Descartes Greatest Argument Mind Body Duality

Descartes’ Greatest Argument: Mind-Body Duality Man is not merely an animal, but rather a body and soul that lives forever. This is an idea that took centuries to develop, and one that still conflicts the great thinkers of our time. Descartes, who ushered in the modern age of philosophy and who is arguably the greatest questioner of Aristotle, develops his ideas on the mind body duality throughout his first six Meditations. Explaining the essential characteristics of thinking things in contrast with those of physical things, Descartes makes it clear why the mind cannot simply be the brain and why, although we physically are present, our essence, our existence, is not linked with our physical self. Descartes arguments, however well crafted†¦show more content†¦Descartes presents ideas that could possibly prove the mind-body singularity. He realizes he perceives colour and sound through his senses and also with the help of his memory. This means that these perceptions appear to have reached his imagination. Descartes specul ates that the things he perceives may help prove that bodies exist. However, he soon realizes that it was in fact external bodies that caused him to have these perceptions, realizing that his senses have deceived him since he has had the same perceptions whilst being awake as well as when he is dreaming. Sensory experiences are equally present in ones’ dreams, yet the senses are not being activated. All that can be certain is the experience, not that the experience is the result of the contribution from ones’ senses. With this newly developed idea, experiences, independent of their cause, can be nothing more than a mere form of thinking and therefore a product of one’s imagination (25), meaning they are entirely independent of a body, and so do not require one. This is a first advancement on the idea of the mind-body duality. Descartes proceeds to bring forward the idea that all that is immediately available to the mind is perceptual experience. Regardless of w hat lies beyond that experience in the external world, Descartes believes that it is very certain that he sees light, hears noise and feels heat; and these are all a property of perception, and this, when interpreted in this precise sense, can be

The Activism Towards The German Unification - 1512 Words

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Comparing Extreme Programming and Waterfall Project Results Free Essays

Comparing Extreme Programming and Waterfall Project Results Feng Ji Carnegie Mellon University Silicon Valley Campus Mountain View, CA, 94035 jojojifeng@gmail. com Todd Sedano Carnegie Mellon University Silicon Valley Campus Mountain View, CA, 94035 todd. sedano@sv. We will write a custom essay sample on Comparing Extreme Programming and Waterfall Project Results or any similar topic only for you Order Now cmu. edu Abstract Waterfall and Extreme Programming are two software project methods used for project management. Although there are a number of opinions comparing the two methods regarding how they should be applied, none have used project data to clearly conclude which one is better. In this paper, we present the results of a controlled empirical study conducted at Carnegie Mellon University in Silicon Valley to learn about the effective transition from traditional development to agile development. We conducted a comparison research against these two approaches. Multiple teams were assigned a project; some used Waterfall development, others used Extreme Programming. The purpose of this research is to look at advantages and disadvantages based upon the outcomes, generated artifacts, and metrics produced by the teams. 1. Introduction 1. 1. Agile vs Traditional Since the early 1970s, numerous software managers have explored different ways of software development methods (such as Waterfall model, evolutionary model, spiral model etc. ) those have been developed to accomplish these goals and have been widely used by the software industry [1]. Methodologists often describe the Waterfall method as a stereotypical traditional method whereas they describe Extreme Programming as the stereotypical agile method. The Waterfall model, as the oldest traditional software development method, was cited by Winston W. Royce in 1970 [2]. He divided the software development lifecycle into seven sequential and linear stages: Conception, Initiation, Analysis, Design, Construction, Testing, and Maintenance. The Waterfall model is especially used for large and complex engineering projects. Waterfall’s lasting impression upon software engineering is seen even in the Guide to Software Engineering Body of Knowledge which introduces the first five knowledge areas based upon their sequence in the Waterfall lifecycle even though the Guide does not recommend any particular lifecycle [3]. Although the Waterfall model has been adopted in many large and complex projects, it still has some inherent drawbacks, like inflexibility in the face of changing requirements [1]. If large amounts of project resources have been invested in requirements and design activities, then changes can be very costly later. High ceremony documentation is not necessary in all projects. Agile methods deal well with unstable and volatile requirements by using a number of techniques of which most notable are: low ceremony documents, short iterations, early testing, and customer collaboration. Kent Beck and Cynthia Andres define Extreme Programming 2. 0 with many practices [4], like Pair Programming, Test First Programming, and Continuous Integration and so on. These characteristics enable agile methods to obtain the smallest workable piece of functionality to deliver business value early and continually improving it while adding further functionality throughout the life of the project [5]. 1. 2. PET project background Carnegie Mellon University Silicon Valley students start their masters program with the Foundations of Software Engineering course. This course is team-based, project-based, and mentored. Each team builds The Process Enactment Tool (PET). The user personas are software developers and managers. The tool helps users plan, estimate, and execute a project plan while analyzing historical data. The tool’s domain encourages students to learn about software lifecycles and methods while understanding the benefit of metrics and reflection. 1. 2. 1. PET 1. 0: In 2001, Carnegie Mellon had one of the largest outsourcing firms in the world develop Pet 1. 0. Later the student teams were brought in to do the next release. The initial offerings of the course had the teams follow a Waterfall lifecycle. The faculty decided to use Extreme Programming as the method for the Foundations course because it was an agile method, it had good engineering practices, and it was a safe sandbox environment for engineers to try paired programming since many managers in industry were initially skeptical about its benefits. In 2005, the faculty allowed three of the sixteen teams tried our new curriculum to see if there were any serious issues in the switch, while other thirteen teams continued to follow a start point in 2004. The feedback was extremely positive so in 2006, all teams followed Extreme Programming. For the project plan duration, Waterfall teams needed fifteen weeks to finish their tasks where as Extreme Programming teams were given only thirteen weeks, a 13% reduction in time. 1. 2. 2. PET 1. 1: In 2005, the VP of Engineering advised the three teams that rewriting the code from scratch would be easier than working with the existing code base. Team 30:1 decided to use the latest in Java technologies including Swing and Hibernate. PET 1. 1, the team’s product became the starting point for the students in the following year. 1. 2. 3. PET 1. 2: In 2008, the faculty switched the core technology from Java to Ruby on Rails. Ruby on Rails’ convention over configuration, afforded a lower learning curve for students. For Pet 1. 2, students would build their projects from scratch. 2. Related work Much research has been done as to when to use an agile method and when to use a traditional method. For example, Boehm Turner’s home grounds look at several characteristics, criticality, culture, and dynamism [6]. Our paper aims to extend these limitations to some degree by estimating Waterfall and XP in an academic case study, which provide a substantive ground for researchers before replicating their ideas in industry. Basili [7] presented a framework for analyzing most of the experimental work performed in software engineering. We learned that how to conduct a controlled experiment. Andrew and Nachiappan [8] reported on the results of an empirical study conducted at Microsoft by using an anonymous web-based survey. They found that one third of the study respondents use Agile methodologies to varying degrees and most view it favorably due to improved communication between team members, quick releases and the increased flexibility of agile designs. Their findings that we will consider in our future work is that developers are most worried about scaling Agile to larger projects, and coordinating agile and traditional teams. Our work is closely related to the work by Ming Huo et al [9]. They compared the Waterfall model with agile processes to show how agile methods achieve software quality. They also showed how agile methods attain quality under time pressure and in an unstable requirements environment. They presented a detailed Waterfall model showing its software quality support processes. Other work has only illustrates one or some Agile practices such as pair programming [10]. 3. Experimental methodology Our research was conducted primarily using Glaser’s steps [11] in the constant comparison method of analysis. Step1: Begin collecting data. We collected more than 50 teams’ detailed data during a five year period as Table 1 shows. Table 1. Team building the same project 2004 2005 2005 2006 2007 2008 Method Waterfall Waterfall XP XP XP XP Language Java Java Java Java Java Ruby Project PET1. 0 PET1. 0 PET1. 0 PET1. 1 PET1. 1 PET1. 2 Numbers of Teams 10 13 3 9 6 11 Step2: Look for key issues, recurrent events, or activities in the data that become categories for focus. The approach in software design makes us categorize the data into two distinctive software development methods, namely Waterfall and Extreme Programming. Step3: Collect data that provides many incidents of the categories of focus with an eye to seeing the diversity of the dimensions under the categories. According to Basili[7], we provided some metrics to compare these two categories, Waterfall and XP. Requirements Metrics M1: Numbers of UI screens (ie. mockup) M2: Numbers of use cases (story cards) M3: Pages of Software Requirements Specification (SRS) documents M4: Pages of User Requirements Documents (URD) Design Metric M5: Pages of detailed design documents Implementation Metrics M6: Lines of code M7: Percentage of lines of comments to lines of source code M8: Lines of test cases M9: Ratio of lines of test code to lines of program code Step4: Write about the categories that we are exploring, attempting to describe and account for all the incidents we have in our data while continually searching for new incidents. Step5: Work with the data and emerging model to discover basic social processes and relationships. Step6: Engage in sampling, coding, and writing as the analysis focuses on the core categories. During 2005, there were 13 teams following Waterfall and 3 teams following XP during the same period of time. These three teams, team Absorb, GT11 and 30:1 are interesting teams to examine as we can compare their data against the Waterfall teams doing the exact same project. 4. Experimental results 4. 1. UI screens (M1) and Story cards (M2) comparison These wide ranges can be seen in Table 2 and Table 3 where the standard deviation of the UI mockups is often half the document size. Comparing use cases to story cards in Table 3, we see that the standard deviation for use cases is much lower than the standard deviation for story cards. This is expected since use cases are a higher ceremony document when compared to story cards. Teams might give little consideration to how to represent each feature on a story card whereas a team writing a use case step by step how a user will use the system will spend much more time thinking about the coupling and cohesion of each use case. Table 2. Average numbers and Standard Deviation of mockups Year 004 2005 Absorb GT11 30:1 2006 2007 2008 Average mockups 15. 5 11. 8 17 18 9 15 12. 8 17. 7 Standard Deviation of mockups 6. 6 6. 3 5. 4 3. 1 8. 8 Table 3. Average numbers and Standard Deviation of use cases/story cards Year Average Number Standard Deviation 2004 User cases 18. 7 2005 User cases 18. 9 2. 3 Absorb Story cards 15 1. 6 GT11 Story cards 13 30:1 Story cards 18 2006 Story cards 16. 6 2007 Story cards 18. 3 2008 Story car ds 16. 6 7. 5 6. 8 8. 0 4. 2. Requirement documents (M3M4) Starting with PET 1. 0, Waterfall teams on average add 1. 7 use cases and modified 2. use cases. Teams were given a 28 page System Requirements Specification (SRS) and on averaged finished with a 34 page SRS. XP teams starting with PET 1. 0 were given the same starting documents. Instead of modifying them, the teams created story cards that represented each new feature. Instead of spending time on writing use cases, XP teams started coding sooner. Because XP has an emphasis on low ceremony documents, they had more time to code resulting in an effort savings for the teams. 4. 3. Comparing the size of the detail design documents (M5) There are some insights from Table 4. Waterfall teams using Pet 1. 0 started with a 21 page Detailed Design Document (DDD), which they altered to reflect their new use cases. Waterfall teams typically did not update their design documents at the end of the project. Given the scope of the project, Waterfall teams’ final code matched the original design with respect to new classes. Table 4. Average pages and Standard Deviation of Detail Design Documents Year 2004 2005 Absorb GT11 30:1 2006 2007 2008 Starting Point 21 21 21 21 0 14 14 0 Average DDD 25. 8 31. 1 18 22 14 18. 3 12. 5 9. 5 Standard Deviation 8. 39 7. 48 7. 70 7. 8 5. 19 XP teams increased their design documents with each iteration. Because the XP teams followed Test-Driven Development, they wrote their code and had an emergent design. At the end of each iteration, the teams were asked to update the design document to reflect important design decisions they had made during that iteration. Therefore, the design document serves a different purpose in XP. It is not a template or blueprint for future construction. Instead, it can be a guide for understanding why certain decisions were made. In this regard, it is a biography of the development, ot a plan of action. 4. 4. New lines of source code and comments, Percentage of comments in codes Table 5 shows that Waterfall teams starting with Pet 1. 0 produced lines of code with a wide variance. The two XP teams starting with Pet 1. 0 fell right within the middle of the average. Because instead of producing some documents up front, the XP teams spent a longer time coding, one would expect them to produce more lines of code. The research results also show that XP Teams had a higher percentage of comments in source code. Table 5. Average and Standard Deviation of new lines in code Year Language Average new lines in code Standard Deviation Lines of test codes Ratio of test codes to program code 2004 2005 Absorb GT11 30:1 2006 2007 2008 Java Java Java Java Java Java Java Ruby 9,429 11,910 13,288 14,689 0 9,628 8,572 3,670 7,946 9,851 4,920 5,465 1,507 3378 4164 1380 3186 947 3555 2212 3,255 8% 13% 4% 8% 8% 16% 10% 90% 4. 5. Submitted lines of test codes and ratio of test code to program code The observation of these two metrics in Table 5 shows that the amount of test code written by the Waterfall teams equals the amount of test code written by the XP teams. Initially the faculty thought that Test-Driven Development would increase the amount of testing code, however, given a slow adoption rate of Test-Driven Development, programmers resorted to what was familiar and thus produced similar results. 5. Conclusion In this paper, we observed and presented the data from five years of 50 teams developing the same project each year and the affects of transitioning from Waterfall to Extreme Programming. The characteristics between these two methods were evaluated and compared. Waterfall teams spent more time creating high ceremony documents where as Extreme Programming teams spent more time writing code and documenting their design in their code. Surprisingly, the amount of code and features completed were roughly the same for both methods suggesting that on a three month project with three to four developers it doesn’t matter the method used. It is challenging to conduct this kind of analysis of the data in hindsight. Given that this is not a toy problem, and the freedom teams have in the execution of their projects, setting up this kind of experiment properly in advance is also challenging. . References [1] Sommerville, Software engineering, 8th ed. , New York: Addison-Wesley, Harlow, England, 2006. [2] W. Royce, Managing the Development of Large Software Systems, IEEE WESTCON, Los Angeles, 1970. [3] A. Abran and J. W. Moore, Guide to the software engineering body of knowledge: trial version (version 0. 95) IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamito s, CA, USA, 2001. [4] Kent Beck and Cynthia Andres, Extreme programming eXplained: embrace change, Second Edition, MA: Addison-Wesley, 2004. 5] Mike Cohn, Agile estimating and planning, Prentice Hall Professional Technical Reference, Nov 11, 2005. [6] Barry, Boehm and Richard Turner, Balancing Agility and Discipline: A Guide for the Perplexed, Addison Wesley, August 15, 2003. [7] Basil, V. R. , Selby, R. and Hutchens, D. , Experimentation in Software Engineering, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (invited paper), July 1986. [8] Andrew Begel and Nachiappan Nagappan, Usage and Perceptions of Agile Software Development in an Industrial Context: An Exploratory Study, MiIEEE Computer Society MSR-TR-2007-09, no. 2007): 10. [9] Ming Huo, June Verner, Muhammad Ali Babar, and Liming Zhu, How does agility ensure quality? , IEEE Seminar Digests 2004, (2004):36. [10] Jan Chong, Robert Plummer, Larry Leifer, Scott R. Klemmer, and George Toye. Pair Programming: When and Why it Works, In P roceedings of Psychology of Programming Interest Group 2005 Workshop, Brighton, UK, June 2005. [11] Glaser, Barney G, Strauss, and Anselm L. , The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research, Aldine Publishing Company, Chicago, 1967. How to cite Comparing Extreme Programming and Waterfall Project Results, Papers Comparing Extreme Programming and Waterfall Project Results Free Essays Comparing Extreme Programming and Waterfall Project Results Feng Ji Carnegie Mellon University Silicon Valley Campus Mountain View, CA, 94035 jojojifeng@gmail. com Todd Sedano Carnegie Mellon University Silicon Valley Campus Mountain View, CA, 94035 todd. sedano@sv. We will write a custom essay sample on Comparing Extreme Programming and Waterfall Project Results or any similar topic only for you Order Now cmu. edu Abstract Waterfall and Extreme Programming are two software project methods used for project management. Although there are a number of opinions comparing the two methods regarding how they should be applied, none have used project data to clearly conclude which one is better. In this paper, we present the results of a controlled empirical study conducted at Carnegie Mellon University in Silicon Valley to learn about the effective transition from traditional development to agile development. We conducted a comparison research against these two approaches. Multiple teams were assigned a project; some used Waterfall development, others used Extreme Programming. The purpose of this research is to look at advantages and disadvantages based upon the outcomes, generated artifacts, and metrics produced by the teams. 1. Introduction 1. 1. Agile vs Traditional Since the early 1970s, numerous software managers have explored different ways of software development methods (such as Waterfall model, evolutionary model, spiral model etc. ) those have been developed to accomplish these goals and have been widely used by the software industry [1]. Methodologists often describe the Waterfall method as a stereotypical traditional method whereas they describe Extreme Programming as the stereotypical agile method. The Waterfall model, as the oldest traditional software development method, was cited by Winston W. Royce in 1970 [2]. He divided the software development lifecycle into seven sequential and linear stages: Conception, Initiation, Analysis, Design, Construction, Testing, and Maintenance. The Waterfall model is especially used for large and complex engineering projects. Waterfall’s lasting impression upon software engineering is seen even in the Guide to Software Engineering Body of Knowledge which introduces the first five knowledge areas based upon their sequence in the Waterfall lifecycle even though the Guide does not recommend any particular lifecycle [3]. Although the Waterfall model has been adopted in many large and complex projects, it still has some inherent drawbacks, like inflexibility in the face of changing requirements [1]. If large amounts of project resources have been invested in requirements and design activities, then changes can be very costly later. High ceremony documentation is not necessary in all projects. Agile methods deal well with unstable and volatile requirements by using a number of techniques of which most notable are: low ceremony documents, short iterations, early testing, and customer collaboration. Kent Beck and Cynthia Andres define Extreme Programming 2. 0 with many practices [4], like Pair Programming, Test First Programming, and Continuous Integration and so on. These characteristics enable agile methods to obtain the smallest workable piece of functionality to deliver business value early and continually improving it while adding further functionality throughout the life of the project [5]. 1. 2. PET project background Carnegie Mellon University Silicon Valley students start their masters program with the Foundations of Software Engineering course. This course is team-based, project-based, and mentored. Each team builds The Process Enactment Tool (PET). The user personas are software developers and managers. The tool helps users plan, estimate, and execute a project plan while analyzing historical data. The tool’s domain encourages students to learn about software lifecycles and methods while understanding the benefit of metrics and reflection. 1. 2. 1. PET 1. 0: In 2001, Carnegie Mellon had one of the largest outsourcing firms in the world develop Pet 1. 0. Later the student teams were brought in to do the next release. The initial offerings of the course had the teams follow a Waterfall lifecycle. The faculty decided to use Extreme Programming as the method for the Foundations course because it was an agile method, it had good engineering practices, and it was a safe sandbox environment for engineers to try paired programming since many managers in industry were initially skeptical about its benefits. In 2005, the faculty allowed three of the sixteen teams tried our new curriculum to see if there were any serious issues in the switch, while other thirteen teams continued to follow a start point in 2004. The feedback was extremely positive so in 2006, all teams followed Extreme Programming. For the project plan duration, Waterfall teams needed fifteen weeks to finish their tasks where as Extreme Programming teams were given only thirteen weeks, a 13% reduction in time. 1. 2. 2. PET 1. 1: In 2005, the VP of Engineering advised the three teams that rewriting the code from scratch would be easier than working with the existing code base. Team 30:1 decided to use the latest in Java technologies including Swing and Hibernate. PET 1. 1, the team’s product became the starting point for the students in the following year. 1. 2. 3. PET 1. 2: In 2008, the faculty switched the core technology from Java to Ruby on Rails. Ruby on Rails’ convention over configuration, afforded a lower learning curve for students. For Pet 1. 2, students would build their projects from scratch. 2. Related work Much research has been done as to when to use an agile method and when to use a traditional method. For example, Boehm Turner’s home grounds look at several characteristics, criticality, culture, and dynamism [6]. Our paper aims to extend these limitations to some degree by estimating Waterfall and XP in an academic case study, which provide a substantive ground for researchers before replicating their ideas in industry. Basili [7] presented a framework for analyzing most of the experimental work performed in software engineering. We learned that how to conduct a controlled experiment. Andrew and Nachiappan [8] reported on the results of an empirical study conducted at Microsoft by using an anonymous web-based survey. They found that one third of the study respondents use Agile methodologies to varying degrees and most view it favorably due to improved communication between team members, quick releases and the increased flexibility of agile designs. Their findings that we will consider in our future work is that developers are most worried about scaling Agile to larger projects, and coordinating agile and traditional teams. Our work is closely related to the work by Ming Huo et al [9]. They compared the Waterfall model with agile processes to show how agile methods achieve software quality. They also showed how agile methods attain quality under time pressure and in an unstable requirements environment. They presented a detailed Waterfall model showing its software quality support processes. Other work has only illustrates one or some Agile practices such as pair programming [10]. 3. Experimental methodology Our research was conducted primarily using Glaser’s steps [11] in the constant comparison method of analysis. Step1: Begin collecting data. We collected more than 50 teams’ detailed data during a five year period as Table 1 shows. Table 1. Team building the same project 2004 2005 2005 2006 2007 2008 Method Waterfall Waterfall XP XP XP XP Language Java Java Java Java Java Ruby Project PET1. 0 PET1. 0 PET1. 0 PET1. 1 PET1. 1 PET1. 2 Numbers of Teams 10 13 3 9 6 11 Step2: Look for key issues, recurrent events, or activities in the data that become categories for focus. The approach in software design makes us categorize the data into two distinctive software development methods, namely Waterfall and Extreme Programming. Step3: Collect data that provides many incidents of the categories of focus with an eye to seeing the diversity of the dimensions under the categories. According to Basili[7], we provided some metrics to compare these two categories, Waterfall and XP. Requirements Metrics M1: Numbers of UI screens (ie. mockup) M2: Numbers of use cases (story cards) M3: Pages of Software Requirements Specification (SRS) documents M4: Pages of User Requirements Documents (URD) Design Metric M5: Pages of detailed design documents Implementation Metrics M6: Lines of code M7: Percentage of lines of comments to lines of source code M8: Lines of test cases M9: Ratio of lines of test code to lines of program code Step4: Write about the categories that we are exploring, attempting to describe and account for all the incidents we have in our data while continually searching for new incidents. Step5: Work with the data and emerging model to discover basic social processes and relationships. Step6: Engage in sampling, coding, and writing as the analysis focuses on the core categories. During 2005, there were 13 teams following Waterfall and 3 teams following XP during the same period of time. These three teams, team Absorb, GT11 and 30:1 are interesting teams to examine as we can compare their data against the Waterfall teams doing the exact same project. 4. Experimental results 4. 1. UI screens (M1) and Story cards (M2) comparison These wide ranges can be seen in Table 2 and Table 3 where the standard deviation of the UI mockups is often half the document size. Comparing use cases to story cards in Table 3, we see that the standard deviation for use cases is much lower than the standard deviation for story cards. This is expected since use cases are a higher ceremony document when compared to story cards. Teams might give little consideration to how to represent each feature on a story card whereas a team writing a use case step by step how a user will use the system will spend much more time thinking about the coupling and cohesion of each use case. Table 2. Average numbers and Standard Deviation of mockups Year 004 2005 Absorb GT11 30:1 2006 2007 2008 Average mockups 15. 5 11. 8 17 18 9 15 12. 8 17. 7 Standard Deviation of mockups 6. 6 6. 3 5. 4 3. 1 8. 8 Table 3. Average numbers and Standard Deviation of use cases/story cards Year Average Number Standard Deviation 2004 User cases 18. 7 2005 User cases 18. 9 2. 3 Absorb Story cards 15 1. 6 GT11 Story cards 13 30:1 Story cards 18 2006 Story cards 16. 6 2007 Story cards 18. 3 2008 Story car ds 16. 6 7. 5 6. 8 8. 0 4. 2. Requirement documents (M3M4) Starting with PET 1. 0, Waterfall teams on average add 1. 7 use cases and modified 2. use cases. Teams were given a 28 page System Requirements Specification (SRS) and on averaged finished with a 34 page SRS. XP teams starting with PET 1. 0 were given the same starting documents. Instead of modifying them, the teams created story cards that represented each new feature. Instead of spending time on writing use cases, XP teams started coding sooner. Because XP has an emphasis on low ceremony documents, they had more time to code resulting in an effort savings for the teams. 4. 3. Comparing the size of the detail design documents (M5) There are some insights from Table 4. Waterfall teams using Pet 1. 0 started with a 21 page Detailed Design Document (DDD), which they altered to reflect their new use cases. Waterfall teams typically did not update their design documents at the end of the project. Given the scope of the project, Waterfall teams’ final code matched the original design with respect to new classes. Table 4. Average pages and Standard Deviation of Detail Design Documents Year 2004 2005 Absorb GT11 30:1 2006 2007 2008 Starting Point 21 21 21 21 0 14 14 0 Average DDD 25. 8 31. 1 18 22 14 18. 3 12. 5 9. 5 Standard Deviation 8. 39 7. 48 7. 70 7. 8 5. 19 XP teams increased their design documents with each iteration. Because the XP teams followed Test-Driven Development, they wrote their code and had an emergent design. At the end of each iteration, the teams were asked to update the design document to reflect important design decisions they had made during that iteration. Therefore, the design document serves a different purpose in XP. It is not a template or blueprint for future construction. Instead, it can be a guide for understanding why certain decisions were made. In this regard, it is a biography of the development, ot a plan of action. 4. 4. New lines of source code and comments, Percentage of comments in codes Table 5 shows that Waterfall teams starting with Pet 1. 0 produced lines of code with a wide variance. The two XP teams starting with Pet 1. 0 fell right within the middle of the average. Because instead of producing some documents up front, the XP teams spent a longer time coding, one would expect them to produce more lines of code. The research results also show that XP Teams had a higher percentage of comments in source code. Table 5. Average and Standard Deviation of new lines in code Year Language Average new lines in code Standard Deviation Lines of test codes Ratio of test codes to program code 2004 2005 Absorb GT11 30:1 2006 2007 2008 Java Java Java Java Java Java Java Ruby 9,429 11,910 13,288 14,689 0 9,628 8,572 3,670 7,946 9,851 4,920 5,465 1,507 3378 4164 1380 3186 947 3555 2212 3,255 8% 13% 4% 8% 8% 16% 10% 90% 4. 5. Submitted lines of test codes and ratio of test code to program code The observation of these two metrics in Table 5 shows that the amount of test code written by the Waterfall teams equals the amount of test code written by the XP teams. Initially the faculty thought that Test-Driven Development would increase the amount of testing code, however, given a slow adoption rate of Test-Driven Development, programmers resorted to what was familiar and thus produced similar results. 5. Conclusion In this paper, we observed and presented the data from five years of 50 teams developing the same project each year and the affects of transitioning from Waterfall to Extreme Programming. The characteristics between these two methods were evaluated and compared. Waterfall teams spent more time creating high ceremony documents where as Extreme Programming teams spent more time writing code and documenting their design in their code. Surprisingly, the amount of code and features completed were roughly the same for both methods suggesting that on a three month project with three to four developers it doesn’t matter the method used. It is challenging to conduct this kind of analysis of the data in hindsight. Given that this is not a toy problem, and the freedom teams have in the execution of their projects, setting up this kind of experiment properly in advance is also challenging. . References [1] Sommerville, Software engineering, 8th ed. , New York: Addison-Wesley, Harlow, England, 2006. [2] W. Royce, Managing the Development of Large Software Systems, IEEE WESTCON, Los Angeles, 1970. [3] A. Abran and J. W. Moore, Guide to the software engineering body of knowledge: trial version (version 0. 95) IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamito s, CA, USA, 2001. [4] Kent Beck and Cynthia Andres, Extreme programming eXplained: embrace change, Second Edition, MA: Addison-Wesley, 2004. 5] Mike Cohn, Agile estimating and planning, Prentice Hall Professional Technical Reference, Nov 11, 2005. [6] Barry, Boehm and Richard Turner, Balancing Agility and Discipline: A Guide for the Perplexed, Addison Wesley, August 15, 2003. [7] Basil, V. R. , Selby, R. and Hutchens, D. , Experimentation in Software Engineering, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (invited paper), July 1986. [8] Andrew Begel and Nachiappan Nagappan, Usage and Perceptions of Agile Software Development in an Industrial Context: An Exploratory Study, MiIEEE Computer Society MSR-TR-2007-09, no. 2007): 10. [9] Ming Huo, June Verner, Muhammad Ali Babar, and Liming Zhu, How does agility ensure quality? , IEEE Seminar Digests 2004, (2004):36. [10] Jan Chong, Robert Plummer, Larry Leifer, Scott R. Klemmer, and George Toye. Pair Programming: When and Why it Works, In P roceedings of Psychology of Programming Interest Group 2005 Workshop, Brighton, UK, June 2005. [11] Glaser, Barney G, Strauss, and Anselm L. , The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research, Aldine Publishing Company, Chicago, 1967. How to cite Comparing Extreme Programming and Waterfall Project Results, Essay examples

Contemporary Strategic Analysis

Question: Describe how the strategy has been specifically tailored to overcome the difficulty that the firm is experiencing. Answer: Introduction: Target Australia constitutes one of the majors in the domain of retail business which spans over three hundred communities across the nation with its units located conveniently in regional as well as metropolitan areas. Target Group offers the consumers a wide range of products, including the likes of apparels, electrical appliances and games and entertainment. The entity was formed by George Lindsay and Alex McKenzie in Geelong located in Victoria as a result of partnership (target.com.au, 2016). The firm initiated transition model in the ranks of the organization through the means of the refurbishment of old units which aimed to achieve increase as far as profitability is concerned. The firm strives to operate as an ethical, sustainable and responsible business. Owing to complexities of various degrees the firm is in doldrums in recent past. The organization has had a tough time in the light of harsh economic conditions along with poor economic confidence. The firm is battling with poor retailer relationship and other business intricacy. The poor economic climate and environment have resulted in the firm's declining fortunes as far as earnings are concerned. Furthermore, with the emergence of growing competition from the retailers, the firm is lagging about business interface (Huang Zhu, 2016). Detailed discussion: In recent past, the firm is experiencing troubles and plight while maintaining its operations and also falling apart in the light of increasingly competitive global environment which witness is growing the number of retailers in an expansion phase in Australia and further emphasis on online retaining business. The following detailed analysis highlights key problems, strategies for overcoming the problems, and measures that define the efficacy of the strategies involved in it. Existing predicament of Target Group: The biggest problem that the firm is battling to strive with is the brisk decline in profits of the firm. Targets profit has suffered a hit by thirty-two percent over the two years and further sixty percent since then. The whole retail domain has been in a perilous situation over the last quarter. The investors have lost faith in the retail shares over the past six months. They have been in anticipation for a recovery with the Reserve Bank pushing interest rates to low levels (Cao et al., 2015). The industrial analysts opine that the trends of sales have slowed by 2 percent to three percent in the last three months or so. The trouble of Target group exerts a contagion effect. As a matter of fact, the firm would require discounting heavily to get rid of the stocks. On the other hand, consumers are also not in the correct frame of mind to buy products of Target in particular due to its stocks hitting the rock bottom in the market. The cost of the firm regarding production is also too h igh. This is resultant of hike in international labor and transportation costs in the industry. This has had a drastic effect on the firm since most of the products and solutions are manufactured in Asian markets. Earlier, with increase of cotton cost the firms apparel profitability experienced a severe hit in 2011 (Chang, 2014). Identification of Problems: At the outset, it is worth mentioning that the Australian Retail domain has witnessed the downward trend post-global financial meltdown. The sectors share in the Australian GDP has been on a downward trend. Having said that, the recent changes in the Australian economy in keeping with the consumer sentiments and behavior had affected a structural shift in the industry (Du et al., 2016). The key problems or concerns identified in this context are mainly, competitors having larger distribution areas. The players mainly, Wal-Mart owns a larger amount of stores and units in comparison to that of Target Australia. The inflation rate, on the other hand, is higher due to fall of the economy in preceding years. The competitors have gone about by the elimination of the negative effect by offering prices for identical products and items. There have been reports of security breaches wherein the personal information of the consumers has been hacked thereby conferring bad name to the organization . Furthermore, the mergers and acquisition of various companies across the globe in the similar domain have resulted in Targets diminutive fortunes. The firm also lacks diversification regarding products and items which the players have an edge over Target Corporation (Hattersley, Isaacs Burch, 2013). Design of strategy for overcoming of problems: As mentioned earlier, that Target Group has experienced a decline in profitability index. The profits have declined by 32 percent in the preceding years before Mr. Machin joining the group for revitalizing the firm. But things turned worse with profits declining to 63 percent since his joining of the group. Hence, it is imperative for the firm to devise strategies that would improve the condition of the business. The various strategies designed to overcome the problems are laid below. Online Business operation: In the present context, technology plays a major role in business which cannot be undermined to any extent. In the quest of augmenting the firm's prospects, Target Group may implement an online business model to attract technologically sound consumer base. The online business model of Target aspires for improvement of sales figures and repositioning itself in the retail domain. Other move includes round the clock operations, and better service delivery to the customers (Wardle, 2015). Sale of products at a first price: The firm has been selling its products and services to the consumers at discounted rates. This may have reaped benefits primarily. But with the passage of time, this business strategy or approach resulted in the decline of the firm's performance concerning sales revenue and other indicators. Hence, to recover the lost ground or improvement of profit margins of the organization and overall performance of the firm, Target Group needs to revamp its selling strategy. The firm has changed the pricing strategy by the sale of products at the first price instead of discounted prices. This tactic should facilitate the organization for the avoidance of soaring stock clearances and also strengthen the company in the form of revenue generation. This strategic change would facilitate the firm to improve its business state of affairs by improvement of sales and reestablishment of the firms presence in Australian retail domain through differentiation (Tennent Loc kie, 2012). Additional services: Target Group has initiated strategic change by the implementation of additional services in its units. The services gamut has been broadened by the company for its consumers and thereby improving service delivery quality to the consumers. The services rendered to the in-house customers are efficient and faster than earlier. This has empowered the consumers to have a favorable outlook of the organization in general. Additionally, the structure of the store has been refurbished which augments the ambiance and additional facilities of the store by initiation of in-house coffee shops that has helped in the enhancement of the brand in the psyche of the consumers, by and large (Kamal et al., 2015). Global trends: Target is one of the prominent retailers in the Australian retail market that provides services to the customers apparels, home wares, and general merchandise. As a part of strategy change, Target is providing customers more assortment of various products or merchandises that are in line with the global trends and demands of the customers. Besides, Target is planning to hire in-house designers that would design apparels exclusively for the customers of Target by considering the preferences of their customers and also the international trends. This would improve the brand loyalty among the customers and also the profits for the company. Effectiveness of strategies: The discussion above of the strategy implemented by the organization, it is imperative to decipher the effectiveness of the approaches adopted by Target Group. Initially, it was observed that the firm relied on adoption of the new business model since the present day state of affairs aids any organizations to arrest the attention of the consumers (Schneider, 2015). It may be stated that the online business model of target Group would facilitate the consumers to select products and services from an array of products, services, and solutions. Hence, it may be deduced that subscribing to the suggested strategies or for that matter tactics, would make buying experience of the consumers more refined. Also, the modified business policies would necessitate the corporation for revival of existent tactics thereby helping the organization to attain profitability and hence these tactics are justified enough (Higgins, Milne Van Gramberg, 2015). Explanation of success of Strategy: In the light of competitiveness in the industry, organizations are required to stock the emerging changes in the retail domain of the country. It is mentioned in the above segment that the strategies implemented or made into use in the ranks of the organization have drawn results much to the benefit of the corporation by and large (Sutton-Brady, Kamvounias Taylor, 2015). Firstly, Target Group had reduced its dependence of offering consumers at discount rates. With the change in consumer tastes and preference, the consumers are more likely to have a propensity of buying premium products at considerable price rates rather than mediocre products and solutions. Value creation is one of the strategies that helped the firm to gain an advantage over other players in the domain. Target Group had created value for its consumer base since they offer high-end merchandises in the light of global and emergent trends and perspectives (Merrilees Miller, 2015). Measures and indicators of strategy: The development in the organization is evident from the financial dynamics. By the means of application or implementation of strategies, Target Groups financial worth or reading reveal a positive effect. The factual reality is Targets stock prices soared from the period of February 2014 till 2015, from 55.06 to 75.87 (Wardle, 2015). Here, it is important to learn that during the same time frame, Wal-Mart, which is a major player in the domain, witnessed stocks decrease from 72.81 to 86.18. Having said that, Target Groups worth increased around 6 USD more than that of Wal-Marts both of these two organizations are on the same plane and assume a decent market position. On the other hand, Targets sales revenue stayed reasonably the same during the same time frame, decreasing by merely less than one percent. The Target Group seems to perform well regarding Cost of Goods Sold and Sales ratio, which signifies that the firm stays ahead of players in the business environment (Chimhundu, McNei ll Hamlin, 2015). Rationale of choice: The rationality of usage of such kind of indicators or measures lies in the evaluation of the financial position of the firm. The Key Performance Indicators or KPI in this perspective is a financial consideration or stocks of the firm in keeping with the amplification of consumer sales and broadening of customer baseline (Knight, 2016). It is worthwhile to note that financials readings are apparently unlike to that of consumer enhancement. But a further in-depth analysis reveals that strengthening of consumers only adds to augmentation of the financial health of the performance of Target Group. Therefore, a review of all the strategies and KPIs, it may be construed that the choice of aforementioned strategies is acceptable enough and that it is likely that the entity would invigorate through the means of the same strategies and approaches (Knight, 2015). Conclusion: The overall analysis and in-depth investigation in the contemporary strategic study of Target Group put forth about nuances of how marketing strategies and developments aids in bettering of a firms operation and performance. The earlier segment mentions about predicaments or shortcomings in the firms operations. The further study reveals about creation and formulation of strategies which intends to resolve the crisis of the firm that it has been subject to in present context. Target initiated refurbishment process in its ranks by revamping the marketing spectrum of the organization, in general. Various methods have been discussed in coherence which highlights the need for alteration of existing strategies to the innovation of policies and thereby relevance of the same in the given perspective. In fine, it may be concluded that Target Group is on the verge of regaining its stature by the means of application of diverse strategies and policies applied in the given proposition. References: Cao, Y., Zhao, K., Yang, J., Xiong, W. (2015). Constructing the integrated strategic performance indicator system for manufacturing companies. International Journal of Production Research, 53(13), 4102-4116. Chang, W. J. (2014). Market orientation and business-to-business (B2B): a meta-analysis perspective. International Journal of Services Technology and Management, 20(1-3), 123-148. Chimhundu, R., McNeill, L. S., Hamlin, R. P. (2015). Manufacturer and retailer brands: is strategic coexistence the norm?. Australasian Marketing Journal (AMJ), 23(1), 49-60. Du, F., Yang, F., Liang, L., Yang, M. (2016). Do service providers adopting market segmentation need cooperation with third parties? An application to hotels. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 28(1). Hattersley, L., Isaacs, B., Burch, D. (2013). Supermarket power, own-labels, and manufacturer counterstrategies: international relations of cooperation and competition in the fruit canning industry. Agriculture and human values, 30(2), 225-233. Higgins, C., Milne, M. J., Van Gramberg, B. (2015). The uptake of sustainability reporting in Australia. Journal of Business Ethics, 129(2), 445-468. Huang, X., Zhu, Y. (2016). Strategic Entry Considerations and Their Impact on Investment Performance in the Australian Mining Industry. In Managing Chinese Outward Foreign Direct Investment (pp. 13-43). Palgrave Macmillan UK. Kamal, O., Brown, D., Sivabalan, P., Sundin, H. (2015). Accounting information and shifting stakeholder salience: an industry level approach. Qualitative Research in Accounting Management, 12(2), 172-200.

Erotica V. Pornography Essays - Radical Feminists,

Erotica V. Pornography Cages. Consider a birdcage. If you look very closely at just one wire in the cage, you cannot see the other wires. If your conception of what is before you is determined by this myopic focus, you could look at that one wire, up and down the length of it, and be unable to see why a bird would not just fly around the wire anytime it wanted to go somewhere. It is only when you step back, stop looking at the wires one by one?and take a macroscopic view of the whole cage, that you can see why the bird does not go anywhere; and then you will see it in a moment. It will require no great subtlety of mental powers. It is perfectly obvious that the bird is surrounded by a network of systematically related barriers, no one of which would be the least hindrance to its flight, but which, by their relations to each other, are as confining as the solid walls of a dungeon. Marilyn Frye, Oppression It is safe to assume that every man and woman in America has seen some sort of pornography, whether it is a Calvin Klein billboard, or the latest issue of Playboy. The two may seem unrelated, but the link is that they both objectify women. People who view this material transform the human in the picture into an object of desire, an object that they wish to possess. As with everything, there are opponents to this sort of pornography, one of which is the feminist movement. A key player in this movement is Gloria Steinem, who has founded several women's foundations and written two books about women's rights. As a feminist, one of the things Steinem believes is that women are in a social position underneath men, and that there are several factors that contribute to this position, one of which is pornography. In Gloria Steinem's essay 'Erotica vs. Pornography', pornography is seen as objectifying women, and in doing so continues to keep them in a position of sublimation. She tries to prove that eradicating pornography would eliminate social injustices against women. Steinem first talks about the separation of all nonprocreative sex with pornography (153). She believes that just as work has been separated from play, sex should be separated from pornography. She goes on to assert that the opposition to censoring pornography comes from friends of civil liberties and progress (154). These people, she says, oppose censorship because it invades their privacy, despite the fact that it objectifies women. She believes, however, that pornography itself infringes on women's privacy because it infringes on the rights and lives of women everywhere. She next counters the idea that simply enjoying pornography makes it okay. Steinem believes that pornography makes sex synonymous with domination of women, and is therefore an enemy of women's rights in the long run. She concludes by summarizing the legal steps taken by feminists to protest pornography-all they have proposed, she says, is enforcement of existing legal law. However, despite what Steinem's paper says, eradicating pornography would do nothing to provide more equality for women. The first point Steinem fails to address is that there are other barriers to women becoming equal to men. Gender roles, gender stereotypes, and also the natural inferiority of women all contribute to their inequality. All of these barriers, including pornography, contribute to women's inequality, and eradicating just one of them would achieve next to nothing. Take, for instance, gender roles in society. For hundreds of years, a woman's role in society has been to run the household for the man, while he provides for the family. He makes all the major decisions, while she simply carries out his orders. Even today, in a society that has made major steps towards women's equality, these gender roles still exist. The majority of at-home parents are mothers; most men are still the breadwinners of the family, and some still expect their wife to make them dinner every night. Women still have jobs that are 'women's jobs', such as teaching or secretarial work. Men also have jobs that are 'man's jobs', such as construction or hard labor, police work, or executive positions. If pornography was eliminated,

The College Board Made a Huge Mistake on the June 6th SAT - Heres the Worst that Can Happen

The College Board Made a Huge Mistake on the June 6th SAT - Here's the Worst that Can Happen SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips If you took the SAT on June 6th, 2015, you may have noticed something different about the test. And now the College Board is dealing with a controversy that is affecting test-takers across the country. Like many students who had sat through an arduous 3.5 hours of testing and breaks, I was relieved to begin Section 8. This was the home stretch! The proctor read the instructions, telling us that we would have 20 minutes to complete the next section, and to note that this was less time than we were given for the previous sections. When I opened to Section 8, I was surprised to see that instead of 20 minutes, the instructions said I should receive 25 minutes to complete the section - a full 25% more time than what the proctor had mentioned. I started working, but students around the room started muttering in surprise and raised their hands to question the discrepancy. Had the College Board made a mistake? What Happened? And Who Has Been Affected? The short answer is: yes, the College Board had made a huge mistake. Sometimes, despite the efforts of numerous editors, a typo gets through and doesn't get noticed until thousands of people who haven't seen the test before are taking it. And unfortunately, this was a serious error because itdid not happen on an experimental section of the test. Students across the country were affected by this mistake.The error was on the final Critical Reading section of the exam, which was either Section 8 or Section 9 of the test, depending on which version you had. This was a section that was on all of the SAT I tests given on Saturday. So, how did it go down? In the proctor's manual/script, the instructions said to give 20 minutes each for Sections 8 and 9. When students turned to those sections, several realized that the instructions called for 25 minutes instead. Proctors responded in various ways: by sticking with what was in their instructions (20 minutes), or by going with the 25 minutes called for in the exam book, and occasionally, by doing something somewhere in between. Timing is everything. Students have reported a lot of confusion during the administration of these two sections. Some say they were told 15 minutes into the section that they were being given 25 minutes instead of 20 to complete it: One student says: "Our center gave 25 minutes, but didn't say it until the five minute warning (at which time they said ten minutes). This led to people rushing through sections that were long for twenty minutes, and then trying to go back and fix, as opposed to having 25 at the outset and working diligently from the start." Another says: "I saw someone on Twitter say that they're room persuaded the proctor to give them an extra 5 minutes on the second section of the 20 minute sections (I'm assuming because they took advantage of their section 8 being 25 minutes long instead of 20 because of a mistake their proctor made). This whole thing is terrible." Others report the opposite, saying that they were originally told that they would have 25 minutes, and then at the last minute, given only 20. One commenter on College Confidential says: "In my daughter's test, the told her they said they conferred with the college board and that they had 25 minutes, then 19 minutes into the section (she still thought she had six minutes) someone came into the room and told them they had to finish it within 20 minutes...so they only had one more minute. she still had 3 questions left, as she was thought she still had six minutes." Students across the country are feeling anxious about the test. Another agrees: "In our room, our proctor put 25 minutes for section 8 and asked the coordinator about it since it clearly said it was 20 minutes in the instructions. The coordinator called collegeboard and they said it was a misprint so then our time was changed back to 20 minutes midway." Students were not only affected by how much time they were given. Complaints have poured in from across the country, saying that the uncertainty surrounding these sections made them feel even more stressed out than they were already, and that they think they made more mistakes on those sections as a consequence: "Yeah that 20/25 minute mixup happened to me in Section 8 (which was Math for me). We all had an extra 5 minutes, but I feel as though it messed me up." But some are still confused about whose instructions had the mistakes - the proctors or the students. In other words... How Much Time Should You Have Been Given? One of the main complaints that is coming in from parents and students revolves around the idea that they were shortchanged. Though the test booklet said that they should have received 25 minutes, their proctors stuck to the 20 minute rule. They claim that the section was exceptionally difficult and impossible to rush through in only 20 minutes. Unfortunately, this isn't the case - if you thought the section was particularly tough, it's because of the content, but not of the time limit. The final 3 sections of the SAT are shorter than the rest of the sections on the test, and Sections 8 and 9 should weigh in at 20 minutes each. In this case, the contested Critical Reading section had only 19 questions - the same amount that is standard for a 20 minute section. In contrast,Critical Reading sections that are supposed to be completed in 25 minutes always have 24 questions. So don't feel cheated if you were only given 20 minutes to complete this section.This is how it should have been. If Nobody Had Too Little Time, Why Is There a Problem? Does 5 minutes really matter that much? The issue now is that some people had too much time - a full 25% more than they should have had to complete this section. And even more of a problem, everyone seems to have done this part of the test differently - some with 20 minutes on each section, some with 25 minutes on Section 8 and 20 minutes on Section 9, and others with 25 minutes onbothsections. The SAT is all aboutstandardization. The "curve" that SAT scores are based on compare how you did on the test to how everyone else did - both on the test you took, and on previous tests. They can't possibly do this if some people are given more time than others on equivalent sections. Now some students have a distinct advantage. And when some people have an advantage, the test can no longer be "standardized." How Has the College Board Responded? The problem was reported to College Board many times yesterday by proctors around the country. If your proctor called in, they were instructed to only allow 20 minutes for Sections 8 and 9. They also were told to continue administering the test. Today, the College Board issued an official statement: Shortly before noon Eastern Time on Saturday, June 6, Educational Testing Service (ETS) informed the College Board that there was a printing error in the standard test books they provided to students taking the SAT on June 6 in the United States. The time allotted for a specific section, either section 8 or 9 depending on the edition, was incorrect in the student test books and correct in the script and manual provided to Test Center Supervisors. The student test books contained â€Å"25 minutes† while the manual and script contained the correct time limit of "20 minutes." As soon as ETS became aware of the error during the administration of the test, they worked to provide accurate guidance to supervisors and administrators. The College Board understands the critical nature of this issue, and we are actively working to determine next steps to ensure the fairness of the test and the validity of the scores we deliver. We regret the confusion and concern this issue is causing for students and their families, and we will provide them and others with updated information as soon as possible. Please check back here for updates. You can check this page for new information. What Will Happen Next? There are several possibilities for what could happen from here on out, some more likely than others. (Edit 6/9/15:College Board has released an official statement on what they plan to do - scroll down to see what that is. The following section is retained to show what students nationwide had to worry about for days, before College Board made their decision.) The College Board could adjust the curves on these sections, depending on if you received extra time or not. At least one proctor who called the College Board yesterday during the exam has reported that this is what she was told. Some students think this is the right way to go: "I wonder if they have some sort of formula they can use to predict what the people who got 25 minutes SHOULD have gotten on Section 8 (based on their answers in the other writing section). And then maybe the curve could be based on that? idk tho... the whole situation is a mess." This is difficult, however, because the College Board would have to get reports from each testing center about whether or not extra time was given. Proctors are supposed to write down the start and end times of each section; however,since thisrelies on the proctors actually having done this, and then accurately reporting it, it leaves a lot of room for error - not to mention a lot of extra effort for the College Board to collect this information. Another potential issue for this method will come from those who were given 25 minutes by their proctors, but who completed the section in less than 20 minutes. Should they be judged on a harsher curve because of the proctor's choice? "No. That is not fair to me. I did not ask for those extra 5 minutes. We were all arguing with the proctor that it was suppose to be 20 minutes, but she said we all at least had to sit through the 5 minute wait even if we did nothing.... It messed me up. It is not fair...." We know how you feel. The College Board could cancel all scores for this test. As unfortunate as it is for everyone who gave up their Saturday to take this test, this could be a likely result. Reports are continuing to come in about just how much this error affected performance. The College Board's Terms and Conditions have a section regarding what they call â€Å"testing irregularities.†It states: â€Å"Testing irregularities refer to problems or irregular circumstances or events associated with the administration of a test. When they occur, they may affect an individual or groups of test-takers. Such problems include, without limitation, administrative errors (e.g., improper timing, improper seating, defective materials and defective equipment), indication of possible preknowledge of secure test content, and other disruptions of test administrations (e.g., natural disasters and other emergencies). When testing irregularities occur, ETS may cancel an administration or individual registrations, decline to score the test, or cancel the test score. ETS may do so whether or not the affected students caused the testing irregularities, benefited from them or engaged in misconduct. ETS is solely responsible for determining whether testing irregularities have occurred, and its decisions are final. When it is appropriate to do so, ETS gives affected test-takers the opportunity to take the test again as soon as possible, without charge.† Many people have said that this would be unfair to students because it was not any fault of theirs, and therefore their scores should not be cancelled. However, as you can see in the Terms and Conditions, the SAT does not care if the testing irregularity is any fault of the students or not. For example, hundreds of students who took the test in May will have to re-take it on June 20th because their test materials were misplaced.A country-wide cancellation of scores is also not unprecedented, though in the USA it is. In 2013, the SAT scores of all South Korean students who took the May test were cancelled due to cheating allegations aimed at test-prep companies. Though there were doubtlessly many students who had not cheated, their scores were also cancelled because the College Board felt there was no other reasonable alternative to ensure the fairness of the test. If the College Board were to take this route, they would likely offer a makeup testing date, which offers additional problems. It would be very difficult to add another national testing date this summer at such short notice, especially because many schools (which serve as testing sites) are closed and proctors (who are often teachers) are less available. Remember, it’s not like this only affected a couple hundred or even thousand people - it was a nationwide problem. The College Board could drop this section from your score and calculate your grade based on the rest of the test. This is not terribly likely, again because the whole point of the SAT is that it is standardized. Without being able to compare your scores on this section with the equivalent sections on other tests, it would be difficult to give you a fair score. Also, many students were not just affected in the final Critical Reading section, but also the final Math section. This means they would have to drop two sections - which would really increase the challenge. The College Board will automatically give everyone a perfect score for all their troubles. Just kidding. Dream on. What if I have to re-take the test? No need to panic just yet. If the College Board does decide to cancel these scores, they will most likely offer a re-test. This test would probably be offered at some point this summer, and would be free of charge to anyone who was originally registered for the SAT I on June 6, 2015. Many rules apply to these makeup tests: You can only take the test you were originally registered for. You cannot register for a makeup testing date if you were not registered for the cancelled test. You can only retake the test at the testing center you were originally registered for (which is bad news for people like me who registered late and had to drive 3 hours to get to one of the only centers with available space left). Makeups are not offered on Sundays - Sunday testing is only allowed for people who have a religious reason to not take it on Saturdays. You must take the ENTIRE test at a makeup test date (so not just the sections that had the error).Why? It would be unfair and unstandardized to compare you taking 2 sections fresh-faced and bright-eyed compared to those who had to take them tired after 3+ hours of testing It may take several weeks longer than normal to score your essays.Why? Again, because these are not in the normal schedule, it would take a lot longer to find all the people needed to grade them If you need to retake the test, you still have time to study. We've written a guide about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your SAT score. Download it for free now: ***UPDATE (6/9/15): The College Board Responds to Their Error*** Today, around 5:30 pm, the College Board issued their official response to the test timing crisis: On Saturday, June 6, Educational Testing Service (ETS) informed the College Board that there was a printing error in the standard test books ETS provided to students taking the SAT that day in the United States. We apologize for this error. After a comprehensive review and statistical analysis, the College Board and ETS have determined that the affected sections will not be scored and we will still be able to provide reliable scores for all students who took the SAT on June 6. We expect to deliver scores within the usual timeframe. To accommodate the wide range of incidents that can impact a testing experience, the SAT is designed to collect enough information to provide valid and reliable scores even with an additional unscored section. From fire drills and power outages to mistiming and disruptive behavior, school-based test administrations can be fragile, so our assessments are not. We take our responsibility to students very seriously, and we regret the confusion some students experienced. For more information, we encourage students and their families to check back here for the latest updates. Frequently Asked Questions for Students Q: What happened during the June 6 administration of the SAT? Shortly before noon Eastern time on Saturday, June 6, Educational Testing Service (ETS) informed the College Board that there was a printing error in the standard test books ETS provided to students taking the SAT ® on June 6 in the United States. The time allotted for a specific math or reading section - either section 8 or 9, depending on the edition - was incorrect in the student test books but correct in the script and manual provided to test center supervisors. The copy in the student test books indicated â€Å"25 minutes† while the manual and script indicated the correct time limit of "20 minutes." As soon as ETS became aware of the error during the administration of the test, it worked to provide accurate guidance to supervisors and administrators. Q: Will my scores be available and still be delivered to colleges and universities? After a comprehensive review and statistical analysis, the College Board and ETS have determined that the affected sections will not be scored, and that we will still be able to provide reliable scores for all students who took the SAT on June 6. We expect to deliver scores within the usual time frame. Colleges and universities will know these scores are valid. Q: How is it possible to not score a whole section and still have valid scores? To accommodate the wide range of incidents that can impact a testing experience, the SAT is designed to collect enough information to provide valid and reliable scores even with an additional unscored section. From fire drills and power outages to mistiming and disruptive behavior, school-based test administrations can be fragile, so our assessments are not. We have deliberately constructed both the Reading and the Math Tests to include three equal sections with roughly the same level of difficulty. If one of the three sections is jeopardized, the correlation among sections is sufficient to be able to deliver reliable scores. Q: When will I get my scores? We expect to deliver scores to students within the usual time frame. Q: Who does this affect? All students who took the SAT on June 6 in the United States are affected. This does not affect students who took the SAT on Sunday, June 7, or any SAT Subject Test offered that day. How Are People Reacting to This? Understandably, students are going to have a lot of questions about this decision - including why, if these sections of the test are not essential, they are included at all. While many students are relieved that they will not have to re-take the exam, they are also questioning if this is really a valid decision, andwhy the College Board has come up with this decision. Summary of @collegeboard about June #SAT Shit happens, but dont worry it's cool. We've been having you do extra shit in case shit happened. - Akil Bello (@akilbello) June 8, 2015 "In test:Hmm, I felt like I did well on the last 3 sections. That's great!Goes home:-oh wait a misprint and posts all over CollegeConfidential...oh, no...it's a nation-wide problem-Now:Aaaaaaaand there goes my scores. Gg. Thanks a lot, Collegeboard. Please learn to proofread on a a test with sections upon sections about proofreading." - College Confidential Othersare even more confused, because when many of them called the College Board help line (before the official announcement was posted) they were told various things, including thatthere would be a re-take offered on June 20, and that the scores would be curved depending on how much time each student had received on each section. "How will this even provide us with an accurate representation of our scores?! There were always 3 sections to provide some sort of balance to students! Taking out an entire section is going to screw some students up completely! I'm very shocked because I called the college board yesterday and they told me that they were more than likely going to give an optional retest on June 20. I wonder what made this dramatic change! I'm extremely disappointed in the way the college board handled this. Now the students who felt they did well on reading are going to be punished more severely because there's going to be a smaller margin for error!" "I called SAT and tried to clear up the confusion with their announcement. The guy who answered me, appeared to be reading from a script, and told me there will probably be a retake on June 20th. When I pressed for more information, he tried to refer me to Escalated services, but I declined the offer...." "When I called College Board, they said they were just going to divide up the test-takers into those who had 20 minutes and those who had 25 minutes for the sections in question, and grade each group. They told me the proctors are required to report each student who received extra time, so they could identify who got extra time and who didn't. I don't understand why they didn't do that. They could look at the distribution of scorers in each group to ensure the distribution is normal as well. What they have proposed is really unfair to those who took the test with the correct amount of time. It means that the margin for error is far less than usual because mistakes in the earlier sections are weighted more heavily. CB should be required to identify those who received extra time and given the normal scores to those who took the test normally, and offer a retake to those who didn't." Therefore, it does seem that the College Board at least considered other options before taking the route they decided on. Which makes us wonder why they didn't stick with either of them. And there is only one reasonable answer:the time and money expenditures would be enormous. In order to arrange a new nationwise testing date for free, the College Board would have to pay a tremendous amount of money. Similarly, it would take a lot of time and manpower to collect the information from each proctor about how much time was given on each section, and then to create and apply two curves. Finally, if students were graded on different standards, there would be a continuous uproar throughout the summer about test scores as students compared their curves - and College Board likely just wants this controversy to die down. So in many ways, the College Board has come to the solution that is easiest - for them. How Does This Affect You? Basically, instead of your scores for the Math and Critical Reading sections being spread out across three sections, now only the first two (longer) sections will be counted. Incorrect answers from these first sections will now have a greater weight on your score than they otherwise would have. Willthis actually provide accurate scores? For some students, it undoubtedly will. As the College Board says, all three sections of Math and Critical Reading have similar difficulty levels - meaning that each contains questions that range from easy to very difficult. If you are the type of student who would have scored fairly evenly across all of these sections (regardless of if that would have been low, average, or high scoring), then your overall score should bea good approximation of how you would have done with the missing sections included. This is what the College Board is banking on - after all, it is a standardized test, and they know that there are not normally massive discrepancies from one section to another. Who Will Benefit From College Board's decision? The students who will benefit the most from this are those who would have scored badly on the final sections of the test for any reason - including increased stress or fatigue from multiple hours of test-taking. Others who will benefit will be those who have a particular weakness that was covered in these sections but not in the other parts of the test. Though each section contains easy questions and tough questions, it is quite normal for the tough questions to cover diffferent concepts. So if your particular weakness - say, coordinate geometry - was featured on the deleted section, you are in luck and may get a higher score than you otherwise would have. Who Will Suffer From College Board's Decision? The people who will suffer the most from the deletion of the sections are those who were potential high-scorers. The curve on the SAT is always the toughest on the highest scores (especially on the Math sections, where a single wrong answer can disqualify you from an 800). Reducing the test scoring down to just two sections increases statistical variance because the test collects much less data about you. It's like flipping a coin - if you flip it 1000 times, you'll see that it's balanced between heads and tails. If you flip it 3 times, you might get all tails and make the wrong inference. So If you made a couple of mistakes on the earlier sections of the test, but scored perfectly on the latter sections, your score will likely be lower than it otherwise would have been. Who Will Lose out the Most? The obvious major losers in this are the College Board and the SAT, who have done a lot to destroy their own credibility. They have officially said that they can easily drop 2 sections of the test, with no effect on the outcome. While the validity of this statement is questionable, it does nothing to help their reputation, and many students are now wondering why those sections are on the test at all. .@CollegeBoard should know that there's a difference between reliability and validity- I learned that in AP Psychology- so which is it? #SAT - Mary Wojcicki (@MaryWojcicki) June 9, 2015 Give me back an hour of my life #collegeboard #SAT - Ashley. (@xoashh4) June 9, 2015 Disregard an entire section of the #SAT, and test is still "valid?" Anybody want to buy a bridge? @collegboard lacks all credibility! - College Connection (@GetCollege) June 9, 2015 The College Board's decision to not re-test shows that their bottom line is more important than accuracy of scores, which is making a lot of people wonder why they are bothering with the test in the first place. Not very reassuring to know that College Board cares more about their profit margins than the validity of the test scores #SAT #collegeboard - Eavan Ring (@eavanny) June 9, 2015 Andothers are frustrated that a test that seeks near-perfection from its takers doesn't hold itself to the same standard: "When a test can have such a profound impact on one's future, there simply can't be any room for such huge mistakes. Mistakes are becoming habitual for CB now for a extremely important test, which is unacceptable." This is one more item on a string of bad news for the College Board, which has been struggling to maintain its relevance in the face of the ACT's becoming more popular and in the wake of multiple cheating scandals. Final Thoughts If you feel that you were very negatively affected by the upheaval during Saturday's test, the deadline to cancel your scores is this Wednesday, June 10. If you get your scores and do not feel that they are an accurate reflection of how you would have done with the two cancelled sections added in, plan to re-take the test in the fall if it's possible for your schedule. Use the SAT you just took as a guide so you know where you can improve. And if you, like some others, are not feeling too charitably towards the College Board at the moment and want an alternative: unfortunately, it is too late to register for this month's ACT test. However, see our guidesfor the ACT to start preparing now for this fall's tests. What Should You Do Now? If you do have to re-take the test, use this as a learning opportunity. You just got to take the ultimate practice test. Think back to what sections you struggled with. Use this to target your studying so that you can rock it the next time around. Read more about College Board's recent cheating scandal in the US. Read our 11 top last-minute, must-read guides to prime yourself for the very next test. Learn expert strategiesto improve your SAT Reading, SAT Math, and SAT Writing scores if you're scoring below a 600 on any section. Have problems with SAT Reading, the section under consideration? Find out how to stop running out of time on the passages. Aiming for a top score? Read our guide to getting a perfect SAT score, even if you're frustrated by this event. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points?We've written a guide about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

Assessment Of Students Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Assessment Of Students - Essay Example When assessing learning then the instructors must try to identify specific goals that are set to be achieved in a particular course so that they can gauge the outcome and determine the level at which learning has taken place. Assessment can also make the learning process to be more effective and that are consistent with the course structures and the grading processes to meet the set learning goals (Gà ¼rcan, Dikenelli & Bernon, 2013). It also makes the lecturer be better teachers as they offer specific results on what is working or not in their classrooms and provide a straightforward feedback to the learners about their classroom progress. To assess the students effectively and consistently, the instructor must first provide answers to the following questions: what do they want their students to know and learn? Secondly, what do they do to help their students to learn what they expect they need to understand and know? To get the answer then they should use the following steps: one they should try to identify and articulate what their learners should learn in their classes. Secondly, the instructors should try to develop tools that they can use to measure the levels of the students understanding. Thirdly, they should establish the systems that they will use to compile and analyze the data they have collected using those tools. Finally use the obtained information to improve the curriculum, objectives and even the goals. The nursing course is designed to provide the learners with a wide range of teaching and learning experiences. The class will be sub-divided into smaller group and each group will be allocated a tutor to teach the course. There will be seminars that are specialty based for each of the discipline of the nursing to help focus on the particular health implications and the social policies that are touching on their areas of specialization. Open workshops will also be organized to follow and be  attended by each and every student that is registered for the discussion and debates.

Investment Strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Investment Strategy - Essay Example The investment idea was ‘shorts’. Market sentiments are positive for JPM and investors are expecting share prices of JPM to appreciate the trending market movements. The detailed observation and evaluation by the Chairman and CEO are discussed in the annual report of the company under the â€Å"Management Discussion and Analysis† section. Both of them has concluded that internal control and procedures were effective during the financial year 2013. The financial statement of the company aims to provide information about enterprise’s financial position on a given date. Technical analysis involves identifying patterns or trends in the movements of stock prices at an earlier stage and then device an appropriate strategy with the objective to benefit from such market movements. The technical of JPM suggests that its stock prices are currently experiencing up-trends. A bullish market sentiment and better job creation report along with better economic growth could be the probable reason for the same. The investment decision of an individual depends on certain factors like economic conditions, return on investment, the attractiveness of security, time horizon, and business outlook. An investor has the option to invest his/her savings in stock markets which provides an opportunity to maximize returns by identifying market trends. The investment idea can generally be classified as ‘turnaround’ or ‘short-sale’ investment strategy. The former strategy focus on particular sector or stocks that are currently not attractive to other investors. The technical chart of such stocks reveals that they are sellers’ favorite and are probably oversold at the moment. The key to success in ‘turnaround’ strategy is to observe the chart very carefully and determine whether the worst is over or not. By analyzing the fundamentals of the underlying asset, the analyst could tell whether the stock is left for dead or a possible turnaround is apparent in near future.

China Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

China - Research Paper Example Taoism, Confucianism and other traditional beliefs are practiced by a quarter of the population. We can also see a small number of them are Christians, Muslims and Buddhists. It should be noted that since the nineteenth century there has been active catholic and protestant ministries but the progress to convert Chinese people to this religions has not been that effective. China has seven main dialects; these are mandarin, Hakka, Gan, Xiang, Cantonese, Wu, and Min. Mainland China has Putonghua the type of Mandarin that is based on the speech as its official national language. When writing the language in text it is symbol based. Just as geographical aspects and ethnic diversity influence the Chinese life so does it also affect the cuisine aspect. Cantonese way of cooking is among the main styles and comprises of Sezchuan and stir-fried dishes. Sezchuan mostly relies on using peanuts, ginger and sesame paste, it is well known for its spiciness. Fan is the Chinese word referring to rice but it also means meal. Rice is a staple food for the Chinese as well as scallions, bean sprouts and cabbage. Their consumption of meat is little but they occasionally indulge in chicken or pork. Their main source of protein is tofu. The rich mystical and spiritual history surrounding China plays a great role in their art. Many of the artistic pieces such as paintings and sculptures depict spiritual Buddhism figures. Music is also an integral part in their lives and some of the instruments such as the flute-like xun and the guqin are evidence. These instruments are in the Zither family. Musical history of the Chinese culture dates back to the beginning of its existence. Many of the movies we watch in theaters and at times in the comfort of our homes by the Chinese people show the kung-fu form of martial arts which has its birthplace in china. Chinese ancestors from ancient times were philosophers and avid writers especially in the famous Ming and Qing dynasties which is clearly ref lected in the liturgical history of china that is very rich. The beginning of the lunar year is marked by the spring festival which is also the largest festival taking place between mid-January and mid February. This is considered a time to honor the ancestors. The celebration lasts for fifteen days during which the children thoroughly clean their homes signifying a new beginning or a fresh start. Fireworks mark the holiday together with parades of dancers dressed as dragons. A great number of people make pilgrimages to the birthplace of Confucius in the province of Shandong. This is mostly during his birthday on September twenty eighth. People in China also observe the birthday of the goddess of mercy, Guanyin by visiting Taoist temples. It takes place between the months of late March and late April. The goddess of the sea known as Mazu or Tainhou has her birthday being celebrated in the months of May or June. In September or October they celebrate the Moon festival with moon gazin g, paper lanterns and fireworks. Edward L Davis’s book, the encyclopedia of contemporary Chinese culture has a great deal of historical information that is very educative but on a more important note it enlightens the reader about modern China. This book is a plethora on diverse aspects of culture in regards to the Chinese people and the author also did not forget to put into light the major cities that are present in China such as

Traffic Congestion In Toronto Tourism Essay

Traffic Congestion In Toronto Tourism Essay Transportation is crucial in any town or city. Toronto is no exception. In the past several years, population growth rate has been high. Transportation systems therefore need to be upgraded to accommodate this demand. Toronto has over the years been known to have two seasons which include winter and construction seasons. The construction period implies the time when there are many constructions while the winter period is a time when traffic congestion reduces drastically. This refers to the traffic congestion menace in Toronto. Construction related delays have been common in Toronto due to politicization. Municipal infrastructure needs to be maintained in Toronto and other cities in Canada. Toronto replenishes its roads twice before reconstruction after every 60 years. This makes most roads deplorable amidst heavy demand by commuters (Chowdhury, 2005). This high demand together with temporary capacity reductions emerges from road crashes and commuter work zones. This paper tries to a ddress the traffic snarl up in Toronto with a view of finding a solution to this menace. Problem Statement Traffic related problems account for loss of seven to ten hours weekly for Torontians. These problems include traffic congestion and bad conditions of roads. . Traffic congestions in Toronto roads normally occur during the day and delays more passengers and goods than it delays used to be. It is reported that the average delay per peak traveler has moved from 15 hours in 1982 to 45 hours in 2002 each year (Buzzelli, 2001). Apparently, the figure has tripled within 20 years. It equates to the number of hours spent in working for the whole year. Traffic congestion is a paralyzing incident for the city and which gets worse day by day. Torontonians spend approximately seven to ten hours a week in traffic due to traffic related problems (Sewell, 2009). Examples of these problems range from traffic congestion to bad road conditions. For some, seven to ten hours may be seen as an honor- a short time menace. To others, this is a soul-sucking grind. Traffic congestions in Toronto roads normally occur during the day and delays more passengers and goods than it delays used to be. It is reported that the average delay per peak traveler has moved from 15 hours in 1982 to 45 hours in 2002 each year (Buzzelli, 2001). Apparently, the figure has tripled within 20 years. It equates to the number of hours spent in working for the whole year. Traffic congestion is a paralyzing incident for the city and which gets worse day by day. The traffic menace in the Toronto is rather a complex affair. Bicycles, cars, taxies, delivery trucks, buses, and pedestrians compete in using the same road at the same time. Standing traffic causes an increase in air and noise pollution. Bicycle lanes are placed in unfit locations that do not connect to other routes. This wastes money and space. The lanes are also unsafe to use.  The change in traffic routes and failure to enforce rules for parking and stopping of vehicles are major causes of traffic congestion too. The removal of parking lanes has also caused an overall drop in revenue from business (Vigar, 2002).   High Economic costs of Toronto are attributed to traffic congestions. The hours lost by employees in traffic jams or waiting for arrival of delivery buses are raising eye brows. During these congestions, there is increased use of fuel. This loss can be approximated as $2.0 billion annually (Statistics Canada Paragraph 16). On average a typical commuter currently spends more than 79 minutes currently getting to and from their workplaces as compared to 68 hours in 1990s. Additionally, health effects related to congestion are on the increase. Research has revealed that each year, there are approximately 440 premature deaths and around 1,700 other victims hospitalized in Toronto. These problems related to congestion are broad, big and complex and require great solutions to be eliminated permanently. Reasons for Traffic Congestion in Toronto Sharing of the road by motor cycles, bicycles, and all kinds of vehicles is a common characteristic in Toronto. Lanes for bicycles are placed on sidewalks and major thoroughfares. This makes pedestrians have difficulties in walking since bicycles occupy the sidewalks causing congestion. This also causes a reduction in parking and stopping spaces for cars in the city. Additionally, traffic and parking laws are not evenly enforced. The laws are effected on some vehicles but not on all road users this is a contributing factor to congestion, increased insurance costs and frayed tempers. Health problems and money wasted for gas and insurance are on the rise because of rise in traffic congestion (Mehr, 2005). During the construction period, traffic congestion is always on the rise. Main roads are blocked which causes traffic jams on the remaining roads. These delays are terrible. Moreover, politicians have turned the afflictions of pedestrians into prominent issues that contribute to the unending construction related delays. City mayors have been blamed of bureaucratic incompetence by politicians. This incompetence is said to have brought endless construction related work. The complexities occasioned by the aforementioned only hurts commuters.sub contractors involved during construction have failed to be coordinated which leads to delays too (White, 2009). Commuters have a high demand in road usage. This high demand together with momentary capacity reduction is as a result of road crashes and commuter work zones. These aforementioned causes a high cost of travelling and makes it more frustrating for commuters. The road government organ, federal highway administration (FHWA) with a jurisdiction of administering construction has mentioned congestion as an issue demanding a high priority. Environmental stewardship also known as the agencys vital few are other key priority areas (Vigar, 2002). Feasible Solutions to Traffic Congestion in Toronto This public menace has a potential for improvement. The use of new construction technologies should see Toronto construct its roads quicker or ensure construction does not affect the movement of traffic. For example, lateral drilling machines which eliminate the need for contractors opening up the pavement could be employed. Deployment and development of technologies in the 21st century is also important. These technologies are known as intelligent transportation systems (ITS).this technology could be used to develop the agencys capability to manage transportation systems. On the other hand commercial carriers and travelers will have ability to make informed choices about when and how to travel. Road works done on parallel arteries should also be avoided. The kind of advanced planning should be standard practice for Toronto. There should be coordination in road construction that should not restrict roadways during rush hour (Green, 2001). Traffic congestion should not be taken as a normal state of affairs. Efforts taken into consideration traditionally should be reinforced in addition to focus of FHWA on development and promotion of transportation systems and overall management and operations. Good management and operations should not do away with the need to construct new roads and to add transit capacity appropriately. The management should make most out of existing infrastructure. Retaining an existing vehicle by owners during peak operating condition is better than buying a new one in the operational strategies could be cheaper in implementation than road construction projects. This could help in reduction of traffic congestions and causing a stretch in infrastructure performance (Fisher 1996). Maintenance of municipal infrastructure in Toronto is an issue of great importance. There should be no less than 14 utilities including gas, hydro, phone and cable. These utilities should be used to replace aging equipment in Toronto streets. Despite all this, citizens of Toronto expect more and more from this city since its their right having paid heavy taxes. These disruptions have been there but they are becoming peoples centre of thought (Chowdhury, 2005). There is need to maintain municipal infrastructure in Toronto and this remains a fact not just in Toronto but other Canadian cities as well. There should be no fewer than 14 utilities, which should include gas, phone, hydro and cable. All these utilities should be tearing up Torontos streets to replace other aging equipment. Despite all these, people expect more and more from the city since it is their right after having paid the required taxes to the government. These disruptions have been there but they are becoming the peoples centre of thought (Mehr, 2005). Taking the construction activities for 24hrs is another approach worth exploring. For example the reconstruction of the Gardiner in the 1990s.the metro council back then opted to pay the contractor a premium to ensure that he works 24hrs so that the construction would take a shorter time. Toronto city should aim at constructing ring roads and by-passes. Though these are not common in Toronto city and country side, this can increase the number of roads to cater for the increasing number of vehicles in the roads. Additionally, more super highways should be constructed in addition to the existing ones. This will ensure that they utilize more space upwards and this will enable motor cycles, bikes and cars use specific highways (Green, 2001). Cars on the city centre should be banned; this should be done on busy days. A fee should be introduced for cars that enter the central business district. This will ensure that only public transport enter the city centre to ease the congestion. Private car owner who drive to work will park their cars at designated areas outside the city centre. They then board public transport to the city centre (Fisher, 1996). Creation of multi storey car parks is also important. Highways in city centers will have car parks alongside main roads. Additionally, entrance roads should be wider than countryside roads. By doing this it will create room for car parks. Rules and regulations should also be put in place to ensure that different vehicles are supposed to be parked (Chowdhury, 2005). Synchronization of traffic signals is also important. These signals should be used by all road users including pedestrians. All those breaking the rules by not observing these lights should face certain penalties. Licensing of cyclists should be done by payment of a certain fee. They should also e designated bicycle lanes on the roads where they could cycle. Roads in Toronto are often utilized for rallies marathons and protests. These functions cause congestion and closing of roads which is of no necessity. These functions could utilize the sidewalks or other areas be sought for the same. Exhaust fumes emitted from vehicles during congestion causes air pollution. Car hooting on the other hand causes noise pollution. Hence, keeping traffic in motion at all times is of essence to reduce environmental pollution and save resources. In addition the government should establish policies that are channeled towards reduction of congestion on our roads. Enforcement of these laws should be stri ct with penalties for the breakers of the law (Fisher, 1996). Conclusion Traffic congestion in Toronto is a time bomb waiting to explode. This situation has been occasioned as a result of poor enforcement of transport laws. Politicking also is a major contributing factor to this menace causing delay in construction works. Roads in Toronto are dilapidated too since the city resurfaces its roads after every 60years.the use of Toronto roads for other functions such as rallies which necessitate their closure at those times. Even though this problem seems difficult to solve there is room for improvement. Various solutions could go a long way in trying to solve this menace. New construction technologies need to be explored which will quicken the construction process. Creation of multi storey car parks is also should be considered. This will ensure that car parks are constructed along main roads. A fee should be introduced for drivers who enter the city centre. Commuters should be willing to use public transport to the city centre. Construction of bicycle lanes could help reduce congestion too. Although public transport is the solution to this menace, congestion can further be reduced by use of other means of transport. With the population estimated to increase by nearly 2.6 million, it is apparent that this problem will still persist since more than a million lore cars will be added to the roads. Therefore the commuter time is expected to stretch and the economic cost of congestion doubling. Further the death toll is expected to rise due to traffic causes alongside increase in emissions. In addition the government should enact policies and enforce efficiently. The only way to prevent the city of Toronto from coming to a standstill is to force people out of their cars by pricing them off.