Monday, December 30, 2019

Essay on Why we Should Love the Non Lover - 713 Words

Why we Should Love the Non Lover Loving happens as natural as the rising of the sun. At some point in our lives, we all profess to love someone or something. For as long as the word and notion of love has existed, there have been innumerable attempts to explain just what love is and whom we should or should not love. Even the Bible, commands its believers to love their neighbors, family, friends, and enemies as they love themselves. The Phaedrus, one of Platos greatest dialogues delves into the love in terms of who would be best for us to love and why. Phaedrus makes mention of a speech by Lysias, whom he strongly admires, that states that one should strive to love a non-lover, someone who does not and will not love you in†¦show more content†¦On the other hand, the non-lover befriends and associates himself with the beloved out of pure free will, without regard to any feeling of pleasure or passion. So that there is no passion present to die out and thereby the non-lover will never desert the lover. Also, the lover will very likely blame the beloved for distracting him from personal, business, or academic affairs, so that the lover appears to be preoccupied with the beloved and ignores his prior obligations to school, such as homework, papers, and studying, career plans, home life, and friends (231b). The lover becomes so entangled in doing stuff for the beloved, that the beloved comes first, above all and everything, by his choice, but at the fault of the beloved. When this happens, the lover becomes immoderate and has no balance within his life. While the non-lover will always put business first, so that the beloved is second to all things and therefore cannot be blamed for a malfunction in the lovers prior obligations. During the relationship between the lover and the beloved, the lover will be kind to the beloved, but when it ends, the lover will love someone else, disregarding the previous relationship, thus hurting the past beloved (231c). So that after having some extended relationship with the lover, and for example, the lovers passion withers away and the beloved and the lover are no longer together, although the beloved mayShow MoreRelatedCulture : Cultural Lifestyle Interview975 Words   |  4 Pagesand wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with and unbeliever? (2 Corinthians 6:14-15, NIV) . Was Paul merely stating that we should not communicate or associate with unbelievers who do not have the same beliefs as Christians? Absolutely not! What Paul was literally stating is, do not conjoin with false teachers of other doctrines, and do not confirm to their persuasive ways byRead MorePlato s View On Philosophers1334 Words   |  6 Pagesshun philosophers because they are lovers of knowledge and are perceived to be different from them. The majority of people in a city are not lovers of knowledge but rather lovers of beauty. Referencing â€Å"Plato’s Republic, each person has a different skill they are naturally good at. Knowing this, philosophers must be naturally good at thinking and arguing. However, a good and great ruler needs more than these traits; a true ruler will have to be â€Å"those who love the sight of truth.†(475d). Given thatRead MoreEssay about Metaphysical Poetry - the flea + sune rising1703 Words   |  7 PagesDonne’s poetry we can see that he is goaded and confused by the new discoveries and the social customs avert him from reaching his desires. This is incalculably recognized in his two poems, â€Å"The Sunne Rising† and â€Å"The Flea† where Donne’s arguments challenge some beliefs of the 17th century England. Through â€Å"The Sunne Rising† we gain a sense of meaning that Donne is irritated and perplexed with new discoveries and that he believes his love is everything in the whole world. In â€Å"The Flea† we can see Do nneRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s Romeo And Juliet1423 Words   |  6 PagesWhen one thinks of the word â€Å"love,† the idea of romance often comes to mind. Therefore, platonic love (non-romantic love) is often forgotten, though it is equally as strong as its romantic counterpart, and can lead to consequences much more tragic. Such is the case with William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Despite the dominating romance between the two young lovers, as the play progresses, one would realize that the platonic love of those around Romeo and Juliet, though no one can be at faultRead MoreThe Shrew By William Shakespeare1196 Words   |  5 Pagescomedic social issue that separates them is part internal and part external, instead of just a forbidden marriage. The play also takes Helena’s subplot from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the woman’s wooing of a man, and makes it the focus of the play. As we read in Montrose’s article, Oberon corrected this gender role swapping because it was not natural, and likewise, the King attempts to make Bertram see the value of Helen, but to no avail. While this play is similar in plot to the Helena arch, the conclusionRead MoreNadine Gordimer s Country Lovers1379 Words   |  6 Pagestimes when racial segregation took place between South Africa’s white minority and non-white majority. Nadine Gordimer, is a born and raised South African novelist whose writings focused on exile and alienation. She wrote many novels and short stories that related to South Africa s unjust political situation between the whites and non-whites in the 1900’s. One of the short stories that she wrote is â€Å"Country Lovers† which portrays the life in South Africa during those times and how apartheid, a policyRead MoreHidden Meanings Within Shakespeare s Midsummer Night s Dream Essay1300 Words   |  6 Pagesaccomplishes this by using figurative language such as metaphors and similes. Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream encompasses many themes and apply them to certain characters or through communication between multiple characters. Helena portrays themes of love, betrayal, jealousy, and gender norms in Midsummer Night’s Dream presenting them through her speech and behavior. She depicts the challenges of a woman and also the flaws of human nature. In Act 2 scene 1 and Act 3 scene 2 Helena uses a metaphor twiceRead MoreElizabethan Poetry941 Words   |  4 Pagesas a distinct national tradition. Puttenham and Sidney were concerned to build a canon and help shape English poetry into a tradition capable of rivalling more prestigious literatures (for example of Italy and France). The courtly lyric/ Petrarchan love sonnet introduced to English by Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey: not the only poetic genre in the Renaissance, but one of the most interesting, which has shaped our later conceptions of English poetry. Wyatt and Surrey were â€Å"courtlyRead MoreThe Beauty of Shakespeares Sonnets1350 Words   |  6 Pagespersons sorrows, that love could and should be immortalized, and that marriage between two individuals can be strong and true, Shakespeares sonnets 55, 30, and 116 truly explain the real value of human relationships. In most of Shakespeares sonnets, he appears to write about his insecurities in relationships, or his own self-worth. However, in sonnet 55, Shakespeare expresses a tremendous amount of confidence in his relationship by showing how much he values their love. This statement saysRead MoreOther Woman1399 Words   |  6 Pagesthe way that she relates with her family. Even from the start of her marriage she was not quite open to her husband. She was afraid to show her family her love and affection that is why she became distant to them. She also seems to be quite sad and discontented despite the good life that she has. She wanted so much to find the love and affection she needed which she couldn’t develop with her own family. This is what led her to being an unfaithful wife and mother. She had an affair with

Sunday, December 22, 2019

The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr Hyde - 1524 Words

Frequently overlooked in favor of discourse on the duality of man or the dubiousness surrounding the characters’ interactions with Hyde, Jekyll’s portrayal of his transformations into Hyde in Robert Lewis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll Mr Hyde has an indubitable parallel to symptoms of drug addiction. This allegory fits seamlessly into the narrative once the reader becomes aware of its presence. Not only does Henry Jekyll present symptoms paralleling drug addiction, his transformations into Hyde and how the other characters in the novel react to them are also typical of situation involving an addicted person. Finally, the ease with which a respectable member of the bourgeoisie lapses into such a degenerative state serves the†¦show more content†¦Like a drug abuser, Jekyll’s need for a specific ‘experience’—which later becomes the high of being Hyde and living without inhibitions—causes him to become blinded t o dangers that he, as a professional, should be aware of. While he entertains the notion of the possibility of death, Jekyll never once considers during that fateful first transformation that he can become addicted to the lightness that Hyde’s highs evoke (Stevenson 54). This ignorance parallels the pre-addiction pride that plagues the ‘junkie’; they arrogantly take their drug believing that degeneration will never happen to them because they can remain in control. Jekyll even relapses back to the drought after a two-month period of self-discipline, echoing the struggle of overcoming dependency on a drug without the proper support. By isolating himself in his quarters and devising a carefully-crafted second identity for Edward Hyde, Jekyll denies himself the possibility of breaking his addiction through the support of the people around him. This is a case all too common in drug addicts, who are ashamed or in denial of their problems. Utterson, who is implied to h ave overcome a taste for alcohol himself and who is exposed to addicts in his career, is both a success story and a case of the bourgeoisie’s oversight in the possibility of addicts outside of theShow MoreRelatedThe Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde1675 Words   |  7 PagesThe Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Essay Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella, â€Å"The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,† is a type of Gothic literature. In the beginning of the story when Stevenson is describing the lawyer, one â€Å"Mr. Utterson,† the mood is a bit dull. At first glance the reader may think that this story would be a bit boring and drab. Stevenson’s story is far from being another dull piece of British English literature. The setting and mood of this novella are more complexRead MoreThe Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde Essay975 Words   |  4 PagesStevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a novella that follows the basic outline established by Mary Shelley in Frankenstein. However, Stevenson’s monster is not created from body parts but comes from the dark side of the human personality. In both novels, a man conducts a secret experiment that gets out of control. The result of these experiments is the release of a double, or doppelgan ger, which causes damage to their creator. While most people think that The Strange Case of Dr. JekyllRead MoreThe Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde1440 Words   |  6 Pagescomplexity of human nature in his books, especially in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Kidnapped. The former is about a lawyer named Mr. Utterson seeking out the truth of Dr. Jekyll’s very strange will. He finds out that Jekyll was transforming himself into Mr. Hyde so that he could have the freedom to do whatever he wanted no matter how evil. By the time Utterson finds all this out and findsJekyll, he is too late and Jekyll has already killed himself. The latter is about David BalfourRead MoreThe Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde1196 Words   |  5 Pageswhich do let control you? The good or evil? This was a question that Dr. Jekyll from the book, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, could not answer. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a book about a man who cannot control the two sides of himself, causing him to do terrible things and not even be aware of it. The theme of this book is good versus evil. Dr. Jekyll is fighting his evil side, known as Mr. Hyde, throughout the book. Some people believe that the book’s theme hasRead MoreThe Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde938 Words   |  4 PagesVictorian Hopes and Fears Involving Science as Found in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde During the Victorian Era there was a great race to use science to alleviate the suffering of the ill, specifically for those patients who were suffering from ailments of the mind. While some of the methods used to diagnose and treat such afflictions would be considered barbaric in nature by today’s standards, they were considered cutting edge medical science during the time of the Victorian Era. It was also consideredRead MoreThe Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde964 Words   |  4 PagesThe Strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, written by Robert Louis Stevenson was published in 1886. The story is published during the Victorian era, the Victorian era was an age of repression, there was no violence, no sexual appetite, and there was no great expression or emotion. In the story, Dr. Jekyll creates a potion that turns him into Mr. Hyde, Mr. Hyde is the complete opposite of what people are in the Victorian era. At first, Dr. Jekyll is in control of Mr. Hyde, but towards t he end MrRead MoreThe Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde1505 Words   |  7 PagesDuring the latter portion of the nineteenth century, Robert Louis Stevenson published his novella, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. The fin de sià ¨cle saw the rise of different thoughts and ideas surrounding science and society. These concepts and interpretations sparked the discourse surrounding the theory of degeneration; which was the concern that civilization would fall to a lower state of being. This chapter will be reading multiplex personality as a manifestation of this broader culturalRead MoreThe Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde1739 Words   |  7 Pagesnovel â€Å"The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde† by Robert Louis Stevenson, the novel â€Å"Frankenstein† by Mary Shelley, the short story â€Å"The Monkey’s Paw† by W.W Jacobs and the short story â€Å"Yellow Wallpaper† by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. These four texts convey this theme through the use of gothic conventions such as death, madness and darkness. In the novels The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll are wronglyRead MoreThe Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde1351 Words   |  6 PagesThe Personas of Henry Jekyll Every person is born with bright and dark personas that people moderate due to the standards of society. In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Jekyll and Hyde battle for the power to stay alive in the story. As Jekyll continues to try and take over his evil persona, Hyde tries to stay alive and cause evil in the world. In our society, many people will struggle with self control and Dr. Jekyll has trouble controlling his alter ego by performing his evil pleasuresRead MoreThe Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde1326 Words   |  6 Pages The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was published during the late Victorian era, but he clearly brings into question the acceptance of Victorian philosophies, especially the belief that one truth exists and that we can identify good and evil as separate entities. The names Jekyll and Hyde have become synonymous with multiple personality disorder. This novel can be examined from the natural dualism and Freud’s structural th eory of the mind. In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr

Saturday, December 14, 2019

The dotcom bubble and the stock market fall in 2000-2001 Free Essays

Summary of the main points covered in my essay. How did the dotcom bubble burst contribute to the economic crisis of the 2008? Could we expect the similar crisis and how can it be prevented? What are the lessons that should have been learned from the dotcom crisis? When the global financial crisis occurred in 2008, both experts and general public started heated discussion as everyone was eager to identify the reasons for such a calamity. It is clear that nothing happens with no reason at all. We will write a custom essay sample on The dotcom bubble and the stock market fall in 2000-2001 or any similar topic only for you Order Now Let’s consider the famous speech1 of Ben Bernanke, who is the Chairman of the Federal Reserve System. In that testimony he tried to explain the causes of the recent financial and economic crisis to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, highlighting the vulnerabilities in different sectors of economics. The idea of inadequate risk-measurement that he focused on is very important for us, as this particular issue makes the recent crisis akin to the dotcom bubble we are about to examine in detail. (The same idea is one of the major issues of the next Ben Bernanke’s speeches, where he underlines the importance of reasonable risk management and possible destructive effects of being too optimistic about the future of the economic system). To sum up, experts claim that flaws in evaluating the perspectives of new technologies in the 90ies caused the dotcom bubble burst in 2000, while the inadequate risk-measurement of the financial instruments connected to mortgages led to the global financial and economic crisis in 2008. Could we have predicted the economic disaster coming in 2008 and which lessons could have been gathered from the dotcom crisis? These are the questions that make the topic urgent and exciting to examine. To begin with, let’s define the key term. What is a dotcom? Dotcom is a firm conducting its business mainly over the Internet. They usually possess a Web site intended for business use. The term is based on the â€Å"com† that forms the last part of the address for most commercial Web-sites. Now, what were the reasons for the dotcom bubble burst and what actually happened? (We should mention that this phenomenon is also referred as the Internet bubble and the Information Technology Bubble in many articles). It all started during the mid 1990is. The Internet was extremely popular those days and the Stock Market soared on technology and Internet stocks. Stock prices were rising and it seemed there was to limit for their value to expand. The masses believed there was a new world coming and the Internet was for sure to become the future of business. The steady confidence took place that the e-companies would turn future profits and there is no limit for technologies development. These expectations were reflected in the NASDAQ composite index. The NASDAQ composite is a stock market index of the common stocks and similar securities, which are listed on the NASDAQ stock market. The index reflects the performance of stocks of technology companies and growth companies. From January 1994 to February 2000, the it rose from 776. 80 to 4,696. 69, a 605% increase, and was influenced mainly by prices of high-technology stocks. But these expectations turned out to be far too positive. The market became overvalued. The Stock Market crashed. The culmination happened on March 10, 2000, with the NASDAQ peaking at 5132. 52 in intraday trading before closing at 5048. 62. (see the graph 1) Graph 1. NASDAQ composite dynamics2 The period when the bubble expanded rapidly was marked by the founding of many new small Internet-based companies commonly referred to as dotcoms. Many of them failed in 2000. A very specific phenomenon could be noticed at that time – the way for a new unknown company to become prosperous was just to add an â€Å"e-† prefix to their name or a â€Å". com† to the end. One of the authors called it â€Å"prefix investing†3, as the result of this simple renaming was the incredible growth of stock prices. I suppose that was one of the first indicators that something was wrong and the calamity was coming. But everyone considered it the steady development of the market that has big future. Alan Greenspan (an American economist, the Chairman of the Fed in 1987-2006) in 2005 said, that â€Å"this vast increase in the market value of asset claims is in part the indirect result of investors accepting lower compensation for risk. Such an increase in market value is too often viewed by market participants as structural and permanent†4. However, the situation isn’t unique and appeared to happen again. When in 2003 nanotechnology became the â€Å"hot† thing, everyone started to add a â€Å"nano† prefix in their name. It seems that the lessons that should have been learned from the dotcom bubble burst were forgotten. Let’s turn to the term itself in its theoretical sense. What is the bubble in financial markets? In a word, we say that a stock market bubble occurs when there is a rise or boom in the share prices of stocks of a particular industry. Meanwhile, the rise in prices usually bears little relation to the intrinsic value of the asset. The term â€Å"bubble† may be used with certainty only in retrospect when share prices have since crashed, as it happened in our case. An important basic characteristic of a bubble is the suspension of disbelief by most market participants during the â€Å"bubble phase. They fail to recognize that all of them are engaged in a speculative activity. That characteristic describes the dotcom crisis as well, as we already found out. It would be interesting to mention that financial bubbles have existed for centuries and one of the earliest crises of the type in known as the Dutch tulip mania. In the 17th century prices for tulip bulbs rose and finally reached extraordinarily high levels and then collapsed in the blink of an eye. The same happened to the stock of e-companies in the late 90ies. I suppose we can refer to this case as to â€Å"the dotcom mania†. The speculators who represent all the people in the economy that what to get high profits very fast, note the fast increase in value and decide to buy stock in anticipation of further rises, not taking into account that the shares are overvalued. Consequently the rise happens responding to the high demand for stock and many companies thus become grossly overvalued. When the bubble â€Å"bursts†, the share prices fall dramatically, and many companies are forced to leave the business. In order to be more precise, we can name five stages of any financial bubble5: First. Displacement. When people, especially investors, get enamored by a new paradigm, such as an innovative new technology or dotcom companies, as in our case, displacement occurs. That is the first stage of a financial bubble. Second. Boom. At this stage prices rise slowly at first, following a displacement, but then they gain momentum. More and more participants enter the market. All of them are determined to get prosperous as soon as possible. In case of dotcoms, a huge amount of small companies appeared on the market. The low interest rates in 1998-99 helped to increase the start-up capital amounts. Not all of them possessed innovative ideas, but they were sure that in the wave of e-companies they must succeed. No wonder they all had the same business plan of monopolizing their respective sectors through network effects. However it was clear that all of them wouldn’t become successful as the competition was tough. For many of them the â€Å"get big fast† plan would fail. During this phase, investors become even more enamored by the asset, considering it once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that increases speculation even more. Mass media also played its role. American respected business publications such as Forbes and the Wall Street Journal, encouraged the public to invest in risky companies in the wave of the wide-spread euphoria. As the result, many â€Å"ordinary† people became investors, some of them even gave up their job to become fill-time traders. Third. Euphoria. During this phase investors as well as the whole financial system forgets about prudence and asset prices skyrocket. During the dotcom bubble, the euphoria stage took place in the beginning of March 2000, when NASDAQ composite reached its top at 5132. 2 in intraday trading before closing at 5048. 62. This and the previous stages can be clearly revealed from the NASDAQ dynamics (see graph 1). Fourth. Profit taking. By this time the warning signs of coming debacle can be seen. This is the point when smart investors can make fortunes by selling out positions and taking profits. However, it is obvious that it’s very difficult to estimate the exact time when a bubble is due to collapse. John Maynard Keynes once mentioned that â€Å"the markets can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent. As for the dotcoms founders, few of them made vast fortunes when their companies were bought out before the collapse. Fifth. Panic. In the panic stage, asset prices change direction and descend as rapidly as they had ascended. Investors and speculators are faced with margin calls, which are â€Å"demands on an investor using margin to deposit additional money or securities so that the margin account is brought up to the minimum maintenance margin†6, and the value of their holding plunge. Consequently, they want to liquidate them at any price. The supply overwhelms demand, and asset prices slide sharply. In 2000 the market index fell by almost 11% and NASDAQ fell by about 41%7. To explain the bubble applying the tools of mathematics, we’ll apply the most common concept that shows the existence of bubbles8. Considering the most simple case of price of a single share, the mathematical definition of an asset price bubble uses the fair price of a financial asset as its starting point. The price of an asset is the present value of the future cash flows, generated by the asset. pt =Et(dt+1+pt+1)/(1+r), here dt is dividend, pt is the price of the asset at a certain time t, and Et(i) is the expected value of the expression in the brackets based on the information available at t time. If the interest rate (r) is held constant during the whole period, then share price at t time (pt) in a general form can be given as follows: The first part of the sum on the right, which is the discounted present value of dividends, is the fundamental value of the share (pt * ). The remainder (bt) is a deterministic or the stochastic component satisfying the condition bt = Et(bt+1) /(1 + r), which is the asset price bubble itself. So, if the price of an asset is formed as following: pt =p t*+bt, and if p =? p*, then in the mathematical sense an asset price the bubble is formed. To continue our analysis, let’s describe the consequences of the dotcom bubble burst in 2000. Many small companies and some of the largest ones were forced to file for bankruptcy. Some of them ran out of capital, some of them were acquired, some were convicted of fraud in their financial statements. WorldCom, which was one of the leaders in the market was found practicing fraudulent accounting practices to exaggerate its profits every year. As it was revealed, it’s stock price fell dramatically, and finally the company filed for bankruptcy. Other examples include NorthPoint Communications, Global Crossing, JDS Uniphase and many others. However, some of the e-companies managed to survive the calamity. Large companies, for example, Amazon. com and eBay, are quite successful nowadays. Google also survived the turmoil and became one of the market leaders. As many economists predicted, harsh recession began from 2001. The crash on the stock market of 2000-2002 caused the loss of $5 trillion in the market value of companies from March 2000 to October 2002: the market value of NASDAQ companies peaked at $6. 7 trillion in March 2000 and bottomed out at $1. 6 trillion in October 20029. The economic bottom was the followed by 9/11 terrorist attacks of the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers. CONCLUSION After the case of dotcom crisis the word â€Å"dotcom† started to be used with unfavourable inflecton. It is frequently used to refer to a poorly thought-out unsuccessful businesses. Experts claim that dotcom crisis was one of the events that preceded the global financial crisis in 2008. It was kind of a â€Å"rehearsal†, as the global crisis also contained a speculative bubble, though it embraced a much wider variety of securities. Luckily, the recession following the bubble burst of 2000-2001 was not as deep as it could have been thanks to very aggressive interest rates lowering. However, a deeper downturn in the financial activity is much harder to overcome. The Internet bubble is also similar to the recent downturn because they were both preceded by inadequate risk-measurement and agents’ overconfidence. The financial and economic crisis of 2008 could have been predicted, if everyone was more prudent and learned a lesson from the 2000 dotcom case. In conclusion, I’d like to address the issue of a new Internet crisis that is predicted by some economists. Nowadays World Web companies place their stock at unbelievably high prices. Can a successful Internet project cost more than a huge transnational oil company? The common sense says definitely no, but investors have their own specific point of view. For example, the shares of Groupon, a famous discount service, we evaluated at $12,7 trillions, despite the company’s loss of $400 trillions the previous year and gross debt equal to $420 millions. This estimation is not reasonable and very far from reality. Meanwhile, the expected IPO of social network Facebook is evaluated at $100 trillions. It can be the beginning of the Dotcom Crisis 2. 0. On the other hand investors are optimistic about e-companies, as they survived the recent global crisis, unlike huge interconnected firms in other fields, such as financial, machinery and so on. However, if the case of Groupon is not unique (which is so, judging by the investors’ optimistic mood) the crisis can occur once again. The most important thing in preventing the possible debacle is being prudent. Investors shouldn’t be too optimistic and should be sensible when acquiring assets. PR and advertising can be astonishing, however being reasonable means evaluating the real business indicators to make rational decisions. Risk-management is the field that shouldn’t be ignored if we want to avoid new crises. How to cite The dotcom bubble and the stock market fall in 2000-2001, Papers

Friday, December 6, 2019

Development and Project Management Method †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Development and Project Management Method. Answer: Introduction Perfect Builders is an organization that is based in the Sunshine Coast and provides repair and assessment services to the insurance companies. Dan Perfect had set up the company in the year 1999 and has been working towards the betterment of the same till the present day. Looking at the problems and issues with the current system that is followed, it has been decided to implement an information system for enhancement of the business processes and operations at Perfect Builders. Adaptive System Development Methodology The information system that is required to be developed for Perfect Builders can be done through a number of system development methodologies. These methodologies provide the methods and guidelines that shall be followed in the development process. These methodologies are broadly classified in two categories as adaptive and predictive methodologies. In case of the required system at Perfect Builders, the adaptive nature of system development methodology shall be used. It is because of the reason that the system requirements state that there will be amendments that will be done in the developed system which will easier through the adaptive approach. Also, the end users that are associated with Perfect Builders that will be using the information system belong to various groups and categories such as members of staff, management resources, corporate and individual clients. The needs and requirements of all of these user groups will vary from each other which will be handled better through the adaptive approach in system development (Carvalho, Mello, 2011). There are many adaptive system development methodologies that are present. However, the one that will be apt for the information system for Perfect Builders will be agile methodology using the Scrum framework. There are several reasons that are present behind the selection of the Scrum based agile methodology for this project. The approach that is used in this methodology is the ad-hoc approach (Kautz, Johanson, Uldahl, 2014). There are no pre-conceived notions or guidelines that are designed in general and the strategies and policies are designed as per the scenarios and the requirements. In case of Perfect Builders, there is a high degree of criticality associated with the project along with the varying demands and requirements. Ad-hoc approach of this methodology will meet all of these needs and variations. There is also focus on the values that is laid in this approach instead of the functions and behavior (Hart, 2011). The information system that is required to be developed for Perfect Builders will surely involve many modifications, changes and amendments during the project and after the project as well. It will therefore be required that the system is efficient enough to deal with all these modifications and there is no need to perform re-work to handle the same. It will also be required to ensure that the scalability of the system is not compromised. The system shall be scalable so that the changes in terms of technology and requirements can be met. There may be need to scale the system up in certain situations and it may also be necessary to scale the system down in certain scenarios (Ashbacher, 2010). Both of these abilities will be provided and ensured by the agile methodology based on the Scrum framework. Involvement of Dan and his team will also be essential and it will be recommended that there is a constant tracking of progress, status and the project activities done. It will make sure that the client that is Perfect Builders has a complete idea of the product being developed at all times and can easily point out the changes if required on an immediate basis (Mahnic, 2012). The traditional approach in which the system is first developed and then reviewed by the customer leads to many changes and a lot of re-work for the project team. The adaptive system development methodology will therefore allow the involvement of Dan and his team throughout the timeline of the project (Ali, Babu, 2016). There may be many risks and uncertainties that may emerge during the development of the information system for Perfect Builders. These risks may be in the form of technical or operational risks, management related risks, resource risks, budget risks or any other form of the risk. It will be essential that there are guidelines present with the Project Manager and leadership involved with the project so that these risks can be handled and controlled. Adaptive approach for the project will provide this opportunity by suggesting the various risk control and prevention measures. Also, the approach will include the execution of the project in the form of stages and iterations. These iterations will be termed as sprints and the duration of each sprint will be kept short. It will lie between 4 to 7 weeks which will be used to target and complete the requirement sets. In such a manner, there will be multiple short term goals that will be created which will be easier to achieve as compared to a final single goal as the end product. Tracking of the progress along with the management and incorporation of changes will also be easy in this case. Once all the sprints will be executed, there will be final product that will be created in the form of the information system for the company (Altameem, 2015). All the reasons that have been stated above support the decision of choosing adaptive system development methodology over any of the predictive approaches for the project. There will be many of the managerial and operational advantages offered by the agile based scrum development approach. Event table Event Event Type Trigger Source Activity/Use Case System Response/ Output Destination Perfect Builders wants to add new client Internal Get insured details Insurance company Record new client A new client has been added successfully Perfect Builders, Client Perfect Builders gets new project Internal Insured wants to construct a property Insurance company Create project A new project has been added successfully Perfect Builders, client Assessor inspects property External New Project accepted Admin staff Inspect property Assessor successfully inspected the property Assessor Admin staff appoints building supervisor External Inspection successful Admin staff Assign building supervisor Building supervisor has appointed successfully Building supervisor Admin staff provides quote Internal Inspection successful Admin staff Provide quote Admins staff successfully provided the quote Insurance company Client sign-offs the project External Sign-off project Admin staff Sign-off project Client signs the project after project completion Client Admin staff maintain diary Staff New project created Admins staff Manage diary - Perfect Builders Use Case Create project Scenario Create new project Triggering Event Insurance company receives details of the insured for a new work. Description Allows admin to create a new project for the respective insured. Actors Insurance company, admin staff Related Use Case N/A Stakeholders Client, admin staff Pre-Condition Admin staff is already logged in the system. Post-Condition A new project has been created. Flow of activities Actor System 1) Insurance company emails the details of insured to the company. 2) Admin staff checks the details and initiate a new project. 4) Admin staff fills the form and submit it. 6) An assessor is assigned to the project. 3) System displays a project form. 5) System saves the new project and return a project ID to the admin staff. Alternate Course of Action 3.1 If staff enters wrong details such as start date, name of the insured, etc., then an error message is displayed. A design analysis was done by the design team to understand the design specification and requirements for the information system that is required to be developed for Perfect Builders. Interaction and responsiveness are two of the major demands and expectations that the users have from the design of any of the web based application. We will be following the design principles that enhance the Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and provide an amazing experience to the users. The first and the foremost design principle that we will follow in the application will be the use of responsive web design. For every user action, the system will provide a response according to the nature of the action. For example, if the user wishes to access the application in the landscape mode or reduced resolution mode, then the elements of the UI will accordingly adjust. There will be use of change in text colour, shadowing, highlight etc. that will be used (Akoumianakis, Stephanidis, 2005). There will also be principles of consistency that will be maintained in the application design. The use of colour scheme, layout, navigation, font style etc. will be kept the same across all the pages and screens of the information system that we will provide. Customization and personalization options will also be considered while designing the system. The users will be able to customize the application on the basis of the language options, colour options and theme of the application. It will provide the users with the ability to connect with the system in a better way (McFarlane, Latorella, 2002). Navigation and layout that will be used in the application will be kept as simple and smooth as per the standard design principles. There will not be too much of navigation on any of the screens as the users may not like to scroll too much. Also, there will not be any overloading of screen elements and the use of spaces will be judiciously done. The layout that we will follow in the design will be simple and will follow the structure as placement of title at the top followed by header, menu, and body and footer section. We will only alter the body section on every screen and all the other sections of the layout will remain the same across all the screens. We are aware of the fact that the users may perform certain errors or may accidently click on certain options present in the application. There will be a re-confirmation of every such task and there will also be easy reversal of actions that will be implemented in the system design. The system will also provide an informative feedback to the users (Bakker, Hoven, Eggen, 2014). Please review and read through all of these design principles associated with the application and let us know if there are any further additions/changes required. References Akoumianakis, D., Stephanidis, C. (2005). 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