National University of Singapore Essay

The appearance of the yellow crystals obtained tallies with the reference physical appearance of Dibenzalacetone1. The appearance of the white powder obtained also tallies with the reference physical appearance of o-Chlorobenzoic acid2. The yields of the compounds are relatively low at 34.2% and 29.5%. This may be due to some possible sources of error and limitations which will be discussed in the next section. Limitations and Sources of Error Loss of compounds was an important factor that caused the yield of the purified compounds to be reduced. This may have occurred first during the extraction phase where extraction may not be complete. During the filtration and vacuum filtration processes, there was also a high level of difficulty in retrieving all the wanted products due to the products forming on the edges of the filter paper or sticking to the sides of the apparatus. Although the yield can be improved by increasing the number of extractions, the increase will not be significant enough (explained under exercise question 1) to overcome the loss of the compounds due to frequent transferring of the products. The usage of the separatory funnel to separate the 2 organic and aqueous layers limited the accuracy of the experiment due to potential contamination. There was difficulty in determining the exact boundaries between the organic and aqueous layers accurately even under precautions such as conducting the separation at slow speed and at eye level. Contamination of the purified products will cause the melting point determination to deviate from actual results and identifying the compounds incorrectly. The solubility test conducted to determine the recrystallization solvent might be another possible source of error. The amount of compound to be added into 2mL of the solvent was estimated rather than accurately weighed. This may have caused errors in determining the solubility of the compounds in the solvents and hence, led to incorrect use of the proper recrystallization technique for the compounds. Furthermore, cloudy mixtures obtained upon mixing the compound and the solvent might cause the solubility of the compounds to be inaccurately determined. Conclusion A mixture of 2 organic compounds was separated using recrystallization and purified. Melting Point Determination was the method used to identify the 2 organic compounds and cross-checking the experimental results obtained with a list of possible organic compounds showed that the Neutral Compound was Dibenzalacetone and the Acidic Compound was o-Chlorobenzoic acid. Verifying the identified compounds via their appearances with references further validated the experimental results. References 1. Royal Society of Chemistry, Chemspider, Search and Share Chemistry http://www.chemspider.com/Chemical-Structure.86113.html, Retrieved 14 September 2013 2. Royal Society of Chemistry, Chemspider, Search and Share Chemistry http://www.chemspider.com/Chemical-Structure.8071.html, Retrieved 14 September 2013 Exercise Questions Question 1 a) D = [X]o / [X]w When D = 8, [A]o = 8 [A]w Since mass can be expressed as a product of volume and concentration as shown in Equation 1 below, by letting Vo be the volume of organic layer, Vw the volume of aqueous layer with m being the total initial mass of A, Equation 2 can be obtained. ———- Equation 1 ———- Equation 2 Using Equation 2 and subbing in known values, we can obtain ———- Equation 3 Solving, we get [A]w = 1.11 X 10-2 g/mL b) Using Equation 2, For 1st Extraction, ———- Equation 4 Solving, we get [A]w = 2.00 X 10-2 g/mL For 2nd Extraction, ———- Equation 5 Solving, we get [A]w = 4.00 X 10-3 g/mL c) Repeating the above method as shown in (b) for multiple extractions, we can obtain For 4th Extraction using 20 mL of dichloromethane, [A]w = 1.23 x 10-3 g/mL For 8th Extraction using 10 mL of dichloromethane, [A]w = 3.91 X 10-4 g/mL d) Based on calculation above, while the total amount of dichloromethane used in (a), (b) and (c) remained constant at 80 mL, the values of [A]w obtained decreases with increasing number of extractions done with smaller amounts of dichloromethane used during each extraction. Multi-extraction allows more of the solute to dissolve in the solvent. This leads to a higher amount of solute extracted. e) To access if excessive extraction (8 times) is necessary, the yield difference of solute extracted between doing 4 and 8 times extraction must be considered. Mass of solute not extracted by 4-times Extraction = 1.23 X 10-3 X 80 = 0.0984 g Mass of solute not extracted by 8-times Extraction = 3.91 X 10-4 X 80 = 0.0313 g Percentage yield of solute using 4-times Extraction = = 98.8% Percentage yield of solute using 8-times Extraction = = 99.6% The percentage yield increases by 0.8% which is not very significant as calculated above. This does not justify the cost and time needed to carry out excessive extraction since the yield difference is small. Question 2 c) A better solvent for recrystallization of B will give a higher yield of B crystals. Based on the calculation in (a) and (b), water gives a higher yield of crystals (8.54 g at 25Â °C and 9.81 g at 0Â °C ) as compared to ethanol (7.38 g at 25Â °C and 8.21 g at 0Â °C). Hence, water is a better solvent for the recrystallization of B. d) The crystals should be washed with cold solvent (0Â °C). The solubility of compounds increases with increasing temperature. Washing the crystals with cold solvent ensures that the crystals do not dissolve back into the solvent. Washing the crystals with warm solvent will cause the yield of crystals to diminish.

Constitution Compromises Essay

To the founders of the new American nation, it was important to make sure all states of the union stayed together. To ensure no states succeeded, many compromises were made in the ratification of the constitution, including those regarding representation and slavery, which allowed the majority of the population to be content and successfully governed the nations. Although the state’s populations were unequal, they all wanted their fair share of say in the government; the problem was they couldn’t decide what that fair share was. Their decision to create a bicameral government satisfied both the sparsely and densely populated states. The smaller states got their representation by the Senate, while the larger states got their wishes fulfilled by the House of Representatives. This compromise was ultimately for the better, being that a bicameral system has perks associated with it. For instance, a dual representation situation increases the chance that representatives have direct contact with the citizens, thus representing their population better. The two houses ultimately better served their country and resolved a conflict as well. Slavery was also an issue that saw a lot of dispute. Generally, Abolitionists in the North wanted to abolish slavery completely; however, this didn’t sit right with the South, whose economy desperately depended on slaves to flourish. There were two compromises about slavery. The first compromise ended the slave trade, and the second addressed the accounting of slaves in a state’s population for the census, as well as taxes. Being that the northern views were already stepping on the South’s toes, they couldn’t afford any clash to bring about talk of a separation from the union. Their decision to account 3/5 of a slave when apportioning taxes and representatives favored neither side in this dispute. This was for the better in that the southern states couldn’t really argue with the decision and stayed with the Union. Because the compromises that were made in the making of the constitution aimed to please, they worked by ensuring all states were happy, thus more likely to listen to the government and stay in the union.

Audit Assurance and Compliance Services

Auditing is the important aspect in any financial managing company to keep all their data safe, secured and perfect without any missing information for any firm. This report talks about the work given to the auditors for making assessments of the statements related to the financial data by the management. The authorization of auditing the files are given only to those examiners who are found responsible and could present the data to the stakeholders by taking the leadership authentication and ruling out any glitches found in the information while maintaining professionalism and giving them overall finance required to the company by appropriate estimations (Audit.ucsf, 2016).   Any information related to the organization is provided to the auditor as a part of morality and competence obligations. Any suggestions specified by the auditor to the company are given prior importance to execute by the management. The information related to the company should be perfect and complete withou t any unclear data, so the auditors will have a keen view on all these aspects and wants it to be highly standard and accurate. If found any missing or unrelated information then they would enquire about it and clear the doubts (Cso, 2016). The task of assessing the financial statements is completed only after noting the ambiguities like revenue of the company, important assets and expenditure for that particular duration. Any accountant who has accepted for auditing the financial statements should be complaint to the laws by considering the fact that he should not get threatened by the organizations group or overlook the conducts of ethical rules as it is the suggested criteria from the ethical guidelines. It should be noted that accepting the task that leads to the cause of threats should be avoided by the auditor which is an essential point to be kept in mind (Isaca, 2016). So the rules in ethical guidelines specifies that before considering to execute any task for auditing you need to be aware of the factors that are mentioned in the guidelines. All the necessary information related to the clients and records of the business are needed to be gathered by the auditor for the present work and need to give the brief outlook of the work and issues if found so that it would not mess up at the end of the audit as it is dealt with the client outside (PwC, 2016). There is always a chance of rejecting the given task if found any proposed threat or insecurity. It clearly implies that every accepted task should be dealt carefully nevertheless of taking long time in assessing the audit files while it gives an opportunity of knowing the customer in depth. As the client gets approval from the auditor for auditing the files they take into consideration those formalities while never getting compromised on their objectives (Rbk, 2016). Threats can be expected from the new firms as a part of their job if any of the auditing team is related to the organization members in terms of share. Expectations of any threat to the auditing team from the client never says that the proposal has to be taken off or stop in between it can even been carried out under proper protection by safeguarding themselves from opponents. Measures should be taken to get away from the issue repeatedly and demolish it completely to avoid any further threats in future (Isaca, 2016). T he later level of audits are accepted by identifying if there are any further issues involved with them. Solutions should be designed for safeguarding the audit team from being threatened by the clients. Auditor efficiency varies based on the organization they are chosen for. It drastically varies if greater organizations are involved in auditing work. Clients such as BSF which is a high level industry the auditor is expected with special skills of efficacy and should be highly capable in order to understand the terms and policies of that firm in regards to their context (Rbk, 2016). In these aspects evaluation should be to the greater extent if auditor is accepting the task and it is a sign of inviting the threat on their own if they are not eligible for this task to complete and accepting it if unable to sketch out the business details at a prospective level. The satisfaction of expectations of clients , reaching the deadlines specified by them are need to be carefully understood by the auditor and should fulfill this requirements before approving the assigned task (Audit.ucsf, 2016). Not presenting the accurate solution that is according to the situation then it creates the way to the threats related to audit firm while giving the suitable conditions for the beneficial of the financial statements. Three kinds of risks are involved in auditing they are: Any possibilities of missing the data and taking commissions or interpreting the data in a wrong way in the financial statements then these are considered to be the inherent risks. These consequences vary from the controls and should be noted that are important to be verified. If the risk is at high level, certainly the industry has to face the risk of inherent which is similarly found with BSF limited (Rbk, 2016). The standards of BSF limited are independent from other firms and have their own judgments which are personal and voicing the nature with no restrictions are the rules required to step ahead. This implicates that risk of inherent is pretty high. There is no significant risk of control identified with BSF limited in such case as it is less than 5 percent involved. If mechanism required to control the process is not properly handled then that leads to control risk which can be aptly defined by this and it apparently makes a way to the threats if failing to recognize the statements that are materialistic (Isaca, 2016). Appropriate control measures internally are to be proposed to solve the misinterpretation regarding the BSF. Auditor should give an opinion on the control measures that are being input in the BSF. By implementing such measures it seems to work out well at BSF and efficient. BSF is comparatively having higher threats as it is the top level industry and the details related to their organization are not clearly given to the auditing team. This figure out the control measures and identifies that situation is controllable (PwC, 2016). If failing to recognize the missing statements from the financial bills of the company then the risk of detection comes into the picture. And it describes the inability of the auditor or giving an opportunity for the company by the auditor (Audit.ucsf, 2016). A customized systematic manner is to be followed while auditing the financial statements and has to rule out the missing of data or any other manipulations in the statements and appropriate corrections are to be proposed as it is not expected to record it in the books without necessary corrections as it affects the user’s interests at later stages. Multiple audit visits can be carried out to verify the mistakes and to reduce the chance of risks (Rbk, 2016). Mixture of three risks of audits is finally presented by the audit team after the completion of entire auditing process (Isaca, 2016). Increase in the three different risks such as risk of inherent, Risk of control and risk of detection are to be determined to know the risk involved in audit. Risk in Audit = Risk of control x Risk of detection x Risk of Inherent To identify the threats involved in auditing the task the audit team has found the process and has to report the possible ways to reduce the threats by acknowledging them is the work given to the team to make a final decision on the entire threats reduction. If the risk level is unmanageable, then the proposed suggestion is at rejection (Rbk, 2016). The risk level is proposed with number of safeguards process in case of risk of detection since the risk is at insignificant level. High labor and lengthy duration is required for this and approval is taken from the management before accepting any task (Isaca, 2016). Risk of inherent and risk of control levels are inversely proportional to the risk level of detection. Risk of detection is chosen to be at lower level by the audit team if threat of inherent is pictured in the situation while giving way to the risk of inherent at high peaks (Audit.ucsf, 2016). The final threat for BSF appears to be at higher level in auditing process for threat levels of detection and inherent. The calculations involved in audit risk are as follows: Risk in Audit = Risk of control x Risk of detection x Risk of Inherent The threat level less than 10% is expected by the audit team to be moderate in general. Hence it is considered that threat of audit on BSF is on the safer side. This reveals that there are no restrictions in taking the task for auditing the financial statements. The adequate amount of proofs related to the audit is to be collected by the audit team as a part of the auditing program in order to follow the appropriate systematic procedure of auditing the financial statements. The auditing process is carried out only if the account system of the client industry is evaluated by the team for example here it is the BSF limited. The accounting system is studied in detailed by the auditing team is the strategy followed on the clients tasks (Rbk, 2016). This at later stages are tested   by conducting control and other tests which are related to this process to make sure that all proofs are gathered in the given duration of time. At the end the audit team has to be sure of providing the evidence correctly about the client’s financial statements. The audit programs that are certainly recommended are as follows: Reports related to finance- on monthly basis Suggestions to be followed from the previous audits Proposing the financial balance at year end Reports to be sent to the required clients and list of funds needs to be received Predictive check on the account balance thoroughly Ledgers are maintained by the clients which are to be checked keenly and other related files The data from all the sectors should be matched after totaling the accounts The office accounts are to be linked to banks statements Number of transactions occurred should be verified and amount taken for the purpose is utilized accordingly or not should be checked The auditors from external team need to follow the entities regarding the irregularities on financial statements from the journal. The audit process is regulated using the journal from the department of accounting for accurate verification. The managing is enquired regarding the entries by the audit team and accordingly the funding is given (Cso, 2016). BSF has designed a success factor that the success in business is based on the development and research carried out. The uncertainty of research depends on the external factors. After attaining the success from such a research program then it can be taken for benefiting the needs of customers. The activities of research and development are to be carried out properly to get a success and the necessary targets should be identified. The targets which are in between should be executed depending on the budget allocated and the duration of time. BSF follows the journal guidelines to show the report effectiveness before marketing them (Audit.ucsf, 2016). The performance from the research that is undertaken newly by BSF is found to be quite complex but cost on research are given on daily basis of expenses and revenue. Collection of material and major equipment’s is given huge capitals (Rbk, 2016). The decision of fixing the funds is decided by the audit team as it has to be carefully tasked based on the requirements of work in the industry. The three entities that are involved in triple bottom line addendum are the environmental, social and economic production in the organization. For the audit to be in a signature process Spreckly has designed this system in 80’s and made a first approach. BSF limited is corresponding to this triple bottom line terms and standards hereafter. The credit’s for the work executed on the financial statements is appreciated (Gay & Simnett, 2000). Though the auditing process looks extended because of the procedure but the company management is pleased with the friendly approach environment and the respectful communication (PwC, 2016). The media reports that these rules are criticized by industries of other firms because of their diversion to the fish production company rather than the suppliers of food materials. This has made an attempt of getting food for next generations. It created a bias between the extremely poor and high people so the approach was not taken into account ( Gay & Simnett, 2000). On the progress of working on this account though the initial take off was not appreciated it was considered as better solution in the later stages. In the scientific research, the triple bottom line is considered to be the success measure but it is not really accepted by the auditor to sign off as they were reluctant to accept (Whittington & Pany, 2001). From the conclusions it is evident that auditor has to get convinced and sign off the document because of the huge information that is available and processed through the auditing process is correct. After performing the extensive research the information is given based on the conditions in the market place and the predictions derived from the situations are submitted. The management is provided with the patent value that is capable of in producing the efficient output in future (Whittington & Pany, 2001). The less availability of advanced technology is providing very less competition to the management and as the time progress it will change the opinion. There might be drastic change in regards to competition which is not exactly related to the market research (Gay & Simnett, 2000). After a proper understanding is created in the market then we can notice a great interest on the patent value in another one or two years or so (Gay & Simnett, 2000). The price is however fixed based on t he popularity of product in the market and its sales conditions. The management is extremely not worried as it can get back the value of it in the later stages after fine evaluation in the market. Audit.ucsf.edu. 2016.  Audits (Assurance and Compliance) | Audit & Advisory Services. [online] Available at: https://audit.ucsf.edu/audits-assurance-and-compliance [Accessed 11 Sep. 2016]. Cso.ie. 2016.  Chapter 5 - Audit, Assurance and Compliance Arrangements - CSO - Central Statistics Office. [online] Available at: https://www.cso.ie/en/aboutus/governance/corporategovernancestandard/chapter5-auditassuranceandcompliancearrangements/ [Accessed 11 Sep. 2016]. Isaca.org. 2016. [online] Available at: https://www.isaca.org/knowledge-center/research/pages/audit-assurance-programs.aspx?cid=1003563&appeal=pr [Accessed 11 Sep. 2016]. Gay, G.E. and Simnett, R., 2000.  Auditing and assurance services in Australia. Mcgraw-hill. PwC. 2016.  Points of view. [online] Available at: https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/services/audit-assurance/publications/regulatory-debate.html [Accessed 11 Sep. 2016]. Rbk.ie. 2016.  Audit, Assurance & Compliance. [online] Available at: https://www.rbk.ie/services/audit-assurance [Accessed 11 Sep. 2016]. Whittington, R. and Pany, K., 2001.  Principles of auditing and other assurance services. Irwin/McGraw-Hill.

Dorthy Orem Self Decfict Nursing Theory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Dorthy Orem Self Decfict Nursing Theory - Essay Example As such, the nursing profession is meant to intervene by simply facilitating self care where necessary through education or supportive means to help subjects learn about self care. The theory emphasizes the essence of the patients’ or groups’ participation in facilitating their care. It facilitates healthcare provision through education, direct action, guidance, support and provision of the appropriate environment for engaging in self care. In spite of the proven efficiency of the theory in aspects such as addressing the root cause of health problems, the theory faces challenges that arise from non-compliance to educational values delivered due to complacency and negligence. This review of the theory not only reviews the overall aspects of the theory, but also the probable application, efficiency, challenges and improvements necessary. Introduction Nursing theories are derivatives of conceptual frameworks with principles and doctrines that define the underlying basis of nursing practice. Unlike the name suggests, they are not purely opinionated and theoretical, but rather supported by actual knowledge that has proven their applicability through time. The theoretical aspect originates from the fact that they were theoretically formulated, but in actual sense they have been proven as being effective through their application as functional elements of nursing practice. The concepts of nursing theories define and characterize the nursing practice. In a nutshell, nursing denotes a human interaction developed to foster health by working within the boundaries of the patient and his environment (Dennis, 2008). According to Orem, the practice is both therapeutic and supportive. The supportive aspect is meant to enhance wholeness in the event of a patient’s experience of failing health by facilitating care that the patient cannot achieve through personal efforts. There are numerous theories that support and define the practice of nursing, but this pa per particularly highlights Dorothea Orem’s â€Å"Self-Care Deficit Nursing Theory,† which is a middle range theory that makes up the three theories under her grand theory. Dorothea Orem’s grand theory was developed during her working experience which included serving as a nurse practitioner, educator, administrator and consultant. It is during her engagement with the development of the education field of nursing that she formulated the theory as part of her dissertation works at the masters’ level (Currentnursing.com, 2012). Orem’s Self-Care Deficit Nursing Theory The self-care deficit theory is mainly based on the principle of encouraging patients to be independent in the facilitation of their own care. It is the central focal point in Orem’s grand theory. The theory defines when nursing intervention is deemed necessary (Dennis, 2008). It also describes how patients and groups of people in need of healthcare can get helped by nursing inter ventions. The application of the theory often comes to play when the involved subject/s are unable to facilitate self-care. The inability to administer personal care when in need of healthcare is what gives the theory the deficit denotation. As such, the theory is used in identifying cases with deficit of care, where the subjects in question are unable to sufficiently undertake steps that guarantee them good health. According to the theory, nursing serves

Financial Crisis Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Financial Crisis - Research Paper Example Researchers point to missteps by the government, starting from a loose-fitting economic policy and a deviation from the historical principles for putting interest rates in place (Taylor, 2008). Some experts believe that such a financial meltdown was bound to happen as a result of the unpreventable problems brought about by capitalism (Foster & Magdoff, 2009). Still, others blame the financial crisis to a domino effect caused by financial mismanagements in other parts of the world (Obstfield & Rogoff, 2009). At any rate, there is a general agreement that the financial crisis was caused and even prolonged by lapses in the economic policies set forth by the government (Taylor, 2008; Foster & Magdoff, 2009). History serves a lesson that was not well-learned from the time of the Great Depression. John Maynard Keynes, one of the foremost economic minds of history, argued that underemployment was inevitable in a capitalist economy as it results from a savings-and-investment mentality of market players (Foster & Magdoff, 2009). Despite these earlier warnings, the US government still championed the capitalist environment, employing free market at most levels of the economy. Unfortunately, such a scenario led to misdiagnosis of bank credit markets which consequently led to an inappropriate liquidity-focused rather than risk-focused response (Taylor, 2008). Moreover, the government further made a series of wrong decisions by raising real estate values, tightening credit qualifications and inequitable support to financial institutions (Obstfield & Rogoff, 2009). Undoubtedly, the financial crisis of the 2000’s affected not only the US but worldwide economies as well as it continued a chain reaction which started off around the 1980’s (Foster & Magdoff, 2009). The disastrous effect was felt in the whole country as businesses started to close and mass layoffs occurred. People were driven out of their homes and found it extremely

Shakespeare's Hamlet Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Shakespeare's Hamlet - Research Paper Example In the process, he is involved in several occasions of double mind which puts him at a cross road in some instances (Hapgood & Shakespeare, 24). In the process he causes the deaths of several characters in the play either directly or indirectly (Shakespeare, 114). He also plays an indirect role in the death of his love Ophelia and his mother whom he mistakenly poisoned with food. However throughout the play and in Hamlet actions, he shows sense of double-mindedness as he struggles with his internal thoughts and efforts to sanity. The first instance in which Hamlet shows inability to decide on one issue is when he was not able to decide on whether you revenge or not. It is evident in the play that Hamlet is seeking the truth about his father’s death and hence believe that from that truth, he would be able to reach to the killers of his father. Generally, hamlet is seeking for truth as an effort to justify his acts of revenge (Bradley, 84). However, it is important to realize th at these acts of revenge are called for by the ghost which he does not trust. In this context, Hamlet has double minds as to whether to believe the ghost of his father or whether to reject such believes. As outlined by Bradley (85), â€Å"this is the tragedy of a man who could not make up his mind.† This is recognition of Hamlet’s views which were divided equally and the possibility in acting in one way or the other was half possible. It is important to note that he viewed almost everything in two perspectives and hence it was difficult to decide the way to go. According to Rosenberg (440), Hamlet can be described as an individual who knows all that he wants and all that according to him would be right. However, Hamlet deliberately decides to avoid the right thing. This perspective of Hamlet is also observed by Rosenberg (441). Failure of his efforts is not linked in any way to the inability to act but on the unwillingness to act swiftly and at the right time to save t he community. Hamlet is also divided in the mind whether to revenge or not because he fears the spirits and not because he cannot revenge (Furness & Shakespeare, 24). He is very much aware that he has defied the ghost and hence he tries to assert that the spirits of the dead are more dangerous and may follow him. While Hamlet tries to find out whether he would be right to act in accordance to the ghost request, it is evident that something is ringing at the back of his mind that he has not done what he is supposed to do. It is therefore important to notice that there are two thoughts that are antagonistic in his mind. As a result he is always undecided and hence leads top several mistakes which result into deaths of his relatives. Hamlet is disturbed by the fact that he has not done something that is impressive or aggressive towards his father’s death. As a result, he wants to please his father but wants to confirm the truth about the accusations by the ghost. In this context , Hamlet is at a crossroad with double minds (Rosenberg, 439). He looks at all the alternative actions, weighs them and finds out that they are actually bear the same weight. While he understands the consequence of either action he wants to make the best decision out of the two available decisions. It is therefore important for him to please his father’s ghost at the same time do not want to revenge or what is not tangible or revenge by mistake. Moreover, the lack of action by Hamlet presents to him a lot

Developing an evaluation plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Developing an evaluation plan - Essay Example The survey will be done on the nurses before and after the initiation of the change as indicated; their perceptions and attitudes will be particularly studied. The perceptions and the attitudes of the patients will be also be surveyed. Another method that will be used to evaluate the plan is to compare the probability of cardiovascular risk among individuals who exercise and those who do not based on their age and gender. Variables to be used include staff perceptions and attitudes, and patient perceptions and attitudes. The tools that will be used to educate the project participants and assess the project outcomes include questionnaires, PowerPoint slides, surveys, teaching materials, posters, activity log and handouts. Survey uses a collection of predetermined questions concerning particular topics (in this case, exercise and the risk of cardiovascular disease) that the target audience answers. Activity log utilizes staff report of daily activities (Zarinpoush, 2006). Survey as an evaluation tool will especially be used for its ease of use and capacity to evaluate people’s attitudes toward the proposed propject. The survey will particularly be used to evaluate nurses and patients attitudes toward the proposed project. ... Based on the results, the necessary changes will be instituted. Disseminating Evidence Effective dissemination can be described as a way in which the recipients are engaged in a process such as one which requires increased awareness, commitment, action, and understanding. The most common ways of disseminating evidence include websites, direct mail, and newsletters. In this case, the evidence will be disseminated using methods such as websites, newsletters, reports, e-mail, workshops, briefings, and conferences. A briefing can permit the implementation plan manager to summarize the project’s work and update the stakeholders of its progress. The website permits easy access to the information concerning the project and can be easily updated. However, it is important that the target audience be informed of the presence of the project on the website so that they can gain interest to visit the site. Once the site has been accessed by the stakeholders, it is important to ensure that they constantly visit the site for more information (Harmsworth and Turpin, 2000). Conferences can disseminate the evidence very well but they can be time-consuming and costly if they are not planned well. Thus, it is important to plan early in advance for the conference. Unlike conferences, workshops usually target smaller groups of participants and they entail a higher or active level of engagement with the target audience (Harmsworth and Turpin, 2000). In a nutshell, dissemination of the evidence will be done using conferences, workshops, reports, emails, newsletters, briefings and websites. It is important to mention that the target audience (nurses and other stakeholders)

People for Ethical Treatment of Animals Term Paper

People for Ethical Treatment of Animals - Term Paper Example It carries out various campaigns around the world to stop cruelty and ill treatment towards animals. They believe that animals deserve the rights to have their best interests taken into great consideration. Its slogan is â€Å"animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, or use for entertainment.† The organization has three hundred employees and more than two million followers and supporters. PETA focuses on the four major areas where animals are subjected to suffer: In Research Laboratories In Garment Industry/Clothing Trade Entertainment Industry Factory Farms In addition, it deals with issues of killing animals in a cruel manner, the suffering of domestic animals, and the killing of birds and pests. Ingrid Newkirk states, â€Å"When it comes to feelings like hunger, pain, and thirst, a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy† (p. 4). In general, animal rights demands that all the animals should be used and treated humanely. Animals can be used for various types of purpos e, but the humane treatment and duty of care lies mainly with the human being. Like the animal rights theory, it upholds that we have no ethical explanation for using nonhuman animals for human purposes. The main aim of animal rights is to get rid of the use of animals. PETA encourages veganism, a philosophy of rights of animals far more fundamental than vegetarianism. Veganism is a strict vegetarian that does not eat any animal or dairy products at all. PETA also protests in opposition to animal testing of various types of cosmetics that apply to animals’ skin or eyes to test for protection and toxicity. Many companies such as, Johnson and Johnson, Proctor & Gamble, and L’Oreal all use animal testing for their products. Through PETA’s ongoing protests, many companies have stopped the use of animals for experimentation. Method: This organization has helped diminish the cruelty of animals through public education, cruelty investigations, research, animal rescue, special events, celebrity involvement, and protest campaigns. PETA also uses various celebrities for most of their assertive promotion and campaign activity with the intention to grab their audiences’ attention. Such celebrities are, Drew Barrymore, Pamela Anderson, Stella McCartney, Alicia Silverstone, Khloe Kardashian, and Alec Baldwin. PETA activists work hard for the rights of the animals. They educate the people about the sufferings of the animals. They make sure that people know how animals are treated in research laboratories, farming enterprises, and other areas where they are used. If they find any animal being subjected to cruelty, they figure out a plan to rescue it or grab attention. PETA adapts different schemes for its publicity. One could say that its publicity pattern has played a major role in getting such a huge response from people all around the world. Their slogans are thought provoking. â€Å"Meat is murder,† â€Å"I’d rather go naked than wear fur† are some of the slogan that have grabbed a lot of public attention. The organization aims at the eradication of cruelty to animals. They known all the tactics needed in pulling the crowd, some of which include the use of short phrases, eye-catching images, and banners. They would discuss some issues related to animals in their chat show, organize debates and also try to involve as many people as possible. PETA

Marketing - Sunshine Foods, Inc Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Marketing - Sunshine Foods, Inc - Case Study Example The main cause identifiable with these problems is inappropriate business strategy that is not aligned with the changing market demands. Market demands include customer preferences and competitors’ offerings. Sunshine Foods Inc lacks focus on consumer requirements in terms of choice of quality, quantity and variety. Thirdly, its business strategy stalled at products with high potential sales volume resulted in limited sales potential by confining to bigger shops and excluding smaller retailers. This created limited market for the wide variety of Sunshine Foods’ products because the smaller retailers could not conform to the high volume sales policy, unaffordable in terms of cost and space. Next, lack of ownership is also a major contributor of low profits attributable to lack of focus on reducing operational costs. Lack of focus on employee retention and motivation caused the downfall of Sunshine Food Inc. Lack of co-ordination between production and sales department ad ded more problems. Lack of diversified expertise in the staff is one of the major problems in Sunshine Food Inc as most of its staff was from its parent company. Recommendations to improve the situation include strategic changes in different aspects of business; this should include change in corporate strategy, marketing and sales methods, research, and human relations. Firstly, the corporate strategy has to be aligned to the organizational goal of improving profits. Next, developing a research team to check profitable and non profitable products on a periodic basis will help the company assess customer requirements, market performance and efficiency of the strategies followed. This research can be used to formulate sales and marketing strategies accordingly. Sunshine Foods needs to expand its offerings to all kind of stores including smaller stores

Personal statement, identify your filed of interest Essay

Personal statement, identify your filed of interest - Essay Example One can become civil engineer, however it’s connected with many challenges. All constructions grown by people exist only due to the painstaking labor and the most accurate calculations. It requires strong understanding of one fact that even slight mistake can bring many problems or even casualties, every day, thousands of people use structures constructed by civil engineers and they should serve them good. There is no place to mistakes, misconducts or half-precise calculations. It’s the greatest challenge I will have working in civil engineering. People can make mistakes and there is, of course, human factor, to avoid this I should understand my responsibility and ask for help if I am not sure about something. Working in the big team, all members should work like single body. It requires strong communicative skills and ability to team work. Failing to make good relationships with team can result in bad blueprints, or even passed mistakes, It is unacceptable and I should adapt to the needs and characters of other people to work with them in cohesive team. Project implementation also requires great skills, because structure on blueprints can be stable and good developed, however since construction is started I, as civil engineer, should control the construction during each stage to ensure that plan is carrying out

Mobile Banking Essay Example for Free

Mobile Banking Essay It is pleasure on my part to submit my report on â€Å"Mobile banking- The Next Generation Banking† as part of my BBA (Hon’s) Final Examination Though it is a new experience, I have tried level my best to gather information and to translate my knowledge into writing this term paper report covering the aspects of the topics as per your suggestions and guidelines to reflect the same in report with my limited scope and knowledge. Without sincere cooperation and proper guidance of you it was not possible for me to prepare this report . For this act of kindness I am grateful to you. All of my effort will be rewarded only if it could satisfy you.

Crystals Research Paper Essay Example for Free

Crystals Research Paper Essay Crystals form in the depths of the Earth to the extension of the clouds in sky. Some think that crystals elude the sight of people’s eyes everyday in life, but they are everywhere including ingredients for food, construction materials, and even in ice-cold weather. The crystals in this experiment are ammonia-generated crystals that can be created right in a home. The experiment will be testing the different effects and products on crystals in different temperatures and forms of light. Different measurements will be recorded throughout the experiment such as mass and length. But first the crystals must grow. The scientific study of crystals and crystal formation is called crystallography. All over the world, though the different ages of man, crystals have been found to take their place throughout different cultures, countries, and religions. Not only were crystals used for a part in the currency of some ancient economies, but also they date back as far as 1500 BC as a source of healing and medicinal uses. â€Å"The ancient Egyptians strongly believed in the healing and protective power of crystals. Many pharaohs wore crystals on their headdresses and many crystal amulets have been found in their tombs.† Pharaohs of ancient Egypt often believed that the use of crystals in the masks and jewelry gave them the effect of bettering their rule. Amazonite and Lapis were reoccurring crystals found in the tombs found in Egypt, particularly King Tut where Lapis was actually apiece in the famous mask he wore. Cleopatra’s favorite jewelry was supposed to be a ring made of the crystal am ethyst. The ancient Chinese are also found to be users of the healing purposes of crystals. In two hundred different occasions, crystals are referred to in the bible. New Jerusalem, God’s heavenly city, was said to be built on top of crystals. â€Å"And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass. And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald; The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst. Tibetan monks also viewed quartz crystal spheres as holy objects and worshiped them. The monks often referred to quartz as the â€Å"crystal of enlightenment†. Alexander The Great included a large emerald crystal encrusted in his battle helmet to insure a victory in the battle. The Shah Jahan, monks who built the Taj Mahal, wore talismans similar to Alexander The Great. Overall, There is a reoccurrence of crystals used for different purposes such as healing, sacred items, and fine jewelry. There are many different structures of crystals based on the formation of them. The different forms are Cubic, Isometric, Tetragonal, Orthorhombic, Hexagonal, Trigonal, Triclinic, and Monoclinic. Cubic and Isometric are similar but don’t always have to be cubes. They can be found in forms of octahedrons and dodecahedrons as well as cubes. Tetragonal form double prisms and double pyramids due to one axis being longer than the other. Orthorhombic form dipyramids and rhombic prisms. Hexagonal are six-sided prisms and when viewed from a certain angle, the cross section is a hexagon. Trigonal, instead of having a 6-fold axis like the hexagonal, it has a 3-fold, thus making it trigonal. Triclinic has no set shape so these kinds of crystals can come in any shape and strange ones as well. Monoclinic are very similar to tetragonal crystals except they are skewed a bit so they don’t form good angles. These formations of the atoms and molecules in a crystal are all part of what is called the crystal lattice. The crystal lattice is the repetition of a pattern in three dimensions. The atoms and molecules of crystals form in such a way that in all three dimensions, they are repeating a certain pattern. The shapes of the microscopic atoms can determine the shape of the macroscopic crystal. So, Cubic, Isometric, Tetragonal, Orthorhombic, Hexagonal, Trigonal, Triclinic, and Monoclinic atom formations repeat in different crystals to make them the shape they are. Crystals can also be grouped by their properties. The property arrangements include covalent, metallic, ionic, and molecular crystals. Covalent crystals have many true covalent bonds connecting all the atoms in the crystal. Covalent crystals tend to have very high melting points. Some covalent crystals include zinc sulfide and diamonds. Metallic crystal’s atoms sit on a lattice, therefore the outer electrons of the atoms in the crystal are free to move around and float whichever way they want. Metallic crystals have a high melting point like covalent crystals but just not as high. Ionic crystals are bonded together by ionic bonds just as covalent crystals are held together by covalent bonds. Ionic crystals have high melting points like the other crystals and are usually very hard. An example of an ionic crystal is salt (NaCl). Molecular crystals are very recognizable in terms of their molecular structure. They are bonding by hydrogen bonds or non-covalent bonding. Molecular crystals are usually soft and have lower melting points compared to the other crystals. Relating the properties of crystals to the atom structure (crystal lattice) will allow one to realize how the structure correlates to the property. They’re ere 2 different types of structure in the crystal lattice, crystalline and non-crystalline. Crystalline structures are the atom structures that contain the repeating patterns. While non-crystalline structures contain miniscule faults in the patterns and are not perfect. Ionic crystals contain a crystalline structure and therefore are very hard and dense. The more crystalline the structure, the more compact the atoms are arranged. And the more the compact the atoms are, the more dense and hard the crystal becomes. Molecular crystals tend to have a weak, non-crystalline structure of the atoms. This results in the Molecular crystals being weak with low boiling points. The atoms in Molecular crystal tend to be spread out over farther distances in contrast to ionic crystal’s structure. Different wavelengths and colors of light can affect the color of the crystal itself and the wavelength output of the crystal. Different crystals are different colors due to the different chemicals in each one and how each one absorbs light. Many crystals reflect a certain color of light depending on the chemicals. So, crystals absorb one color of light or wavelength of light, and reflect a different color of light. So the idea of complimentary colors comes into play. Complimentary colors are the colors that the crystals absorb to then reflect a different color of light. There are many examples such as if a crystal is yellow, it is reflecting yellow light but the light it absorbs is blue. Also, if a crystal is red, it is reflecting red light but it is absorbing green light. Normally, crystals will grow much faster in the light, but these crystals will be much weaker than crystals grown in the dark. This is due to the time it takes for each to grow. In dark rooms crystals grow at a much slower rate but are significantly stronger than crystals grown in light. Crystals are found all over and all inside the Earth. In some rock cavities, whether it is close to the surface or deep and closer to the core of the Earth, mineral-rich solutions contain the essential elements to grow crystals. Thus, in these rock cavities, many different crystals can be found, and some are very old. Crystals can also be found around volcanoes and past eruption areas because after a volcano erupts, the cooled magma forms crystals. In many caves, rock walls contain similar solutions as rock cavities and form similar crystals. Crystals can also be found where there are mineral-rich vapors present, such as deep caves and rock formations. Many different crystals can form in various environments. Such as the location of turbulent water such as pipes and quick paced streams. Also, crystals can be found in the presence of evaporating salt water, where salt crystals will form. Crystals are also formed in the process of condensation, or in clouds for that matter. Every time it snows, the water has frozen into microscopic ice crystals that are the snowflakes. Also, Crystals can form under water and many on the Earth have not been seen because of this. Crystals grow and form in different and various ways. Crystals begin growing in a process called nucleation, which contains 2 different types, unassisted and assisted. Unassisted nucleation occurs when a â€Å"proto-crystal† forms in the solution that has been added to a solute. The solute is the solid and the solution is the liquid surrounding the solute. When molecules in the solution begin to attract to one another they combine and sometimes are separated by intermolecular forces but sometimes they stay together. When these molecules stay together they begin to attract different molecules of the solution to join and this is the â€Å"proto-crystal†. The â€Å"proto-crystal† then attaches itself to a couple other molecules or other â€Å"proto-crystals† in the solution and the actual crystal begins to form. In assisted nucleation, the solution is provided with a solute that the molecules of the solution can attach or adsorb to. When this occurs it attracts molecules just as in unassisted nucleation and the crystals begin to form. Because of the ability for crystals to grow from the build up of the solute molecules in the solution, crystals are able to grow at their highest when the solution being used is saturated with the solute being use. The more material to build up, the more the crystals are going to be able to grow and grow to full extent. Crystal formation is very slow, so it must be given a long geological process to form. Depending on the kind of crystal, the times of formation vary, so some form faster than others. This is where super saturation comes into play. Super saturation is the presence of more dissolved material in the solvent that could be dissolved in normal conditions. When a solution is supersaturated, it contains many particles and molecules of material to begin the nucleation process. When the supersaturated solution is under the correct conditions, crystallization begins to occur more rapidly. But this is not the case for all liquids or solutions. Some solutions may be saturated at one temperature but supersaturated at another so temperature is able to affect this as well. Temperature plays a huge part in the growth and the rate in which crystals grow. The growth rate of crystals changes depending on the temperature they are in. But some crystals grow faster in warm temperatures than in cold temperatures. This is because of the process of evaporation. When a saturated solution is in a warm environment it begins to evaporate. When the liquid begins to evaporate, overtime the material that was once dissolved in the solution will begin to bunch up and crystallize the more the liquid evaporates. But this process is a lot quicker than in cold environments so this leads to less stability and weaker crystal strength. In colder environments, the opposite process is used to begin the crystallization process. The process of precipitation is used. This process takes a much longer time than the evaporation process. Since this process takes a much longer time, it has the ability to create well formed and high quality crystals that are much stronger than crystals formed in hotter temperatures. Mainly crystals grown in the dark take much longer to grow. Because of the absence of light, there is not as much heat than crystals in light. Crystals in light receive much more heat. But this is not the case for all types of crystals; in some cases the rules for temperature are switched. For example Borax, these are crystals that usually generate faster in colder temperatures. If the Borax solution is saturated at room temperature or at any temperature higher than room temperature, the crystals grow faster in colder temperatures. This is due to the molecular structure of the Borax solution and the movement of the molecules causes the saturated solution at room temperature to become a supersaturated solution at colder temperatures. And the super saturation leads to faster crystal growth. So growth rates vary depending on temperature, kind of crystal, and kind of solution being used in the experiment. Bibliography 1.Crystal. Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 13 Dec. 2012. Web. 15 Dec. 2012. 2.History of Crystals. History of Crystals. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2012. 3. A Brief History of Crystals and Healing. History of Crystals and Healing. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2012. 4.Basic History of Crystals. Holistic Apothecary. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2012. 5.Types Of Crystals. About.com Chemistry. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2012. 6.The Structure of Crystals. The Structure of Crystals. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2012. 7.ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2012. 8.Temperature and Crystal Growth. Temperature and Crystal Growth. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2012. 9.UCSB Science Line Sqtest. UCSB Science Line Sqtest. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2012.

Avoiding Project Failure Dissertation

Avoiding Project Failure Dissertation ABSTRACT Project management have become increasingly important in the development of any nation. Various organisations have used project management techniques as a means of bridging the gap between failure and success in implementation of projects. Despite this increasing awareness of project management by organisations, projects still fail. The purpose of this dissertation is to systematically investigate the causes of project failure and how these can be prevented, managed, or controlled. Research studies investigating the reasons why projects fail, has been ongoing for years, with various researchers, organisations and project management institutions, providing lists of reasons, which they believe, are the cause of project failure. However, despite these lists projects continue to fail, Atkinson (1999). This research is done with the anticipation of not only adding information to the body of knowledge already in existence, but also examining the major issues currently causing project failure; this will help organisations effectively manage projects. To determine how to avoid project failure the criteria for measuring project success has to be properly determined and agreed upon; the major criteria commonly used are; cost, time and quality. Then the causes of project failure need to be determined. This study also examined generalisations made from existing literature about causes of project failure and methods of avoiding project failure using three construction case studies in United Kingdom. This is a secondary or desk research, which involves the collecting and analysis of secondary data, or data that already exists, from which inferences have been made, and conclusions drawn. CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1Research background Projects make a vital contribution to industrialisation and hence the growth of a nations economy. The importance of projects in the development of any nation cannot be overemphasized. This is demonstrated in various literatures explaining the success and failure of projects. Although projects are said to be important, its implementation can be an uphill task. Various researchers have discussed project management as a technique to help prevent against failure in projects. Others have established checklists to help prevent failure. Despite the increased project management awareness and these checklists, some projects still fail, Atkinson (1999). All projects are constrained by inherent risks; knowledge of these risks will play an important role in achieving success and avoiding failure. Usually projects consist of three stages consisting of the approval, execution and evaluation stages. If any of these stages is not managed properly it may result to the failure of the entire project. Failure or Success in projects is a multi-dimensional issue and may be influenced by so many factors. Some projects may have failed in project management practices including cost overrun, scope creep, delay in schedule etc, and other projects may fail in procurement practices. Despite these failures in the following areas the project may still be perceived as successful by the end users. An example is Wembley Stadium; despite all the issues associated with the project in terms of project management and procurement practices, it is still perceived to be successful and a state of the art stadium by the end users. This may result from the fact that it has hosted world class sporting events. Usually, projects are designed to meet stakeholders objective. These objectives define the criteria for success of that project, and projects not satisfying these objectives are deem to fail. Effective communication and clarity in the stakeholders objective is vital to the project manager. This thesis examines the causes of project failure and how these can be prevented, managed or controlled. It discusses project failure and success with the help of case studies in order to identify the critical success factors and reduce failure in the implementation of projects. This research is done with the anticipation of not only adding information to the body of knowledge already in existence, but also in defining the criteria for project success and identifying the variables involved. This will help organisations effectively manage projects. 1.2 Aim The aim of this research is to carry out appraisal on the causes of project failure and the appropriate methods of avoiding project failure. This aim is intended to be achieved with the following objectives. 1.3 Objectives To provide a review of project management To analyze success criteria for projects To explore factors that causes project failure or success To examine methods of avoiding project failure 1.4 Scope This research is based on construction projects executed in the United Kingdom over the last two decades. 1.5 Research Structure Chapter One, Introduction this introduces the research; topic highlighting the aim, objectives and scope of the research. Chapter Two, Literature review critically reviews the existing Literature regarding the subject. It establishes the definition of project success and the success and failure criteria / factors. Chapter Three, Methodology describes the methodology used to undertake this research. It demonstrates the fact that secondary data was mostly used in undertaking this research. Chapter Four, Case Studies Case studies on projects from the UK construction Industry were discussed in this Chapter. These case studies were analysed and linked to the literature review chapter. Chapter Five consists of the analysis of the discussion and findings. This is derived from critically analysing the Wembley, Heathrow terminal five (T5) and Holyrood case studies. Chapter Six, Conclusion and Recommendation: This chapter concludes the research and suggests directions for further research. CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Introduction The importance of avoiding project failure in a rapidly evolving project-driven 21st century cannot be over-emphasized. Attempts to understand the causes of project failure and/ or success have proven problematic, despite attempt by many practitioners and academics over the years. Project demands have constantly increased over the last decade and have driven our society into a constantly changing environment. Despite attempts to make project appraisal and delivery more rigorous, a considerable proportion of delivery effort results in project that does not meet user expectations and are consequently rejected. In our view this can be attributed to the fact that few organisations have the facilities, training and management discipline to bring project to successful completion. Project success does not come easily; much has been contributed over the last decade to our understanding of the nature of and reason for successful and unsuccessful project completion. In addition many projects fail to complete at all. Sometime failure to satisfy all the original goals of a project can still be regarded favourably if the main sponsor is not satisfied with the outcome and the key stakeholders have gained in some way. Generally, the key development considerations are to have the goal clearly defined, to plan how to realize the goal and implement the plan. Developing an alternative methodology for project management founded on stakeholders, senior management support and proper planning should lead to a better understanding of the management issues that may contribute to the successful delivery of projects. This literature review is aimed at carrying out appraisal on the causes of project failure and the appropriate methods of avoiding it. It begins with key definitions, then analysis of causes of project failure and project success. Then it looks at success factors and criteria; also examine ways of avoiding project failure. The chapter ends with summary of the discussion. 2.2 What is a Project? Gary and Larson (2008:5) defined project as â€Å"a complex, non routine, one-time effort limited by time, budget and resource, and performance specifications designed to meet customer needs. This is in contrast to how an organisation generally works on a permanent basis to produce their goods and services. For example the work of an organisation may be to manufacture a vehicle on a continual basis, therefore the work is considered functional as the organisation creates the same products or services over-and -over again and people hold their roles on a semi permanent basis. A project can be defined as having constraints (usually centred around time and resources, but also including all aspect of the process and the outcome); projects are processes that in many circumstances are core business for organisation. The diagram below show different levels in project management. 2.3 What is Project Management? According to Gray and Larson (2006) Project management is a task derived from an organisation that enables professional project managers to use their skills, tools and knowledge to plan, execute and control a unique project within a limited lifespan by meeting the specification requirements of the organisation. Since the outcomes of the capital projects have strategic implications on the success and profitability of the business, the ability to deliver based on pre-determined objectives should be critical to the companys success. And yet one-third of all the oil and gas projects exceed budget and time projections by more than 10 percent. Failure to deliver big projects on budget and on schedule is highly publicized and damage the companies profile with capital markets that predictability and strong returns. Continual use of traditional project management techniques will not alter this trend. Companies that want to change and improve on their performance with critical capital projects will need to adopt new techniques. Munns and Bjeirmi (1996) also defined project management as a process used as a control to achieve the project objectives by utilizing the organisational structure and resources to manage a project with the application of tools and techniques, without disrupting the routine operation of the company. ‘Project management is the discipline of managing all the different resources and aspects of the project in such a way that the resources will deliver all the output that is required to complete the project within the defined scope, time, and cost constraints. These are agreed upon the project initiation stage and by the time the project begins all stakeholders and team members will have a clear understanding and acceptance of the process, methodology and expected outcome.(http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/introduction-project-management.html accessed on 30/06/09) Project management has been defined as â€Å"the process by which projects (unique, complex, non- routine, one-time effort limited by time, budget, and resources) are defined, planned, monitored, controlled and delivered such that the agreed benefits are realised† (APM, 2006:3) Other definitions have been offered, Reiss suggests that a project is a human activity that achieves a clear objective against a time scale, and to achieve this while pointing out that a simple description is not possible, he suggested that project management is a combination of management and planning and management of change. Despite all the suggestions about what is project management, the criteria for success, namely, cost, time, and quality remain and are included in the actual description. Meaning that Oisens definition of project management was either correct, or as a discipline, project management has not really changed or developed the success criteria over 50 years. Therefore project management is a learning profession. The significant point from all the definitions and suggestions of project management is that while the factors have developed and adopted, changes to the success criteria have been suggested but remain unchanged. In 2008, a survey undertaken by Booz Allen Hamilton (project management consultant) which comprises of 20 companies in engineering, procurement and construction; shows that 40 percent of all projects executed where faced with cost overruns and behind schedule. These overrun in cost and schedule has led to clients dissatisfaction on project performance; this view also agree with the research of M J Lang (1990). Therefore effective project management is very vital in such a volatile business environment. 2.4 Project Management Methodology Generally, projects are split into three phases Initiation, implementation and closure. Every stage of a project has multiple checkpoints which must be met before the starting of the next stage. The degree to which a project will be managed depends on the size of the project. For a complex project in a large organisation that involves a number of people, resources, time and money, a more structural approach is needed, and there will be more steps built into each stage of the project to ensure that the project delivers the anticipated end result. For a simple project in a small organisation, agreed milestones, a few checklists and someone to co-ordinate the project may be all that is required. 2.5 Defining Project Failure From Penguin English Dictionary (1992), failure is define as unsuccessful project that fails to perform a duty or an expected action, non-occurrence or non-performance. Whereas success can be defined as the achievement of something desired, planned or attempted (Cambridge Dictionary, 2007). It is also said that success is an event that accomplishes its intended purpose (dictionary.com, 2007). Anything short of that is failure. Project failure is an unpleasant event that cost large amount of money to the organisation. 2.6 Causes of Project Failure Pinto and Mantel (1990) carried out a research on the causes of project failure and revealed a good explanation that encompasses both internal efficiency and external effectiveness. They state that project failure is a vague concept, which has evoked much as to its definition, as the case with the definition of project success. A project is considered a failure â€Å"whenever a project does not meet the expectations of the stakeholders†. This has lots of impact to both the organisation and all stakeholders to the project. They include: cost and time overruns, quality degradation, frustration and stress, sometimes resulting to people quitting, low corporate market value, low public opinion and negative media campaigns. The total effect can be very costly to the organisation; at times even force the company into closure. Bienkoski (1989) identified ten factors that can lead to project failure and they are: * Lack of change management- happens when there is no method to handle or recognise changes. * Communication- causes delay or even failure since team members do not have the information they needed, issues or changes do not get escalated, project reporting is sluggish * Inadequate resources- Task take longer than expected to complete, deadlines and milestones get missed, and project completion date comes into jeopardy, one end of working more than necessary (double shift) to get the work done * No one is in control, not even the project manager, who is assigned to the project but not given the free hand to manage the project. This is most problem encounters in matrix organisation * Project lacks structure caused by things such as critical tasks being under rated * Inaccurate estimates. A top- down plan causes constraints on the prediction of the cost of the project * Poor risk management. The project initiation stage is not properly planned * Insufficient non-resources are not allocated to the project; for instance, it is not possible for a project to succeed if the right resources are made available for that project * Incompetent project management skill * Project changes from its original objective and goals. This can occur due to additional requirement from the client Pinto and mantel (1990) argue that the major causes of project failure are changes in the project environment, as it goes out of hands of the management. 2.7 Defining Project Success Lewis (2005) states that project success can be defined as meeting the required expectation of the stakeholders and achieving its intended purpose. This can be attained by understanding what the end result would be, and then stating the deliverables of the project. Shenhar et al. (2001) state the opposite: that project success is commonly judged by time and budget goals criteria, whereas in some cases this does not apply to some projects. Thiry (2006) argues that project success can only be defined if executives are able to consider the contribution of benefits and if the project is able to achieve these measures in relation to resources, competencies and complexity within the project parameters. 2.8 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) as a Measurement for Project Success The purpose of the KPIs is to enable measurement of project and organisational performance throughout the construction industry (The KPI Working Group 2000). Collins (2000) advocates that the process of developing KPIs involves the consideration of the following factors: * KPIs are general indicators of performance that focus on critical aspects of output or outcomes * Only a limited, management number of KPIs is maintainable for regular use. Having too many (complex) KPIs can be time-and resource-consuming * The systematic use of KPIs is essential as the value of KPIs is almost completely derived from their consistent use over a number of projects * Data collection must be made as simple as possible. * A large sample size is required to reduce the impact of project specific variables. Therefore, KPis should be designed to use on every building project. * For performance measurement to be effective, the measures must be acceptable, understood and owned across the organisation * KPIs will need to evolve and it is likely that a set of KPIs will be subject to change and refinement * Graphic delays of KPIs need to be simple in design, easy to update and accessible. Key Performance indicators for measuring project success can be illustrated with the help of the diagram below (Albert Ada, 2004). They identified the following as the measurement of project success: Cost, time, quality, commercial profitable/value, environmental performance, user expectation/ satisfaction, health and safety and participants satisfaction. This will help in explaining what the project success might mean to different stakeholders. Key Performance Indicators Dvir et al. (2003) state that the ranking of success is a one-sided judgement, as the definition of success is difficult to define, because it has different meanings for different people; thus, the criteria of success should reflect the diverse interest and view that lead to a multi-dimensional and multi-criteria approach. Baccarini (1999) states: that success entails â€Å"hard† criteria which often linked with cost, time and quality. He also states that hard criteria which can be easily measured can lead to some form of substantial agreement. In contrast, soft criteria are known to be one sided, restrained and not easily assessed. This implies that project success is a fantasy of the mind and only an individual can turn such vision into reality. A contrasting view from Westerveld (2000) defined project success as â€Å"the satisfaction of all the stakeholders, meaning that as long as the stakeholders are pleased with the outcome and gain profits or revenue from the project, then it is classed as a success. One of the Squares root corners, organisational benefits, drew much attention because of its significance and it was further analysed. Kerzner (2001, p6) suggests three criteria from the organization perspective in order for a project to be successful. The first is that it must be completed with minimum or mutually agreed upon scope changes, even though stakeholders constantly have different views about projects results (Maylor, 2005, p288). Secondly â€Å"without disturbing the main work flow of the organization because a project has to assist organisations everyday operations and try to make them more efficient and effective. Finally, it should be completed without changing the corporate culture even though projects are almost exclusively concerned with change with knocking down the old and building up the new (Baguley, 1995, p8). A project managers main responsibility is to make sure that he delivers change only where is necessary, otherwise he is doomed to find strong resistance from almost all organisational departments (Kerzner, 2001, p158) which ultimately could lead to project failure. A more structured approach to project success is grouping the criteria into categories. Wideman (1996, p3-4) describes four groups, all of them time dependent: internal project objectives (efficiency during the project), benefit to customer (effectiveness in the short term), direct contribution (in the medium term) and future opportunity (in the long term). The characterization of ‘time dependent is based on the fact that success varies with time. Looking at the future benefits of the organisation can be really difficult, because in some cases they dont even know what they want, yet it is vital to know what the project is trying to achieve after completion time so that success criteria are clearly defined in the early stages. This is quite a different approach, because the focus moves from the present success criteria to the future, in a way that a project can be unsuccessful during execution if it is judged by criteria like cost and quality, but in the long term it can turn to be a thriving story. A good example of this hypothesis is hosting the Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, which received mass criticism both during the planning period, due to delays in construction time, and when it was finished, due to huge cost. But the benefits that Greece will gain from the Olympic Games can be fully understood after 5 or maybe 10 years from the hosting year (Athens2004.com). All the above success criteria should be simple and attainable and, once defined, they should also be ranked according to priority (Right Track Associates, 2003). Straightforward criteria are easy to understand by everyone involved in the project and therefore commitment is guaranteed. Unrealistic criteria can put a ‘failure label on many projects because of the unreachable standards, can generate low team esteem and team performance in future projects and finally generate unfair disappointment among stakeholders. As for priority issues, it is inevitable that things will go wrong and the project manager will be in a tough situation where he must make the right decision having in mind that he has to sacrifice the least important success criterion. Also Shenhar et ‘al (1997) are of view that project success can be seen from the four area: Project efficiency, impact of the project to the customer, business success and finally what the project holds for the future. This was further explain in the diagram in 3. 2.9 Defining Project Success Factors and Project Success Criteria Muller and Turner (2007) defined the two components of project success in relation to the use of project management as follows: Project success factors are the elements of a project that can be influenced to increase the like hood of success; these are independent variable that makes success more likely. Project success criteria are the measures by which judge the successful outcome of a project; these are dependent variable which measure project success. We often hear or read about various success stories. But what is success and what criteria should organizations use to identify success? What factors lead to a successful project? The purpose of this study is to define project success criteria, clarify their difference with success factors and analyse their importance in project management methodology. One of the vaguest concepts of project management is project success. Since each individual or group of people who are involved in a project have different needs and expectations, it is very unsurprising that they interpret project success in their own way of understanding (Cleland Ireland, 2004, p2). For those involved with a project, project success is normally thought of as the achievement of some pre-determined project goals (Lim Mohamed, 1999, p244) while the general public has different views, commonly based on user satisfaction. A classic example of different perspective of successful project is the Sydney Opera House project (Thomsett, 2002), which went 16 times over budget and took 4 times more to finish than originally planned. But the final impact that the Opera House created was so big that no one remembers the original missed goals. The project was a big success for the people and at the same time a big failure from the project management perspective. On the other hand, the Millennium Dome in London was a project on time and on budget but in the eyes of the British people was considered a failure because it didnt deliver the awe and glamour that it was supposed to generate (Cammack, 2005). In the same way that quality requires both conformance to the specifications and fitness for use, project success requires a combination of product success (service, result, or outcome) and project management success (Duncan, 2004). The difference between criteria and factors is fuzzy for many people. The Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary describes a criterion as a standard by which you judge, decide about or deal with something while a factor is explained as a fact or situation which influences the result of something. Lim Mohamed applied those definitions to project success and illustrated the difference. It is clear now that critical factors can lead to a series of events which ultimately meet the overall success criteria of the project, so they should not be used as synonymous terms. Project success can be seen from two different perceptive, the micro and macro viewpoint (Lim Mohamed, 1999). This can help in better understanding of what project success means to different people. 2.9.1 Success Criteria Many lists of success criteria have been introduced in the previous decades by various researchers. Primal success criteria have been an integrated part of project management theory given that early definitions of project management included the so called ‘Iron Triangle success criteria cost, time and quality. (Atkinson, 1999, p338) Atkinson continues that as a discipline, project management has not really changed or developed the success measurement criteria in almost 50 years. To meet the urgent need of modernizing the out of date success criteria, he suggest the ‘Square Route ( 3) success criteria instead of the ‘Iron Triangle, where he groups the criteria that other academics have proposed. The main change is the addition of qualitative objectives rather than quantitative, namely the benefits that different group of people can receive from the project. These benefits are seen from two perspectives, one from the organisational view and one from the stakeholders view. It is obvious that each part will have benefit differently from projects. For example one organisation can gain profit through achieving strategic goals when a project is completed and at the same time these goals have a serious environmental impact in the stakeholders community. This means that a successful project must bargain between the benefits of the organisation and the satisfaction of end users. The fourth corner of the ‘Square Root is the Information System which includes the subjects of maintainability, reliability and validity of project outcomes. Belassi and Tukel (2001) are of the opinion that criteria for measuring project success/failure can grouped into two groups: the factor and system response groups. The identified factor groups are: factor related to project manager, factor related to project team members, factor related to the project itself, the organisation handling the project and the factor related to the external environment in which the project takes place. The diagram below shows this in more detail. 2.9.2 Success Factors As mentioned earlier; success factors are those inputs to the management system that lead directly or indirectly to the success of the project or business (Cooke-Davies, 2002, p185). Some project managers intuitively and informally determine their own success factors. However, if these factors are not explicitly identified and recorded, they will not become part of formal project management reporting process nor they become part of the historical project data (Rad Levin, 2002, p18). Belassi Tukel (1996, p144) classified these factors into 5 distinct groups according to which element they relate to. 2.9.2.1 The Organization Top management support is the principal success factor for many independent research groups (Tukel Rom, 1998, p48) (CHAOS Report, 2001, p4) (Cleland Ireland, 2002, p210) (Tinnirello, 2002, p14), which means that no project can finish successfully unless the project manager secures true support from the senior or operational management. It is extremely difficult to work in a hostile environment where nobody understands the benefits that the project will deliver to the organisation. Stakeholder management and contract strategies (number of and size of the contracts, interface between the different contracts and the management of contracts) are separate success factors which are also considered part of organization issues (Torp, Austeng Mengesha, 2004, p4). 2.9.2.2 The Project Manager Having a project manager is not going to guarantee the success of a project. He must have a number of skills to use during the project to guide the rest of the team to successfully complete all the objectives. In the 2001 CHAOS report (The Standish Group International, 2001, p6), business, communication, responsiveness, process, results, operational, realism and technological skills are mentioned as some of the most important skills a project manager should have to deliver success. However, more resent research by Turner and Muller (2005, p59) has concluded that the leadership style and competence of the project manager have no impact on project success. It is very interesting to investigate why a highly respectable professional body for project managers published such a contradictive position. A possible answer could be found in the fact that project managers results are difficult to prove and even more difficult to measure. If the project is successful, senior management will probably claim that all external factors were favourable. On the contrary, if it turns to be a failure, project manager easily becomes the scapegoat. 2.9.2.3 The Project Team Project managers are very lucky if they have the option to choose their project team. More often, their team is inherited to the project from various sectors of the organisation. It is vital to have a good project team to work with, with core skills that can be evolved to core competences and capabilities for the whole organisation. All m Avoiding Project Failure Dissertation Avoiding Project Failure Dissertation ABSTRACT Project management have become increasingly important in the development of any nation. Various organisations have used project management techniques as a means of bridging the gap between failure and success in implementation of projects. Despite this increasing awareness of project management by organisations, projects still fail. The purpose of this dissertation is to systematically investigate the causes of project failure and how these can be prevented, managed, or controlled. Research studies investigating the reasons why projects fail, has been ongoing for years, with various researchers, organisations and project management institutions, providing lists of reasons, which they believe, are the cause of project failure. However, despite these lists projects continue to fail, Atkinson (1999). This research is done with the anticipation of not only adding information to the body of knowledge already in existence, but also examining the major issues currently causing project failure; this will help organisations effectively manage projects. To determine how to avoid project failure the criteria for measuring project success has to be properly determined and agreed upon; the major criteria commonly used are; cost, time and quality. Then the causes of project failure need to be determined. This study also examined generalisations made from existing literature about causes of project failure and methods of avoiding project failure using three construction case studies in United Kingdom. This is a secondary or desk research, which involves the collecting and analysis of secondary data, or data that already exists, from which inferences have been made, and conclusions drawn. CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1Research background Projects make a vital contribution to industrialisation and hence the growth of a nations economy. The importance of projects in the development of any nation cannot be overemphasized. This is demonstrated in various literatures explaining the success and failure of projects. Although projects are said to be important, its implementation can be an uphill task. Various researchers have discussed project management as a technique to help prevent against failure in projects. Others have established checklists to help prevent failure. Despite the increased project management awareness and these checklists, some projects still fail, Atkinson (1999). All projects are constrained by inherent risks; knowledge of these risks will play an important role in achieving success and avoiding failure. Usually projects consist of three stages consisting of the approval, execution and evaluation stages. If any of these stages is not managed properly it may result to the failure of the entire project. Failure or Success in projects is a multi-dimensional issue and may be influenced by so many factors. Some projects may have failed in project management practices including cost overrun, scope creep, delay in schedule etc, and other projects may fail in procurement practices. Despite these failures in the following areas the project may still be perceived as successful by the end users. An example is Wembley Stadium; despite all the issues associated with the project in terms of project management and procurement practices, it is still perceived to be successful and a state of the art stadium by the end users. This may result from the fact that it has hosted world class sporting events. Usually, projects are designed to meet stakeholders objective. These objectives define the criteria for success of that project, and projects not satisfying these objectives are deem to fail. Effective communication and clarity in the stakeholders objective is vital to the project manager. This thesis examines the causes of project failure and how these can be prevented, managed or controlled. It discusses project failure and success with the help of case studies in order to identify the critical success factors and reduce failure in the implementation of projects. This research is done with the anticipation of not only adding information to the body of knowledge already in existence, but also in defining the criteria for project success and identifying the variables involved. This will help organisations effectively manage projects. 1.2 Aim The aim of this research is to carry out appraisal on the causes of project failure and the appropriate methods of avoiding project failure. This aim is intended to be achieved with the following objectives. 1.3 Objectives To provide a review of project management To analyze success criteria for projects To explore factors that causes project failure or success To examine methods of avoiding project failure 1.4 Scope This research is based on construction projects executed in the United Kingdom over the last two decades. 1.5 Research Structure Chapter One, Introduction this introduces the research; topic highlighting the aim, objectives and scope of the research. Chapter Two, Literature review critically reviews the existing Literature regarding the subject. It establishes the definition of project success and the success and failure criteria / factors. Chapter Three, Methodology describes the methodology used to undertake this research. It demonstrates the fact that secondary data was mostly used in undertaking this research. Chapter Four, Case Studies Case studies on projects from the UK construction Industry were discussed in this Chapter. These case studies were analysed and linked to the literature review chapter. Chapter Five consists of the analysis of the discussion and findings. This is derived from critically analysing the Wembley, Heathrow terminal five (T5) and Holyrood case studies. Chapter Six, Conclusion and Recommendation: This chapter concludes the research and suggests directions for further research. CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Introduction The importance of avoiding project failure in a rapidly evolving project-driven 21st century cannot be over-emphasized. Attempts to understand the causes of project failure and/ or success have proven problematic, despite attempt by many practitioners and academics over the years. Project demands have constantly increased over the last decade and have driven our society into a constantly changing environment. Despite attempts to make project appraisal and delivery more rigorous, a considerable proportion of delivery effort results in project that does not meet user expectations and are consequently rejected. In our view this can be attributed to the fact that few organisations have the facilities, training and management discipline to bring project to successful completion. Project success does not come easily; much has been contributed over the last decade to our understanding of the nature of and reason for successful and unsuccessful project completion. In addition many projects fail to complete at all. Sometime failure to satisfy all the original goals of a project can still be regarded favourably if the main sponsor is not satisfied with the outcome and the key stakeholders have gained in some way. Generally, the key development considerations are to have the goal clearly defined, to plan how to realize the goal and implement the plan. Developing an alternative methodology for project management founded on stakeholders, senior management support and proper planning should lead to a better understanding of the management issues that may contribute to the successful delivery of projects. This literature review is aimed at carrying out appraisal on the causes of project failure and the appropriate methods of avoiding it. It begins with key definitions, then analysis of causes of project failure and project success. Then it looks at success factors and criteria; also examine ways of avoiding project failure. The chapter ends with summary of the discussion. 2.2 What is a Project? Gary and Larson (2008:5) defined project as â€Å"a complex, non routine, one-time effort limited by time, budget and resource, and performance specifications designed to meet customer needs. This is in contrast to how an organisation generally works on a permanent basis to produce their goods and services. For example the work of an organisation may be to manufacture a vehicle on a continual basis, therefore the work is considered functional as the organisation creates the same products or services over-and -over again and people hold their roles on a semi permanent basis. A project can be defined as having constraints (usually centred around time and resources, but also including all aspect of the process and the outcome); projects are processes that in many circumstances are core business for organisation. The diagram below show different levels in project management. 2.3 What is Project Management? According to Gray and Larson (2006) Project management is a task derived from an organisation that enables professional project managers to use their skills, tools and knowledge to plan, execute and control a unique project within a limited lifespan by meeting the specification requirements of the organisation. Since the outcomes of the capital projects have strategic implications on the success and profitability of the business, the ability to deliver based on pre-determined objectives should be critical to the companys success. And yet one-third of all the oil and gas projects exceed budget and time projections by more than 10 percent. Failure to deliver big projects on budget and on schedule is highly publicized and damage the companies profile with capital markets that predictability and strong returns. Continual use of traditional project management techniques will not alter this trend. Companies that want to change and improve on their performance with critical capital projects will need to adopt new techniques. Munns and Bjeirmi (1996) also defined project management as a process used as a control to achieve the project objectives by utilizing the organisational structure and resources to manage a project with the application of tools and techniques, without disrupting the routine operation of the company. ‘Project management is the discipline of managing all the different resources and aspects of the project in such a way that the resources will deliver all the output that is required to complete the project within the defined scope, time, and cost constraints. These are agreed upon the project initiation stage and by the time the project begins all stakeholders and team members will have a clear understanding and acceptance of the process, methodology and expected outcome.(http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/introduction-project-management.html accessed on 30/06/09) Project management has been defined as â€Å"the process by which projects (unique, complex, non- routine, one-time effort limited by time, budget, and resources) are defined, planned, monitored, controlled and delivered such that the agreed benefits are realised† (APM, 2006:3) Other definitions have been offered, Reiss suggests that a project is a human activity that achieves a clear objective against a time scale, and to achieve this while pointing out that a simple description is not possible, he suggested that project management is a combination of management and planning and management of change. Despite all the suggestions about what is project management, the criteria for success, namely, cost, time, and quality remain and are included in the actual description. Meaning that Oisens definition of project management was either correct, or as a discipline, project management has not really changed or developed the success criteria over 50 years. Therefore project management is a learning profession. The significant point from all the definitions and suggestions of project management is that while the factors have developed and adopted, changes to the success criteria have been suggested but remain unchanged. In 2008, a survey undertaken by Booz Allen Hamilton (project management consultant) which comprises of 20 companies in engineering, procurement and construction; shows that 40 percent of all projects executed where faced with cost overruns and behind schedule. These overrun in cost and schedule has led to clients dissatisfaction on project performance; this view also agree with the research of M J Lang (1990). Therefore effective project management is very vital in such a volatile business environment. 2.4 Project Management Methodology Generally, projects are split into three phases Initiation, implementation and closure. Every stage of a project has multiple checkpoints which must be met before the starting of the next stage. The degree to which a project will be managed depends on the size of the project. For a complex project in a large organisation that involves a number of people, resources, time and money, a more structural approach is needed, and there will be more steps built into each stage of the project to ensure that the project delivers the anticipated end result. For a simple project in a small organisation, agreed milestones, a few checklists and someone to co-ordinate the project may be all that is required. 2.5 Defining Project Failure From Penguin English Dictionary (1992), failure is define as unsuccessful project that fails to perform a duty or an expected action, non-occurrence or non-performance. Whereas success can be defined as the achievement of something desired, planned or attempted (Cambridge Dictionary, 2007). It is also said that success is an event that accomplishes its intended purpose (dictionary.com, 2007). Anything short of that is failure. Project failure is an unpleasant event that cost large amount of money to the organisation. 2.6 Causes of Project Failure Pinto and Mantel (1990) carried out a research on the causes of project failure and revealed a good explanation that encompasses both internal efficiency and external effectiveness. They state that project failure is a vague concept, which has evoked much as to its definition, as the case with the definition of project success. A project is considered a failure â€Å"whenever a project does not meet the expectations of the stakeholders†. This has lots of impact to both the organisation and all stakeholders to the project. They include: cost and time overruns, quality degradation, frustration and stress, sometimes resulting to people quitting, low corporate market value, low public opinion and negative media campaigns. The total effect can be very costly to the organisation; at times even force the company into closure. Bienkoski (1989) identified ten factors that can lead to project failure and they are: * Lack of change management- happens when there is no method to handle or recognise changes. * Communication- causes delay or even failure since team members do not have the information they needed, issues or changes do not get escalated, project reporting is sluggish * Inadequate resources- Task take longer than expected to complete, deadlines and milestones get missed, and project completion date comes into jeopardy, one end of working more than necessary (double shift) to get the work done * No one is in control, not even the project manager, who is assigned to the project but not given the free hand to manage the project. This is most problem encounters in matrix organisation * Project lacks structure caused by things such as critical tasks being under rated * Inaccurate estimates. A top- down plan causes constraints on the prediction of the cost of the project * Poor risk management. The project initiation stage is not properly planned * Insufficient non-resources are not allocated to the project; for instance, it is not possible for a project to succeed if the right resources are made available for that project * Incompetent project management skill * Project changes from its original objective and goals. This can occur due to additional requirement from the client Pinto and mantel (1990) argue that the major causes of project failure are changes in the project environment, as it goes out of hands of the management. 2.7 Defining Project Success Lewis (2005) states that project success can be defined as meeting the required expectation of the stakeholders and achieving its intended purpose. This can be attained by understanding what the end result would be, and then stating the deliverables of the project. Shenhar et al. (2001) state the opposite: that project success is commonly judged by time and budget goals criteria, whereas in some cases this does not apply to some projects. Thiry (2006) argues that project success can only be defined if executives are able to consider the contribution of benefits and if the project is able to achieve these measures in relation to resources, competencies and complexity within the project parameters. 2.8 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) as a Measurement for Project Success The purpose of the KPIs is to enable measurement of project and organisational performance throughout the construction industry (The KPI Working Group 2000). Collins (2000) advocates that the process of developing KPIs involves the consideration of the following factors: * KPIs are general indicators of performance that focus on critical aspects of output or outcomes * Only a limited, management number of KPIs is maintainable for regular use. Having too many (complex) KPIs can be time-and resource-consuming * The systematic use of KPIs is essential as the value of KPIs is almost completely derived from their consistent use over a number of projects * Data collection must be made as simple as possible. * A large sample size is required to reduce the impact of project specific variables. Therefore, KPis should be designed to use on every building project. * For performance measurement to be effective, the measures must be acceptable, understood and owned across the organisation * KPIs will need to evolve and it is likely that a set of KPIs will be subject to change and refinement * Graphic delays of KPIs need to be simple in design, easy to update and accessible. Key Performance indicators for measuring project success can be illustrated with the help of the diagram below (Albert Ada, 2004). They identified the following as the measurement of project success: Cost, time, quality, commercial profitable/value, environmental performance, user expectation/ satisfaction, health and safety and participants satisfaction. This will help in explaining what the project success might mean to different stakeholders. Key Performance Indicators Dvir et al. (2003) state that the ranking of success is a one-sided judgement, as the definition of success is difficult to define, because it has different meanings for different people; thus, the criteria of success should reflect the diverse interest and view that lead to a multi-dimensional and multi-criteria approach. Baccarini (1999) states: that success entails â€Å"hard† criteria which often linked with cost, time and quality. He also states that hard criteria which can be easily measured can lead to some form of substantial agreement. In contrast, soft criteria are known to be one sided, restrained and not easily assessed. This implies that project success is a fantasy of the mind and only an individual can turn such vision into reality. A contrasting view from Westerveld (2000) defined project success as â€Å"the satisfaction of all the stakeholders, meaning that as long as the stakeholders are pleased with the outcome and gain profits or revenue from the project, then it is classed as a success. One of the Squares root corners, organisational benefits, drew much attention because of its significance and it was further analysed. Kerzner (2001, p6) suggests three criteria from the organization perspective in order for a project to be successful. The first is that it must be completed with minimum or mutually agreed upon scope changes, even though stakeholders constantly have different views about projects results (Maylor, 2005, p288). Secondly â€Å"without disturbing the main work flow of the organization because a project has to assist organisations everyday operations and try to make them more efficient and effective. Finally, it should be completed without changing the corporate culture even though projects are almost exclusively concerned with change with knocking down the old and building up the new (Baguley, 1995, p8). A project managers main responsibility is to make sure that he delivers change only where is necessary, otherwise he is doomed to find strong resistance from almost all organisational departments (Kerzner, 2001, p158) which ultimately could lead to project failure. A more structured approach to project success is grouping the criteria into categories. Wideman (1996, p3-4) describes four groups, all of them time dependent: internal project objectives (efficiency during the project), benefit to customer (effectiveness in the short term), direct contribution (in the medium term) and future opportunity (in the long term). The characterization of ‘time dependent is based on the fact that success varies with time. Looking at the future benefits of the organisation can be really difficult, because in some cases they dont even know what they want, yet it is vital to know what the project is trying to achieve after completion time so that success criteria are clearly defined in the early stages. This is quite a different approach, because the focus moves from the present success criteria to the future, in a way that a project can be unsuccessful during execution if it is judged by criteria like cost and quality, but in the long term it can turn to be a thriving story. A good example of this hypothesis is hosting the Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, which received mass criticism both during the planning period, due to delays in construction time, and when it was finished, due to huge cost. But the benefits that Greece will gain from the Olympic Games can be fully understood after 5 or maybe 10 years from the hosting year (Athens2004.com). All the above success criteria should be simple and attainable and, once defined, they should also be ranked according to priority (Right Track Associates, 2003). Straightforward criteria are easy to understand by everyone involved in the project and therefore commitment is guaranteed. Unrealistic criteria can put a ‘failure label on many projects because of the unreachable standards, can generate low team esteem and team performance in future projects and finally generate unfair disappointment among stakeholders. As for priority issues, it is inevitable that things will go wrong and the project manager will be in a tough situation where he must make the right decision having in mind that he has to sacrifice the least important success criterion. Also Shenhar et ‘al (1997) are of view that project success can be seen from the four area: Project efficiency, impact of the project to the customer, business success and finally what the project holds for the future. This was further explain in the diagram in 3. 2.9 Defining Project Success Factors and Project Success Criteria Muller and Turner (2007) defined the two components of project success in relation to the use of project management as follows: Project success factors are the elements of a project that can be influenced to increase the like hood of success; these are independent variable that makes success more likely. Project success criteria are the measures by which judge the successful outcome of a project; these are dependent variable which measure project success. We often hear or read about various success stories. But what is success and what criteria should organizations use to identify success? What factors lead to a successful project? The purpose of this study is to define project success criteria, clarify their difference with success factors and analyse their importance in project management methodology. One of the vaguest concepts of project management is project success. Since each individual or group of people who are involved in a project have different needs and expectations, it is very unsurprising that they interpret project success in their own way of understanding (Cleland Ireland, 2004, p2). For those involved with a project, project success is normally thought of as the achievement of some pre-determined project goals (Lim Mohamed, 1999, p244) while the general public has different views, commonly based on user satisfaction. A classic example of different perspective of successful project is the Sydney Opera House project (Thomsett, 2002), which went 16 times over budget and took 4 times more to finish than originally planned. But the final impact that the Opera House created was so big that no one remembers the original missed goals. The project was a big success for the people and at the same time a big failure from the project management perspective. On the other hand, the Millennium Dome in London was a project on time and on budget but in the eyes of the British people was considered a failure because it didnt deliver the awe and glamour that it was supposed to generate (Cammack, 2005). In the same way that quality requires both conformance to the specifications and fitness for use, project success requires a combination of product success (service, result, or outcome) and project management success (Duncan, 2004). The difference between criteria and factors is fuzzy for many people. The Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary describes a criterion as a standard by which you judge, decide about or deal with something while a factor is explained as a fact or situation which influences the result of something. Lim Mohamed applied those definitions to project success and illustrated the difference. It is clear now that critical factors can lead to a series of events which ultimately meet the overall success criteria of the project, so they should not be used as synonymous terms. Project success can be seen from two different perceptive, the micro and macro viewpoint (Lim Mohamed, 1999). This can help in better understanding of what project success means to different people. 2.9.1 Success Criteria Many lists of success criteria have been introduced in the previous decades by various researchers. Primal success criteria have been an integrated part of project management theory given that early definitions of project management included the so called ‘Iron Triangle success criteria cost, time and quality. (Atkinson, 1999, p338) Atkinson continues that as a discipline, project management has not really changed or developed the success measurement criteria in almost 50 years. To meet the urgent need of modernizing the out of date success criteria, he suggest the ‘Square Route ( 3) success criteria instead of the ‘Iron Triangle, where he groups the criteria that other academics have proposed. The main change is the addition of qualitative objectives rather than quantitative, namely the benefits that different group of people can receive from the project. These benefits are seen from two perspectives, one from the organisational view and one from the stakeholders view. It is obvious that each part will have benefit differently from projects. For example one organisation can gain profit through achieving strategic goals when a project is completed and at the same time these goals have a serious environmental impact in the stakeholders community. This means that a successful project must bargain between the benefits of the organisation and the satisfaction of end users. The fourth corner of the ‘Square Root is the Information System which includes the subjects of maintainability, reliability and validity of project outcomes. Belassi and Tukel (2001) are of the opinion that criteria for measuring project success/failure can grouped into two groups: the factor and system response groups. The identified factor groups are: factor related to project manager, factor related to project team members, factor related to the project itself, the organisation handling the project and the factor related to the external environment in which the project takes place. The diagram below shows this in more detail. 2.9.2 Success Factors As mentioned earlier; success factors are those inputs to the management system that lead directly or indirectly to the success of the project or business (Cooke-Davies, 2002, p185). Some project managers intuitively and informally determine their own success factors. However, if these factors are not explicitly identified and recorded, they will not become part of formal project management reporting process nor they become part of the historical project data (Rad Levin, 2002, p18). Belassi Tukel (1996, p144) classified these factors into 5 distinct groups according to which element they relate to. 2.9.2.1 The Organization Top management support is the principal success factor for many independent research groups (Tukel Rom, 1998, p48) (CHAOS Report, 2001, p4) (Cleland Ireland, 2002, p210) (Tinnirello, 2002, p14), which means that no project can finish successfully unless the project manager secures true support from the senior or operational management. It is extremely difficult to work in a hostile environment where nobody understands the benefits that the project will deliver to the organisation. Stakeholder management and contract strategies (number of and size of the contracts, interface between the different contracts and the management of contracts) are separate success factors which are also considered part of organization issues (Torp, Austeng Mengesha, 2004, p4). 2.9.2.2 The Project Manager Having a project manager is not going to guarantee the success of a project. He must have a number of skills to use during the project to guide the rest of the team to successfully complete all the objectives. In the 2001 CHAOS report (The Standish Group International, 2001, p6), business, communication, responsiveness, process, results, operational, realism and technological skills are mentioned as some of the most important skills a project manager should have to deliver success. However, more resent research by Turner and Muller (2005, p59) has concluded that the leadership style and competence of the project manager have no impact on project success. It is very interesting to investigate why a highly respectable professional body for project managers published such a contradictive position. A possible answer could be found in the fact that project managers results are difficult to prove and even more difficult to measure. If the project is successful, senior management will probably claim that all external factors were favourable. On the contrary, if it turns to be a failure, project manager easily becomes the scapegoat. 2.9.2.3 The Project Team Project managers are very lucky if they have the option to choose their project team. More often, their team is inherited to the project from various sectors of the organisation. It is vital to have a good project team to work with, with core skills that can be evolved to core competences and capabilities for the whole organisation. All m