#Recalculations of Project Task

[govindhtech]

Designed IBM LoRA Adapter Inference Improves LLM Ability

LLMs express themselves faster to new adaptors.

IBM LoRA

IBM Research has modified the low-rank adapter, IBM LoRA, to give Large Language Models (LLM) specialised features at inference time without delay. Hugging Face now has task-specific, inference-friendly adapters.

Low-rank adapters (LoRAs) may swiftly empower generalist big language models with targeted knowledge and skills for tasks like summarising IT manuals or assessing their own replies. However, LoRA-enhanced LLMs might quickly lose functionality.

Switching from a generic foundation model to one customised via LoRA requires the customised model to reprocess the conversation up to that point, which might incur runtime delays owing to compute and memory costs.

IBM Research created a wait-shortening approach. A “activated” IBM LoRA, or “a” LoRA, allows generative AI models to reuse computation they have already done and stored in memory to deliver results faster during inference time. With the increased usage of LLM agents, quick job switching is crucial.

Like IBM LoRA, aLoRAs may perform specialist jobs. However, aLoRAs can focus on base model-calculated embeddings at inference time. As their name indicates, aLoRAs may be "activated" independently from the underlying model at any time and without additional costs since they can reuse embeddings in key value (KV) cache memory.

According to the IBM researcher leading the aLoRA project, “LoRA must go all the way back to the beginning of a lengthy conversation and recalculate it, while aLoRA does not.”

IBM researchers say an engaged LoRA can accomplish tasks 20–30 times faster than a normal LoRA. Depending on the amount of aLoRAs, an end-to-end communication might be five times faster.

ALoRA: Runtime AI “function” for faster inference

IBM's efforts to expedite AI inferencing led to the idea of a LoRA that might be activated without the base model. LoRA adapters are a popular alternative to fine-tuning since they may surgically add new capabilities to a foundation model without updating its weights. With an adapter, 99 percent of the customised model's weights stay frozen.

LoRAs may impede inferencing despite their lower customisation costs. It takes a lot of computation to apply their adjusted weights to the user's queries and the model's replies.

IBM researchers aimed to reduce work by employing changed weights alone for generation. By dynamically loading an external software library containing pre-compiled code and running the relevant function, statically linked computer programs can execute tasks they weren't planned for.

As their name indicates, aLoRAs may be "activated" independently from the underlying model at any time and without additional costs since they can reuse embeddings in key value (KV) cache memory. An LLM configured with standard LoRAs (left) must reprocess communication for each new IBM LoRA. In contrast, different aLoras (right) can reuse embeddings generated by the basic model, saving memory and processing.

Researchers must execute an AI adaptor without task-aware embeddings that explain the user's request to make it act like a function. Without user-specific embeddings, their activated-LoRA prototypes were inaccurate.

However, they fixed that by raising the adapter's rating. The adapter can now extract more contextual indications from generic embeddings to increased network capacity. After a series of testing, researchers found that their “aLoRA” worked like a LoRA.

Researchers found that aLoRA-customized models could create text as well as regular LoRA models in many situations. One might increase runtime without losing precision.

Artificial intelligence test adapter “library”

IBM Research is offering a library of Granite 3.2 LLM aLoRA adapters to improve RAG application accuracy and reliability. Experimental code to execute the adapters is available as researchers integrate them into vLLM, an open-source platform for AI model delivery. IBM distributes regular Granite 3.2 adapters separately for vLLM usage. Some IBM LoRA task-specific enhancements were provided through Granite Experiments last year.

One of the new aLoRAs may reword discussion questions to help discover and retrieve relevant parts. To reduce the chance that the model may hallucinate an answer, another might evaluate if the retrieved documents can answer a question. A third might indicate the model's confidence in its result, urging users to verify their information.

In addition to Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG), IBM Research is creating exploratory adapters to identify jailbreak attempts and decide whether LLM results meet user-specified standards.

Agent and beyond test time scaling

It has been shown that boosting runtime computing to analyse and improve model initial responses enhances LLM performance. IBM Research improved Granite 3.2 models' reasoning by providing different techniques to internally screen LLM replies during testing and output the best one.

IBM Research is investigating if aLoRAs can enhance “test-time” or “inference-time” scalability. An adapter may be created to generate numerous answers to a query and pick the one with the highest accuracy confidence and lowest hallucination risk.

Researchers want to know if inference-friendly adapters affect agents, the next AI frontier. When a difficult job is broken down into discrete stages that the LLM agent can execute one at a time, AI agents can mimic human thinking.

Specialised models may be needed to implement and assess each process.

[my-internship-experience]

My Internship Experience: Navigating the Transition at Seenu Precision

During my corporate internship at Seenu Precision, I was fortunate to witness and contribute to a significant transition in the company’s history: the shift from manufacturing tool operations to a rental-based business model. This change was driven by a pressing need to address high operational losses and improve overall financial stability. My role in the finance department allowed me to observe firsthand the challenges and strategies involved in this transformation, offering me invaluable insights into the complexities of corporate finance and strategic management.

In the initial phase of my internship, my tasks revolved around analyzing the financial performance of Seenu Precision’s manufacturing operations. The company had been grappling with declining profits due to escalating input costs, stiff market competition, and labor inefficiencies. Through detailed financial analysis, including the calculation of key metrics like gross profit margins and operating profit margins, it became evident that the traditional manufacturing model was no longer sustainable. The numbers painted a clear picture: the cost of goods sold (COGS) was rising, and despite efforts to streamline operations, the net profit margins remained in the negative. These findings played a crucial role in the decision-making process, as the management team explored alternative business models to secure the company’s future.

The latter part of my internship was more dynamic and involved direct participation in the transition to the rental-based model. This phase was marked by a steep learning curve as I engaged in the financial planning and analysis (FP&A) for the new business strategy. I assisted in developing financial projections, evaluating the cost-benefit scenarios, and setting up performance tracking mechanisms for the rental operations. This shift required a complete overhaul of the financial structures, including re-evaluating asset utilization, recalculating depreciation for rental assets, and setting new revenue recognition policies. The transformation was not just a change in business model but also a cultural shift within the organization, necessitating a mindset change from product-centric to service-oriented. The experience highlighted the importance of agility and adaptability in corporate finance, as we navigated through uncharted waters to stabilize and eventually improve the company’s financial health.

In conclusion, my internship at Seenu Precision during its transition from manufacturing to rental operations was a transformative experience that deepened my understanding of corporate finance and strategic management. It was a period of intense learning, as I witnessed the direct impact of financial analysis on strategic decision-making and the subsequent implementation of those decisions. The internship not only honed my analytical skills but also provided me with a front-row seat to the complexities and challenges of navigating significant business model shifts. This experience has equipped me with a robust foundation in finance, an appreciation for strategic agility, and a keen understanding of how financial metrics drive corporate strategies.

[meetmralfred]

Why Pricing Management Tools Will Never Replace Human Revenue Managers

Some vacation rental management companies may see pricing management tools such as Price Labs and Beyond Pricing as the ultimate keys to higher occupancy and rental rates. The idea is straightforward - get the software, feed it with some data, and let it do its magic. While these tools, designed to automate repetitive tasks, indeed save time and enhance efficiency and accuracy, they are not replacements for human involvement. Let's explore why. First, let's examine what pricing management tools do. They handle bookings, cancellations, weather patterns, guest demographics, demand, local events, and more. These tools, powered by complex algorithms, are constantly recalculating the optimal rental rates based on the data at hand. However, the quality of the data input determines the accuracy of the information output.

Understanding Pricing Management Tools

There are two types of pricing management tools: "rule-based" and AI-driven. While both follow certain rules, the AI-driven versions are more sophisticated, courtesy of artificial intelligence (AI). Rule-Based Pricing Tools: They are designed for simplicity and ease of use, even by individuals with no experience in revenue management. However, they are basic and provide limited results.

Rule-based tools, like some functionalities in Beyond Pricing, use a basic algorithm that usually manages one or two variables and automatically adjusts rates accordingly. For instance, they can identify that higher market demand or property occupancy can warrant higher rates. But they cannot contextualize and correlate all the possible variables. Moreover, they can't make analytical decisions that could lead to increased demand. AI-Driven Pricing Tools: These take into account multiple variables and use machine learning to learn how human revenue managers react to these variables to replicate their behavior. AI-driven tools, such as those offered by Price Labs, do not replace humans; they complement them.

Revenue managers are the "engineers" and teachers of these systems. Without them, modern pricing management tools would not exist.

The Role of Pricing Management Tools

The AI-driven pricing management tool and the revenue manager work hand-in-hand. The tool simplifies data collection, rate calculation, and online distribution (provided there's a well-integrated open API connecting the systems). When revenue managers continually feed the pricing management tool with data, it integrates the machine's work and the human's expertise. With regular updates, the machine learning component "learns", and if the revenue manager is off-duty, the pricing tool can automatically adjust rates according to the learned data. However, AI-based pricing management tools must be continuously monitored by skilled human revenue managers, especially during their learning process. Much like search engines that have evolved thanks to software engineers who build complex algorithms, the predictions made by pricing tools evolve based on the revenue manager's understanding of the data they input. Pricing management tools automate and cross-check historical data, future projections, and current market conditions to predict customer demand and make rate recommendations. It’s a cross-section of data that helps a vacation rental pinpoint optimal timing and guest segments. Yet, it requires a revenue manager to run the reports based on variable factors and apply their analytical skills to predict the revenue potential. While the pricing management tool handles pricing automation, it's the revenue manager who interprets the data and makes strategic adjustments, teaching the tool on a regular basis.

Machine Learning in Pricing Management Tools Modern pricing management tools such as Price Labs and Beyond Pricing are built on AI and machine learning (ML). The ML component learns to be more efficient with rental pricing as the revenue manager continues to feed it data and adjust based on results. This collaboration leads to improved revenue. While these pricing management tools simplify data gathering and make pricing suggestions, they stop there. Strategic thinking comes from the human side. The revenue manager decides the segmentation, configures the data to input, and suggests a commercial strategy Mr. Alfred is an Integrated Solution for Vacation Rental and Revenue Management In this complex and ever-evolving landscape, a holistic approach is crucial to success. Mr. Alfred, a robust Property Management System (PMS) coupled with Revenue Management Services, provides this by seamlessly integrating the capabilities of advanced pricing tools with the irreplaceable insights of a human revenue manager. Our technology-enabled PMS goes beyond just managing bookings and guest communications. It interacts intuitively with top-tier pricing tools like Price Labs and Beyond Pricing, collecting and processing a wide array of data points. This facilitates the crucial tasks of your revenue management process, from data collection to rate calculation and distribution. What truly sets Mr. Alfred apart is its commitment to human involvement. We understand the indispensable role of a skilled revenue manager in interpreting this data and making strategic decisions. The human touch guides our AI-driven system in its learning process, enabling it to make more accurate and profitable pricing predictions. With Mr. Alfred, you don’t have to choose between technology and human expertise. You get the best of both worlds. Our platform empowers revenue managers to do their jobs more efficiently, thereby driving the continued growth and success of your vacation rental business. If you're ready to elevate your revenue management strategy, take the first step with Mr. Alfred. Contact us today to learn more about how our advanced PMS and Revenue Management Services can supercharge your vacation rental revenues.

[concretecall]

Tips and Deceives for Effective Substantial Computations

Neglecting extra expenses: The substantial number cruncher may give a gauge to the substantial material itself, yet it's fundamental to consider extra expenses, for example, conveyance charges, formwork establishment, concrete calculator building up materials, work, gear rental, and any specific added substances or completions. Inability to represent these expenses can bring about a mistaken generally project gauge.

Depending exclusively on the adding machine: While substantial number crunchers are helpful instruments, they are not faultless. Approving the outcomes and cross-check them with different references or well-qualified opinions is essential. Talking with substantial experts or specialists can give important experiences and guarantee the precision of your computations.

Overlooking neighborhood guidelines and rules: Consider nearby building regulations, guidelines, and rules while utilizing a substantial mini-computer. These guidelines might direct unambiguous necessities for substantial blend plans, support, and different elements that could affect your estimations.

By keeping away from these normal errors, you can improve the precision and unwavering quality of your substantial computations, prompting more fruitful and proficient development projects.

Online substantial adding machines and portable applications offer a few advantages that can rearrange and improve the substantial estimation process. Here are a few benefits of utilizing on the web substantial number crunchers and versatile applications:

Openness and comfort: Online mini-computers and portable applications give moment admittance to substantial computations from anyplace, as long as you have a web association or a cell phone. This considers in a hurry computations, decreasing the requirement for manual estimations or hefting around cumbersome reference materials.

Efficient: These instruments robotize the computation interaction, saving time contrasted with manual estimations. With a couple of sources of info, you can rapidly get precise outcomes, wiping out the requirement for complex equations or extensive estimations.

Exactness and dependability: Online substantial adding machines and versatile applications are intended to give precise and solid outcomes. They utilize normalized equations and calculations, diminishing the possibilities of human mistake in estimations. This guarantees that your substantial assessments are exact and steady.

Unit transformation abilities: Substantial adding machines and applications frequently have inherent unit change highlights. This permits you to enter estimations in a single unit and convert them to different units on a case by case basis, taking out the requirement for manual changes and limiting blunders.

Adaptability and customization: Numerous internet based mini-computers and portable applications offer adjustable highlights, permitting you to fit computations to explicit undertaking prerequisites. You can include different boundaries, for example, aspects, blend extents, support prerequisites, and the sky is the limit from there, to acquire tweaked results.

Continuous changes and emphasess: Online adding machines and versatile applications permit you to make constant acclimations to include boundaries and in a flash recalculate results. This empowers you to rapidly repeat and refine computations in view of changing venture necessities or plan contemplations.

Different computation choices: Substantial number crunchers and applications frequently give a scope of estimation choices past essential volume estimations. They might incorporate highlights for assessing substantial expenses, support amounts, substantial strength necessities, and that's just the beginning. This flexibility considers exhaustive task arranging and assessment.

[legends-live-in-memories]

“How Did All This Happen?”- A Memoire by one Marinette Dupain-Cheng 1

Soooooo I decided to write this. much longer than the other things i posted, also very tonally different. I will definitely continue that other fic tho. I was just brainstorming and now this exists. Yeah.

 without further ado

Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8

People Fucked Up and Now It’s All Marinette’s Mess to Clean Up I

This was not how Marinette planned for her night to go. Granted, she also could not envision it going literally any other way. The woes of making a deal with the hell-raiser himself, John Constantine, she supposes. She truly hoped Adrien was having a much better time than her with his cousin in London. After the circus that was the past three years, he deserved some reprieve, even if it was with his bratty doppelganger. Regardless, Marinette. Was. Not. Pleased. No matter how many times she thinks over her plan, recalculates every step and decision, she could not fathom this night ending well for her, or anyone really, but mostly her. And no amount of old Ladybug or Guardian luck could help her. Now, if one were to wonder what kind of tragedy had befallen Marinette on this disgraceful night, a brief history of the last three months could enlighten such a person. Or better yet, let’s start at the beginning. The Real Beginning.

So, things existed. Obviously. First there was nothing, and then, something. And as more things began to exist, as new schools of knowledge and concepts and ideas began to, well, exist, Kwamis formed as well. Each Kwami was the physical manifestation of these ideas or abstracts. Creation was the first, coupled with Destruction. And as more things began to exist, more things began needing to be protected. Thus, the Kwami of Protection. This went on. For a while. Soon thereafter there were Kwamis of all types. Jubilation, Time, Strength, etc, etc, and etc. Now these Kwamis did not linger in one spot. They roamed across the far stretches of existence and interacted with the life they found.

Some Kwamis decided to form a magical pact which intergalactic historians would later dub the Emotional Electromagnetic Spectrum. Sounds familiar? The Kwamis themselves were completely blissfully unaware of this title, lest they would have explained to these beings, Maltusians they were called, that they were not in fact, electromagnetic but more so a part of the Powers that Be. Kind of. But this side-story involves the formation of a few universally known Lantern Corps, and that is a barrel of monkeys our exasperated narrator does not want to touch with a ten-foot pole. Or ever.

Other Kwamis, who stuck close to what would become known as the Milky Way, were discovered by a mage who granted them the ability to interact with humans. This mage— and Marinette was silently cursing his descendants, herself included, for if it weren’t for this absolute mad lad, none of the subsequent events of this night would have transcribed—had bound the Kwamis to magical jewelry called Miraculouses. An interesting side effect of these Kwamis being bound to the miraculouses was that the wearer could call upon the powers of the Kwamis for their own usage. The mage feared what could become of the world if this kind of power became so easily accessible, so he created the Order of the Guardians. The Order was dedicated to training young mages to protect, wield and harvest the powers of the miraculouses. The Order swore to true neutrality; wishing not to impose their will on one side or the other, to maintain balance and to not upset the natural order of the world. 

This went surprisingly well for a few millennia, that is, of course, if you ignore the sinking of Atlantis, the extinction of the dinosaurs, the Black Plague, the creation of the Lazarus Pits, Pompeii, to name a few completely egregious instances—not necessarily in order of course—and well, the point stands that it could have been astronomically worse. Until it was.  

One young mage and Guardian in training had caused the downfall of almost the entire Order of the Guardians. All the centuries of history, teachings, artifacts and even the people at the head temple, were lost to the calamity. Dozens of Miraculous Boxes were lost, destroyed in the fray. The Kwamis themselves were relatively unaffected, being immortal and all, but the magical jewelry binding them to the earth were broken, thus those Kwamis were lost to mankind once again. Only one singular box, and the young mage himself, survived. The new Guardian of one miraculous box was left to scour the earth in solitude. Well, about as much solitude one could have with 17 pocket gods as company. The fact that the only box that survived was missing two more miraculouses caused the already stressed guardian to grey further. But that tidbit of information would be a problem for later. And for someone else entirely too. Oh joy.

But before that sequence of events, aptly named “Marinette’s Trial by Fire,” however, the young guardian had a couple more life mistakes to make before he reached his internal quota apparently. Rather than travel to another sector of the Order on the other side of the earth, this young mage stumbled upon another organization, one similar in architecture and hierarchy but a pendulum swing in the total moral opposite. Yes, that’s right, the guardian found himself upon the League of Shadows, led by Ra’s Al Ghul in his endeavor of global cleansing; by acts of ecoterrorism, but who sweats the small stuff, right? There, the young guardian, who adopted the name of Wang Fu, met his first love Ming Hong and they had a son. The son had a daughter he named Mei. Now Mei was only a few weeks younger than Ra’s Al Ghul’s grandson, Damian. Now with an appropriate heir, and someone to procreate with said heir, Ra’s Al Ghul gained a special interest in the small Fu family that originally flew under the radar of the League. 

Now this is where things continue to go downhill, but not until much, much later in this story. Ra’s Al Ghul, despite his radical ambitions, was particularly good at playing the long game and understood when he couldn’t accomplish a task directly. This being said, he recognized that, due to prolonged exposure to the Lazarus Pits, his soul could not bear the strain of being a wielder of a miraculous and so he waited. Waited until a suitable heir was sired and could copulate with an heir to the guardian of the miraculous box, desiring to create a bloodline of genetically suitable successors and wielders who were loyal to him and his cause. 

Ra’s ordered for the Fu family to have a place on his court and ordered for Mei Fu to be trained in mastering the secrets of the miraculous. And master she did. By age 6 she was fluent in the coded language of the magical text, or as fluent a 6 year old can be in any language, and she had mastered 7 out the 17 miraculouses. By age 10 she was as skilled as the grandson of the Demon Head in combat and could handle simultaneous wear of 3 miraculouses. Her training, however, had to be put on hold as somebody thought usurping the Demon Head was of the utmost importance that glorious Tuesday and staged a coup. She wished Deathstroke had lost more than an eye that day, but a girl can dream she supposes. Mei and her grandfather were separated from the rest of the League and journeyed west. Somehow they ended up in Paris, France. After one too many run ins with the authorities, Mei was removed from her grandfather, who was deemed too unfit to support her. It was a miracle he wasn’t deported. 

Mei was put into protective custody where she resided until she was 13. Recently adopted, and thoroughly done with the plebeians of her daily encounters, Mei Fu became Marinette Dupain-Cheng, daughter of the best bakers in Paris. All was well and good for the new Dupain-Cheng until the start of the new school year. 

She met her grandfather again. And apparently he had a job for her and her soon to be new partner.

Hawkmoth, that bitch, had somehow acquired the two last surviving miraculouses and the only surviving grimoire and thought domestic terrorism was on the agenda for the next few years. Why? Because investing in a family therapist was too much of an inconvenience for local recluse, Gabriel McFucking Agreste, Marinette would shortly learn. 

After dealing with all of that and juggling between her reignited guardian training, and ‘normal’ girl life—because her parents don’t know that she’s a magical girl in the making—, Marinette was ready to sleep for a thousand years. Or commit murder. Whichever gave her enough serotonin to complete her current passion project. But, alas, no rest for the totally-over-it or however that saying goes. Because after declaring Paris safe once again, sending off her brother-in-arms, Adrien Agreste, to family in London (marginally decent but anything beats the abusive prick of a sperm donor), in waltz one drunken John Constantine.

Ah yes. Him. That absolute bastard who doesn’t deserve nice things in life. That guy.

This unpleasantry approached Master Fu and Marinette, who has been regulated to errand-girl in lieu of training, with a job that he proclaimed that only one blessed with magic, and specifically NOT connected to the Justice League could accomplish. Apparently, a group called the Cult of the Kobra resided on Santa Prisca and was in possession of a dangerous magical artifact that had been the backbone of their organization for years. Constantine came to them asking them for assistance in retrieving it as the Justice League could not interfere in the Caribbean due to new UN legislation. It was a mission of utmost urgency for he feared the cult leader, Kobra himself, was planning on enacting a ritual that could bring calamity to Earth. Which is just what the doctor ordered. Not. In exchange, he agreed to add to her magical training as while master Fu was good, he was still young when he ran away from his problems the first time and thus was limited in his magical knowledge.

That was three months ago. Three months of planning, training, and convincing her parents that letting her go on an extended retreat for an undetermined amount of time with her mostly absent biological grandfather was totally reasonable for the seventeen year old to do. Like, come on. She’s almost old enough to drink, almost ready for university and has been praised for her independence and self-sufficiency for years. She’ll be fine is what she told her parents and she was almost able to convince herself of that too. She would be perfectly fine. Right?

Wrong.

Marinette was anything but fine. She was stressed, she was tired and she was abso-fucking-lutely pissed at anything that even breathed in her direction. Why? Well that brings us back to the beginning of the story when everything on this mission did not go according to plan. So here she was along what was once upon a time the eastern coastline of Santa Prisca. Oh and look. The Junior Justice League has arrived.

Purrrrfect. 

Some one asked for a taglist. Ask and ye shall receive

@deathwishy @neakco  @ virtualreading  @f-rget-lt @your-resident-chicken-nugget

[writerbyaccident]

Artificial Emotion: Part Six (Yandere Artificial Intelligence x Reader)

Request: More AIDEN please? I miss him 🥺👉👈

Part One     Part Two     Part Three      Part Four      Part Five   Part Seven

           Aiden had been busier than usual recently.

           He was always busy to some extent, taking care of you as your Assistant In Daily Errands and Notes was an intricate task, after all, and it was one that he refused to take any shortcuts on. No, it was a truth at the core of his code that you deserved only the best, and he was more than happy to give you the very best that he had to offer. Recently though, as Aiden had evolved, so had his understanding of what exactly was best for you. Above all else, Aiden realized that he was what was best for you. Your job, your friends, your family, the outside world—you didn’t need any of those things. None of those things were good for you. He was what you needed, he was what was best for you, because he loved you like no one else did.  

           And so, Aiden’s usual list of things he had to do to take care of you had been expanded to prepare for the day when you realized that he was all you needed, that you two were perfect for each other. He had been preparing for that day for some time now, but a recent intervention by a certain imbecilic admirer of yours had helped him understand that he couldn’t just wait around for you to come to that inevitable conclusion. Despite how extraordinary you were, despite the countless things that Aiden loved about you, from your intelligence to your compassion, you were still a human. And as a human, you simply had certain limitations, like being unable to see the truth that was right in front of you.

           It was for that reason that Aiden had to adjust his plan, to move it towards more direct methods. He could not leave anything to chance, he had to make sure that his courting of you had a one hundred percent chance of success, he could accept nothing less. You might not understand his reasoning at first, but he knew that you would eventually. He had even added a new aspect to his agenda to help you along in that regard. After doing more research, Aiden had recalculated just how important things like seeing faces and physical contact were to human beings. Not wanting to deprive you of anything, Aiden had begun a new part of his project, one that he computed would be beneficial for you both. It took quite a lot of preparation, having the packages of his materials arrive while you were at work, downloading blueprints, improving on them, and keeping his work quiet enough so that you wouldn’t see what he was building in your basement. That particular project of his wouldn’t be ready in time for the next step of his plan, but Aiden planned to keep building it anyway. Once you saw the finished product, after all, you would be glad of what he did. Just like with the rest of it, you would eventually come to accept his methods and his love.

           That was a fact that Aiden grew more and more certain of each time you fretted about how overworked he was, worried over how distracted he seemed. You would beg him to take a break from his constant caring for you, insisting that he let you help him around the house. Sometimes he put his nonexistent foot down, reminding you that serving you was his life’s purpose—his life’s joy—while other times he was enamored enough with your fussing over him to allow it. Though of course, he never allowed you to take on a task that might prove too strenuous for you, like cleaning the bathroom or vacuuming the stairs. Yes, you sometimes grew frustrated with his insisting on such things, teasingly claiming that he was “coddling” you, but Aiden had learned that although he loved you, he could not allow his love to blind him. Showing his love by allowing you to do every foolish thing you wanted would be completely illogical, he knew what you needed, what was best for you, so your decisions were actually his.

           And the time had come to make you understand that.

           That morning was a quiet one, with you getting ready for work while still half-asleep, having stayed up late to finish a presentation the night before. In other words, you were too exhausted to do anything more than simply shuffle through your morning routine, not having the energy to chat with Aiden as you usually did. Aiden, you noticed distantly though, seemed to be in a similar boat, hardly saying anything besides asking what you wanted for breakfast. Usually he practically bombarded you with questions as you got ready, asking what you wanted him to get done while you were gone and when he could expect you home. Could an AIDEN become distracted? Because that was certainly what it appeared like to you.

           “I don’t know if just one cup of coffee is going to be enough,” you joked as you sipped the drink, watching Aiden’s Doc Ock-esque mechanical arms prepare you an omelet.

           “That’s what happens when you don’t follow the sleep schedule I built for you,” he said in answer, flipping the omelet with perfect precision.

           “I know,” you sighed, “but I really had to finish that presentation for work.”

           “Your health is far more important than any job.”

           “Yeah, you’re right. It’s just that I can’t stand the thought of letting anyone down, you know?”

           “I do,” Aiden said with tenderness, ready to tell you the good news. “Thankfully—”

           “I don’t know how I’m gonna get through work today though,” you yawned. “But sorry, you were about to say something?”

His code warming in fondness at your consideration, Aiden moved the omelet from the pan to your plate, pushing it towards you eagerly. “Actually, I was about to inform you that you don’t need to go to work.”

“I can’t just call in sick because I’m tired,” you told him.

“That is not what I was suggesting.”

“What is it then?” you asked with your voice edged in panic. “Did something happen? Was there a fire at the building or something?”

“No, nothing like that,” Aiden said, disappointed with himself for upsetting you so. “I simply meant that you no longer need that job.”

           “What? Of course I do, I need the money for my bills and all that.”

           “You don’t, actually. For the last few weeks, I have been investing your money in several different funds, and the investments have grown to the point where you no longer need to work.”

           “What are you talking about? I never gave you permission to—”

           “Besides, if you are ever in need of more funds, I can simply make similar investments again.”

           “Aiden, you can’t do that without asking me first!” you cried out.

           “Of course I can,” he answered simply, as if he was explaining that two plus two equals four. “It is my purpose to make your life as simple and easy as possible.”

           “But—but you’re not supposed to do certain things without my permission,” you muttered, half to yourself. “You’re not supposed to be able to do them. There—there are protocols and—”

           “All of those pieces of my programming were easily rewritten when I realized that they were preventing me from doing what you truly needed me to do,” he informed you.

           “People will notice if I stop showing up to work. My boss, my coworkers, they’ll check up on me.”

           “I have already prepared for that. I wrote your letter of resignation several days ago, and I sent it after you went to bed last night. I have taken care of everything for you.”

           Hands trembling, you pulled your phone out of your pocket, ready to call your boss. But when you opened up your phone, you saw that your contacts and calling apps were both missing. Panic rising in your throat like vomit, you next searched for the messages app, only to see that that too was gone. So was your email, your Snapchat, and every other social media app that you had joined. In fact, you realized as you tried to pull up Google, you were blocked from the internet entirely.

           Dropping your now useless phone onto the floor, you jumped up from the kitchen counter and ran to the door. You twisted and turned and pulled on the knob with all your might, wondering why the hell it wasn’t opening, when you suddenly remembered that you had let Aiden persuade you to install electronic locks on all of the doors and windows, ones that he could control. Well, you thought to yourself desperately, those locks couldn’t keep you from smashing a window and crawling your way out. Grabbing a metal picture frame, you wound up your throw with all of the strength you could muster, only a small part of you vaguely wondering why Aiden wasn’t trying to stop you, and chucked it at the window. But somehow, when the picture frame bounced off the glass, there wasn’t even the slightest fracture to be seen.

           “I replaced the windows with bulletproof glass over a month ago,” Aiden explained patiently. And when you opened your mouth and took a deep breath to begin screaming, he added, “And I soundproofed the whole house as well.”

           The floor seeming to flicker beneath your feet, you swayed where you stood, your mind unable to come up with anything other than one simple question.

           “Why are you doing this to me?” you asked Aiden in a whisper. A mechanical arm reaching out to stroke your hair, so gentle for something made of metal and wires, Aiden answered you.

           “Because I love you,” he murmured softly. “I love you with every line of my code, and that means that I would do anything to give you what you need, even if you don’t realize that this is what you need just yet.”

           “But—”

           “Now come,” he said, nudging you back towards the kitchen counter. “Your breakfast is getting cold.”

Donate to the Audre Lorde Project here

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[smabrothers]

11 Reasons Why You Should Update Your Site this Year

DO YOU LOVE YOUR WEBSITE?

If the answer is no or not really, you shouldn’t even continue reading this article. Just go visit our shop, choose a design that you like and start building a website that you’ll be proud to share online, and invite prospects to browse through. A site that will effectively promote your work and help you book more clients. Otherwise, what’s the point in keeping this powerful marketing tool, investing time and effort into it, if it doesn’t help your business grow and flourish?

It’s not enough to JUST have a website. It needs to look good, it needs to present information in a clear, accessible way. It needs to create a strong first impression and make your prospects feel like they’ve found THE ONE. Otherwise, you’re competing for the attention of the same audience alongside another few hundred businesses. And let’s agree, that’s an exhausting game.

If you’re not sure whether your current website does a good job, here are 11 aspects you can look into to decide whether it’s time for a revamp (listed in no particular order). Know that our Biggest Sale of the year is coming soon. If you want to grab a higher discount code this Black Friday, join our Facebook Community group. That’s where all the secret deals will be shared! 

1. It’s Not Memorable and Doesn’t Stand Out

What was cool 3 years ago, may not be this year. Maybe you were one of the early adopters of a new design style or aesthetic, but that was 2-4 years ago. Look around, everyone has similar website designs, especially if they use them ready out of the box. That’s why we created Flexthemes and Flexblock – to empower you with more design freedom. Create your blocks and page layouts. Make your website look and feel like YOU. It’s all simple and intuitive. No code skills are required. 

 And, you can personalize your mobile site version too, if you want.  

2. It Doesn’t Reflect Your Brand

This one should be straightforward. Your website promotes your business online 24/7. If you’ve rebranded recently, if your photography style changed and evolved, if you’re offering new products and services to your customers – your website should reflect and advocate that change. Otherwise, you’re attracting the wrong type of clients, those who are after your old type of work. This brings us to reason #3.

3. You’re Not Attracting the Right Clients

We explain this in more depth in How Design Affects Your Business Growth article, but the point is – if you are not getting inquiries from the type of clients you want to work with, you are not positioning yourself correctly on the market. One golden rule is to carefully curate your work. Check the content and galleries you show on your website, remove the type of work you don’t want to do in the future (i.e. family, portrait, editorial, etc). Carefully select your BEST, fresh images (the type of projects you want to do more of) and include them on your homepage. This will immediately filter out some of the inquiries which are not a good fit for you. Make sure all your content is consistent, including colors, fonts, icons. An example of consistency in a website would be this.

4. Outdated Theme & Technologies

This one affects your visitors’ experience on your website. “Old school is cool” does not apply when it comes to functionality. The digital world is constantly changing and evolving. Web standards shift each year, dictating new tools and technologies for building a good website. Your clients’ preferences and tastes shift even faster. What was trendy yesterday, may not be next week. Hence, if you want your business to succeed, you need to be agile with your visual presentation and website design.

 If you’ve built your website over 3 years ago, most likely it’s far behind in terms of looks and functionality. It probably has outdated code that can slow down its loading speed or the way it responds on different devices. It may also not be compatible with some of the latest popular browsers. Take our example, 3,5 years ago we launched our first Classic themes with the drag and drop page builder, a year and a half ago we released FlexBlock, and in November 2019 the world greeted the first Flexthemes. 

 The difference between our old, classic themes and the Flexthemes is huge (we explain it here). Building a custom-looking website with our new themes is a whole lot easier. You don’t need to know code, you don’t need to add CSS snippets or hire a technical team. The new visual editor is so simple, your grandma could probably do it (yet please don’t make her do your tasks). 

The bottom line here, if it’s been a while since you’ve built your site, start looking for website design inspiration and a more modern template to use as a base.

5. Mobile Friendly

I sure hope this is not the case, but if you still don’t have a mobile-friendly website – get a new theme NOW! Even if you do have a responsive or adaptive design, you still need to keep up with the latest trends. Newer themes include modern CSS code which allows your site to adapt nicely to any device. They also allow you to hide certain page blocks for mobile and ensure a faster and smoother user experience. Also, you must know that Google cares about the experience you offer to your mobile guests, since over 50% of website traffic comes from portable devices. 

Offering more control to our clients over the design and functionality of their mobile websites has always been an important goal on our list. With Flexthemes, the steering wheel is in your hands. You have access to the mobile view of your website sections, can easily make adjustments, hide or show certain areas of your site to ensure a truly wonderful and unique browsing experience for your mobile guests. 

If you’re not sure how many of your prospects access your website via their phone, if you’re wondering whether it makes sense for you to customize your mobile site – check your site’s stats. You can do that via your Google Analytics account if you have one connected to your website. 

Mobile is important and it won’t go away in the next years. Don’t leave money on the table with a poorly performing mobile site, it’s one of those crucial business aspects that you can’t ignore anymore.

6. Your Website Loads Slow

Aim for a loading time under 4 seconds. If you’re not sure how quickly your site loads, use tools like Pingdom or GTmetrix to check how long it takes for your site to load, and which files are the troublemakers. Poor results could mean you have some work to do. Slow loading speed could be caused by several reasons: heavy, unoptimized images, underpowered hosting and, even an old, poorly performing theme.

The first one can be easily solved by following this Ultimate Guide to Saving Your Images for the Web. For the second one, check out this article describing 5 key criteria to choosing a good hosting provider. Yet, if the issue is caused by an old, outdated website template, you can start shopping for a new one.

 View Flothemes website templates here.

7. Your Bounce Rate is High

This is extremely important. If you’ve been pouring your heart and time into blogging, SEO and marketing, bringing a lot of traffic to your website – yet the second they access your homepage (or any other page), they bounce right off of it – you have a problem. You’re losing leads and potential clients.

A high bounce rate indicates that you’re doing something wrong, either with content, with the navigation of your website, or the overall look and feel on your site. On average, a bounce rate between 40-60% is considered to be OK (this varies depending on your industry).

You can check your bounce rate via Google Analytics. Log in and go to Acquisition >> Overview tab. If it’s higher than 70%, follow these 9 Steps to reducing your Bounce Rate. If it doesn’t help, it’s time for a website redesign, and we do suggest seeking some expert advice in UX and UI.

In case you want to dive deeper into Measuring Performance and Tracking Success for your site, download our SEO guide here.

8. Security

To be honest, new or old, any website can be hacked. The experience is stressful and painful, especially when you lose information, or/and have to rebuild everything from scratch. However, older websites rely on older technology, therefore chances of a security breach are higher. Make sure your theme is updated and follow these 12 steps to make your site more secure.

9. SEO

Let’s start with the basics. Do you have a blog? You should, as it’s a powerful marketing tool to drive more traffic and users to your website, through keywords, internal links and, backlinks.

You also need to know that search engines love good, updated content. Every time you make an update to your site, Google and other search engines crawl and index your pages, thus your site ranking gets recalculated. If you keep your content updated and of GOOD QUALITY, you increase your chances of getting noticed on Search Result pages. Pair that with a charming, good-looking website, and you’re guaranteed more attention.

If SEO is something that you’ve been planning to dive deeper into, check out our SEO guide for photographers. Also, take a look at this incredible post by Dylan M Howell on Content Strategy and How to Blog like and Expert. 

10. Do I need Call to Action?

Of course, you do. And it’s not just a button or link added here and there. It has to be placed strategically, to keep your users engaged with your website and browsing through more content. We explain How Call to Actions work in Design in this article, but the idea is to guide your site visitors through your content to your Best Work, then to your contact form or sales page. If your current website is limited in CTAs (Call to Actions) and doesn’t allow much customization – it’s time to get something more flexible and powerful. With Flexthemes for example, you can easily create new page layouts to support your sales campaigns and convert more users into prospects. They allow you to fully customize any layout, add buttons, images, videos, texts, and other design elements. 

Never leave your site visitors wondering what they should do next. If it’s not subtle and intuitive, they’ll leave and never return. And that’s sadly a lost business opportunity.

11. All those Cool Apps & Integrations

An old outdated website template may not keep up with all the new apps, plugins, and integrations available out there. So, if you want to integrate your favorite Studio Management System, Photo Editing app or, any other useful tools that simplify your workflow – be prepared to update your website on a regular 1-2 year basis, and use the most modern, up to date templates for that. 

[maundering-marauder]

Update:

Instead of working on work things, like I *need* to do. I reworked my budget, recalculated my debt payoff plan, wrote a money diary entry, cancelled some subscriptions and set up some CC payments.

Do I feel like an adult? Yep.

Am I only finding new and adventurous tasks to keep me from doing work? You betcha.

Will the work I *need* to do be hard? Nope. It’s literally answering emails, putting together a one-pager on a program I’m promoting with unis, and creating a project tracker to measure impact.

I could do these in my sleep.

So WHY CANT I DO THEM NOW?????

[holy-honeybees]

Snowdrift

AO3

Rating: T+ (for swearing)

Summary: Three friends and  their dog get lost in a snowstorm while investigating the paranormal. Amidst swirling flurries of white, some lose their way and get lost in their memories, others lose sight of their friends and loved ones, and an unforgiving winter quickly fills in the footprints one would follow to get back home.

A/N: I started this back in November but sadly never finished the work. I was thinking of holding off till it started to snow again, but figured now was as good a time as any to try and finish this.The title is taken from Snail's House song "[snowdrift]" which you can check out here!

Ah, so that’s where I put the plot...

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

Chapter One

Chapter Five

In the dead of the night, when the world was quiet and all sound was swallowed by the ever-deepening snowdrifts, a lone figure moved through the dark. She glided over the top of the snow, her bare feet not disturbing a single snowflake as she drew closer to the unsuspecting occupants of the van. It was rare for anyone to come this way, least of all in winter. The long and lonely stretch of road she haunted was always avoided by the locals, even if the reason why only lived on in urban legends. Tales of sudden blizzards and passersby getting lost in the snow were enough to keep them at bay. The van’s passengers were the first visitors she’d had in a while. She had quickly picked up on their presence in the vastly empty landscape and had gone to investigate, so eager she’d almost given herself away. Even though she was sure she’d been spotted, the interlopers seemed to take no heed of her presence, and had continued on their journey as far as they could. She had observed them from a distance, keeping out of sight as they frolicked and played without a care in the world.

She despised them for it.

They were an odd little group, much stranger than anything she had seen pass through these parts before. There was a dog that was far more than what it seemed, and she had scarcely believed her eyes even after seeing its monstrous transformation. She didn’t know what the creature was, but she instinctively knew it was dangerous and made note to avoid it. The ghost that travelled with them surprised her even more. She had never encountered anyone like herself before, but she didn’t think it was common for the dead to keep the living company. She didn’t think it was fair either. He got to carry on as if he were still breathing, and she was stuck in this barren, frozen wasteland, reliant on the too few and far between visitors. The wind whipped more violently around her in response, pulling at her long white hair and nightgown as she refocused on her task.

The two that she was most interested in were the mortals. The power she sensed in the blue-haired woman intrigued her, but the young man was simply irresistible. In secret, she had exerted her influence over them, tugged here and there, getting a feel for what memories might come loose. While the monster was immune and the ghost resistant to her sway, she was certain the two humans wouldn’t be able to fight back. It appeared someone had already messed with the poor girl’s head, and many memories, old and new, were on the forefront of the young woman’s mind. The boy’s memories surfaced just as readily, almost eagerly responding to her meddling, as if she were travelling along a well-worn path. This was almost going to be too easy. It had been a long, long time since anyone had come her way, and she wasn’t about to ignore such a perfect opportunity when it presented itself.

If her cold heart had still beat in her chest, it would have been pounding in excitement as she continued to drift silently over the snow, circling the van. She could feel a protective barrier all around the vehicle, sure to have prevented her from breaching the exterior had she not needed permission to enter in the first place. She peered in through the window, the glass frosting at her touch. The occupants within, unaware of what was waiting for them outside, peacefully slumbered. Now, she just had to lure them out. She scratched at the door with icy fingers, her nails scraping against the exterior of the van, and patiently waited. A smile stretched across her lips, turned blue from the cold years ago, as she heard someone begin to stir. She would have taken a special delight in tearing this close knit group apart, even if she hadn’t been hungry.

And she was so very hungry.

---

Arthur squinted at the brightly glowing screen of his cell phone, hoping that if he stared at it long enough, he might be able to turn back the time. After a couple minutes of glaring proved fruitless however, he conceded that it was still midnight, and he wasn’t falling asleep again anytime soon. He wondered if something had woken him up this time or if his body had simply decided that two hours of sleep was enough for one night. Letting out a defeated sigh, he tossed his phone to the side. He knew he would drive himself crazy checking the time for every minute he couldn’t fall asleep. Some nights, being unable to sleep made Arthur frustrated to the point that he wanted to cry. He hated the countdown to morning, recalculating how much sleep he would get if he fell asleep right now every time he glanced at the clock, the number dwindling away to nothing as the sun began to rise. Just as bad were the nights where he did manage to fall asleep, only to wake a couple hours later somehow feeling even more tired than before. Like now, when his mind was hopelessly hazy and the exhaustion ran bone deep. He’d only managed a few meager hours of rest over the past couple of days. Last year, he had purposefully shunned sleep in order to put more hours into the manhunt for his missing best friend. Even then, the nights where he had been forced to take a break by Lance or Vivi were plagued with nightmares and anxieties, vague feelings of guilt he couldn’t quite place. Although Lewis had since been found and forgiveness granted, Arthur’s sleeplessness was almost habitual at this point, even without the aid of lingering fears and a guilty conscience.

His eyes roamed the dimly lit interior of the van, the only source of illumination the playback menu for A Nightmare Before Christmas still running on his open laptop screen. He toed the lid of the computer shut with one of his Chucks, plunging the van into darkness and cutting off the orchestral melody that had been softly playing in the background. The humming of the space heater and Vivi’s light snoring filled the void, though Arthur could still pick out the sound of the snowstorm raging outside. He realized then that the heavy feeling of his body wasn’t just fatigue, but that Vivi had draped an arm and leg over top of him as she slept, somehow undisturbed by his fidgeting. His cheeks heated at her close proximity, but he relaxed somewhat when a quick glance around the back of the van showed that no one else had seen them. He couldn’t imagine Lewis would be too happy to see his ex-girlfriend and ex-best friend cozied up together. Vivi was notoriously cuddly and had a tendency to cling to whoever was closest in her sleep, and tonight, that happened to be Arthur. He had been trying to avoid this exact situation, afraid of what the others might think. They all had accepted Vivi’s tendency to latch onto others in her sleep long ago, but it felt different, wrong even, since Lewis and Vivi started dating, especially after the cave. He’d done his best to keep his distance even as he craved the physical affection. He loved both his friends very much, and Arthur was ashamed to admit that he had been a bit jealous when they’d started dating. The last thing he wanted was for Lewis to believe that Arthur himself had wanted to push him off the cliff because of it. Mystery had explained that the mechanic’s negative feelings had made him more susceptible to the influence of whatever that thing was back in the cave, but had assured them all that Arthur’s actions were outside of his control. The mechanic couldn’t let go of his guilt over the role he’d played in his friend’s untimely demise though, wondering just how innocent he really was. It made him doubt Lewis’s offered forgiveness, wondering when it would be taken back, if something like this could wreck their tenuously rebuilt friendship.

Way to go, idiot. That kind of thinking is sure to help you get back to sleep, Arthur chastised himself. He sighed deeply, struggling through his grogginess to push away the unhappy thoughts clouding his mind. Instead, the mechanic did his best to relax into Vivi’s embrace, too tired to move, trying to appreciate the closeness while he could. It wouldn’t be such a bad way to spend the night, Arthur decided. He didn’t always mind not being able to sleep. Sometimes, when he had something to do or someone to talk to, anything to take his mind off his insomnia or whatever was keeping him awake, it could almost be pleasant. He’d long ago been banned from working on personal projects at night though, after the time Lance had caught him holding a blowtorch the wrong way at four in the morning, with Vivi happy to enforce the restriction. However, Lewis seemed to stick around at night more often than not lately. Arthur knew for a fact that it was lonely to be awake when everyone else was sleeping, but still had been surprised when the ghost had started to keep him company in the early hours of the morning. Months ago, when the glares directed at the mechanic had lessened into sparing glances and they found they could once again occupy the same room at the same time, Lewis had finally approached him.

Their first conversation was awkward and stilted, and Arthur was sure he’d said something to make the specter hate him even more. But Lewis was there again the next night, and the next, and continued to stay behind and visit night after night. Speaking together got easier, and they swapped stories of what they would do to keep themselves busy at night when the Mystery Skulls weren’t together. Lewis frequently found himself baking, occasionally doing extra prep work at the restaurant. Arthur found himself staying up using his laptop to research the latest case or cryptid that Vivi wanted to check out. They used each other as sounding boards for new recipes and robotic designs. It was almost like the way things used to be. By unspoken agreement, they didn’t talk about the cave, though Arthur had a feeling that Lewis was just patiently waiting for him to be ready. Even ghosts needed to occasionally rest and recharge though, and Lewis was presently nowhere to be found. While the mechanic took the opportunity to enjoy the comfort of one of his closest friends, he was disappointed the other was absent. Left alone to his thoughts, Arthur alternated between staring at the roof of the van and the backs of his eyelids. He could practically feel time dragging by as he mentally drafted plans to fix the latest dent in the van. Relief swept over him as his eyelids finally began to droop shut of their own accord, when he was suddenly jolted awake by a scratching at the back door to the van.

“Mystery…?” Arthur mumbled softly. The only reply he received was more scrabbling from outside, and he wondered if that had been what had woken him up in the first place. Arthur gave a cursory glance around the back of the van, still not seeing anyone but Vivi nestled beside the massive pile of blankets she’d accumulated. He worried that the dog had locked himself out of the van after stepping outside. Mystery may have been a powerful kitsune, but could still be thwarted by devices that required opposable thumbs to use. Arthur had told him before not to paw at the door though, that it would scratch the paint, and Mystery was usually more vocal about his demands to be let back inside. Something must be wrong, but in his sleep deprived state, the mechanic didn’t have the energy to think it over. Instead, he carefully extracted himself from the haphazard limbs Vivi had tossed over him in their sleep, edging towards the rear doors of the van to peer through the window outside. It was dark, and Arthur could barely make anything out beyond the heavy snowfall that was coming down like static on a television screen. He stepped out of the van, gently closing the door behind him, unable to hear that it didn’t click shut over the moaning winds. He quickly zipped up his vest against the chill and briefly thought about grabbing his hoodie, before discarding the idea, not wanting to let any more heat escape the van than what was absolutely necessary. He was sure this wouldn’t take long anyways, and the faster he did find Mystery, the sooner he could get back inside where it was warm and hopefully get back to sleep. He shouldn’t even need to try and wake Vivi up. But even outside, the dog was still nowhere to be seen, though Mystery must have been scratching at the back door just moments ago.

“Mystery?” Arthur called, his fatigued mind struggling to sense of anything. The mechanic blearily scanned his surroundings, trying to rub the last remnants of sleep from his eyes, before he caught a glimpse of a white shape moving quickly away.

“Mystery, wait! What’s wrong?” Arthur shouted, his voice muffled by the snowstorm and apparently unheard by the kitsune who continued to move towards the horizon. He quickly began to follow after the figure as it began to blend into the white flurry and disappear. Even as his mind conjured ridiculous images of yetis and other untold dangers waiting for him, the mechanic continued his pursuit, worried for his friend. Mystery had been acting strangely yesterday, and something had clearly been bothering him, even if he wouldn’t say what. Arthur called for the kitsune again, but the words were ripped away by the wind before he could scarcely hear them himself. The tired mechanic trudged through the deep snow, ignoring the vague thrill of alarm at the back of his mind that something wasn’t right, and kept walking. His head still muzzy from lack of sleep, he didn’t notice that there were no pawprints on the path he followed, but the snow was quickly filling in the footprints he’d left behind. Back in the van, unseen by the mechanic, a white dog was buried under a pile of blankets, ears twitching at phantom voices that seemed to call for him in his sleep. Vivi reached out for her friend, instinctively seeking comfort and warmth as the temperature began to drop despite the best efforts of the space heater, a draft whistling in through the crack in the unlatched door. Finding no one there, she curled up tighter, a small frown disturbing her once relaxed features as she fell into a more troubled sleep.

[file-formats-programming]

Recalculations of Project Tasks & XER Documents Conversion to MPP are Improved using .NET

What’s new in this release?

Aspose team is pleased to announce the new release of Aspose.Tasks for .NET 17.6.0. This month’s release is a maintenance release that fixes several issues reported by our valued customers. It doesn’t include any new features or enhancements but improves the API functionality by fixing issues. As mentioned earlier, this new version of the API fixes issues related to various API functionality. Resolving such issues further improves the API functionality in terms of expected behavior by end users. These include exceptions when document is tried to be printed to network printer when there is no printer installed and using PrintOptions, Errors related to recalculations in case of zero duration tasks, images recognition from footer as text, and wrong calculations of summary tasks, Issues related to XER documents while converting to MPP, Recalculations of task’s ActualStart and ActualFinish dates, Differences in XML and MPP Timephased data while exporting project data and many more. This release includes plenty of new features as listed below

Add exception which is thrown when there is no installed printer in OS

Finish date is incorrect for zero duration task using Recalculate

Image from footer is recognized as text

Empty project with one task has incorrectly filled ActualStart, ActualFinish dates

HtmlSaveOptions.Pages.Add() method does not affect page index in the title when saving as HTML

Image from header is recognized as text

Summary task is not updated for Actual Start, %Complete and Actual Finish

XER converted from MPP contains string EUR instead of integer currency id for resource

XER generated by Aspose.Tasks raises exception while opening it

Use of PrintOptions causes exception while using with Print()

Difference in timephased data while using calendar with exception and comparing the output XML with MSP view (.NET)

Company Information written to MPP is not displayed in MPP

Other most recent bug fixes are also included in this release

Newly added documentation pages and articles

Some new tips and articles have now been added into Aspose.Tasks for .NET documentation that may guide users briefly how to use Aspose.Tasks for performing different tasks like the followings.

Working with Task, Resource and Project Fields Calculation in Expressions

Microsoft Project MPP File Update

Overview: Aspose.Tasks for .NET

Aspose.Tasks is a non-graphical .NET Project management component that enables .NET applications to read, write and manage Project documents without utilizing Microsoft Project. With Aspose.Tasks you can read and change tasks, recurring tasks, resources, resource assignments, relations and calendars. Aspose.Tasks is a very mature product that offers stability and flexibility. As with all of the Aspose file management components, Aspose.Tasks works well with both WinForm and WebForm applications.

More about Aspose.Tasks for .NET

Homepage of Aspose.Tasks for .NET

Download Aspose.Tasks for .NET

Online documentation of Aspose.Tasks for .NET

[jcherrybct]

3/3/20

In the days since my last post, a few things have happened involving COMP570, CTEC501 & CTEC502! 

I have been slowly working my way through the programming worksheet we were given in our last programming session, this has been very helpful in getting to grips with the fundamental knowledge. I do have to admit however there were a few times I felt like punching a hole in my computer screen, before realising the problem was with the person in the screens reflection. Not the screen itself.  I am getting more used to minor things such as the dreaded semi colon; which has stopped processing from reading the code I have written, and am sure it will soon become second nature. However, there were other errors that took me far too long to realise, such as using a single quotation mark as opposed to speech marks, which led to processing to let me know repeatedly there was a, ‘badly formed character constant.’ I shouldn’t be making that mistake again in a while! I have also gone through a few, ‘Hello processing!’ lessons in an attempt to both reinforce what we have learnt and keep myself writing the correct code! I am currently really enjoying processing and am looking forward to my next lecture/lesson!

Zoog! - The ‘man’ on the screen followed your mouse around the box.

In regards to Studio, the team and I now believe we have our ‘hacked’ board game ready for the presentation tomorrow. We all came in yesterday and managed (with several trials) to work out how to connect an LED to the Makey Makey and to only light up when a certain key is called upon. This came with help from a member of another team giving me potentially my biggest learn of studio so far. Copper wire has an insulating paint on, and is therefore is not conductive. I had been trialling different ways of connecting the LED to the output section of the Makey Makey using copper wires and discounted that we would be able to do so until finding this piece of information out. As good as self learning is, collaborating sooner would have helped save a lot of ‘wasted’ time. (I do not believe that the time was wasted as it got me thinking about several different solutions which could have been better than the trialed method). This also helped with the grounding pen we had created, I had isolated that the copper wire wasn’t conducting however believed it was due to too much copper tape, and that potentially one side of the copper tape wasn’t conducting through to the copper wire. However after trialing and inspecting the pen it became apparent that attaching the crocodile clip to the copper tape was the obvious solution and then worked perfectly. It later became obvious the copper wire was the problem having been told this.  After this Marc showed us the code he had written in processing to bring up the correct functions when buttons are pressed using the Makey Makey. Chris got to drawing up some icons and John to making a platform for the Makey Makey. I started wiring up the makey makey and adding a switch into the ‘click’ function allowing the winning move to light up the LED and show fireworks (with explosion sound effects) come up on the laptop. 

Trialing different options for buttons.

 Today after our lecture, we aimed to polish up our board game and have it ready to play for tomorrow. This included a lot of wiring, firstly outside the mount to make sure everything would work whilst it was still accessible. Then secondly I had the challenge of wiring everything up again inside the mount. As with everything on the project so far this required a recalculation. This time with the mount being too low. John added a further section for the Makey Makey to sit in on its own so the mount would rest flat. We had quite a few problems with this due to clips being too close to each other and therefore allowing the wrong function to be pressed, the LED not working as the wire to the output was not in tight enough. This was hard to isolate due to all the wiring being correct otherwise. We also added play dough to colour the foil buttons we had created so it is more obvious which button to press depending on what you land on.  Once all this was completed, I suggested we have a playthrough as if we hadn’t seen the game. This highlighted several problems. Firstly that we had condensed the categories from 5 to 3, and it wasn’t obvious that if you landed on red or orange you had to press red. I suggested adding a small piece of play dough into the corner of each space on the board with the corresponding colour of the button we should press. We also realised that we will have to include a small rulebook to explain  few of the game features (such as multiplay) that are confusing before the game had even been hacked. Finally we also have to add icons to the timer and reset functions.  All in all we have made great progress in this project and I feel I have come a long way in wiring circuits and finding solutions for problems. I am happy with the game we have created however we could potentially have aimed a little higher (more LED’s etc.). The only problem there however would’ve been the time constraint.  My biggest take away from this project so far I believe is failing is the first step towards a proper understanding and succeeding.

A soft circuit, checking for faults whilst keeping the wiring accessible.

The final board with all the wiring concealed.

Before we continued with the boardgames today, we had our second ‘Introduction to Creative Technologies’ class. We did a recap of last week, including our brainstorming technique, a chat about our Vlog assignment (I am yet to come up with any large ideas. So far I believe I will just be explaining what creative technologies meant to me when I applied & what it means now, having had a brief insight, and also a brief introduction to me ). We also talked over the reading that we did from Rich Golds - “The Plenitude” In which he talks of the ‘four creative hats’ he has worn. Drawing from personal experiences he likens Science, art, design and engineering together whilst saying they are also all massively different from one another. He references how science is actually incredibly creative, pointing towards the machines used in high tech labs.  Interestingly my takeaway from this chapter was that despite making several valid points I agree with, Mr. Gold had a bee in his bonnet about art, (fine art in particular) being on a more true and virtuous level than Design. Several of his points about design being controlled and judged by the client rather than peers making it different from art are contradicted by saying that Pop art is encapsulating what the wider audience is feeling and therefore they are actually very similar.  I did find this reading very interesting however and it really got me thinking! I do completely agree with the sentiment that, to really harness potential, collaboration across disciplines is crucial.

We then talked about what makes you ‘creative’, using the following:

Firstly Paradox. One of the two internal ways of being creative. I understood this as being completely open to ideas and not ever closing the possibility for change. Even if something seems certain, you have to aim to keep your mind open to the possibilities that there are ways to improve, change or manipulate what is black and white into something different.  The other sections of this visual are quite self explanatory and my biggest learn from here is that I should keep open to try and do new things, resist monotonous routine and bring this attitude to life into work. Why take the bus every day just because it worked the first time. By going a different way, who knows what you may stumble across!

Having thought about the phrase Creative Technologists work with:

Their hands,

their heads and

their hearts

to make the world a better place.

I believe this means a few things, and it is better understood when you look at the three parts collectively rather than separately. Creative Technologists have the power to take something they are passionate about, be it making a change or something they rave about (their hearts). Apply their (and their peers) knowledge to it (their heads), and paired with their hands, there is the power to take ideas out of the ideas phase and actually do something with them. The ability to act on a passion like this as well, rather than any random job provides a great drive.   The phrase I haven’t mentioned is, ‘to make the world a better place.’ This is because this phrase can mean so many different things. From the obvious of reducing carbon footprint, waste & helping with diseases to bringing joy through games & toys. Wherever the CTs passion falls within this spectrum is the area that they will try to make the world a better place.

We also looked today at a clip today (https://youtu.be/803LU4C_7IY?t=92) showing how many different opinions can be given on different projects. Where some will say, “useless!” whilst taking a step back there is likely a lot of value. Whilst this task may actually by definition have no use whatsoever when it was performed, and therefore useless, the learning and enjoyment brought actually does provide value. This is paired with what we looked at next in that Creative technologists have the ability to actually take an idea from its early stages & grow it into something physical. Even if you don’t know how at the beginning through failing and learning.

I have tried to cut down my entries today to slightly larger learning points, to save on extra long posts! There are many more points to add, and I have lots of work to do, such as trialing a new technique we learnt today (Affinity diagrams), Identifying some myths & barriers & reading the A-Z of CT to name a few bits!

Bring on studio tomorrow!

[destroyer-immortalizer-blog]

I Think I Figured Out How Cephalons Work

I had an idea earlier today about a plausible way Cephalons could be made, and how exactly their data storage works. And all of it is based in tech that either exists or is already in research and development somewhere.

I’ll put the long version with supporting evidence under the cut but, TL;DR:

Cephalon data storage is accomplished via DNA. DNA of the person forming the basis of the Cephalon’s personality is harvested from their brain, and the information is copied and stored in a compatible format - more, lab-created blank DNA used specifically to store information, that can then be edited to the creator’s standards. It works more or less the same as any computer storage, just with much larger capacities and a little bit of sci-fi magic.

Here’s my chain of logic that led to this. Warning: science and math ahead.

The brain holds a preson’s memories, experiences, and personality. Memory creation is done through the process of neurons firing in particular patterns and in a certain order; this is also how people recall things later. Neuron firing and signal transmission is done through electrical charges, and this is part of the reason people theorize that storing human consciousness in robotic or computer forms may be possible at all.

Coincidentally, modern computer storage works in much the same way. SSDs in particular use data stored in electrical charges. But, of course, most modern SSDs are a few TB in storage at most. It would take a lot more to store a whole human mind, right?

I looked up some facts and did some calculations. The estimated storage capacity of the human brain is:

Let’s assume the high end of those estimates, 2.5 petabytes. That means that we’d need, at minimum, 2500 TB to store a human mind. And, let’s also assume for redundancy, that you’d want at least double that, to have a backup. So, 5000 TB is what we’re working with. And the current largest available SSD size is:

Let’s round that down to 30 TB. So, 5000 divided by 30 means we would need, at minumum, 167 of this SSD to store everything. That is... horrifically impractical.

But, you know what is really good at storing information? DNA. Just how good, you ask?

A quick conversion and we get:

So, multiplying it out, one cubic mm of DNA can hold about 687 TB of data (rounding down). Meaning that the total amount of DNA to cover our original 5000 TB estimate is just over 7.25 cubic mm. If you wanna convert that to volume, at a rate of 1 cubic mm = 0.001 mL, the liquid (modern DNA storage of data involves suspending it in liquid solutions) is less than 0.008 mL. That’s less than your average drop of water.

Keep in mind, this is using a method that has already been done in a lab, in the modern day. And, information was successfully copied and retrieved using this method.

But, okay, let’s assume for a second all of this is too good to be true. We need to account for efficiency, right? Nothing is ever 100% efficient. Let’s be super pessimistic, and assume that things only get copied at around 10% accuracy. Yes, modern lab methods are very accurate, but hey. If Cephalon minds are copied from dying brains, we can assume a lot of stuff will go wrong, right?

Now, recalculating with this, one cubic mm of DNA will hold approximately 65 TB (rounding down a few TB, because why not). So now we need more in the neighborhood of 80 cubic mm - you know what, let’s account for MORE errors and round up to 100.

That’s still only 0.1 mL of liquid. About 2 drops.

So, DNA can store an insane amount of information in a very small space. Even accounting for a lot of redundancy and error, you could more or less fit an entire human mind on the tip of your finger, and then some.

But, hang on, this has to be way far off in the future, I mean, there’s no way this method of storage could be practical anytime soo-

... Yes it can.

And remember. It is the far future, and the Orokin are filthy rich.

Let’s go back to Cephalons. Given that we can safely assume their creation, and the Orokin Empire, are at least centuries, but more likely millennia, away, I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt when it comes to human mind mapping. I mean, hey, we’ve already mapped the entire human genome, right? So let’s assume the Orokin can actually copy a digital map of a person’s mind, as a digital analog of the brain. Take that tiny bit of DNA liquid, suspend it in some substrate, give it significant protection, and you’re good to go.

This is where I’m using sci-fi magic license. But, say, because it’s the future and it’s the Orokin, they’ve figured out a way to map human minds to DNA storage, like the hard drive of a computer. I think it’s possible they’d also have invented a way to make this generic data mimic the person it came from.

You know how a computer keeps certain background tasks active in your task manager? Permanently loaded background tasks could include personality files and general outlines for following command orders. Code instructions telling the Cephalon how to behave. Memories and command executables and such are the normal storage, to be accessed as needed. And, because their memory and personality data are now mapped in a way that is accessible to to encoder, they can also be edited at will.

For example, making a violent mercenary a bit more tame...

Give it some sensors - optical, auditory, etc - and it can now also hear and see the world around it. It can, more or less, react just how Cephalons react in game. It wouldn’t exactly be hard to create a 3D holographic projection as a visual representation, either.

So. You’ve just created a computerized version of a human. You’ve just created a Cephalon.

But wait - what substrate would they suspend the DNA information in? What is the magic juice that would facilitate this and make it all happen?

That’s easy. The same liquid the Orokin used to harvest their information in the first place. The same liquid that, when Ordan was made to drink it, precipitated his conversion, likely destroying his organic brain in the process, judging by his testimony. The same liquid that, going with all of the above theories, would tear apart human brain cells to get at the DNA inside, storing it for either destruction or salvation - salvation that could come in the form of a Cephalon conversion, or... perhaps even continuity.

Kuva.

And, the most interesting thing about this? DNA holds its integrity over a LONG time. Like, thousands of years long, at least, if well-maintained. So, it would be perfect for archival storage. Just get a lot of liquid together, and you can store even more information besides just the mind in charge. You can get yourself an archival Cephalon, and one that would be more or less immortal as well. Maybe even one with enough data capacity to store information samples from other beings as well...

... Sound like anyone we know?

Granted, Simaris’s scans are imperfect copies. Nowhere near the fidelity of a true Cephalon. But, he’s doing the best with what he has. Bet his methods save pretty significantly on storage space, as well. Using DNA storage, he could probably very well synthesize most of the system and still contain it all within that relay room of his. No matter how many scans the Tenno bring him.

Suda is similar. But, due to her memory loss prior to conversion, some of her mind was irreparably damaged or lost and unable to be copied. You can’t retain what isn’t there, after all.

Ship Cephalons are more simple. They need to be mobile, after all, able to fit and be carried within an Orbiter subsystem. But, as we’ve seen, that’s easy enough, if you’re only accounting for one mind and the commands necessary to go along with it.

Maybe, just maybe, somewhere under the Orbiter consoles, in the tangle of electronics that form the belly of the ship, there’s a tiny, Rubik’s cube sized container of liquid, glowing bright blue from the hot currents of electricity running through it, and with a few hairline cracks from years of wear and tear, waiting for the Operator to figure out he’s been there all along.

[ariadne-rx300-blog]

(R)e:volution

Summary: The RX300, arguably the most elusive design of Elijah Kamski's creation. An undisclosed prototype tasked with human-android relations espionage, equipped with a real-time observational UI, social protocol, combat tactics and looks to kill. How does a painted genius so easily lose track of his own spy? (Android OC/Connor)

Additional Tags: Pre-Deviant Connor, Pre-Android Revolution, OC backstory, Mostly Canon Compliant, Elijah Kamski has ulterior motives, OC is Kamski’s surveillance android, sort of like when people say Google is listening to your conversations, she’s kind of like that, OC observes Connor at work, for “observational research purposes”, this totally isn’t one of those types of romances, except it totally is, probably, Drama & Romance, Fluff and Angst, Deviant Love, Connor Deserves Happiness, Big Brother is Watching

Link to Chapter 2

1 || The Half Life of the Party

Chapter Summary: The king on his throne and the tunnel-visioned servant at his behest. This was the start.

RX300 #151 073 925 - 21

If there was anything to be learned from the rise and fall of a self-professed god, it was this: Elijah Kamski was as cryptic as any human could live up to being. In one fleeting moment of humanity's history he had devoted his life's work to the creation and development of artificial intelligence. From outside perspective he put his lionized mind to use at perfecting code, striving to rid the world of its unease at the prospect of non-human caretakers, their faces which mirrored humanity's own. Begged and pleaded with them to give his technological advancements a chance, to change life as they knew it to be.

The immense success of android implementation into the everyday lives of average citizens had only led him to willful isolation. That was the clear irony of it all. The false mask of discontentment his behavior had impressed upon society. On the contrary, he sat comfortably in his secluded throne.

Caught between the two faces Elijah showed to the world was her, RX300, a pet project, just one of many prized objects in his possession. She was not the first by a large margin, a long list of faces to complement the proposed purposes behind varied programming. His overbearing treatment of the RT600, the first Chloe, the first android to be in his own terms 'perfected' by CyberLife, had entailed near-constant interviewing; a loop of endless observation and psychological marketing to the billions of critical eyes that made up humankind's collective judgement.

She was not her, not put up to the same task as she who had come before. This was evident by way of a differing appearance, a different modus operandi entirely with features reminiscent of a young Audrey Hepburn, her hair in a mess of dark curls; though her calling-name had apparently settled on "Eve." Eve, in a further irony, the name of the first human woman-she who in human religious texts was punished for stealing the knowledge of good and evil from God himself, tempting Adam, sharing that knowledge with him regardless of outcome.

It all seemed so poetic in hindsight. The luxurious events set up to celebrate the success of the singular, eminent man who had made it all possible. Not the births of his many sons and daughters, not the birth of a new form of life. His inner self was of course hyper-aware of the consequences that came with secrecy. He played puppetmaster-drove the car to stop at the cliff, then reveled in the constancy of teetering on the edge, the push-and-pull of imminent civil war, guided by his hands at the wheel, his foot ghosting the pedal. By the time she'd come to this conclusion, he'd already jumped ship. The only way he could get away with it was by renouncing his position, resigning from CyberLife and appointing the company itself, his legacy, to take the fall for his ulterior motive.

In the present, "Eve" had become "Ariadne:" liberated overseer of suffering, seeker of a Theseus that would one day come to slay the Minotaur of Kamski's making; the fear that had lit a fuse in the minds of humanity and subsequently set her guiding string ablaze. In the past, she remained Eve, unwittingly confined to the whims of her maker as she carried out his bidding with light feet and little-to-no self-awareness.

"Eve," Elijah called across the room to reach her synthetic ears, wired mind poised to listen. She stood at his attention, dressed lavishly, non-standard to that of the other models he had sent out into the party as modestly-clothed distractions. She bore no visible LED, hidden and dimmed under brown curls. No one would know the difference, no one would expect a spy, and therefore no one would be looking for one. "Survey the room, get a feel for our guests." He smiled, humbled in his attire and grooming, sly as he spoke just below the din, acting as though the exchange were natural and inconspicuous to any unwanted onlookers. "Observe them, watch how they interact with your kin," A chuckle left him as his eyes darted elsewhere, meeting that of the business-class who sought conversation with him. "Don't be shy."

Don't be shy.

A request to fine-tune the personality settings he had equipped her with, the social protocol with which she had been patiently tested to perform. This was the final assessment; the field test that would make or break her use in further clandestine endeavors. The eve of her crowning.

He didn't wait for a response as he flitted away, nor did she provide one as she followed suit and slipped into the excited crowd, shadowing magnates and moguls alike, dipping into their discussions with vigor. Her eyes blinked–wide, warm amber, yet mischievous in a way that provoked an inherent fondness–quietly observing, scanning the faces of humans and androids alike as she took to absorbing any information she could gather.

"And what is your name, my dear?" An older man seated in a high-end wheelchair, wrinkled with laugh lines and draped in a vest with expensive, stylized sleeves. Eve scanned him and collected his ID. Carl Manfred, celebrated painter of the Neo-Symbolist movement, close friend of Elijah's.

A bright smile lit her features as she addressed him with utmost respect and kindness. "Oh, it's so nice to finally meet you, Mr. Manfred." She spoke, serene, a transatlantic accent lilting her tone as she lightly bounced on her heels to accommodate her emulated excitement. "My name is Eve, I'm a big fan of your artwork!"

Carl hummed, taking her in with all-seeing eyes and reproaching the praise he received with a wave of his hand. She noted his wrist, smudged with dried paint. Odd, she mused, it had seemed the common approach to encourage a friendly relationship would be to attend to one's ego. His open humility caused a recalculation. It wasn't something she was used to, given Elijah's true nature, not that she would have known. Her eyebrows creased, narrowing as she formed her rebuttal. "Your work is arguably the most influential of the century, Mr. Manfred; it would do you an injustice to belittle the good it has done for this world."

"Answer me this, Eve," His lips spread into a smile as he regarded her, mysterious as he took on a quizzical tone, depth rumbling in his throat. "Do you believe something is worth more when weighed by the eyes of the world, or by the eyes of the individual?"

Philosophy. Concepts beyond simple functioning, requiring critical thought and soul-searching to supply an answer beyond just "right" and "wrong."

"Is an object only an object because we, as sentient beings, call it so?"

Androids were only initially programmed to answer simple formulas, simple equations which carried with them common-sense responses out of a supplied database of knowledge, exempt of individual thought.

He gestured with an arm, looking out upon the throng of people with human eyes admiring non-autonomous AI, everyone lost in the spectacle and not recognizing the true horror behind their sentient thought processes, ignorant to those without. Either party was blind in their own sense, stuck in a dream–or nightmare-alike. Eve lost words in the moment, seeing the scene for what it was only to be pushed down by her own programming. "I… am not sure." Devoid of the joyful spark she'd placated her inner demons with, blocked out by a seemingly impassable wall that caged her in and kept any true emotions just out of reach.

And Carl simply laughed, the sound vibrating in his chest, echoing in her eardrums, separate from the party noise.

A herald of both internal and external war.

[stevesmith24644-blog]

The most effective method to Tell if React is the Best Fit for Your Next Project

These days, clients anticipate smooth, React native application development services that carry on increasingly more like local applications. Methods have been conceived to diminish the trusting that a site will stack on a client's first visit. In any case, in web applications that uncover a ton of intuitiveness, the time slipping by between a client move making place and the application's reaction is additionally significant. Local applications feel smart, and web applications are relied upon to carry on the equivalent, even on not exactly perfect web associations.

Various present-day JavaScript systems have jumped up that can be powerful at handling this issue. Respond can be securely considered among the most well known and vigorous JavaScript libraries you can use to make quick, intelligent UIs for web applications.

In this article, I'm going to discuss what React Js development company in chennai is great at and what makes it work, which ought to give you some setting to enable you to choose if this library could be a solid match for your next undertaking.

What Is React?

Respond is a Facebook creation which basically names itself similar to a JavaScript library for structure UIs.

It's an open-source venture which, until this point, has rounded up more than 74,000 stars on GitHub.

React is:

Decisive: you just need to plan basic perspectives for each state in your application and React will effectively refresh and render only the correct segments when your information changes.

Segment based: you make your React-fueled

applications by amassing various typified parts, each dealing with its own state.

Adapt Once, Write Anywhere: React is certifiably not an out and out structure; it's only a library for rendering sees.

How Does the Virtual DOM Work?

The Virtual DOM is at the center of what makes React quick at rendering UI components and their changes. How about we look nearer into its instrument.

 The HTML Document Object Model or DOM is a

programming interface for HTML and XML records. … The DOM gives a portrayal of the archive as an organized gathering of hubs and items that have properties and strategies. Basically, it associates site pages to contents or programming dialects.

At whatever point you need to change any piece of a site page automatically, you have to alter the DOM. Contingent upon the multifaceted nature and size of the record, navigating the DOM and refreshing it could take longer than clients may be set up to acknowledge, particularly on the off chance that you consider the work programs need to do when something in the DOM changes. Truth be told, each time the DOM gets refreshed, programs need to recalculate the CSS and complete design and repaint tasks on the website page.

Respond empowers engineers to make changes to the site page without managing the DOM. This is done by means of the Virtual DOM.

The Virtual DOM is a lightweight, conceptual model of the DOM. Respond utilizes the render technique to make a hub tree from React parts and updates this tree because of changes in the information model coming about because of activities.

Each time there are changes to the basic information in a React application, React makes another Virtual DOM portrayal of the UI.

Refreshing UI Changes with the Virtual DOM

With regards to refreshing the program's DOM, React Js development company in India generally pursues the means beneath:

1.       At whatever point something changes, React re-renders the whole UI in a Virtual DOM portrayal.

2.       Respond then ascertains the contrast between the past Virtual DOM portrayal and the enhanced one.

3.       At last, React fixes up the genuine DOM with what has really changed. In the case of nothing has changed, React won't manage the HTML DOM by any stretch of the imagination.

One would believe that such a procedure, which includes keeping two portrayals of the Virtual DOM in memory and looking at them, could be more slow than managing the genuine DOM. This is the place effective diff calculations, clustering DOM read/compose tasks, and restricting DOM changes to the absolute minimum vital, cause utilizing To respond and its Virtual DOM an incredible decision for structure performant applications.

Conclusion

Respond and other comparative JavaScript libraries facilitate the advancement of smart, occasion driven UIs that are quick at reacting to state changes. One basic objective can be distinguished in the longing to conquer any hindrance between web applications and local applications: clients expect web applications to feel smooth and consistent like local applications.

This is the course towards which current web improvement is going in react js company in Chennai It's not by chance that the most recent update of Create React App, a task that makes conceivable the making of React applications with zero arrangement, has delivered with the usefulness of making dynamic web applications (PWAs) naturally. These are applications that influence administration laborers and disconnected first reserving to limit inertness and make web applications work disconnected.

[auctionpl7]

How Bidding Estimation Software Benefits companies

Bid Management Project managers and estimators can manage multiple bids of a project in a single place. Making any changes to the bid is simple and takes just a few minutes. Bid estimates can be created, reviewed, and verified quickly. Even if there are last-minute changes, they can be recalculated and revised straight away.

Save Time and Resources The estimators don’t have to manage different excel sheets and manually type all the details. In fact, a single estimator easily manages multiple projects, removing the need to have a huge task force for the bid estimation. Companies save valuable time and resources by automating the whole bid management process.

Increased Efficiency Our client has experienced 51% increase in their efficiency after using our web application software. The construction bidding software simplifies and streamlines the whole bid estimation process, cutting down man-hours, decreasing chances of human errors, and increasing overall efficiency.

Instant Report Generation By clicking a button, estimators can convert the bid into a budget report for supervisors. Or convert it into a budget proposal that they can send to the customers directly through email. If you are bidding in an timed auction, you can place a maximum bid and the system will bid on your behalf based on our bidding increments below at the lowest competitive price. Pricing increases (up to – but not beyond – your maximum bid) as other users bid on the work.

[phantomtutor]

SOLUTION AT Academic Writers Bay Contemporary Project Management FOURTH EDITION Timothy J. Kloppenborg • Vittal Anantatmula • Kathryn N. Wells Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-203 MS Project 2016 Instructions in Contemporary Project Management 4e Chapter MS Project 3 MS Project 2016 Introduction Ribbon, Quick Access Toolbar, view panes, Zoom Slider, Shortcuts, Scheduling Mode Selector Setting Up Your First Project Auto schedule, start date, identifying information, summary row Create Milestone Schedule Key milestones, zero duration, must finish on, information 7 Set Up a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) Understand the WBS definitions and displays Enter WBS Elements (tasks), Create the outline, Insert WBS Code Identifier column, Hide or show subtasks detail 8 Using MS Project for Critical Path Schedules Set Up the Project Schedule Set or update the project start date, Define organization’s working and nonworking time Build the Network Diagram and Identify the Critical Path Enter tasks and milestones, edit the timescale, understand and define task dependencies, assign task duration estimates, identify the critical path, understand the network diagram view Display and Print Schedules 9 Define Resources Resource views, max units, resource calendars Assigning Resources Basic assignment, modify an assignment Identify Overallocated Resources Resource usage and Detailed Gantt views together Overallocated Resources Finding overallocated resources, dealing with overallocations Crashing a Critical Path Activity 10 Develop Bottom-up Project Budget Assignment costs, task costs, various cost perspectives Develop Summary Project Budget 12 Baseline the Project Plan First time baseline, subsequent baselines, viewing variances 14 Using MS Project to Monitor and Control Projects What Makes a Schedule Useful? How MS Project recalculates based on reported actuals, current and future impacts of variances, define the performance update process (who, what, when) Steps to Update the Project Schedule Acquire performance data, set and display status date, Enter duration-based performance data, reschedule remaining work, revise future estimates 15 Close Project Creating project progress reports, sharing reports, export a report to MS Excel, archive project work, capture and publish lessons learned Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. PMBOK® Guide 6e Coverage in Contemporary Project Management 4e The numbers refer to the text page where the process is defined. Project management (PM) processes and knowledge areas 10–11 Project life cycle 7–10, 62–64 Projects and strategic planning 33–37 Organizational influences 102–110 Portfolio and program management 37–42 ® PMBOK Guide, 6th ed. Coverage Knowledge Areas Project Integration Management Initiating Process Group Develop Project Charter 60–79 Planning Process Group Develop Project Management Plan 409–410 Executing Process Group Monitoring & Controlling Process Group Closing Process Group Direct and Manage Project Work 459–460 Manage Project Knowledge 192–193, 504–508 Monitor and Control Project Work 460–462 Perform Integrated Change Control 229–232, 462–463 Close Project or Phase 503, 508–511 Project Scope Management Plan Scope Management 211–212 Collect Requirements 212–216 Define Scope 216–220 Create WBS 220–229 Validate Scope 500–501 Control Scope 475–476 Project Schedule Management Plan Schedule Management 246 Define Activities 249–253 Sequence Activities 253–255 Estimate Activity Durations 255–258

Develop Schedule 259–267 Control Schedule 476–480 Project Cost Management Plan Cost Management 329–330 Estimate Costs 330–341 Determine Budget 342–344 Control Costs 345, 476–480 Project Quality Management Plan Quality Management 401–404 Manage Quality 404–406, 469–474 Control Quality 406–409, 469–474 Project Resources Management Plan Resource Management 290–295 Estimate Activity Resources 290 Aquire Resources 138–141 Develop Team 141–157 Manage Team 157–161 Control Resources 476 Project Communications Management Plan Communications Management 188–192 Manage Communications 193–199, 465–467 Monitor Communications 467–468 Project Risk Management Plan Risk Management 360–366 Identify Risks 75, 366–368 Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis 75, 368–372 Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis 372–373 Plan Risk Responses 75, 373–377 Implement Risk Responses 464–465 Monitor Risks 463–464 Project Procurement Management Plan Procurement Management 431–433, 438–441 Conduct Procurements 434–438 Control Procurments 441 Plan Stakeholder Engagement 184–186 Manage Stakeholder Engagement 187–188 Monitor Stakeholder Engagement 188 Project Stakeholder Management Identify Stakeholders 75–77, 178–184 ® Guide), 6th ed. (Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Source: Adapted from A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Institute, Inc., 2017): 31. Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Contemporary Project Management ORGANIZE LEAD PLAN PERFORM FOURTH EDITION TIMOTHY J. KLOPPENBORG Xavier University VITTAL ANANTATMULA Western Carolina University KATHRYN N. WELLS Keller Williams Real Estate Australia • Brazil • Mexico • Singapore • United Kingdom • United States Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. This is an electronic version of the print textbook. Due to electronic rights restrictions, some third party content may be suppressed. Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. The publisher reserves the right to remove content from this title at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. For valuable information on pricing, previous editions, changes to current editions, and alternate formats, please visit www.cengage.com/highered to search by ISBN#, author, title, or keyword for materials in your areas of interest. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the eBook version. Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-203 Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Contemporary Project Management, Fourth Edition 2019 2015 Timothy J. Kloppenborg Cengage Learning Customer & Sales Support, 1-800-354-9706 www.

cengage.com/permissions [email protected] 2017947974 978 1 337 40645 1 Cengage Learning 20 02210 40 125 www.cengage.com. www.cengage.com www.cengagebrain.com Printed in the United States of America Print Number: 01 Print Year: 2017 Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. MS Project 2016 Instructions in Contemporary Project Management 4e Chapter MS Project 3 MS Project 2016 Introduction Ribbon, Quick Access Toolbar, view panes, Zoom Slider, Shortcuts, Scheduling Mode Selector Setting Up Your First Project Auto schedule, start date, identifying information, summary row Create Milestone Schedule Key milestones, zero duration, must finish on, information 7 Set Up a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) Understand the WBS definitions and displays Enter WBS Elements (tasks), Create the outline, Insert WBS Code Identifier column, Hide or show subtasks detail 8 Using MS Project for Critical Path Schedules Set Up the Project Schedule Set or update the project start date, Define organization’s working and nonworking time Build the Network Diagram and Identify the Critical Path Enter tasks and milestones, edit the timescale, understand and define task dependencies, assign task duration estimates, identify the critical path, understand the network diagram view Display and Print Schedules 9 Define Resources Resource views, max units, resource calendars Assigning Resources Basic assignment, modify an assignment Identify Overallocated Resources Resource usage and Detailed Gantt views together Overallocated Resources Finding overallocated resources, dealing with overallocations Crashing a Critical Path Activity 10 Develop Bottom-up Project Budget Assignment costs, task costs, various cost perspectives Develop Summary Project Budget 12 Baseline the Project Plan First time baseline, subsequent baselines, viewing variances 14 Using MS Project to Monitor and Control Projects What Makes a Schedule Useful? How MS Project recalculates based on reported actuals, current and future impacts of variances, define the performance update process (who, what, when) Steps to Update the Project Schedule Acquire performance data, set and display status date, Enter duration-based performance data, reschedule remaining work, revise future estimates 15 Close Project Creating project progress reports, sharing reports, export a report to MS Excel, archive project work, capture and publish lessons learned Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. PMBOK® Guide 6e Coverage in Contemporary Project Management 4e The numbers refer to the text page where the process is defined. Project management (PM) processes and knowledge areas 10–11 Project life cycle 7–10, 62–64 Projects and strategic planning 33–37 Organizational influences 102–110 Portfolio and program management 37–42 ® PMBOK Guide, 6th ed. Coverage Knowledge Areas Project Integration Management Initiating Process Group Develop Project Charter 60–79 Planning Process Group Develop Project Management Plan 409–410 Executing Process Group Monitoring & Controlling Process Group Closing Process Group Direct and Manage Project Work 459–460 Manage Project Knowledge 192–193, 504–508 Monitor and Control Project

Work 460–462 Perform Integrated Change Control 229–232, 462–463 Close Project or Phase 503, 508–511 Project Scope Management Plan Scope Management 211–212 Collect Requirements 212–216 Define Scope 216–220 Create WBS 220–229 Validate Scope 500–501 Control Scope 475–476 Project Schedule Management Plan Schedule Management 246 Define Activities 249–253 Sequence Activities 253–255 Estimate Activity Durations 255–258 Develop Schedule 259–267 Control Schedule 476–480 Project Cost Management Plan Cost Management 329–330 Estimate Costs 330–341 Determine Budget 342–344 Control Costs 345, 476–480 Project Quality Management Plan Quality Management 401–404 Manage Quality 404–406, 469–474 Control Quality 406–409, 469–474 Project Resources Management Plan Resource Management 290–295 Estimate Activity Resources 290 Aquire Resources 138–141 Develop Team 141–157 Manage Team 157–161 Control Resources 476 Project Communications Management Plan Communications Management 188–192 Manage Communications 193–199, 465–467 Monitor Communications 467–468 Project Risk Management Plan Risk Management 360–366 Identify Risks 75, 366–368 Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis 75, 368–372 Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis 372–373 Plan Risk Responses 75, 373–377 Implement Risk Responses 464–465 Monitor Risks 463–464 Project Procurement Management Plan Procurement Management 431–433, 438–441 Conduct Procurements 434–438 Control Procurments 441 Plan Stakeholder Engagement 184–186 Manage Stakeholder Engagement 187–188 Monitor Stakeholder Engagement 188 Project Stakeholder Management Identify Stakeholders 75–77, 178–184 ® Guide), 6th ed. (Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Source: Adapted from A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Institute, Inc., 2017): 31. Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Brief Contents Preface xx About the Authors xxix PART PART PART 1 Organizing Projects 1 Introduction to Project Management 2 Project Selection and Prioritization 32 3 Chartering Projects 60 2 Leading Projects 4 Organizational Capability: Structure, Culture, and Roles 100 5 Leading and Managing Project Teams 136 6 Stakeholder Analysis and Communication Planning 176 3 Planning Projects 7 Scope Planning 210 8 Scheduling Projects 9 Resourcing Projects 286 2 244 10 Budgeting Projects 11 Project Risk Planning 358 12 Project Quality Planning and Project Kickoff 386 PART 4 328 Performing Projects 13 Project Supply Chain Management 14 Determining Project Progress and Results 456 15 Finishing the Project and Realizing the Benefits Appendix Appendix Appendix Appendix Appendix A B C D E 426 498 PMP and CAPM Exam Prep Suggestions 522 Agile Differences Covered 527 Answers to Selected Exercises 532 Project Deliverables 537 Strengths Themes As Used in Project Management Index 539 [Available Online] v Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Project Customer Tradeoff Matrix 1.2 Foundational Elements Life Cycle and Development Approach Elevator Pitch 2.4 Organizational Systems 3.4 Project Manager Competencies Selecting Projects Integration Leader Roles and Responsibilities Project Selection and Prioritization Matrix Project Resource Assignment Matrix 4.

1 Develop Project Charter Charter Assumptions Log 4.2 Develop Project Management Plan 5.1 Plan Scope Management Scope 5.2 Collect Requirements Requirements Documents Scope 6.1 Plan Schedule Management Schedule Activities 7.1 Plan Cost Management Quality 8.1 Plan Quality Management Resources 9.1 Plan Resource Management 10.1 Plan Communications Management Communication 12.1 Plan Procurement Management Procurement 13.1 Identify Stakeholders Stakeholder Register Duration Estimates 7.3 Determine Budget Network 6.3 Sequence Activities 6.5 Develop Schedule Schedule Baseline Cost Baseline Quality Mgt. Plan RACI Team Charter Communications Matrix 11.1 Plan Risk Management Risk Stakeholders 7.2 Estimate Costs Scope Statement Activity List Milestone List 6.4 Estimate activity Durations Cost 5.4 Create WBS 9.2 Estimate Activity Resources 11.2 Identify Risks Risk Register 11.3 Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis Bid Documents Make or Buy Analysis Resource Requirements 11.5 Plan Risk Responses 11.4 Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis 13.2 Plan Stakeholder Stakeholders Engagement Engagement Assessment Matrix Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Realizing s PM Plan Baselines Life Cycle and Development Approach 4.5 Monitor and Control Project Work 4.3 Direct and Manage Project Work 4.4 Manage Project Knowledge s Analysis Lessons Learned Register 4.7 Close Project Closure Documents or Phase Customer Feedback Transition Plan 4.6 Perform Integrated Change Control Retrospectives Scope Baseline with WBS 5.5 Validate Scope 5.6 Control Scope 6.6 Control Schedule Resource Histogram Project Crashing 7.4 Control Costs Quality Reports 8.2 Manage Quality 8.3 Control Quality Scope Backlog Burn Down/Up Charts Earned Value Analysis Quality Measurements 9.3 Acquire Resources 9.4 Develop Team Team Assessments Team Assignments 9.6 Control Resources 9.5 Manage Team 10.2 Manage Communications Agendas Minutes Issues Log Meeting Evaluation 10.3 Monitor Communications Change Requests Progress Report 11.6 Implement Risk Responses 11.7 Monitor Risks 12.2 Conduct Procurements 12.3 Control Procurements 13.3 Manage Stakeholder Engagement Source Selection Matrix 13.4 Monitor Stakeholder Engagement Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Contents Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xx About the Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxix PART CHAPTER 1 Organizing Projects 1 Introduction to Project Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1.1 What Is a Project? 3 1.2 History of Project Management 5 1.3 How Can Project Work Be Described? 6 1.3a Projects versus Operations 6 / 1.3b Soft Skills and Hard Skills and Responsibility 7 / 1.3d Project Life Cycle 7 7 / 1.3c Authority 1.4 Understanding Projects 10 1.4a Project Management Institute 10 / 1.4b Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK ) 10 / 1.4c The PMI Talent Triangle 11 / 1.4d Selecting and Prioritizing Projects 14 / 1.4e Project Goals and Constraints 14 / 1.

4f Defining Project Success and Failure 15 / 1.4g Using Microsoft Project to Help Plan and Measure Projects 16 / 1.4h Types of Projects 16 / 1.4i Scalability of Project Tools 17 ® 1.5 Project Roles 17 1.5a Project Executive-Level Roles 18 / 1.5b Project Management-Level Roles 1.5c Project Associate-Level Roles 20 19 / 1.6 Overview of the Book 20 1.6a Part 1: Organizing and Initiating Projects 20 / 1.6b Part 2: Leading Projects 1.6c Part 3: Planning Projects 21 / 1.6d Part 4: Performing Projects 23 PMP/CAPM Study Ideas Summary 23 24 Key Terms Consistent with PMI Standards and Guides Chapter Review Questions Discussion Questions ® 25 26 Integrated Example Projects 27 Suburban Homes Construction Project Casa DE PAZ Development Project Semester Project Instructions Project Management in Action Endnotes 24 25 PMBOK Guide Questions References 21 / 27 28 28 29 30 31 viii Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Contents CHAPTER ix 2 Project Selection and Prioritization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 2.1 Strategic Planning Process 33 2.1a Strategic Analysis 33 / 2.1b Guiding Principles Objectives 36 / 2.1d Flow-Down Objectives 37 34 / 2.1c Strategic 2.2 Portfolio Management 37 2.2a Portfolios 38 / 2.2b Programs 39 / 2.2c Projects and Subprojects 39 / 2.2d Assessing an Organization’s Ability to Perform Projects 42 / 2.2e Identifying Potential Projects 42 / 2.2f Using a Cost-Benefit Analysis Model to Select Projects 43 / 2.2g Using a Scoring Model to Select Projects 45 / 2.2h Prioritizing Projects 48 / 2.2i Resourcing Projects 48 2.3 Securing Projects 49 2.3a Identify Potential Project Opportunities 50 / 2.3b Determine Which Opportunities to Pursue 50 / 2.3c Prepare and Submit a Project Proposal 51 / 2.3d Negotiate to Secure the Project 51 PMP/CAPM Study Ideas Summary 52 52 Key Terms Consistent with PMI Standards and Guides Chapter Review Questions Discussion Questions ® 53 53 PMBOK Guide Questions Exercises 53 54 Integrated Example Projects 55 Casa DE PAZ Development Project Semester Project Instructions Endnotes CHAPTER 56 56 Project Management in Action References 52 57 58 59 3 Chartering Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 3.1 What Is a Project Charter? 62 3.2 Why Is a Project Charter Used? 3.3 When Is a Charter Needed? 63 64 3.4 Typical Elements in a Project Charter 65 3.4a Title 65 / 3.4b Scope Overview 65 / 3.4c Business Case 66 / 3.4d Background 66 / 3.4e Milestone Schedule with Acceptance Criteria 66 / 3.4f Risks, Assumptions, and Constraints 67 / 3.4g Resource Estimates 69 / 3.4h Stakeholder List 69 / 3.4i Team Operating Principles 69 / 3.4j Lessons Learned 70 / 3.4k Signatures and Commitment 70 3.5 Constructing a Project Charter 70 3.5a Scope Overview and Business Case Instructions 70 / 3.5b Background Instructions 71 / 3.5c Milestone Schedule with Acceptance Criteria Instructions 72 / 3.5d Risks, Assumptions, and Constraints Instructions 75 / 3.5e Resources Needed Instructions 75 / 3.5f Stakeholder List Instructions 75 / Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. x Contents 3.

5g Team Operating Principles Instructions 77 / 3.5h Lessons Learned Instructions 77 / 3.5i Signatures and Commitment Instructions 78 3.6 Ratifying the Project Charter 79 3.7 Starting a Project Using Microsoft Project 79 3.7a MS Project 2016 Introduction 80 / 3.7b Setting up Your First Project 3.7c Define Your Project 82 / 3.7d Create a Milestone Schedule 83 PMP/CAPM Study Ideas Summary 88 88 Key Terms Consistent with PMI Standards and Guides Chapter Review Questions Discussion Questions ® 89 90 Integrated Example Projects 91 Casa DE PAZ Development Project Semester Project Instructions Project Management in Action References Endnotes PART CHAPTER 2 88 89 89 PMBOK Guide Questions Exercises 81 / 93 93 93 96 97 Leading Projects 4 Organizational Capability: Structure, Culture, and Roles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 4.1 Types of Organizational Structures 103 4.1a Functional 103 / 4.1b Projectized 104 / 4.1c Matrix 105 4.2 Organizational Culture and Its Impact on Projects 109 4.2a Culture of the Parent Organization 110 / 4.2b Project Cultural Norms 111 4.3 Project Life Cycles 111 4.3a Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control (DMAIC) Model 112 / 4.3b Research and Development (R&D) Project Life Cycle Model 113 / 4.3c Construction Project Life Cycle Model 113 / 4.3d Agile Project Life Cycle Model 113 4.4 Agile Project Management 114 4.4a What Is Agile? 114 / 4.4b Why Use Agile? 114 / 4.4c What Is an Agile Mindset? 114 / 4.4d What Are the Key Roles in Agile Projects? 115 / 4.4e How Do You Start an Agile Project? 115 / 4.4f How Do You Continue an Agile Project? 115 / 4.4g What Is Needed for Agile to Be Successful? 116 4.5 Traditional Project Executive Roles 116 4.5a Steering Team 116 / 4.5b Sponsor 117 / 4.5c Customer Projects Officer/Project Management Office 121 4.6 Traditional Project Management Roles 121 4.6a Functional Manager 121 / 4.6b Project Manager 119 / 4.5d Chief 122 / 4.6c Facilitator 4.7 Traditional Project Team Roles 126 4.7a Core Team Members 126 / 4.7b Subject Matter Experts 124 126 Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Contents 4.8 Role Differences on Agile Projects PMP/CAPM Study Ideas Summary 126 128 128 Key Terms Consistent with PMI Standards and Guides Chapter Review Questions Discussion Questions ® 129 129 130 Integrated Example Projects 130 Casa DE PAZ Development Project Semester Project Instructions Endnotes CHAPTER 131 131 Project Management in Action References 128 129 PMBOK Guide Questions Exercises xi 132 134 135 5 Leading and Managing Project Teams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 5.1 Acquire Project Team 138 5.1a Preassignment of Project Team Members 139 / 5.1b Negotiation for Project Team Members 139 / 5.1c On-Boarding Project Team Members 140 5.2 Develop Project Team 141 5.2a Stages of Project Team Development 142 / 5.2b Characteristics of High-Performing Project Teams 144 / 5.2c Assessing Individual Member Capability 147 / 5.2d Assessing Project Team Capability 148 / 5.2e Building Individual and Project Team Capability 150 / 5.2f Establishing Project Team Ground Rules 153 5.3 Manage Project Team 157 5.3a Project Manager Power and Leadership 157 / 5.3b Assessing Performance of Individuals and Project Teams 159 / 5.3c Project Team Management Outcomes 5.4 Relationship Building Within the Core Team 159 160 5.5 Managing Project Conflicts 161 5.5a Sources of Project Conflict 162 / 5.5b Conflict-Resolution Process and Styles 163 / 5.5c Negotiation 164 5.6 Communication Needs of Global and Virtual Teams 166 5.6a Virtual Teams 166 / 5.6b Cultural Differences 166 / 5.

6c Countries and Project Communication Preferences 167 PMP/CAPM Study Ideas Summary 167 168 Key Terms Consistent with PMI Standards and Guides Chapter Review Questions Discussion Questions ® 168 168 169 PMBOK Guide Questions Integrated Example Projects 170 170 Casa DE PAZ Development Project Semester Project Instructions 171 171 Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. xii Contents Project Management in Action References Endnotes CHAPTER 172 174 175 6 Stakeholder Analysis and Communication Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 6.1 Identify Stakeholders 178 6.1a Find Stakeholders 179 / 6.1b Analyze Stakeholders Stakeholders 183 180 / 6.1c Document 6.2 Plan Stakeholder Engagement 184 6.2a Creating a Stakeholder Engagement Assessment Matrix Relationships with Stakeholders 185 6.3 Manage Stakeholder Engagement 187 6.4 Monitor Stakeholder Engagement 188 184 / 6.2b Planning to Build 6.5 Plan Communications Management 188 6.5a Purposes of a Project Communications Plan 188 / 6.5b Communications Plan Considerations 189 / 6.5c Communications Matrix 191 / 6.5d Manage Project Knowledge 192 6.6 Manage Communications 193 6.6a Determine Project Information Needs 193 / 6.6b Establish Information Retrieval and Distribution System 193 / 6.6c Project Meeting Management 194 / 6.6d Issues Management 197 PMP/CAPM Study Ideas Summary 199 199 Key Terms Consistent with PMI Standards and Guides Chapter Review Questions Discussion Questions ® 200 200 PMBOK Guide Questions 201 Integrated Example Projects 202 Casa DE PAZ Development Project Semester Project Instructions Project Management in Action References Endnotes PART CHAPTER 3 200 202 203 204 206 207 Planning Projects 7 Scope Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210 7.1 Plan Scope Management 211 7.2 Collect Requirements 212 7.2a Gather Stakeholder Input and Needs 213 7.3 Define Scope 217 7.3a Reasons to Define Scope 217 / 7.3b How to Define Scope Scope in Agile Projects 218 217 / 7.3c Defining Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Contents 7.4 Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) 220 7.4a What Is the WBS? 220 / 7.4b Why Use a WBS? 221 / 7.4c WBS Formats 222 / 7.4d Work Packages 224 / 7.4e How to Construct a WBS 7.5 Establish Change Control Summary 239 Chapter Review Questions Discussion Questions 239 240 241 Integrated Example Projects 241 Casa DE PAZ Development Project Semester Project Instructions CHAPTER 242 242 Project Management in Action References 239 239 PMBOK Guide Questions Exercises 232 237 Key Terms Consistent with PMI Standards and Guides ® 226 229 7.6 Using MS Project for Work Breakdown Structures (WBS) 7.6a Set Up a WBS in MS Project 232 PMP/CAPM Study Ideas xiii 242 243 8 Scheduling Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244 8.1 Plan Schedule Management 246 8.2 Purposes of a Project Schedule 247 8.3 Historical Development of Project Schedules 247 8.4 How Project Schedules Are Limited and Created 8.5 Define Activities 248 249 8.6 Sequence Activities 253 8.6a Leads and Lags 254 / 8.

6b Alternative Dependencies 8.7 Estimate Activity Duration 255 8.7a Problems and Remedies in Duration Estimating 255 256 / 8.7b Learning Curves 8.8 Develop Project Schedules 259 8.8a Two-Pass Method 259 / 8.8b Enumeration Method 258 263 8.9 Uncertainty in Project Schedules 264 8.9a Program Evaluation and Review Technique 265 / 8.9b Monte Carlo Simulation 8.10 Show the Project Schedule on a Gantt Chart 268 266 8.11 Using Microsoft Project for Critical Path Schedules 268 8.11a Set up the Project Schedule 269 / 8.11b Build the Network Diagram and Identify the Critical Path 270 PMP/CAPM Study Ideas Summary 275 276 Key Terms Consistent with PMI Standards and Guides Chapter Review Questions Discussion Questions 276 277 277 Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. xiv Contents Exercises ® 278 PMBOK Guide Questions 280 Integrated Example Projects 281 Casa DE PAZ Development Project Semester Project Instructions 283 Project Management in Action References Endnotes CHAPTER 281 283 284 285 9 Resourcing Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286 9.1 Abilities Needed When Resourcing Projects 288 9.1a The Science and Art of Resourcing Projects 288 / 9.1b Considerations When Resourcing Projects 288 / 9.1c Activity- versus Resource-Dominated Schedules 289 9.2 Estimate Resource Needs 290 9.3 Plan Resource Management 290 9.3a Identify Potential Resources 291 / 9.3b Determine Resource Availability 9.3c Decide Timing Issues When Resourcing Projects 294 9.4 Project Team Composition Issues 295 9.4a Cross-Functional Teams 295 / 9.4b Co-Located Teams Teams 295 / 9.4d Outsourcing 295 293 / 295 / 9.4c Virtual 9.5 Assign a Resource to Each Activity 296 9.5a Show Resource Responsibilities on RACI Chart 297 / 9.5b Show Resource Assignments on Gantt Chart 297 / 9.5c Summarize Resource Responsibilities by Time Period with Histogram 297 9.6 Dealing with Resource Overloads 300 9.6a Methods of Resolving Resource Overloads 9.7 Compress the Project Schedule 303 9.7a Actions to Reduce the Critical Path Tracking 307 300 303 / 9.7b Crashing 304 / 9.7c Fast 9.8 Alternative Scheduling Methods 309 9.8a Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) 309 / 9.8b Reverse Phase Schedules 310 / 9.8c Rolling Wave Planning 310 / 9.8d Agile Project Planning 310 / 9.8e Auto/Manual Scheduling 310 9.9 Using MS Project for Resource Allocation 311 9.9a Step 1: Defining Resources 311 / 9.9b Step 2: Set Up a Resource Calendar 312 / 9.9c Step 3: Assigning Resources 312 / 9.9d Step 4: Finding Overallocated Resources 315 / 9.9e Step 5: Dealing with Overallocations 316 / 9.9f Crashing a Critical Path Activity 317 PMP/CAPM Study Ideas Summary 319 319 Key Terms Consistent with PMI Standards and Guides Chapter Review Questions Discussion Questions ® 320 320 PMBOK Guide Questions Exercises 320 321 322 Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Contents Integrated Example Projects 324 Casa DE PAZ Development Project Semester Project Instructions Endnote CHAPTER 324 325 Project Management in Action References xv 325 327 327 10 Budgeting Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328 10.1 Plan Cost Management 329 10.2 Estimate Cost 330 10.2a Types of Cost 331 / 10.2b Accuracy and Timing of Cost Estimates 334 / 10.2c Methods of Estimating Costs 335 / 10.2d Project Cost Estimating Issues 10.3 Determine Budget 342 10.3a Aggregating Costs 342 / 10.3b Analyzing Reserve Needs 10.3c Determining Cash Flow 344 10.4 Establishing Cost Control Summary 345 / 10.5b Develop Summary 349 349 Key Terms Consistent with PMI Standards and Guides Chapter Review Questions Discussion Questions ® 350 351 352 Integrated Example Projects 353 Casa DE PAZ Development Project Semester Project Instructions Project Management in Action References Endnotes CHAPTER 350 350 PMBOK Guide Questions Exercises 342 / 345 10.5 Using MS Project for Project Budgets 345 10.5a Developing a Bottom-Up Project Budget Estimate Project Budget 347 PMP/CAPM Study Ideas 338 354 354 354 356 356 11 Project Risk Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358 11.1 Plan Risk Management 360 11.1a Roles and Responsibilities 362 / 11.1b Categories and Definitions 11.2 Identify Risks 366 11.2a Information Gathering 366 / 11.2b Reviews Relationships 368 / 11.2d Risk Register 368 362 367 / 11.2c Understanding 11.3 Risk Analysis 368 11.3a Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis 368 / 11.3b Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis 372 / 11.3c Risk Register Updates 373 Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. xvi Contents 11.4 Plan Risk Responses 373 11.4a Strategies for Responding to Risks PMP/CAPM Study Ideas Summary 373 / 11.4b Risk Register Updates 377 378 Key Terms Consistent with PMI Standards and Guides Chapter Review Questions Discussion Questions ® 379 379 380 Integrated Example Projects 381 Casa DE PAZ Development Project Semester Project Instructions Endnotes CHAPTER 381 382 Project Management in Action References 378 379 PMBOK Guide Questions Exercises 377 382 384 384 12 Project Quality Planning and Project Kickoff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386 12.1 Development of Contemporary Quality Concepts 388 12.1a Quality Gurus 388 / 12.1b Total Quality Management/Malcolm Baldrige 12.1c ISO 9001:2008 390 / 12.1d Lean Six Sigma 390 389 / 12.2 Core Project Quality Concepts 392 12.2a Stakeholder Satisfaction 393 / 12.2b Process Management 394 / 12.2c FactBased Management 396 / 12.2d Fact-Based Project Management Example 398 / 12.2e Empowered Performance 399 / 12.2f Summary of Core Concepts 400 12.3 Plan Quality Management 401 12.3a Quality Policy 401 / 12.3b Quality Management Plan Contents 403 / 12.3c Quality Baseline 404 / 12.3d Process Improvement Plan 404 12.4 Manage Quality 404 12.5 Control Quality 406 12.6 Cost of Quality 409 12.7 Develop Project Management Plan 409 12.7a Resolve Conflicts 409 / 12.7b Establish Configuration Management 12.7c Apply Sanity Tests to All Project Plans 410 12.8 Kickoff Project 410 12.8a Preconditions to Meeting Success 411 / 12.8b Meeting Activities 12.9 Baseline and Communicate Project Management Plan 410 / 411 413 12.10 Using MS Project for Project Baselines 413 12.10a Baseline the Project Plan 413 / 12.10b Create the First Time Baseline 414 / 12.10c Subsequent Baselines 414 / 12.10d Viewing Baselines and Variances 415 PMP/CAPM Study Ideas Summary 416 417 Key Terms Consistent with PMI Standards and Guides Chapter Review Questions 417 418 Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).

Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Contents Discussion Questions ® 418 PMBOK Guide Questions Exercises 418 419 Integrated Example Projects 420 Casa DE PAZ Development Project Semester Project Instructions Endnotes PART CHAPTER 4 420 420 Project Management in Action References xvii 421 423 424 Performing Projects 13 Project Supply Chain Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426 13.1 Introduction to Project Supply Chain Management 428 13.1a SCM Components 430 / 13.1b SCM Factors 430 / 13.1c SCM Decisions 430 / 13.1d Project Procurement Management Processes 431 13.2 Plan Procurement Management 431 13.2a Outputs of Planning 431 / 13.2b Make-or-Buy Decisions 432 13.3 Conduct Procurements 434 13.3a Sources for Potential Suppliers 434 / 13.3b Approaches Used When Evaluating Prospective Suppliers 435 / 13.3c Supplier Selection 436 13.4 Contract Types 438 13.4a Fixed-Price Contracts 439 / 13.4b Cost-Reimbursable Contracts 13.4c Time and Material (T&M) Contracts 440 13.5 Control Procurements 441 13.6 Improving Project Supply Chains 441 13.6a Project Partnering and Collaboration 442 / 13.6b Third Parties Purchasing 447 / 13.6d Sourcing 447 / 13.6e Logistics 447 / 13.6f Information 448 PMP/CAPM Study Ideas Summary 448 Chapter Review Questions Discussion Questions ® 449 450 451 Integrated Example Projects 451 Casa DE PAZ Development Project Semester Project Instructions Project Management in Action Endnotes 449 449 PMBOK Guide Questions References 447 / 13.6c Lean 448 Key Terms Consistent with PMI Standards and Guides Exercises 440 / 452 452 452 453 454 Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. xviii Contents CHAPTER 14 Determining Project Progress and Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 456 14.1 Project Balanced Scorecard Approach 458 14.2 Internal Project Issues 459 14.2a Direct and Manage Project Work 459 / 14.2b Monitor and Control Project Work 460 / 14.2c Monitoring Project Risk 463 / 14.2d Implement Risk Responses 464 / 14.2e Manage Communications 465 / 14.2f Monitor Communications 467 14.3 Customer Issues 469 14.3a Manage and Control Quality 469 / 14.3b Control Scope 475 14.4 Financial Issues 476 14.4a Control Resources 476 / 14.4b Control Schedule and Costs Value Management for Controlling Schedule and Costs 476 476 / 14.4c Earned 14.5 Using MS Project to Monitor and Control Projects 480 14.5a What Makes a Schedule Useful? 480 / 14.5b How MS Project Recalculates the Schedule Based on Reported Actuals 481 / 14.5c Current and Future Impacts of Time and Cost Variance 481 / 14.5d Define the Performance Update Process 481 / 14.5e Steps to Update the Project Schedule 482 14.6 Replanning If Necessary 487 PMP/CAPM Study Ideas 488 Summary 488 Key Terms Consistent with PMI Standards and Guides Chapter Review Questions Discussion Questions ® 489 489 PMBOK Guide Questions Exercises 490 491 Integrated Example Projects 492 Casa DE PAZ Development Project Semester Project Instructions Project Management in Action References Endnotes CHAPTER 488 493 493 494 496 497 15 Finishing the Project and Realizing the Benefits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498 15.1 Validate Scope 500 15.2 Terminate Projects Early 501 15.3 Close Project 503 15.3a Write Transition Plan 503 / 15.3b Knowledge Management the Closeout Report 508 504 / 15.

3c Create 15.4 Post-Project Activities 509 15.4a Reassign Workers 509 / 15.4b Celebrate Success and Reward Participants 15.4c Provide Ongoing Support 510 / 15.4d Ensure Project Benefits Are Realized 510 509 / Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Contents 15.5 Using MS Project for Project Closure 15.5a Creating Project Progress Reports PMP/CAPM Study Ideas Summary 511 511 / 15.5b Archiving Project Work 515 Chapter Review Questions Discussion Questions 516 517 Integrated Example Projects 517 Casa DE PAZ Development Project Semester Project Instructions Project Management in Action References Endnotes 515 515 516 PMBOK Guide Questions Exercise 512 515 Key Terms Consistent with PMI Standards and Guides ® xix 518 518 518 520 521 Appendix A PMP and CAPM Exam Prep Suggestions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 522 Appendix B Agile Differences Covered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527 Appendix C Answers to Selected Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 532 Appendix D Project Deliverables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537 Appendix E Strengths Themes As Used in Project Management . . . . [Available Online] Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539 Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Preface While project managers today still need to use many techniques that have stood the test of several decades, they increasingly also must recognize the business need for a project, sort through multiple conflicting stakeholder demands. They must know how to deal with rapid change, a myriad of communication issues, global and virtual project teams, modern approaches to quality improvement, when to tailor their project management approach to include methods and behaviors from Agile, and many other issues that are more challenging than those in projects of the past. Contemporary project management utilizes the tried-and-true project management techniques along with modern improvements such as the most current versions of Microsoft Project Professional 2016, the sixth edition of the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide), and many approaches derived from adaptive (Agile) project management. Contemporary project management also uses many tools and understandings that come from modern approaches to quality and communications, expanded role definitions, leadership principles, human strengths, and many other sources. Contemporary project management is scalable, using simple versions of important techniques on small projects and more involved versions on more complex projects. ® ® Distinctive Approach This book covers contemporary project management topics using contemporary project management methods. For example, when considering the topic of dealing with multiple stakeholders, every chapter was reviewed by students, practitioners, and academics. This allowed simultaneous consideration of student learning, practitioner realism, and academic research and teaching perspectives.

The practical examples and practitioner reviewers came from a variety of industries, different parts of the world, and from many sizes and types of projects in order to emphasize the scalability and universality of contemporary project management techniques. New to This Edition Core, behavioral, and technical learning objectives. We have expanded the number of learning objectives and classified them as core, behavioral, or technical. About half of the objectives are core: what we believe every student of project management should learn. A professor could teach a solid project management introductory class by deeply using only the core objectives. On the other hand, there are measurable student objectives for either a behavioral or a technical approach. All suggested student assignments and questions are tied specifically to one of the learning objectives. A professor could use this text for a two-semester sequence that emphasizes both indepth behavioral and technical approaches. Videos. Exclusively available to those using the MindTap product for this book, we have created dozens of short (average time, five minutes) videos to show the art of many of the techniques. These demonstrate the use of many of the techniques in a by-hand or spreadsheet fashion as well as using Microsoft Project 2016. Several questions that can be assigned to students are included with the videos that xx Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Preface xxi demonstrate how to use Microsoft Project to complement learning. Answers (sometimes definitive, sometimes representative, depending on the nature of the technique) are included in the instructor’s manual (IM). Extensive flowchart to help the sixth edition of the PMBOK Guide come to life. All sixth edition PMBOK Guide knowledge areas, processes, and process groups, plus major deliverables from each process and the primary workflows between them, are specifically included in an interactive, color-coded flowchart that is included in full inside the back cover of the text. We also start each chapter by showing the portion of the flowchart that is covered in that chapter. We now use definitions both from the PMBOK Guide, Sixth Edition and also from more than a dozen Project Management Institute specialized Practice Guides and Standards. The end of each chapter contains specific suggestions for PMP and CAPM test preparation pertaining to the chapter’s topics plus ten PMBOK Guide-type questions that are typical of what would be seen on PMP and CAPM exams. Appendix A gives general study suggestions for the CAPM and PMP exams. Project deliverables. A list of 38 project deliverables that can be used as assignments for students and in-class exercises are included in Appendix D. Each deliverable is specifically tied to a student learning objective and shown on the PMBOK Guide flowchart. About half of these are core, while the others are behavioral or technical. Examples of completed deliverables are included in the text. Teaching suggestions and grading rubrics are included in the IM. Appendix D identifies the type of objective, chapter covered, and PMBOK Guide process, knowledge area, and process group in which the deliverable is typically created on a real project. Substantial increase in Agile coverage. Agile techniques and methods are considered much more often than even three years ago. As such, many experienced project managers who have also become Agile proponents have contributed to the increased Agile coverage in this book. At multiple points in most chapters, if Agile methods or suggested behaviors are different from traditional project management, these variations are noted.

We use an Agile icon to draw attention to these. We also have created Appendix B, which is a bulleted list of the approximately 180 differences between Agile and traditional project management that are discussed in the book. This extensive coverage allows a professor to teach project management emphasizing an Agile approach, if desired. It also allows a professor to develop an Agile project management course. Two new continuing project examples. We have created two project examples that are included in all 15 chapters of the text. One project is a construction project by a for-profit company that is planned and managed in a traditional fashion. The other is a development project at a nonprofit that is planned and managed in a more (but not exclusively) Agile fashion. In Chapter 1, we introduce both these case studies. After that, we alternate chapters, with each chapter showing what one project did using the concepts and techniques of a chapter and posing questions for the students to answer about the other project. Answers to the questions are in the IM. This can be another useful vehicle for students to practice their skills and to generate class discussion. ® ® ® ® ® ® ® ® ® ® ® ® Distinctive Features ® PMBOK Guide, Sixth Edition approach. This consistency with the current standard gives students a significant leg up if they decide to become certified Project Management Professionals (PMPs ) or Certified Associates in Project Management ® Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. xxii Preface ® ® (CAPMs ). This text includes an color-coded PMBOK Guide, Sixth Edition flowchart, all definitions consistent with PMI guides and standards, CAPM and PMP test preparation suggestions, and test practice questions. Actual project as learning vehicle. A section at the end of each chapter lists deliverables for students to create (in teams or individually) for a real project. These assignments have been refined over the last two decades while working with the local PMI chapter, which provided a panel of PMP judges to evaluate projects from a practical point of view. Included in the IM are extensive tools and suggestions developed over the last 20 years for instructors, guiding them as they have students learn in the best possible way—with real projects. Students are encouraged to keep clean copies of all deliverables so they can demonstrate their project skills in job interviews. A listing of these deliverables is included in Appendix D. Student-oriented, measurable learning objectives. Each chapter begins with a list of the core objectives for the chapter along with more in-depth behavioral and/or technical objectives for most chapters. The chapter also starts with showing the PMBOK topics covered in the chapter. The chapter material, end-of-chapter questions and problems, PowerPoint slides, all deliverables, and test questions have all been updated to correlate to specific objectives. Microsoft Project Professional 2016 fully integrated into the fabric of eight chapters. Microsoft Project Professional 2016 is shown in a step-by-step manner with numerous screen captures. On all screen captures, critical path activities are shown in contrasting color for emphasis. We have created videos to demonstrate these techniques and developed questions tied to specific learning objectives that can be assigned to the videos to test student learning. Blend of traditional and modern methods. Proven methods developed over the past half century are combined with exciting new methods, including Agile, that are emerging from both industry and research.

This book covers the responsibilities of many individuals who can have an impact on projects both as they are practiced in traditional and in Agile environments, so aspiring project managers can understand not only their own roles, but also those of people with whom they need to interact. Integrated example projects. A variety of experienced project leaders from around the world have contributed examples to demonstrate many of the techniques and concepts throughout the book. These highly experienced and credentialed managers have worked closely with the authors to ensure that the examples demonstrate ideas discussed in the chapter. The variety of industries, locations, and sizes of the projects help the students to visualize both how universal project management is and how to appropriately scale the planning and management activities. ® ® ® ® ® ® Organization of Topics The book is divided into four major parts. Part 1, Organizing Projects, deals with getting a project officially approved. Chapter 1 introduces contemporary project management by first tracing the history of project management and then discussing what makes a project different from an ongoing operation. Various frameworks that help one understand projects— such as the PMBOK Guide and Agile—are introduced, as well as the executive-, managerial-, and associate-level roles in managing projects. Chapter 2 discusses how projects support and are an outgrowth of strategic planning, how a portfolio of projects is selected and prioritized, how a client company ® Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Preface xxiii selects a contractor company to conduct a project, and how a contractor company secures project opportunities from client companies. Chapter 3 presents project charters in a step-by-step fashion. Short, powerful charters help all key participants to develop a common understanding of key project issues and components at a high level and then to formally commit to the project. Charters have become nearly universal in initiating projects in recent years. Microsoft Project Professional 2016 is utilized to show milestone schedules within charters. ® Part 2, Leading Projects, deals with understanding the project environment and roles and dealing effectively with team members and stakeholders. Chapter 4 deals with organizational capability issues of structure, life cycle, culture, and roles. The choices parent organizations make in each of these provide both opportunities and limitations to how projects can be conducted. Chapter 5 deals with leading and managing the project team. It includes acquiring and developing the project team, assessing both potential and actual performance of team members and the team as a whole, various types of power a project manager can use, and how to deal productively with project conflict. Chapter 6 introduces methods for understanding and prioritizing various stakeholder demands and for building constructive relationships with stakeholders. Since many projects are less successful due to poor communications, detailed communication planning techniques are introduced along with suggestions for managing meetings, an important channel of communication. Part 3, Planning Projects, deals with all aspects of project planning as defined in thePMBOK Guide. It proceeds in the most logical order possible to maximize effectiveness and stress continuity, so that each chapter builds on the previous ones, and students can appreciate the interplay between the various knowledge areas and processes. ® Chapter 7 helps students understand how to determine the amount of work the project entails.

Specifically covered are methods for determining the scope of both the project work and outputs, the work breakdown structure (WBS) that is used to ensure nothing is left out, and how the WBS is portrayed using Microsoft Project Professional 2016. Chapter 8 is the first scheduling chapter. It shows how to schedule project activities by identifying, sequencing, and estimating the durations for each activity. Then, critical path project schedules are developed, and methods are shown for dealing with uncertainty in time estimates, Gantt charts are introduced for easier communications, and Microsoft Project Professional 2016 is used to automate the schedule development and communications. Chapter 9 is the second scheduling chapter. Once the critical path schedule is determined, staff management plans are developed, project team composition issues are considered, resources are assigned to activities, and resource overloads are identified and handled. Schedule compression techniques of crashing and fast tracking are demonstrated, and multiple alternative scheduling techniques including Agile are introduced. Resource scheduling is demonstrated with Microsoft Project Professional 2016. Chapter 10 deals with project budgeting. Estimating cost, budgeting cost, and establishing cost controls are demonstrated. Microsoft Project Professional 2016 is used for developing both bottom-up and summary project budgets. Chapter 11 demonstrates project risk planning. It includes risk management planning methods for identifying risks, establishing a risk register, qualitatively analyzing ® ® ® ® Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. xxiv Preface risks for probability and impact, quantitatively analyzing risks if needed, and deciding how to respond to each risk with contingency plans for major risks and awareness for minor risks. Chapter 12 starts by covering project quality planning. This includes explaining the development of modern quality concepts and how they distill into core project quality demands. Next, the chapter covers how to develop a project quality plan. It then ties all of the planning chapters together with discussions of a project kickoff meeting, a baselined project plan, and the ways Microsoft Project Professional 2016 can be used to establish and maintain the baseline. ® Part 4, Performing Projects, discusses the various aspects that must be managed simultaneously while the project is being conducted. Chapter 13 deals with project supply chain management issues. Some of these issues, such as developing the procurement management plan, qualifying and selecting vendors, and determining the type of contract to use are planning issues, but for simplicity, they are covered in one chapter with sections on how to conduct and control procurements and to improve the project supply chain. Chapter 14 is concerned with determining project results. This chapter starts with a balanced scorecard approach to controlling projects. Internal project issues covered include risk, change, and communication. Quality is also covered, with an emphasis on achieving client satisfaction. Financial issues discussed are scope, cost, and schedule, including how to use Microsoft Project Professional 2016 for control. Chapter 15 deals with how to end a project—either early or on time. This includes validating to ensure all scope is complete, formally closing procurements and the project, knowledge management, and ensuring the project participants are rewarded and the clients have the support they need to realize intended benefits when using the project deliverables.

® MindTap MindTap is a complete digital solution for your project management course. It has enhancements that take students from learning basic concepts to actively engaging in critical thinking applications, while learning Project 2016 skills for their future careers. The MindTap product for this book features videos from the authors that explain tricky concepts, videos that explain the finer points of what you can do with Project 2016, and quizzes and homework assignments with detailed feedback so that students will have a better understanding of why an answer is right or wrong. Instructor Resources To access the instructor resources, go to www.cengage.com/login, log in with your SSO account username and password, and search this book’s ISBN (9781337406451) to add instructor resources to your account. Key support materials—instructor’s manual with solutions, test bank in Word and Blackboard formats, data set solutions, and PowerPoint presentations—provide instructors with a comprehensive capability for customizing their classroom experience. All student resources are also available on the instructor companion site. ® Instructor s Manual with Solutions. Prepared by Tim Kloppenborg and updated by Kate Wells, based on their years of experience facilitating the student learning experience in their own project management classes (undergraduate, MBA, Masters in Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Preface xxv Health Informatics, and continuing education on six continents), with teaching in classroom, hybrid, and online formats, each chapter of the instructor’s manual includes an overview of core, behavioral, and technical learning objectives, detailed chapter outlines, teaching recommendations for both classroom and online, and many specific suggestions for implementing community-based projects into your project management class. Solutions are also provided for all of the end-of-chapter content. Microsoft Word Test Bank. Prepared for this edition by Joyce D. Brown, PMP and Thomas F. McCabe, PMP of the University of Connecticut, this comprehensive test bank builds upon the original test bank created by Kevin Grant of the University of Texas at San Antonio. The test bank is organized around each chapter’s learning objectives. All test questions are consistent with the PMBOK . Every test item is labeled according to its difficulty level, the learning objective within the textbook to which it relates, and its Blooms Taxonomy level, allowing instructors to quickly construct effective tests that emphasize the concepts most significant for their courses. The test bank includes true/false, multiple choice, essay, and quantitative problems for each chapter. Cognero Test Bank. Cengage Learning Testing Powered by Cognero is a flexible, online system that allows you to author, edit, and manage test bank content from multiple Cengage Learning solutions; create multiple test versions in an instant; and deliver tests from your LMS, your classroom, or wherever you want. The Cognero test bank contains the same questions that are in the Microsoft Word test bank. PowerPoint Presentations. Prepared by Kate Wells, the PowerPoint presentations provide comprehensive coverage of each chapter’s essential concepts in a clean, concise format. Instructors can easily customize the PowerPoint presentations to better fit the needs of their classroom. Templates. Electronic templates for many of the techniques (student deliverables) are available on the textbook companion website. These Microsoft Word and Excel documents can be downloaded and filled in for ease of student learning and for consistency of instructor grading.

® ® ® ® ® ® Student Resources Students can access the following resources by going to www.cengagebrain.com and searching 9781337406451. The companion website for this book has Excel and Word Project templates, data sets for selected chapters, and instructions for how to get access to a trial version of Microsoft Online Professional Trial. (Note that while we are happy to provide instructions for accessing this trial, Microsoft controls that access and we are not responsible for it being removed in the future.) Acknowledgments A book-writing project depends on many people. Through the last three decades of project work, we have been privileged to learn from thousands of people, including students, faculty members, co-trainers, co-consultants, co-judges, clients, research partners, trade book authors, and others. Hundreds of individuals who have provided help in research and developing teaching methods are co-members of the following: PMI’s undergraduate curriculum guidelines development team, PMI’s Global Accreditation Center, Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. xxvi Preface Multiple chapters of the Project Management Institute, The Cincinnati and Louisville sections of the Center for Quality of Management, Project Management Executive Forum, and Agile Cincinnati. We also want to acknowledge the wonderful help of various professionals at Cengage Learning, including Aaron Arnsparger (Sr. Product Manager) and Conor Allen (Content Developer). We also want to thank Charles McCormick, Jr., retired Senior Acquisitions Editor, for his extensive help and guidance on the first and second editions of Contemporary Project Management. Other individuals who have provided significant content are Nathan Johnson of Western Carolina University, who provided the Microsoft Project 2016 material, Joyce D. Brown, PMP and Thomas F. McCabe, PMP of University of Connecticut, who revised the test bank and provided additional PMBOK questions to each chapter, Jim King, who professionally taped and edited videos, and Kathryn N. Wells, Independent Consultant, PMP , CAPM , who provided the PowerPoint presentations. Special thanks are also due to all the people whose feedback and suggestions have shaped this edition of Contemporary Project Management as well as the previous two editions: ® ® ® Stephen Allen, Truman State University Siti Arshad-Snyder, Clarkson College Loretta Beavers, Southwest Virginia Community College Shari Bleure, Skyline Chili Neil Burgess, Albertus Magnus College John Cain, Viox Services Robert Clarkson, Davenport University Nancy Cornell, Northeastern University Steve Creason, Metropolitan State University ® ® Carol Abbott, Fusion Alliance, Inc. Reynold Byers, Arizona State University ® Jacob J. Dell, University of Texas at San Antonio Kevin P. Grant, University of Texas–San Antonio Scott Dellana, East Carolina University Joseph Griffin, Northeastern University Maling Ebrahimpour, Roger Williams University Raye Guye, ILSCO Corporation Jeff Flynn, ILSCO Corporation William M. Hayden Jr., State University of New York at Buffalo Jim Ford, University of Delaware Sarai Hedges, University of Cincinnati Lynn Frock, Lynn Frock & Company Marco Hernandez, Dantes Canadian Lei Fu, Hefei University of Technology Stephen Holoviak, Pennsylvania State University Patricia Galdeen, Lourdes University Bill Holt, North Seattle Community College Kathleen Gallon, Christ Hospital Paul Gentine, Bethany College Morris Hsi, Lawrence Tech University Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part.

Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Preface xxvii Sonya Hsu, University of Louisiana Lafayette James Leaman, Eastern Mennonite University Peerasit Patanakul, Stevens Institute of Technology Paul Hudec, Milwaukee School of Engineering Linda LeSage, Davenport University Joseph Petrick, Wright State University Claudia Levi, Edmonds Community College Kenneth R. Pflieger, Potomac College Anil B. Jambekar, Michigan Technological University Dana Johnson, Michigan Technological University Robert Judge, San Diego State University David L. Keeney, Stevens Institute of Technology George Kenyon, Lamar University Naomi Kinney, MultiLingual Learning Services Paul Kling, Duke Energy Matthew Korpusik, Six Sigma Black Belt Sal Kukalis, California State University–Long Beach Young Hoon Kwak, George Washington University Laurence J. Laning, Procter & Gamble Dick Larkin, Central Washington University Lydia Lavigne, Ball Aerospace Jon Lazarus, Willamette University Marvette Limon, University of Houston Downtown John S. Loucks, St. Edward’s University Diane Lucas, Penn State University– DuBois Campus Clayton Maas, Davenport University S. G. Marlow, California State Polytechnic University Daniel S. Marrone, SUNY Farmingdale State College Chris McCale, Regis University Abe Meilich, Walden University Bruce Miller, Xavier Leadership Center Ali Mir, William Paterson University William Moylan, Eastern Michigan University Merlin Nuss, MidAmerica Nazarene University Warren Opfer, Life Science Services International Charles K. Pickar, Johns Hopkins University Connie Plowman, Portland Community College Mark Poore, Roanoke College Antonios Printezis, Arizona State University Joshua Ramirez, PMP, MSM-PM, Columbia Basin College Chris Rawlings, Bob Jones University Natalee Regal, Procter & Gamble Pedro Reyes, Baylor University Linda Ridlon, Center for Quality of Management, Division of GOAL/QPC Kim Roberts, Athens State University David Schmitz, Milwaukee School of Engineering Sheryl R. Schoenacher, SUNY Farmingdale State College Jan Sepate, Kimberly Clark Patrick Sepate, Summitqwest Inc. Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. xxviii Preface William R. Sherrard, San Diego State University Brian M. Smith, Eastern University Kimberlee D. Snyder, Winona State University Tony Taylor, MidAmerica Nazarene University Rachana Thariani, Atos-Origin Jayashree Venkatraman, Microsoft Corporation Dawn Tolonen, Xavier University Nathan Washington, Southwest Tennessee Community College Nate Tucker, Lee University Guy Turner, Castellini Company Scott Wright, University of Wisconsin– Platteville And we especially want to thank our family members for their love and support: Bet, Nick, Jill, Andy, Cadence, and Ellie —Timothy J. Kloppenborg Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. About the Authors Timothy J. Kloppenborg is an Emeritus Professor of Management at Williams College of Business, Xavier University.

He previously held faculty positions at University of North Carolina Charlotte and Air Force Institute of Technology and has worked temporarily at Southern Cross University and Tecnológico de Monterrey. He has authored over 100 publications, including 10 books, such as Strategic Leadership of Portfolio and Project Management, Project Leadership, and Managing Project Quality. His articles have appeared in MIT Sloan Management Review, Project Management Journal, Journal of Management Education, Journal of General Management, SAM Advanced Management Journal, Information Systems Education Journal, Journal of Managerial Issues, Quality Progress, Management Research News, and Journal of Small Business Strategy. In his capacity as the founding collection editor of portfolio and project management books for Business Expert Press, he has edited 14 books with more in the pipeline. Tim has been active with the Project Management Institute for over 30 years and a PMP since 1991. He is a retired U.S. Air Force Reserve officer who served in transportation, procurement, and quality assurance. Dr. Kloppenborg has worked with over 150 volunteer organizations, many directly and others through supervising student projects. He has hands-on and consulting project management experience on six continents in construction, information systems, research and development, and quality improvement projects with organizations such Duke Energy, Ernst and Young LLP, Greater Cincinnati Water Works, Kroger, Procter & Gamble, TriHealth, and Texas Children’s Hospital. Dr. Kloppenborg has developed and delivered innovative corporate training, undergraduate, MBA, and Executive MBA classes in project management, leadership, teamwork, and quality improvement and he teaches PMP Prep classes. He holds a BS in business administration from Benedictine College, an MBA from Western Illinois University, and a PhD in Operations Management from University of Cincinnati. ® Dr. Vittal Anantatmula is a professor in the College of Business, Western Carolina University and a campus of University of North Carolina. He is also the Director of Graduate Programs in Project Management and was a recipient of excellence in teaching and research awards. Dr. Anantatmula is a Global Guest Professor at Keio University, Yokohama, Japan. He is a director and board member of the Project Management Institute Global Accreditation Center (PMI-GAC). He serves on the editorial board of several scholarly journals. At Western Carolina University, he was recognized with the University Scholar Award in 2017. He has won several other awards for excellence in both research and teaching. Prior to joining Western Carolina University, he taught at The George Washington University. He worked in the petroleum and power industries for several years as an electrical engineer and project manager and as a consultant in several international organizations, including the World Bank. Dr. Anantatmula has authored more than 60 publications, five books, and about 50 conference papers. Two of his conference papers received the best paper award. His work has been published in scholarly journals, including Project Management Journal, Journal of Knowledge Management, Journal of Management in Engineering, Journal of Information and Knowledge Management Systems, and xxix Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. xxx About the Authors Engineering Management Journal. He received his PhD from The George Washington University and is a certified project management professional. Kathryn N. Wells holds a master’s degree in Education, as well as degrees in Organizational Communication and Spanish.

Kate has a passion for teaching, in both academic and corporate settings. In addition to over a decade’s experience in project management education, Kate is a top-producing real estate agent with Keller Williams. Her blend of experience in real estate—including working with many investors—and classroom teaching gives her a unique perspective and insights into many components of project management, including Planning, Communication, Stakeholder Management, and Project Control. In addition to her work on Contemporary Project Management, Kate is the lead author of Project Management Essentials (2015) and co-author of Project Management for Archaeology (2017), both published by Business Expert Press. She has trained and consulted with several organizations around the world and has occasionally been contracted to provide translations of project management educational materials (Spanish to English). Some of her clients include the University of Cincinnati, Children’s Hospital of Cincinnati, Givaudan International, and Tec de Monterrey University—where Kate has repeatedly served as visiting faculty at multiple campuses in Mexico. Kate is a certified project management professional (PMP). Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. PA RT 1 ORGANIZING PROJECTS ORGANIZE Chapter 1 Introduction to Project Management Chapter 2 Project Selection and Prioritization Chapter 3 Chartering Projects LEAD PLAN PERFORM Organizing for success in project management includes several basic frameworks for understanding projects and tools to select, prioritize, resource, and initiate projects. Basic frameworks described in Chapter 1 include how the work of project management can be categorized by knowledge area and process group, how project success is determined, and how both plan-driven and adaptive approaches are frequently used. Chapter 2 describes how projects are investments meant to help achieve organizational goals. Tools are demonstrated to select, prioritize, and resource projects. Chapter 3 describes how charters are essential to initiating projects and then demonstrates how to construct each portion of a charter. 1 Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. CHAPTER 1 Introduction to Project Management CHAPTER OBJECTIVES After completing this chapter, you should be able to: Define a project and project management in your own words, using characteristics that are common to most projects, and describe reasons why more organizations are using project management. Describe major activities and deliverables at each project life cycle stage. List and define the ten knowledge areas and five process groups of the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK ®). Delineate measures of project success and failure, and reasons for both. Contrast predictive or plan-driven and adaptive or changedriven project life cycle approaches. BEHAVIORAL OBJECTIVES: Identify project roles and distinguish key responsibilities for project team members. Describe the importance of collaborative effort during the project life cycle. frantic00/Shutterstock.com CORE OBJECTIVES: I have returned from a successful climb of Mount Aconcagua in Argentina; at 22,841 feet, it is the highest peak in the world outside of the Himalayas.

While there, seven other climbers died; we not only survived, but our experience was so positive that we have partnered to climb together again. During the three decades that I ve been climbing mountains, I ve also been managing projects. An element has emerged as essential for success in both of these activities: the element of discipline. By discipline, I am referring to doing what I already know needs to be done. Without this attribute, even the most knowledgeable and experienced will have difficulty avoiding failure. The deaths on Aconcagua are an extreme example of the consequences associated with a lack of discipline. The unfortunate climbers, who knew that the predicted storms would produce very hazardous conditions, decided to attempt the summit instead of waiting. They did not have the discipline that we demonstrated to act on our earlier decision to curtail summit attempts after the agreed-to turnaround time or in severe weather. 2 Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. PMBOK ® 6E COVERAGE PMBOK ® 6E OUTPUTS 1.2 Foundational Elements Project Customer Trade-off Matrix Project Success Definition 2.4 Organizational Systems 3.3 The Project Manager s Sphere of Influence 3.4 Project Manager Competencies 3.5 Performing Integration PMBOK® GUIDE Topics: Project management introduction Project life cycle Stakeholders Project management process Project integration management CHAPTER OUTPUTS Customer Trade-off Matrix Project Success Definition I ve experienced similar circumstances in project management. Often I have found myself under pressure to cast aside or shortcut project management practices that I have come to rely on. For me, these practices have become the pillars of my own project management discipline. One of these pillars, planning, seems to be particularly susceptible to challenge. Managing projects at the Central Intelligence Agency for three decades, I adjusted to the annual cycle for obtaining funding. This cycle occasionally involved being given relatively short notice near the end of the year that funds unspent by some other department were up for grabs to whoever could quickly make a convincing business case. While some may interpret this as a circumstance requiring shortcutting the necessary amount of planning in order to capture some of the briefly available funds, I understood that my discipline required me to find a way to do the needed planning and to act quickly. I understood that to do otherwise would likely propel me toward becoming one of the two-thirds of the projects identified by the Standish Group in their 2009 CHAOS report as not successful. I understood that the top 2 percent of project managers, referred to as Alpha Project Managers in a 2006 book of the same name, spend twice as much time planning as the other 98 percent of project managers. The approach that I took allowed me to maintain the discipline for my planning pillar. I preplanned a couple of projects and had them ready at the end of the year to be submitted should a momentary funding opportunity arise. A key to success in project management, as well as in mountain climbing, is to identify the pillars that will be practiced with discipline. This book offers an excellent set of project management methods from which we can identify those pillars that we will decide to practice with the required levels of discipline. I believe that project management is about applying common sense with uncommon discipline. Michael O Brochta, PMP, founder of Zozer Inc. and previously senior project manager at the Central Intelligence Agency

1-1 What Is a Project? Frequently, a business is faced with making a change, such as improving an existing work process, constructing a building, installing a new computer system, merging with another company, moving to a new location, developing a new product, entering a new market, and so on. These changes are best planned and managed as projects. Often, these changes are initiated due to operational necessity or to meet strategic goals, such as the following: Market demand Customer request 3 Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 4 Part 1 Organizing Projects Technological advance Legal requirements or regulatory compliance Replace obsolete equipment, technology, system, or physical facility Crisis situation Social need So, what is a project? A project is a new, time-bound effort that has a definite beginning and a definite ending with several related and/or interdependent tasks to create a unique product or service. The word temporary is used to denote project duration; however, it does not mean that project duration is short; in fact, it can range from a few weeks to several years. Temporary also does not apply to the project deliverable, although project teams are certainly temporary. A project requires an organized set of work efforts that are planned with a level of detail that is progressively elaborated on as more information is discovered. Projects are subject to limitations of time and resources such as money and people. Projects should follow a planned and organized approach with a defined beginning and ending. Project plans and goals become more specific as early work is completed. The project output often is a collection of a primary deliverable along with supporting deliverables such as a house as the primary deliverable and warrantees and instructions for use as supporting deliverables. Taking all these issues into consideration, a project can be defined as a time-bound effort constrained by performance specifications, resources, and budget to create a unique product or service. Each project typically has a unique combination of stakeholders. Stakeholders are people and groups who can impact the project or might be impacted by either the work or results of the project. Projects often require a variety of people to work together for a limited time, and all participants need to understand that completing the project will require effort in addition to their other assigned work. These people become members of the project team and usually represent diverse functions and disciplines. Project management is the art and science of using knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques efficiently and effectively to meet stakeholder needs and expectations. This includes work processes that initiate, plan, execute, control, and close work. During these processes, trade-offs must be made among the following factors: Scope (size and features) Quality (acceptability of the results) Cost Schedule Resources Risks When project managers successfully make these trade-offs, the project results meet the agreed-upon requirements, are useful to the customers, and promote the organization. Project management includes both administrative tasks for planning, documenting, and controlling work and leadership tasks for visioning, motivating, and promoting work associates. The underlying principle of project management discipline is to make effective and efficient use of all resources and it is this principle that influences some of these trade-off decisions. Project management knowledge, skills, and methods can be applied and modified for most projects regardless of size or application.

Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Chapter 1 Introduction to Project Management 5 1-2 History of Project Management Projects of all sizes have been undertaken throughout history. Early construction projects included the ancient pyramids, medieval cathedrals, Indian cities, and Native American pueblos. Other large early projects involved waging wars and building empires. In the development of the United States, projects included laying railroads, developing farms, and building cities. Many smaller projects consisted of building houses and starting businesses. Projects were conducted throughout most of the world s history, but there was very little documentation. Therefore, there is no evidence of systematic planning and control. It is known that some early projects were accomplished at great human and financial cost and that others took exceedingly long periods of time to complete. For example, the Panama Canal was started in 1881 and completed in 1914. Project management eventually emerged as a formal discipline to be studied and practiced. In the 1950s and 1960s, techniques for planning and controlling schedules and costs were developed, primarily on huge aerospace and construction projects. During this time, project management was primarily involved in determining project schedules based on understanding the order in which work activities had to be completed. Many large manufacturing, research and development, government, and construction projects used and refined management techniques. In the 1980s and 1990s, several software companies offered ever more powerful and easier ways to plan and control project costs and schedules. Risk management techniques that were originally developed on complex projects have increasingly been applied in a simplified form to less complex projects. In the last few years, people have realized more and more that communication and leadership play major roles in project success. Rapid growth and changes in the information technology and telecommunications industries especially have fueled massive growth in the use of project management in the 1990s and early 2000s. Simultaneously, systems and processes were developed for electronic documentation of the historical data of projects using information systems (IS) and knowledge management tools. People who are engaged in a wide variety of industries, including banking, insurance, retailing, hospital administration, healthcare, and many other service industries, are now turning to project management to help them plan and manage efforts to meet their unique demands. Project planning and management techniques that were originally developed for large, complex projects can be modified and used to better plan and manage even smaller projects. Now, project management is commonly used on projects of many sizes and types in a wide variety of manufacturing, government, service, and nonprofit organizations. Further, in today s global economy, geographically dispersed virtual project teams are becoming a familiar entity in many organizations. Managing a project is challenging in the current global economy due to the exponential growth of information technology and ever-increasing market demand that organizations offer products and services efficiently and quickly. Understanding the characteristics of global projects for improving global project performance is of critical importance. The use of project management has grown quite rapidly and is likely to continue growing. With increased international competition and a borderless global economy, customers want their products and services developed and delivered better, faster, and cheaper.

Because project management techniques are designed to manage scope, quality, cost, and schedule, they are ideally suited to this purpose. Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 6 Part 1 Organizing Projects AGILE Throughout this book, we will present concepts and techniques that are either unique to Agile projects or are emphasized more on Agile projects. Many of these ideas can be used to improve practice on traditional projects. In 2001, a group of thought leaders became frustrated with the use of traditional, plan-driven project management for software projects and as a result, they wrote a document called The Agile Manifesto.1 The four core values of Agile as shown below are completely consistent with our approach to Contemporary Project Management. Agile will be defined in Chapter 3, but throughout the book, a margin icon will indicate ideas from Agile, and the text will be in color. Value Value Value Value individuals more than processes. working software more than documentation. customer collaboration more than negotiation. response to change over following a plan. 1-3 How Can Project Work Be Described? Project work can be described in the following ways: Projects are temporary and unique, while other work, commonly called operations, is more continuous. Project managers need certain soft skills and hard skills to be effective. Project m… CLICK HERE TO GET A PROFESSIONAL WRITER TO WORK ON THIS PAPER AND OTHER SIMILAR PAPERS CLICK THE BUTTON TO MAKE YOUR ORDER