On the Job Training Essay Example for Free

On the Job Training Essay It also benefits the students to acquire relevant knowledge and skills by performing in actual work setting. Colleges and universities require their students to undergo such training within a specific number of hours as part of the curriculum. It provides opportunities to go through the actual methodologies of a specific job using the real tools, equipments and documents. In effect, the workplace becomes a development venue for a student trainee to learn more about his chosen field and practice what he has learn from university. Supervised Industrial Training is an important opportunity for students to seed their careers in a particular industry; or alternately, it may help students to clarify which sector of the industry they wish to pursue a career in. It works to develop an individual’s sense of professionalism by experiencing firsthand the industrys culture and practices; learning from professionals their roles and responsibilities as active professionals. It is here our technical skills as well as our ability to take on and handle given responsibilities and make sound decisions that will strengthen our prospects. It is therefore not uncommon for us students who rise to the challenge to be offered a continuing position after their initial supervised industrial training period. Alternatively, an efficient OJT program furthermore benefits the companies who accommodate trainees. Initially OJT or intern offer further manpower for a slighter compensation than a regular member of staff. Majority of them are all dedicated to be trained so probabilities are high that they will cooperate. Managers can make use of this internship strategy as a scheme in recruiting new employees. Given that the supervisor can keep an eye on the trainees’ development, he/she can determine based on performance, actions and approach if the trainee will make an excellent recruit after the completion of his internship. In Addition, OJT’s are capable to convey bright fact into the group. Known the chance to verbalize their mind liberally and with no apprehension, they perhaps able to contribute substantially in suggestion gathering or research and sooner or later help develop the company’s productivity. At the same time as teaching the interns, supervisors are actually also training their member of staff to development of guiding the trainees broaden their persistence, widen teaching expertise and make them supplementary aware to the requirements and state of mind of the adolescent. The path of supervision as well explains them how to contribute what they know and be sympathetic to enquiry. For this reason, the internship additionally turns out to be an opportunity in training for the future managers of the company. Obliging on SIT can exceptionally be beneficial not only to the trainees but also to the companies that endow with opportunities for this kind of learning. This is also why trainees should undergo their SIT seriously as it may turn out to be a dominant tool and perhaps even a basis of proposal as soon as they acquire that huge raise for being students to career professionals. But most important of all, it is one of the best training methods because it is planned, organized, and conducted at the actual worksite. SIT will generally be the primary method used for broadening trainee skills and increasing productivity. It is particularly appropriate for developing proficiency skills unique to an employees job especially jobs that are relatively requires knowledge and skills to learn and the attitude and whole personality of the student to deal with his superiors, co-workers and subordinates. Morale, productivity, and professionalism will normally be high in those students that undergone SIT program. Thus, these acclimatized qualities will be used by the students to be successful in life. VNR Construction, a company where I’m assigned to learn and experience the construction/development process. VNR Construction was registered with the Department of Trade and Industries in 1999. It is a company and Industry of Engineering and Architecture. Their main line of business is in building construction, labor supply, and steel fabrications. Their project range from private residential buildings to medium rise office towers. This is owned by ENGR. Nelson Remulla, a licensed Electrical Engineer. Company Vision is to have Professionalism on the system of delivering services, and provide quality, competitive price of every undertakings and to deliver the highest level of satisfaction to the clients. VNR had established its name for its quality of work and excellent after sale service which gained for the company the confidence of its clients, likewise due to its flexible organization the company can offer competitive price for its services. Main Mission is to be known as one of the well systematic Construction Company in the field of Planning and Development, It will achieve only in compliance with its quality management system, dedication to their customer, service enhancement, and commitment to serve. II. Job performed in the Company May 21, 2012, it was the date when I first started my day as an OJT at VNR Construction. It is a construction company which is sited at 4th floor VNR business center, Governor’s drive, Langkaan I, City of Dasmarinas Cavite. I was designated at the department called Purchasing Department. This department serves as the central purveyor of tools, equipments, and materials that is necessary to site. Furthermore, at this department, its major task is to hit upon good supplier which supplies good quality of materials at reasonable cost and need to deliver immediately to not have a delay in construction. It must not have delays to maintain the production stream smoothly and prevent waste of time and money. On the first week of my training, I started my work as an assistant and an aid of Mr. John Paolo Modesto – Head of Purchasing Department. He first taught me the pace of purchasing department, rules and regulation, and what is the blend of coffee that my boss likes. I him help arranging company’s documents, photocopy of files, estimate, and answering phone calls. Being an assistant is bland; assuming that it was the only work that I will do for the rest of my OJT. On the second week of my training, it was an honor for me that Engineer has given me a chance to go along on tour with our client. While we are on the trip, I saw how engineer deals with our client. As time goes by, I get used to be a purchaser. My supervisor was trained me to have good communication skills with our suppliers and visitor. He also trained me how to communicate with other supplier to do business with to lowest price possible we could get from them without sacrificing the quality of material we will purchase from them. It is also my task to encode in my database all the materials that have been delivered, to monitor the materials cost in each site. . It is also our task to do monetary report of all projects. So that Engineer can visualize what is happening on every project. We tried our best to come up with 100% accuracy in our report. On the third week of my training, I feel I already worked just like a regular employee of the company. Starting on that time, I feel I was not an assistant or a helper any longer just like on my first day of OJT, but one of trusted personnel on the department. It was privilege to me that my supervisor has trusted to make material request form, purchase request form, purchase order form, transmittals, cash advance of workers, and endorsed me some of important files. It is also an honor to me that the company teaches me how to handle subordinates appropriately. Sometimes I go along with the driver and helper to monitor their progress, to deliver the cash advance/payroll of the workers, to know the concerns of the site, and site inspection to examine the materials that has to be delivered. On the following week of my training, while I was assigned as a purchaser, the company transfer me in the construction department. At that time, I am very excited to work with site because since the first day of my OJT I wish that I would designate to site. At the first day in the site everything is new, new environment, new task, and new supervisor. Furthermore, I struggled to adopt in my new department because from being a purchaser that I accustomed with, I now work as an assistant of Mr. Junmhar Reyes (one of the three professionals site supervisor of VNR). We are assigned in 3rd floor of VNR business center, 1 floor lower from our office, our task to renovate an existing call center and make it a world class piece. I also have a hard time to fulfil all the responsibilities that was hand over to me like monitoring all the works of the worker to check if their work is followed according to plan and correct, making the daily accomplishment report and attendance of workers, and check our material balances. A month later, we were assigned in a new project in Devine Grace Medical Center located in Rosario, Cavite, again it is an existing 7th floor building but the 6th and 7th floor has no room partition because the said two floors is an extension so that the hospital can accommodate more patients. This time it’s more challenging not only because it is far away from our office, not only the site is much larger than our previous project, but because of we have to impressed and show the board how passionate, motivated, and world class output in our work. My supervisor, which is an expert in his field, taught me different techniques, approach, and all the things that he is knowledgeable with. Time came when my supervisor ask me to handle workers. That time is when I used what was taught to me by the company. Being an apprentice on that kind of department was really remarkable. All the techniques that were shared to me will help me a lot for my future career. III. Experience Earned After finishing the required 640 hours of duty for the company, I had may lessons Learned. The ten guidelines for a successful result of work are: 1. Take Risks   Do not be afraid to take risks. Where is the fun in that? If you want something, go for it! Do not try and justify every action you make. Sometimes, all you have to do is to take that big leap! We usually allow ourselves to settle at what is safe and secure and yet we end up wondering at all the â€Å"what if’s? and â€Å"what could have been’s? This is more logical than waiting for opportunity to knock on your door which may or may never come. 3. Have a Plan   Always have a plan. This is the best way to stay on track with your goals. Set a milestone which will provide as your visual in what you are working for, what you have successfully achieved, and what you need to do better. 4. Stay Motivated   When you’re too busy getting what you want you also exhausts all your energies with it and this becomes critical because this is usually the reason why we lose the battle. Half-way through, we get tired and lose the desire to go on. It is important to stay motivated. Remind yourself with the reasons as to why you are working hard. Read motivational quotes and articles. Assure yourself that every effort exerted will eventually pay-off in the long run. 5. Be Patient   Always remember that attaining goals almost always takes time. Be kind to yourself and the people around you because everything is actually a process in working your way up the ladder each day. 8. Reward yourself   As you surpass every milestone try and treat yourself for a job well done. 7. Do not Stop Learning   You may feel that you have already become an expert in your field when you’ve been working on it for so long. But this shouldn’t be the reason why you should stop learning. Keep innovating! New ideas and new ventures help keep the fire burning! 8. Learn to Delegate   When you are getting close to your goals you will find out that there are many more things to do than hours in the day. Find someone to help take some of your load so you can focus on things that need your full attention. 9. Raise your Standards   Always learn to â€Å"Step-up! † Increase your standard and strive for more! Not only with your accomplishments but also with your trials and your failures. It will keep you humble, which in turn, will help you continue striving for success. Training inside the company the company is a learning experience each day. I learned how to appreciate the lessons studied in school. I was able to realize the important principles, theories, and concepts that were discussed inside the classroom. And also I understand that everything that was thought inside the school especially in our laboratory shops class can be a tool that can be used in future career. Like me as an Architecture Technology student, how can I understand and read a whole plan if I don’t know anything about the basic of architecture. Second, how can I use the Autocad and Google Sketch Up if I haven’t experience them using in school. Lastly, How can I give proper reports if no has tried to teach how to use all the Microsoft office programs. No doubt, my school Technological University of the Philippines – Cavite Campus teaches me to the career I’ve chose. There once told me that the knowledge we learn for our school is only 10% of what we must learn and the 90% is learn in actual job. And that’s what VNR Construction do; it fulfills all the remaining 90%. As I was working as a trainee at VNR construction, I learned to become a hard-working person. Time to complete the output product is not important, but the quality. I also learned to follow the instructions as what the superior’s said and to accept opinion that they suggested. The training served as the stepping stone to me to the real life of an architect. It served as the beginning the real life of being an employee. I realized that learning is a lifetime commitment that is continues even you already have a job. The training gave me more initiative to my chosen career. I was more encouraged to pursue the Architecture Technology course. The training inspired me to enhance my skills and knowledge in the field of architecture technology. I was given some ideas what could be the feeling or situation being an employee. The training enriched my individuality as a beginner and created the foundation of being a good worker. The best thing that I have gained inside the company was the good orientation of the person having the higher positions. As Architecture Technology student, the OJT made me realize the importance of the course that I am taking. It made me realize the essential role of a architect in a company. An architect can take the work of electrical and civil engineering, but, no other course can takes place the work architect in a company. To be a competent one, not only an architect must understand what he/she is drawing with, the process and the underlying principles but also be knowledgeable in the field of construction. An architect must also possess good communication and leadership skill. The students have undergone a good training. The task given to me was an application of my shop subject of my course. The design of the project has a great in connection to the subjects. The anthropometry deals with the study of human dimensions were exactly related to what was discussed inside the classroom. I was technically given actual problems that have a main concern with the architecture technology subjects. The nature of the career course was the main focus of the training. This training will be useful if the nature of their training have the major concern for their chosen career. The trainees would able to use the experiences they have gone through during the training whenever they are already in the field of specialization. At the school, being late is better than absent. But as what I have learned at VNR Construction, being absent is better than being late. Being absent can be a cause of emergency situations like sickness, unpredicted travels and phenomena, while, being late is a cause of misbehaviour and unable to manage the time. I was training at VNR Construction for almost four months, I observed the daily activities and practices that the workers inside the company, as well as rules and regulation that all workers and employees must comply with. I easily observed that all workers inside the construction site must wear their proper uniform during working hours. Even the sweepers who clean the yard must wear complete uniform. Any workers who will notice without in their proper PPE will be given a punishment which may result in lay off the worker out of the company; reminding everyone that those people were violators. Safety inside the company was really strict. Another thing that I observed was the rules and regulation that the company initiated. Before entering the construction site at taguig, regular frisking and baggage inspections were conducted. Car and Delivery truck without gate pass cannot enter inside site except for the visitors. Trainees are not included as a visitor. Another was the NO smoking, sleeping and by standing rule. Any violators who will be caught will fine an amount of one thousand pesos. Gadgets like mobile phones and portable mp3 players are not allowed during working hours. Requests like emergency calls are accepted making sure that the call was important and entertain able. During my training at VNR Construction, I learned to interact with other people. We know that people have different characteristics and attitudes; however, making friends with the trainee’s co-workers doesn’t make difficult. Even though I was only a trainee, they don’t treat me like others. And as a trainee, I don’t feel uncomfortable as I worked with them. From the interaction I made with them, and later I learned to work with patience. Although thoroughly working on something was time consuming, the quality of the output product is the most important. I also learned from my co-worker’s experiences and mistakes and apply them whenever he needed it. They also encouraged me to go on with my studies until I become a professional. Although I worked and interact with them for a short period of time, I learned a lot to them; the skills and techniques that they shared with me that cannot be find on the books. IV. Problem met while on training Without change there is no innovation, creativity, or incentive for improvement. Those who initiate change will have a better opportunity to manage the change that is inevitable. While on my training I think no problem has aroused. Our coordinator has visited us in our company to monitor our progress, as they have said in the first day of OJT orientation. I’ve experienced a lot of problems during the first initial weeks of my training, this problems aroused due to the lack of background knowledge about the industry. During the first few initial weeks I was working so slowly, I had problems adjusting to the work environment, that my supervisor got irritated at me and complained about my work etiquette, I explained my side and I gradually got things fix. Yes, I have to admit I did screw up during my training, I broke this and damaged that, but in the end I learned from my mistakes. I remember what the Manager used to tell me, â€Å"That’s why you’re here, to learn. † And I’m proud to say that I didn’t make the same mistake twice. V. Suggestions and Recommendations The company created a good service to their clients and gave the best training for the students. The students must have a good company that would give them a good training ground and would enhance their knowledge and capabilities. The school must have the good coordination for some companies that offer an annual On the Job Training inside their company. The school should provide more budgets given to the OJT coordinators to have the best monitoring of the training the students are taking. One of the best ways of training is the provincial trainings that would give different experiences to the trainees. An out of town training would give more self esteem to the students. The evening students have their training at 4th year and first semester of the year. It is more efficient if they will take it 4th year of their last semester. In some cases having their training during the first semester of their 4th year of school would sometimes affect the rhythm of their schooling because in evening students OJT have their preferred pre-requisite subjects that once not taken would give a big effect to the arrangement of the student’s subjects. Instead of the regular schedule of years of studying, once being affected by the pre-requisite subjects, the students would waste some of the time spending for the subjects affected by the OJT.

Movie Review Of The Last Song Film Studies Essay

Movie Review Of The Last Song Film Studies Essay For those hopeless romantic who get captured by the plots or meanings of any Nicholas Sparks novel, then The Last Song is the film of the year to see. In The Last Song, Sparks captures the heart of his audience by introducing themes of first love with some hints of disparity throughout the film. In his past films such as Dear John, The Notebook, and A Walk to Remember, Sparks successfully promotes the impression of young love with the framework of hope. This makes it the ideal plot for any classic romantic. As first time screenwriter Sparks effectively delivers to his audience a more sentimental film than ever before. The Last Song tells the story about family, friendship, tragedies, and reconnecting relationships. The Last Song is the tale of a rebellious musical prodigy named Ronnie (Miley Cyrus) who sent to her fathers beach house by her mother Kim (Kelly Preston) along with her younger brother Jonah (Bobby Coleman) for the summer. Ronnie is quite bitter towards the stay with her father Steve (Greg Kinnear) because she blames him for the divorce and leaving the family. She even stops playing the piano and rejects her acceptance into Julliard despite of him. Sullen and withdrawn at everyone, she explores the town and beach and bumps into a local boy named Will, (newcomer Liam Hemsworth) a wealthy, volleyball playing hunk that becomes charmed by her and falls in love with Ronnie. Despite Ronnies defiant attitude, Ronnies mother Kim hopes that the stay will give the chance for both Ronnie and Steve to rekindle their relationship. The film collectively brings together all 3 relationships of parallel love of those between a father and daughter, boyfriend and girlfriend, and brother and sister. Mo st importantly the film gives the audience the chance for Cyrus to break away from her widely known Disney pop culture phenomenon. Miley Cyrus definitely got her work cut out for her in this film in taking the role of Ronnie in The Last Song. Known for her popular role as Hannah Montana on the hit Disney Show Hannah Montana, Cyrus is given the chance to break out of her shell, separating from her childish role by transitioning into a more mature role. She surprisingly transforms herself of what we expect to see in the film in the character of Ronnie, making her lovable and quite engaging. Sparks even had Cyrus in mind while writing the story and casting the role for the movie. This film gives her the potential to be taken seriously in later films by slowly breaking away from her popular alter ego. In being her first adult role, Cyrus portrays everything from a sympathetic friend and daughter to pouting and troubled brat. Cyrus is astonishingly attractive in the way of a girl you might actually want to approach. Her acting is serious, and in working with such actors like Kinnear, the film breaks away from your ty pical boy-meets-girl story line. Director Julie Anne Robinson even does a great job as to focusing on each character by establishing a fear of abandonment in Ronnie because of the divorce. As the film progresses you notice her character transition into the kind, loving young woman she was went out to be. Audience watching the film can hopefully take Cyrus serious as an actress and like the new Miley. Personality and charm can be seen through both Ronnie and Miley, but most importantly though the help of the supporting actresses and actors. With the help of her supporting cast and actors, the typecasting in The Last Song gives the film full potential. Her costar Bobby Coleman, (who plays the role of her younger brother Jonah) gives the film more of an emotional stance by creating cutesy sayings and bringing out the right emotional feelings in the film without going overboard or too little. Kinnear plays a great character in the film by being the sympathetic dad, with his own secret and troubles that are later seen in the film. His character Steve brings out the best in all the characters in the film, which truly brings the film all together. Even the chemistry between both Cyrus and Kinnears role as daughter and father give an effective tearjerker for dads and their daughters. Kelly Preston, who portrays Ronnies mother Kim, displays her roles as the mother quite well, despite her lack of appearance in the film. As for newcomer Liam Hemsworth, he plays your typical dreamy hunk; hes nice, volunteers on his spare time, and captures the heart of pretty much any teenage girl. Other than hiding his Australian accent, Hemsworth was able to deliver the role of what seems to be the perfect boyfriend, but as the audience figures out has troubles of his own. Casting both Hemsworth and Cyrus to play the on-screen couple brought great chemistry between the two characters. Both Sparks and Director Julie Anne Robinson can be sure to be appraised for well written screenplay as well as casting. Compared to the novel, the film follows directly with the book, despite forgetting some minor background details from the book. Overall the audience can captures the messages within the film and relates can to each character in some way, whether its experiencing first love, the relationship between a father and daughter, or how close we really are to a brother. The main themes of the movie tend to deal with the idea of hope, faith, and the relationship one can have with another person. For the most part, The Last Song is a great family film to see with anyone of all ages. In delivering messages on second chances and the moments in life that lead us home, this should give audiences to give Cyrus a second chance at a more mature role like The Last Song.

Good Man :: essays research papers

A "Good" Man Is Hard To Find A "Goodman" Is Hard To Find I had never really analyzed any work of literature before this class. I read books and stories for fun but never to analyze them. I now understand that in any piece of literature there is always a background or hidden agenda that the author wants the reader to get from the reading. In this paper I am going to analyze Nathaniel's Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" to find the meaning. In "Young Goodman Brown" the protagonist experiences redemption, and through this redemption comes to an uncertain truth about himself and his life. This uncertain truth lies within his "faith" in himself, his community, and his wife. Young Goodman Brown is initially characterized in the story as a good Puritan who is devoted to his wife, the community, and the Christian way of life. His wife, Faith, symbolizes his faith in himself, the community, and "Faith" herself. Goodman Brown is struggling with temptation, the devil, and t he ways of the Christian faith. He doesn't feel that he can face this struggle. He has a low level of confidence in himself, as did the author, Hawthorne himself. Hawthorne wrote this story during a time when he himself was growing up doubting the Puritan faith. This story takes place at least a generation after the Salem Witch Trials. Both Brown and Hawthorne exhibit doubt in themselves as well as their Roland 2 ancestors. Goodman Brown is also struggling with his past. He must take a journey into the forest, which represents temptation and evil, but can also represent good. Salem can be described as a good place as well as an evil place. Several events take place during Brown's journey. On his way into the forest, Brown meets his "fellow traveler", who is easily recognized as the devil. The devil tries to get Brown to crossover from the Christian way of life to sin by offering his serpentine staff. He makes several advances, but Brown continually refuses. The devil tells Brown that his family has had dealings with him in the past (269). This makes Brown even more aware of his faith. He wants to remain a good man no matter what his ancestors were accused of, which was witchcraft and deviltry. Going on about his trip, Brown passes many of his mentors including Goody Cloyse and Deacon Gookin.

Plagiarism and the Internet :: Cheating Education Essays

Plagiarism and the Internet The Internet has made plagiarism, taking someone else's ideas or words and using them as one's own without citing the original source, a very common offense. There is so much information on the Internet, available from so many sources, that it is difficult to determine where the information originally came from. The indifference of educators has not helped the problem; many educators feel the problem is too great for them to do anything about, so they choose to do nothing. This leads students to assume that their teachers are either unaware of or condone plagiarism, continuing the cycle. In a survey by the Psychological Record, 36% of undergraduates confessed that they had plagiarized written material. "A national survey published in Education Week found that 54% of students admitted to plagiarizing from the Internet..." (plagiarism.org). Dr. John M. Barrie, of Turnitin.com, a plagiarism detection site, believes that almost one-third of the work submitted to the site is at least partially copied from another source. "When it comes to cheating, at the top of the list is plagiarism, and at the top of that list are students cutting and pasting, mostly from the Internet," says Dr. Barrie (http://tms.physics.lsa.umich.edu/). Why should students attempt to write original papers when they can just as easily copy one from the Internet? It saves them time and energy and may even get them a better grade than they may have gotten on their own. Educators doing nothing about it has not helped the problem... Ronald M. Aaron and Robert T. Georgia performed a study that found that 257 chief student affairs officers across the United States believe that colleges and universities have not properly dealt with the cheating problem. Many educators feel it would take too much time and energy to find if a paper was plagiarized or not, so they choose to ignore the problem. Donald L. McCabe performed a study called Faculty Responses to Academic Dishonesty: The Influence of Honor Codes; it found that 55% of faculty would not report possible cheaters if it required any real effort (plagiarism.org). "'With respect to cheating, I'm just in denial. I just don't want to deal with it because I know it is a

Comparing Fog in James Dickey’s Fog Envelops the Animals the Novel Deliverance :: Compare Contrast Comparison

Comparing Fog in James Dickey’s "Fog Envelops the Animals" the Novel Deliverance Written before Deliverance, James Dickey’s "Fog Envelops the Animals" portrays a hunter in a thick cloud of fog. He is standing in the forest with only his arrows, a bow, and the instinct to kill or be killed. The weather conditions are poor for hunting, but it does not matter. The brave speaker walks into the forest where all you see are his teeth, and they disappear into the fog: "rows of candles go out" (25). The man is completely devoured by the fog and yet is determined to stay there and hunt. Fog plays a big role in Deliverance as well. Since Deliverance is a novel, unlike a poem, it gives us all the background and details that are essential to grasping the full meaning and idea of what is going on. Ed Gentry has just woken up in his tent, in the woods. He does not want to wake up his buddies so he walks outside and discovers the fog. The fog over the river is calling him to enter it and to prove himself to the woods as well as to his friends. So he goes into the tent, puts on a pair of long johns, and strings his bow. He proceeds to walk outside, behind the tent, and enter the forest. Ed says his "hands" are by his "sides [†¦]; I stood with the fog eating me alive" (94). The speaker of the poem says, "My hands burn away at my sides" (12). This could just be a coincidence, but the two characters to be standing in the same stance is highly unlikely. The theme of both poem and novel is that a man is trying to accomplish hunting for his pride and the respect of his friends. Ed proves he is hunting for pride and for the respect of his friends when he says, "I might as well make some show of doing what I said I had come for" and " All I had really wanted was to stay away a reasonable length of time, long enough for the others to wake and find me gone [†¦]. That would satisfy honor" (95). Ed is a city boy dissatisfied with work and love and to compensate he goes on this trip against his better judgment. The four suburbanites have no business being in the forest, the only one that has made a habit of hunting is Ed's friend Lewis.

Comparing Extreme Programming and Waterfall Project Results

Comparing Extreme Programming and Waterfall Project Results Feng Ji Carnegie Mellon University Silicon Valley Campus Mountain View, CA, 94035 [email  protected] com Todd Sedano Carnegie Mellon University Silicon Valley Campus Mountain View, CA, 94035 todd. [email  protected] cmu. edu Abstract Waterfall and Extreme Programming are two software project methods used for project management. Although there are a number of opinions comparing the two methods regarding how they should be applied, none have used project data to clearly conclude which one is better.In this paper, we present the results of a controlled empirical study conducted at Carnegie Mellon University in Silicon Valley to learn about the effective transition from traditional development to agile development. We conducted a comparison research against these two approaches. Multiple teams were assigned a project; some used Waterfall development, others used Extreme Programming. The purpose of this research is to look at advantages and disadvantages based upon the outcomes, generated artifacts, and metrics produced by the teams. 1. Introduction 1. 1.Agile vs Traditional Since the early 1970s, numerous software managers have explored different ways of software development methods (such as Waterfall model, evolutionary model, spiral model etc. ) those have been developed to accomplish these goals and have been widely used by the software industry [1]. Methodologists often describe the Waterfall method as a stereotypical traditional method whereas they describe Extreme Programming as the stereotypical agile method. The Waterfall model, as the oldest traditional software development method, was cited by Winston W.Royce in 1970 [2]. He divided the software development lifecycle into seven sequential and linear stages: Conception, Initiation, Analysis, Design, Construction, Testing, and Maintenance. The Waterfall model is especially used for large and complex engineering projects. Waterfall's lasting imp ression upon software engineering is seen even in the Guide to Software Engineering Body of Knowledge which introduces the first five knowledge areas based upon their sequence in the Waterfall lifecycle even though the Guide does not recommend any particular lifecycle [3].Although the Waterfall model has been adopted in many large and complex projects, it still has some inherent drawbacks, like inflexibility in the face of changing requirements [1]. If large amounts of project resources have been invested in requirements and design activities, then changes can be very costly later. High ceremony documentation is not necessary in all projects. Agile methods deal well with unstable and volatile requirements by using a number of techniques of which most notable are: low ceremony documents, short iterations, early testing, and customer collaboration.Kent Beck and Cynthia Andres define Extreme Programming 2. 0 with many practices [4], like Pair Programming, Test First Programming, and Co ntinuous Integration and so on. These characteristics enable agile methods to obtain the smallest workable piece of functionality to deliver business value early and continually improving it while adding further functionality throughout the life of the project [5]. 1. 2. PET project background Carnegie Mellon University Silicon Valley students start their masters program with the Foundations of Software Engineering course. This course is team-based, project-based, and mentored.Each team builds The Process Enactment Tool (PET). The user personas are software developers and managers. The tool helps users plan, estimate, and execute a project plan while analyzing historical data. The tool's domain encourages students to learn about software lifecycles and methods while understanding the benefit of metrics and reflection. 1. 2. 1. PET 1. 0: In 2001, Carnegie Mellon had one of the largest outsourcing firms in the world develop Pet 1. 0. Later the student teams were brought in to do the n ext release. The initial offerings of the course had the teams follow a Waterfall lifecycle.The faculty decided to use Extreme Programming as the method for the Foundations course because it was an agile method, it had good engineering practices, and it was a safe sandbox environment for engineers to try paired programming since many managers in industry were initially skeptical about its benefits. In 2005, the faculty allowed three of the sixteen teams tried our new curriculum to see if there were any serious issues in the switch, while other thirteen teams continued to follow a start point in 2004. The feedback was extremely positive so in 2006, all teams followed Extreme Programming.For the project plan duration, Waterfall teams needed fifteen weeks to finish their tasks where as Extreme Programming teams were given only thirteen weeks, a 13% reduction in time. 1. 2. 2. PET 1. 1: In 2005, the VP of Engineering advised the three teams that rewriting the code from scratch would be easier than working with the existing code base. Team 30:1 decided to use the latest in Java technologies including Swing and Hibernate. PET 1. 1, the team's product became the starting point for the students in the following year. 1. 2. 3. PET 1. 2: In 2008, the faculty switched the core technology from Java to Ruby on Rails.Ruby on Rails' convention over configuration, afforded a lower learning curve for students. For Pet 1. 2, students would build their projects from scratch. 2. Related work Much research has been done as to when to use an agile method and when to use a traditional method. For example, Boehm Turner's home grounds look at several characteristics, criticality, culture, and dynamism [6]. Our paper aims to extend these limitations to some degree by estimating Waterfall and XP in an academic case study, which provide a substantive ground for researchers before replicating their ideas in industry.Basili [7] presented a framework for analyzing most of the experimental w ork performed in software engineering. We learned that how to conduct a controlled experiment. Andrew and Nachiappan [8] reported on the results of an empirical study conducted at Microsoft by using an anonymous web-based survey. They found that one third of the study respondents use Agile methodologies to varying degrees and most view it favorably due to improved communication between team members, quick releases and the increased flexibility of agile designs.Their findings that we will consider in our future work is that developers are most worried about scaling Agile to larger projects, and coordinating agile and traditional teams. Our work is closely related to the work by Ming Huo et al [9]. They compared the Waterfall model with agile processes to show how agile methods achieve software quality. They also showed how agile methods attain quality under time pressure and in an unstable requirements environment. They presented a detailed Waterfall model showing its software qualit y support processes.Other work has only illustrates one or some Agile practices such as pair programming [10]. 3. Experimental methodology Our research was conducted primarily using Glaser's steps [11] in the constant comparison method of analysis. Step1: Begin collecting data. We collected more than 50 teams’ detailed data during a five year period as Table 1 shows. Table 1. Team building the same project 2004 2005 2005 2006 2007 2008 Method Waterfall Waterfall XP XP XP XP Language Java Java Java Java Java Ruby Project PET1. 0 PET1. 0 PET1. 0 PET1. 1 PET1. 1 PET1. 2 Numbers of Teams 10 13 3 9 6 11Step2: Look for key issues, recurrent events, or activities in the data that become categories for focus. The approach in software design makes us categorize the data into two distinctive software development methods, namely Waterfall and Extreme Programming. Step3: Collect data that provides many incidents of the categories of focus with an eye to seeing the diversity of the dimens ions under the categories. According to Basili[7], we provided some metrics to compare these two categories, Waterfall and XP. Requirements Metrics M1: Numbers of UI screens (ie. mockup) M2: Numbers of use cases (story cards)M3: Pages of Software Requirements Specification (SRS) documents M4: Pages of User Requirements Documents (URD) Design Metric M5: Pages of detailed design documents Implementation Metrics M6: Lines of code M7: Percentage of lines of comments to lines of source code M8: Lines of test cases M9: Ratio of lines of test code to lines of program code Step4: Write about the categories that we are exploring, attempting to describe and account for all the incidents we have in our data while continually searching for new incidents. Step5: Work with the data and emerging model to discover basic social processes and relationships.Step6: Engage in sampling, coding, and writing as the analysis focuses on the core categories. During 2005, there were 13 teams following Waterfal l and 3 teams following XP during the same period of time. These three teams, team Absorb, GT11 and 30:1 are interesting teams to examine as we can compare their data against the Waterfall teams doing the exact same project. 4. Experimental results 4. 1. UI screens (M1) and Story cards (M2) comparison These wide ranges can be seen in Table 2 and Table 3 where the standard deviation of the UI mockups is often half the document size.Comparing use cases to story cards in Table 3, we see that the standard deviation for use cases is much lower than the standard deviation for story cards. This is expected since use cases are a higher ceremony document when compared to story cards. Teams might give little consideration to how to represent each feature on a story card whereas a team writing a use case step by step how a user will use the system will spend much more time thinking about the coupling and cohesion of each use case. Table 2. Average numbers and Standard Deviation of mockups Year 004 2005 Absorb GT11 30:1 2006 2007 2008 Average mockups 15. 5 11. 8 17 18 9 15 12. 8 17. 7 Standard Deviation of mockups 6. 6 6. 3 5. 4 3. 1 8. 8 Table 3. Average numbers and Standard Deviation of use cases/story cards Year Average Number Standard Deviation 2004 User cases 18. 7 2005 User cases 18. 9 2. 3 Absorb Story cards 15 1. 6 GT11 Story cards 13 30:1 Story cards 18 2006 Story cards 16. 6 2007 Story cards 18. 3 2008 Story cards 16. 6 7. 5 6. 8 8. 0 4. 2. Requirement documents (M3&M4) Starting with PET 1. 0, Waterfall teams on average add 1. 7 use cases and modified 2. use cases. Teams were given a 28 page System Requirements Specification (SRS) and on averaged finished with a 34 page SRS. XP teams starting with PET 1. 0 were given the same starting documents. Instead of modifying them, the teams created story cards that represented each new feature. Instead of spending time on writing use cases, XP teams started coding sooner. Because XP has an emphasis on low ceremony docume nts, they had more time to code resulting in an effort savings for the teams. 4. 3. Comparing the size of the detail design documents (M5) There are some insights from Table 4.Waterfall teams using Pet 1. 0 started with a 21 page Detailed Design Document (DDD), which they altered to reflect their new use cases. Waterfall teams typically did not update their design documents at the end of the project. Given the scope of the project, Waterfall teams’ final code matched the original design with respect to new classes. Table 4. Average pages and Standard Deviation of Detail Design Documents Year 2004 2005 Absorb GT11 30:1 2006 2007 2008 Starting Point 21 21 21 21 0 14 14 0 Average DDD 25. 8 31. 1 18 22 14 18. 3 12. 5 9. 5 Standard Deviation 8. 39 7. 48 7. 70 7. 8 5. 19 XP teams increased their design documents with each iteration. Because the XP teams followed Test-Driven Development, they wrote their code and had an emergent design. At the end of each iteration, the teams were a sked to update the design document to reflect important design decisions they had made during that iteration. Therefore, the design document serves a different purpose in XP. It is not a template or blueprint for future construction. Instead, it can be a guide for understanding why certain decisions were made. In this regard, it is a biography of the development, ot a plan of action. 4. 4. New lines of source code and comments, Percentage of comments in codes Table 5 shows that Waterfall teams starting with Pet 1. 0 produced lines of code with a wide variance. The two XP teams starting with Pet 1. 0 fell right within the middle of the average. Because instead of producing some documents up front, the XP teams spent a longer time coding, one would expect them to produce more lines of code. The research results also show that XP Teams had a higher percentage of comments in source code. Table 5. Average and Standard Deviation of new lines in code YearLanguage Average new lines in code Standard Deviation Lines of test codes Ratio of test codes to program code 2004 2005 Absorb GT11 30:1 2006 2007 2008 Java Java Java Java Java Java Java Ruby 9,429 11,910 13,288 14,689 0 9,628 8,572 3,670 7,946 9,851 4,920 5,465 1,507 3378 4164 1380 3186 947 3555 2212 3,255 8% 13% 4% 8% 8% 16% 10% 90% 4. 5. Submitted lines of test codes and ratio of test code to program code The observation of these two metrics in Table 5 shows that the amount of test code written by the Waterfall teams equals the amount of test code written by the XP teams.Initially the faculty thought that Test-Driven Development would increase the amount of testing code, however, given a slow adoption rate of Test-Driven Development, programmers resorted to what was familiar and thus produced similar results. 5. Conclusion In this paper, we observed and presented the data from five years of 50 teams developing the same project each year and the affects of transitioning from Waterfall to Extreme Programming. The ch aracteristics between these two methods were evaluated and compared.Waterfall teams spent more time creating high ceremony documents where as Extreme Programming teams spent more time writing code and documenting their design in their code. Surprisingly, the amount of code and features completed were roughly the same for both methods suggesting that on a three month project with three to four developers it doesn't matter the method used. It is challenging to conduct this kind of analysis of the data in hindsight. Given that this is not a toy problem, and the freedom teams have in the execution of their projects, setting up this kind of experiment properly in advance is also challenging. . References [1] Sommerville, Software engineering, 8th ed. , New York: Addison-Wesley, Harlow, England, 2006. [2] W. Royce, Managing the Development of Large Software Systems, IEEE WESTCON, Los Angeles, 1970. [3] A. Abran and J. W. Moore, Guide to the software engineering body of knowledge: trial ve rsion (version 0. 95) IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos, CA, USA, 2001. [4] Kent Beck and Cynthia Andres, Extreme programming eXplained: embrace change, Second Edition, MA: Addison-Wesley, 2004. 5] Mike Cohn, Agile estimating and planning, Prentice Hall Professional Technical Reference, Nov 11, 2005. [6] Barry, Boehm and Richard Turner, Balancing Agility and Discipline: A Guide for the Perplexed, Addison Wesley, August 15, 2003. [7] Basil, V. R. , Selby, R. and Hutchens, D. , Experimentation in Software Engineering, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (invited paper), July 1986. [8] Andrew Begel and Nachiappan Nagappan, Usage and Perceptions of Agile Software Development in an Industrial Context: An Exploratory Study, MiIEEE Computer Society MSR-TR-2007-09, no. 2007): 10. [9] Ming Huo, June Verner, Muhammad Ali Babar, and Liming Zhu, How does agility ensure quality? , IEEE Seminar Digests 2004, (2004):36. [10] Jan Chong, Robert Plummer, Larry Leifer, Scott R. Klemmer, and George Toye. Pair Programming: When and Why it Works, In Proceedings of Psychology of Programming Interest Group 2005 Workshop, Brighton, UK, June 2005. [11] Glaser, Barney G, Strauss, and Anselm L. , The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research, Aldine Publishing Company, Chicago, 1967. Comparing Extreme Programming and Waterfall Project Results Comparing Extreme Programming and Waterfall Project Results Feng Ji Carnegie Mellon University Silicon Valley Campus Mountain View, CA, 94035 [email  protected] com Todd Sedano Carnegie Mellon University Silicon Valley Campus Mountain View, CA, 94035 todd. [email  protected] cmu. edu Abstract Waterfall and Extreme Programming are two software project methods used for project management. Although there are a number of opinions comparing the two methods regarding how they should be applied, none have used project data to clearly conclude which one is better.In this paper, we present the results of a controlled empirical study conducted at Carnegie Mellon University in Silicon Valley to learn about the effective transition from traditional development to agile development. We conducted a comparison research against these two approaches. Multiple teams were assigned a project; some used Waterfall development, others used Extreme Programming. The purpose of this research is to look at advantages and disadvantages based upon the outcomes, generated artifacts, and metrics produced by the teams. 1. Introduction 1. 1.Agile vs Traditional Since the early 1970s, numerous software managers have explored different ways of software development methods (such as Waterfall model, evolutionary model, spiral model etc. ) those have been developed to accomplish these goals and have been widely used by the software industry [1]. Methodologists often describe the Waterfall method as a stereotypical traditional method whereas they describe Extreme Programming as the stereotypical agile method. The Waterfall model, as the oldest traditional software development method, was cited by Winston W.Royce in 1970 [2]. He divided the software development lifecycle into seven sequential and linear stages: Conception, Initiation, Analysis, Design, Construction, Testing, and Maintenance. The Waterfall model is especially used for large and complex engineering projects. Waterfall's lasting imp ression upon software engineering is seen even in the Guide to Software Engineering Body of Knowledge which introduces the first five knowledge areas based upon their sequence in the Waterfall lifecycle even though the Guide does not recommend any particular lifecycle [3].Although the Waterfall model has been adopted in many large and complex projects, it still has some inherent drawbacks, like inflexibility in the face of changing requirements [1]. If large amounts of project resources have been invested in requirements and design activities, then changes can be very costly later. High ceremony documentation is not necessary in all projects. Agile methods deal well with unstable and volatile requirements by using a number of techniques of which most notable are: low ceremony documents, short iterations, early testing, and customer collaboration.Kent Beck and Cynthia Andres define Extreme Programming 2. 0 with many practices [4], like Pair Programming, Test First Programming, and Co ntinuous Integration and so on. These characteristics enable agile methods to obtain the smallest workable piece of functionality to deliver business value early and continually improving it while adding further functionality throughout the life of the project [5]. 1. 2. PET project background Carnegie Mellon University Silicon Valley students start their masters program with the Foundations of Software Engineering course. This course is team-based, project-based, and mentored.Each team builds The Process Enactment Tool (PET). The user personas are software developers and managers. The tool helps users plan, estimate, and execute a project plan while analyzing historical data. The tool's domain encourages students to learn about software lifecycles and methods while understanding the benefit of metrics and reflection. 1. 2. 1. PET 1. 0: In 2001, Carnegie Mellon had one of the largest outsourcing firms in the world develop Pet 1. 0. Later the student teams were brought in to do the n ext release. The initial offerings of the course had the teams follow a Waterfall lifecycle.The faculty decided to use Extreme Programming as the method for the Foundations course because it was an agile method, it had good engineering practices, and it was a safe sandbox environment for engineers to try paired programming since many managers in industry were initially skeptical about its benefits. In 2005, the faculty allowed three of the sixteen teams tried our new curriculum to see if there were any serious issues in the switch, while other thirteen teams continued to follow a start point in 2004. The feedback was extremely positive so in 2006, all teams followed Extreme Programming.For the project plan duration, Waterfall teams needed fifteen weeks to finish their tasks where as Extreme Programming teams were given only thirteen weeks, a 13% reduction in time. 1. 2. 2. PET 1. 1: In 2005, the VP of Engineering advised the three teams that rewriting the code from scratch would be easier than working with the existing code base. Team 30:1 decided to use the latest in Java technologies including Swing and Hibernate. PET 1. 1, the team's product became the starting point for the students in the following year. 1. 2. 3. PET 1. 2: In 2008, the faculty switched the core technology from Java to Ruby on Rails.Ruby on Rails' convention over configuration, afforded a lower learning curve for students. For Pet 1. 2, students would build their projects from scratch. 2. Related work Much research has been done as to when to use an agile method and when to use a traditional method. For example, Boehm Turner's home grounds look at several characteristics, criticality, culture, and dynamism [6]. Our paper aims to extend these limitations to some degree by estimating Waterfall and XP in an academic case study, which provide a substantive ground for researchers before replicating their ideas in industry.Basili [7] presented a framework for analyzing most of the experimental w ork performed in software engineering. We learned that how to conduct a controlled experiment. Andrew and Nachiappan [8] reported on the results of an empirical study conducted at Microsoft by using an anonymous web-based survey. They found that one third of the study respondents use Agile methodologies to varying degrees and most view it favorably due to improved communication between team members, quick releases and the increased flexibility of agile designs.Their findings that we will consider in our future work is that developers are most worried about scaling Agile to larger projects, and coordinating agile and traditional teams. Our work is closely related to the work by Ming Huo et al [9]. They compared the Waterfall model with agile processes to show how agile methods achieve software quality. They also showed how agile methods attain quality under time pressure and in an unstable requirements environment. They presented a detailed Waterfall model showing its software qualit y support processes.Other work has only illustrates one or some Agile practices such as pair programming [10]. 3. Experimental methodology Our research was conducted primarily using Glaser's steps [11] in the constant comparison method of analysis. Step1: Begin collecting data. We collected more than 50 teams’ detailed data during a five year period as Table 1 shows. Table 1. Team building the same project 2004 2005 2005 2006 2007 2008 Method Waterfall Waterfall XP XP XP XP Language Java Java Java Java Java Ruby Project PET1. 0 PET1. 0 PET1. 0 PET1. 1 PET1. 1 PET1. 2 Numbers of Teams 10 13 3 9 6 11Step2: Look for key issues, recurrent events, or activities in the data that become categories for focus. The approach in software design makes us categorize the data into two distinctive software development methods, namely Waterfall and Extreme Programming. Step3: Collect data that provides many incidents of the categories of focus with an eye to seeing the diversity of the dimens ions under the categories. According to Basili[7], we provided some metrics to compare these two categories, Waterfall and XP. Requirements Metrics M1: Numbers of UI screens (ie. mockup) M2: Numbers of use cases (story cards)M3: Pages of Software Requirements Specification (SRS) documents M4: Pages of User Requirements Documents (URD) Design Metric M5: Pages of detailed design documents Implementation Metrics M6: Lines of code M7: Percentage of lines of comments to lines of source code M8: Lines of test cases M9: Ratio of lines of test code to lines of program code Step4: Write about the categories that we are exploring, attempting to describe and account for all the incidents we have in our data while continually searching for new incidents. Step5: Work with the data and emerging model to discover basic social processes and relationships.Step6: Engage in sampling, coding, and writing as the analysis focuses on the core categories. During 2005, there were 13 teams following Waterfal l and 3 teams following XP during the same period of time. These three teams, team Absorb, GT11 and 30:1 are interesting teams to examine as we can compare their data against the Waterfall teams doing the exact same project. 4. Experimental results 4. 1. UI screens (M1) and Story cards (M2) comparison These wide ranges can be seen in Table 2 and Table 3 where the standard deviation of the UI mockups is often half the document size.Comparing use cases to story cards in Table 3, we see that the standard deviation for use cases is much lower than the standard deviation for story cards. This is expected since use cases are a higher ceremony document when compared to story cards. Teams might give little consideration to how to represent each feature on a story card whereas a team writing a use case step by step how a user will use the system will spend much more time thinking about the coupling and cohesion of each use case. Table 2. Average numbers and Standard Deviation of mockups Year 004 2005 Absorb GT11 30:1 2006 2007 2008 Average mockups 15. 5 11. 8 17 18 9 15 12. 8 17. 7 Standard Deviation of mockups 6. 6 6. 3 5. 4 3. 1 8. 8 Table 3. Average numbers and Standard Deviation of use cases/story cards Year Average Number Standard Deviation 2004 User cases 18. 7 2005 User cases 18. 9 2. 3 Absorb Story cards 15 1. 6 GT11 Story cards 13 30:1 Story cards 18 2006 Story cards 16. 6 2007 Story cards 18. 3 2008 Story cards 16. 6 7. 5 6. 8 8. 0 4. 2. Requirement documents (M3&M4) Starting with PET 1. 0, Waterfall teams on average add 1. 7 use cases and modified 2. use cases. Teams were given a 28 page System Requirements Specification (SRS) and on averaged finished with a 34 page SRS. XP teams starting with PET 1. 0 were given the same starting documents. Instead of modifying them, the teams created story cards that represented each new feature. Instead of spending time on writing use cases, XP teams started coding sooner. Because XP has an emphasis on low ceremony docume nts, they had more time to code resulting in an effort savings for the teams. 4. 3. Comparing the size of the detail design documents (M5) There are some insights from Table 4.Waterfall teams using Pet 1. 0 started with a 21 page Detailed Design Document (DDD), which they altered to reflect their new use cases. Waterfall teams typically did not update their design documents at the end of the project. Given the scope of the project, Waterfall teams’ final code matched the original design with respect to new classes. Table 4. Average pages and Standard Deviation of Detail Design Documents Year 2004 2005 Absorb GT11 30:1 2006 2007 2008 Starting Point 21 21 21 21 0 14 14 0 Average DDD 25. 8 31. 1 18 22 14 18. 3 12. 5 9. 5 Standard Deviation 8. 39 7. 48 7. 70 7. 8 5. 19 XP teams increased their design documents with each iteration. Because the XP teams followed Test-Driven Development, they wrote their code and had an emergent design. At the end of each iteration, the teams were a sked to update the design document to reflect important design decisions they had made during that iteration. Therefore, the design document serves a different purpose in XP. It is not a template or blueprint for future construction. Instead, it can be a guide for understanding why certain decisions were made. In this regard, it is a biography of the development, ot a plan of action. 4. 4. New lines of source code and comments, Percentage of comments in codes Table 5 shows that Waterfall teams starting with Pet 1. 0 produced lines of code with a wide variance. The two XP teams starting with Pet 1. 0 fell right within the middle of the average. Because instead of producing some documents up front, the XP teams spent a longer time coding, one would expect them to produce more lines of code. The research results also show that XP Teams had a higher percentage of comments in source code. Table 5. Average and Standard Deviation of new lines in code YearLanguage Average new lines in code Standard Deviation Lines of test codes Ratio of test codes to program code 2004 2005 Absorb GT11 30:1 2006 2007 2008 Java Java Java Java Java Java Java Ruby 9,429 11,910 13,288 14,689 0 9,628 8,572 3,670 7,946 9,851 4,920 5,465 1,507 3378 4164 1380 3186 947 3555 2212 3,255 8% 13% 4% 8% 8% 16% 10% 90% 4. 5. Submitted lines of test codes and ratio of test code to program code The observation of these two metrics in Table 5 shows that the amount of test code written by the Waterfall teams equals the amount of test code written by the XP teams.Initially the faculty thought that Test-Driven Development would increase the amount of testing code, however, given a slow adoption rate of Test-Driven Development, programmers resorted to what was familiar and thus produced similar results. 5. Conclusion In this paper, we observed and presented the data from five years of 50 teams developing the same project each year and the affects of transitioning from Waterfall to Extreme Programming. The ch aracteristics between these two methods were evaluated and compared.Waterfall teams spent more time creating high ceremony documents where as Extreme Programming teams spent more time writing code and documenting their design in their code. Surprisingly, the amount of code and features completed were roughly the same for both methods suggesting that on a three month project with three to four developers it doesn't matter the method used. It is challenging to conduct this kind of analysis of the data in hindsight. Given that this is not a toy problem, and the freedom teams have in the execution of their projects, setting up this kind of experiment properly in advance is also challenging. . References [1] Sommerville, Software engineering, 8th ed. , New York: Addison-Wesley, Harlow, England, 2006. [2] W. Royce, Managing the Development of Large Software Systems, IEEE WESTCON, Los Angeles, 1970. [3] A. Abran and J. W. Moore, Guide to the software engineering body of knowledge: trial ve rsion (version 0. 95) IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos, CA, USA, 2001. [4] Kent Beck and Cynthia Andres, Extreme programming eXplained: embrace change, Second Edition, MA: Addison-Wesley, 2004. 5] Mike Cohn, Agile estimating and planning, Prentice Hall Professional Technical Reference, Nov 11, 2005. [6] Barry, Boehm and Richard Turner, Balancing Agility and Discipline: A Guide for the Perplexed, Addison Wesley, August 15, 2003. [7] Basil, V. R. , Selby, R. and Hutchens, D. , Experimentation in Software Engineering, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (invited paper), July 1986. [8] Andrew Begel and Nachiappan Nagappan, Usage and Perceptions of Agile Software Development in an Industrial Context: An Exploratory Study, MiIEEE Computer Society MSR-TR-2007-09, no. 2007): 10. [9] Ming Huo, June Verner, Muhammad Ali Babar, and Liming Zhu, How does agility ensure quality? , IEEE Seminar Digests 2004, (2004):36. [10] Jan Chong, Robert Plummer, Larry Leifer, Scott R. Klemmer, and George Toye. Pair Programming: When and Why it Works, In Proceedings of Psychology of Programming Interest Group 2005 Workshop, Brighton, UK, June 2005. [11] Glaser, Barney G, Strauss, and Anselm L. , The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research, Aldine Publishing Company, Chicago, 1967.

Do we have global culture? Essay

There are significant resonances here with academic depictions of globalization. I have argued elsewhere that an ‘economic-homogenization’ model of globalization is becoming increasingly dominant, in both academic and popular usage, which focuses attention on the improved combination of the global economy and its homogenizing effects on state policy and culture (Eschle 2004). Such a model is prevalent in International Relation (IR). It is characteristic of liberal IR approaches that support globalization, skeptical refutations of globalization as exaggerated and ideological, and critical IR theories that condemn globalization as profoundly damaging. It is with this last, critical, approach in IR that we find the strongest resonance with activist discourses. Both activist and academic critics share the assumption that globalization equates with the neo-liberal economic developments described above. Then, in an extremely significant move, these developments might be linked to the underlying structures of the economy and globalization reinterpreted as the latest stage of capitalism. According to Klein, ‘the critique of â€Å"capitalism† just saw a comeback of Santana-like proportions’ (2002:12). The global culture is usually used in contemporary academic discourse to distinguish the experience of everyday life in specific, exclusive localities. It reflects ordinary peoples’ feelings of suitability, comfort, and precision attributes that define personal preferences and rapidly varying tastes. In this framework, it is hard to argue that an overarching, global culture in fact exists. Jet-setting sophisticates can feel comfortable operating in a global network severed from specific localities, but the numbers involved are, as yet, insufficient to comprise a rational cultural system. For the majority people, place and locality still matter. Even the diasporic discussed by Appadurai are entrenched in local communities (sometimes several) tied together by universal perceptions of what constitutes a proper and fulfilling lifestyle. Many software engineers and Internet entrepreneurs who live and work in Silicon Valley, California, maintain homes (and strong social ties) in the Indian states of Maharashtra and Punjab. Rather than searching for substantiation that a world culture already exists, a more productive approach is to focus on features of life that are affected by the globalizing process. Modern research by anthropologists and media specialists makes obvious that globalism is not an invincible, unidirectional force that levels everything in its path. David and Anthony McGrew have depicted recent debates over globalization as divided among three general positions: the hyperglobalist, the skeptic, and the transformationalist. Briefly, the hyperglobalist understands contemporary globalization as heralding a new epoch of human history driven by the free movement of global capital and characterized by the inevitable rise of a world civilization that will result in the end of the nation-state. The skeptic, on the other hand, argues that this understanding of globalization is greatly exaggerated. Focusing on economic factors, the skeptic argues that there is nothing unprecedented about current levels of national interdependence, and that nation-states continue to be and will remain the primary political and economic actors in international affairs for the foreseeable future. In contrast, the transformationalist understands the current epoch as one of unprecedented change. But unlike the hyperglobalist, the transformationalist argues that the direction of this process remains uncertain and in contest. The transformationalist disputes the claim that the sovereign state is a thing of the past, but also challenges the claim that states remain as strong as ever. He argues rather that globalization transforms the relationship between states, markets, sovereignty, and the transnational sphere. It challenges the governing and legitimating capacities of old political arrangements, domestically and internationally. And it thus adds new incentives to the search for political innovation. (David and Anthony McGrew, 2002) To understand cultural changes one must draw a feature between form and content. Outward appearance and first impressions are approximately always deceptive; what matters most is the inner meaning that people consign to a cultural innovation. numerous theorists, including both opponents and proponents of globalism, task their own attitudes onto the people they assert to represent assuming that all humans see the world in the similar way. The perceived â€Å"sameness† of global culture often reveals the expectations of the analysts, relatively than the perceptions of those who are the subjects of analysis. Misunderstandings of this nature thrive in the literature devoted to globalism.