Battle of Savages Station in the Civil War

Skirmish of Savage's Station in the Civil War The Battle of Savages Station was battled June 29, 1862, during the American Civil War (1861-1865). The fourth of the Seven Days Battles outside Richmond, VA, Savages Station saw General Robert E. Dregs Army of Northern Virginia seeking after Major General George B. McClellans withdrawing Army of the Potomac. Striking the Union back gatekeeper, focused on Major General Edwin V. Sumners II Corps, Confederate powers demonstrated unfit to remove the foe. Battling proceeded into the night until a solid tempest finished the commitment. Association troops proceeded with their retreat that night. Foundation Having started the Peninsula Campaign before in the spring, Major General George McClellans Army of the Potomac slowed down before the doors of Richmond in late May 1862 after an impasse at the Battle of Seven Pines. This was for the most part because of the Union authorities excessively wary methodology and the incorrect conviction that General Robert E. Remains Army of Northern Virginia seriously dwarfed him. While McClellan stayed inert for quite a bit of June, Lee resolutely attempted to improve Richmonds guards and plan a counterattack. In spite of the fact that dwarfed himself, Lee comprehended his military couldn't plan to win an all-inclusive attack in the Richmond protections. On June 25, McClellan at long last moved and he requested the divisions of Brigadier Generals Joseph Hooker and Philip Kearny to push up the Williamsburg Road. The subsequent Battle of Oak Grove saw the Union assault stopped by Major General Benjamin Hugers division. Lee Attacks This demonstrated lucky for Lee as he had moved the heft of his military north of the Chickahominy River with the objective of smashing Brigadier General Fitz John Porters detached V Corps. Striking on June 26, Lees powers were bloodily spurned by Porters men at the Battle of Beaver Dam Creek (Mechanicsville). That night, McClellan, worried about the nearness of Major General Thomas Stonewall Jacksons order toward the north, guided Porter to withdraw and moved the armys flexibly line from the Richmond and York River Railroad south to the James River. In doing as such, McClellan viably finished his own crusade as the relinquishment of the railroad implied that substantial weapons couldn't be conveyed to Richmond for the arranged attack. Taking a solid situation behind Boatswains Swamp, V Corps went under substantial assault on June 27. In the subsequent Battle of Gaines Mill, Porters men turned around a few adversary ambushes during that time until being constrained to withdraw close to nightfall. As Porters men moved toward the south bank of the Chickahominy, a severely shaken McClellan finished the battle and started moving the military towards the security of the James River. With McClellan giving little direction to his men, the Army of the Potomac fended off Confederate powers at Garnetts and Goldings Farms on June 27-28. Staying endlessly from the battling, McClellan exacerbated things by neglecting to name a second in order. This was to a great extent because of his abhorrence and doubt of his senior corps officer, Major General Edwin V. Sumner. Remains Plan Regardless of McClellans individual sentiments, Sumner successfully drove the 26,600-man Union back gatekeeper which had thought close to Savages Station. This power contained components of his own II Corps, Brigadier General Samuel P. Heintzelmans III Corps, and a division of Brigadier General William B. Franklins VI Corps. Seeking after McClellan, Lee tried to connect with and rout the Union powers at Savages Station. To due in this way, Lee arranged Brigadier General John B. Magruder to push his division down the Williamsburg Road and York River Railroad while Jacksons division was to reconstruct the scaffolds over the Chickahominy and assault south. These powers were to combine and overpower the Union protectors. Moving out at an opportune time June 29, Magruders men started experiencing Union soldiers around 9:00 AM. Armed forces Commanders Association Significant General George B. McClellanMajor General Edwin V. Sumner26,600 men Confederate General Robert E. LeeBrigadier General John B. Magruder14,000 The Fighting Begins Squeezing forward, two regiments from Brigadier General George T. Andersons unit drew in two Union regiments from Sumners order. Skirmishing through the morning, the Confederates had the option to push the foe back, yet Magruder turned out to be progressively worried about the size of Sumners order. Looking for fortifications from Lee, he got two units from Hugers division on the specification that in the event that they were not locked in by 2:00 PM they would be pulled back. As Magruder pondered his best course of action, Jackson got a confounding message from Lee that proposed that his men were to stay north of the Chickahominy. Because of this, he didn't cross the stream to assault from the north. At Savages Station, Heintzelman concluded that his corps was not important to the Union safeguard and started pulling back without first illuminating Sumner. The Battle Renewed At 2:00 PM, having not progressed, Magruder returned Hugers men. Holding up an additional three hours, he at last continued his development with the units of Brigadier Generals Joseph B. Kershaw and Paul J. Semmes. These soldiers were helped on the privilege by part of a detachment drove by Colonel William Barksdale. Supporting the assault was a 32-pounder Brooke maritime rifle mounted on a rail vehicle and secured by an iron casemate. Named the Land Merrimack, this weapon was gradually pushed down the railroad. Notwithstanding being dwarfed, Magruder chose for assault with just piece of his order. The Confederate development was first seen by Franklin and Brigadier General John Sedgwick who were exploring west of Savages Station. After at first reasoning the moving toward troops had a place with Heintzelman, they perceived their slip-up and educated Sumner. It was as of now that a perturbed Sumner found that III Corps had left. Progressing, Magruder experienced Brigadier General William W. Consumes Philadelphia Brigade only south of the railroad. Mounting a constant protection, Burns men before long confronted envelopment by the bigger Confederate power. To balance out the line, Sumner arbitrarily started taking care of regiments from different units into the fight. Coming up on Burns left, the first Minnesota Infantry joined the battle followed by two regiments from Brigadier General Israel Richardsons division. As the powers drew in were to a great extent equivalent in size, an impasse created as haziness and foul climate drew nearer. Working on Burns left and south of the Williamsburg Road, Brigadier General William T.H. Streams Vermont Brigade tried to secure the Union flank and charged forward. Assaulting into a remain of woods, they met extraordinary Confederate fire and were shocked with substantial misfortunes. The different sides stayed drew in, with neither creation any advancement, until a tempest finished the fight around 9:00 PM. Fallout In the battling at Savages Station, Sumner endured 1,083 executed, injured, and missing while Magruder supported 473. The majority of the Union misfortunes were caused during the Vermont Brigades disastrous charge. With the finish of the battling, Union soldiers kept pulling back across White Oak Swamp however had to desert a field emergency clinic and 2,500 injured. In the wake of the fight, Lee condemned Magruder for not assaulting all the more powerfully expressing that the interest ought to be generally enthusiastic. By early afternoon the next day, Union soldiers had crossed the bog. Later in the day, Lee continued his hostile by assaulting McClellans armed force at the Battles of Glendale (Fraysers Farm) and White Oak Swamp.

Careers in Acoustic and Audio Equipment Design :: Essays Papers

Professions in Acoustic and Audio Equipment Design Sound designers have an intriguing mix of character attributes. From one perspective they will in general love music and need to play a part in making it. Then again they are additionally admirers of innovation and ‘cool gear’. Alongside an enthusiasm for innovation for the most part comes an enthusiasm for seeing how it functions †a craving to ace the innovation. With certain individuals additionally comes a longing to go past the most recent rigging and ‘do it better’. They want to make new innovation which will give a definitive listening/handling/recording/and so forth experience. This paper will investigate vocation openings that exist for those individuals. There are a wide range of regions of sound related plan wherein to seek after a profession. To show, consider the normal unrecorded music show. Above all else, the exhibition scene should be acoustically intended to give a decent listening condition. Each of the performers’ instruments is structured and relying upon the instrument the plan could have included acoustic just as electronic information. Sound support for the show includes a horde of hardware each with it’s own structure rules. At long last, if the show is to be recorded and created on a CD, all the chronicle gear would should be planned just as the studio that it is utilized in. To plan something is to imagine and concoct. It is the craft of making the plan of parts or subtleties of something. Besides, the purpose of planning something is to address an issue or to tackle a characterized issue. Every one of the distinctive plan assignments engaged with the show situation requires an alternate sort of structure aptitude. There are fundamentally four territories of configuration included - acoustics, gadgets, modern structure and mechanical plan. Every one of these regions covers with the other to some degree. Moreover, every one of these territories has a ‘art’ side and a ‘science’ side to them. Acoustic creators make the arrangement for execution spaces like show corridors just as recording studios, and whatever other space that necessities to give a quality listening condition. They may likewise be engaged with indicating gear to give sound fortification in the scene. Some acoustic structure firms offer a full scope of administrations, which may incorporate site examination, inside plan, lighting, force and HVAC frameworks, wire the board, planning, development organization, and acoustic tuning (Droney).

Everyday Chances to Build Self-Confidence

Everyday Chances to Build Self-Confidence Everyday Chances to Build Self-Confidence Home›Education Posts›Everyday Chances to Build Self-Confidence Education PostsIf you trust yourself, everything is possible. People who honor their talents and respect their minds feel the fulfillment of real life. After all, self-confidence is all about believing yourself. From your own experience of communication with other people you know that trust is built up with every little talk you have with somebody. Every difficulty you overcome together makes you more confident in each other. In the same way our self-confidence is developed. Proposed by QualityCustomEssays.com here are everyday opportunities you can use to challenge your self-confidence:• Treat with love. When thinking of yourself, you have to choose love, but not judgment. Try to notice not only extra kilos, pimples or anything else you hate about you, look into your eyes as if you look at somebody you adore. Then smile to yourself. It may seem strange to you at first, but later you will get used to such kind of intimacy with yourself.• Slow down and spend time with yourself. When you hurry all the time, you are not feeling comfortable about yourself. It is very important to slow down every day to cherish the moment. Having a bath, reading a book or going for a walk in the nature will perform miracles.• Do a deed… quietly. Do something good, but make it a secret. There is no need to seek for approval from somebody else for gathering rubbish in the park or making a donation. Just be proud of yourself.• Journal. Reproducing your events of the day is equal to communicating to the person you love, that’s why the idea of having a diary will build in you the idea of trusting your inner world. The diary will allow you to be more honest to yourself and it will also help to record the process of growing you as a person.• Do not be embarrassed to say “No”. Refusing somebody is not necessarily hurting somebody. When you say “yes” to everybod y, it is unfair towards yourself and everybody around, as if you are not able to help all the people in a proper way, your “no” will make the person look for someone else to cope with his or her problem better than you can. It would be fair. It is OK not to be able to help everybody, since you are not God.

Sleepless Night - Original Writing - 1441 Words

He/She 7 AM. Another sleepless night to add to the collection. I haven’t had a full night’s sleep in over 3 months. I wonder what it’s like, to be able to get to sleep without your thoughts circling around in your head like a swarm of angry bees. I guess that’s what I deserve for being this way. â€Å"Ellie,† my dad yells from the kitchen downstairs, â€Å"Get down here, breakfast is ready!† I yell back, â€Å"It’s Elijah, dad!† I trudge down the stairs in my pajamas, a band tee and plaid bottoms. As I reach the bottom of the stairs, I hear my mom fumbling with some pots and pans, trying to make some eggs. I can tell it isn’t going as she had hoped. When I enter the kitchen, I walk over to my seat and eat my â€Å"delicious† eggs. After breakfast, I walk†¦show more content†¦When I am done, it is very hard to breathe, which is completely normal for me. At least I have a flat chest. I‘ll put up with anything, my sides bruising or my armpits bleeding, to look as much like a man as possible. I finish getting ready by putting on a grey and black plaid shirt and some baggy jeans, a normal outfit of mine. Now, it’s finally time to go to the bus. I slowly walk through the sparkling snow to get to my bus stop. All I can hear is the wind whistling through the trees and my feet crunching in the snow. When I get to my stop, I can see the bus starting get closer. I pull out a book and get ready for the hour long bus ride. It was a pretty normal day at school, lots of homework and little fun. When I get home, I immediately go back to my room. I get out a notebook and start scribbling down all of my thoughts. I write down everything about how I have felt for what seems like forever. I tear out the sheet, carefully fold it into a small square, and put it into my pocket. I have something very important to do, which I have been worrying about all day. I then go to my closet and get out a very large backpack. In it, I pack three shirts, two pairs of pants, my notebook, and a pen, just in case something goes wrong. I also grab my phone and put it into my pocket next to the piece of paper. As I slowly walk down the stairs, I notice that the house is eerily quiet. Even though I don’t think anybody is around, I walk silently, making

Is Otolaryngology A Important Career - 1403 Words

Alexa Garza English 9.5 Career Research This research paper is going to be talking about a really important career which is Otolaryngology. This job is really important to know about because many people suffer from the problems that this one studies or works for and the experts may help a lot. What I mean with â€Å"problems† is like the ear, nose, and throat issues that people my present. In this research paper of my chosen career will be talking more detailed about the job, its educational requirements, the salaries, and showing some graphs, charts and citations. Maybe some of the information that is going to be given will be good for your knowledge and is really interesting to know. Garza, 1 Alexa Garza Mrs. Sanchez†¦show more content†¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"The nice thing about otolaryngology is that it’s nice balance between helping patients in the office without needing o do surgery and fixing them† (Dr. Malis , page 1) As this doctor said, he doesn’t have to do surgeries if needed, he would do anything for his patients except hurt them or do something inappropriate. (floridatoday.com , pages 1-2) Garza, 2 Most ENT surgeons work in private practice but also in academic settings. They treat problems of upper pharynx, larynx, oral cavity, head and neck structures besides the ENT region. They examine some affected organs with some special equipment such as x-ray machines, microscopes, prisms, fluoroscopes and audiometers. (greatsampleresume.com , page 2) Otolaryngologists work for a long period of time and really hard. Most of them have critical thinking, and solving skills, they are able to work well under stressful conditions and have also a huge strong moral philosophy. (greatsampleresume.com ,page 3) â€Å"I think just in is you assume they have got good technical skills, but really it is judgment. That’s something that often times folks don’t appreciate† ( Dr. Malis , page 2) Doctor Malis is haring with us his experiences as a ENT doctor. (floridatoday.com , page 2) Garza, 3 Part II: Education To be an otolaryngologist you have to experience really difficult things but they are worth in many ways, you can have a better

The appreciation and feasibility of higher education Free Essays

As an emerging field of survey there are many challenges and inquiries that evoke when one declares higher instruction as a field of survey. Some people like Dennis Mileti ( 2003 ) could easy declare that since people talked about Emergency Management as a subject, â€Å" therefore it is. â€Å" Philips ( 2003:2 ) . We will write a custom essay sample on The appreciation and feasibility of higher education or any similar topic only for you Order Now In specifying higher instruction as a field of survey there are inquiries that will prosecute us for old ages to come as they have for the old ages ago. â€Å" Position documents will be written, perspective challenged, arguments entered in course of study commissions, turf conflicts waged in alumnus councils † Phillips ( 2003:2 ) . The argument is sometimes reduced to the inquiry of whose definition of ‘field of survey ‘ to be used. Philips ( 2003:2 ) suggests that we need to hesitate and analyze the yesteryear while contemplating the hereafter. How far we are with higher instruction as a field of survey and what way is it taking. We need to look back and state where we come from. harmonizing to Goodchild ( neodymium ) the survey of higher instruction has non yet reached adulthood but possesses many of the properties of scholarly field. He contests that programmes designed to fix individuals entry in higher instruction exist in profuseness. He besides states that there are about eight hundred professors who think of themselves as professors on higher instruction. This suggests that these professors would hold easy agreed with Mileti ( 2003 ) in that when people talk of something therefore it is. We need to look at what characterizes higher instruction and higher instruction as a field of survey in peculiar. Although in the past few decennaries there was really small literature sing higher instruction as a field of survey, new research suggests the antonym at the present. Hobbs and Francis ( 1973 ) and Francis and Hobbs ( 197 4 ) were able to that the theoretical research available in the disciplinary diaries was rare in the higher instruction. They besides found that there was small evident usage of periodical literature of the theoretical findings Kellems ( 1975 ( 3 ) , 135-154 ) . Goodchild ( neodymium ) suggests that there is a turning literature that deals with assorted parts of higher instruction sphere. So, this suggests that we are so traveling in a way. Let us utilize this definition of a ‘field of survey ‘ so that we can all be at par. This has no purpose to sabotage or pique anyone ‘s mind. Can we hold that as a field of survey, Higher Education is more embracing on the one manus, and does non hold its ain theoretical foundation, on the other? it relies on academic subjects such a societal scientific disciplines to explicate the educational procedure. Maybe it is because of this basic ground that we have seen less funding in the field of survey than in the academic Fieldss. Thingss have changed now, or they promising to alter or we need to alter things around. In the following subject I want us to look at the lively-hood and the sustainability of the field. Appropriateness and feasibleness of research within higher instruction. What can we look at and make up one’s mind that we can take higher instruction as a field of survey? The argument comes back once more. When we look at the clip line of higher instruction we recognise many alterations with clip before 1994 and the state of affairs after 1994. By 1994, there were in south Africa 36 higher instruction Institutions, which were structured along racial and cultural lines and characterised by a crisp differentiation between universities ( 21 ) and technikons ( 15 ) OECD, ( 2008 ) . New lines would be drawn or are being drawn off from those of the yesteryear. Universities are get downing to see the bigger image now. Where all establishments want to go Centres of excellence. Some have chosen to go entrepreneurial university and other practical universities. the inquiry remains, how we become specializers in higher instruction if there is no specialization in higher instruction as a field of survey. How are the lectors prepared to run into the organiza tional aims? Nzimande, ( 2009:3 ) negotiations about the cardinal characteristics of higher Education and Training System. â€Å" aˆÂ ¦the system of HET will be supported by an institutional base that is both diverse and differentiated every bit good as being conceptualized as an integrated and consistent whole in which meaningful acquisition tracts are developed across institutional and workplace instruction and preparation signifiers. † Nzimande ( 2009:3 ) the people responsible for the development of these acquisition tracts are the higher instruction practicians. This sets out a challenge to all talks at Higher Education Institutions to prosecute in research in order to turn to the challenges that the curate of higher instruction negotiations about in the subject policy development. Other subjects in higher instruction would include but non restricted to higher instruction direction and leading, plan planning and development, research, passage surveies ( workplace to larning topographic point and larning topographic point to workplace ) . I view the followers as possible countries of research in higher instruction. The green paper on Skills development ( 1997 ) aimed to develop an â€Å" incorporate accomplishments development system which promoters economic and employment growing and societal development through a focal point on the instruction preparation and employment services † . if no 1 is making research on higher instruction we may ne’er happen out what this means and hence higher instruction establishments may ne’er be able to supply the service as suggested by the authorities. To simplify the above, in 1997 the above was taken frontward in the accomplishments development act ( 97of 1999 ) which aimed to: Develop accomplishments of the south African workforceaˆÂ ¦ . Encourage employers to utilize the workplace as a acquisition site Increase the degrees of investing in instruction and trainingaˆÂ ¦ Ensure the quality of instruction and preparation in and for the workplace ; To me all of the above I the act am research chances for higher instruction practicians. Lecturer and other higher instruction staff need to understand and hold expertness in the accomplishments needed for the work force. The lone manner we know how to break get new cognition is through research. This would assist the higher instruction establishments in footings of support from the authorities and other stakeholders based on the turnaround or the results of the preparation and sort of instruction they provide. This brings me to the quality of instruction and preparation in and for the work force. We need more people in the readying of lectors for covering with the demands of the work force. Through invention and promotion in engineering we may non keep the old cognition and hope that it will be equal for more old ages to come. The curate besides mentioned ‘quality intercessions ‘ which include among other things the debut of formal makings for talk Sers Nzimande ( 2009: 5 ) formal makings now will non needfully be formal makings in the following 10 old ages to come. We have seen state of affairss where establishments, in their quest to be the tbest, stop up bring forthing one line of work force more than any othrer. For illustration the University of Zululand is bring forthing more instructors than any other making at the present. Does it of all time occur to the leaders that at one phase these instructors will see what many people call a bottle cervix state of affairs, where there will be more pedagogues than the schools really necessitate? The Education white paper 3, and the National program for Higher Education ( NPHE ) in their policy paperss, they articulate increased engagement as one of the ends of Higher Education Transformation in South Africa, which is the accomplishment of equity in the higher instruction system.OECD, 2008. The higher instruction practicians are expected to react to this call and I f they are non prepared through research they will non react suitably. By reacting suitably I mean that engagement would be increased, equity achieved, and the quality of instruction non compromised. Increasing engagement and accomplishing equity in footings of gender, race, ethnicity, and socio-economic position is easy because it is a statistical issue. Covering with big Numberss of pupils besides needs a research base reply. A addition it is the duty showing itself as an chance to higher instruction practicians to venture out ways and agencies of covering with big Numberss in limited resources, for illustration. The other issue here that needs to be addressed is that of background. To reason, I would wish to indicate out to other fellow talks and faculty members that there is a brighter hereafter in higher instruction as a field of survey, and there can be more subjects than what I mentioned here. How to cite The appreciation and feasibility of higher education, Essay examples

Operations Management Essay Paper Example For Students

Operations Management Essay Paper Process Improvement PlanSeptember 24, 2003 AbstractIn examining material management and supply chain systems in the hospitalindustry, unexpected inefficiencies to monitor material usage patterns onhospital units, causes great risk to many processes that are involved inthe healthcare industry on a daily basis. The process necessary to improvesystems involves staff participation in brainstorming and analyzingcriteria for recommending solutions to fine-tune problem areas forenhancing patient care supply chain management. Process Improvement PlanFailure to maintain adequate supply levels in a healthcare process cancause delays in patients care, customer satisfaction, risk to servicingpatients and increased frustration to staff. Processes are implemented infacilities to help minimize the room for error so that individuals workingin the facility can perform task in a consistent, efficient, and optimalmanner, which could ultimately lead to improvement in both distributionefficiency and aggregate cost. Each nursing unit has to order supplies from the purchasing departmentto place on their carts in-order administer and distribute medical suppliesand pharmaceuticals to provide prescribed health care to patients. Thefollowing process is utilized for ordering supplies in a hospital setting:Supplies in which the nurses are responsible for ordering are on the AS400on the computer. The nurse takes a print out of the supply list and they inventory thestock and then the list is given to the unit secretary for placing in thecomputer. The order request sheet prints in the purchasing department andthe purchasing department fills the request and places them on the unit onthe supply cart. The purchasing department monitors some of the items that are routine,such as toothbrushes, pitchers, toothpaste and etc. when they make theirdaily rounds and perform cart checks. The problem with this orderingprocess is that there has been inadequate stocking of supplies onmedication carts by nurses during shift changes. One way to gain solutionsto this problem is through brainstorming. Brainstorming is defined as theact of defining a problem or idea and coming up with anything related tothe topicno matter how remote a suggestion may sound. All the ideas orrecorded and evaluated. Brainstorming can be an effective way to generate lots of ideas andthen determine which idea or ideas best solve the problem. When a facilityis utilizing brainstorming, this should be performed in a relaxedenvironment as if individuals feel pressured, they may not stretch theirminds to full capacity. Steps to brainstorming:1). Identify the problem. 2). Set time limit for resolutions. 3). Peer participate through verbalizing issues and possiblesolutions to theproblem. 4). Selected the five major topic for discussion and resolution. 5.) Select five criteria for evaluate and the best process forproblem containment. 6). Rate and rank each idea and recommended solution (0-5)7). Choose the idea with the highest ranking as a possible solutionto theproblem. A record should be maintained of all the ideas, incase thefirst idea doesnot work. Another method that could assist the organization in identifying theprevalence of a unit being under stocked is by using the the Paretoprinciple, the 80/20 rule This concept can save you time and money. Inthe world of quality control, the concept is applied to defects. A smallpercentage of root causes are responsible for the majority of the defects. Data on how often problems occur can be tracked using a bar chart. This cansave an organization time and money by helping its staff to focus on whatsmost important and ignoring the distractions. Some of the main areas of inefficiencies are:Medical supply ordering processes were not timely, and follow-up actionwith the host MTF was not effective. The host MTF did not effectivelysupport the reserve unit with required logistics support. .u49b74a5a7997e1dd587797d8bb8c14c0 , .u49b74a5a7997e1dd587797d8bb8c14c0 .postImageUrl , .u49b74a5a7997e1dd587797d8bb8c14c0 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u49b74a5a7997e1dd587797d8bb8c14c0 , .u49b74a5a7997e1dd587797d8bb8c14c0:hover , .u49b74a5a7997e1dd587797d8bb8c14c0:visited , .u49b74a5a7997e1dd587797d8bb8c14c0:active { border:0!important; } .u49b74a5a7997e1dd587797d8bb8c14c0 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u49b74a5a7997e1dd587797d8bb8c14c0 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u49b74a5a7997e1dd587797d8bb8c14c0:active , .u49b74a5a7997e1dd587797d8bb8c14c0:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u49b74a5a7997e1dd587797d8bb8c14c0 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u49b74a5a7997e1dd587797d8bb8c14c0 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u49b74a5a7997e1dd587797d8bb8c14c0 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u49b74a5a7997e1dd587797d8bb8c14c0 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u49b74a5a7997e1dd587797d8bb8c14c0:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u49b74a5a7997e1dd587797d8bb8c14c0 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u49b74a5a7997e1dd587797d8bb8c14c0 .u49b74a5a7997e1dd587797d8bb8c14c0-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u49b74a5a7997e1dd587797d8bb8c14c0:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: A Journey Towards Maturity and Identity EssayCertificates of transfer for medical equipment management officeproperty were not completed for the last 2 account transfers. Additionally, the annual equipment inventory was not completed in a timelymanner. Timely resolution of equipment discrepancies identified during annualinventories was hampered by incomplete or delayed reports of survey. Documentation indication that medical equipment inventories were completedwithin the required 12 -month period was inconsistent. MEMO inventory was not accomplished during FYs 01 and 00. Designation of the individual responsible for approving InventoryAdjustment Vouchers was not completed in accordance with Vol 5. Theprevious medical stock record account inventory was not available forreview. A systematic process to review, follow-up and resolve outstandingbackorders for materiel and equipment was not evident. Health care organizations should utilize resources to the better goodof the organization and its consumers so that processes work and not fail,by utilizing a number of approaches. Although changing practice patterns isthe most difficult aspect of any effort to restructure systems,modifications to ensure change and to make the desired practice the path ofleast resistance should be the key factor. This process will be improved to remedy the issue of restockingnursing units by using the, exchange cart system. Each cart is restockedto all required Par levels, and taken to the floor on an establishedschedule. The used cart on the floor is exchanged for the correspondingfull one, and the cycle continues. If a nursing unit manager believes thatreserves of a particular item are running low, usually due to the needs ofa particular patient, interim deliveries of a small number of items canusually be arranged. Also, this means that the individual nurse manager isable to set all Par levels, even if an approval process is required toformally alter them. In conclusion, the basics of inventory theory, such as daily userates, variances in use rates, and legitimate estimates of lead-time areall factor necessary in the medical supply chain in delivering services topatients. The two vital partners in the hospital supply chain are nursingand central supply. The need for a system, which addresses efficiency,maintenance of stock level, must have an efficiency of scale for bothsupplier and customer needs.

Wilde as Parodist a Second Look at the Importance of Being Earnest a Review Essay Example

Wilde as Parodist: a Second Look at the Importance of Being Earnest : a Review Paper Although many of the early critics found Oscar Wilde’s final play strictly humorous, it clearly conveys social hypocrisies of the upper-classes of the period (late-Victorian). Wilde was being satirical and paradoxical in his play to show the hypocrisy and entertain the viewers in a play that is still being repeated till today. It is a witty and amusing comedy which conveys real life everyday themes such as real love as opposed to selfish love, religion, marriage, being truthful and country life as opposed to city life. Richard Foster, author of â€Å"Wilde as Parodist: A Second Look at The Importance of Being Earnest†, published in October 1956, writes on how the this play was viewed by critics, the techniques used by Wilde to achieve his purpose, and even compares this work to other similar works by other authors. Foster begins his article by explaining why critics cannot accurately name the type of this play. It is neither â€Å"farce† nor â€Å"comedy of manners†, although Wilde excessively makes use of both. The play is too intellectual to be considered a farce, yet too unrealistic to be considered a comedy of manners, even though ridicule and exposure of the vanities and hypocrisies of the upper class is surely the main function of the verbal wit. However, the comedy of The Importance of Being Earnest is not in the situations or actions for most of the part, but in the dialogue. Wilde’s play is a satirical demonstration of how art can lie romantically about human beings and distort the simple laws of real life with melodramatic complications and improbable easy escapes from them. Earnest suggests that we all lead double lives. This is the idea that homosexual Wilde was understandably obsessed with. â€Å"Earnest† as a name is also implicative of being honest and responsible, even if both men lied about their names. It turns out that the truth was told, and this rapid twist between truth and lies shows how muddled the Victorian values of honesty and responsibility were. The re are several possibilities for hidden meanings in Wilde’s play, each more suiting than the last. The whole play could be interpreted on different levels. We will write a custom essay sample on Wilde as Parodist: a Second Look at the Importance of Being Earnest : a Review specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Wilde as Parodist: a Second Look at the Importance of Being Earnest : a Review specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Wilde as Parodist: a Second Look at the Importance of Being Earnest : a Review specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Foster continues to describe the technique Wilde used to make a parody to romantic â€Å"love at first sight†. You see, Cecily seems to have fallen in love with Ernest Worthing before actually meeting him. She has diary entries of their engagement, their break-up (as â€Å"it would hardly have been a really serious engagement if it hadn’t been broken off at least once†), and their re-engagement, and she even has his love letters, although she had written them herself. The standard notion of a romance involves the man proving himself to the woman after a breach in their love. In this play, Gwendolen and Cecily find out that their Ernests are really Jack and Algernon, and the restoration of their â€Å"love† occurs when the guys decide to christen themselves as Ernest. It appears that a major critical part of the play revolves around marriage being just a social tool. The two girls are in love with a name rather than a character, and Algy even proposes to Cecily right after meeting her. Also, Lady Bracknell, Algy’s aunt, disproves of Algy and Cecily’s marriage until she discovers that Cecily has a large fortune, and disproves of Jack and Gwendolen’s marriage, because he is an orphan. Foster explains that the â€Å"flaws† of the play- the contrivance of the plot, the convenience the coincidence and the resolution in the end- are the whole point. It is easy to mistake the play for something that it is not, as nothing in the play is what it seems. According to the critic, Wilde repeatedly attacked the moralism of the Victorian society, and the idea of morality being a set of rules about what people should and shouldnt do. The earnest/Ernest joke strikes at the very heart of Victorian notions of respectability and duty. Gwendolen wants to marry a man called Ernest, and she doesnt care whether the man actually possesses the qualities that comprise earnestness. Oscar Wilde used numerous epigrams, the main thing he was famous for, to reach his points and to entertain his audience. â€Å"The suspense is terrible. I hope it will last†, â€Å"produce your explanation and pray make it improbable†, â€Å"washing ones own clean linen in public, and â€Å"in married life three is company and two is none† are just a few examples of Wilde’s ingenious ideas paradoxing common phrases, and used just right to tersely express his opinions in a witty way. The Importance of Being Earnest is a fantastic play; it is truly a great work of English literature. It makes light of love, marriage, and religion which are issues that people take very seriously and that is what everybody needs is to lighten up sometimes. Despite the fact that it was written in the Victorian era, the witty comedic themes are still relevant in todays society which makes the play all the more entertaining and relatable. Wilde’s tone of wit, farce and satire combined together shows his great ability as an author.

Free Essays on Experience That Changed My Life

According to the America Immigration Department, there are more than thousands of people from foreign countries immigrating to America every single day. You may immediately wonder, â€Å"why there are so many people coming to our country?† As long as I also came to America from Hong Kong a few months ago, let me tell you the reason. It is because America is the strongest country in the world. As you can see the national defensive system and the education system are so well-developed. Undoubtedly, going to America has affected my life not only physically, but also mentally. It seems to me that Hong Kong education system has messed up since China rules over Hong Kong from 1997. In support of this, I have an example. Sadly, there was an educational reform occurred within these several years in Hong Kong, which has totally destroyed the well-developed educational system; furthermore, a lot of people in my country started leaving Hong Kong for other countries because of the economic recession. Conversely, I know that America has the best colleges, like Harvard, Yale and University of Pennsylvania, which is the antithesis to Hong Kong; in addition to that, the education system is better than any other countries in the world. As a result, I want to apply for America colleges and universities in order to get higher quality educations, which can help me to get a better career in the future. Compared to Hong Kong, America is an enormous country that the environment is so nice, especially in the suburban places of Philadelphia. The sky is clear, the wind is mild and the houses are less dense than Hong Kong. Hence, the pollution problem is not as serious as Hong Kong. Therefore, this can help me to have a healthier body that impacts me physically. Unfortunately, every coin has two faces. Imagine that if you leave your homeland for a few years, would you miss your family and friends who you love and c... Free Essays on Experience That Changed My Life Free Essays on Experience That Changed My Life According to the America Immigration Department, there are more than thousands of people from foreign countries immigrating to America every single day. You may immediately wonder, â€Å"why there are so many people coming to our country?† As long as I also came to America from Hong Kong a few months ago, let me tell you the reason. It is because America is the strongest country in the world. As you can see the national defensive system and the education system are so well-developed. Undoubtedly, going to America has affected my life not only physically, but also mentally. It seems to me that Hong Kong education system has messed up since China rules over Hong Kong from 1997. In support of this, I have an example. Sadly, there was an educational reform occurred within these several years in Hong Kong, which has totally destroyed the well-developed educational system; furthermore, a lot of people in my country started leaving Hong Kong for other countries because of the economic recession. Conversely, I know that America has the best colleges, like Harvard, Yale and University of Pennsylvania, which is the antithesis to Hong Kong; in addition to that, the education system is better than any other countries in the world. As a result, I want to apply for America colleges and universities in order to get higher quality educations, which can help me to get a better career in the future. Compared to Hong Kong, America is an enormous country that the environment is so nice, especially in the suburban places of Philadelphia. The sky is clear, the wind is mild and the houses are less dense than Hong Kong. Hence, the pollution problem is not as serious as Hong Kong. Therefore, this can help me to have a healthier body that impacts me physically. Unfortunately, every coin has two faces. Imagine that if you leave your homeland for a few years, would you miss your family and friends who you love and c...

Handball as a game played by use of hands instead of feet as in Essay

Handball as a game played by use of hands instead of feet as in football - Essay Example The paper tells that there before, people had that misconception that playing handball is just an easy task that is not that much demanding. This has lately been proven wrong, since handball is like any other game where a lot from the players is needed. The game requires someone to posses the right skills and to have undergone a thorough training before one can become an excellent player. Every player has a desire to improve his game swiftly, but many spend only a few moments of time perfecting their skills. Efficient learning and training is the best approach in achieving most and for high level play in all the sports, as research has proved. This line of attack could also be applied to almost any corporal ability. Therefore, for one to pursue sporting as a career, one has to be ready for the ups and downs associated with the job. More extra efforts will be essentially vital in the job. High level of discipline, total devotion, and perseverance in hard times of sport are among the k ey requirements of the job. Hence, the misconception by many people that playing a sport and get a salary it is an easy job get proven wrong. There has also been a misconception on payment to sporting players among several people. Many people have clung on the belief that sports playing are well paid jobs compared to the other jobs. In many games like soccer, or basketball, prolific players have been there, but soon they no longer play. The situation is this way because of various limiting factors like age limit or incase of incidence of severe injuries to players. In all the games, handball being one of them, there is a certain age limit that players are to be within and beyond which they get retirement. Therefore, these conditions present cases that make the sports players receive more earning in the form of salary. This is in effect, will cater for their up keep soon they quit playing the game. The issue of better payment will then be of assistance to the players especially those who rely entirely on playing as a life career. Among various games, handball is a game that can be played by anyone on the basis of gender despite the different belief by various people, that handball is a girls sport. It has also been found that handball is a game with various strict rules and regulations that are followed to the later. During training and match sessions, these rules and regulations are well observed. Among the rules while playing; as one dribbles the ball, the hand is to touch the ball just at its upper partly. The player is to move three steps prior to shooting, dribbling or releasing the ball. The moment the foot gets onto the ground is a step made. The players have to ensure that the ball get to their rival’s target to earn a score. Once a team has scored, the loser team starts the game again. Therefore, the sport is not as easy as thought of, but rather complex to some extent. It was extremely surprising that many people, especially, those without much exposure to the game, initially, they had thought that in most developed countries is where handball was best played. This belief had led to many talented players in handball dreams being shuttered. The developing countries had the adverse effects of the perception. Those people, who had secured handball playing as a job, and opted to carry on with the job, had to put with the torment of the idea. Lately, through the swift spread of knowledge and information about handball, has led to appreciation of the game widely.

Managerial Enterprise Theory Presented by Alfred Chandler Essay - 5

Managerial Enterprise Theory Presented by Alfred Chandler - Essay Example The report starts with a short description of the theories proposed by Chandler followed by a discussion of how the theories proposed by Chandler are applicable in the modern corporate setting. The relationship between the strategies proposed according to the theory and the structure of modern economies are identified and explained. Also, a section of the report includes drawing references from the national patterns of management enterprises so that a parallel can be drawn between the theory proposed by Chandler and the importance of these theories in the 20th century corporate and managerial enterprises. The advantages, as well as the shortcomings of the theories proposed by Chandler, are identified and analyzed in detail. The report is concluded by drawing suitable inferences from the analysis and by proposing suitable arguments in favor of the views as per the analysis. The theory postulated by Chandler deals with the functioning of managerial enterprises. As per the view of Chand ler, the managerial enterprises refer to the big scale industrial companies in which the crucial investment and operating decisions are taken in a hierarchical manner in which a number of salaried executives and managers propose the basic decision propositions and the final decisions are taken by a governing body which is the board of directors of the company. The key logic behind Chandler’s theory of managerial enterprise is that the necessary investments in the production, management, and distribution of the enterprise are made with the aim of achieving economies of scale and benefitting from the learning curve for organizations. The main strategic intent of investment decisions is based on creating a dominating presence of the enterprise within the industry in which it operates. In this context, the economies of scale refer to the benefit of a company that the cost of production per unit decreases as the production output volume of the enterprise increases.

Avoiding Project Failure Dissertation

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