Short Story Analysis “a Television Drama” - 845 Words

Short Story Analysis: â€Å"A Television Drama† Plot Summary The short story’s plot begins by introducing the main character Carolee Mitchell. Carolee is in her home doing her daily chores when suddenly she looks out her window to find many policeman, police dogs and police cars outside on her street. Carolee did not know what was happening so she continued on with her chores. In a few moments Carolee notices a young man drenched in blood in her garden outside. Carolee wants to call the police but questions what good it would be considering they are already on her street. She wants to call someone but none of her neighbors were home. Thinking that he was injured and maybe was not even the man the police were after, she looked out the window†¦show more content†¦Setting The story takes place in a neighborhood that i estimate is quite small considering Carolee knows her neighbors are gone. The setting revolves around Carolee’s home. Her doing her chores in her home and the suspect roaming around outside. The setting influe nces the story a lot because it influences Carolee’s reaction to what happened. She had never seen anything like that in person and it opened her eyes to how society really is. Conflict In the story there are 3 types of conflict, Person vs. Self, Person vs. Society and Person vs. Person. Person vs. Self would come in when Carolee had to decide what she was gonna do. Would she call the police or help the person or just leave well alone. Person vs. Society would be the police force against the suspect. Finally Person vs. Person would be when the suspect shot the other police officer and when he was getting shot at. St.Croix 3 Symbolism I believe that Carolee symbolises many people in our society at the moment. People who are oblivious to what is actually happening and how our society functions. Her reaction to what happened how the police came into her neighborhood and how the man was drenched in blood and was tumbling around showed lack of experience. Like lack of knowledge of what was actually going on. Literary Devices In the story the author used foreshadowing. The foreshadowing came in when Carolee heard the dogs barking. This foreshadowed that something was found or the dogs found someone soShow MoreRelatedRepresentations Of Religion And Western Media1499 Words   |  6 Pagesjournalists and politicians are ‘segregated’, ‘beaten’, ‘insults’, ‘veil’, ‘freedom’, ‘mistreated’ ‘religion’, ‘hatred’, ‘human rights’, ‘tortured’. In crime dramas such as CSI or Criminal Minds, Muslim women are almost always represented as victims of male domestic violence; women’s appearances in police films or television shows are often cut short by a male who asserts that he is in charge In reality, many Muslim women choose to observe traditional patriarchal hierarchies, many others selectivelyRead MoreThe Summer Ma Program For Theatre Educators875 Words   |  4 Pagesassigned projects and to find an appropriate way to disseminate the information for the intended audience. Lesson length 1 week. Second: Elements of drama as outlined by Aristotle: Plot, Character, Theme, Language, Rhythm, and Spectacle. Objective: Students will establish their understanding of the Aristotle’s Elements of Drama by analyzing a television show and then a script. Using Freytag and other items as found on BYU, Utah State and Bellevue College web sites, I will tailor lessons to meet myRead MoreAfrican American Stereotypes Reality Television1531 Words   |  7 Pagesprograms have dominated television networks since their rise in popularity began in the early 1990s with MTV’s The Real World. The reality genre quickly gained viewership as it redefined the formulaic set up of televisions shows from the past. Reality television has infiltrated television because networks prefer low budgets for their programs that also generate high ratings (Hasinoff, 2008). People watch reality shows because they are intrigued by the seemingly â€Å"real† drama with ordinary people asRead More Media Coverage of Sports, Questions and Answers894 Words   |  4 PagesQuestion #1: Step-by-step analysis of mediated sport â€Å"Magazines are different from other forms of media in their ‘exceptional’ capacity to shape social life† (Kennedy Hills, 2009 p. 96 para.3). This statement encapsulates the drive and focus of magazine media; by focusing on the current issues to help form the values, norms and beliefs of the readers. 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Unlike photographs, television offers transient moments, lasting replacement of visuals, that leave little time for reflection and help create a ‘new memory’ of past conflicts. Hoskins describes various techniques of analysis to show how television may simplify and distort events. For example Selecting cases from Vietnam and the two Iraq conflicts (1991 and 2003), he adapts time analysis to examine time references and use of tense by the reporter. He showsRead MoreIs Google Making Us Stupid?733 Words   |  3 Pagesdistracted by the technological advances our era has brought. Text messages, emails, pop culture drama has all taken over thoughts. Our minds have changed from being able to focus and read a lengthy paper, to distracted and skimming for the little highlights to give us information. Media used to be lengthy pages full of information. Now it has turned into short snippets of the bold points in the articles, â€Å"Television programs add text crawls and pop-up ads, and magazines and newspapers shorten their articlesRead MoreThe Role Of Media On Influencing The Way People Perceive The Relationship And Punitive Attitudes Between Race And Crime Essay2079 Words   |  9 PagesIntroduction Public knowledge of a crime is predominantly obtained from the media. Crime-related media such as crime on the news and crime-dramas has proven to serve as a great impact in how countless individuals feel about the world surrounding them, and even more importantly, how they feel about the criminals portrayed by the media. This research paper examines the role the media plays on influencing the way people perceive the relationship and punitive attitudes between race and crime. 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Shirley was notorious for keeping journals, charts, and logs that retained information on the progress she made in her writing every day (Literal Media, 2008). Jackson

The Metamorphosis of Ebenezer Scrooge in Dickens A...

The Metamorphosis of Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol Ebenezer Scrooge learned a great deal about himself during the visitations of the three ghosts in A Christmas Carol. He learned things that not only changed his life, but also the lives of others such as Tiny Tim and his family. At first these changes came gradually, probably because they where not really fuelled by fear of what might be, but instead by remorse for things he had already done. Not until the second and third spirits visit Scrooge can a true change due to fear, not only in fear for what might be during his life but also in the end. In the first stave, Dickens tries to point out that Scrooge is a character that society considers negative. In the introduction,†¦show more content†¦Scrooge shows his sadness when he sees â€Å"A solitary child, neglected by his friends is left there still.† Scrooge said he knew it. And he sobbed.† Regret is another emotion displayed on page 37. â€Å"Nothing. There was a boy singing a Christmas carol at my door last night. I should like to have given him something: that’s all. This quote could be a symbol of hope for Scrooge which, in turn, creates an intense effect for the reader because we see that Scrooge is changing slowly into a better man. Dickens used a lot of description to guide the reader through all the emotions displayed by Scrooge in this visit and the surroundings the visit brought them to, such as â€Å"and called out, in a comfortable, oily, rich, fat, vocal voice....† and â€Å"bright a ballroom as you would desire to see upon a winter’s night!† Happiness is one more emotion shown during the visit, â€Å"Why, it’s old Fezziwig! Bless his heart, it’s Fezziwig! Bless his heart, its Fezziwig alive again! This shows that Scrooge still is capable of being happy once again and it also shows the reader the lighter side of Scrooge that the reader has never seen before. The final emotion seen in this visit from the Ghost of Christmas Past revealed by Scrooge was sadness.†Quite alone in the world, I do believe.† This shows how Scrooge’s â€Å"journey† into loneliness and bitterness began at the point where

Emersonian Individualism Essay Example For Students

Emersonian Individualism Essay Emersons transcendentalism is essentially a romantic individualism,a philosophy of life for a new people who had overthrown their colonialgovernors and set about conquering a new continent by their own lights. ThoughEmerson is not a technical philosopher, the tendency of his thought is towardidealist metaphysics in which soul and intuition, or inspiration, are central. The new American experiment needed every idea within its reach. Taking apractical and democratic, yet poetic interest in all of nature and inindividuals of every walk of life, Emerson stresses the potential for genius andcreativity in all people. It is a source of creative insight within whichEmerson identifies as divine. His praise for Plato can easily be found in hiswork. He says that Mind is the only reality of which men and all othernatures are better or worse reflectors. For Emerson, intuition isa poetic faculty of seeing things creatively. Nothing is possible within ourdistinctively human world without such creative insight and interpretation. Therefore, Emerson calls for us to always be prepared to listen to this voicewithin instead of conforming to societal pressures. The theme of Self-Relianceis an elaboration of this idealist theme we are to follow our own lights. TheOver-soul, the only prophet of that which must be, is that great nature inwhich we rest. It is both the act of seeing and the thing seen,and it creates our world in depth by means of our insight and interpretations. Emersons great emphasis upon nonconformity and integrity shows that thisOver-soul creates a world through individuals rather than through the commerceof groups. Where we find beauty in a flower or a forest or a poem, meaningand direction, or deep understanding, the voice of this deity isspeaking through us and creating the world around us by such means. This deitydoes not speak to groups but, in radical protestant style, to each person aloneto the degree he or she attends to the message. The value Emerson attributesto the messages depends upon the Over-soul being self-sufficing andperfect in every hour. In spite of his individualism, Emersons thought issimilar to the romantic nationalism of 19th century Europe, but where thisnationalism focused upon collective entities such as a people, their languageand culture, or their state, Emersons focus is upon the individual. InSelf-Reliance he says, it is easy, in the world to live after the worldsopinion; it is easy in solitude to live afte r our own; but the great man is hewho in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence ofsolitude. Where romantic nationalism stresses the development of an authenticnational culture free from foreign influences and takes a collective perspectivemore or less for granted, Emerson applies a similar approach to each individual. He complains that all men hear the inner voice in solitude but that they losethemselves when they enter into the world of men. Society everywhere is aconspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. Emerson feels manmust work on his own and be diligent and truthful in that work to produce abetter society. Man must be willing to take risks instead of conforming to therules of society in order to prosper. Man should control society instead ofallowing society to control him. The two major barriers to self-reliance areconformity and relying on the past. The Trustee is man, himself, when he trustshis own intuition. This modifies the egotism of self-reliance because it makesit common to all men and it creates the view that self-reliance is not based onintellect but on common sense. Self-reliance allows one to progress in anysituation. It implies that there would be no king or higher government; allwould be equal. Self-reliance does not allow men to claim that they know God andus e archaic terminology because in this way men revert to the past forauthority. Emerson feels man should realize that his life is built on fate andchance and he has no power to control the outcome. Society wants to imposegovernment, rules, and law on its people so they can be puppet-like. Emersonproposes that men live based on their own individual instincts thereby creatingtheir own internal law. Emerson believes that men fail to prosper because theyallow society to think for them. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblinsof little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. Withconsistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. Emerson believes inliving in the present and not in the past. Society is likened to ajoint-stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securingof his breadto surrender the liberty and culture of the eater. This ishis explanation of how people are seduced into ignoring their own insights andconvictions, their own culture, in ord er to better profit by theirintercourse with society. Emerson warns of the seductions of society andsupplies a moral counter-weight: Nothing is at last sacred but theintegrity of your own mind. It is better to make your own mistakes and sufferfrom them than to make the mistakes dictated by another and surrender oneself todissolution in outside forces. Creative interpretation is not to be discouraged,and each persons genius should be developed as far as possible. This is thecentral meaning of American liberalism, and the critique of mere conformity isan important part of this. Yet an empirical and scientific emphasis is needed tocounter balance the stress upon creativity. For while facts and perception donot dictate our interpretations of the world, they are often capable of decidingbetween them. Emerson, the man and Emerson, the thinker never completely leftthe world of common human experience, never sought to dwell, with the Over-soulalone, among the clouds of Platos heaven. His wr iting also suggests a criticalattitude toward the apparent excesses of Emersons individualism. For itsuggests that romantic individualism arises from uncritical use of creativeinsight. The alternative involves a greater stress upon cooperation andcollaboration. Though Emersons individualism is less extreme than Thoreaus,involving as it does a deep-felt mission to help others help themselves, helpingothers does not amount to collaboration with them. Even the best aimed, mostneeded charity does not engage and challenge self and others as do cooperativeundertakings. Emersons point is that we need to rely upon the creativeindividual, freed of the felt need to conformity, to supply interpretations ofexperience. However, since interpretations and insights are not self-certifying,it follows that great importance attaches to understanding alternativeinterpretations or theories. Otherwise, there will be no possibility of testsbetween such alternatives. This requires tolerance of alternative perspectives. .u63e403cabd58d32e9b4ff88473d7c1f7 , .u63e403cabd58d32e9b4ff88473d7c1f7 .postImageUrl , .u63e403cabd58d32e9b4ff88473d7c1f7 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u63e403cabd58d32e9b4ff88473d7c1f7 , .u63e403cabd58d32e9b4ff88473d7c1f7:hover , .u63e403cabd58d32e9b4ff88473d7c1f7:visited , .u63e403cabd58d32e9b4ff88473d7c1f7:active { border:0!important; } .u63e403cabd58d32e9b4ff88473d7c1f7 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u63e403cabd58d32e9b4ff88473d7c1f7 { 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; } .u63e403cabd58d32e9b4ff88473d7c1f7:active , .u63e403cabd58d32e9b4ff88473d7c1f7:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u63e403cabd58d32e9b4ff88473d7c1f7 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u63e403cabd58d32e9b4ff88473d7c1f7 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u63e403cabd58d32e9b4ff88473d7c1f7 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u63e403cabd58d32e9b4ff88473d7c1f7 .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; } .u63e403cabd58d32e9b4ff88473d7c1f7:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u63e403cabd58d32e9b4ff88473d7c1f7 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u63e403cabd58d32e9b4ff88473d7c1f7 .u63e403cabd58d32e9b4ff88473d7c1f7-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u63e403cabd58d32e9b4ff88473d7c1f7:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Is It Ethical To Sell Cigarettes EssayIt requires, as well, the attempt at sympathetic understanding of alternativepoints of view. Communications between alternative viewpoints is crucial if weare to put ourselves in a position for deciding between alternatives in anintelligent manner. Besides listening to the internal voice, we must also do ourbest to listen to voices from without. The opposite of conformity is not simpleself-assertion, or uncritical persistence in one or another prejudice, not evenones own; these are merely two sides of the same bogus coin. The alternativeis conclusions based upon well-informed, intelligent communications. The factsof social and intellec tual complexity in the modern world, no less thanhumanitys power over nature, make it imperative to think, deploy the fullpowers of human intelligence. Emerson provides a framework, or basic valueorientation, for flexible relations to the world around us including the socialworld of joint projects and purposes. Yet this framework leaves us as isolatedindividuals where it is not supplemented by emphasis upon empirical inquiry andtests of our insights and intuitions. Our actions in the world, and even thefull development of the self, depend upon cooperation with others in everycrucial sphere. But considerable inquiry, however informal, is required merelyto find those most suited to such joint undertakings. For example, one does noteffectively distinguish a momentary wish or feeling from a formative andenduring desire on the basis of 5 minutes conversation. Yet momentary wishesare near useless as a basis of long-term cooperation. In order to avoid beingatomized and isolated, to avoid a mere phenomenal existence, Emersonianintuition requires the addition of a tough-minded empiricism, oriented to thelush growth of human expression and suited to intelligent cultivation of thebest in others. Though the sensual man conforms thoughts to things, thepoet conforms things to his thoughts. Emerson succeeded in conforminggenerations of Americans to his thought. Now, in an age where conformity is usedin commercials as an advertising gimmick, Emerson would probably offer thefollowing: Your conformity explains nothing. Act singly, and what you havealready done singly will justify you now.

The Bay of Pigs free essay sample

From failure to overthrow Fidel Castro’s Communist Cuba and losing many Cuban Exiles and American weaponry, decisions that were made to result in the failure to strategies that were proven non-useful in the ordeal are just a few reasons to prove that the Bay of Pigs Invasion was one of the most embarrassing chapters for the U. S. With friction between the U. S. government and Castros leftist communist regime increasing, President Dwight Eisenhower was led to take away diplomatic relations with Cuba. The fact that the United States’ government had a growing dislike of Fidel Castro’s communist led to the idea of an invasion attack on Cuba. â€Å"On that unhappy island, as in so many other arenas of the contest for freedom, the news has grown worse instead of better. I have emphasized before that this was a struggle of Cuban patriots against a Cuban dictator. While we could not be expected to hide our sympathies, we made it repeatedly clear that the armed forces of this country would not intervene in any way,†[1] Kennedy said this in his speech regarding the planned invasion of Cuba. We will write a custom essay sample on The Bay of Pigs or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page He speaks of how American Soldiers were to not enter Cuba for the invasion but who was to enter the Bay of Pigs were approximately 1,300 Cuban Exiles armed with U. S. weapons. They landed at the Bahia de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs) at the Southern coast of the island of Cuba. In 1959, Fidel Castro had become the leader of Cuba. Castro, a communist, became hostile to the United States two years after he became the Cuban. People associated with Castro took ownership over United States companies and Eisenhower was forced to create an embargo on trade. During this time, Cubans had gone to the U. S. o flee the communist leadership that Castro had been imposing on the people. When Eisenhower told the Central Intelligence Agency to train Cuban exiles, they then planned an invasion that happened when Kennedy became president. When the invasion started, the exiles were about 1,300 strong while the Castro’s followers had give or take 234,000 men with his army, militia and armed police amalga mated. Though Castro’s forces had more deaths, the exiles had a higher percentage of loss with approximately 1,200 men captured and jailed by Castro’s forces. In April 1961, 1500 Cuban exiles made a landing at the Bay of Pigs. The plan they had was to join with people who were against Castro to start a revolt but plans did not follow through because Kennedy did not send in the air support that he promised them. The followers of Castro killed most of the exiles and kept the some more as prisoners. Castro wanted money for him to release them but Kennedy was hesitant to even negotiate with him but on December 25, 1962, 1113 men in a â€Å"brigade prisoners remained in captivity for 20 months, as the United States negotiated a deal with Fidel Castro†[2] prisoners were released in exchange for medical supplies and food that was worth an approximate amount of $53 million. This would never have happened if Kennedy did not withdraw the aerial cover. Generally, the Invasion was ruined and was acutely catastrophic because of President John F. Kennedy’s failure to sent help. A strategy that the United States had was to use guerilla tactics. The troops there were not trained and not suitable for them. Terrain and skill was against them because there was no place to hide, no way to communicate, no food, and no inhabitants to support them. The Central Intelligence Agency (C. I. A. ) chose the Zapata Peninsula for the invasion and convinced them of he plan. Cubans thought it would be hard to get there because of the length of the mountains there and that there were no motorized vehicles to drive in or get around with in there. â€Å"The Zapata Peninsula, where the Bay of Pigs is located, was swampy, isolated, and uninhabited, so there could have been no possibility of a spontaneous uprising, because no indigenous Cubans would have seen the landing. â⠂¬ [3] Cubans would have known what was coming to them if there had been pre-invasion propaganda, which there was not. Kennedy wanted to know what the purpose of this operation was. People in the government had explained it was because they wanted to hold up a government and build it up to make it stronger. Kennedy was skeptical because he did not want to risk a small amount of men against thousands of militia. By this point, the Secretaries of Defense and State thought there was going to be an uprising attack. In conclusion, the invasion of the Bay of Pigs was a very embarrassing affair in American history. Not only did the U. S. fail to overthrow Communism in Cuba, but they lost many of the Cuban exiles that were involved and they lost multitudinous amounts of their own American-made weapons.

Life of Robert Burns, Works - Poetry, Critics an Example of the Topic Personal Essays by

Life of Robert Burns, Works - Poetry, Critics Life of Robert Burns Robert Burns was known by the critics in his days as a literary genius, writing over 250 songs and hundreds of poems. Many critics didn't think much of him at the time because he was a heavy drinker and a womanizer. He had fifteen children, 6 of which were out of wedlock. Besides all that he was an excellent author writing such works as "Tam O' Shanter", "Auld Lang Syne", and "Comin' thro' the Rye". Because of a hard youth living in poverty on a farm he died at the young age of 37. Robert Burns was a Romantic poet of the first generation but actually we can say that he did not belong to any other group. He was Scottish and his poems are full of joy. He was also a revolutionary character both in religion and politics and this is reflected in his poems. Unlike the others he used dialogues in his poems and his humor can be observed in his poems, which are full of joy. Need essay sample on "Life of Robert Burns, Works - Poetry, Critics" topic? We will write a custom essay sample specifically for you Proceed Robert Burns was the oldest of seven siblings and was born in Alloway, Scotland on 25th January, 1759. His father was William Burns and his mother Agnes Burns. William Burns wasn't much of farmer and was poor for a long time. They lived in poverty until 1766 when William rented a farm. The farm was a failure and they just got even worse. Robert got very little education because he spent most of his time working on the farm with his family. When he had the time he would read as much as he could. His father and one of their neighbors scraped together some money to hire a tutor for Robert and his younger brother Gilbert. The tutor taught them history, math, and literature. Undergraduates Often Tell EssayLab specialists: How much do I have to pay someone to write my paper online? Professional writers propose: Let Us Help! The first song Robert ever wrote was "Handsome Nell" for Nellie Kilpatrick. Nellie was a young girl that Robert had met when he went to school for a little while in a nearby town. After he wrote "Handsome Nell" he realized he had an ability to write well and tried again sometime later. The first poem that he wrote was "O Once I Loved" in 1794. After that there was no stopping his writing. In 1777 the familys financial situation got a little better after they moved to a different farm. By this time Robert was able to read and write even better. (Ian, 398) Burns Career In 1781 Robert moved to Irvine to start a business but it was a colossal failure. While Robert lived in Irvine he met up with a sailor named Richard Brown who read some of Robert's work and encouraged him to have it published. Robert agreed hoping that it may pay his way to Jamaica. The Kilmarnock Edition was a huge success and sold every copy in the first month so Burns' decided he would stay where he was at to make his fortune. Robert was known for taking a liking to the women in his time. He tried to marry Jean Armour after she became pregnant with twins. Jeans father was outraged and refused to let them marry. Jean gave in and they parted ways. Robert was angry but soon after he became famous for his poetry and Jean's father pushed for them to marry but Robert triumphantly refused. Soon after, they get married on February 25, 1788. Jean has the twins, one girl named Jean, the other named Robert. Burns moves to Edinburgh to find a better job and finds that all the people there love his work and won't give a job because they didn't want to ruin his image as a rustic poem writer. He soon gets his next book The Edinburgh Edition published with no problem and gets more acclaim. Not long after that he becomes a tax collector. Over the next few years, Robert begins to gather his writings of Scottish songs. He starts to putting his poems to music he composed and to traditional Scottish air. He edited and contributed many songs to several volumes. Around 1790 he finally hits financial security and starts to write his greatest poem "Tam O' Shanter". During this time he also writes "The Lea Ring" and "Red, Red Rose". On July 21, 1796 Robert dies at the age of 37 from heart disease. That same day his last son Maxwell was born. Some doctors believed he died from excessive drinking and others think it was from hard labor as a child. More than 10,000 people attended his burial. His popularity was nothing compared to what it has reached since. Every year on the day of his birth, Scotts celebrate Robert Burns' birth with a supper where they address the haggis, the ladies, and whiskey. During Robert's life he wrote two collections containing 268 songs. Some of his most familiar and best-loved poems in the English language are "Auld Lang Syne" and "Comin' thro' the Rye". Burns wasn't confined to song though. Two of his greatest masterpieces are "Tam O' Shanter" and "The Jolly Beggars" are two narrative poems that he wrote during his lifetime. Burns had a fine sense of humor which is reflected in his satirical, descriptive, and playful verse. He was mostly popular with Scots because of the way he depicts Scottish rural life like in "The Cotter's Saturday Night". Burns frequently liked to satirize the Presbyterian Church because of its doctrine on predestination. He also wrote a poem based from a clergy man that he didn't like that was from the Presbyterian Church. Robert's life went from as bad as it could possibly be to becoming the greatest writer in Scottish history. He saw many hard times through his life and he managed to pull through them and stride and now has a holiday that celebrates the day he was born and to celebrate his achievements. Songs of Robert Robert Burns , the great Scottish poet, was also a collector of his native land's folksongs. Working with somewhat less scholarly rigor than today's enthnomusicologists, but certainly with the heart and poetic ear that have made his verses so well-loved, Burns traveled all over Scotland collecting native musical materials. He did not compose tunes himself, but rather wrote new words for existing tunes or revised existing works to produce better poetry. Many of his efforts were published in the contemporary collection Scots Musical Museum. For this disc the material has been taken from James Dick's 1903 publication of Burns's songs, which includes only tunes and text and no accompaniment. To this material singer Susan Rode Morris and harpsichordist Phebe Craig have brought the spirit of 18th Century improvisation, setting each tune in a spirited manner that might have been heard at hearthside in the Scottish Highlands two centuries ago. (Tytler, 22) Morris and Craig are versatile musicians. Their previous recordings have included a disc of songs by Henry Purcell (Nov/Dec 1993). Morris is well-known for her work with the Ensemble Alcatraz as well. They have studied Scottish music with fiddler Alasdair Fraser and have developed an interpretive style that works beautifully. Morris has a lifting, agile voice and a wide emotional range, from the biting swagger of 'I hae a wife o' my ain' to the bittersweet love song 'Ae fond kiss'. (Veitch, 23) Sheis as natural in her poetry as the nature itself .Her approach to each song is sharp and fresh, falling in a pleasant medium between folk-singing and recital voice. Craig's work is stunning. Few keyboard players could fashion such appropriate accompaniments to these tunes; both musical affect and text have been given ample consideration. A few harpsichord solos are also included, like the wonderfully evocative Peggy's Lament. (Millar, 45-53) Critic of Roberts Work Most of the Burnss work highlights the place of women as external to the people of Scotland but at the same time he presents the holistic nation through his indefinite use of the image of woman. Burns, in fact, reflects working-class and Scottish emotions in his writing, but as a sensitive citizen of the nation, he is still allowed to widely represent the nation. Little's relationship is known as difficult; as a woman, she is by definition expelled from the procedure of imagining the nation. However, Little's poetry foregrounds how reliant the philosophy of the nation is on the construction of a gendered society. During the last quarter of a century Scottish literature has done little to attract the attention of the world of culture. It has certainly failed to appeal to European imagination as the Irish or Norwegian literatures have appealed. (Henry, 171-80) The crass sentimentalities and utter banalities of the Kailyaird School alienated from the first sympathies of critics of taste and insight. Scotsmen of perspicacity and experience could not but feel depressed at the popular vogue of a cult which they were aware frequently afforded only a base caricature of their countrymen, paving the way for the grosser tradition of Lauderism. Nor to Scotsmen of liberal views did the somewhat artless impulse to concentrate the entire literary thought and homage of the nation upon the achievement of Robert Burns, however great, appear as likely to be conducive to the healthy or catholic expansion of Scottish literary life or activity. Those of them, more familiar with the genius and tradition of the older and more courtly Scottish poets, Douglas, Hendryson, Dunbar, and Lyndesay, and with the tradition, magical and intense, of the northern balladeers, recognized in these a spirit as genuinely native and technically more worthy of affection and close study than the mark of their successors. While worshipping, Burns, 'this side idolatry,' they wholeheartedly detested the host of uninspired plagiarists who succeeded him and deplored the descent of Scottish poetry into an abyss of infamous clich and mechanical reiteration. (Henderson, 43-49) It was, indeed, inevitable that the whole race of poetasters should have misconstrued and misapprehended the essentials of the Burnsian composition, confounding as they did an inspired simplicity, a great lyric artlessness, with mere banality. Incapable of discerning the true merits of a tonic gift, the quality of which probably remains unsurpassed, they labored under the delusion that anything couched in Scots must naturally possess an equal excellence with the effortless cadences of a great natural artist, who sang as spontaneously and with all the perfervid enchantment of a thrush in a morning garden. From the death of Burns to the end of the late War may, perhaps, be regarded as the most jejune and uninspired period in Scottish letters. Not only was it parasitical to a great name in a manner that scarcely any other literature can ever have been, its history was almost utterly devoid of those frequent regroupings and reorientations of the literary elements which are regarded by the superficial as the manifestations of originality; for, though 'originality' is actually incapable of attainment, the surest sign of artistic vitality is its endeavor. This, within the period alluded to, was almost wholly invisible, and old men, and some young ones, and maundered on in the Burns tradition. But 'the War changed all that.' It achieved what nothing else could have achieved, because it removed for a while large numbers of Scots from the Caledonian scene, and permitted them a view of a larger world; and this estrangement had the effect it ever has on the Scottish mind--a marked quickening of the patriotic sense, mingled with a desire for new things. (Magnus, 95-101) It is with these post-War developments--and the way in which what preceded them in regard to Scottish arts and affairs during the past two or three decades appears in the light of these developments. Burns's work draws full attention to the ambiguities and vagueness innate in the imagination of The Britain of eighteen century. In almost all his poems, songs, and letters, he adopts a variety of perspectives, identifying himself at different times as both a Scottish patriot and a British citizen. (Kinsley, 112-19) In works such as "The Cotter's Saturday Night" and "Scotch Drink," Burns speaks of his allegiance to Scotland. Yet in other poems such as "The Author's Earnest Cry and Prayer, to ... the Scotch Representatives in the House of Commons," he harnesses this patriotism to the larger enterprise of representing Britain. (Gregory, 119-26) After visiting Stirling Castle, which occasionally housed the old Scottish Parliament, he was moved to scratch the following poem on the window of his room: HERE Stewarts once in triumph reign'd, And laws for Scotland's weal ordain'd; But now unroof'd their Palace stands, Their sceptre's fall'n to other hands; Fallen indeed, and to the earth, Whence grovelling reptiles take their birth The injur'd STEWART-line are gone, A Race outlandish fill their throne; An idiot race, to honor lost; Who know them best despise them most. Yet he also wrote that he had always been a fervent supporter of the Hanoverian cause and the "sacred KEYSTONE OF OUR ROYAL ARCH CONSTITUTION." He joined the Dumfries Volunteers during the war against France and requested (and obtained) a military funeral. (Williams, 111) Conclusion In conclusion, Robert's life went from as bad as it could possibly be to becoming the greatest writer in Scottish history. He saw many hard times through his life and he managed to pull through them and stride and now has a holiday that celebrates the day he was born and to celebrate his achievements. Scots are evidently not interested sufficient to keep Burns's memory going by paying for entrance to these shrines, so the Scottish Executive has asked the National Trust for Scotland to do something. The trust says taxpayers will have to foot the bill. His poems, in verse, diction and manner, are full of English echoes, and derive from Shenstone, Gray and others of that time. The only distinctive element they have is that now and then the irrepressible genius of the man, his rustic, national individuality, bursts, like a sudden gush of clear water, for a line or two, out of the dull expanse of his imitative verse. He should have done, with all impulses on his own part to write in English, and with all requests from others to do so. Poets should cling to their natural vehicle, to their native song. When Burns put on English dress, his singing robes slipped off him, his genius moved in fetters, he lost his distinction, his wit ran away, his passion was not natural; above all, the lovely charm of his words--their pleasant surprises, their delicate shades of expression, even their subtle melodies like the melodies of Nature herself, of the wind in the trees, of the brook over the pebbles, of the wild whispering of versatile colors and melodies of Nature. Works Cited Gregory Smith G Professor; Scottish Literature (Macmillan, 1919) 119-26 Henderson T. F. Scottish Vernacular Literature, (1898) 43-49 Henry Grey Graham: Scottish Men of Letters in the Eighteenth Century, (Black, 1908) 171-80 Ian McIntyre, Dirt and Deity: A Life of Robert Burns (London: Harper Collins, 1995), p. 398 Kinsley, James (ed.) (2001) The Poems and Songs of Robert Burns Oxford: Clarendon Press. Pp 112-119 Magnus Maclean; The Literature of the Highlands, (Blackie, 1925) 95-101 Millar J. H. A Literary History of Scotland, (Unwin, 1903). 45-53 Tytler, S. and Watson: History and Poetry of the Scottish Border. 2 vols. Vol II Edinburgh, 1999 pp 22 Veitch, John. The Feeling for Nature in Scottish Poetry: 2 vols. Vol. II Edinburgh, 1990 pp 23 Williams, John: History of Robert Burns Revolutionary Poems: Oxford University Press: New York 2002 pp 111

All About Common Chinese Punctuation Marks

All About Common Chinese Punctuation Marks Chinese punctuation marks are used to organize and clarify written Chinese. Chinese punctuation marks are similar in function to English punctuation marks but sometimes differ in the form or look. All Chinese characters are written to a uniform size, and this size also extends to punctuation marks, so Chinese punctuation marks usually take up more space than their English counterparts. Chinese characters can be written either vertically or horizontally, so the Chinese punctuation marks change position depending on the direction of the text. For example, parentheses and quotation marks are rotated 90 degrees when written vertically, and the full stop mark is placed below and to the right of the last character when written vertically. Common Chinese Punctuation Marks Here are the most commonly used Chinese punctuation marks: Full Stop The Chinese full stop is a small circle that takes the space of one Chinese character. The Mandarin name of the full stop is Ã¥  ¥Ã¨â„¢Å¸/Ã¥  ¥Ã¥  · (jà ¹ ho). It is used at the end of a simple or complex sentence, as in these examples: è «â€¹Ã¤ ½  Ã¥ ¹ «Ã¦Ë†â€˜Ã¨ ² ·Ã¤ ¸â‚¬Ã¤ » ½Ã¥   ±Ã§ ´â„¢Ã£â‚¬â€šÃ¨ ¯ ·Ã¤ ½  Ã¥ ¸ ®Ã¦Ë†â€˜Ã¤ ¹ °Ã¤ ¸â‚¬Ã¤ » ½Ã¦Å  ¥Ã§ º ¸Ã£â‚¬â€šQÇ ng nÇ  bÄ ng wÇ’ mÇŽi yÄ « fà ¨n bozhÇ .Please help me buy a newspaper.é ¯ ¨Ã© ­Å¡Ã¦Ëœ ¯Ã§  ¸Ã© ¡Å¾Ã¤ ¸ Ã¦Ëœ ¯Ã© ­Å¡Ã© ¡Å¾Ã¨ â„¢Ã¨   Ã¦Ëœ ¯Ã§  ¸Ã© ¡Å¾Ã¤ ¸ Ã¦Ëœ ¯Ã© ³ ¥Ã© ¡Å¾Ã£â‚¬â€šÃ© ² ¸Ã© ± ¼Ã¦Ëœ ¯Ã¥â€¦ ½Ã§ ± »Ã¤ ¸ Ã¦Ëœ ¯Ã© ± ¼Ã§ ± »Ã¨ â„¢Ã¨   Ã¦Ëœ ¯Ã¥â€¦ ½Ã§ ± »Ã¤ ¸ Ã¦Ëœ ¯Ã© ¸Å¸Ã§ ± »Ã£â‚¬â€šJÄ «ngyà º shà ¬ shà ²u là ¨i, bà ºshà ¬ yà º là ¨i; biÄ nfà º shà ¬ shà ²u là ¨i, bà ºshà ¬ niÇŽo là ¨i.Whales are mammals, not fish; bats are mammals, not birds. Comma The Mandarin name of the Chinese comma is é€â€"號/é€â€"Ã¥  · (dà ²u ho). It is the same as the English comma, except it takes the space of one full character and is positioned in the middle of the line. It is used to separate clauses within a sentence, and to indicate pauses. Here are some examples: Ã¥ ¦â€šÃ¦Å¾Å"é ¢ ±Ã© ¢ ¨Ã¤ ¸ Ã¤ ¾â€ Ã¦Ë†â€˜Ã¥â‚¬â€˜Ã¥ ° ±Ã¥â€¡ ºÃ¥Å"‹æâ€"…è ¡Å'。å ¦â€šÃ¦Å¾Å"Ã¥  °Ã© £Å½Ã¤ ¸ Ã¦  ¥Ã¦Ë†â€˜Ã¤ » ¬Ã¥ ° ±Ã¥â€¡ ºÃ¥â€º ½Ã¦â€"…è ¡Å'。Rà ºguÇ’ tifÄ“ng bà ¹ li, wÇ’men jià ¹ chÃ… « guà ³ lÇšxà ­ng.If the typhoon does not come, we will take a trip abroad.ç  ¾Ã¥Å" ¨Ã§Å¡â€žÃ©â€º »Ã¨â€¦ ¦Ã§Å"Ÿæ˜ ¯Ã§â€ž ¡Ã¦â€°â‚¬Ã¤ ¸ Ã¨Æ' ½Ã£â‚¬â€šÃ§Å½ °Ã¥Å" ¨Ã§Å¡â€žÃ§â€ µÃ¨â€žâ€˜Ã§Å"Ÿæ˜ ¯Ã¦â€"  Ã¦â€°â‚¬Ã¤ ¸ Ã¨Æ' ½Ã£â‚¬â€šXinzi de dinnÇŽo, zhÄ“nshà ¬ wà º suÇ’ bà ¹ nà ©ng.Modern computers, they are truly essential. Enumeration Comma The enumeration comma is used to separate list items. It is a short dash going from top left to bottom right. The Mandarin name of the enumeration comma is é  â€œÃ¨â„¢Å¸/é ¡ ¿Ã¥  · (dà ¹n ho). The difference between the enumeration comma and the regular comma can be seen in the following example: Ã¥â€"Å"〠Ã¦â‚¬â€™Ã£â‚¬ Ã¥â€œâ‚¬Ã£â‚¬ Ã¦ ¨â€šÃ£â‚¬ Ã¦â€žâ€ºÃ£â‚¬ Ã¦Æ' ¡Ã£â‚¬ Ã¦ ¬ ²Ã¥  «Ã¥ Å¡Ã¤ ¸Æ'æÆ'…。åâ€"Å"〠Ã¦â‚¬â€™Ã£â‚¬ Ã¥â€œâ‚¬Ã£â‚¬ Ã¤ ¹ Ã£â‚¬ Ã§Ë† ±Ã£â‚¬ Ã¦  ¶Ã£â‚¬ Ã¦ ¬ ²Ã¥  «Ã¥ Å¡Ã¤ ¸Æ'æÆ'…。XÇ , nà ¹, Ä i, là ¨, i, à ¨, yà ¹, jiozuà ² qÄ « qà ­ng.Happiness, anger, sadness, joy, love, hate, and desire are known as the seven passions. Colon, Semicolon, Question Mark, and the Exclamation Mark These four Chinese punctuation marks are the same as their English counterparts and have the same usage as in English. Their names are as follows: Colon冒號/冒å  · (mo ho) - Semicolon - 分號/分å  · (fÄ“nho) - Question Mark - å• Ã¨â„¢Å¸/éâ€" ®Ã¥  · (wà ¨nho) - Exclamation Mark - é ©Å¡Ã¥Ëœâ€ Ã¨â„¢Å¸/æÆ'Šå  ¹Ã¥  · (jÄ «ng tn ho) - Quotation Marks Quotation marks are called Ã¥ ¼â€¢Ã¨â„¢Å¸/Ã¥ ¼â€¢Ã¥  · (yÇ n ho) in Mandarin Chinese. There are both single and double quote marks, with the double quotes used within the single quotes: ã€Å'...『...〠...〠 Western-style quotation marks are used in simplified Chinese, but traditional Chinese uses the symbols as shown above. They are used for quoted speech, emphasis and sometimes for proper nouns and titles. è€ Ã¥ ¸ «Ã¨ ª ªÃ£â‚¬Å'ä ½  Ã¥â‚¬â€˜Ã¨ ¦ Ã¨ ¨ËœÃ¤ ½  Ã¥Å"‹çˆ ¶Ã¨ ª ªÃ§Å¡â€žÃ£â‚¬Å½Ã© â€™Ã¥ ¹ ´Ã¨ ¦ Ã§ «â€¹Ã¥ ¿â€"Ã¥ Å¡Ã¥ ¤ §Ã¤ ºâ€¹Ã¤ ¸ Ã¨ ¦ Ã¥ Å¡Ã¥ ¤ §Ã¥ ®ËœÃ£â‚¬ Ã©â‚¬â„¢Ã¥  ¥Ã¨ © ±Ã£â‚¬â€šÃ£â‚¬ Ã¨â‚¬ Ã¥ ¸Ë†Ã¨ ¯ ´Ã¢â‚¬Å"ä ½  Ã¤ » ¬Ã¨ ¦ Ã¨ ® °Ã¤ ½  å› ½Ã§Ë† ¶Ã¨ ¯ ´Ã§Å¡â€žÃ¢â‚¬ËœÃ© â€™Ã¥ ¹ ´Ã¨ ¦ Ã§ «â€¹Ã¥ ¿â€"Ã¥ Å¡Ã¥ ¤ §Ã¤ ºâ€¹Ã¤ ¸ Ã¨ ¦ Ã¥ Å¡Ã¥ ¤ §Ã¥ ®ËœÃ¢â‚¬â„¢Ã¨ ¿â„¢Ã¥  ¥Ã¨ ¯ Ã£â‚¬â€šÃ¢â‚¬ LÇŽoshÄ « shuÃ… : â€Å"NÇ men yo jà ¬zhu Guà ³fà ¹ shuÃ…  de ‘qÄ «ngnin yo là ¬ zhà ¬ zuà ² dshà ¬, bà ¹yo zuà ² d guÄ n’ zhà ¨ jà ¹ hu.†The teacher said: â€Å"You must remember the words of Sun Yat-sen - ‘Youth should be committed to do big things, not to make big government.’

Economic Suspense Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Economic Suspense - Essay Example Thus, being occasionally boring makes the audience to anticipate something from you which makes you thrilling. However, the capacity to surprise an audience is a scarce resource because it is impossible to fool many people at all times. In addition to this, it is apparent that surprise happens when a specific outcome is different from your initial thought. Knowing the initial thought of a person is impossible, thus, making surprise a scarce resource (Ely, Frankel & Kamenica, 2015). Movies, as well as games, become interesting because of the unpredictable nature of the unraveled information. In support of this assertion, the article asserts that people are interested mainly in learning the result at a slow pace. Information unraveled in a certain period generates suspense and surprise which are the main contributing factors for entertainment (Ely, Frankel & Kamenica, 2015). According to the article, we can maximize our entertainment by generating the most suspense as well as the most surprise. Achievement of this will involve ensuring that we are occasionally boring in addition to keeping unpredictable plot twists (Ely, Frankel & Kamenica, 2015). Yes, economic approach is a comprehensive as well as an applicable approach to all human behavior. The human behavior introduced by Becker involves participants who not only maximize their utility but also accumulate a significant amount of information in different markets. In addition to this, the approach provides a unified outline for human behavior.

Total quality management (TQM) is a systemic approach to productivity Essay

Total quality management (TQM) is a systemic approach to productivity enhancement - Essay Example Although, above stated definitions with relative explanation satisfy the introduction of TQM; International Standard Organization1 defines it as, "TQM is a management approach for an organization, centered on quality, based on the participation of all its members and aiming at long-term success through customer satisfaction, and benefits to all members of the organization and to society." For an organization to implement TQM, it must maintain above stated quality standard in all aspects of its business. This requires ensuring that things are done right way the first time and that defects and waste are eliminated from operations. Globalization makes quality take place. As the companies get bigger, there is an increasing demand for Just In Time Management. This makes things move faster, while further approaching towards globalization while being responsible for the removal of tailback in manufacture along with resulting in high quality production. Therefore, it can be said that the impact of globalization on quality is positive. On the other hand, globalization has also brought some most important confrontations for quality2. The augmented struggle among organizations across the world is more forceful than before. This leads to the fact the producing the products at the lowest cost may win in the end; which implicates that the marketplace may only be motivated on price factor and not on all other factors which put in value to a product (Layne Gobrogg, journal article). When the marketplace grows to be sensitive to price only, service and quality suffer. Hence, what the world has seen in the recent times is exactly what has been discussed. Quality oriented textile industry in Pakistan has almost completely shifted to China which produces products at the lowest possible cost and minimal quality. This reflects the exact impact of how globalization affects quality, whether it be directly or indirectly. Traditional Management Styles vs. Quality Focused Management Styles: Total quality management has changed the traditional management style forever. Traditional style of management focuses on internal activities while assuming that products or services provided by organization are good in quality. However, total quality management focuses on the customer as the ultimate decider of the quality. Perhaps, the major difference between total quality management and traditional management style is the delegation of the authority with responsibility of the quality to the various levels of management, particularly to the middle level management. For this, TQM requires very high level of teamwork, unlike traditional style of management. Along with above stated differences, the other major difference is that TQM makes decisions on evidences of facts and figures, unlike traditional management style. Perhaps, this is the reason why TQM has been more successful than originally thought. Application of TQM: Before implementing TQM, top level management must have total faith in its implementation process3. TQM can be implemented in an organization through a step wise strategy. My strategy for Starbucks will be as following; 1. Appointment of a representative for coordinating the TQM implementation pr

A Big Responsibility During Our Development Primarily in the Essay

A Big Responsibility During Our Development Primarily in the Intrauterine Life - Essay Example When a woman becomes pregnant it is of normal concern for her if she will become a good mother to her child. It particularly occurs to a woman being pregnant for the first time. There will be some queries of how she will handle her newborn. Stoppard states that â€Å" the most common anxiety is simply fear of parenthood – of whether you will be a good parent and of whether you can cope with bringing up a child, and on top of this will be the worry about your child’s happiness if you don’t make a good job of it† (11). Some men, on the other hand, also admit it is not easy to become a father. Men â€Å"have difficulty bonding with an infant until as late as three months after the birth, when the child can smile or coo and interact more directly with them. Parent’s ability to reach out can be strengthened by allowing them to touch and spend time with the new child in the first few hours of life† (Pillitteri 581). Parenting starts right after the baby is born. They should allocate enough time especially now that they have a new member of the family. Furthermore, there will be a lot of lifestyle changes that will happen in their life. Gone were those expensive holidays and the groovy night-outs and replaced with the time for the baby giving all the necessities needed. â€Å"It will almost be a complete reversal of lifestyle, and at first it may not be easy to accept† (Stoppard 13). Nothing can best describe how parents outlive the hardships they have encountered just to provide enough attention to their child. In other words, being a parent is a sacrificial responsibility not only for the benefit of his/her child but, including the whole family as well.

Review of IT Project Management Practices in the UAE

Review of IT Project Management Practices in the UAE A Study on the UAE IT Industry ABSTRACT I keep six honest serving men, (They taught me all I know); Their names are What and Why and When And How and Where and Who. -Rudyard Kipling This report presents findings of a research project that explored the distinct approaches of UAE-based IT organisations in following different project management practices to deal with their IT projects. Not too much of project management data on UAE IT industry exists today. Therefore it was decided to do a study on it. The research findings are based on a questionnaire survey conducted between July and August 2008 among 200 organisations of UAE. A total of 48 valid responses were received, representing an overall response rate of 24%. The study achieved a primary aim of explanatory and constructivist research, which is to enhance knowledge and understanding of a phenomenon. An emergent-based, general systems approach was adopted for the whole project. General System theory is a holistic and analytical approach to solving complex problems. It recognizes relativity of perception and is a general science of wholeness (Bertalanffy, 1968). The theory was used to break down the whole research technique into various components yet still maintaining the integrity of the research objective. A key finding was the high amount of failure risks that came along with IT projects. In addition, it was found that project management added a lot of value to IT projects and if carried out efficiently it could help avoid the failure risks. A surprise discovery was that although most of the organisations valued project management a lot, they did not have a dedicated Project Management Office (PMO) in place. Further, it was found out that high involvement of external organisations could be one of the factors responsible for the high amount of risks involved with IT projects. It was observed that 25% of the project managers were not aware of the project management maturity levels of their organisations. Project managers seemed to have tough times managing time, cost and risk in IT projects. Also, most of the organisations did not believe in recording the lessons learned and hence knowledge was not transferred to the new projects from the previous ones. Strong indicators probably exist to warrant further research into investigating the basic reasons behind a high percentage of failed IT projects. Further research into the relationship between project management methodology and project success seems warranted on behalf of the indicators provided by the respondents. INTRODUCTION I have not failed. Ive just found 10,000 ways that wont work. -Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) If your project doesnt work, look for the part that you didnt think was important   Arthur Bloch The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. -Albert Einstein (1879-1955) The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency. -Bill Gates The Roman bridges of antiquity were very inefficient structures. By modern standards, they used too much stone, and as a result, far too much labor to build. Over the years we have learned to build bridges more efficiently, using fewer materials and less labor to perform the same task. -Tom Clancy (The Sum of All Fears) In 1986, Alfred Spector, president of Transarc Corporation, stated that bridge building could be compared to software development. He added, The premise: Bridges are usually built on-time, on-budget, and do not collapse. On the other hand, software never comes in on-budget or on-time. Also, it always breaks down. One of the biggest reasons why bridges come in on-time, on-budget and do not collapse is because their designs are extremely detailed. Once the designing phase is over, it is then frozen and the contractor has very little flexibility in changing the specifications. However, in todays fast moving business environment, having a frozen design in place means no changes in the business practices. Therefore efforts must be made to use a more flexible model. This could be and has been used as an explanation for development failure. But beside 3,000 years of experience, there is another difference between software failures and bridge collapses. When a bridge collapses, investigation is carried out and a report is written on the cause of the failure. It is not so in the IT industry where failures are covered up, ignored, and/or rationalized. As a result, the same mistakes are repeated over and over again. According to the Standish Group report, more than $250 billion is spent every year on IT application development of approximately 175,000 projects in the United States. The average cost of a development project for a small company is $434,000; for a medium company, it is $1,331,000; and for a large company, it is $2,322,000. A great number of these projects will fail. IT projects have always known to be in chaos. The research showed that a staggering 31.1% of projects got canceled before they ever got completed. Further results indicated that 52.7% of projects had cost 189% of their original estimates. The cost of these failures and overruns were just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The lost opportunity costs were not measurable, but could easily be in trillions of dollars. The extent of this problem can be realized by looking at example of the City of Denver. The failure to produce reliable software to handle luggage at the new Denver airport was costing the city $1.1 million per day. Based on this research, in 1995 American companies and government agencies spent $81 billion for canceled software projects. These same organisations paid an additional $59 billion for software projects that were completed, but had exceed their original time estimates. Risk is always a factor when pushing the technology envelope, but many of these projects were as ordinary as a driving license database, a new accounting package, or an order entry system. On the success side, the average was only 16.2% for software projects that were completed on-time and on-budget. In the larger companies, the news was even worse: only 9% of their projects came in on-time and on-budget. And, even when these projects were completed, many were no more than a mere shadow of their original specification requirements. Projects completed by the largest American companies had only approximately 42% of the originally-proposed features and functions which goes to show that these projects lacked scope management. Smaller companies fared much better in this aspect. 78.4% of their software projects got deployed with at least 74.2% of their original features and functions. 48% of the IT executives in the research sample felt that there were more failures during that period than those five years ago. But it was also observed that over 50% felt that there were fewer or the same number of failures at that point of time than there were five and ten years ago. So the Standish Group reported an improvement in IT project success rates and claimed that it was due to an increased ability to know when to cancel failing projects. Standish Group Chairman Jim Johnson commented: The real improvement that I saw was in our ability to-in the worlds of Thomas Edison-know when to stop beating a dead horseEdisons key to success was that he failed fairly often; but as he said, he could recognize a dead horse before it started to smellIn information technology we ride dead horses-failing projects-a long time before we give up. But what we are seeing now is that we are able to get off them; able to reduce cost overrun and time overrun. Thats where the major impact came on the success rate. (Cabanis, 1998) There is a new or renewed interest in project management today as the number of projects continues to grow and their complexity continues to rise. As already observed, the success rate of IT projects has more than doubled since 1995, but still only about a third are successful in meeting scope, cost, and time goals. More and more projects and organisations can succeed consistently by adopting a more disciplined approach to managing projects. Research Objectives This study provides first-hand information on success and failure rates of IT projects in the UAE and on distinct approaches and methodologies followed by all different kinds of IT organisations in governing IT projects. It also aims to survey attitudes of organisations towards distinct project management processes like cost management, time management, risk management, etc. and establish a future direction for organisations so that they realize the value of the most significant process groups of project management and do not neglect them in the forthcoming projects. It could be useful in the following four areas : (1) it can be helpful for relevant government departments in preparing strategies for project management in the IT industry; (2) it can promote the awareness of commercial benefits of project management among managers in IT companies of UAE and encourage them to seriously consider project management in their businesses; (3) it can increase the competence and confidence in applying project management by local companies by providing management guidance on the selection and development of project management methodologies; and (4) it can be beneficial to the educational institutions of UAE for teaching and conducting further research on information technology project management. According to the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS), the IT industry consists of three primary sub-sectors : firstly, Technology Software Services, including companies that primarily develop software in various fields such as the Internet, applications, systems, databases management and/or home entertainment, and companies that provide information technology consulting and services, as well as data processing and outsourced services; secondly Technology Hardware Equipment, including manufacturers and distributors of communications equipment, computers and peripherals, electronic equipment and related instruments; and thirdly, Semiconductors Semiconductor Equipment Manufacturers. This particular report is confined to the use of project management among the areas of Technology Software Services and Technology Hardware Equipment only. The research was not conducted on the Semiconductors Semiconductor Equipment Manufacturers in UAE. Contents of this Report Chapter Two introduces project management and its significance for any business sector. It then demonstrates the rapid growth in adoption of project management in IT projects. This is followed by a synopsis of the UAE market and the UAE IT industry. The chapter ends signifying the impact of project management on the UAE IT industry. Chapter Three expands on the significance of project management as viewed through academic literature. This outlines how project management is known to add value to IT projects and some characteristics observed by organisations that have gone through the process of formalizing project management (Center for Business Practices). Using past works of the last 20 years, it also highlights the most predominant factors responsible for high failures rates of IT projects. This is followed by views of authors on various project management process groups and methodologies. Having discussed not only the pros of project management but also the problems faced during the entire process, Chapter Four is concerned with the research methodology and detailed analysis of the survey conducted. Chapter Five brings out the key survey findings in detail and compares these with the literature surveyed in Chapter Two indicating the extent to which the survey findings break new ground. Chapter Six builds up on the key findings outlined here, their practical implications, and a look towards how this research could be developed. This includes a brief description of limitations of this study and of recommendations on how these limitations could be overcome in subsequent studies. BACKGROUND Project management is the most critical business skill and competency of today that forms the basic building block of a knowledge based company for businesses and professions in oil and gas, petroleum, petrochemicals, chemicals, metal and mining, infrastructures, buildings, IT, Healthcare, Finance, Telecoms, Manufacturing, and many more services and banking industries. Project management was declared to be the best career on earth by the Fortune magazine. Recently, PMI reported that nowadays more and more organisations and government agencies are adopting and making project management a strategic competency. Information systems (IS) and information technologies (IT) are the fastest growing industries in developed and most of the developing countries. Huge amounts of money are still being invested in these industries (Abdel-Hamid Madnick, 1990). Every organisation wants to gain a competitive advantage, maintain it and lead from the front. Hence, there is a corresponding pressure to increase productivity. To maintain a competitive edge in todays fast-changing world, the success of an organisation depends on effectively developing and adopting information systems. According to Zells (1994) and other studies, approximately 85% of IT projects under-taken in the western countries are at the lowest level of capability maturity model (CMM). The challenges at this level are to have project planning, project management, configuration management, and quality assurance in place and have them working effectively. To improve project delivery performance, a number of organisations are adopting project management approaches and setting up project management offices (Barnes, 1991; Butterfield Edwards, 1994; King, 1995; Munns Bjeirmi, 1996; Raz, 1993; Redmond, 1991). Current literature on IT projects shows that most of the IT problems are not technical, they are of management, organisational or behavioral nature. (Johnston, 1995; Martin, 1994; Whitten, 1995). Fishers (1991) survey of technology firms showed that if project management improved, time and cost could be reduced by more than 25% and profits would increase by more than 5%. This has since been validated by using different project management methodologies and analyzing the extent to which these practices can be adopted, based on internal benchmarking by the companies involved in the field trials. The UAE Market the UAE IT Industry UAE has realised the significance of project management in the IT due to its rapid growth in the IT industry. As expected by Business Monitor International (BMI), the total size of the UAE IT market is to increase from around US$3.4bn in 2007 to close to US$4bn in 2012. With IT a key element of the Emirates development, a number of major local and federal government initiatives together with a strong and diversifying economy should ensure continued growth over the forecast period. Meanwhile, the oil-led boom across the Middle East will continue to be a boost to IT and infrastructure spending in the UAE. (Marketresearch.com, 2007) As per the BMI report, the federal government is also encouraging the development of smart cities, another regional trend. In 2007 the government announced that its target of getting 90% of businesses online by the end of the year was likely to be met. Services are becoming an increasingly significant component of many deployment contracts, as evidenced by recent projects by leading UAE corporations such as Emirates Airlines and the local telecom provider Etisalat. Investment is expected to be strongest in the government, financial, and oil and gas verticals. Other key non-oil sectors driving the economy include banking and finance, which are likely to be the single largest industry vertical in terms of IT investments over the forecast period. Real estate has also experienced a massive investment boom in the past five years, and this is expected to continue and grow, with the National Bank of Dubai projecting at least US$50bn in outlays in property development in the emirate by 2010. (Mindbranch.com, 2007) Industry Developments The BMI report states that the UAE federal governments recently announced UAE Strategic Plan calls for a strengthening of e-government programmes. The focus of the programme is to support implementation of programmes at federal government level. The federal government ministries have often lagged behind progress by the leading local governments, particularly Dubai. As such, Dubai government, which has had many of its departments and services online for some time, will lend expertise to the project. However, local government continues to dominate and accounts for around 20% of total IT Services spending. Dubai Municipality announced that it expects to spend anything between US$1.6mn and US$2.2mn per year over the next few years implementing its plan of getting 90% of government services online. It is likely the organisation will spend at least US$2.8mn annually on e-government initiatives. Abu Dhabi is accelerating its efforts to emulate Dubai, led by the Abu Dhabi Systems and Information Committee (ADSEIC), a body created in 2005 to develop and drive initiatives to transform government services in the Emirate. (Marketresearch.com, 2007) From the above trend, it can be observed that the number of IT jobs in UAE has gone up by 5000 percent since 2005. This goes to show how rapidly the UAE IT Industry has grown in the past three years and that it is still going strong. Competitive Landscape According to BMI, with government accounting for as much as 40% of IT spending, and e-government programmes alone around half that, vendors are continuing to find opportunities. Recently the Ministry of Development for the Government sector signed a strategic agreement with Microsoft Gulf whereby Microsoft will support federal e-government programmes with training and technical support. Under the agreement Ministries will also use legal Microsoft software. Meanwhile, the leading body for Abu Dhabis e-government programme, the Abu Dhabi Systems and Information Committee (ADSIC) signed an Enterprise Licence Agreement with Oracle. The agreement establishes Oracle as a key technology partner and provides for the Abu Dhabi Government to buy Oracle software solutions and support and maintenance services. The continuing growth in PC sales in 2007 in the UAE did not significantly alter the competitive landscape of a market which accounts for approximately 40% of the overall regional PC sales. Today the market remains dominated by international players such as Acer, Dell and HP with the top five brands accounting for more than 50% of the market. Meanwhile, the share held by local assemblers continues to dwindle, due in part to their relative weakness in the growth area of notebooks. However, local assemblers hope that their future will be brighter since UAE-based firms such as Sky Electronics have already been fighting back. (Mindbranch.com, 2007) Hardware The UAE hardware market is estimated at about US$1.4bn in 2007, which shows a 12% growth from US$1.2bn in 2006, and is one of the largest in the region. Much of the growth is due to small and medium enterprise spending, particular on mobile computers, which are expected to account for around 60% of sales over the forecast period. Notebooks are also proving to be popular with the consumer segment, particularly with the introduction of features such as integrated wi-fi, webcam and entertainment features such as HD DVD. Sales of PC notebooks and accessories have been expected to reach more than US$1bn by the end of 2008, while the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for the 2007 to 2012 period as a whole is expected to be in the region of 8%. Current and future investments in education and e-government, fuelled by new oil revenues, will lead to desktop rollouts in schools, colleges and government offices across the Emirates. (Marketresearch.com, 2007) Software BMI estimates that the UAEs software spending will pass US$400mn in 2008, representing around 17% of the IT expenditure. CAGR for spending on packaged software is put at 10% over the 2007 to 2012 period, with the UAE being of the regions fastest-growing ERP markets, as more businesses realise the benefits of efficient management of resources within their internal processes. The UAE also has one of the regions lowest software piracy rates at just 35% according to the Business Software Association (BSA), which has praised the UAE government and Ministry of Economy for its efforts in promoting anti-piracy initiatives. The government has combated illegal software in a number of ways, both through anti-piracy legislation and enforcement measures. Customer relationship management (CRM) will be one of the growth areas with fewer than 2% of small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Middle East region having a specialised CRM application in place. BMI predicts plenty of room for growth in the forecast period as numerous untapped sub-sectors still exist. Key verticals include process manufacturing (mainly oil and gas), followed by the financial services industry. Two other key segments are the telecom and the public sectors. During the next five years high-growth categories are set to include CRM, enterprise resource planning (ERP) business intelligence, s torage and security products. (Mindbranch.com, 2007) IT Services BMI expects that the IT Services market will reach a value of more than US$1,003mn by 2012, with outsourcing accounting for an increasingly large portion of up to 25%. IT services revenues compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the 2006 to 2012 period is expected to be 10%, encouraging vendors to shift their focus away from simply shifting boxes. Services are becoming an increasingly significant component of many deployment contracts, as evidenced by recent projects by leading UAE corporations such as Emirates Airlines and Etisalat. Outsourcing is also predicted to be a growing trend, with recent landmark outsourcing deals awarded by entities such as the Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority (ADWEA)and civil service departments. Global vendors such as IBM Global Services are competing for its business with local companies such as Injazat Data Systems, which with its good government connections has grown to be a major force in the market, reporting BPO deals with 13 leading priva te and public organisations. (Marketresearch.com, 2007) E-Readiness The recent Global Information Technology report sponsored by Cisco noted the UAEs success in creating a good ICT environment by placing it top of the rankings for 122 countries. The survey, which looks at the preference of countries to leverage the opportunities offered by ICT for development and increased competitiveness, praised the UAEs good regulatory environment, and clear government leadership in leveraging IT and promoting its use. According to the report, ICT has empowered individuals and revolutionised the business and economic landscape while fostering social networks and companies. Overall internet penetration in the UAE was estimated at close to 40% by the end of 2006, far above the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) average, reflecting the UAEs status as one of the most advanced IT countries in the middle-east. Broadband penetration is around 10% and is expected to rise 60% over the forecast period. In terms of e-government development, additional new phases to be introduced in the project last year (as mentioned in the Industry Developments section) include e-portal, e-project, the HR Management System (HRMS) and the Financial Management Integration System (FMIS) projects. The e-government High Committee has expressed satisfaction with the progress made on implementation of the e-government initiative to date. (Mindbranch.com, 2007) Impact of Project Management on the UAE IT Industry Project management has already had a significant impact on IT organisations in UAE and much more dramatic effects are anticipated for the years to come. Greater attention needs to be paid to the interaction of information technology with business methods, work patterns, employees and organisational culture. It was observed that not too much of research work has been carried out on project management in the IT industry of UAE and this is the precise reason why this study was conducted on the UAE market. LITERATURE REVIEW If we built houses the way we build software, the first woodpecker to come along would destroy civilization. John J. Hamre, U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Phillips (2004) states that IT project management could be as as exciting as a white water rafting excursion or as painful as a root canal. In addition, Anthes (2008) points out that IT project management has always earned a high ranking on the annual list of IT managers worries, but in the first-half of the 2008 Vital Signs survey, it took the No. 1 spot. In other words, the process is all about efficiently handling the complexities that come along with IT projects, right from the word go. The study aims to investigate on how difficult it is for organisations to manage IT projects efficiently. Richardson et al. (2006) claims that project failure is based not only on economic criteria but also on requirements, cost and time parameters. He builds up his reasoning by citing examples of the following project surveys : The Robbins-Gioia Survey (2001) The Conference Board Survey (2001) The KPMG Canada Survey (1997) The Chaos Report (1995) According to IT Cortex (2004), the results of these surveys showed that most of the organisations suffered from high project failure rates and that they heavily exceeded the time and budget constraints. Similarly, Schwalbe (2007) reports that IT projects come along with high failure risks. He defends his thoughts with a study which was conducted by the Standish Group (CHAOS) in 1995. In the survey it was found that only 16.2% of IT projects were successful and over 31% were cancelled before completion, costing over US$81 billion in the US alone. However, when the CHAOS study was conducted again in 2001, the results showed improvements in all areas but still only 28% of IT projects succeeded. The 2001 Standish Group report findings as compared to those of the 1995 report were as follows : Time overruns significantly decreased from 222% to 163% Cost overruns were down from 189% to 145% Required features and functions were up from 61% to 67% Successful IT projects rose from to 16% to 28% One of the objectives of this report is to carry out similar work on finding the failure rates of IT projects but on the UAE market, one on which not much research has been carried out till date. In many previous studies, project failures due to time delay, cost overrun, and abandonment of IT projects have been widely reported (Bailey, 1996; Gibbs, 1994; Lucas, 1995; Martin, 1994; Ward, 1994). In other industries, causes of project failures are investigated and reports written, but in the IT industry their causes are either covered up or ignored. As a consequence, the IT industry keeps repeating the same mistakes over and over again (Johnston, 1995). This report takes this a step further by observing what percentage of IT organisations in UAE believe in maintaining project reports and lessons learned logs for their subsequent projects. In many previous studies, the most commonly reported causes of IT project failure were traced out. They were as follows (based on a content analysis of the cited literature): Misunderstood requirements (business, technical, and social) (King, 1995; Lane, Palko, Cronan, 1994; Lavence, 1996); Optimistic schedules and budgets (Martin, 1994); Inadequate risk assessment and management (Johnston, 1995); Inconsistent standards and lack of training in project management (Jones, 1994; OConner Reinsborough, 1992; Phan, Vogel, Nunamaker, 1995); Management of resources (people more than hardware and technology) (Johnston, 1995; Martin, 1994; Ward, 1994); Unclear charter for a project (Lavence, 1996); Lack of communication (Demery, 1995; Gioia, 1996; Hartman, 2000; Walsh Kanter, 1988). On the other hand, Karten studies reasons for failure by compiling a list of ten ways that can guarantee project failure : Abbreviate the planning process Dont ask what if? Minimize customer involvement Select team members by seeing who is available regardless of skill Work people long and hard Dont inform management of problems Allow changes at any point Discourage questions from team members Dont give customers progress reports Dont compare project progress with project estimates However, this survey goes a bit deeper and also explores the role of project management methodologies and process groups in helping deliver successful projects. The project management frameworks which are rapidly gaining recognition are ITIL, PMBOK and PRINCE2 (Phillips, 2004). Although Leuenberger (2007) considers ITIL to be one of the worlds best ways to align IT with business objectives, he also claims that his research conducted through IDC shows points out that 60% of mid-sized businesses in Australia either are unaware of, or have no plans to implement ITIL and also that on a global scale, only 20% of the mid-market companies are currently using ITIL. In contrast to ITIL, PMI claims that it has grown to become the most widely recognized and the only global certification for the project management profession with more than 260,000 members in over 171 countries. The survey aims to study the UAE IT industry and clarify such claims made by authors and institutes so that the growth of IT project governance methodologies can in an IT industry of a booming economy can be analyzed. Bainey (2004) states that so many IT projects tend to go over budget, run behind schedule, and deliver products or services poor in quality due to the negligence of integration, consistency and standardization. The report builds up on this by going ahead and investigating the significance of integration management for project managers. Harris (2005) asserts that it is high time that the PMO function is placed in its proper organisational alignment. He believes that not only can it combine the corporate planning process with effective delivery of products and services but also provide external clients with traditional client services for the enterprise as a whole or for respective enterprise business unit Review of IT Project Management Practices in the UAE Review of IT Project Management Practices in the UAE A Study on the UAE IT Industry ABSTRACT I keep six honest serving men, (They taught me all I know); Their names are What and Why and When And How and Where and Who. -Rudyard Kipling This report presents findings of a research project that explored the distinct approaches of UAE-based IT organisations in following different project management practices to deal with their IT projects. Not too much of project management data on UAE IT industry exists today. Therefore it was decided to do a study on it. The research findings are based on a questionnaire survey conducted between July and August 2008 among 200 organisations of UAE. A total of 48 valid responses were received, representing an overall response rate of 24%. The study achieved a primary aim of explanatory and constructivist research, which is to enhance knowledge and understanding of a phenomenon. An emergent-based, general systems approach was adopted for the whole project. General System theory is a holistic and analytical approach to solving complex problems. It recognizes relativity of perception and is a general science of wholeness (Bertalanffy, 1968). The theory was used to break down the whole research technique into various components yet still maintaining the integrity of the research objective. A key finding was the high amount of failure risks that came along with IT projects. In addition, it was found that project management added a lot of value to IT projects and if carried out efficiently it could help avoid the failure risks. A surprise discovery was that although most of the organisations valued project management a lot, they did not have a dedicated Project Management Office (PMO) in place. Further, it was found out that high involvement of external organisations could be one of the factors responsible for the high amount of risks involved with IT projects. It was observed that 25% of the project managers were not aware of the project management maturity levels of their organisations. Project managers seemed to have tough times managing time, cost and risk in IT projects. Also, most of the organisations did not believe in recording the lessons learned and hence knowledge was not transferred to the new projects from the previous ones. Strong indicators probably exist to warrant further research into investigating the basic reasons behind a high percentage of failed IT projects. Further research into the relationship between project management methodology and project success seems warranted on behalf of the indicators provided by the respondents. INTRODUCTION I have not failed. Ive just found 10,000 ways that wont work. -Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) If your project doesnt work, look for the part that you didnt think was important   Arthur Bloch The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. -Albert Einstein (1879-1955) The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency. -Bill Gates The Roman bridges of antiquity were very inefficient structures. By modern standards, they used too much stone, and as a result, far too much labor to build. Over the years we have learned to build bridges more efficiently, using fewer materials and less labor to perform the same task. -Tom Clancy (The Sum of All Fears) In 1986, Alfred Spector, president of Transarc Corporation, stated that bridge building could be compared to software development. He added, The premise: Bridges are usually built on-time, on-budget, and do not collapse. On the other hand, software never comes in on-budget or on-time. Also, it always breaks down. One of the biggest reasons why bridges come in on-time, on-budget and do not collapse is because their designs are extremely detailed. Once the designing phase is over, it is then frozen and the contractor has very little flexibility in changing the specifications. However, in todays fast moving business environment, having a frozen design in place means no changes in the business practices. Therefore efforts must be made to use a more flexible model. This could be and has been used as an explanation for development failure. But beside 3,000 years of experience, there is another difference between software failures and bridge collapses. When a bridge collapses, investigation is carried out and a report is written on the cause of the failure. It is not so in the IT industry where failures are covered up, ignored, and/or rationalized. As a result, the same mistakes are repeated over and over again. According to the Standish Group report, more than $250 billion is spent every year on IT application development of approximately 175,000 projects in the United States. The average cost of a development project for a small company is $434,000; for a medium company, it is $1,331,000; and for a large company, it is $2,322,000. A great number of these projects will fail. IT projects have always known to be in chaos. The research showed that a staggering 31.1% of projects got canceled before they ever got completed. Further results indicated that 52.7% of projects had cost 189% of their original estimates. The cost of these failures and overruns were just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The lost opportunity costs were not measurable, but could easily be in trillions of dollars. The extent of this problem can be realized by looking at example of the City of Denver. The failure to produce reliable software to handle luggage at the new Denver airport was costing the city $1.1 million per day. Based on this research, in 1995 American companies and government agencies spent $81 billion for canceled software projects. These same organisations paid an additional $59 billion for software projects that were completed, but had exceed their original time estimates. Risk is always a factor when pushing the technology envelope, but many of these projects were as ordinary as a driving license database, a new accounting package, or an order entry system. On the success side, the average was only 16.2% for software projects that were completed on-time and on-budget. In the larger companies, the news was even worse: only 9% of their projects came in on-time and on-budget. And, even when these projects were completed, many were no more than a mere shadow of their original specification requirements. Projects completed by the largest American companies had only approximately 42% of the originally-proposed features and functions which goes to show that these projects lacked scope management. Smaller companies fared much better in this aspect. 78.4% of their software projects got deployed with at least 74.2% of their original features and functions. 48% of the IT executives in the research sample felt that there were more failures during that period than those five years ago. But it was also observed that over 50% felt that there were fewer or the same number of failures at that point of time than there were five and ten years ago. So the Standish Group reported an improvement in IT project success rates and claimed that it was due to an increased ability to know when to cancel failing projects. Standish Group Chairman Jim Johnson commented: The real improvement that I saw was in our ability to-in the worlds of Thomas Edison-know when to stop beating a dead horseEdisons key to success was that he failed fairly often; but as he said, he could recognize a dead horse before it started to smellIn information technology we ride dead horses-failing projects-a long time before we give up. But what we are seeing now is that we are able to get off them; able to reduce cost overrun and time overrun. Thats where the major impact came on the success rate. (Cabanis, 1998) There is a new or renewed interest in project management today as the number of projects continues to grow and their complexity continues to rise. As already observed, the success rate of IT projects has more than doubled since 1995, but still only about a third are successful in meeting scope, cost, and time goals. More and more projects and organisations can succeed consistently by adopting a more disciplined approach to managing projects. Research Objectives This study provides first-hand information on success and failure rates of IT projects in the UAE and on distinct approaches and methodologies followed by all different kinds of IT organisations in governing IT projects. It also aims to survey attitudes of organisations towards distinct project management processes like cost management, time management, risk management, etc. and establish a future direction for organisations so that they realize the value of the most significant process groups of project management and do not neglect them in the forthcoming projects. It could be useful in the following four areas : (1) it can be helpful for relevant government departments in preparing strategies for project management in the IT industry; (2) it can promote the awareness of commercial benefits of project management among managers in IT companies of UAE and encourage them to seriously consider project management in their businesses; (3) it can increase the competence and confidence in applying project management by local companies by providing management guidance on the selection and development of project management methodologies; and (4) it can be beneficial to the educational institutions of UAE for teaching and conducting further research on information technology project management. According to the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS), the IT industry consists of three primary sub-sectors : firstly, Technology Software Services, including companies that primarily develop software in various fields such as the Internet, applications, systems, databases management and/or home entertainment, and companies that provide information technology consulting and services, as well as data processing and outsourced services; secondly Technology Hardware Equipment, including manufacturers and distributors of communications equipment, computers and peripherals, electronic equipment and related instruments; and thirdly, Semiconductors Semiconductor Equipment Manufacturers. This particular report is confined to the use of project management among the areas of Technology Software Services and Technology Hardware Equipment only. The research was not conducted on the Semiconductors Semiconductor Equipment Manufacturers in UAE. Contents of this Report Chapter Two introduces project management and its significance for any business sector. It then demonstrates the rapid growth in adoption of project management in IT projects. This is followed by a synopsis of the UAE market and the UAE IT industry. The chapter ends signifying the impact of project management on the UAE IT industry. Chapter Three expands on the significance of project management as viewed through academic literature. This outlines how project management is known to add value to IT projects and some characteristics observed by organisations that have gone through the process of formalizing project management (Center for Business Practices). Using past works of the last 20 years, it also highlights the most predominant factors responsible for high failures rates of IT projects. This is followed by views of authors on various project management process groups and methodologies. Having discussed not only the pros of project management but also the problems faced during the entire process, Chapter Four is concerned with the research methodology and detailed analysis of the survey conducted. Chapter Five brings out the key survey findings in detail and compares these with the literature surveyed in Chapter Two indicating the extent to which the survey findings break new ground. Chapter Six builds up on the key findings outlined here, their practical implications, and a look towards how this research could be developed. This includes a brief description of limitations of this study and of recommendations on how these limitations could be overcome in subsequent studies. BACKGROUND Project management is the most critical business skill and competency of today that forms the basic building block of a knowledge based company for businesses and professions in oil and gas, petroleum, petrochemicals, chemicals, metal and mining, infrastructures, buildings, IT, Healthcare, Finance, Telecoms, Manufacturing, and many more services and banking industries. Project management was declared to be the best career on earth by the Fortune magazine. Recently, PMI reported that nowadays more and more organisations and government agencies are adopting and making project management a strategic competency. Information systems (IS) and information technologies (IT) are the fastest growing industries in developed and most of the developing countries. Huge amounts of money are still being invested in these industries (Abdel-Hamid Madnick, 1990). Every organisation wants to gain a competitive advantage, maintain it and lead from the front. Hence, there is a corresponding pressure to increase productivity. To maintain a competitive edge in todays fast-changing world, the success of an organisation depends on effectively developing and adopting information systems. According to Zells (1994) and other studies, approximately 85% of IT projects under-taken in the western countries are at the lowest level of capability maturity model (CMM). The challenges at this level are to have project planning, project management, configuration management, and quality assurance in place and have them working effectively. To improve project delivery performance, a number of organisations are adopting project management approaches and setting up project management offices (Barnes, 1991; Butterfield Edwards, 1994; King, 1995; Munns Bjeirmi, 1996; Raz, 1993; Redmond, 1991). Current literature on IT projects shows that most of the IT problems are not technical, they are of management, organisational or behavioral nature. (Johnston, 1995; Martin, 1994; Whitten, 1995). Fishers (1991) survey of technology firms showed that if project management improved, time and cost could be reduced by more than 25% and profits would increase by more than 5%. This has since been validated by using different project management methodologies and analyzing the extent to which these practices can be adopted, based on internal benchmarking by the companies involved in the field trials. The UAE Market the UAE IT Industry UAE has realised the significance of project management in the IT due to its rapid growth in the IT industry. As expected by Business Monitor International (BMI), the total size of the UAE IT market is to increase from around US$3.4bn in 2007 to close to US$4bn in 2012. With IT a key element of the Emirates development, a number of major local and federal government initiatives together with a strong and diversifying economy should ensure continued growth over the forecast period. Meanwhile, the oil-led boom across the Middle East will continue to be a boost to IT and infrastructure spending in the UAE. (Marketresearch.com, 2007) As per the BMI report, the federal government is also encouraging the development of smart cities, another regional trend. In 2007 the government announced that its target of getting 90% of businesses online by the end of the year was likely to be met. Services are becoming an increasingly significant component of many deployment contracts, as evidenced by recent projects by leading UAE corporations such as Emirates Airlines and the local telecom provider Etisalat. Investment is expected to be strongest in the government, financial, and oil and gas verticals. Other key non-oil sectors driving the economy include banking and finance, which are likely to be the single largest industry vertical in terms of IT investments over the forecast period. Real estate has also experienced a massive investment boom in the past five years, and this is expected to continue and grow, with the National Bank of Dubai projecting at least US$50bn in outlays in property development in the emirate by 2010. (Mindbranch.com, 2007) Industry Developments The BMI report states that the UAE federal governments recently announced UAE Strategic Plan calls for a strengthening of e-government programmes. The focus of the programme is to support implementation of programmes at federal government level. The federal government ministries have often lagged behind progress by the leading local governments, particularly Dubai. As such, Dubai government, which has had many of its departments and services online for some time, will lend expertise to the project. However, local government continues to dominate and accounts for around 20% of total IT Services spending. Dubai Municipality announced that it expects to spend anything between US$1.6mn and US$2.2mn per year over the next few years implementing its plan of getting 90% of government services online. It is likely the organisation will spend at least US$2.8mn annually on e-government initiatives. Abu Dhabi is accelerating its efforts to emulate Dubai, led by the Abu Dhabi Systems and Information Committee (ADSEIC), a body created in 2005 to develop and drive initiatives to transform government services in the Emirate. (Marketresearch.com, 2007) From the above trend, it can be observed that the number of IT jobs in UAE has gone up by 5000 percent since 2005. This goes to show how rapidly the UAE IT Industry has grown in the past three years and that it is still going strong. Competitive Landscape According to BMI, with government accounting for as much as 40% of IT spending, and e-government programmes alone around half that, vendors are continuing to find opportunities. Recently the Ministry of Development for the Government sector signed a strategic agreement with Microsoft Gulf whereby Microsoft will support federal e-government programmes with training and technical support. Under the agreement Ministries will also use legal Microsoft software. Meanwhile, the leading body for Abu Dhabis e-government programme, the Abu Dhabi Systems and Information Committee (ADSIC) signed an Enterprise Licence Agreement with Oracle. The agreement establishes Oracle as a key technology partner and provides for the Abu Dhabi Government to buy Oracle software solutions and support and maintenance services. The continuing growth in PC sales in 2007 in the UAE did not significantly alter the competitive landscape of a market which accounts for approximately 40% of the overall regional PC sales. Today the market remains dominated by international players such as Acer, Dell and HP with the top five brands accounting for more than 50% of the market. Meanwhile, the share held by local assemblers continues to dwindle, due in part to their relative weakness in the growth area of notebooks. However, local assemblers hope that their future will be brighter since UAE-based firms such as Sky Electronics have already been fighting back. (Mindbranch.com, 2007) Hardware The UAE hardware market is estimated at about US$1.4bn in 2007, which shows a 12% growth from US$1.2bn in 2006, and is one of the largest in the region. Much of the growth is due to small and medium enterprise spending, particular on mobile computers, which are expected to account for around 60% of sales over the forecast period. Notebooks are also proving to be popular with the consumer segment, particularly with the introduction of features such as integrated wi-fi, webcam and entertainment features such as HD DVD. Sales of PC notebooks and accessories have been expected to reach more than US$1bn by the end of 2008, while the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for the 2007 to 2012 period as a whole is expected to be in the region of 8%. Current and future investments in education and e-government, fuelled by new oil revenues, will lead to desktop rollouts in schools, colleges and government offices across the Emirates. (Marketresearch.com, 2007) Software BMI estimates that the UAEs software spending will pass US$400mn in 2008, representing around 17% of the IT expenditure. CAGR for spending on packaged software is put at 10% over the 2007 to 2012 period, with the UAE being of the regions fastest-growing ERP markets, as more businesses realise the benefits of efficient management of resources within their internal processes. The UAE also has one of the regions lowest software piracy rates at just 35% according to the Business Software Association (BSA), which has praised the UAE government and Ministry of Economy for its efforts in promoting anti-piracy initiatives. The government has combated illegal software in a number of ways, both through anti-piracy legislation and enforcement measures. Customer relationship management (CRM) will be one of the growth areas with fewer than 2% of small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Middle East region having a specialised CRM application in place. BMI predicts plenty of room for growth in the forecast period as numerous untapped sub-sectors still exist. Key verticals include process manufacturing (mainly oil and gas), followed by the financial services industry. Two other key segments are the telecom and the public sectors. During the next five years high-growth categories are set to include CRM, enterprise resource planning (ERP) business intelligence, s torage and security products. (Mindbranch.com, 2007) IT Services BMI expects that the IT Services market will reach a value of more than US$1,003mn by 2012, with outsourcing accounting for an increasingly large portion of up to 25%. IT services revenues compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the 2006 to 2012 period is expected to be 10%, encouraging vendors to shift their focus away from simply shifting boxes. Services are becoming an increasingly significant component of many deployment contracts, as evidenced by recent projects by leading UAE corporations such as Emirates Airlines and Etisalat. Outsourcing is also predicted to be a growing trend, with recent landmark outsourcing deals awarded by entities such as the Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority (ADWEA)and civil service departments. Global vendors such as IBM Global Services are competing for its business with local companies such as Injazat Data Systems, which with its good government connections has grown to be a major force in the market, reporting BPO deals with 13 leading priva te and public organisations. (Marketresearch.com, 2007) E-Readiness The recent Global Information Technology report sponsored by Cisco noted the UAEs success in creating a good ICT environment by placing it top of the rankings for 122 countries. The survey, which looks at the preference of countries to leverage the opportunities offered by ICT for development and increased competitiveness, praised the UAEs good regulatory environment, and clear government leadership in leveraging IT and promoting its use. According to the report, ICT has empowered individuals and revolutionised the business and economic landscape while fostering social networks and companies. Overall internet penetration in the UAE was estimated at close to 40% by the end of 2006, far above the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) average, reflecting the UAEs status as one of the most advanced IT countries in the middle-east. Broadband penetration is around 10% and is expected to rise 60% over the forecast period. In terms of e-government development, additional new phases to be introduced in the project last year (as mentioned in the Industry Developments section) include e-portal, e-project, the HR Management System (HRMS) and the Financial Management Integration System (FMIS) projects. The e-government High Committee has expressed satisfaction with the progress made on implementation of the e-government initiative to date. (Mindbranch.com, 2007) Impact of Project Management on the UAE IT Industry Project management has already had a significant impact on IT organisations in UAE and much more dramatic effects are anticipated for the years to come. Greater attention needs to be paid to the interaction of information technology with business methods, work patterns, employees and organisational culture. It was observed that not too much of research work has been carried out on project management in the IT industry of UAE and this is the precise reason why this study was conducted on the UAE market. LITERATURE REVIEW If we built houses the way we build software, the first woodpecker to come along would destroy civilization. John J. Hamre, U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Phillips (2004) states that IT project management could be as as exciting as a white water rafting excursion or as painful as a root canal. In addition, Anthes (2008) points out that IT project management has always earned a high ranking on the annual list of IT managers worries, but in the first-half of the 2008 Vital Signs survey, it took the No. 1 spot. In other words, the process is all about efficiently handling the complexities that come along with IT projects, right from the word go. The study aims to investigate on how difficult it is for organisations to manage IT projects efficiently. Richardson et al. (2006) claims that project failure is based not only on economic criteria but also on requirements, cost and time parameters. He builds up his reasoning by citing examples of the following project surveys : The Robbins-Gioia Survey (2001) The Conference Board Survey (2001) The KPMG Canada Survey (1997) The Chaos Report (1995) According to IT Cortex (2004), the results of these surveys showed that most of the organisations suffered from high project failure rates and that they heavily exceeded the time and budget constraints. Similarly, Schwalbe (2007) reports that IT projects come along with high failure risks. He defends his thoughts with a study which was conducted by the Standish Group (CHAOS) in 1995. In the survey it was found that only 16.2% of IT projects were successful and over 31% were cancelled before completion, costing over US$81 billion in the US alone. However, when the CHAOS study was conducted again in 2001, the results showed improvements in all areas but still only 28% of IT projects succeeded. The 2001 Standish Group report findings as compared to those of the 1995 report were as follows : Time overruns significantly decreased from 222% to 163% Cost overruns were down from 189% to 145% Required features and functions were up from 61% to 67% Successful IT projects rose from to 16% to 28% One of the objectives of this report is to carry out similar work on finding the failure rates of IT projects but on the UAE market, one on which not much research has been carried out till date. In many previous studies, project failures due to time delay, cost overrun, and abandonment of IT projects have been widely reported (Bailey, 1996; Gibbs, 1994; Lucas, 1995; Martin, 1994; Ward, 1994). In other industries, causes of project failures are investigated and reports written, but in the IT industry their causes are either covered up or ignored. As a consequence, the IT industry keeps repeating the same mistakes over and over again (Johnston, 1995). This report takes this a step further by observing what percentage of IT organisations in UAE believe in maintaining project reports and lessons learned logs for their subsequent projects. In many previous studies, the most commonly reported causes of IT project failure were traced out. They were as follows (based on a content analysis of the cited literature): Misunderstood requirements (business, technical, and social) (King, 1995; Lane, Palko, Cronan, 1994; Lavence, 1996); Optimistic schedules and budgets (Martin, 1994); Inadequate risk assessment and management (Johnston, 1995); Inconsistent standards and lack of training in project management (Jones, 1994; OConner Reinsborough, 1992; Phan, Vogel, Nunamaker, 1995); Management of resources (people more than hardware and technology) (Johnston, 1995; Martin, 1994; Ward, 1994); Unclear charter for a project (Lavence, 1996); Lack of communication (Demery, 1995; Gioia, 1996; Hartman, 2000; Walsh Kanter, 1988). On the other hand, Karten studies reasons for failure by compiling a list of ten ways that can guarantee project failure : Abbreviate the planning process Dont ask what if? Minimize customer involvement Select team members by seeing who is available regardless of skill Work people long and hard Dont inform management of problems Allow changes at any point Discourage questions from team members Dont give customers progress reports Dont compare project progress with project estimates However, this survey goes a bit deeper and also explores the role of project management methodologies and process groups in helping deliver successful projects. The project management frameworks which are rapidly gaining recognition are ITIL, PMBOK and PRINCE2 (Phillips, 2004). Although Leuenberger (2007) considers ITIL to be one of the worlds best ways to align IT with business objectives, he also claims that his research conducted through IDC shows points out that 60% of mid-sized businesses in Australia either are unaware of, or have no plans to implement ITIL and also that on a global scale, only 20% of the mid-market companies are currently using ITIL. In contrast to ITIL, PMI claims that it has grown to become the most widely recognized and the only global certification for the project management profession with more than 260,000 members in over 171 countries. The survey aims to study the UAE IT industry and clarify such claims made by authors and institutes so that the growth of IT project governance methodologies can in an IT industry of a booming economy can be analyzed. Bainey (2004) states that so many IT projects tend to go over budget, run behind schedule, and deliver products or services poor in quality due to the negligence of integration, consistency and standardization. The report builds up on this by going ahead and investigating the significance of integration management for project managers. Harris (2005) asserts that it is high time that the PMO function is placed in its proper organisational alignment. He believes that not only can it combine the corporate planning process with effective delivery of products and services but also provide external clients with traditional client services for the enterprise as a whole or for respective enterprise business unit