Dynamic Systems Development Methodology

Dynamic Systems Development Methodology Dynamic Systems Development Methodology is a methodological analysis used by information system professionals to develop softwares projects which is originated from Rapid Application Development Methodology. Stapleton (1997) states that â€Å"DSDM describes project management, estimating, prototyping, time boxing, configuration management, testing, quality assurance, roles and responsibilities (of both users and IT staff), team structures, tool environments, risk management, building for maintainability, reuse and vendor/purchaser relationships all in RAD environment.† It is based on the nine principles and considered as one of the agile project management techniques that deliver the software systems on time and within the budget. The above methodology is applied to the Yojimbo Supplies Ltd in order to produce the customer-order system which covers the customer details, order details and stock control details. At present only the part of the company operations is computerised and the remaining is still done by the paper work ever since the company has started. After carrying out the brief analysis, the proposed system must be implemented with a centralised database over a local area network. The personal involved are Project Manager, Programmers, System analyst and facilitator. Below describes the project plan that involves phases, stages and tasks of DSDM in context with the case-study. Phases of DSDM: Feasibility Study Business Study Functional Model Iteration System Design and Build Iteration Implementation Feasibility Study:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It is about whether the proposed method can be applied or not and thorough research is carried out to find out the existing problems. Feasibility study has already been carried out for the Yojimbo Company with the interview transcripts provided which shows that there is no software which is integrated together and need to produce a system that is efficient to use. Business Study:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It is about acquiring a clear understanding of the business flow and how the processes are related to each other. It involves identifying the stakeholders and those who are involved in the project. There are two stages involved in this phase. Arranging JAD workshop It involves meetings with the stakeholders by making special arrangements for time and location. The activities involved in the JAD workshop are discussing the requirements with the Managing Director, Financial Director, Sales Manager and Warehouse Manager of the Yojimbo Supplies Ltd. Then the next activity involved is to analyse the requirements where the system boundaries and sub-systems are identified by the requirements identification to produce the final rich picture and CATWOE which is done by the system analyst. Yojimbo Supplies Ltd is divided into three sub-systems. They are Buying and importing, Stock and Delivery, and Selling and Marketing. The final activity is to produce a final project plan by identifying the resources and creating a timeframe. Produce a Business Study Report In this phase the first activity is to identify the business processes and to produce data flow diagram which involves context diagram, document flow diagram, physical and logical diagram and finally producing the entity relationship model that is implemented in the logical design of the database. The next activity is Systems architecture definition that describes the development of the target platform and to identify the major system components and finally prioritising the requirements of the system using the MoSCoW (Must to be done, Should have it worked but not completely depend on it, Could be left out if necessary, Would have it in the future) principle. The final activity involved in the Business study is to outline the prototyping plan i.e. to define the prototyping strategy to be used in subsequent phase and the configuration management plan. Functional Model Iteration:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It works on refining high level business information requirements and functions of systems identified during the business study of the methodology. In this phase risk has to be identified and recognize a plan on how to deal with risk for future developments. The outcome of the functional model iteration is standard analysis model of the software. Five stages are involved in this phase. Rectify Business aspects In this phase the activities involved are high-level functional and information requirements are refined Identify functional prototype The first activity is to analyse the requirements of the dataflow diagrams and list the requirements of the current iteration and to identify the non-functional requirements that were recognized during the previous stages and create the functional model that identity the major functionality of the system components. Agree Plan To determine the time for the design development of the system and finally agree the prototype that is finalised with the clients. Create functional prototype It is an iterative process until the desired result is obtained. At first the plan in implemented by creating the functional prototype that represent the functionality of the system and then individually created functional prototypes are merged together to refine it according to the remarks given by users and if any changes are required it can to be done in the next iteration. Review Prototype Testing the produced functions of the system and reviewing the functional model based on the user comments and the final functional model is delivered. System Design and Build: In this phase the actual system is built based on the non-functional requirements carried out in the previous phase and the built-in system is implemented in the next phase once the testing is done. Identify Design Prototypes The main activities involved in this task is to identify non-functional requirements and implement the plan. Agree on Prototype Design Agreeing the prototype Design by prioritising the design requirements of the system. Create Design Prototype In this task the design prototyping takes place where the components of the system that must have is built and review the produced components and at last testing of the designed prototype is done before it is handed over to the users. Review Design Prototype The last activity in System Design and Build phase is to test the system as a whole rather than unit testing and check the performance and also to deal with system in case of any event failure.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Implementation:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This is the final phase in the methodology where the built-in system is moved into the production environment from the developed environment. In context to the Yojimbo Supplies Ltd the created centralised database package is installed on the server and make sure that each and every system will be able to access the database and all systems are connected with each other through local area network. System Implementation Implement the hardware and software of the system on site and handing over the system to the company. Review Business The project Review Document reviews the achievements during the development process in relation to the requirements. User approval and guidelines The system will be approved by the end users and user manual is produced where the precise details of the implemented system is given so that the end-users can use it to refer for any help. User Training Training the users on how to interact with the new system at the location. Advantages of the DSDM: Provides a technique-independent process Flexible in terms of requirement evolution Strict time and budget adherence Incorporates stakeholders into the development process An emphasis on testing is so strong that at least one tester is expected to be on each project team. Designed from the grounded up by business people, so business value is identified an expected to be the highest priority deliverable. Has specific approach to determining how important each requirement is to iteration. Sets stakeholder expectations from the start of the project that not all requirements will make it into the final deliverable. Disadvantages of the DSDM: Involves progressive development of requirements Focus on RAD can lead to decrease in code robustness Requires full commitment to DSDM process Requires significant user involvement Requires a skilled development team in both the business and technical areas Probably the most heavyweight project compared in this survey. Expects continuous user involvement Defines several artifacts and work products for each phase of the project; heavier documentation. Access to material is controlled by a consortium and fees may be charged just to access the reference material.

The Spirit of Public Administration by H George Frederickson

H. George Frederickson†s â€Å"The Spirit of Public Administration† is an informative yet drab look at motivating public administrators. Frederickson discusses a wide variety of topics that would be useful to any public administrator, but the verbiage used is a bit difficult for an individual that may be entering into the service field â€Å"The Spirit of Public Administration is broken down into three parts. These parts are: Part I: Governance, Politics, and the Public Part III: Ethics, Citizenship, and Benevolence in Public Administration Frederickson did take the initiative to explain public administration and some of its functions before going in-depth on different facets of the role. Some great topics discussed were governance, fairness and social equity, and ethics and public administration. Frederickson begins in Chapter 1 by explaining that â€Å"public administration is both a profession and field of study (p. 19).† This statement is very exact. Often times public administrators focus on the profession and do not practice studying their role in society. â€Å"The word administration is the subject of extended study, analysis, and discourse (p. 19).† Meaning the role of the public administrator is to lead along with learning as they progress through their careers. Also, in the chapter, Frederickson addresses ways in which to encourage citizen involvement in government. Frederickson acknowledges Benjamin Barber, Strong Democracy: Participatory Politics for a New Age, 11-point suggestion in achieving the goal: 2. Television town meetings and a civic communications cooperative 3. Civic education and equal access to information: a civic education postal act and a civic videotext service. 4. Supplementary institutions, including representative town meetings, office holding by lot, decriminalization, and lay justice 5. A national initiative and referendum process 7. Election by slot; sortition and rotation 8. Vouchers and the market approach to public choice 9. National citizenship and common action: universal citizen service and related volunteer programs and training and employment opportunities 10. Neighborhood citizenship and common action: extensive volunteerism and sweat-equity Frederickson evaluates that some of these suggestions may be impractical. As an african-american citizen, all of the suggestions seemed impractical. Often times, minority populations do not have the time to participate in meetings and volunteerism. A more effective way may be informative newsletters that provide alternate solutions that are not as time consuming. Chapter 2 and 3 discusses the political aspect of public administration and governance. In Chapter2, Frederickson discusses the theory on which his book is based upon, the Hamiltonian tradition. This chapter makes valid points in how important it is for administrators to be versed in politics. Administrators are not delegated power through the U.S. Constitution, but state constitutions are political processes allow for administrators to be more involved in government. Through this vital tool, administrators are able to profoundly assist the public. After addressing the political aspect, Frederickson makes a smooth transition in Chapter 3 to discuss governance. Frederickson points out that there are several different definitions in defining governance. Frederickson makes a profound remark by stating, â€Å"it is likely that governance is the preferred modern theory that attempts to marry politics to administration (p. 92).† Frederickson also list five vital points pertaining to governance (p.92): 2. Governance is a remarkable fusion of popular literature on government reform, popular executive politics, serious empirical scholarship, and modern public administration theory. 3. Public administration as governance has a better windup than pitch. 4. The use of governance as a surrogate for public administration masks the fundamental issue of what ought to be the role of non-elected public officials in a democratic party There must always be boundaries set between governing and governance. â€Å"In public administration as governance, it is essential that we do not diminish our institutions to such an extent that we lose our capacity to support the development of sound public policy, as well as our ability to effectively implement that policy (p.94).† Chapter 4 begins Part II a very important aspect of Public Administration, Issues of Fairness. During Chapter 4, Frederickson utilizes different philosophers to express how discretion is part of government and non-profit organizational life. To further reiterate the importance of this topic, Frederickson discusses in Chapter 5 the specifics of fairness and social equity in the theory and practice of public administration. Frederickson reviews theoretical, legal, and analytical developments of the past twenty years as it pertains to fairness and social equity. These two chapters were crucial in actually focusing on the â€Å"spirit† of public administration due to the increased amount of fraud and lack of faith citizens have for government. Chapter 4 and 5 validates intergenerational concepts of public administration that are discussed in Chapter 6. The success of public administrators is based on future generations. Frederickson believes moral and ethical responsibility should be extended to future generations. As he states, â€Å"philosophy and the practical affairs of people is to practice fairness, justice and equity†¦.There can be no moral community without some agreed upon arrangements for all three (p.150).† Morality in government has been extended from generation to generation. Government has tried to fix moral wrongs through creating the public school system to provide education for all, the abolition of slavery, and constantly raising concerns of ecology for future generations. â€Å"Following the logic of the command theory of social equity, public officials should seek to adopt and implement policies that support intergenerational social equity (p.151).† For example, Garrett Hardin (1980) addressed problems of overpopulation. Because of this concern for upcoming generations, contraceptives and education have been provided to all classes to preserve the nation economy, which allows society to sustain or improve its current condition. Privatization has also been a concern addressed for future generations. Frederickson expresses, â€Å"government through public policy must intervene in the private market to regulate in favor of future generations (p.153).† Just as government and administrators have done in the past, regulating private companies will protect the interest of the public while allowing government to continue generating revenue for future generations. Chapters 7 through 11 compose Part III of The Spirit of Public Administration. Part III discusses Ethics, Citizenship, and Benevolence in Public Administration. Chapter 7 discusses very controversial issues on ethics in public administration. The chapter effectively begins by discussing how government reform of the early 20th Century has affected American government today and that the current practices of ethic reform will have the same lasting effect. In early government..†Increasing administrative capacity and decreasing politics reduced corruption. In the present case, we are moving in the opposite direction, reducing administrative capacity and increasing political control, with the probability that more rather than less corruption will result (p.181).† A point that Frederickson stated was that â€Å"today, government provides more controls on political corruption than in the past (p.181).† Based on recent events that continuously occur, i.e. embezzlement, fraud, that statement may have been slightly skewed. Frederickson validates the statement by addressing innovative tasks that are or should be followed in ethics research agenda: 1. Standards of right and wrong vary significantly from context to context. 2. Researchers should compare ethical standards and behavior between settings, professions, and cultures. 3. Researchers should assess the effect on the behavior of government officials, both political and administrative of traditional procedural and managerial controls compared with modern approaches. 5. Assess the influence of privatization on governmental corruption and ethics 6. Measure the effects of reduced administrative discretion on both administrative effectiveness and ethics. Chapters 8 through 11 focused on boundaries and roles that the public administrator should adhere to and how negative views of government effect administrators in a positive and negative light. These chapters seem to become redundant and uninformative because they seem to focus more on a national level than local and most administrators† function at a state or local capacity. In Chapter 8 Frederickson discusses several points on the pros and cons of negative views of government: Good results of negative opinions of government: 2. Funding for schools and higher standards Bad results (less ethical government) 1. Due to downsizing of merit civil servants, the loss of institutional memory and the â€Å"hollowing out† of government. 2. Deregulation. No rules which gives incentive to fraud). 3. Contract employees (high kickback and fraud) 4. Authorities and special districts (fraud on fee-for-service contracts). This statement plainly shows that government is in need of much work and public administrators will continue to have the hardest task of gaining citizen trust based on government†s profound corruption. Though Frederickson should have definitely created an upbeat book to keep the â€Å"spirit† of public administration motivated, he brought forth some valid points that a public administrator could utilize. The conclusions of his overly long chapters helped the reader to stay abreast on the points that he was expressing in each chapter. Due to time constraints of most administrators, a cliff notes version or quick reference book would be an ideal tool for public servants on all levels.

Lab Report: Environmental Control of Sex Determination Essay

Introduction Ceratopteris richardii, known as a C-fern has a lifecycle referred to as alteration of generations, which consist of neither haploid nor diploid dominant. C-ferns are homospours plants which are important in that they can produce hermaphrioditic gametophytes in order to be able to self fertilize. However, some of the homospourous C-ferns only produce male gametophytes .The life cycle of Ceratopteris richardii starts as a diploid sporophyte which then, by meiosis, produces haploid spores. These spores then undergo mitosis to produce a haploid gametophyte, which can be either hermaphrodite( producing eggs and sperm), or a male gametophyte (producing only sperm). Gametophytes then produce gametes by mitosis. The hermaphrodite gametophyte will produce both eggs and sperm,while, the male gametophyte will produce strictly sperm. The gametes from the hermaphrodite gametophyte fertilize one another producing a diploid zygote which grows by mitosis into a diploid sporophyte ready to start the cycle again (Lab Manual). Chromosomal sex determination is determined by the inheritance of sex chromosomes, while, environmental sex determination is influenced by environmental factors such as temperature and parasite invasion(Lab Manual). Humans use the system of chromosomal sex determination by combining their X and Y chromosomes to produce a zygote determining the sexual phenotype in humans. Alligators use environmental sex determination when incubating their eggs.Temperature influences the sex of the offspring meaning; warmer incubating temperatures produce male development while cooler temperatures produce female development (Lab Manual). Our hypothesis for the Ceratopteris richardii was that gametophyte population density influences sex determination. Our first prediction was that the percentage of male gametophytes would increase as the population density of the gametophytes increased. Our second prediction was that the percentage of male gametophytes would decrease as the population density of the gametophytes increased. Results The graph of our results showed the percentage of male gametophytes increasing and then leveling off (Figure 1). This was our trend because most of the points followed this pattern, however; there was a potential outlier at point (68, 32.3). The distribution of gametophytes on the culture plates varied. Plates A and F had even distribution but were very crowed with gametophytes, while plates D and C were evenly distributed but had less gametophytes. Plate E had clumping of gametophytes in the top left corner and plate B had clumping the the bottom right corner. Figure 1. The relationship between the population density and the percentage of male gametophytes. Discussion The prediction that the percentage of male gametophytes would increase as the population density of the gametophytes increased, and the prediction that the percentage of male gametophytes would decrease as the population density of the gametophytes increased were not supported by our results. When the population density was low, the percentage of male gametophytes was relatively low because there would not be enough eggs to fertilize the sperm produced from both the hermaphrodite,and the sperm produced by the male gametophyte. When the population density was high, the percentage of male gametophytes was higher but still less than fifty percent because of the same reasons.The data from our results did support our hypothesis that the gametophyte population influences sex determination in the C-fern because, the higher the population density, the more level the percentage of male gametophytes became. The reason for this leveling out at the top of the graph was due to; if the percentage of male gametophytes kept increasing linearly, then there would be too many male gametophytes and not enough eggs being produced from the hermaphrodite gametophytes to be fertilized causing an unbalanced population. The outlier pertained to this because the population density was so high but the percentage of male gametophytes was relatively close to the other points supporting that male gametophyte production does not increase as population density increases. Even thought the population density was so high, the percentage of male gametophytes was relatively the same as the other points because the hermaphrodite gametophytes were trying to increase in number so that they could produce enough eggs to be able to self fertilize and reproduce with the male gametophytes, causing a leveling off in the graph. C-Ferns might have evolved this system of sex determination for many reasons. Being a hermaphrodite allows them to self fertilize, so by having this ability,C-ferns can produce eggs when there is sperm, so they always have the ability to reproduce. Unlike hermaphrodites, having separate sexes does not always guarantee you a parter so there is not guarantee in reproduction. Cross fertilization and self fertilization are important when discussing variation. Cross fertilization allows for different genetic material to be combined causing variation. Variation allows natural selection to act on and therefore, plants that are better adapted to the environment survive. Self Fertilization allows plants that have the adapted survival gene to self fertilize, producing less variation but more of sustainable plant. This relates to the offspring produced by hermaphrodites because they mostly self fertilize so they are producing more of themselves but less variation. The offspring produced by separate sexes produces more variation but stands less of a chance against natural selection because the hermaphrodites are reproducing well adapted offspring while the separate sexes are producing a new combination of genetics. A Labratory Manual for BIO 114. 2011. Environmental Control of Sex Determination, pp.163-166. James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA. ———————–

Are Computers Changing the Way Humans Think - 988 Words

There has always been controversy as to whether computers hurt the way people think. Computers have hurt society more than it has helped. Although computers have benefits such as helping you for school work in making quicker decisions for you, and it makes it easier to do essays by using word; it has also hurt society because it makes us become lazier, makes online dating dangerous, and makes people addicted to the Internet. One benefit of computers is that they help students with school work. Students are able to find things quicker for research papers, etc. Also it can be easier for students to type instead of writing out their essays. Students can get ideas from people through blogs and chat. ( Christine Zuchora - Walske 61)†¦show more content†¦People can really be meeting kidnappers or someone dangerous they don’t even know about. When they tell them about him/her self people go along with everything they have to say. Online dating can lead to violence and finding them in jail or dead. Then when all that stuff happens family members going crazy and feel sad because what has happen to their loved one. People also talk to someone from the Internet because things are going thru there mind or something is going on with them that they try to find a way to leave there house. One good reason for online dating is that some people will end up finding there true love on the Internet. Findi ng someone’s true love there can change there whole life to worse than better or vice versa it is very dangerous. Online dating should stop and they need to stop with facebook, and all the other online dating websites that they have now. Parents should know what their kids get on and they should get there passwords for any website they have and check who they communicate with that’s my opinion. Online dating needs to stop immediately! ( Ford, Matt. Web.) 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