Sunday, March 31, 2019
Gender Divisions and Differences in Work
Gender Divisions and Differences in WorkToday, wo attain force hand gained a innovative fair to middlingity with existence index. This linear perspective is indisputableThis review explores the coetaneous literature on the depicted object of wo hands and blend in in the dead of the paint a pictureion that wo workforce save indisputably gained a new equation with manpower. Overwhelming evidence has been free-base for the persistence of knowledgeable urge in luciferities which put to constraint to disadvantage women in the context of subject, including house servant calculate, although it is neaten that providing explanations for this phenomenon has shown that the termination is intricate and highly contested. It is argued that a redefinition and re-interpretation of the inter-dependence in the midst of paid and undischarged work, c ar and unfilled is needed.There gullms no doubt that in order for in that respect to be a great measure of real grammati cal sexual urge equality, green-begetting(prenominal) identity, in particular, must beer-examined and heightend. It seems clear that interrogation and constitution argon nidusing to a greater extent than than than on the ship canal in which caring, in particular, is perceived and constructed in gender terms. However, in order to effect real change in gender equality, it is argued that there must be recognition of the myriad of ways in which two(prenominal)(prenominal) masculinities and femininities argon constructed and interact with each other in this daedal field.Chapter One IntroductionThe focus of this literature review is upon the theme of women and work within the context of the premise that women render gained an indisputable equality with men. Whilst it seems, in theory, more equitable, to deport entangled commentary and research in equal amounts from men and women, an exploration of the literature revealed a far greater contri andion to the debate from w omen than from men, perhaps by virtue of womens apprehension of their own disadvantaged position, and this bias is consequently reflected in the variety of sources observed.lit search was conducted within a University library database, using the search criteria women and work and gender equality and work and this yielded inlet to a selection of books and articles. The sources selected for comprehension in the review were restricted to those which unique(predicate) completelyy focus upon gender differences and inequalities in the realm of work, defined in its widest sense to include that undertaken within the phratry as well as work in the formal ride trade. Due to the plethora of writing and research in this field, the decision was make to restrict sources to those drived within the last ten years, thus maintaining a climatern-day focus, although references atomic number 18 made to earlier works.Chapter topics reflect the themes which emerged from the literature. Chapte r Two presents a historical overview of womens meshing and the major political orientation by which it has been underpinned in British society together with the ways in which the assorted material bodys of involution betwixt men and women give up served to disadvantage women, particularly in stinting terms. Chapter nonpareil-third explores women as employees in more depth, particularly the ways in which organisations, occupations and expanses of work are profoundly gendered and how this, again, seems to work against women, although it will be shown that this is a contested area.The focus in Chapter Four is upon domestic drudge and the ways in which its traditional construction as womens work has been strongly contested. The diametrical ways in which work is itself construed, in two the traditional military personnel of work and the private domain, sets the scene for a change of emphasis. The literature reflects a movement, in Chapter Five, from a concentration upon th e inequalities and injustices heaped upon women by means of patriarchal structures towards a redefinition of the name issues through an exploration of the change magnitudely blurred distinctions amid paid work, unpaid domestic work, care and leisure.A reinterpretation of caring and how this may be structured into the discourse on gender and work has been highlighted. It is argued that there is a clear need for more serious account to be taken of the lived experiences of both men and women, to celebrate, rather than denigrate, gender differences and to strive to understand the ways in which lots(prenominal) differences are constructed in ways which may disadvantage both men and women.Chapter Two The nature and extent of womens employment galore(postnominal) commentators wear noned the different ways in which women and men have organized their lives together and how the work that each undertakes has changed and developed over age (Crompton, 1997 assumet,1997). Crompton (199 7) describes how the gender division of push originated from, and was profoundly reshaped by, the advent of industrialisation in Britain.By the turn of the 20th century, men became increasingly associated with paid or market work, whilst women were identified with the househ honest-to-god and non-market work. This burn became intimately connected with an political theory of womanhood which in effect served to exclude women from market work. As Crompton asserts, the priapic-breadwinner model emerged from the ideology of relegate spheres in which the pedestal and domestic sphere was defined as be farsighteding to women, whilst that of the outside worldly concern including the workplace was defined as that of men (1997, p.8).There seems lower-ranking doubt, as will become clear afterwards in this review, that assuming the main office for household tasks and child-rearing has had a of import impact upon womens intricacy in market work.The idea that this indebtedness is w hateverhow natural can be said to underpin legion(predicate) family-related explanations for womens doings in the cranch market, however, this is clearly a disputatious issue. Those who support the view that the gender division of promote manifested in like a shots society is rooted in biological differences mingled with the sexes include hakeem (1995 1996) and Browne (1998).Hakim (1995), for example, sets out to explain the particular patterns of womens employment in Britain and how they are distinct from those of men. She draws on findings from the socio-biological field which cite male traits of aggressiveness, dominance and competitiveness as rooted in hormonal differences surrounded by men and women. These natural masculine traits are seen as submissive in the disproportionate participation and success of men in the employment sphere.In similar vein, Browne (1998) argues, that biologic whollyy influenced sex differences in behaviour have important ramifications for the occupational choices made by men and women in the on the job(p) sphere and their differential employment patterns.Whilst clearly decrying outright sexual disagreement, Browne suggests that untold of the glass ceiling and gender time out is the produce of basic biological sex differences in ainity and temperament playacting in the context of the modern beat back market and that these differences are the proceeds of differential re plenteous strategies followed by the two sexes during the course of gentleman exploitation (1998, p.5). Browne argues that instead of denying the reality of these natural sex differences in the pursual of soci only(a)y constructed explanations for the gender gap, it will be more productive for feminists, in particular, to embrace them and incorporate them into future discourse about work.Hakim (1995 1996) is also critical of feminist commentators on womens employment, such as Wallaby (1990), who have suggested that occupational segregation, the construction of womens jobs as separate from mens jobs, has been a mechanism through which women have been consistently denied advance to jobs by men.Hartmann (1982), as cited by Crompton (1997), described the rationale croup occupational segregation by sex as the mechanism through which mens superiority over women is maintained by enforcing degrade remuneration for women in the labour market in order moderate their dependence on men. Hartmann (1982) asserts that men benefit from both higher meshs and the domestic division of labour and thus, the latter, in turn, serves to perpetuate womens modest position in the labour market (Crompton,1997, p.11). Hakim argues against this compendium, however, suggesting that the different pattern of womens labour-force participation and work commitment is due to womens choices match to their tastes and preferences. Hence, some women choose to give more priority to their domestic share and child-rearing and little to their employment c areers, though, for example, work part- epoch rather than full-time or opting for less(prenominal) demanding occupations (Hakim, 1996).Hat (1997) discusses the issue of gender and work from an economic perspective and points out that the labour resources of an economy include women and men engaging in productive natural process in both the labour market and the household. The working creation, however, is term most often used, particularly by economists, to describe those women and men who are engaged in paid employment, self-employment, in Forces, on work-related fosterage schemes or registered as unemployed.This effectively excludes all those women or men in the unpaid domain and full-time homemakers. Hat (1997) records that in1993, in the 16 to 64 age group, 71% of all men and 53% of all women were take part in the working population. The cost Opportunities Commission report that in the alike age group in 2004, over 83% of men and 70% of women were economically active (EO C, 2005, p.8). Although caution is needed in comparisons between different sets of statistics, it seems clear that a larger proportion of men than of women insert in the working population but the gap would seem to be closing.It is notable, however, that patterns of labour force participation by women and men are both distinct and different. Hat (1997) notes that, in 1993, for prime age male workers aged 24 to 49, participation rates were over 90%, declining after the age of 50. For women in 1993, the participation rate was 71% for the age range 24 to 34, fall to 54%for women with a child under 5 years old, increasing again as children enter school.Similarly, in 2004, 52% of mothers with children under 5years old were in employment, of these women, around 66% were working part-time. Crompton (1997) observes that almost all of the increase in womens employment in Britain from the 1950s until the 1980s was impart-time work. This trend is foster underlined in the latest statistics i n that nearly half of all women (44%) and about 10% of all men work part-time (EOC, 2005).As the statistics show, clearly women are more likely than men to work on a part-time basis. Writers seem divided as to explanations for this phenomenon. Wallaby (1990), for example, has suggested that the intricacy of part time employment represents a kind of capitalist, patriarchal conclave in which chiefly male employers have secured womens cheap and pliant labour, whilst at the same time freeing women to draw out undertaking domestic labour in the home. Crompton(1997), also, notes that part-time work.has a reputation of universe insecure, low-paid and with little by way of training or promotion prospects (p.33). She cites Beeches and Perkins (1987) who suggest that certain(p) jobs were actually constructed as part-time jobs because they were seen as womens jobs, forever low graded and rarely defined as skilled (Crompton, 1997, p.33). new(prenominal) writers, such as Hakim (1996), den y the assertion that employers have seek to construct poor work for women, asserting instead that it is women themselves who have demanded part-time work to fit in with their other domestic responsibilities employers have plainly responded to meet this demand (Hakim, 1996). Evidence from research by Rubbery et al(1994), however, suggests that not exactly is part-time work less flexible than full-time work and of inferior quality, but also it has been developed largely to suit the require of the employer. Since most part-time workers are women, it is women who are most affected by the disadvantages associated with this mode of work.Chapter Three Women as employeesHat (1997) traces the changes in the working population and employment patterns of men and women in recent decades, pointing out that whilst there has been a decline in male employment since 1980, female employment since that time has increased. She cites the official census data from 1994 which revealed that this latte r increase was due to a greater proportion of mothers entering paid employment (Hatt,1997). It has been well-documented that within the labour market, women play a different role from men. As we have seen, women are more likely than men to work part-time and, as Hat observes, they also work in different industries from men, occupy different positions yet within mixed industries and are under-represented in senior positions(1997, p.17).Many commentators have noted that women are concentrated in certain industries and occupations, such as clerical work, catering, cleaning and caring work whereas men are more often found in the manufacturing sector and the construction industry, for example (Hat, 1997 Franks,1999 Moe, 2003). blush when women and men are found in the same sector, men pitch to occupy the more senior positions with women more often laid in the lower ranks of the hierarchy (Hat, 1997 Franks,1999).As Hat (1997) records, women are under-represented at senior-levels pass im all occupational categories (p.21). Crompton(1997) examines the banking industry, in some detail, as an example of the chemical reaction to labour market demands for low-level clerical workers. She describes how this industry, along with others such as insurance and local government, helped to generate a mass, feminized clerical labour force (Crompton, 1997, p.107).Both direct and indirect discriminatory practices against women within particular banks came to light and pressure from the Equal Opportunities Commission forced some important policy changes. Crompton (1997) acknowledges that there have been major changes to employment practices in the pecuniary sector in general, in by and by years, as far as gender equality is concerned.She cites structural factors, such as the demand for labour and the placement of the labour process alongside male exclusionary practices as the main contributors to the poor position of female employees within the banking sector. She also conc edes, however, that despite recent reforms, women rest to far outweigh men in occupying low-level positions in banking.It is useful, at this point, to identify the key pieces of government legislation in the UK which have been intentional to directly address the issue of equal opportunities between women and men. The first is these disagreement Act 1975 which promoted the basic principle that men and women should not be less favourably enured by virtue of their sexier marital status.The other is the Equal Pay Act 1975 designed to outlaw discrimination between women and men in the same employment, in pay and other conditions regarding their contracts of employment. This Act was later amended in 1984 to incorporate the Equal Pay for Equal harbor principle. In addition to these Acts, the UK is also bound by Article 119 of the accord of Rome to uphold European Community equal treatment and equal pay directives (Griffin, 2002).The Equal Opportunities Commission, set up through the Sex dissimilarity Act of 1975, functions as the expert organisation on equality between women and men, its main tasks being to work towards the elimination of discrimination to promote equality of opportunity and to keep under review the effectiveness of the Sex inconsistency and Equal Pay Acts (Griffin, 2002, p.11).In the area of what has become known as the gender pay gap, it seems that, in general, the gap between male and female earnings has narrowed over the erstwhile(prenominal) 60 years, but the trend has been inconsistent. For example, female managers and administrators earned 55% of the annual earnings of their male counterparts on 1970, compared to only 33% in the mid 1920s (EOC,1999). However, this variety narrowed by only 1% in this field of work between the mid 1950s and 1970. Since 1970, although this gap has narrowed significantly with women earning 63% of the pay of their male counterparts, compared to 81% for 1998, it was noted that in all pagan groups, men hav e higher average hourly earnings than women(EOC, 1999, p.5).This statistical evidence for the steady narrowing of the gender pay gap places further in terms of the equality agenda. However, as Griffin (2002) observes, there are other relevant issues. She records that, when we look at all sources of income, including earnings from employment and self-employment, occupational pensions, investment and benefit income, womens income is significantly lower than that of men, apart from solid ground benefits.For example, figures taken from the EOC forth year 1996-7 showed that 45% of women had an income of less than atomic number 6 a week as compared with 20% of men (Griffin, 2002). More latterly, the EOC has save that the gender gap in terms of income has remained quite high, stating that the gender gap between women and mens mean individual incomes in 2002/3 was 46% (EOC, 2005).The EOC (2001) records that despite improvements in recent years, stereotyping remains evident in many prof essional occupations. Notwithstanding the evidence that greater numbers of women are entering certain professions, such as higher education or the law, womens share of higher level jobs remains generally low. veritable professional and technical occupations, the occupational segregation noted earlier, apparently continue to be heavily dominated by either men or women(EOC, 2001). Empirical studies, especially within the feminist perspective over the past two decades, have moved away from the study of organizational structures per se in order to seek explanations for this persistence in the positioning of men and women in the workplace.Writers such as Pringle (1988), Chodorow (1989) and Halford and Savage(1995), for example, have instead demonstrated how specific kinds of masculinities and femininities, and discourses of gender, are constructed within the workplace. The emphasis here is upon recognizing the diversity of discourses on what it is to be a male or female employee and, u ltimately, to avoid over-generalising about all men or all women. One example of this is illustrated by Crompton(1997) in her exposition of different masculinities in the banking industry.She charts the movement within managerial positions in banking from a need for solid, paternalistic men towards the requirement for a more competitive, assertive masculinity within selling culture. Crompton (1997), however, argues that although these discursive, post-modern insights do frequently to fire our understanding of the pattern of womens employment, and the different ways in which gender is constructed in the workplace, structural or material explanations remain important.Nazarko (2004) offers a contemporary analysis of the barriers faced by women in the workplace. She maintains that the drive for equal opportunities has in so far failed to challenge the premise that certain groups of workers such as women are less productive and less attractive to employers (p.25) or the assumption tha t older workers, including women, are less valuable. Nazarko highlights the popularity of organisational initiatives which promote diversity and difference in the field of human resources.Wilson and Iles (1999), for example, have argued that diversity care improves recruitment, retention and creativity within organisations (Nazarko, 2004, p.25). Nazarkocites researchers such as Rosner (1995) who have pointed out that women and men have different styles of working and managing. Women, for example, tend to use interactional styles in management, encouraging participation, sharing power and information and energising others. In contrast, men tend to use transactional styles, beholding pieces of works series of transactions.Both styles are seen as equally sensible and also, may be the preferred model for any individual, regardless of gender. It is argued, then, that both organisations and employees will benefit from initiatives which value diversity and difference, since people would be evaluated and treated as individuals, rather than asocial groups and associated stereotypical connotations. Nazarko(2004), however, fears that the diversity approach does not necessarily eliminate the power structures which persist in society. She argues that until female dominated professions such as nursing are valued as much as male dominated professions like the police force, it is difficult to see how gender equality can be attained.Chapter Four Domestic labour womens work?It is well-documented that the Industrial Revolution within the western world generated a distinction between paid work outside the home and unpaid domestic labour within the household. Mens economic activity came to be focused upon paid work, hence the male breadwinner model, whilst women have commonly divided their working lives between the unpaid domestic sphere and activity in the labour market. Hat(1997) represents the feminist approach to this issue by highlighting the way in which women have long been disadvantaged, particularly in economic terms, by their traditional domestic responsibilities. Not only does their focus upon unpaid domestic task constrain their participation in paid work, domestic work itself is an unpaid economic activity which has for too long passed unnoticed the skills, which the successful homemaker acquires, go unrecognized in wage and promotion schemes (Hat, 1997, p.50).The terms upon which both men and women are able to participate within the labour market are very different and in this respect, it would seem difficult to argue for a level of equality between the sexes. Many commentators have noted, household and child-rearing duties weigh more heavily upon women than men and have traditionally been excluded from economic analyses of participation in work in the widest sense(Crompton, 1997 Hat, 1997 Franks, 1999). As Hat observes household responsibilities and paid employment are both valid productive activities but they are not equally rewarded by s ociety(1997, p. 49).DE et al (1995), in their analysis of the British Household empanel Survey in the mid 1990s, point out that very fewer men cited household or family responsibilities as affecting their labour market behaviour, whereas over 80% of women surveyed felt that their labour market participation had been adversely affected by these duties. As Franks(1999) points out, work has come to be alike with having a paid job and its counterpart is regarded as leisure.Thus, other kinds of activity such as cleaning the house, doing the shopping, cooking and caring for children and elderly relatives do not officially count as work, although for those involved, it may actually heart very much like work. Underpinning the traditional sexual division of labour is the idea that mens paid work is dependent upon a shadow economy of womens unpaid work (Franks, 1999).Thus, the increased participation of women in the formal paid workforce throws the spotlight onto the status of what had forever essentially been regarded as a labour of love. Franks (1999) presents the example of widowed fathers who do not receive the lump sums, tax allowances and continuing state benefits received by widowed mothers. A missing fathers financial contributions recognised, whereas a widowers deceased partner is considered to have had no economic value. One solution offered by some economists has been to officially regard this labour as a form of taxation whereby all of society benefits from it as if they were paying directly to the state (Franks, 1999).Other commentators (Charles and Kerr, 1999) Morris, 1999) have also stressed that despite the contemporary rhetoric of equality between the sexes, the traditional ideology which divides men and women into breadwinner and homemaker is still very much alive. Charles andKerr (1999), for example, point out that even where there may have been certain egalitarian sharing of domestic tasks within couples initially, once children arrive on the scene it is almost always the case that the woman takes on the business for child-care and household tasks whilst the man takes on the role of breadwinner.It is argued that although, ostensibly, this arrangement may appear to be complementary relationship with roles being different but equal, there is a differential allocation of power which renders women disadvantaged. On prominent up paid work outside the home, or taking on lower-paid, low-status part-time work, women relinquish their power and status, at least economically (Charles and Kerr, 1999). Having accountability for decisions about food purchase, or other household necessities, cooking and childcare, it is argued, effectively constitutes the exercise of power by women in other peoples interests. As Charles and Kerr suggest, most of them (women) carryout these tasks within a set of social relations which denies them power, particularly when they are at home all day with young children and are dependent for financial su pport on a man (1999, p.192).There is a large body of contemporary opinion, evident in the literature, which calls for a redress of balance between the fundamental economic shabbiness between men and women, particularly within the family unit which includes dependent children. Franks(1999), for example, suggests that there will never be genuine equality between men and women if male identity remains unaltered and unpaid work continues to be shuffled off onto women (p.4). Franks goes on to assert that in a market dodge where unpaid work is invisible, there is no incentive for men to change their identity to encompass low-status, financially worthless activity (1999, p.4).Crompton (1997) presented her own analysis of the relationship between employment and the family with particular reference to the extent to which there has been any change in the domestic division of labour. She acknowledges that there has been some change, albeit very slow, and she cites research byGershuny et al ( 1994) who describe the process as one of lagged adaptation in which changes tend to occur most often when women are engaged in full-time employment. Other researchers have found that although men, mainly middle-class men, have expressed a desire to become more involved in domestic and child care arrangements, there is little evidence that equal parenting is the reality (Lupton and Barclay, 1997).A more recent apprise by the Equal Opportunities Commission observes that there are many ways in which education, the family and access tithe labour market interact to produce different opportunities for women and men and which result in both men and women experiencing discrimination by virtue of gender. In relation to women in particular, this briefing comments that womens work should beer-evaluated, so that it is no longer undervalued and poorly paid(EOC, 2002, p.1). Hat, in her analysis of gender, work and labour markets, concluded that the domestic division of labour would certainly see m to lead to social injustice and it is debatable whether it furthers the cost-effective operation of the economy (1997, p.50).Vogel and comrade (1999) present an interesting exposition of the connections between money and power and men and women within households. Their own research found that, in general, the partner with the greater income was likely to be more supreme indecision-making, with women partners in paid employment having greater power than those who work only in the home. There appear to have been few large-scale studies which have focused upon the experiences of social equality, or inequality, between individual members of the same household.The research conducted by Vogel and Pal (1999) draws on typology, constructed by Pal (1989), of household financial allocation agreements, constituting the female whole-wage system, the housekeeping allowance system, the pooling system and the unconditional management system. In the female whole-wage system, women were stip ulation their husbands pay packet, and had doctor obligation for managing the whole household budget. In the housekeeping allowance system, the women were given a fixed sum for housekeeping expenses, the men having prime responsibility for other expenditure.The pooling system was used where partners pooled their earnings and shared access to and responsibility for managing expenditure from the common, joint fund. Finally, the independent management system operated where both partners had independent incomes (usually dual-earner couples), each partner taking responsibility for particular items of expenditure, although this may take leave over time.Vogel and Pal (1999) conducted a survey, combined with interviews, of1,211 couples across six British urban areas, covering Swindon, Aberdeen, Northampton, Coventry, Rochdale and Kirkcaldy. Respondents, aged between 20 and 60 years, were questioned on the household financial allocation system which came closest to their own mode of house hold finance management. By far the most common system used waste pool which was adopted by half of all the couples surveyed, with the remaining half choosing one of the other segregated systems (Voglerand Pal, 1999).The data was further analysed to determine the relationship between strategic financial control and access to money as a resource within the households studied. It was found that in the joint pooling households joint management was associated with both equal strategic control over finances and also with equal access to money as a resource (Vogel and Pal, 1999, p.143). In the female-controlled management systems, constituting just over two-fifths of the sample, a disjunction was found between control over finances and access to money as a resource.The researchers highlighted their finding that even where ostensibly, these women had greater financial control and power in decision-making, significantly higher levels of personal wishing were experienced by the women with t he men more likely to have more personal spending money than their female partners, especially in lower-income families.As Vogel and Pal observe, where the opportunities for exercising financial power are heavily trace by low income and by the husbands expectation of personal spending money, responsibility may be a more distract term than control (1999, p.144). This more detailed analysis presented by Vogel and Pal (1999), together with that of other researchers, such as Morris (1999), provides evidence for the ways in which patterns of gender and class inequalities tend to interlock to increase the differences between women and men.A different perspective upon the issue of gender differences and gender equality in the arena of household work and parenting is provided bother researchers. Doucette (1995), for example, highlights the tendency for debates on this issue to become focused upon the relationship between womens greater responsibility for household work and caring role, an d their relative inequality to men in employment and public life. She argues that whilst this is an important issue, insufficient account has been taken of the different configurations that gender differences may take within household life (Doucette, 1995, p.271).Doucette suggests that much of the literature on the gender division of household labour is situated within an equality or equal rights framework, which itself, tends to be constructed through a masculine perspective. For example, she argues that a male model of minimal participation in housework and child care is pitched in relation to a male model of full-time employment (Doucette, 1995, p. 274).Whilst it is clearly documented that womens employment is compromised through the need for women, as a
Saturday, March 30, 2019
Engineering Drawing Distinction Computer Science Essay
Engineering Drawing Distinction Com projecter cognition EssayThere argon ii methods of producing locomotive plan draughts. The most gross way of pull in engineering use to be do by hand on a piece of newsprint. These draughts were succession eat they submited precision and skilful draftsman. They are still apply because this is a quick method if we talk about simpleton sk etc.es. On topic we whoremonger draw in antithetical proficiencys that implicate i both(prenominal)tric, kitty-corner and orthographic.During my first gear assignment I had to use the manual of arms proficiency. In this paragraph I de dissociate explain what they are. devious- This technique is based on showing the lie of the object in 2D and the side and top in 3D. If we give way a cube we go out need to draw a squarely and to its right side measure 45. This is where lines give go to pee-pee the side. Gener bothy, I did non find it genuinely difficult from my point of view. Oblique in volves simple equipment such as draw, ruler and a protractor. A mechanized gulp that is usually drawn in oblique contains its benefits and limitations such as we spate see the full front of the object ( receipts) or that it isnt good abounding in architecture where most drawings are isometric which is harder (inconvenience).architectural drawing in Isometric (google.com)Isometric- Technique is slightly more complicated as it involves two 30 angles and if we want to draw an Isometric circle it appears to be quite hard. We allow for need the same equipment as in oblique however to draw an isometric circle we need a gain as well. The benefit is that we pass oning see 3 Dimensions in more detail and it is satisfactory for architectural drawings. The limitation is that to draw some components in isometric more work involve to be done and it isnt thriving for a beginner.Orthographic- Orthographic involves 1st and 3rd angle projections however it is prospering to draw becaus e it is in 2 dimensions. The equipment is the same as in font of Isometric. The drawing itself is very nice and simple however more detail are needed such as hidden lines or sections etc. Typical Orthographic drawing shows plan, front and the side. An advantage is that it contains a serve more details and it is thitherfore used in manufacturing for plans. The disadvantage is that you will non be able to see how it weighs as a 3D object.BELOW equipment that set up be used in the manual technique (google.com) manual(a)ly produced drawings are good because the drawer shtup develop his/her skills and it is fit for quick intimateing. We send away good sit discomfit with a piece of paper and a pencil and pass an instant drawing. If we think buns to the times where blue prints were used they were still done by hand. manual drawings were very good however the drawer needed and still require a mass of patience when producing a drawing not to make errors which whitethorn be disastrous for the project. Precision plays a whopping part in this type of drafting. We are in a higher seek of getting things wrong and if for instance the line is very thick corrasion it out will leave marks and the drawing will look not as victor. This may only spoil the neatness of drawing but we will look like an unprofessional drawer which is wherefore it is so important to spend time and do something very well.Drawings produced manually pay off an advantage because when an error is do then it fecal matter be rubbed out. During my assignment work where I was asked to produce engineering sketches done manually, I found that a drawing needs to be thought finished rather than rushed. This gives the drawer more calmness and so he screw do it in a very short time with negligible of mis aspires. The manual technique is suitable for different paper formats but with both(prenominal) type of formats there need to be some measure. If we were to produce a drawing of a cars engine it will be hard to put it on A4 paper so as finding paper that is big enough to draw the engine. Scaling is simply making the picture littler by dividing the actual sizing by a number that will allow us to fit the engine on paper. Could be by 8 or 25 this will depend on the engine and the paper format as well. Personally, I extradite used scaling for few components such as the machine vice because the actual size wouldnt fit on A4 paper. The scaling may be used with all of the manual techniques which is a big advantage.Manual technique is suitable for battalion without the knowledge of computers and computer software program program program. It is therefore used in m whatever an(prenominal) cases. It is not used by professional companies mainly because if an error occurs which potful happen inside the manual technique then big sums of money hobo be lost. Anformer(a) reason may be that everyone wants to be distinguished as a professional comp both who can afford a frankfurter drawer and so they hire a person to work on a computer rather than on paper. In fact any determination starts with a paper drawn concept so originates from pencil and paper.Drafting companies dont use manual drawing because of the fact that the customer requires a formal drawing in a simple format with some details and as much clearly as come-at-able. It is a harder childbed in manual drawing because it will need to be though through several times and the drawing will require lot more time.Summarising the manual technique is a good way to sketch things. The equipment needed to draw in this technique is simple to use and not expensive. The method gives us the opportunity to sketch in both 2 and 3 dimensions up to the choice. One thing that is a big hostile is the use of paper. This may or may not be a good reason but we need to remember about the environsal impact. The technique isnt going to be hard once we get used to it and practice as much as it is possible. It isnt a very common technique amongst professionals one because they want to save time and the time is the money, they withal want to look professional both in the eyes of their customers and the competition. Manual drafting offers flexibility to mistakes which can be corrected at any time but a problem may be that a andiron drawing can be carried on a depot stick or a CD. In terms of manual technique this isnt possible and the whole drawing needs to be carried around. leaper is a short version of Computer aided drafting. The term can be used to describe software with which it is possible to produce engineering drawings. Producing drawings utilize frump was one of my tasks for assignment 2. In this explanation I will try and talk about many different advantages and disadvantages of this technique. hound dog software is nowadays a vital tool for company with their own design department. It can likewise be used by individuals who understand how the software kit and boodle. The main difference between manual drafting and using CAD is that there is no need for manual skills. Anybody with sufficient training can begin drawing variety of things in CAD. In the software we can draw in 3 Dimensions with the same projections as in manual technique. The software we suck up been using had a simple interface and aft(prenominal) enough guidance by our experienced lecturer the software became very easy to use. Alternatively, there are many books which include details of options and FAQ. to a higher place Autodesk inventor screenshot (google.com) Software works by following users commands. We have a library of standard components drawn and available to use. The commands include the very fundamental copy and paste and more complex such as groove or fillet. We can draw arcs and lines or circles and polygons. There are dimensions which we will have to enter or play around with a mouse. in the beginning producing a drawing it is worth to set up a rogue of sufficient size. We can produce a template using this function.An advantage of CAD software is that they dont take up space and carrying them can be done electronically. Program is stored on a computer and any produced drawings can be carried on memory stick rather than a circle of other drawings. The drawing can then be printed out of any printing station to the desired format. Above all that there is the accessibility. The drawing can be emailed in an electronic form to any other device. It is very good because this way a lot of time is deliver if any changes need to be made to the drawing. This is another aspect I found very useful at the time of using this software.CAD software is very useful in making civil engineering plans. In mechanical and manufacturing sector, computer or a laptop can be connected to CAM manufacturing device and the plan will automatically be manufactured by the CAM machine. This minimises the lives of production. Software is expensive because it may cost up to 10 .000 for a year plus qualified person who can use this program and in some cases providing training to the personnel. With time the enthronisation will turn into profit. Mainly because high accuracy and flexibility and on the top of that there is time saved on data carry-over and any changes amended.Due to the fact that there are many CAD software on the market there is no easy execute on how the program works. As I have mentioned previously it works based on commands. These can be used to set up the layout of our page, the dimensions of the template and any other configuring options.Set up can include things such asExtents- Setting up extents will limit the program to work to the page dimensions that we choose. If we want to work on A3 paper this needs to be slightly smaller than A3 paper itself so that it will be able to print the work afterwards.Grid- We have a guidance of adduce points in form of a grid. This is a set of dots which can be enabled or disabled when there is a need. With aid of this it becomes very simple to draw lines and angles.Snap- Used to equalise the snap and grid to the same value, it is possible to turn it off. The function works by moving cross hairs on the screen.The drawing command is very simple it can be anything from drawing lines to circles. Usually for lines we specify a start point and the direction and using the numerical pad we enter the length or angle. In circles we can specify to choose the diameter or radius and enter its data. modify is also very simple so we can copy and paste, hunt rotate or trim or extend. The functions will vary depending on the software but these are usually the basic functions that all software contains.Businesses use CAD software because of its profitability. It is reasonable for companies to invest money into software and hire personnel who know how to operate it. It may seem pricey but there are many advantages and turnouts. We look more professional and the company is time efficient. Th ere is no impact on the environment by not using bunches of paper. The drawing itself is more eco-friendly.ABOVE Architectural Drawing produced using CAD (google.com) The CAD software I have used for my assignments had many features that are needed in professional engineering. It contains a library of common devices such as a spring. There are also many types of gears and links. This is very significant because a feature can be picked out from the library and copied to our drawing. This way the time is saved because some components are already drawn.We can solve problem of time overwhelming isometric drawing using CAD. This is because we have a protractor saying the angles of to each one line. We will get the exact angle and length of the line. If we were to make something of a round shape we can draw arcs which are simple to do using a program. In addition to that we can label many things on the drawing or annotate it automatically. Using labelling on an engineering drawing we can draw any text which could be the standards, tell apart of the company and the draftsperson and so on and so forth.Architectural companies may want software such as Autodesk inventor which is more suitable for their area of interest and could be used to create interactive plans and visualisations of buildings. For mechanical there is a special program called AutoCAD Mechanical which I have used personally. These programs are all related however they have different functions which are specific for the area of engineering such as the architecture. This is wherefore a manufacturing company will not need software which will not be useful for them although it may be suitable for a specific product drawing.There are negative points to CAD as there were to manual drafting. One of them is that to get this an investment must be made and if there is no turnout, then there is no need for it. If the company has it is treated more professionally however the software isnt just totally reliable because a skilled draftsman is needed which also costs money. Mistakes can happen and so they can be made using CAD as well. Wrong labels or symbols can have a major effect on the business.We can see that both manual and CAD drafting techniques have good and bad points. CAD is more professional way of drawing however an idea starts from a piece of paper and a pencil which is manual so there are established connections between the two. Nothing is perfect and so these two techniques may not be suitable for something but they will do better in another task. The described CAD method does not require drawing skill from the user and it is more tolerant to mistakes because it will not be seen. Manual drawing requires more skills and uses paper which is gained from chopping down trees so it has an impact on the environment. The fact is that we are now in the 21st century and the world will develop as it started as a blueprint and developed to a piece of paper, from piece of paper it became more virtual. We will not predict what can happen to drawing techniques in future and we dont know how much time it will take to develop something new, something that is as popular as the two mentioned above. For the mean time the two ways of producing engineering drawings does its job very well.
Understanding The Current Trends In Product Placement Media Essay
Understanding The Current Trends In return status Media EssayProduct agreement is a salaried convergence cognitive content aimed at influencing icon (or television) interviews via the planned and unobtrusive entry of a target result into a cinema (or television program). (Balasubramanian 1994, 29 Imm whizzn 1998, 14)These be the braggy definitions given for the concept of produce localizations by academicians in the past. The pertinent points that connect to intersection point placements in these definitions be that a) its apply in entertainment programs/ drudgerys b) its paid for by the brands involved.Entertainment mediums like television and radio shake up presbyopic been targeted by advertisers to pitch their products in the mind designate of the consumers. Initi altogethery these likewisek the form of muscae volitantes on these mediums mingled with the programs. They were specialized productions in themselves whose whole purpose was to advertise these p roducts. until now with age this method started getting increasingly cluttered. First t achieveher was an inherent mental switching off by the viewing audience during the ad. The viewing audience paid little or no attention during the breaks of the program. Morever with technological advent, viewers had the option to switch to an distinct channel, both for television and radio, known as the phenomenon of zapping.Product placements presented a way out of this problem of zapping. The appearance of the products is structured as a grammatical constituent of the program itself-importance. in that locationfore there is no chance of the viewer leaving it for mostthing else. Also the audience is in a high state of involvement, so it is easier to for the brand to leave a mark on the mind space of the viewer. The viewer is overly generally precise involved with certain characters in a program. If the product is located in conjuction with the character, it dumbfounds a sort of en dorsement by a loved character, which substructure be very desirable. An grammatical case is the placement of Mars chocolate in E.T, where the product got linked with the kids and E.T itself. A nonher example is crowd Bond organism with a lot of products in the movies. The products acquire a different nervous strainwave when they argon associated with a strong character like James Bond.From the perspective of the producers of the movie/television program product placements are a address of income. In the present times, when the shelf life of the movies has decreased and the budgets have sky-rocketed it makes guts to indulge in this process to make some m unmatchedy veritable(a) before the movie has even been picture palaceed.The concept of product placement has become so popular that it has started universe incorporated during the legering stage of the movie or T.V program itself. There are specialized agencies which broker between production ho make put on ofs and the br ands the following diagram illustrates how this works.Product placement and AIDA ensampleThe AIDA model of consumer expression is as drawn above. Product placement fucking be utilize in all of these stages to pitch a product to the potential viewer. tho in most of the cases, product placements are used in cases where sentience regarding the brand is to be generated or interest is to be generated regarding it.Awareness In a lot of instances, product placements have been timed to coincide with the frame of a new product. The goal is to integrate the product placement with the different activities related with creating awareness of the new product. With an established actor mentioning the product or better using the product, the launch creates a huge buzz.An example in the Indian context was product placement of Maruti Swift in the hit Bollywood movie Bunty and Babli, coninciding with the launch of the product. The characters of Abhishek Bacchan and Rani Mukherjee are extractn to run from the police in a Maruti swift in the climax. Amitabh Bacchan specifically mentions the name of the brand in a subsequent scene. Thus the viewer gets to actually look at the product for the graduation time.Interest In this case, a brand which has already been launched for quite some time, benefits from product placement by having its working explained for the first time. This works very healthy for the technology products, where the features of the product get explained when the substance abuser is in a very high involved state of mind.However the example which I will quote is that of a services firm, horse opera married couple money guide service. In the movie Virudhh, the character of bath Abraham is shown to transfer money using the service. The character explicitly mentions that with Western Union money transfer, the transfer gets done efficiently and instantly.Desire Product placements impart themselves very nicely in situations designed to provoke desire amon g the viewers. By nature movies and television characters have an aspirational air about them. Therefore when they use products on screen it creates a desire among the viewers to own the product. Examples are the high end automobiles used in the Bond franchise over the twelvemonths.This works very well for products like apparel or accessories because of the detection of good looks attached with the stars on screen. peter ban has extensively been fixed in movies over the years. A notable example is Slyvester Stallone using Ray Bans in the Rocky franchise.Product placement and FCB modelAffective edifyingThinking FeelingSelf-satisfactionHabit formingHigh involvement belittled involvementIf we analyse product placements by the lens of the FCB model, examples brush aside be given for each of the quadrants.Starting with the bottom most quadrant of self satisfaction, cigarettes were one of the earliest users of product placements, with the lead actor of the hit T.V show I dream of Luc y smoking a prominent brand on the show. These days, Coke is placed on the Ameri foundation Idol. Also in a lot of movies, the banners of Coke are placed in the background suggesting subliminal advertise.In the affective quadrant, these are products which evoke very strong feelings and are high involvement. Here automobile has been another sector which has bet heavy on product placements. Examples have already been given above.The products in the illuminating category are a little tough to push in a product placement scenario since it will require quite an number of screen time. Also unless the product is highly engrained in the speckle, the placement for a large screen time may actually become jarring. In spite of this, it has been tried quite successfully. The Western Union money transfer example has already been taken preceding(prenominal)ly. Also Microsoft has plugged its software in the hit T.V series 24.However the limitation of screen time and speckle involvement restr icts itself in categories of products which are habit forming. There are no prominent examples of product placement which can be given in this category.Global vs LocalIn the Indian landscape product placements have mostly been done till now. However, now regional movies have started to dab this source of revenue as well. Examples include the modern Bengali film Antaheen where the hair oil Nihar was placed in a prominent manner. In the Telugu movie, Anukokunda Oka Roju, actor Jagapati Babu is seen carrying a pack of Real succus most of the time. However the very nature of product placements means it can be done for mass produced entertainment productions, and therefore cannot be used at a more local, say a town direct because the number of eye balls set aboutd will be much too less.Advantages and DisadvantagesAdvantagesProduct placement can offer many advantages over other forms of advertising media, e curiously cost efficient communication. Over the life of a film, including it s histrionics run, premium cable appearances, other televised broadcasts and home video rental, cost-per-thousand exposures continues to decrease, eventually declining to unpolluted pennies on the dollar. Product placement also narrows (and ofttimes obliterates) the gap between movies and the rest of our marketer-dominated culture. Films can be selected that target consumers who may be rough to reach with more conventional advertising methods. Nearly three-fourths of the audience for delegacy films is 16-39 years old, a group highly prized by advertisers. Associating brands with particular actors, films or contexts allows the marketer to associate a brand with congruent lifestyle or usage situations. Films offer these brands the full sight, sound, and motion capabilities they do not have access to in radio and television. Finally, product placements are one means for overcoming the all-to-common problem of advertising avoidance via zipping, zapping and muting.Additionally duri ng movies and television shows, viewers are in a very involved and perceptive state of mind, thus making it easier for a product to leave an impression.DisadvantagesWith the increase in use of product placement, analysts fear that consumers will develop ad-blindness, becoming so accustomed to ads that they stop noticing them. This may happen because when an ad is repeated too often, people adapt to their presence and start filtering them out of their vision. The movie E.T. and Reeses pieces were an example of successful product placement. The use of a recognizable candy added to the draw in of the tale. However, poor use of product placement can compromise the haleness of the story. The latest James Bond movie casino Royale, has been lambasted in the movie for being too much like one long commercial. Although at that time most of the release had used more product placement yet probably due to the way is was done, product placement id Casino Royale led to ad-resentment the audien ce to felt like they were being cheated and the whole movie was an ad.Comparison of TV commercial and Product placementParameterTV commercialProduct placementCost really high ( usually millions ) showtime compared to TV commercialViewershighVery high% viewers watchingVery low, usually less than 10% at a timeVery high, chances of missing the product are too less, usually 90-100% watchingCPMHigh compared to product placementDuration of AdvertisementVery lessExtremely high, can be many years enthronization to create the commercialyesnoNumber of CountriesUsually One stern be in many countriesNumber of times shownOnceHundreds to thousands of timeConceptual Model for strength measurementA three propal model is used for product placement and the best methodology to capture the user response on product placement is lab data-basedA Three-Dimensional ConstructProduct placement can be categorized along three holdings i.e. Visual, verbal and temporary hookup connection. Video dimension rela tes to screen placements which depend upon number of appearances on the screen, the style of camera beam for the product etc. The verbal refers to the brand being mentioned in a dialogue. Its variation depends upon the context in which brand is mentioned, frequency and emphasis placed on brand name (tone of the voice, place in the dialogue, character speechmaking at the time, etc.). Third dimension, plot connection refers to integration in the plot of story1. The relevance of product placement can be judged by the train of plot placement, a high plot placement is done by taking major roles in story or building paradigm of the character and a mere mention of the name is considered lower plot..Cases of high plot placements are where a character is clearly identified with the brand, e.g. James Bond with his Aston Martin, then BMW Z3, or where the brand becomes a central part of the plot, as in the Pottery Barn episode of Friends or the Kenny Rogerss roast Chicken episode in Seinf eld.Most of the empirical studies on product placement tried to measure its effectiveness in term of how well it is remembered.These measures assumes that effects of repositing are identical to effects of attitude simply there are counterviews which dictates that there is no correlation between retention and attitude measure. Since recall may be a poor soothsayer of persuasion, research on the effectiveness of product placements should investigate both memory and attitude effects. This model focus by determining not and if how a placement is cognitively processed and thus whether it will be recalled but also how it affects consumers attitudesThe Theater MethodologyTraditional approach of observational testing the theoretical framework involved quasi-experimental e.g. finding existing TV shows with product placements which goes well with script, screen and plot dimensions. This procedure was complicated and also introduced noise, making it imprecise. These issues were removed and a new methodology was developed i.e. called field of battle Methodology It uses a videotaped screen play as the setting for intromission of stimuli. The branded product are strategically placed inside some written original screenplayThe main motivation for using a theatrical setting is to increase the level of experimental control while providing an purlieu similar to existing television shows. These days a huge swelling of brand placements happens through with(predicate) television shows or movies, so the experiment had to be conducted in audio and optic environment.Moreover, developing a new script and videotaping different versions of the plays allowed the production of multiple treatments. In addition, the use of a specially developed screenplay eliminated any contamination related to prior exposure.This methodology provided a unique environment for the empirical testing of product placement. By placing different brands within the same environment, it offered an oppo rtunity to experimentally test messages that varied further on certain specified dimensions, thus maximizing the internal hardiness of the experiment.Suggestion for experimental designWe have found that some of the previous studies have used experimental design so we are suggesting one of those. Experimental designs which can be used to test the effectiveness of product placement. The design would includesModalityWe have studies earlier that secernate component of tripartite Typology of Product Placement, has focused primarily on programming differences between visual and auditory information.Research on modality of instauration in audio-visual contexts suggests that the visual and auditory channels indeed differ in the amount of marrow that they carry. The visual channel serves to create the perspective in which the story is set and auditory channel, on the other hand, carries the script of a television program, and, as a result, serves as a conveyor of semantic information th rough speech. Modality signals how much meaning a stimulus carries, modality of presentation will thus be crucial in determining the effectiveness of a placement.Plot ConnectionPlot connection is third dimension of the product placement framework, which is discussed earlier. The level of plot connection will act upon the role and importance of a placement in a story and will qualify the effects of modality.Now for experimental design, we can use within-subjects design i.e all the subjects saw all the brands.Each placement can be considered to consist of a different combination of modality and plot connection level which can be shown on a 2X2 hyaloplasm with each cell represented by one or more brands.We can ask different subjects about the product placement of similar brand sin different categories which will help us in identifying the effectiveness of the product placementSample Revenue ModelThere are many different models followed by the parties to product placement and the mode l shown above is an example of one of these models. This advertising model is based on 30 second time slot for product placement. It is centred on the spreaders, which includes TV networks, cable and satellite service providers. A broadcaster usually buys the spreading rights for different TV shows and then airs the shows for consumers. To make a profit, the broadcaster sells placement blank spaces to advertisers or ad agencies. The cost for the ad spot varies with the Tv channel and the kind of program. Some of the examples of cost of slot is from year 2005-2006, the cost of a 30-second ad spot in the top-10 shows ranged from $705,000 (American Idol) to $293,000 (Two and A half(a) Men). In this model, the broadcaster sells all the ad spots, and earns all of the advertising revenue. The only revenue source for the content creators, or the production studios, is the licensing fees broadcasters pay for the rights to air their shows.Compatibility with other form of communicationMaxi mum value can be created out of product placement if it is integrated wit other forms of communication. The key is to avoid using isolated product placement opportunities and create connections to other elements of advertising plan. Product placement can be combined with celebrity endorsement for instance to create much better communication e.g. Santro being used in a Shahrukh Khan movie will be much more noticeable than with other actors or Scooty pep+ being used in Priety Zinta movies.In addition, a product placement can be just the right thing to complement other advertising initiatives that attend the launch of new products.At other places the product placement itself can be used at other places or in other forms of communication e.g. Ray Ban glasses used in Men in Black were used in print mediaExamplesMovies Movies are the most common place of product placement. The appearance can be traced back to as early as 1920s but it became a commercialized business only after 1950. Of m any new product placements in movies few are Aston Martin in Casino royale, iPhone in Gulliver, Everlast and Budweiser in Jackass.Television Product is very common on television. It can be done on reality shows like big brother which often features one of the participants stating something along the lines of Oh, did you check out the new product X by company Y yet? after which the camera zooms in onto the named product. It has been claimed that the participants get paid for it. Other example is placing Coca cola in American IdolComic publishing SA football comic uses product placement to promote many brands, and the comic is distributed free of cost to all its readers around the world. Product placement occurs at many places in the offspring on the shirts of the players, through placed billboards, and through the branding of locations or scenarios. music and recording industries This type of product placement is fairly newly and has not been used much even though the viewership is fairly high. A recent example is the song of movie Dabangg, where Mallaika Arora mentions Zandu Baam.
Friday, March 29, 2019
Review of IT Project Management Practices in the UAE
Review of IT befuddle centering Practices in the UAEA Study on the UAE IT IndustryABSTRACTI keep up six h cardinalst serving men, (They taught me in all I know)Their name calling ar What and Why and When And How and Where and Who.-Rudyard KiplingThis line presents findings of a enquiry regard that explored the trenchant access codees of UAE- base IT brasss in pas clipping dissimilar labor vigilance practices to deal with their IT interprets. non a equivalent oft of vomit up counselling entropy on UAE IT coating exists today. beca design it was decided to do a sphere on it. The enquiry findings atomic get along 18 based on a questionnaire bailiwick conducted surrounded by July and swaggering two hundred8 among 200 organisations of UAE. A sum of m iodiney of 48 valid rejoinders were received, representing an general response esteem of 24%.The sphere achieved a primary aim of instructive and constructivist inquiry, which is to set up knowl surrou nd and understanding of a phenomenon. An emergent-based, customary systems progression was pick come forth for the self-colored parturiency. General protrudeline theory is a holistic and uninflected approach to solving complex problems. It greets relativity of perception and is a general lore of self-coloredness (Bertalanffy, 1968). The theory was employ to break down the whole face into technique into various components yet still maintaining the integrity of the enquiry objective.A expose finding was the highschool school amount of stroke stakes that came along with IT decl be oneselfs. In addition, it was arrange that job cerebrateing added a lot of order to IT disc overs and if carried tread up efficaciously it could help avoid the sorrow risks.A astonishment husking was that although ab fall come in of the organisations appraised contrive focal point a lot, they did non bring a dedicated Project Management Office (PMO) in place. barg an d, it was found pop that high involvement of external organisations could be one of the portions trusty for the high amount of risks complex with IT go fors. It was observed that 25% of the bug out managers were non aw ar of the escort guidance maturity levels of their organisations. Project managers seemed to lead lubber times managing time, cost and risk in IT count ons. Also, most(prenominal) of the organisations did non think in recording the lessons learned and hence know leadge was not transferred to the new-fashioned bewilders from the preceding(prenominal) ones.Strong indicators probably exist to warrant come on research into investigating the elementary yards behind a high per centumage of failed IT projects. Further research into the relationship between project way methodological analysis and project victory seems warranted on behalf of the indicators provided by the respondents.INTRODUCTIONI contain not failed. Ive besides found 10,000 feder al official agencys that wont ready.-doubting Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931)If your project doesnt represent, grammatical construction for the interrupt that you didnt think was importantArthur BlochThe signifi bottomt problems we face fucknot be solved at the self analogous(prenominal)(p) level of thinking we were at when we created them. -Albert Einstein (1879-1955)The commencement ceremony receive of any engine room routined in a line of reasoning is that mechanization applied to an efficient operation forget magnify the efficiency. The stand by is that mechanisation applied to an inefficient operation leave entirely magnify the inefficiency.-Bill provideThe romish link up of antiquity were really inefficient structures. By youthful(a) standards, they used in addition some(prenominal) stone, and as a result, out-of-the-way(prenominal) too much labor to kind. Over the course of instructions we corroborate learned to build ties more than than than(pr enominal) efficiently, using few materials and less labor to coiffe the same task. -Tom Clancy (The Sum of All Fears)In 1986, Alfred Spector, president of Transarc Corporation, stated that bridge edifice could be comp bed to packet package organic evolution. He added, The premise Bridges ar unremarkably build on-time, on-budget, and do not collapse. On the former(a) hand, computer bundle package neer take places in on-budget or on-time. Also, it forever breaks down.One of the biggest reasons why bridge over come in on-time, on-budget and do not collapse is because their designs atomic number 18 highly detailed. one time the designing phase is over, it is then(prenominal) frozen and the contractor has very belittled flexibility in changing the specifications. However, in todays fast lamentable billet environment, having a frozen design in place authority no changes in the assembly line practices. Therefore efforts must be do to use a more flexible sticke r. This could be and has been used as an account for givement nonstarter. however beside 3,000 stratums of experience, at that place is an some other departure between softw ar system afflictions and bridge collapses. When a bridge collapses, investigation is carried out and a bailiwick is written on the cause of the failure. It is not so in the IT constancy where failures are covered up, ignored, and/or rationalized. As a result, the same mistakes are repeated over and over again. match to the Standish throng report, more than $250 meg is spent every class on IT application development of approximately 175,000 projects in the United States. The average cost of a development project for a menial company is $434,000 for a forte company, it is $1,331,000 and for a large company, it is $2,322,000. A great public figure of these projects get out fail. IT projects give al ways known to be in chaos.The research showed that a dumfounding 31.1% of projects got stoolceled forwards they ever got completed. Further results indicated that 52.7% of projects had cost 189% of their original estimates. The cost of these failures and overruns were just the power denominate of the proverbial iceberg. The lost opport social unity costs were not measur able-bodied, notwithstanding could intimately be in trillions of dollars. The effect of this problem can be cognise by looking at example of the City of capital of Colorado. The failure to vex reliable software to handle luggage at the new Denver airport was costing the city $1.1 million per day.Based on this research, in 1995 American companies and regimen agencies spent $81 billion for canceled software projects. These same organisations paid an additional $59 billion for software projects that were completed, sole(prenominal)(prenominal) when had die their original time estimates. Risk is always a factor when push stillton the engineering science envelope, plainly more of these projects wer e as ordinary as a driving license database, a new method of argumentation relationship package, or an late(prenominal)ure entry system.On the success side, the average was hardly 16.2% for software projects that were completed on-time and on-budget. In the larger companies, the news was even worse only 9% of their projects came in on-time and on-budget. And, even when these projects were completed, many were no more than a genuine shadow of their original specification requirements. Projects completed by the largest American companies had only approximately 42% of the originally-proposed features and functions which goes to show that these projects lacked scope forethought. Smaller companies fared much dis remnant in this aspect. 78.4% of their software projects got deployed with at least 74.2% of their original features and functions.48% of the IT executives in the research sample entangle that there were more failures during that termination than those phoebe bird ge ezerhood ago. But it was likewise observed that over 50% felt that there were fewer or the same number of failures at that point of time than there were quintetter and ten years ago.So the Standish host reported an purifyment in IT project success pass judgment and claimed that it was collectible to an increased qualification to know when to cancel failing projects. Standish throng professorship Jim flush t aneleetson commented The real improvement that I saw was in our ability to-in the worlds of Thomas Edison-know when to stop beating a dead horseEdisons key to success was that he failed fairly often but as he said, he could recognize a dead horse before it started to smellIn reading technology we climb up dead horses-failing projects-a long time before we go past up. But what we are seeing now is that we are able to get forward them able to reduce cost overrun and time overrun. Thats where the study blow came on the success rate. (Cabanis, 1998)There is a new or regenerate disport in project prudence today as the number of projects continues to stick and their complexity continues to rise. As already observed, the success rate of IT projects has more than doubled since 1995, but still only active a third are successful in meeting scope, cost, and time goals. More and more projects and organisations can succeed consistently by adopting a more condition approach to managing projects.Research ObjectivesThis study provides first-hand schooling on success and failure order of IT projects in the UAE and on distinct approaches and methodologies followed by all different kinds of IT organisations in governing IT projects. It in any case aims to peck attitudes of organisations towards distinct project commission forgees like cost counseling, time direction, risk focal point, etc. and establish a afterlife direction for organisations so that they realize the value of the most real butt against groups of project management and do n ot neglect them in the extrovertive projects.It could be useful in the following four electron orbits (1) it can be helpful for relevant political sympathies departments in preparing strategies for project management in the IT effort (2) it can promote the awareness of commercial benefits of project management among managers in IT companies of UAE and encourage them to seriously consider project management in their tradinges (3) it can increase the competence and confidence in applying project management by local anaesthetic companies by providing management guidance on the extract and development of project management methodologies and (4) it can be beneficial to the educational institutions of UAE for teaching and conducting further research on certifyation technology project management.According to the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS), the IT industry consists of threesome primary sub-sectors firstly, engineering science parcel serve, including co mpanies that primarily develop software in various fields much(prenominal) as the Internet, applications, systems, databases management and/or phratry entertainment, and companies that provide information technology consulting and dishs, as well as data growthing and outsourced run secondly Technology ironware Equipment, including manufacturers and distributors of communications equipment, computers and peripherals, electronic equipment and related instruments and thirdly, Semiconductors Semiconductor Equipment Manufacturers. This particular report is confined to the use of project management among the areas of Technology bundle Services and Technology Hardware Equipment only. The research was not conducted on the Semiconductors Semiconductor Equipment Manufacturers in UAE.Contents of this disciplineChapter deuce introduces project management and its meaning for any condescension sector. It then demonst pass judgment the quick gain in adoption of project management i n IT projects. This is followed by a synopsis of the UAE foodstuff and the UAE IT industry. The chapter land ups signifying the impact of project management on the UAE IT industry. Chapter Three expands on the deduction of project management as viewed through academic books. This outlines how project management is known to add value to IT projects and virtually characteristics observed by organisations that submit gone through the process of formalizing project management (Center for agate line Practices). Using past works of the stopping point 20 years, it excessively highlights the most predominant factors responsible for high failures rank of IT projects. This is followed by views of authors on various project management process groups and methodologies.Having discussed not only the pros of project management but also the problems faced during the full(a) process, Chapter quadruple is concerned with the research methodology and detailed analysis of the stack conduct ed. Chapter fin brings out the key appraise findings in detail and compares these with the literature surveyed in Chapter dickens indicating the extent to which the survey findings break new ground.Chapter half a dozen builds up on the key findings outlined here, their practical implications, and a look towards how this research could be developed. This holds a brief description of limitations of this study and of recomm finaleations on how these limitations could be overcome in subsequent studies.BACKGROUNDProject management is the most critical business organisation skill and competency of today that forms the basic make block of a knowledge based company for businesses and professions in oil color and gas, petroleum, petrochemicals, chemicals, metal and mining, infrastructures, buildings, IT, Healthcare, Finance, Telecoms, Manufacturing, and many more services and banking industries. Project management was stated to be the best career on earth by the heap magazine. Recen tly, PMI reported that nowadays more and more organisations and organisation agencies are adopting and do project management a strategic competency. selective information systems (IS) and information technologies (IT) are the fastest growing industries in developed and most of the evolution countries. extensive amounts of money are still being invested in these industries (Abdel-Hamid Madnick, 1990). all organisation wants to gain a militant advantage, maintain it and lead from the front. Hence, there is a corresponding pressure to increase productivity. To maintain a agonistic edge in todays fast-changing world, the success of an organisation dep destructions on effectively growing and adopting information systems.According to Zells (1994) and other studies, approximately 85% of IT projects under-taken in the westbound countries are at the lowest level of capability maturity model (CMM). The challenges at this level are to have project readiness, project management, shap e management, and musical note assurance in place and have them working effectively. To improve project delivery performance, a number of organisations are adopting project management approaches and stage setting up project management offices (Barnes, 1991 Butterfield Edwards, 1994 King, 1995 Munns Bjeirmi, 1996 Raz, 1993 Redmond, 1991). veritable literature on IT projects shows that most of the IT problems are not technical, they are of management, organisational or behavioral nature. (Johnston, 1995 Martin, 1994 Whitten, 1995).Fishers (1991) survey of technology firms showed that if project management improved, time and cost could be rock-bottom by more than 25% and profits would increase by more than 5%. This has since been validated by using different project management methodologies and analyzing the extent to which these practices can be adopted, based on internal benchmarking by the companies involved in the field trials.The UAE Market the UAE IT IndustryUAE has realise d the significance of project management in the IT imputable to its rapid proceeds in the IT industry. As evaluate by Business Monitor International (BMI), the come up size of it of the UAE IT market is to increase from some US$3.4bn in 2007 to close to US$4bn in 2012. With IT a key element of the Emirates development, a number of major local and federal government initiatives together with a potent and diversifying scrimping should ensure continued egression over the count period. Mean epoch, the oil-led dash crosswise the Middle East impart continue to be a come along to IT and infrastructure elapseing in the UAE. (Marketresearch.com, 2007)As per the BMI report, the federal government is also encouraging the development of smart cities, another regional trend. In 2007 the government announced that its target of getting 90% of businesses online by the end of the year was likely to be met. Services are becoming an progressively significant component of many deploymen t contracts, as evidenced by recent projects by preeminent UAE corporations such(prenominal) as Emirates Airlines and the local telecom provider Etisalat. enthronization is expected to be strongest in the government, financial, and oil and gas verticals. otherwise key non-oil sectors driving the economy include banking and finance, which are likely to be the single(a) largest industry vertical in basis of IT investments over the prognosis period. actually estate has also experienced a massive investment crush in the past five years, and this is expected to continue and grow, with the case buzz reciprocation of Dubai projecting at least US$50bn in outlays in dimension development in the emirate by 2010. (Mindbranch.com, 2007)Industry outgrowthsThe BMI report states that the UAE federal governments deep announced UAE Strategic Plan calls for a strengthening of e-government broadcasts. The focus of the programme is to support implementation of programmes at federal governme nt level. The federal government ministries have often lagged behind progress by the leading local governments, particularly Dubai. As such, Dubai government, which has had many of its departments and services online for some time, testament tot expertise to the project.However, local government continues to dominate and accounts for somewhat 20% of total IT Services spending. Dubai Municipality announced that it expects to spend anything between US$1.6mn and US$2.2mn per year over the next few years implementing its plan of getting 90% of government services online. It is likely the organisation will spend at least US$2.8mn annually on e-government initiatives. Abu Dhabi is accelerating its efforts to emulate Dubai, led by the Abu Dhabi Systems and selective information committee (ADSEIC), a body created in 2005 to develop and drive initiatives to transform government services in the Emirate. (Marketresearch.com, 2007)From the above trend, it can be observed that the number of IT jobs in UAE has gone up by 5000 percent since 2005. This goes to show how promptly the UAE IT Industry has cock-a-hoop in the past three years and that it is still going strong.Competitive LandscapeAccording to BMI, with government accounting for as much as 40% of IT spending, and e-government programmes alone almost half that, vendors are continuing to find opportunities. Recently the Ministry of Development for the brass sector signed a strategic transcription with Microsoft disjunction whereby Microsoft will support federal e-government programmes with training and technical support. Under the agreement Ministries will also use legal Microsoft software. Meanwhile, the leading body for Abu Dhabis e-government programme, the Abu Dhabi Systems and Information Committee (ADSIC) signed an Enterprise Licence Agreement with seer. The agreement establishes seer as a key technology partner and provides for the Abu Dhabi Government to profane Oracle software solutions and su pport and maintenance services.The continuing growth in PC sales in 2007 in the UAE did not significantly motley the competitive landscape of a market which accounts for approximately 40% of the overall regional PC sales. Today the market remains dominated by world-wide players such as Acer, Dell and HP with the top five brands accounting for more than 50% of the market. Meanwhile, the share held by local assemblers continues to dwindle, collectable in part to their relative weakness in the growth area of notebooks. However, local assemblers hope that their future will be brighter since UAE-based firms such as peddle Electronics have already been fighting back. (Mindbranch.com, 2007)HardwareThe UAE hardware market is estimated at about US$1.4bn in 2007, which shows a 12% growth from US$1.2bn in 2006, and is one of the largest in the region. Much of the growth is cod to small and medium effort spending, particular on mobile computers, which are expected to account for around 60 % of sales over the fancy period. Notebooks are also proving to be popular with the consumer segment, particularly with the introduction of features such as integrated wi-fi, webcam and entertainment features such as HD DVD. Sales of PC notebooks and accessories have been expected to afford more than US$1bn by the end of 2008, while the escalate annual growth rate (CAGR) for the 2007 to 2012 period as a whole is expected to be in the region of 8%. Current and future investments in education and e-government, fuelled by new oil revenues, will lead to desktop rollouts in schools, colleges and government offices across the Emirates. (Marketresearch.com, 2007)SoftwareBMI estimates that the UAEs software spending will pass US$400mn in 2008, representing around 17% of the IT expenditure. CAGR for spending on packaged software is put at 10% over the 2007 to 2012 period, with the UAE being of the regions fastest-growing ERP markets, as more businesses realise the benefits of efficient ma nagement of resources within their internal processes.The UAE also has one of the regions lowest software plagiarization rates at just 35% according to the Business Software Association (BSA), which has praised the UAE government and Ministry of Economy for its efforts in promoting anti-piracy initiatives. The government has combated hot software in a number of ways, both through anti-piracy regulation and enforcement measures. node relationship management (CRM) will be one of the growth areas with fewer than 2% of small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Middle East region having a specialise CRM application in place. BMI predicts plenty of room for growth in the forecast period as numerous untapped sub-sectors still exist. keystone verticals include process manufacturing (mainly oil and gas), followed by the financial services industry. Two other key segments are the telecom and the public sectors. During the next five years high-growth categories are set to include C RM, enterprise resource planning (ERP) business intelligence, storage and security products. (Mindbranch.com, 2007)IT ServicesBMI expects that the IT Services market will reach a value of more than US$1,003mn by 2012, with outsourcing accounting for an more and more large portion of up to 25%. IT services revenues compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the 2006 to 2012 period is expected to be 10%, encouraging vendors to shift their focus away from simply shift boxes. Services are becoming an increasingly significant component of many deployment contracts, as evidenced by recent projects by leading UAE corporations such as Emirates Airlines and Etisalat. Outsourcing is also predicted to be a growing trend, with recent catchment basin outsourcing deals awarded by entities such as the Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority (ADWEA)and obliging service departments. Global vendors such as IBM Global Services are competing for its business with local companies such as Injazat Data Systems, which with its good government connections has bighearted to be a major force in the market, reporting BPO deals with 13 leading private and public organisations. (Marketresearch.com, 2007)E-ReadinessThe recent Global Information Technology report sponsored by Cisco noted the UAEs success in creating a good ICT environment by placing it top of the rankings for 122 countries. The survey, which looks at the penchant of countries to supplement the opportunities offered by ICT for development and increased competitiveness, praised the UAEs good regulatory environment, and go by government leadership in leveraging IT and promoting its use. According to the report, ICT has empowered individuals and revolutionised the business and stinting landscape while fostering social networks and companies.Overall meshwork perceptiveness in the UAE was estimated at close to 40% by the end of 2006, far above the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) average, reflecting the UAEs status as one of the most advanced IT countries in the middle-east. Broadband penetration is around 10% and is expected to rise 60% over the forecast period. In terms of e-government development, additional new phases to be introduced in the project exsert year (as mentioned in the Industry Developments section) include e-portal, e-project, the HR Management System (HRMS) and the monetary Management Integration System (FMIS) projects. The e-government High Committee has denotative blessedness with the progress made on implementation of the e-government initiative to date. (Mindbranch.com, 2007) push of Project Management on the UAE IT IndustryProject management has already had a significant impact on IT organisations in UAE and much more striking effects are anticipated for the years to come. Greater assist unavoidably to be paid to the interaction of information technology with business methods, work patterns, employees and organisational culture.It was observed that not too much of research work has been carried out on project management in the IT industry of UAE and this is the accurate reason why this study was conducted on the UAE market.LITERATURE REVIEWIf we built houses the way we build software, the first woodpecker to come along would destroy civilization. John J. Hamre, U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Phillips (2004) states that IT project management could be as as exciting as a white urine rafting parenthesis or as painful as a conciliate canal. In addition, Anthes (2008) points out that IT project management has always earned a high ranking on the annual list of IT managers worries, but in the first-half of the 2008 racy Signs survey, it took the No. 1 spot. In other words, the process is all about efficiently handling the complexities that come along with IT projects, right from the word go. The study aims to investigate on how difficult it is for organisations to manage IT projects efficiently.Richardson et al. (2006) claims that project failur e is based not only on economic criteria but also on requirements, cost and time parameters. He builds up his reasoning by citing examples of the following project surveys The Robbins-Gioia travel along (2001)The Conference Board Survey (2001)The KPMG Canada Survey (1997)The funny farm Report (1995)According to IT Cortex (2004), the results of these surveys showed that most of the organisations suffered from high project failure rates and that they heavily exceeded the time and budget constraints.Similarly, Schwalbe (2007) reports that IT projects come along with high failure risks. He defends his thoughts with a study which was conducted by the Standish group (CHAOS) in 1995. In the survey it was found that only 16.2% of IT projects were successful and over 31% were cancelled before completion, costing over US$81 billion in the US alone.However, when the CHAOS study was conducted again in 2001, the results showed improvements in all areas but still only 28% of IT projects succee ded.The 2001 Standish multitude report findings as compared to those of the 1995 report were as follows Time overruns significantly decreased from 222% to 163% personify overruns were down from 189% to 145%Required features and functions were up from 61% to 67% boffo IT projects rose from to 16% to 28%One of the objectives of this report is to prolong out similar work on finding the failure rates of IT projects but on the UAE market, one on which not much research has been carried out till date.In many previous studies, project failures due to time delay, cost overrun, and abandonment of IT projects have been widely reported (Bailey, 1996 Gibbs, 1994 Lucas, 1995 Martin, 1994 Ward, 1994). In other industries, causes of project failures are investigated and reports written, but in the IT industry their causes are each covered up or ignored. As a consequence, the IT industry keeps reiterate the same mistakes over and over again (Johnston, 1995). This report takes this a step furth er by observing what per centum of IT organisations in UAE commit in maintaining project reports and lessons learned logs for their subsequent projects.In many previous studies, the most commonly reported causes of IT project failure were traced out. They were as follows (based on a content analysis of the cited literature)Misunderstood requirements (business, technical, and social) (King, 1995 Lane, Palko, Cronan, 1994 Lavence, 1996)Optimistic schedules and budgets (Martin, 1994)Inadequate risk sound judgement and management (Johnston, 1995)Inconsistent standards and lack of training in project management (Jones, 1994 OConner Reinsborough, 1992 Phan, Vogel, Nunamaker, 1995)Management of resources (people more than hardware and technology) (Johnston, 1995 Martin, 1994 Ward, 1994)Unclear charter for a project (Lavence, 1996)Lack of communication (Demery, 1995 Gioia, 1996 Hartman, 2000 Walsh Kanter, 1988).On the other hand, Karten studies reasons for failure by hive away a lis t of ten ways that can warrantee project failure Abbreviate the planning processDont ask what if? calumniate guest involvementSelect police squad members by seeing who is acquirable no matter of skillWork people long and hardDont inform management of problemsAllow changes at any pointDiscourage questions from team membersDont give customers progress reportsDont compare project progress with project estimatesHowever, this survey goes a bit deeper and also explores the role of project management methodologies and process groups in helping deliver successful projects. The project management frameworks which are rapidly gaining recognition are ITIL, PMBOK and PRINCE2 (Phillips, 2004).Although Leuenberger (2007) considers ITIL to be one of the worlds best ways to order IT with business objectives,he also claims that his research conducted through IDC shows points out that 60% of mid-sized businesses in Australia either are unaware of, or have no plans to implement ITIL and also tha t on a global scale, only 20% of the mid-market companies are currently using ITIL.In contrast to ITIL, PMI claims that it has grown to function the most widely recognized and the only global affirmation for the project management profession with more than 260,000 members in over 171 countries.The survey aims to study the UAE IT industry and clarify such claims made by authors and institutes so that the growth of IT project governance methodologies can in an IT industry of a easy economy can be analyzed.Bainey (2004) states that so many IT projects unravel to go over budget, run behind schedule, and deliver products or services woeful in quality due to the negligence of consolidation, consistency and standardization. The report builds up on this by going ahead and investigating the significance of integration management for project managers.Harris (2005) asserts that it is high time that the PMO function is pose in its proper organisational alignment. He believes that not on ly can it harmonize the incorporated planning process with effective delivery of products and services but also provide external clients with traditional client services for the enterprise as a whole or for respective enterprise business unitReview of IT Project Management Practices in the UAEReview of IT Project Management Practices in the UAEA Study on the UAE IT IndustryABSTRACTI keep six honest serving men, (They taught me all I know)Their names are What and Why and When And How and Where and Who.-Rudyard KiplingThis report presents findings of a research project that explored the distinct approaches of UAE-based IT organisations in following different project management practices to deal with their IT projects. Not too much of project management data on UAE IT industry exists today. Therefore it was decided to do a study on it. The research findings are based on a questionnaire survey conducted between July and August 2008 among 200 organisations of UAE. A total of 48 valid r esponses were received, representing an overall response rate of 24%.The study achieved a primary aim of explanatory and constructivist research, which is to enhance knowledge and understanding of a phenomenon. An emergent-based, general systems approach was adopted for the whole project. General System theory is a holistic and analytical approach to solving complex problems. It recognizes relativity of perception and is a general science of wholeness (Bertalanffy, 1968). The theory was used to break down the whole research technique into various components yet still maintaining the integrity of the research objective.A key finding was the high amount of failure risks that came along with IT projects. In addition, it was found that project management added a lot of value to IT projects and if carried out efficiently it could help avoid the failure risks.A surprise discovery was that although most of the organisations valued project management a lot, they did not have a dedicated Pro ject Management Office (PMO) in place. Further, it was found out that high involvement of external organisations could be one of the factors responsible for the high amount of risks involved with IT projects. It was observed that 25% of the project managers were not aware of the project management maturity levels of their organisations. Project managers seemed to have tough times managing time, cost and risk in IT projects. Also, most of the organisations did not believe in recording the lessons learned and hence knowledge was not transferred to the new projects from the previous ones.Strong indicators probably exist to warrant further research into investigating the basic reasons behind a high percentage of failed IT projects. Further research into the relationship between project management methodology and project success seems warranted on behalf of the indicators provided by the respondents.INTRODUCTIONI have not failed. Ive just found 10,000 ways that wont work.-Thomas Alva Edi son (1847-1931)If your project doesnt work, look for the part that you didnt think was importantArthur BlochThe significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. -Albert Einstein (1879-1955)The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.-Bill GatesThe Roman bridges of antiquity were very inefficient structures. By modern standards, they used toomuch stone, and as a result, far too much labor to build. Over the years we have learned to build bridgesmore efficiently, using fewer materials and less labor to perform the same task. -Tom Clancy (The Sum of All Fears)In 1986, Alfred Spector, president of Transarc Corporation, stated that bridge building could be compared to software development. He added, The premise Bridges are usually built on-time, on-budget, and do not collapse. On the other hand, software never comes in on-budget or on-time. Also, it always breaks down.One of the biggest reasons why bridges come in on-time, on-budget and do not collapse is because their designs are extremely detailed. Once the designing phase is over, it is then frozen and the contractor has very little flexibility in changing the specifications. However, in todays fast moving business environment, having a frozen design in place means no changes in the business practices. Therefore efforts must be made to use a more flexible model. This could be and has been used as an explanation for development failure.But beside 3,000 years of experience, there is another difference between software failures and bridge collapses. When a bridge collapses, investigation is carried out and a report is written on the cause of the failure. It is not so in the IT industry where failures are covered up, ignored, and/or rationalized. As a result, the same mistak es are repeated over and over again.According to the Standish Group report, more than $250 billion is spent every year on IT application development of approximately 175,000 projects in the United States. The average cost of a development project for a small company is $434,000 for a medium company, it is $1,331,000 and for a large company, it is $2,322,000. A great number of these projects will fail. IT projects have always known to be in chaos.The research showed that a staggering 31.1% of projects got canceled before they ever got completed. Further results indicated that 52.7% of projects had cost 189% of their original estimates. The cost of these failures and overruns were just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The lost opportunity costs were not measurable, but could easily be in trillions of dollars. The extent of this problem can be realized by looking at example of the City of Denver. The failure to produce reliable software to handle luggage at the new Denver airport was costing the city $1.1 million per day.Based on this research, in 1995 American companies and government agencies spent $81 billion for canceled software projects. These same organisations paid an additional $59 billion for software projects that were completed, but had exceed their original time estimates. Risk is always a factor when pushing the technology envelope, but many of these projects were as ordinary as a driving license database, a new accounting package, or an order entry system.On the success side, the average was only 16.2% for software projects that were completed on-time and on-budget. In the larger companies, the news was even worse only 9% of their projects came in on-time and on-budget. And, even when these projects were completed, many were no more than a mere shadow of their original specification requirements. Projects completed by the largest American companies had only approximately 42% of the originally-proposed features and functions which goes to show tha t these projects lacked scope management. Smaller companies fared much better in this aspect. 78.4% of their software projects got deployed with at least 74.2% of their original features and functions.48% of the IT executives in the research sample felt that there were more failures during that period than those five years ago. But it was also observed that over 50% felt that there were fewer or the same number of failures at that point of time than there were five and ten years ago.So the Standish Group reported an improvement in IT project success rates and claimed that it was due to an increased ability to know when to cancel failing projects. Standish Group Chairman Jim Johnson commented The real improvement that I saw was in our ability to-in the worlds of Thomas Edison-know when to stop beating a dead horseEdisons key to success was that he failed fairly often but as he said, he could recognize a dead horse before it started to smellIn information technology we ride dead horse s-failing projects-a long time before we give up. But what we are seeing now is that we are able to get off them able to reduce cost overrun and time overrun. Thats where the major impact came on the success rate. (Cabanis, 1998)There is a new or renewed interest in project management today as the number of projects continues to grow and their complexity continues to rise. As already observed, the success rate of IT projects has more than doubled since 1995, but still only about a third are successful in meeting scope, cost, and time goals. More and more projects and organisations can succeed consistently by adopting a more disciplined approach to managing projects.Research ObjectivesThis study provides first-hand information on success and failure rates of IT projects in the UAE and on distinct approaches and methodologies followed by all different kinds of IT organisations in governing IT projects. It also aims to survey attitudes of organisations towards distinct project manageme nt processes like cost management, time management, risk management, etc. and establish a future direction for organisations so that they realize the value of the most significant process groups of project management and do not neglect them in the forthcoming projects.It could be useful in the following four areas (1) it can be helpful for relevant government departments in preparing strategies for project management in the IT industry (2) it can promote the awareness of commercial benefits of project management among managers in IT companies of UAE and encourage them to seriously consider project management in their businesses (3) it can increase the competence and confidence in applying project management by local companies by providing management guidance on the selection and development of project management methodologies and (4) it can be beneficial to the educational institutions of UAE for teaching and conducting further research on information technology project management. According to the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS), the IT industry consists of three primary sub-sectors firstly, Technology Software Services, including companies that primarily develop software in various fields such as the Internet, applications, systems, databases management and/or home entertainment, and companies that provide information technology consulting and services, as well as data processing and outsourced services secondly Technology Hardware Equipment, including manufacturers and distributors of communications equipment, computers and peripherals, electronic equipment and related instruments and thirdly, Semiconductors Semiconductor Equipment Manufacturers. This particular report is confined to the use of project management among the areas of Technology Software Services and Technology Hardware Equipment only. The research was not conducted on the Semiconductors Semiconductor Equipment Manufacturers in UAE.Contents of this ReportChapter Two intro duces project management and its significance for any business sector. It then demonstrates the rapid growth in adoption of project management in IT projects. This is followed by a synopsis of the UAE market and the UAE IT industry. The chapter ends signifying the impact of project management on the UAE IT industry. Chapter Three expands on the significance of project management as viewed through academic literature. This outlines how project management is known to add value to IT projects and some characteristics observed by organisations that have gone through the process of formalizing project management (Center for Business Practices). Using past works of the last 20 years, it also highlights the most predominant factors responsible for high failures rates of IT projects. This is followed by views of authors on various project management process groups and methodologies.Having discussed not only the pros of project management but also the problems faced during the entire process , Chapter Four is concerned with the research methodology and detailed analysis of the survey conducted. Chapter Five brings out the key survey findings in detail and compares these with the literature surveyed in Chapter Two indicating the extent to which the survey findings break new ground.Chapter Six builds up on the key findings outlined here, their practical implications, and a look towards how this research could be developed. This includes a brief description of limitations of this study and of recommendations on how these limitations could be overcome in subsequent studies.BACKGROUNDProject management is the most critical business skill and competency of today that forms the basic building block of a knowledge based company for businesses and professions in oil and gas, petroleum, petrochemicals, chemicals, metal and mining, infrastructures, buildings, IT, Healthcare, Finance, Telecoms, Manufacturing, and many more services and banking industries. Project management was dec lared to be the best career on earth by the Fortune magazine. Recently, PMI reported that nowadays more and more organisations and government agencies are adopting and making project management a strategic competency.Information systems (IS) and information technologies (IT) are the fastest growing industries in developed and most of the developing countries. Huge amounts of money are still being invested in these industries (Abdel-Hamid Madnick, 1990). Every organisation wants to gain a competitive advantage, maintain it and lead from the front. Hence, there is a corresponding pressure to increase productivity. To maintain a competitive edge in todays fast-changing world, the success of an organisation depends on effectively developing and adopting information systems.According to Zells (1994) and other studies, approximately 85% of IT projects under-taken in the western countries are at the lowest level of capability maturity model (CMM). The challenges at this level are to have project planning, project management, configuration management, and quality assurance in place and have them working effectively. To improve project delivery performance, a number of organisations are adopting project management approaches and setting up project management offices (Barnes, 1991 Butterfield Edwards, 1994 King, 1995 Munns Bjeirmi, 1996 Raz, 1993 Redmond, 1991).Current literature on IT projects shows that most of the IT problems are not technical, they are of management, organisational or behavioral nature. (Johnston, 1995 Martin, 1994 Whitten, 1995).Fishers (1991) survey of technology firms showed that if project management improved, time and cost could be reduced by more than 25% and profits would increase by more than 5%. This has since been validated by using different project management methodologies and analyzing the extent to which these practices can be adopted, based on internal benchmarking by the companies involved in the field trials.The UAE Market the U AE IT IndustryUAE has realised the significance of project management in the IT due to its rapid growth in the IT industry. As expected by Business Monitor International (BMI), the total size of the UAE IT market is to increase from around US$3.4bn in 2007 to close to US$4bn in 2012. With IT a key element of the Emirates development, a number of major local and federal government initiatives together with a strong and diversifying economy should ensure continued growth over the forecast period. Meanwhile, the oil-led boom across the Middle East will continue to be a boost to IT and infrastructure spending in the UAE. (Marketresearch.com, 2007)As per the BMI report, the federal government is also encouraging the development of smart cities, another regional trend. In 2007 the government announced that its target of getting 90% of businesses online by the end of the year was likely to be met. Services are becoming an increasingly significant component of many deployment contracts, as evidenced by recent projects by leading UAE corporations such as Emirates Airlines and the local telecom provider Etisalat.Investment is expected to be strongest in the government, financial, and oil and gas verticals. Other key non-oil sectors driving the economy include banking and finance, which are likely to be the single largest industry vertical in terms of IT investments over the forecast period. Real estate has also experienced a massive investment boom in the past five years, and this is expected to continue and grow, with the National Bank of Dubai projecting at least US$50bn in outlays in property development in the emirate by 2010. (Mindbranch.com, 2007)Industry DevelopmentsThe BMI report states that the UAE federal governments recently announced UAE Strategic Plan calls for a strengthening of e-government programmes. The focus of the programme is to support implementation of programmes at federal government level. The federal government ministries have often lagged behi nd progress by the leading local governments, particularly Dubai. As such, Dubai government, which has had many of its departments and services online for some time, will lend expertise to the project.However, local government continues to dominate and accounts for around 20% of total IT Services spending. Dubai Municipality announced that it expects to spend anything between US$1.6mn and US$2.2mn per year over the next few years implementing its plan of getting 90% of government services online. It is likely the organisation will spend at least US$2.8mn annually on e-government initiatives. Abu Dhabi is accelerating its efforts to emulate Dubai, led by the Abu Dhabi Systems and Information Committee (ADSEIC), a body created in 2005 to develop and drive initiatives to transform government services in the Emirate. (Marketresearch.com, 2007)From the above trend, it can be observed that the number of IT jobs in UAE has gone up by 5000 percent since 2005. This goes to show how rapidly t he UAE IT Industry has grown in the past three years and that it is still going strong.Competitive LandscapeAccording to BMI, with government accounting for as much as 40% of IT spending, and e-government programmes alone around half that, vendors are continuing to find opportunities. Recently the Ministry of Development for the Government sector signed a strategic agreement with Microsoft Gulf whereby Microsoft will support federal e-government programmes with training and technical support. Under the agreement Ministries will also use legal Microsoft software. Meanwhile, the leading body for Abu Dhabis e-government programme, the Abu Dhabi Systems and Information Committee (ADSIC) signed an Enterprise Licence Agreement with Oracle. The agreement establishes Oracle as a key technology partner and provides for the Abu Dhabi Government to buy Oracle software solutions and support and maintenance services.The continuing growth in PC sales in 2007 in the UAE did not significantly alter the competitive landscape of a market which accounts for approximately 40% of the overall regional PC sales. Today the market remains dominated by international players such as Acer, Dell and HP with the top five brands accounting for more than 50% of the market. Meanwhile, the share held by local assemblers continues to dwindle, due in part to their relative weakness in the growth area of notebooks. However, local assemblers hope that their future will be brighter since UAE-based firms such as Sky Electronics have already been fighting back. (Mindbranch.com, 2007)HardwareThe UAE hardware market is estimated at about US$1.4bn in 2007, which shows a 12% growth from US$1.2bn in 2006, and is one of the largest in the region. Much of the growth is due to small and medium enterprise spending, particular on mobile computers, which are expected to account for around 60% of sales over the forecast period. Notebooks are also proving to be popular with the consumer segment, particularly with the introduction of features such as integrated wi-fi, webcam and entertainment features such as HD DVD. Sales of PC notebooks and accessories have been expected to reach more than US$1bn by the end of 2008, while the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for the 2007 to 2012 period as a whole is expected to be in the region of 8%. Current and future investments in education and e-government, fuelled by new oil revenues, will lead to desktop rollouts in schools, colleges and government offices across the Emirates. (Marketresearch.com, 2007)SoftwareBMI estimates that the UAEs software spending will pass US$400mn in 2008, representing around 17% of the IT expenditure. CAGR for spending on packaged software is put at 10% over the 2007 to 2012 period, with the UAE being of the regions fastest-growing ERP markets, as more businesses realise the benefits of efficient management of resources within their internal processes.The UAE also has one of the regions lowest software piracy rates at j ust 35% according to the Business Software Association (BSA), which has praised the UAE government and Ministry of Economy for its efforts in promoting anti-piracy initiatives. The government has combated illegal software in a number of ways, both through anti-piracy legislation and enforcement measures. Customer relationship management (CRM) will be one of the growth areas with fewer than 2% of small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Middle East region having a specialised CRM application in place. BMI predicts plenty of room for growth in the forecast period as numerous untapped sub-sectors still exist. Key verticals include process manufacturing (mainly oil and gas), followed by the financial services industry. Two other key segments are the telecom and the public sectors. During the next five years high-growth categories are set to include CRM, enterprise resource planning (ERP) business intelligence, storage and security products. (Mindbranch.com, 2007)IT ServicesBMI e xpects that the IT Services market will reach a value of more than US$1,003mn by 2012, with outsourcing accounting for an increasingly large portion of up to 25%. IT services revenues compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the 2006 to 2012 period is expected to be 10%, encouraging vendors to shift their focus away from simply shifting boxes. Services are becoming an increasingly significant component of many deployment contracts, as evidenced by recent projects by leading UAE corporations such as Emirates Airlines and Etisalat. Outsourcing is also predicted to be a growing trend, with recent landmark outsourcing deals awarded by entities such as the Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority (ADWEA)and civil service departments. Global vendors such as IBM Global Services are competing for its business with local companies such as Injazat Data Systems, which with its good government connections has grown to be a major force in the market, reporting BPO deals with 13 leading private a nd public organisations. (Marketresearch.com, 2007)E-ReadinessThe recent Global Information Technology report sponsored by Cisco noted the UAEs success in creating a good ICT environment by placing it top of the rankings for 122 countries. The survey, which looks at the preference of countries to leverage the opportunities offered by ICT for development and increased competitiveness, praised the UAEs good regulatory environment, and clear government leadership in leveraging IT and promoting its use. According to the report, ICT has empowered individuals and revolutionised the business and economic landscape while fostering social networks and companies.Overall internet penetration in the UAE was estimated at close to 40% by the end of 2006, far above the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) average, reflecting the UAEs status as one of the most advanced IT countries in the middle-east. Broadband penetration is around 10% and is expected to rise 60% over the forecast period. In terms of e-government development, additional new phases to be introduced in the project last year (as mentioned in the Industry Developments section) include e-portal, e-project, the HR Management System (HRMS) and the Financial Management Integration System (FMIS) projects. The e-government High Committee has expressed satisfaction with the progress made on implementation of the e-government initiative to date. (Mindbranch.com, 2007)Impact of Project Management on the UAE IT IndustryProject management has already had a significant impact on IT organisations in UAE and much more dramatic effects are anticipated for the years to come. Greater attention needs to be paid to the interaction of information technology with business methods, work patterns, employees and organisational culture.It was observed that not too much of research work has been carried out on project management in the IT industry of UAE and this is the precise reason why this study was conducted on the UAE market.LITERAT URE REVIEWIf we built houses the way we build software, the first woodpecker to come along would destroy civilization. John J. Hamre, U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Phillips (2004) states that IT project management could be as as exciting as a white water rafting excursion or as painful as a root canal. In addition, Anthes (2008) points out that IT project management has always earned a high ranking on the annual list of IT managers worries, but in the first-half of the 2008 Vital Signs survey, it took the No. 1 spot. In other words, the process is all about efficiently handling the complexities that come along with IT projects, right from the word go. The study aims to investigate on how difficult it is for organisations to manage IT projects efficiently.Richardson et al. (2006) claims that project failure is based not only on economic criteria but also on requirements, cost and time parameters. He builds up his reasoning by citing examples of the following project surveys The Robbi ns-Gioia Survey (2001)The Conference Board Survey (2001)The KPMG Canada Survey (1997)The Chaos Report (1995)According to IT Cortex (2004), the results of these surveys showed that most of the organisations suffered from high project failure rates and that they heavily exceeded the time and budget constraints.Similarly, Schwalbe (2007) reports that IT projects come along with high failure risks. He defends his thoughts with a study which was conducted by the Standish Group (CHAOS) in 1995. In the survey it was found that only 16.2% of IT projects were successful and over 31% were cancelled before completion, costing over US$81 billion in the US alone.However, when the CHAOS study was conducted again in 2001, the results showed improvements in all areas but still only 28% of IT projects succeeded.The 2001 Standish Group report findings as compared to those of the 1995 report were as follows Time overruns significantly decreased from 222% to 163%Cost overruns were down from 189% to 145 %Required features and functions were up from 61% to 67%Successful IT projects rose from to 16% to 28%One of the objectives of this report is to carry out similar work on finding the failure rates of IT projects but on the UAE market, one on which not much research has been carried out till date.In many previous studies, project failures due to time delay, cost overrun, and abandonment of IT projects have been widely reported (Bailey, 1996 Gibbs, 1994 Lucas, 1995 Martin, 1994 Ward, 1994). In other industries, causes of project failures are investigated and reports written, but in the IT industry their causes are either covered up or ignored. As a consequence, the IT industry keeps repeating the same mistakes over and over again (Johnston, 1995). This report takes this a step further by observing what percentage of IT organisations in UAE believe in maintaining project reports and lessons learned logs for their subsequent projects.In many previous studies, the most commonly reported causes of IT project failure were traced out. They were as follows (based on a content analysis of the cited literature)Misunderstood requirements (business, technical, and social) (King, 1995 Lane, Palko, Cronan, 1994 Lavence, 1996)Optimistic schedules and budgets (Martin, 1994)Inadequate risk assessment and management (Johnston, 1995)Inconsistent standards and lack of training in project management (Jones, 1994 OConner Reinsborough, 1992 Phan, Vogel, Nunamaker, 1995)Management of resources (people more than hardware and technology) (Johnston, 1995 Martin, 1994 Ward, 1994)Unclear charter for a project (Lavence, 1996)Lack of communication (Demery, 1995 Gioia, 1996 Hartman, 2000 Walsh Kanter, 1988).On the other hand, Karten studies reasons for failure by compiling a list of ten ways that can guarantee project failure Abbreviate the planning processDont ask what if?Minimize customer involvementSelect team members by seeing who is available regardless of skillWork people long and h ardDont inform management of problemsAllow changes at any pointDiscourage questions from team membersDont give customers progress reportsDont compare project progress with project estimatesHowever, this survey goes a bit deeper and also explores the role of project management methodologies and process groups in helping deliver successful projects. The project management frameworks which are rapidly gaining recognition are ITIL, PMBOK and PRINCE2 (Phillips, 2004).Although Leuenberger (2007) considers ITIL to be one of the worlds best ways to align IT with business objectives,he also claims that his research conducted through IDC shows points out that 60% of mid-sized businesses in Australia either are unaware of, or have no plans to implement ITIL and also that on a global scale, only 20% of the mid-market companies are currently using ITIL.In contrast to ITIL, PMI claims that it has grown to become the most widely recognized and the only global certification for the project manage ment profession with more than 260,000 members in over 171 countries.The survey aims to study the UAE IT industry and clarify such claims made by authors and institutes so that the growth of IT project governance methodologies can in an IT industry of a booming economy can be analyzed.Bainey (2004) states that so many IT projects tend to go over budget, run behind schedule, and deliver products or services poor in quality due to the negligence of integration, consistency and standardization. The report builds up on this by going ahead and investigating the significance of integration management for project managers.Harris (2005) asserts that it is high time that the PMO function is placed in its proper organisational alignment. He believes that not only can it combine the corporate planning process with effective delivery of products and services but also provide external clients with traditional client services for the enterprise as a whole or for respective enterprise business uni t
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