and team spirit. A manager can build a cohesive team using (1) different communication methods which allow team members to share experiences, (2) diversity training activities, (3) retreats. Teams react to success. Just as success can enhance self-confidence and release energy potential for individuals, it also can help develop cohesion and camaraderie in groups. An example of this was reported on the basis of undersea marine research teams. Each successful undersea mission, according to the account, led to increased team cohesion. Thus, building a high-performing team is difficult, particularly if the team is working on a variety of tasks and, possibly, line activities at the same time. Therefore, the deliberate use of competitive strategies to enhance work motivation and teamwork requires planning and control. In this case, communication plays a pivotal role helping team mem bers and a leader to solve problem and share experiences (Bateman et al 2003). Intergroup Conflict Intergroup conflict occurs because of incompatibility

Two part paper about the recent financial crisis and Hyman Minsky's Dissertation - 1

Two part paper about the recent financial crisis and Hyman Minsky's theories - Dissertation Example The stationary properties of all the variables are examined using Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) unit root tests. To test for stationarity, the unit roots for each of the series are examined using the Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) unit root tests developed by Dickey (1976); Fuller (1976); Dickey and Fuller (1979). Here the null hypothesis that the time series belongs to the difference stationary process against the alternative that it belongs to the trend stationary process has been tested using two models, one with constant and the other with constant and trend. The optimum number of lags is selected using Akaike Information Criteria. 45 3.4 Hypothesis Testing 47 3.5.4 Model Limitations 48 3.6. 5 Hyman Minsky’s Articulation 49 Chapter 4 – Statistical Result 55 4.1 Empirical Evidences for Greenspan’s Theories 55 H 63 R 63 D 63 B 63 FRM 63 Constant 63 -1.000 63 0.03(0.56) 63 0.07(0.04) 63 0.09(0.03) 63 -0.002(0.65) 63 -0.23(0.03) 63 0.002(0.15) 63 -1.000 63 0.04(0. 03) 63 0.43(0.04) 63 -0.004(0.21) 63 -0.65(0.76) 63 0.001(0.14) 63 0.002(0.013) 63 -1.000 63 0.32(0.14) 63 -0.001(0.11) 63 -0.43(0.16) 63 4.2 Empirical Evidences for Taylor’s Theory 67 Price Expectations and Housing 70 4.3 Empirical Evidences for Hyman Minsky’s Theory on Financial Crisis 72 Chapter 5 – Data Analysis and Interpretation 75 5.1 Discussion of Greenspan’s Theory 75 5.2 Discussion of Taylor’s Theory 83 5.3 Discussion of Minsky’s Theory 88 Chapter 6- Conclusion 94 References 100 Chapter 1- Introduction 1.1 Background In 2007, a number of leading European and U.S. banks were severely impacted by the collapse of mortgage-backed instruments that were mainly a by-product of their ‘packaging’. To the dismay of financial institutions, these toxic assets comprised a major portion of the bank’s asset base. The high demand in the housing market was triggered by historically low (many would argue below equilibrium) intere st rates. This ‘artificial’ demand led to a bubble in the housing sector that subsequently burst once the Fed raised interest rates, paving the way for a series of delinquencies. Buoyed by the booming housing market, banks granted loans to subprime borrowers who under ‘normal’ conditions, would have been rejected. With the rise in interest rates, these subprime borrowers failed to pay back on their house payments which resulted in a plethora of loan foreclosures. The rising defaults led to a credit crunch because financial institutions suddenly became very wary of lending to each other. For example, a steep rise in liquidity costs resulted in the â€Å"first bank run† in Britain in over 150 years. The enduing credit crisis was the result of a sustained period of global imbalances and bubbles in asset prices. The Federal Reserve continuously kept interest rates at unprecedented low levels for a significant part of the decade, setting the stage for che ap credit. Many business leaders and financiers across the world considered U.S. households

Leaders, History and Political Science Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Leaders, History and Political Science - Article Example This paper outlines that the world is shifting from gigantic entity where every part was seen as separate to the other into a more interlinked entity through economic globalization and through the influence of transnational political organization and growth of population. Liberation on the other hand is actually the contrast of realism in that it sees both state and non-state actors as significant. It also views the international associations’ implications to define the performance not only of great powers but also of minimal powers. According to liberalism, states are disaggregated into entities where some of them functions trans-nationally.  This study declares that  women are still mistreated in different societies in the world today.   Distinctions between individuals with any given state or culture are much superior to differences between groups. Social standing, education, personality, past experience, belief structure, affection shown in the home and countless of other factors will influence human behavior and culture. For example in African cultures, women must stay home and perform all the house chores. There was also a belief that if the husband do not beat his wife, then he does not love her that much. This means that women were frequently beaten and mistreated without any form of defense because people believed that it was a sign of love therefore, there was no need of intervention. India has the men marrying women but   it is interesting to note that it is women who pay dowry instead of men.... A good example of such is the US policy toward Venezuela. The Venezuela President Chavez was bitter with US due to their denial to include Venezuela and other countries in America into United States (Restrepo 33). In fact, the whole of Venezuela was bitter and resentful with the US and that contributed to Venezuela president Chavez to make democracy in the country an intimidating influence to other people. He begun harassing the citizens of the country as a why to show his anger. However, US had to come in, its policy towards Venezuela was that democracy, and the leaders of the country should practice equitability (Shifter 71). In other words, every citizen in the country deserved equitability and democracy not harassment and enslavement. Therefore, it was individual leader; President Chavez who determined the content of US foreign policy to Venezuela (Restrepo 64). The same happened to Syria where US policy towards Syria was elimination of Assad from power due to his dictatorship an d unusual elimination of citizens particularly the University students who protested for murder of their colleague. However, this case was different in that the citizens of Syria supported United States’ policy over President Assad while in Venezuela; the citizens supported President Chavez although he denied them democracy (Shifter 82). 2. Compare and contrast the traditional Realist view of National Security and the Liberal view of Human Security. Are these two views always in contradiction to each other or could they be complimentary? In your opinion, which view of security should be paramount? The traditional realist view of national security is that the state is the main actor

Critical evaluation of leadership values, attitudes and behaviours and Essay

Critical evaluation of leadership values, attitudes and behaviours and their impact on others and the organisation - Essay Example Leadership, unlike management, is about identifying with the intangibles of human behaviour and attitude and attempting to apply empathetic and considerate policies and procedures to improve interpersonal relationship development and to facilitate individual development, thus improving human capital advantages within the organisation, through such practices as coaching and mentoring. Having provided an understanding of leadership and its primary definition, it should be reinforced that only a reflective leader is one that will consistently improve and be able to identify with the diverse psychological, sociological, and tangible needs of employees as it pertains to their role within the organisation. One methodology of ensuring reflection as ongoing, cyclical practice is the 360 degree feedback system, a process of engaging multiple stakeholders to provide meaningful feedback about attitude, behaviour and performance of a peer or subordinate to give a broader and more accurate view o f where an individual requires development or improvement. ... This project attempts, based on research findings and personal reflection, to establish a best practice model of leadership through engagement with multi-rater feedback processes that can provide benefit to the organisation and its staff population. Nature of current leadership agenda The NHS has established a quality agenda that underpins success for health care professionals. According to the NHS, this includes â€Å"lifelong learning for health professionals and modern systems of professional self-regulation† (NHS 2012, p.2). Quality, as it pertains to leadership development, therefore involves being able to continuously improve and engage in reflective practice to improve health care delivery and reduce variations that impact quality of care. The NHS recognises that effective and competent leadership is a fundamental aspect of building efficiencies and productivity in health care delivery and building capacity for quality outputs. Before establishing a competency framework for effectual leadership practices, it is necessary to define leadership at its foundation. â€Å"A leader is one who selects, equips, trains, and influences one or more follower(s) who have diverse gifts, abilities, and skills and focuses the follower(s) to the organization’s mission and objectives causing the follower(s) to willingly and enthusiastically expend spiritual, emotional, and physical energy in a concerted coordinated effort to achieve the organizational mission and objectives† (Winston and Patterson 2006, p.7). By this definition, a competency framework for leadership development is achievable, through first understanding that leadership is about maintaining influence to engage stakeholder behavioural changes or improvements,

Online trust in Singapore context Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Online trust in Singapore context - Assignment Example 8 (a). The table below shows Spearman correlation analysis between â€Å"good product guarantees† and â€Å"products arrive in good condition†, where the rows represent the respondents’ opinions in good services and the columns represent the frequencies of the respondents structured answers in relation to the opinions. 8 (b). The table below represents spearman correlation analysis between â€Å"security information explained† and â€Å"safety of credits cards guaranteed†, where the rows represent the respondents’ opinions in good services and the columns represent the frequencies of the respondents structured answers in relation to the opinions. 8 (c). The table above shows spearman’s correlation between â€Å"uses of personal details explained† and â€Å"personal details kept confidential† where the rows represent the respondents’ opinions in good services and the columns represent the frequencies of the respondents structured answers in relation to the opinions. The 8 (eight) tables above are frequency tables that represent various variables analysed in question 10 of the survey. The variables are ‘Agree’, ‘Number of respondents’, ‘Disagree’, ‘Not sure’, ‘Strongly Agree’, ‘Strongly Disagree’, ‘skipped’ and ‘Total number of Respondents’. 10. The table below shows Spearman correlation between, â€Å"Whether the website looks and works generally the same as other online stores† and â€Å"The whole website experience is normal and without any unexpected situations (e.g. the appearance of pop up ads)† where the rows represent the respondents opinions as regards their trust in an online store and the columns represent the extents and frequencies of the respondents structured answers in relation to their reasoned levels of trust. 12 (a). The table below shows Spearman correlation between â€Å"presence of forums in the online store for you to check and discuss issues with other customers’’ and â€Å"if users post incorrect

Academic Degree and College Essay Example for Free

Academic Degree and College Essay Is college really worth it? A question many students start to ask as the college cost increases and jobs are tougher to get. When considering college you have to reflect more about what you want out of it rather than what you have to do to complete it. Although getting accepted into a good college is a great start, getting a college degree may appear intimidating in terms of the educational responsibility, tuition, fees, and time commitments involved. However, there are many other ways in which a college degree can be a useful investment; with enhancing the value of your life in several ways. In the future, the education received from college will be very helpful to people in several ways. College is becoming a major decision with adults in America today because people are questioning whether or not if college is actually worth it. People are not doing their research on how a college degree is more beneficial than if you did not earn one. Numerous studies have revealed that a college education can lead to long-term financial returns and increase a student’s success in the future. According to Deanna Mascle â€Å"Individuals with bachelor degrees earn about 60 percent more than those with just a high school diploma, who in turn earn about 40 percent more than high school dropouts†( 2012). Receiving a college degree and bringing what you learned to the real world will benefit you in your pursuit for financial success. If you do not have a mindset that you are going to put your full potential in college. Cooper, argues that there is no reason to waste your time and money. In our society now a college education is no longer a choice or privilege, but rather a necessity or requirement. We are basically raised and accustomed to believe that one needs a higher education in order to succeed in life. The major reason why people go to college is not because they want to, but because they essentially have to. In the article â€Å"College is still worth it†, Anthony Carnevale states, that businesses pay more money to workers with degrees than to those without because employers believe that postsecondary educated workers are more valuable (Carnevale 8). Even though society has began to change that it’s basically a necessity to have a college degree to get a good job its well worth the money in the end. There are a numerous amount of waiters/waitresses, bartenders, plumbers, and so on who have college degrees and are working in jobs that dont require advanced degrees. A cashier, for example, earns $19,000 on average, but with a college degree, earns $29,000 on average. Similarly, plumbers without a degree earn $37,000 on average, but earn $52,000 with a college degree. Nearly all high school seniors are pressured by their guidance counselors and parents to go to college because it is the right thing to do. In Caroline Bird’s essay College is a Waste of Time and Money, she states that students go to college because â€Å"Their mothers wanted them to go. (481) The undergraduate may have different dreams about what he or she desires to do in life, but because they believe that these mentors make out what is best for them, they almost certainly end up doing something that they do not want to do, resulting in being unhappy with their life. Bird makes some good points in her essay, but if children did not get pressured they would have no idea about college, and probably would not even think about going. Bird argues that college is a waste of money because youngsters do not know what they want. No one wants parents, teachers or counselors telling high school students to aim low and skip college. College is expensive we all have established that, but it doesnt have to be. If you have to take out, or plan on taking out more than $50,000 to go to college, you should consider searching for other colleges that will be able to fit your budget. According to Cooper, he has finished college and has a great job. He goes on to talk about how if he never decided to go to college and pay the high tuition that goes along with it. The Public Policy Institute of California concurs and predicts that â€Å"41 percent of jobs in 2025 will require a college degree. † If these counselors and parents did not push these students into looking, and going to college, then the question is who would? Even when applying for a job that will not use your exact degree, just having that degree gives you an advantage over the other applicants who do not possess a degree. The majority of the employers of the company are looking for students with a college degree since employers are looking for students who have the skill to learn new things which is essential in order to work in the corporate world. The degree reassures the employers that a student with a degree can be engaged since completing a degree, that means that he/she can handle the work environment, and also has the skill to settle in to constant change. A degree is said to be more significant than the degree type as such, so as long has one has the ability to learn, then they will have a more prone  chance of getting employed. The majority of college students would feel that college is a waste of money because they do not learn what they want to. Instead they have to take classes that have nothing to do with what they are majoring in, and are only taking these classes to complete the educational requirement to start their actual major. With the increasing costs of college tuition, as well as essentials such as books a college education becomes a burden somewhat more than an investment. Tuition costs continue to rise, and for a lot of struggling Americans, getting an education now means years and years of monthly debt payments. Alexander Thomas Public, two-year college tuition has gone up 7. 3 percent since last year and will no doubt continue to rise (2012). Thomas says â€Å"there are definitely ways to reduce the cost of college, and educating yourself on the federal student loan process in general is extremely useful in the long run†(2012). Although college is expensive, if it is approached the right way, students can get the education they need and desire without getting buried in tons of debt. Americans just need to be smart and do their research when it comes to paying for college. The main reason for attending college is to get a well-paying career, while being happy with that career choice. College prepares you with educational understanding in order to accomplish something in the future. According to Dale Coye the New American College, higher education is necessary for you future. He states that â€Å"In spatial terms, teaching and learning may begin in a classroom, but course work also spills over into the life of the campus and the community. Students engage in experiential learning and co-curricular activities that take abstract ideas and anchor them in real-life problems† (Coye 20). Time and commitment are very important in succeeding with getting a college degree. According to Cooper, if you are planning to have children you should wait until you finish college, as it is a big commitment and time consuming even without children. Parenting students tend to complete four-year degrees at rates far slower than other college students. â€Å"More than half (59 percent) of parents attending college earn less than $10,000 a year† (Sorensen 30). Parents cannot afford to support their children without getting some sort of education. Copper, explains that he probably would not have finished school if he decided to have kids before he graduated. The opposition to get a decent job is increasing; it is near to impossible to achieve a high paying job without at least a bachelors degree. Numerous amounts of jobs that only used to want their employees to have a high school diploma now need some type of college education. College is worth the money, nevertheless, is because it is one of the rare associations that frequently holds people of different cultural and racial backgrounds. This allows one to advance their social and communicative skills because they are exposed to unaccustomed cultures. College helps you to become a responsible adult because for the first time most people are nearly on their own. College helps students get ready for major linked skills. Thus, college helps in achieving skills linked to the business one looks to get into. It helps a student in figuring out how to do their job. It is entirely different from high school; you have to manage your private time and financial state as well. Proceeding with college teaches individuals how to handle their lives. Most college students are managing their college life between studying for their exams and earning money through low paying jobs to maintain their college tuition. In addition to this, they are enjoying the benefits of a good social life, parties and lots of friends. The experience one has in college really helps teenagers turn into adults. Going away to college you have to face situations like having to pay bills, time has to be managed well, and cutoff dates have to be met, just like the real world. College is just not about obtaining a good job, but about gaining knowledge. Sometimes it is good to be an intelligent person instead of being someone who just makes a lot of money. There are quite a few reasons why college is worth it in the end, the tuition and college costs are expensive in the beginning, but it pays off once you are earning the money in the future. Researching colleges and finding out the best option for you will only benefit yourself in the end, making wise choices and deciding if starting a family with your finances without a college education will be worth it in the long run, and doing research for yourself to see what will better benefit you and your family by getting some sort of college education. An education gives people an understanding of what they can do for themselves and how they can make needed changes in their lives. Simply just giving away money would not teach the skills or values that come with receiving an education. This is the value of education: that it makes lasting changes in the lives of those who seek it. Works Cited Bird, Caroline. College is a waste of time and money. The Case Against College (1975): n. pag. Print. Carnevale, Anthony. College is Still Worth it. Inside Higher ED 14 Jan. 2011: 8-10. Print. Cooper, Edward, Veterinarian. Personal Interview. 27 Oct, 2012. Coye, Dale. Ernest Boyer and the New American College. Connecting with the Disconnects 29. 3 (1997): 20. Print. Mascle, Deanna. A College Degree in nearly a necessity. Thinking about college? We can help! : n. pag. College Tidbits. Web. 29 Nov. 2012. http://www. collegetidbits. com/prep4college/A-College-Degree-is-Nearly-a-Necessity. html. Sorensen, Kia. Unmarried Parents in College. Fragile Families 20. 2 (2010): 28-50. Print. Tutiion Breakdown: Is college worth it? HLNtv. com Turner Broadcasting System Inc, 16 Aug. 2012. Web. 19 Nov. 2012.

Electronic Notice Board Software

Electronic Notice Board Software ENB project was created to modernise the classic means of communication through the pin and paperboard based communication to the more efficient and dynamic communication of general information to the students of the Bolton University. Student and faculty will get the timely information while they are walking around School office or in Labs. ENB will remind the student about the critical dates for the exams, social events, and warnings etc. It will positively affect the student behaviour towards the academic excellence and time management. ENB will decrease the rate of late assignments submission and absents among the students. ENB will decrease the workload of university management for printing and pasting the traditional paper based notice boards. ENB system will not require any additional hardware and it will be developed in the Microsoft Visual Basic .net Express Edition and Microsoft SQL server Database hence low cost of development and implementation. ENB will bring forth a positive change in the university environment. ENB project was created using the VB.NET and SQL database express editions, which are free of cost. Database is designed to ensure the efficiency of the software in the network environment. A survey was conducted on the sample of students to evaluate the potential of ENB to improve the overall communication in the campus. To ensure the successful implementation of the project the software was tested and evaluated in the campus environment. The final solution met all the basic requirements and also delivered some extra features. Further features and improvement can be added in the future. The report has the details of the ENB project from start to end, including the requirement analysis, background research, design, implementation, testing and evaluation stages. CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Problem Definition During my time in university I have missed many recreational occasions and a couple of times I have missed important dates of final assignment submissions as I was miss informed about the dates. All these errors of misinformation made me realize the necessity of an electronics notice board. In the University of Bolton there are many problems, distinguish is between rumour and true information. At times dates are changed and change of plan is very poorly communicated to the students and faculty, which creates confusion. In case of an ENB students will have access to important announcements while walking around and have the benefit of being reminded several times a day. Currently university administration is using a Paper based notice board. A printed black and white poster is pasted on the notice board to announce university events. The method indeed consumes the administrative and clerical time of the university. Sometimes the change of dates is not timely announced, which provokes frustration among the students of the concerned disciplines. The ENB project was realised and envisaged based on the concept of improving the communication channels within the University campus among students and the faculty members. For example to announce the start of new semester a simple piece of paper is loosely pasted at the front door notice board of school office. Sometimes the fonts are not appropriate and the black ink prints are not very attractive and appealing to grab the real attention of the concerned students. So the students miss the critical information and often submit the final project or prepare for the final exams very close to the deadline. In my opinion irrespective of the students aptitude the fault might be at the universitys end. The ENB will effectively convey the key academic information to the students hence there will be great reduction in the late submission of the final projects and assignments. The ENB will play a powerful role at will increase the academic productive of the students. A notice board can be defined as Abulletin board(pinboard,pin boardornotice boardin British English) is a place where people can leave publicmessages [1] A Notice Board is a traditional tool for the dissemination of information in academic campuses. A traditional Notice board is made of a wooden frame with a soft central square of cork for pinning the papers of information for the students. Widespread adaptation of information technology has changed the traditional means of information dispersion. Electronic notice board is an innovative replacement for the traditional wood and cork notice boards. Due to the dynamic nature of the electronic notice board it has practical application in the corporate environment. Following are some of the case studies about the practical application of electronic notice board in both academic and corporate scenarios. Aim The project ENB aims to develop and implement application software that will disseminate the academic information in the network environment among the students and faculty members. The project ENB will open the new powerful channel of communication between university management and students. The solution will consist of a page server and client PCs as the notice boards. In the design phase I will focus on to simplifying the end user experience of using the ENB. End users will probably include members of admin staff. For the administrator it will be hassle free to upload the different formats of multimedia. There will be some quick templates to quickly upload the announcements. The ENB system first time configuration will be automatic therefore very easy. There must be server software on one end therefore the client side will automatically detect the server. In case of multiple page servers the ENB system will give options to connect. The ENB system will be Database driven hence it will take the minimal amount of network bandwidth. The ENB system will be network based therefore additional network optimization technology will be deployed to make it as fast as possible The system will be operated by Administrator and other staff to assist them in scheduling tasks for messages in the near future. Also an aim of the project is to develop the framework so that it is easy to extend in the future. Objectives The ENB system will be developed using the visual basic programming language and MS SQL SERVER database. I will focus on the following outcomes for the finished product. In order to satisfy the aim the following objectives need to be achieved: Deploying a software engineering methodology relevant to the ENB project Design a data model for ENB Design and develop an integrated system to query the data model Test and Evaluate the ENB against the requirements Minimum Requirements A prototype of an integrated framework for Electronic Notice Board system which can be informative and flexible. A prototype to input and store task commands. A prototype to input and store scheduled task commands. A prototype to input and transfer scheduled task to task command data. Enhancements A login system to provide security for the server application. View of Report of pending tasks for any date. View of Report of completed tasks for any date. Administrator prototype to add new users on database server. Administrator prototype to run client in Admin mode. Data bound schema to control scheduled tasks. Controlling the clients status active or inactive Input FIFO: First in First out. As task is set to client, it is executed straight away. Time Controlled pattern: Events are controlled by given time. Time can span to any number of minutes, hours or even days. Date Controlled pattern: Events are controlled by given Date. Time and date controlled pattern: combination of Time Controlled pattern and Date controlled pattern. Client Registration Data Primary Input Client Id, Client Name, Client Unique Id, Time of Registration, Date of Registration. Secondary Input Client State. Base Data (Client Data) Base table is basically a blueprint for all clients. (Primary Input) Record Id, Task Id, Task Command, Task Arguments (Additional input) Task in Time, Task in Date, Task State Scheduled Data It is same as Base Database. (Primary Input) Record Id, Task Id, Task Command, Task Arguments (Additional input) Task in Time, Task in Date, Task State Output For each task that is in current execution schema is grouped by registered users and are performed by clients on given time span. Scheduled tasks are placed in scheduler and on given time they are transferred to corresponding client(s) for execution. Requirements Analysis The purpose for this project is not to develop a system that can act as a notice board but to integrate and utilize data driven technology to accomplish complex tasks with ease without any additional hardware to display message. Integrated scheduling technology provides flexibility and automation. Orange valley systems are the market leader for marketing the ENB application for the business organizations Appendix WRITE IT IN END. A thorough analysis was conducted on the orange valley product. Basic idea for the ENB features was captured from the screen shots available from their website. In depth interviews were conducted with the students, friends, and the IT administrator staff. On collecting the requirement analysis data from the above research the following functional and non functional requirements were devised. Functional Requirements Add and edit tasks. Add and edit scheduled tasks. Add and remove tasks. Schedule tasks Display reports of tasks. Non Functional Requirements System must be easy to use and navigate. System should have a consistent interface. CHAPTER 2 METHODOLOGIES Methodologies Communication is the lifeline of any social system. Success of any organization is directly related to the effectiveness for their communication systems. Academics are no exception for this. An effective campus communication system must be understood, credible, and practically utilized. Attributes about the campus communication In the year 1973 Mr. Anderson Jerry M presented his research papers at the Annual meeting of the Nebraska speech communication association. Title of the research papers were Improving the internal communication: A campus Quandary. Research papers were based on the formal interviews with the 90 interviewees. Each interview took 15 to 90 minutes. Interviewees were randomly selected persons of the campuses. Interviewees included the campus administrators, faculty, students, staff, alumni and trustees representing 30 post secondary institutions of different sizes. Past research data was also used to analyze the results of the research. The 1971-72 opinion research was based on an interview format designed to be open-ended to encourage respondents to call upon personal experience and ventilate feelings. The interviews unveiled the issues and anxieties regarding the campus communication. Two questions formed the basis for interviews, except in a few instances where a more structured questioning approach was necessitated to elicit more extended responses. Those two questions: From your perspective and experiences, how effective is communication on this campus? What, if anything, would you do to improve it? [2] Three general attitudes clearly emerged. The need for improved campus communication is among the most significant and pressing problems. When asked why, most answered that the functional operation of the campus was dependent upon communication effectiveness and it could be much improved, and internal effectiveness as perceived by those outside the campus would determine the level of future support. Recommendations for improvement were multiple, usually incomplete in development, and concluded with the statement that no clear solutions existed. Concern was expressed about the lack of sensitivity and attention to communication problems by those with the expertise to improve the situation and by others in positions to effect change. Opinion research drew the following conclusions. Research uncovered a strong need to improve the campus communication. Old faculty members were nostalgic about the good old days when they knew everybody in campus and always knew the important events Campus members realize the ultimate responsibility of communication lies on administration Administrator is frustrated about changing the campus communication. They dont understand the approach to the change. They themselves are confused on aligning their communication between deans and faculty. Faculty members and chairman were not happy with the unreasonable deadlines, dissemination of information in clusters, reactions to proposed policies. Communication denial and communication under load were the main concern of middle level management. Campus staff was concerned about the lack of confidence upon their colleagues due to surveillance and audit of their work. Information used to distort when passing down or up in the hierarchy of the organization. Traditional approaches were not working 20% of the sample showed their lack of interest for improving the campus communication. These were mostly the students and faculty members. Interviewees were most distrustful about the administrative communication behaviour especially lack of disclosure Solutions for improving the Campus Communication Communication had been improved using the technological advances. Providing informational announcement is on closed circuit television between classes had proven to be effective. The use of telephone answering services in offices during after hours, and as a message dissemination system for people to call and hear important recorded messages. Catalogues and bulletins and other information sources need be written with the sensitivity to readability. Departments or divisions, large institutions, should be encouraged to develop newsletters. Bulletin boards could be kept up to date and used more extensively I have chance to review the communication methods deployed by the UK universities. These are some general and specialise methods. News Kantor, Brian and Phil Lapsley Network News Transfer Protocol: A Proposed Standard for the Stream-Based Transmission of News. 1986. [3] Universities employ NNTP (network news transfer protocol) service named News as the official bulletin board. NNTP provides discussion forums for modules, programming languages and other both academic and non-academic topics. NNTP has also the application of a notice board where official announcements are posted. Students can access the news by any newsreader. Thunderbird email client and Tin are popular newsreader. Students are required to read the newsgroups on a regular basis as it is the main method of official communication between the school and students. It has been noticed in the recent years a falling trend of reading news among the university students. Email Universities provide everyone with an email account. Using email to communicate has several advantages. Email Communications are often more effective than printed direct mail. [4] Firstly email is a flexible system that by now has large amounts of web integration. Therefore people have flexibility in how to access their email account Secondly email is an accepted method of communication with people usually inspecting their email on a habitual basis and therefore messages be likely to get read. As a broader point, email is simply further widely used all-round. SIS The term SIS School Information System is used in some of the UK universities. SIS provides information on students, staff, modules, timetables, coursework and more. From the perspective of an undergraduate student, SIS provides access to the school timetables, modules information, and coursework results and is also used to facilitate the submission of electronic coursework. Module websites In most of the UK universities every module has its own WebPages. Modular group of pages can be accessed on adding codes in the official URL. These web pages typically include the outline of the module, lecture slides from each lecture, sample coursework, additional reading and information on the examination and assessment process for the module. [5] Wiki The simplest online database that could possibly work.[6] Universities have link to the WIKI. WIKI has rigorous information of how to and guides to using the facilities. The wiki provides plenty of helpful information and is frequently the first port of call for numerous students when students have a problem or desire information on the University facilities. University of Bolton has the WIKI. It also has new information that people are continuously adding. However until now nearly all of the edits have been through by staff or by a small selection of students. It has up till now to be fully embraced by undergraduate students with a small number of using it on a regular basis and barely any undergraduates contributing to it. VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) Mostly Uk Universities Library has a virtual learning environment which the universities developed in-house and launched in around 1996. Access to the environment is available through a web browser for both students and guests [7].The thought is to create a virtual campus online separated up into various buildings which house the different resources on offer. The quantity of information available varies from school to school and from module to module. For example the business school has a chat room, module information, lecture slides and past exam papers for a large number of their modules. The School of Computing however does not. This is most probably because all this information is available on the schools intranet. The VLE also provides quick access to searching Google, Oxford reference dictionary, Thesaurus.com, Institute and the library catalogue. Facebook Facebook is a social networking website analogous to MySpace. It was at first targeted at university students. The site was launched in 2004. It was primarily developed for student community of Harvard and extended to offer networks for other universities and ultimately opened membership to all and sundry in 2006. The idea is based around a series of networks, one for each university. In order to join the network one needs to use a valid email address for that institution (for instance, in order to join the University of Bolton network you require to use a @Bolton.ac.uk email address. You then have access to that networks features such as being able to view peoples profiles, joining groups and creating and replying to event invitations. Facebook is amazingly popular with students, claiming a penetration rate of 85% among US college students. Facebook also achieves very high levels of user retention. Over 50% of its user base visits the site every day [8] and on average each user view s 50 pages of the site per day. The main problem with Facebook from the perspective of the school is that is it not managed by the Institution and the Institution has no control over it. The school has no effective way to utilise Facebook to communicate with students as it does not have control over the School of Computing group on Facebook and only a minority of the staff are registered on the site. A more elemental problem is that Facebook is a social networking website intended for students and was not intended to be used for academic activities or to be utilised by academic institutions. Conclusion In the universities of UK current methods of campus communication do not seem to be engaging the students. Declining use of the News and other web based IT platform shows that students information needs are not met. Facebook is very popular but Universities have no control on it. Therefore it would appear to the Universities requirement to deal with these problems either by upgrading their existing systems or adopting a new system in order to engage students more and meet the new level of expectations of the students. CHAPTER 3 BACKGROUND RESEARCH Background Reading Software Engineering Methodologies A methodology is a structured approach to design and develop the software, hence reducing the chances of software project failure. Methodology provides a recommendation of a series of steps to be followed [9]. There are number of software development methodologies. The selection of the methodology depends on the scoop and complexity of the project. Some of the famous methodologies are Waterfall Model which is also described classical model [10]. The Spiral Model was introduced to replace the Waterfall Model [4]. The Spiral model is being criticised for its rigidity. The Rapid Application Development (RAD) methodology became popular in the early 1990s due to the perceived deficiencies of the traditional waterfall approach [11]. RAD is ideal for the projects where requirements may change during or after the development.RAD has advantage on other methodologies to save the time required for development. Prototyping is another methodology in which developer builds an application from the requirements. There are two types of prototyping methodologies evolutionary prototyping and throwaway prototyping. It is important to decide in advance the selection for the type of prototyping methodology [12]. After a thorough analysis it seems that no single methodology is suitable for the ENB project. Chosen methodology will be explained in the following section. Chosen Methodology It has been decided after reviewing the common methodologies, it seems appropriate to select the Evolutionary prototyping methodology for the ENB project. RAD will be used to develop the required features of the ENB software. Using an only the approach of RAD will lead to the errors and the prototyping will allow correcting the errors. Prototyping has the four main stages. Identification of the requirements. Development of a prototype system. Review the prototype. Revisions and enhancements of the Prototype. Prototyping typing will allow the development of the certain module of the project. Even if the whole project is not developed, there will be basic system to be developed further in the future. For example server side application will be developed with all requirements of scheduling, the tasks and defining the users rights. The client application will be developed afterwards. Client application will have support for the features of the server. On the user evaluation the further features will be added on the server side. RAD will be used on each phase of the development therefore the client server applications will be developed rapidly. RAD will be used within each phase of development, so the Time Controlled pattern / Date Controlled pattern Input task will be developed rapidly. Similarly the other aspects will be developed like this and will together form the overall framework, which will develop as an evolutionary prototype. Each aspect of the system will be developed using a RAD approach and then modified, this will include the database development, the input component and the output component. The evolutionary prototype will allow for any bugs to be corrected during the development instead of detecting and correcting them during the testing phase. Tools and Applications Database Systems The system involves the use of a lot of information, some which will be needed several times and the most appropriate form of storage of this data is in a database. This will allow data to be saved from input to the system and retrieved to be used by the system. As an important aspect of this project is use of Time Control System. In this section several databases are reviewed for their suitability to this project. Microsoft Access Microsoft Access is Bundles of RDBS with the Microsoft Office. MS Access is widely spread on the windows based PCs. It is dependent on the windows environment therefore it cant be deployed on the Linux or UNIX environment. MS access has a GUI, Which facilitates creating the database tables and their relations, queries, forms and reports. MS Access is one of the best selling databases and it has a lot of support available from Microsoft and this is likely to remain so in the future [13]. MS access has disadvantages. It has data limit of 2GB. It is not ideal to use on the network. MS access has lax security measures to prevent the unauthorized access. These disadvantages would be an issue for this project as the system is likely to be accessed by a multiple users at a time and multimedia files will be run on it, it is very likely to exceed 2GB in size. There is a possible security risk of an MS Access database due to it being stored as a single file if un-trusted sources gain access to the folder it is contained in [14]. Most important drawback of MS Access is that lack of network support. ENB is totally depending on Network environment for communication which is by no means supported by MS Access. MS SQL Server MS SQL Server has been developed by Microsoft and it is their more expensive but more robust alternative to MS Access. MS SQL Server is more commonly used by businesses for small to medium sized databases. MS SQL Server is a high performance database with a bundle of functionality and it also has built in security features for LAN/WAN and web environment. There are free express versions of MS SQL Server that can be downloaded for free, however free versions offer less in functionality [15]. MS SQL Server utilizes Transact-SQL as its primary query language. MS SQL Server allows procedures to be stored within the database comparable to MS Access queries. This reduces load on the network bandwidth because only the variables are sent to the data along with the related procedures to be executed not the entire queries. This method is useful for the regular database queries. The method also protects the database from the injection attacks [16]. Sql server has the following disadvantages. It can only work on Windows environment Professional and Enterprise editions has costly license fee As far the ENB project the Enterprise edition is not required. MySQL MySQL is free open source relational database management system. MySQL is the most popular open source database due to its high performance [17]. MySQL has compatibility with any operating system including Linux, UNIX, Mac and Windows. It can also handle large amounts of data and provides security through user authorization and access privileges [18]. MySQL was designed to use on the internet, due to the high performance and very advance features MySQL is a favourite database for the desktop applications. A disadvantage of MySQL is that it is not ideal to set foreign key references [19]. PostgreSQL PostgreSQL is also an open source RDBMS, it is a platform independent database management system analogous to MySQL, however it has more advance features such as triggers. On implementing all features PostgreSQL performance is slower as compare to MySQL. PostgreSQL is the database of many high profile applications such as Skype and Hi5.com. PostgreSQL database design is more complex than MySQL. Performance of PostgreSQL is relatively slow [19]. Chosen Database Management System On reviewing the above database systems the following analysis are being concluded. Ms Access has been discarded from the selection list. It has no support for the network environment. Due to the network oriented nature of the ENB project the network performance is the core issue. Network performance cant be compromised. It will jeopardize the overall functionality of the project during the network load times. PostgreSQL has similar feature as MySQL. Both are discarded on the grounds of limited GUI support for development and maintenance. Both are not closely integrated with MS VB.Net. MS SQL server 2008 Express editions has been decided to be used as database platform for the ENB project. SQL Server 2008 Express is a correct choice for project to include Multimedia database services. Microsoft SQL Server 2008 is a relational model database server produced by Microsoft. Its primary query languages are T-SQL and ANSI SQL. Due to the limited scoop of the ENB application I will use MS SQL Express Edition. Microsoft SQL Server Express is available at no cost. SQL Server Express edition relational database management system, comprises a database is limited for embedded and smaller-scale applications. Database engine is limited to receive work from a small number of users. It has several technical limitations; therefore it cant be deployed in the enterprise environment. Maximum database size of 4 GB per database. The 4 GB limit applies per database (log files excluded); but in some scenarios users can access more data through the use of multiple interconnected databases. It has the several advantages. The advantages are listed in the following lines. Its free of cost SQL server express edition has all the features required for my ENB project. SQL server express edition has Management studio. Limited support for multiple clients on LAN. SQL management studio will simplify the management and maintenance of the ENB database. Most of the IT technician and administrators are well versed with the MS SQL server. GUI tools will allow administrator to easily troubleshoot the common database issues. Main reason for selecting the SQL server is the TCP/IP pipes. TCP/IP pipes technology is very efficient on network as compare to the traditional TCP/IP packets. Programming Environments An appropriate programming environment is required for the system development. The programming tool must be capable to develop the graphical user interface to display the understandable output to the end user. In the ENB project the end user will the system administrator. It has been selected that MS SQL Server will be used to store the Database so the Programming tool must be able to interact with the MS SQL database. The chosen language should include support for object-oriented implementations. Booch (1998) stated Each object can be viewed as an independent little machine with a distinct role or responsibility [20]. Objected oriented language would allow efficient data parsing. The development in the high level programming tool is simpler than coding in the low level programming environment. Indeed high level programming tool reduces the cost of development as well the time spent on coding. Some of the programming environments are analyzed in the detail. Java Java is an object oriented programming language, developed by Sun Microsystems [21]. Java is a well accepted high-level language. ICN students study java during the firs