Christopher Thurman

When it comes to looking forward, we must use a regression analysis since it is a technique that is used for modeling out and analyzing several different variables. It is used to see the relationship effect on one thing as it happens against another. For example, the effect of using the microwave has against food nutrients or the effects of cold temperatures against the human body.  A person who collects and looks at the data normally uses regression to estimate the numerical effect of the variables and the influence of them.

There is a method inside of regression analysis that speaks of the relationship between two variables more in-depth. This is normally data plotted on a graph against the variables and then charted to see the overall picture of what will happen in the future. The model can both have a downward or upward slope do denote a positive or negative forecast.

In terms of regression there is a difference between simple and multiple regressions. Multiple regression happens when there are more independent variables and the dependent variables and what we are trying to learn from them. It means that there are a lot of variables to consider instead of just one variable. If you take a look at the data that a person who builds computers; they need to get the price of each of the computer components and then compare it with size and speed of the part. With all of that data they can begin to see what speed is selling for what to look at what is the average speed people are buying for what amount. A simple regression model is just with one variable against another variable like the examples with the microwave against food nutrients from above.

There is a method called the sum of squares that needs to be reduced. The sum of squares refers to the distance between the points on the line. The line that is being referred to is the line that is created from the points on the liner regression chart.

StatSoft, Inc. (2010). Electronic Statistics Textbook. Tulsa, OK:

StatSoft. WEB: http://www.statsoft.com/textbook/.

Sykes, Alan O. (n.d). An Introduction to Regression Analysis. The Inaugural Coase Lecture

University of Chicago. www.law.uchicago.edu/files/files/20.Sykes_.Regression.pdf

When it comes to testing hypotheses there are different kinds of subsets in them. The first is a null hypothesis and the second is alternative hypothesis. A null hypothesis is an educated guess that is only used in terms for statistic purposes. A null hypothesis is a guess in which could be falsified when an experiment is conduced and observed data is collected. An alternative hypothesis is just like the null hypothesis expects it is a guess that is likely to be true.

, let’s say that I make the example about snack food making people happy. I will make the null hypothesis that our snack food makes people happier when they eat it. Data would then be collected about the happiness of people eating our snack food and then not eating our snack food.  If it turns out that the data is highly unlikely to happen under the null hypothesis, then it can be said to forfeit the null hypothesis and say that the opposite to be true. The snack food does not make people happy. The data that is highly unlikely would mean that the percentage of the people were happy was tremendously less than the percentage of people who were not happy because of the snack food.  In an alternative hypothesis, would say that the snack food does not make people happy. So, in disproving the null hypothesis the alternative hypothesis turns out to be true.

When dealing with testing theories, there can be errors in the testing of hypothesis. There are two types of errors that arrive when dealing with a null hypothesis, Type I and Type II. Type I occurs when the null hypothesis is rejected because it is assumes to be false, but it is in fact true. The hypothesis is wrongly rejected. Type II happens when the null hypothesis is not rejected, but it should be because it is false.

There other types of hypothesis, one-tailed and two-tailed. It speaks about an ending being positive. A two-tailed hypothesis would mean a beginning is positive and then it starts decreasing in height. For example people who have more education makes more money. This is a one tailed hypothesis because it ends positive. Using the same income example, we if it is said that people who own their own business makes more income. This statement is two-tailed because it could can start out low, the middle be high then end lower at any point on the graphic.

Blackburn, Victoria.(2003-2010). WiseGreek: What is the Null Hypothesis?. Retrieved April 25, 2010 Retrieved from http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-null-hypothesis.htm

Easton, Valerie J. & McCall John H. (n.d) Statistics Glossary. Retrieved April 25, 2010 Retrieved from http://www.stats.gla.ac.uk/steps/glossary/hypothesis_testing.html#1err

UCLA. (n.d) What are the differences between one-tailed and two-tailed tests?. Retrieved April 25, 2010  Retrieved from http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/mult_pkg/faq/general/tail_tests.htm

When data is collected from a vast amount of people it is sometimes given back in a variety of different answers. This is because people do many different things and if questions are not specific answers can be very open ended. It was like this with the data that we have collected. We have a lot of information here some of which we do not need for our purpose; however we still need all the information.

The process that data is computed is data aggregation. This is a process that makes all the data. When it works with data reduction it puts the data into categories so that people can read the data that is collected easier. When data is put into the wrong categories or not categorized enough it can spell trouble for the company that is looking at the data. Reports that the data contains can take longer to read or not mention it can be read incorrectly and not represent the numbers correctly. A good portion of reports come in from this company condensed.  If these reports happen to be incorrect, then it can have an impact on this company that may cause it to be closed.

There are tips that we can use to make sure that the data aggregation that we use are proficient and correct. Since the data must be calculated, having the computer hardware is able to handle all the numerical information that is given to it. If the computer is too slow, then the data will not be compiled with enough speed. With computers there is the task of making sure those computers are well maintained.

In terms of software, it is just as important as hardware solutions. Using a business enterprise class solution that properly configured to handle the needs of our company is something that we need to look at and analyze. It needs to be easily accessible and manageable. The software also needs to be flexible that needs to be able to handle growth and handle complex data.

What was also put to use is data reduction. Data reduction is just a simple method of taking a lot of data and putting it into a way that is more useable. It is the actual process of making it simpler. The way the data is processed is data aggregation and that same data complied into a smaller more readable report is data aggregation. We need both of them working together for the data to be corrected.

Data is the more crucial part of a business process. When it comes to reports they can show a lot more data that is necessary. We use different techniques to calculate this data and reduce it to what we believe we need to look it to make it easier for us to read.

When it comes to providing personnel for a project it is my personal opinion that both the vender and the project manager should work together. The vendor has additional knowledge about the project since they are providing some of the resources for the project. It would be their employees if put to use that can be a great asset to the company while upgrading the system and afterward for training, if they are used. Likewise, the project manager has knowledge of all aspects of the project including key information like the budget and the ability to go to the project sponsor asking for more money if they feel as though it is needed and it will not be much of a hindrance if more money is needed. With all that being said, I think that it would be best for the overall outcome of the project if we used the vendor to supply some of the resources for the project.

The people that are hired would have to be within the budget of $100,000 for all of the vendor resources.  We would first have to get programmers, in order to help our in house employees. The programmers that are sent by the vendors would just immediately help them for $100 an hour. We would also set some aside for trainers at $90 an hours. That would make some use for us afterward to learn how to use the software that we are updating. We have already hired a business analyst so we will not have to use the vendor for this. The other position that we will need is the technical architect. The technical architect would be hired for $120 an hour.

Vendor Advantages

One of the advantages of using the vendor is the knowledge of the people that the vendor will bring it. It is possible that our programmers will not understand the language that is being used for the upgrade and they will need some assistance in programming. Even if they do understand the language additional help on it will not be a hindrance on the project if we have an allowed budget for it.

When it comes to knowledge having training people teaching our in house employees on how to use the software is an added positive. There are times at which people would not fully understand something especially when they are now to any time of software. Using the vendor in supplying this training for our employees would cut down time in which they are figuring thing outs though trial and error. It would also help answer any questions about the software that are present with our in house employees and if any future questions may arise it would be easier to just email them and try to get an answer instead of just guessing.

Vendor Disadvantages

Some of the disadvantages that may occur from using a vendor are first, the feeling of the employees. This can be looked at two ways when it comes to trust. The first way is the trust that they have in themselves. There is a chance that by hiring people from the outside of the company come in and try to assist others in the company, the employees already there may have a feeling that they are not good enough for the job. This feeling will pass along to their work and could hinder the work that they are already working on or will work on in the future. This would cause the outsourced employees to have to pick up the slack. Also, in the future the in house employees could feel as though there could always be a chance that they would be replaced permanently. The second is that with any new person coming into the company there is a feeling that they cannot be trusted. When any new employee comes into a company, there is a feeling by the employees that are already there that there could be a replacement for them and they could be fired at any moment.

Something that might want to be looked at is the time vested by the vendor appointed employees for the success of the project. The current employees are going to be there for an extended period of time, if the project is a success or not. However, employees hired by the vender will not be there for long. Unless there is something in the contract saying that the temporary hired employees will get a bonus or commission if the project is a success. If there is not anything like that written, then the success of the project really does not concern them. They are only there to do their job. Looking at the matter in further a current employee might spend extra time working on the job to insure the success of the project.

References

Kerzner, H. (2006). Project management – a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

PMI (2008). A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK Guide). (4^th ed.). Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute, Inc.

With any time of data gathering there has to be people in which the data comes from. However, with gathering data from people we are posed with a question. This question is who do we get to choose when we are asking them questions about our products and why do we get to choose them. There are two different choices, we have a population then we have a sample.

In order to understand population, the understanding that there are two different types of population, which both are used in different ways. Population is simply the number of items in any particular area. When it comes to the population in human beings, it is the number of people in the given area. People are normally counted by using the census in the United States that happens every four years. When the term population statistics comes it refers to the number of people that live in that area. In the United States, the Census Bureau also counts this and monitors.

A sample is just like it sounds a small portion of something else. It can be referred to in anything since you can take a small part of a greater whole. Speaking in terms of population it is just a small part of a larger group. Sampling is taking a smaller sub collection from a whole group of people. But if a proper sample for testing then you will need enough from that group of test that is needed.

•Census Bureau, The .(2010). Publications Retrieved April 9, 2010 from http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/popula.html

There are several different ways of measuring data depending on the situation. The different types of ways are split into four for this measurement. Each one has its strengths and weakness depending on the data. Each of the four is also used primary for its purpose. The four measurements for data are nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio.

The nominal scale is a way to have data be classified, but not having it in a group or in categories. The information that is being used is not to have any element of a number and there is no ordering of the items that are in question. “(Stevens, 1946)…the use of numerals as names for classes is an example of the assignment of numerals according to rule. The rule is: Do not assign the same numeral to different classes or different numerals to the same class. Beyond that, anything goes with the nominal scale.” Examples of this scale are male female, White, Black and Hispanic.

The ordinal scale is having items being classified with a set numbers going into an order. This order is a set rank for the items. This is a rank that is in the order of first, second, third, fourth… etc.  This data must not include any other information, but the rank.” As a matter of fact, most of the scales used widely and effectively by psychologists are ordinal scales. In the strictest propriety the ordinary statistics involving means and standard deviations ought not to be used with these scales, for these statistics imply a knowledge of something more than the relative rank order of data (Stevens, 1946).”

There are two more scales that are used for measurement of data; interval and ratio measurement. Unlike the first two measurement scales these two involve numbers and words do not mean anything, but a way to explain the scales.  The two scales cannot be combined because of the way each of the represent. Using the examples of temperature we cannot say that one temperature is twice or three times as high as another, since it will not make any sense.

The interval scale is a way of measurement in which distance does not mean anything, but the way it is. On the scale there is a 0, but the 0 on the scale does not mean that there is nothing. An example of this is would be a temperature scale.  The 0 on the scale does not mean anything, but an arbitrary number. In this scale 0 can also, be used as well as negative numbers.

Ratio measurement is a measurement, but it is primary used for the sciences and engineering. There is a more conventional use for ratio which is time. In ratio measurement 0 does have a meaning and each number is not arbitrary like it is in the interval scale. There is a difference between each and every number and we can tell the difference. If we look at a ratio scale of cooking ¼ of a cup of something is greater than ¾ of something in a different cup. And of course if there is nothing in the cup, then we can tell that immediately as well.

•Stevens, S.S. (1946). On the theory of scales of measurement. Science, 103, 677-680 •Virginia Tech. (1998). Data Types. Measurement Scales in Social Science Research. Retrieved April 9, 2010 from http://geosim.cs.vt.edu/Sable/converted/Measurement/activity.html

Communication in projects is very important. Not only communicating with the project team, but the people responsible for funding the project and the people that the project is created for. It is always known, that no matter how big the project team is there must be communication with them, either verbal or written. It could be required in most cases to have both no matter if the people you are working with the project on are on site or off site. However, there is one group of people that a project manager must communicate with during all steps of the project; these groups are the project sponsor, project stakeholders and the key customers of the project.

Stakeholders are the people who are important on the project. They are the party who can be affected or affects the project. It would be the people who without it the project would cease to exist. Also you must look at who will be greatly impacted by the project, if the project when well whose job would be the easiest. Likewise, if the project did not go well, who or whom would have a very hard time in their jobs.  Once the stakeholders are identified, then the person who is behind the project can be revealed, the project sponsor.

The project sponsor is the person who gives the team the project. They are the people who sees that there needs to be a change and have the authority to make the change happen.  Most often, the sponsors are from the business – leaders who want to change the way the business operates. The project sponsors already know what the project is that they want. They just have some trouble getting the complete concept together. There is also a feeling with the sponsor that how this problem would be addressed and to what extend it would be completed.

The last group of people that needs to be identified with the stakeholders and the sponsor is the key customers. This group of people is those who needs and requirements drive the project. They are the group that receives the final output that the project produces. The customers need to be included with communication. Since, they are the group of that the project is made for.

Since, this is a larger project the communication structure can be complex. Everyone that is involved in the project needs to communicate to one another so that they can be on the same page. For this reason a communication plan must be created. This plan will outline the items in which need to be talked about with each group of the project as well as the people who have stake in the project, to make sure that their needs are being meet.

There are three different types of information that can be given to each person/group for the project. The different types of communication are mandatory, informational and marketing. Mandatory information is the information that is required. It is meetings of status updates and it is just a where the project stands and what is left along with how the rest of the project is being covered. The project financial reports should also be discussed. The project manager will be the person who already has all this information and will make it readily available during the meeting to those who are participating. The informational meeting will have the different department telling the project team what they want in the project. It should start by the project manager describing the project to both departments. From there it will be a lot of taking notes about what should be included. Following the first couple of weeks, it should be known and the meetings will need up ended once all the functionality that was mentioned is being added to the software. The marketing meeting will be done by the project manager. Everyone will be involved with the software. During the meeting the project manager will first go over the release date of the project. Then the new software will be discussed on the differences of the new compared with the old.

The plan was created to make sure that everyone stays up to date on what the project is. The status report meeting is monthly because the project changes from month to month, it can change every day or every week. The reason for it being monthly is because every time there is a change to the project or something happens within the project people do not need to be notified all the time. Having the meetings monthly insures that everyone stays communicated and if anything happens that is an emergency there can be an emergency meeting called. The informational meetings need to happen more often because they are working directly with the project team. There need to be an always open line of communication when it comes to adding features and taking away features. Lastly, the marketing meeting happens, when the project is almost done. This is just to create anticipation for the project as well as telling people what is going to be different with this project from the other projects.

Not only is communication important on all projects, but proactive communication is important. The project manager needs to make sure that all the team members, key customers, customers, and stakeholders have all the necessary information to do their jobs. It is the vital way to manage the expectations of the project sponsor and who in the project is doing what and what needs to be done. The communication can be as simple as a talk, email or instant message. It can also be as complex as a report. Communication can go a long way toward ensuring project success.

Kerzner, H. (2006). Project management – a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and

controlling. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & So

Project Management Institute (PMI). (2008) A Guide to the Project Management Body of
Knowledge. Project Management Institute: Newtown Square, PA.

Turbit, Neville. (May 2004). Creating a Communication Plan. Communication Plan for an IT
Project. Retrieved March 5, 2010. http://www.projectperfect.com.au/info_comms_plan.php

Project manager (PM):

Project manager should involve to design and develop change management system and monitor the system. It is important to communicate the necessity of change management process and follow the process irrespective of the urgency. The project manager has to use the negotiation skills to find a solution when asked to implement a change that might jeopardize the project’s ability to deliver to the triple constraints.

Sponsor:

Sponsor will validate that the requested changes and review the results to provide a feedback whether they are in line with the original intent of the project. The sponsor heads the change control board.

Project team members:

Avoid making unauthorized changes and report any discrepancies.

The following six steps explains the process after designing a change management system—

Step 1: Making a change to the project

During project execution making a change to the project is the natural part of the project development. The change requests can come from anyone; team members, clients, sponsors, even the PM. Change requests can also come from people outside of the project, including functional organizations, vendors, and so on. The change request usually has to do with a discrepancy in what is planned for the product of the project. Discrepancies can cover specific functions of the product.

Step 2: Reviewing the change request

The PM will guarantee that every person on the team, or at least each area of the team, is represented during this review. In addition, the PM needs to make sure that the intention of the change request is clear to the team members. The PM should facilitate discussion until all team members’ questions are resolved. For large or complex change requests, the PM might consider asking the requestor to attend the review meeting so they can answer team questions.

Step 3: Determining the work to implement the change

Step 4: Accumulating the required work

With the accumulated information about the change request the proper sequence of the tasks involved will be determined which could be a mini project schedule just for this change.

Step 5: Analyze the impact of the change

The change request could impact the project plan or the requirements or both. By performing a ‘what if’ scenario, it can be determined exactly where the change request can be inserted into the existing project schedule to calculate the new critical path and the total cost of the change request based on the work estimates provided by the team.

Step 6: Having an Impact on the three constraints (Time, Budget, and Quality)

The next step is to determine the impact of the change on the constraints to the project. If even one of the triple constraints is affected by the change request, the approval from the CCB is necessary.

Cited

Baca, Claudia(2005). Project Manager’s Spotlight on Change Management. Sybex

Taylor, James C (2008). “Chapter 10 – Understanding the Project Change Process”. Project Scheduling and Cost Control: Planning, Monitoring and Controlling the Baseline. J. Ross Publishing.

Stakeholders of a project

When thinking of people who are stakeholders, one must think of everyone who is involved in this project. Stakeholders are the people who are important on the project. They are the party who can be affected or affects the project. It would be the people who without it the project would cease to exist. Also you must look at who will be greatly impacted by the project, if the project when well whose job would be the easiest. Likewise, if the project did not go well, who or whom would have a very hard time in their jobs.  Once the stakeholders are identified, then the person who is behind the project can be revealed, the project sponsor.

Project Sponsors

After you have identified everyone on the project who has a stake in it, there is only one person left. That person is the project sponsor. A project sponsor is the person or group of people who see that something needs to change and they have that authority to make that change happen. Without them mentioning the project, then it will never happen. The most important thing about a project sponsor is that there are not a lot of people in the company that have enough authority or influence to undertake the work and bring about the change in the project, but not only in that project in every project. For this reason the project sponsor would be the company board of directors if there is a board of directors. If there is not a board of directors, then the project sponsor would be a group of people. The first person would be the person who controls the daily operations; this person is also the lead stakeholder. Also, customers can to a certain extent be the project sponsor. The information about the person who controls the daily operation does have enough power in the company to influence. However, there is one person or people who have amazing power and they all might not know it. Every company does what they do for the customer. If the customer does not like something and there is enough of them, then that company will change in order to keep that customer. Likewise, if the company is doing something correct. Then the company will keep on doing what is correct in order to keep the customer happy. For this reason the customer can also be a project sponsor.

References:

MSH and UNICEF. 1998. Stakeholder Analysis. The Guide to Managing for Quality.  Retrieved
January 21, 2010 http://erc.msh.org/quality/ittools/itstkan.cfm

Wallace, Sam. 1999-20007. Project Definition.  Retrieved January 21, 2010.                http://www.epmbook.com/projdefwhy.htm

Mushroom Wars is a simple and yet complex real-time strategy tower defense game from Creat Studios for PSN. An easy game to learn how to play, it remains fun as one goes through it over and over again.

The game looks decent, everything on the screen is small, so there may not be much detail, but what we have, including the different sets of environments (forest, desert, swamp), looks good. In fact, the same could be said for the entirety of the game — everything is basic, it is easy to understand what is what, but it all works.

To step back for a minute, the story in the game is minimal — the protagonist is one kingdom of mushrooms and the antagonist are three rival kingdoms that want to take over the land. In order to defeat them, one needs to develop and deploy an appropriate strategy of improving one’s troops and upgrading one’s towers.

Controls are very simple, with the left analog stick is for movement and the R1 button for action. Once R1 is pressed, it enables the direct movement of the soldiers to the towers. If it is an enemy’s tower then the two armies will they will begin to fight each other — the army with the most soldiers in the tower at the end of the battle takes the tower. One can’t be overly specific about the number of army members sent to a tower, they can only go in blocks of 25, 50, 75 or 100 percent of one’s army.

In order to protect towers, upgrading is crucial. Upgrading towers all increases the number of units that can be housed in said tower and the amount of soldiers that can be created as the tower will continue to create soldiers in the tower until the limit is reached.

After the fifth mission in campaign, the game introduces moral levels into gameplay. As more towers are taken over by soldiers that team’s moral increases. This is important because it causes soldiers to attack more strongly, defend better, and move faster.

 The campaigns are basically one of three types or sometimes combinations of them. These types are Conquest, Domination, and King of the Hill. Conquest is the elimination of all enemies and structures, Domination is the take over all of buildings with a star, and King of the Hill is holding buildings with a star until a certain number of points is reached. There are 28 different levels in the game and each level has three different difficulty settings. There is also the ability to play different skirmish levels while not playing in a campaign. There are also local multiplayer maps which allow for up to two players to play at once.

 The game is great. It handles well for an RTS on the PlayStation, and the controls are intuitive. It also is very easy to pick up and put down. It gives the ability to save after each level, so one needn’t worry about having to achieve too much in a sitting. The only down side is the amount of players that play this game on PSN is not that great, which does dampen the game’s multiplayer ability. Lastly, one of the things that really impresses is the game’s YouTube integration. Game videos are easily uploaded to YouTube’s site which is a nice little addition.