...1. How effectively do you think Rachel spent her day? Honestly, I feel that Rachel could have been more productive. Even though this may be a typical day in the office, she spent too much time socializing and not enough time fixing issues and solving problems. Understandably e-mails, phone calls, messages and meetings are all part of the daily office life. But to spend over 1/5 of your day chatting and having miscellaneous downtown seems to be a bit much for me, especially coming from a project manager for a large IS assignment. Below is a breakdown of my figures for her 9 hour day… Socializing – about 1 hour E-mails, phone calls, messages – about 1 hour Work – about 3.5 hours Meetings – about 2.5 hours Misc. downtime – about 1 hour 2. What does the case tell you about what is it like to be a project manager? Being someone that currently works in the office environment, working with project managers, this seems to be pretty typical. As a project manager, you must be able to multi-task and communicate well with your peers. Although the communication and sincerity aspect may have been present, I believe there was a lack of anticipation, organization and overall leadership. It seems as if Rachel allowed others to direct her and her day, instead of taking charge and making things happen. She often spent much of her time gossiping and in personal downtime. This time could have been used more wisely for proper organization and motivating techniques to be applied...
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...As an overview, the case study is about one of the project Managers, Rachel, in a large information systems project. The case study is mainly highlighted how the project manager allocates her time to spend a day in her life. 1. The effectiveness of Rachel Spent her day Project is a complex, non-routine, one-time effort limited by time, budget, resources, and performance specifications designed to meet customer needs. Considering the case study, Rachel allocates her time significantly on activities not done repetitively before that in my point of view can be applied as project activities. Activities such as going over project reports and preparing for the weekly status meeting, going over a problem with her boss, participating in a conference call and responding to the issues arise in the project could be determined as project activities. In contrast, the characteristic of non project tasks are regular daily works which required repetitive and routine activities. It is seen that often limited time she spend her day on these types of activities. Those can be illustrated in gossiping about internal politics with Eddie, a worker in finance office. Technically evaluating, by dividing her done tasks into project, routine and non-project activities and calculating the spent time based on these categories, it can be perceived that Rachel is an efficient project manager to some extent: * Time spent on project activities is approximately 370 minutes including going over project...
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...Chapter 1 Modern Project Management 19 Note: If you have any difficulty accessing any of the Web addresses listed here or elsewhere in the text, you can find up-to-date addresses on the home page of Dr. Erik Larson, coauthor of this text: http://www.bus.oregonstate.edu/faculty/bio .htm?UserName=Larson References Ball Parks of Baseball, “Cisco Field,” http://www.ballparksofbaseball.com/future/ CiscoField.htm (accessed June 2, 2009). Benko, C., and F. W. McFarlan, Connecting the Dots (Boston: HBS Press, 2003). Cohen, D. J., and R. J. Graham, The Project Manager’s MBA (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2001). Faylor, C., “Next Generation Wii Is Rumored to Hit the Market in 2011,” Shacknews.com (Oct. 1, 2008). Kay, J., “US Box Office Spellbound by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” www.guardian.uk.co.filmblog (accessed July 15, 2009). Krisher, T., “GM Product Chief Says New Vehicles Must be Hits,” www. businessweek.com (accessed July 20, 2009). Larkowski, K., “Standish Group Report Shows Project Success Improves 50 Percent,” www.standishgroup.com, 2004, Third Quarter. Lunar Energy, “British Firm Announces World’s Largest Tidal Power Development,” Lunarenergy.co.uk (March 11, 2008). Peters, T., PM Network, January 2004, Vol. 18, No. 1, p. 19. Project Management Institute, Leadership in Project Management Annual (Newton Square, PA: PMI Publishing, 2006). Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), (Newton Square, PA: PMI...
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...How effectively do you think Rachel spent her day? In my opinion, how she spent her day is quite effectively. Because she has a mixture of relax and hard-work modes. She can also manage her project on schedule and has a very good social relation by help other project that is behind schedule to be back on track. She has very good planning both in the morning and evening. However, if the communication breakdown was not occurring and no weekly status meeting, she will use only 20 minute to listen to their team members in one day. I think this is less than it should be. Actually, the discussion between manager and group member is significant in order to keep project on track and build up their relationship. When the communication breakdown occurred, Rachel was not fear to face with the problem but on the other hand she shows her investigation skill by she immediate indentify the root causes of the problem by discuss with another department where the problem occurred. Also, after finish defining root cause she shows her good coordination skill by directly report to her boss and give her team know what is happening and reviewing the impact that could have on this project. Nevertheless, her project can follow schedule when she only met team member 20 minutes a day. This is maybe because of her ability to control / manage people. What does the case tell you about what it is like to be a project manager? Project manager is not like other managers because they have to deal with...
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...majority of doing project is to satisfy the customer requirements. However the project is a unique and complexity task and non-routine activity, it has to be considered with the time limit, budget, and performance. In this case, project manager would be the significant person who responsible for managing the planning, monitoring and controlling assignments push the project resolves problems and is responsible for all contributions arising from the implementation of the project. Everything can be considered a project. It describes the activities that meet specific objectives and can be used to introduce or improve new or existing products and services. Thus, project management is the way of managing change. Rachel performed the activities in a day as Project activities, Routine activities and Non-project activities. The related project activities are include reviewing project reports and preparing weekly status meeting, participate in the progress review meeting, reviewing project assignments with another IS project manager, listening to team members, discussing the problem with...
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...From Monday through Friday my morning schedule for leaving my house to ensure that myself and my children get to work and daycare on time is the same. I begin the morning by waking to the blaring sound of my alarm at 4 A.M. Although I would like to enjoy the comfort of my bed for a few extra minutes the resonance of my alarm has me staggering into my bathroom looking forward to my shower. After drying myself from a shower that has awaken me, I begin to iron my work clothes for the day ahead. Fully dressed and feeling refreshed my next step involves gathering and ironing the clothes for my children before I wake them. This step is important because it allows for more time to get fully prepared for the onslaught of two active toddlers. My three year old daughter is who I wake up first as she knows how to take a shower, where to get the clothes I have out for her and how to put her clothes on without the aid of myself or my wife. I help her choose her shoes next and also tie them for her as well, then she either chooses to watch morning cartoons or enjoy a breakfast my wife has prepared. Lastly I wake up my two year old son, give him a shower, help him put his clothes on and send him to my wife who finishes getting him ready by getting his shoes on and ensuring that he is fed. Finally, I brush my teeth, load my kids into their car seats in my car so that we can begin the drive to our destinations for the...
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...who go through indirect financing usually prefer to go though financial intermediaries to watch their money grow while direct financing allow them to purchase securities and bonds directly. Q2. Differentiate between the following types of markets: -Physical asset markets versus financial asset markets Assets are commonly known as anything with a value that represent economic resources or ownership that can be converted into something of value such as cash. The main similarity between both assets is that they both represent an economic resource that can be converted into value. But the difference is that physical asset can be depreciated over their useful life or term, while financial asset can always be revalued at any point of time. Physical asset are disposed off when they have served for their useful economic life but financial asset are redeemed once they mature. Most importantly financial asset do...
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...function as a project manager revolve around interacting with co-workers, communication with customers, processing paper work, attending meetings, politicking with co-workers, handling disturbances, coordinating activities with internal departments, disseminating information, authorizing and making plans. Analyzing the functions, it can be easily inferred that Rachel’s get her job done by approving express delivery if requires. To some extent to keep the project scope as promised, she had a heated conversation with marketing manager. So, she needs good human skills to work with, communicate, motivate and interact to be a successful team manager. How effectively do you think Rachel spent her day? As a project manager of a large information system project Rachel usually has an early morning. Her day starts in the office by socializing with other colleagues. After settling down she generally checks her voice mail and messages to keep herself updated. She has a planned way of her work and keeps a routine schedule. After the office finds its pace she spends 25 min for review project reports and prepares herself for weekly meetings. And later spend more 20 min with her manager discussing project issues. Then she usually attends project review meetings for 45 min. During her working time she not only does her own work but also spends about 10 min for socializing and exchange personal news. Following up the project review meeting she interacts with the mangers of the respectable client’s...
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...A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A HILTON HOTEL GENERAL MANAGER Robert O. Balmer, CHA I often have heard that professionals in the hotel business enjoy it because every day is different. While I find this to be a huge understatement, I, too, enjoy this business for the same reason. My day begins with a large cup of coffee. I like to arrive at work early so I can walk the property and greet the early-morning team members and check on the daily banquet functions. Every morning at 8:30 we have our daily operations meeting. This meeting is attended by our top lieutenants who run the day-to-day operations. The directors of sales, front office, housekeeping, and property operations are there, along with my executive assistant. At this meeting, we cover in detail our daily arrivals. With Hilton Hotel Corporation’s advanced technology, we have the capability of ascertaining which guests are new to the hotel, which are returning guests and how many times they have been here, which are new to any Hilton brand, and which have experienced problems in the past. We also know if guests have special preferences or requests. Our focus is to exceed guest expectations and increase customer loyalty. During this morning briefing, we also discuss our banquet events, arriving VIPs, and any and all comment cards from the night prior. It is a great way to jump-start the morning. The team members briefly describe their day and are sent off with their marching orders. I do enjoy helping every team member...
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...Life in a Day A time capsule is defined as “a container storing a selection of objects chosen as being typical present time, buried for discovery in the future.” But what falls under the category of a “container”? Can a camera? That’s exactly what director Kevin McDonald and producer Ridley Scott attempted to find out with the documentary “Life in a Day”. An experiment offered to anyone around the world that had access to a video camera on July 24th to film their life. According to McDonald one single day can show the basic temporal building block of human life—wherever you are and can show who we are. Was there plan just to show life? Or was there other alternative motives? Was there a plan of comparison of the people all around the world or is society just so different there didn’t have to be intention to prove that? The film was announced to the public on July 6, 2010. 75% of the film was footage shot by people who were contacted about sending their own videos in through traditional advertising and YouTube. The other 25% was shot by cameras sent out by production. All of the footage in the film came from the same day, July 24, 2010. Over 80,000 different clips of footage were sent in for possible entry into the film. Editing took several weeks to sort through all the footage. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 27, 2011 and on October 31, 2011 was put on YouTube to stream to the public for free. I chose this film for my final paper because...
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...A Day in the Life: Bipolar Disorder Abstract Bipolar Disorder, sometimes referred to as a manic-depressive disorder, is best described as an illness that results in drastic and unpredictable mood swings, energy levels and one’s ability to complete daily tasks. Not to be confused with simply being tired or in a bad mood, the symptoms associated with bipolar disorders are drastic, severe and frightening for many. It can easily annihilate relationships, jeopardize careers and in some cases, those with diagnosed bipolar can attempt and succeed in committing suicide. This paper will take a look at how this illness can affect one’s daily life and what that might mean to an outsider looking in. A Day in the Life: Bipolar Disorder To understand bipolar disorder, one must first understand the dynamics behind the illness. “Bipolar” means literally “two opposite poles” (Mrazek, 2008). Most often, bipolar disorder develops in one’s late teen years or early adulthood and while the official studies insist approximately 1% of the American population suffers from this order, new research suggests that it could be as high as 5% (Hedaya, 2010). According to the National Institute of Mental Health, a full one half of all diagnoses are made before the age of twenty-five (2008). The symptoms vary from one person to the next and what might be considered severe symptoms for one many be easily addressed in another (Das, Olfson, Gameroff, Pilowsky, Blanco, Feder...
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...A Day in the Life of a Chihuahua Ruth Wilson ENG/340 February 23, 2012 Ronald Tatum Rocco I see a photograph of a brown and black Chihuahua and I think of Rocco. Rocco is a spoiled dog. I became Rocco’s owner three and a half years ago. At the time we became Rocco’s owners I was traveling five to six days a week and thought it was good for mom to have a companion. Rocco has always slept with a human. He likes to crawl under the blankets and burrows in. One day after I came home from an extended work trip he just started staying with me. Now he is with me wherever I am. Rocco is the king of the house. If he wants your attention he will use his nose to nudge your hand. If that doesn’t work he will sit on your chest and look at you with his big blue eyes and rub his head on your chest as if to say, “I’m here stop ignoring me.” The thing about Chihuahua’s is their eyes. They have these bulging eyes which show so much expression. The phrase of puppy dog eyes applies. Rocco’s day starts at nine a.m. After he eats he runs laps round the living room. I like to watch him because he goes really fast and sometimes will run into the couch or bedroom door because he is unable to stop. After I bring out my computer and start working on school work. He tilts his head and looks at me with that disgusted look and lies next to me and takes his nap. Rocco does not like my laptop. Whenever I bring out the laptop to do my homework or socialize for a while he looks...
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...A Day in the Life of the Kurd A Day in the Life of the Kurd Kurds are a pastoral nomadic culture that can be considered patrilineal. Men herd the animals and lead the family. They are what hold the status of the family. Women play a smaller role in this society due to their beliefs that women are weak to temptations. Based off of their Quran and what it depicts, are how the Kurds lead their lives. It is a highly religious society that can be admired for sticking to their guns in the world of today. Kurdish traditionally led a peasant life, due to the nomadic state of being. Though they are nomadic, they do have boarders that fall along Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. This mostly being because societies have sprouted up around them, thus caging them in. Extremely kind and generous they have never really belonged to anyone. “The language and traditions of the Kurds set them apart from other ethnic groups for the fact that they live in several different homogeneous nation-states.” (Gunter, Michael M (Dec 2012)). Some would say that the origins of the Kurds can be traced to the Medes, although there is no actual physical evidence of such. Being of a patrilineal lineage, the family centers around a male head and his immediate family. Depending on what type of nomads their family is, dictates what kind of patrilineal family they are. Xani is where the extended family lives under the same roof or in the family compound during their seasonal movement. Seminomadic...
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...Max Weber's contributions to organizational theory. Max Weber (1864-1920), can be classified in the bureaucratic management branch of the classical school. Weber, the son of a prominent Bismarckian era German politician, was raised in Berlin and studied law at the University of Berlin. After assuming an appointment teaching law at the University of Berlin, Weber assumed teaching appointments in economics at the Universities of Freiburg, Heidelberg, Vienna, ending with his death after a bout with pneumonia. Weber's interest in organizations evolves from his view of the institutionalization of power and authority in the modern Western world. He constructed a "rational-legal authority" model of an ideal type bureaucracy. This ideal type rested on a belief in the "legality" of patterns of normative rules and the right of those elevated to authority to issue commands (legal authority). Weber postulated the rules and regulations of a bureaucracy serve to insulate its members against the possibility of personal favoritism. According to Max weber Bureaucratic management approach emphasized the necessity of organizations to operate in rational way instead of following the “arbitrary whims” or irrational motions and intentions of owners and managers. He found different characteristics in bureaucracies that would effectively conduct decision-making, controlling resources, protecting workers and accomplishment of organizational goals. Weber Believes All Bureaucracies Have Certain Characteristics: ...
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...A day in the life of Josie Beliefs and behaviors affect health promotion and disease prevention in many different ways. Eating unhealthy foods such as fast foods does not provide the nutrients a person needs on a daily basis. Fast foods like chips, soda, candy, even burgers and fries, jelly doughnuts for breakfast, all have too much sugar or too much fat in the food, this makes a person feeling tired and cause them to gain more weight. Also since the calorie intake is so much and the nutrient value is less; this causes a person to not feel full which in an hour they are eating once again. Another way is smoking; smoking is usually done when a person feels they are under much stress, with Josie, she found out her grandson has meningitis and in the hospital which can cause her to stress, also with Josie parking her car blocks away from her job. The walking in a bad neighborhood causes her stress. Stress can lead to high blood pressure, which is what Josie had discovered when she got her blood pressure taken at a health fair in her work building. Exercising will help with the stress, high blood pressure, and unhealthy eating habits, though Josie does not exercise because she has been experiencing shortness of breath doing small activities such as walking up stairs, or walking from her car to her job. She had remembered about her family's medical history when her paternal grandfather and aunt died of colon cancer, ...
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