Quality Assurance Question Bank

Question bank Q1. Why software needs to be tested? Ans. Every software product needs to be tested since; the development process is unable to produce defect free software. Even if the development process is able to produce defect free software, we will not be able to know unless & until we test it. Without testing it, we shall not be having enough confidence that it will work. Testing not only identifies and reports defect but also measures the quality of the product, which helps to decide whether to release the product, or not. Q2.What is the reason that Software has Bugs? Ans. Following factors contribute to the presence of bugs in the software applications:- a. Software development tools like visual tools, class libraries, compilers, scripting tools, etc. usually introduce their own bugs in the system. b. To err is human. Likewise programmers do make mistakes while programming c. In fast-changing business environments continuously modified requirements are becoming a fact of life. Such frequent changes requested by the customer leads to errors in the application already nearing completion.Last minute design changes leads to many chaos like redesign of the whole system, rescheduling of engineers, scrapping of the work already completed, fresh requirements of compatible hardware etc d. A quickly written but poorly documented code is bound to have bugs. It becomes difficult to maintain and modify such code that is badly written or poorly documented. – its tough to maintain and modify code that is badly written or poorly documented; the result is bugs. In many organizations management provides no incentive for programmers to document their code or write clear, understandable, maintainable code.In fact, it’s usually the opposite: they get points mostly for quickly turning out code, and there as jobs security if nobody else can understand it (if it was hard to write, it should be hard to read). e. When project deadlines come too close & time pressure s come, mistakes are bound to come Q3. What is the difference between QA and Testing? Ans. QA stands for â€Å"Quality Assurance†, and focuses on â€Å"Prevention† of defects in the product being developed. It is associated with the â€Å"Process† and activities related to the Process Improvement.Quality Assurance measures the quality of the processes employed to create a quality product. Whereas â€Å"Testing† refers to â€Å"Quality Control†, and focuses on Detection of Defect and removal thereafter. Or Quality Control measures the quality of a product. Q4. What is the difference between Software Testing and Debugging? Ans. Testing is the process of locating or identifying the errors or bugs in a software system. Whereas Debugging is the process of Fixing the identified Bugs. It involves a process of analyzing and rectifying the syntax errors, logic errors and all other types of errors identified during the process of testing.Q5. What is the diff erence between a Bug and a Defect? Ans. â€Å"Bug† is a problem or an error in the software code, which is found in the application during Testing. Bug is responsible for failure of the application to comply with the desired specifications. Whereas â€Å"Defect† is problem reported by the customer during usage of the software application. Q6. What is the difference between a Bug and an Enhancement? Ans. â€Å"Bug† is a problem or an error in the software code, which is found in the application during Testing.Bug is responsible for failure of the application to comply with the desired specifications. Whereas â€Å"Enhancement† is the additional feature or functionality found and added to the application as desired by the end user / real word customer or tester during the testing process. Q7. What is the difference between Requirements & Specifications? Ans. â€Å"Requirements† are statements given by the customer as to what needs to be achieved by t he software system. Later on these requirements are converted into specifications which are nothing but feasible or implementable requirements.Whereas â€Å"Specifications† are feasible requirements derived from various statements given by the customer. These are the starting point for the product development team. Q8. What is the difference between Verification and Validation? Ans. â€Å"Verification† involves reviews and meetings to evaluate documents, plans, code, requirements, and specifications to confirm whether items, processes, services, or documents conform to specified requirements or not. This can be done with the help of checklists, issues lists, walkthroughs, and inspection meetings. The purpose f verification is to determine whether the products of a given phase of the software development cycle fulfill the requirements established during the previous phase or not. Whereas â€Å"Validation† is the determination of the correctness of the final progr am or software product produced from a development project with respect to the user needs and requirements. This involves actual testing of the product and takes place after verifications are completed. â€Å"Software Verification† raises the question, â€Å"Are we building the Product Right? † that is, does the software conform to its specification. Software Validation† raises the question, â€Å"Are we building the Right Product? † that is, the software doing what the user really requires. Q9. What is difference between Waterfall Model and V Model? Ans. â€Å"Waterfall Model† Is a sequential software development model (a process for the creation of software) in which development is seen as flowing steadily downwards (like a waterfall)through the phases of requirements analysis, design, implementation, testing (validation),integration, and maintenance. To follow the waterfall model, we proceed from one phase to the next in a purely sequential manne r.In traditional waterfall model, testing comes at the far end of the development process. Whereas â€Å"V Model† or â€Å"Life Cycle Testing† involves carrying out verification of consistency, completeness and correctness of software at every stage of the development life cycle. It aims at catching the defects as early as possible and thus reduces the cost of fixing them. It involves continuously testing the system during all stages of the development process rather than just limiting testing to the last stage. Q10. What are Baseline Documents? Ans.Baseline documents are the documents, which have been approved by the customer and will not have any more changes. Baseline Documents cover all the details of the project and have undergone â€Å"walkthrough† process. Once a document is Base-lined it cannot be changed unless there is a change request duly approved by the customer. Service Level Agreement (SLA) & Business Requirement Documents (BRD) are the examples o f Baseline Documents. Q11. What is Defect Density? Ans. â€Å"Defect Density† Is a software metric defined as: Total number of defects per LOC (lines of code).Alternatively it can be: Total number of defects per Size of the Project. Here the measure of â€Å"Size of the Project† can be number of Function Points, Number of Feature Points, number of Use Cases or KLOC (Kilo Lines of Code) etc. Q12. What is Quality? Ans. Quality software is software that is reasonably bug-free, delivered on time and within budget, meets requirements and expectations and is maintainable. However, quality is a subjective term. Quality depends on who the customer is and their overall influence in the scheme of things.Customers of a software development project include end-users, customer acceptance test engineers, testers, customer contract officers, customer management, the development organization’s management, test engineers, testers, salespeople, software engineers, stockholders an d accountants. Each type of customer will have his or her own slant on quality. The accounting department might define quality in terms of profits, while an end- user might define quality as user friendly and bug free. Q13. What is an Inspection? Ans.An inspection is a formal meeting, more formalized than a walkthrough and typically consists of 3-10 people including a moderator, reader (the author of whatever is being reviewed) and a recorder (to make notes in the document). The subject of the inspection is typically a document, such as a requirements document or a test plan. The purpose of an inspection is to find problems and see what is missing, not to fix anything. The result of the meeting is documented in a written report. Attendees should prepare for this type of meeting by reading through the document, before the meeting starts; most problems are found during this preparation.Preparation for inspections is difficult, but is one of the most cost-effective methods of ensuring quality, since bug prevention is more cost effective than bug detection. A14. What is Six Sigma? Ans. â€Å"Six Sigma† means Six Standard Deviations from the mean. It is a methodology aimed to reduce defect levels below 3. 4 Defects Per one Million Opportunities. Six Sigma approach improves the process performance, decreases variation and maintains consistent quality of the process output. This leads to defect reduction and improvement in profits, product quality and customer satisfaction.Q15. What is difference between CMM and CMMI? Ans. â€Å"CMM† means â€Å"Capability Maturity Model† developed by the Software Engineering Institute (SEI). It is a process capability maturity model, which aids in the definition and understanding of an organization’s processes. CMM is intended as a tool for objectively assessing the ability of government contractors’ processes to perform a contracted software project. Whereas â€Å"CMMI† means â€Å"Capabil ity Maturity Model Integration† & it has superseded CMM. The old CMM has been renamed to Software Engineering CMM (SE-CMM).Q16. What is Verification? Ans. Verification ensures the product is designed to deliver all functionality to the customer; it typically involves reviews and meetings to evaluate documents, plans, code, requirements and specifications; this can be done with checklists, issues lists, walkthroughs and inspection meetings. Q17. What is Validation? Ans. Validation ensures that functionality, as defined in requirements, is the intended behavior of the product; validation typically involves actual testing and takes place after verifications are completed. Q18.What is a Test Plan? Ans. A software project test plan is a document that describes the objectives, scope, approach and focus of a software testing effort. The process of preparing a test plan is a useful way to think through the efforts needed to validate the acceptability of a software product. The complet ed document will help people outside the test group understand the why and how of product validation. It should be thorough enough to be useful, but not so thorough that none outside the test group will be able to read it. Q19. What is a Walkthrough? Ans.A walkthrough is an informal meeting for evaluation or informational purposes. A walkthrough is also a process at an abstract level. It’s the process of inspecting software code by following paths through the code (as determined by input conditions and choices made along the way). The purpose of code walkthroughs is to ensure the code fits the purpose. Walkthroughs also offer opportunities to assess an individual’s or team’s competency. Q20. What is Software Life Cycle? Ans. Software life cycle begins when a software product is first conceived and ends when it is no longer in use.It includes phases like initial concept, requirements analysis, functional design, internal design, documentation planning, test plann ing, coding, document preparation, integration, testing, maintenance, updates, re-testing and phase-ou Q21. What is the Difference between STLC & SDLC? Ans. STLC means † Software Testing Life Cycle†. It starts with activities like : 1) Preparation of Requirements Document 2) Preparation of Test Plan 3) Preparation of Test Cases 4) Execution of Test Cases 5) Analysis of Bugs 6) Reporting of Bugs 7) Tracking of Bugs till closure.Whereas SDLC means † Software Development Life Cycle† is a software development process, used by a systems analyst to develop an information system. It starts with activities like : 1) Project Initiation 2) Requirement Gathering and Documenting 3) Designing 4) Coding and Unit Testing 5) Integration Testing 6) System Testing 7) Installation and Acceptance Testing 8) Support or Maintenance Q22. What is the Difference between Project and Product Testing? Ans. If any organization is developing the application according to the client specifi cation then it is called as project.Accordingly its testing is known as â€Å"Project Testing† Whereas If any organization is developing the application and marketing it is called as product. Hence its testing is known as â€Å"Product Testing† Q23. How do you introduce a new software QA process? Ans. It depends on the size of the organization and the risks involved. For large organizations with high-risk projects, a serious management buy-in is required and a formalized QA process is necessary. For medium size organizations with lower risk projects, management and organizational buy-in and a slower, step-by-step process is required.Generally speaking, QA processes should be balanced with productivity, in order to keep any bureaucracy from getting out of hand. For smaller groups or projects, an ad-hoc process is more appropriate. A lot depends on team leads and managers, feedback to developers and good communication is essential among customers, managers, developers, t est engineers and testers. Regardless the size of the company, the greatest value for effort is in managing requirement processes, where the goal is requirements that are clear, complete and testable. Q24. What is configuration Management? Ans.Configuration Management (or CM) is the processes of controlling, coordinating and tracking the Standards and procedures for managing changes in an evolving software product. Configuration Testing is the process of checking the operation of the software being tested on various types of hardware. Q25. What is the role of QA in a software producing company? Ans. QA is responsible for managing, implementing, maintaining and continuously improving the Processes in the Company and enable internal projects towards process maturity and facilitate process improvements and innovations in the organization.Tester is responsible for carrying out the testing efforts in the company. In many companies QA person is responsible both the roles of Testing as wel l as creating and improving the processes. Q26. What is Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA)? Ans. Failure Mode and Effect Analysis is a systematic approach to risk identification and analysis of identifying possible modes of failure and attempting to prevent their occurrence. Q27. What is Test Maturity Model or TMM? Ans.Test Maturity Model or TMM is a five level staged framework for test process improvement, related to the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) that describes the key elements of an effective test process. Q28. What is the difference between API & ABI? Ans. Application Programming Interface (API) is a formalized set of software calls and routines that can be referenced by an application program in order to access supporting system or network services. Whereas Application Binary Interface (ABI) is a specification defining requirements for portability of applications in binary forms across different system platforms and environments.Q29. What is I V & V? Ans. I V & V mean s Independent Verification and Validation. Verification typically involves reviews and meetings to evaluate documents, plans, code, requirements, and specifications. Verification can be done with the help of checklists, issues lists, walkthroughs, and inspection meetings. Whereas Validation typically involves actual testing and takes place after verifications are completed. Q30. What are the benefits of Software Validation? Ans. Software validation is an important tool employed to assure the quality of the software products.Few benefits are as under: 1) It increases the usability and reliability of the device software, resulting in reduced failure rates, less recalls and corrective actions, less liability to device manufacturers. 2) It reduces the long term costs by making it easier and less costly to reliably modify software and revalidate software changes. 3) It helps to reduce the long-term cost of software by reducing the cost of validation for each subsequent release of the sof tware. Q31. What is the role of Design Reviews in Software Development Life Cycle? Ans.Design review is a primary tool for managing and evaluating software development projects. Design reviews allow management to confirm that all goals defined in the software validation plan have been achieved. Formal design reviews are more structured and include participation from others outside the development team. Design reviews are documented, comprehensive, and systematic examinations of a design to evaluate the adequacy of the design requirements, to evaluate the capability of the design to meet these requirements, and to identify problems.Design reviews include examination of development plans, requirements specifications, design specifications, testing plans and procedures, all other documents and activities associated with the project. Q32. What is the need of Software Validation after a change? Ans. When any change even a small one is made to the software, following activities need to be performed: 1) Re-establishment of the validation status of the software. 2) Conducting necessary validation analysis – not for the sake of validation of the individual change, but o to know the effect of the change on the entire software system. ) Conducting suitable level of regression testing to show that unchanged but vulnerable portions of the system have not been adversely affected. Regression testing is meant to provide a confidence that the software has been validated after the change. Q33. How would you convince upper management that company needs a formal QA testing team? How would you explain that Software quality would not improve if the company get rid of QA team? Ans. Developing amazing applications isn’t the same as testing them, ut a experienced QA tester, I would rather have a developers testing application than the testers who can just plainly submit bug reports.QA team needs to build quality into software development life cycle. The bug in software d esign is 15times cheaper than a bug in code. QA productivity is really hard to measure. If QA team is doing testing right, , everything just happens smoothly, but if testers mess up even a little, everyone knows about it. To be successful, QA team must create test plans, create test harnesses, create test cases and use testing tools. QA should ensure whether the application code is effectively delivering on the business requirements provided.The developers should unit test their own code and deliver ‘perfectly good code’ , while QA testers should deliver ‘code that actually addresses business needs’. For a company that make software applications, a rock-solid QA department is absolutely irreplaceable. Q34. WhatQuality Assurance and Quality Control activities are done differently for COTS / GOTS project than for a traditional custom development project? | Ans. The activities themselves are broadly the same, but with different stakeholders, and different deta iled procedures for verification and validation.Often the challenge for SQA is to pin down the ownership of the requirements, which may be represented by a complex debate between marketing departments, technical eggheads, user groups, customer focus groups and other interested parties. | | Q35. What in your opinion is the role of SQA personnel with respect to inspections or testing? | Ans. Formally, the role is to make the inspection process or testing process visible, both to the participants (so they can see what they are achieving, how effective they are being) and to management (so that they can assess progress and risk).In practice, SQA personnel often need to act as facilitators or coaches. They are often regarded (wrongly) as the owners or custodians of the inspection or testing process, or even as the owners/custodians of the whole software process. Part of the training and mentoring for SQA personnel should address the difficult dilemma of how to be adequately engaged in th e software process without being landed with the responsibility for it. | | Q36. What are the most likely quality consequences of choosing an inappropriate life cycle model for a software project? | Ans. The most likely consequence is that the project will not deliver anything at all.Not because the lifecycle couldn? t be made to work technically, but because it will fail to contain the political tensions between stakeholders. | | Q37. What in your opinion, are the most important changes that occurred in the role of Software Quality Assurance during the last 5 to 10 years? Ho| Ans. rowing awareness and importance of public domain models such as SEI SW CMM, BOOTSTRAP and SPICE. Changing nature of software development, especially model-based development (CASE) and component-based development (CBD). Growing need to connect software of different ages and sources.Software projects not pure software development, but including maintenance, package selection and implementation, and other so ftware activities. (Perhaps software projects never were pure development, but such topics as project management, quality management and configuration management used to be taught as if they were. )   Faced with these changes, SQA needs to be both reductionist (giving close attention to the quality of components from various sources) and holistic (giving broad attention to the emergent properties of the whole assembled system, in terms of its overall fit to business requirements).As I see it, the mandate of SQA is to make defects in software products and processes visible to management. SQA fits into a context of software quality management where this visibility leads to corrective and preventative action (not itself part of SQA), and to general software process improvement. | Q38. Someone complains that during system testing the application often crashes. What likely process problem does that indicate? | Ans. Systematic failure to carry out proper unit testing.OR inconsistency be tween the development/unit test environment and the system test environment. AND ALSO management failure to respond promptly to the situation with corrective and preventative action. | | Q39. What exposure have you had to auditing? Internal? External? Certification related? | Ans. I have been trained as a lead assessor for ISO 9000 and also as an examiner for the European Quality Award. I have conducted internal audits and informal external assessments but not formal external audits. I have advised organizations on steps towards certification. | Q40. What in your opinion are the most significant fundamental differences between SEI SW-CMM and ISO 9000-3? | Ans. The main difference is what the two models tell you. ISO 9000-3 gives you a yes/no answer, whereas SEI SW-CMM gives you a more complex assessment. This implies different ways of using the models for SQA and process improvement. | 1. Difference is ISO is a standard and CMMI is a model with framework. 2. Other one is Specific pr actices should be determinded in ISO and where as CMMI model having predefined useful specific and general practices. | Q41. In your experience, who are the most important allies of SQA within an organization? | Ans. SQA is a form of risk awareness, and is therefore potentially allied to any senior management with a risk management focus. Within some companies/industries (e. g. insurance), software risks are seen as having mainly financial consequences, and so the main ally might be the financial director. Within other companies/industries (e. g. retail), software risks are seen as having mainly customer service implications, and so the main allies may be in marketing roles.In one client, we had useful conversations with the Company Secretariat, because of the due diligence implications of some software risks. These conversations were triggered by Y2K issues, but ranged much more widely. In practice, SQA often fails to make these alliances, because it gets bogged down in obscure sof tware technicalities and trivialities, which it is incapable of communicating effectively even to software engineers, let alone anybody else. | Q42. A company recruits its first and only SQA â€Å"specialist†. The person is new to the area.The company is relatively young, operates in a competitive commercial domain and has no previous SQA presence. The SQA specialist feels he needs to show some results during the next 6 to 9 months. What advice will you give him? | Ans. Start with a risk assessment, to identify the significant software risks and their business implications. Identify managers directly affected by these implications, who may be recruited as allies. Select a small number of issues to address in the initial phase. Try to include some quick wins, as well as some improvements that could be achieved within 3-6 months.Don? t try to do everything at once. At this stage, use whichever model you prefer (ISO 9000-3 or TickIT or SW-CMM or SPICE) merely as a framework, so that you know how what you? re doing fits into a larger picture. | Q43. What advice would you give to someone who asked you where to start to introduce to their company a metrics and quality reporting program? | Ans. Use the GQM approach to derive relevant metrics from personal and corporate goals. Select a small number of key metrics that will be directly relevant to project managers and/or software engineers.Put the metrics into the hands of the workers, as a tool for personal performance improvement. | | | | Q44. What is Total Quality Management? Ans. A company commitment to develop a process that achieves high quality product and customer satisfaction. Q45. What is Quality Circle? Ans. A group of individuals with related interests that meet at regular intervals to consider problems or other matters related to the quality of outputs of a process and to the correction of problems or to the improvement of quality. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Quality Assurance Question Bank Question bank Q1. Why software needs to be tested? Ans. Every software product needs to be tested since; the development process is unable to produce defect free software. Even if the development process is able to produce defect free software, we will not be able to know unless & until we test it. Without testing it, we shall not be having enough confidence that it will work. Testing not only identifies and reports defect but also measures the quality of the product, which helps to decide whether to release the product, or not. Q2.What is the reason that Software has Bugs? Ans. Following factors contribute to the presence of bugs in the software applications:- a. Software development tools like visual tools, class libraries, compilers, scripting tools, etc. usually introduce their own bugs in the system. b. To err is human. Likewise programmers do make mistakes while programming c. In fast-changing business environments continuously modified requirements are becoming a fact of life. Such frequent changes requested by the customer leads to errors in the application already nearing completion.Last minute design changes leads to many chaos like redesign of the whole system, rescheduling of engineers, scrapping of the work already completed, fresh requirements of compatible hardware etc d. A quickly written but poorly documented code is bound to have bugs. It becomes difficult to maintain and modify such code that is badly written or poorly documented. – its tough to maintain and modify code that is badly written or poorly documented; the result is bugs. In many organizations management provides no incentive for programmers to document their code or write clear, understandable, maintainable code.In fact, it’s usually the opposite: they get points mostly for quickly turning out code, and there as jobs security if nobody else can understand it (if it was hard to write, it should be hard to read). e. When project deadlines come too close & time pressure s come, mistakes are bound to come Q3. What is the difference between QA and Testing? Ans. QA stands for â€Å"Quality Assurance†, and focuses on â€Å"Prevention† of defects in the product being developed. It is associated with the â€Å"Process† and activities related to the Process Improvement.Quality Assurance measures the quality of the processes employed to create a quality product. Whereas â€Å"Testing† refers to â€Å"Quality Control†, and focuses on Detection of Defect and removal thereafter. Or Quality Control measures the quality of a product. Q4. What is the difference between Software Testing and Debugging? Ans. Testing is the process of locating or identifying the errors or bugs in a software system. Whereas Debugging is the process of Fixing the identified Bugs. It involves a process of analyzing and rectifying the syntax errors, logic errors and all other types of errors identified during the process of testing.Q5. What is the diff erence between a Bug and a Defect? Ans. â€Å"Bug† is a problem or an error in the software code, which is found in the application during Testing. Bug is responsible for failure of the application to comply with the desired specifications. Whereas â€Å"Defect† is problem reported by the customer during usage of the software application. Q6. What is the difference between a Bug and an Enhancement? Ans. â€Å"Bug† is a problem or an error in the software code, which is found in the application during Testing.Bug is responsible for failure of the application to comply with the desired specifications. Whereas â€Å"Enhancement† is the additional feature or functionality found and added to the application as desired by the end user / real word customer or tester during the testing process. Q7. What is the difference between Requirements & Specifications? Ans. â€Å"Requirements† are statements given by the customer as to what needs to be achieved by t he software system. Later on these requirements are converted into specifications which are nothing but feasible or implementable requirements.Whereas â€Å"Specifications† are feasible requirements derived from various statements given by the customer. These are the starting point for the product development team. Q8. What is the difference between Verification and Validation? Ans. â€Å"Verification† involves reviews and meetings to evaluate documents, plans, code, requirements, and specifications to confirm whether items, processes, services, or documents conform to specified requirements or not. This can be done with the help of checklists, issues lists, walkthroughs, and inspection meetings. The purpose f verification is to determine whether the products of a given phase of the software development cycle fulfill the requirements established during the previous phase or not. Whereas â€Å"Validation† is the determination of the correctness of the final progr am or software product produced from a development project with respect to the user needs and requirements. This involves actual testing of the product and takes place after verifications are completed. â€Å"Software Verification† raises the question, â€Å"Are we building the Product Right? † that is, does the software conform to its specification. Software Validation† raises the question, â€Å"Are we building the Right Product? † that is, the software doing what the user really requires. Q9. What is difference between Waterfall Model and V Model? Ans. â€Å"Waterfall Model† Is a sequential software development model (a process for the creation of software) in which development is seen as flowing steadily downwards (like a waterfall)through the phases of requirements analysis, design, implementation, testing (validation),integration, and maintenance. To follow the waterfall model, we proceed from one phase to the next in a purely sequential manne r.In traditional waterfall model, testing comes at the far end of the development process. Whereas â€Å"V Model† or â€Å"Life Cycle Testing† involves carrying out verification of consistency, completeness and correctness of software at every stage of the development life cycle. It aims at catching the defects as early as possible and thus reduces the cost of fixing them. It involves continuously testing the system during all stages of the development process rather than just limiting testing to the last stage. Q10. What are Baseline Documents? Ans.Baseline documents are the documents, which have been approved by the customer and will not have any more changes. Baseline Documents cover all the details of the project and have undergone â€Å"walkthrough† process. Once a document is Base-lined it cannot be changed unless there is a change request duly approved by the customer. Service Level Agreement (SLA) & Business Requirement Documents (BRD) are the examples o f Baseline Documents. Q11. What is Defect Density? Ans. â€Å"Defect Density† Is a software metric defined as: Total number of defects per LOC (lines of code).Alternatively it can be: Total number of defects per Size of the Project. Here the measure of â€Å"Size of the Project† can be number of Function Points, Number of Feature Points, number of Use Cases or KLOC (Kilo Lines of Code) etc. Q12. What is Quality? Ans. Quality software is software that is reasonably bug-free, delivered on time and within budget, meets requirements and expectations and is maintainable. However, quality is a subjective term. Quality depends on who the customer is and their overall influence in the scheme of things.Customers of a software development project include end-users, customer acceptance test engineers, testers, customer contract officers, customer management, the development organization’s management, test engineers, testers, salespeople, software engineers, stockholders an d accountants. Each type of customer will have his or her own slant on quality. The accounting department might define quality in terms of profits, while an end- user might define quality as user friendly and bug free. Q13. What is an Inspection? Ans.An inspection is a formal meeting, more formalized than a walkthrough and typically consists of 3-10 people including a moderator, reader (the author of whatever is being reviewed) and a recorder (to make notes in the document). The subject of the inspection is typically a document, such as a requirements document or a test plan. The purpose of an inspection is to find problems and see what is missing, not to fix anything. The result of the meeting is documented in a written report. Attendees should prepare for this type of meeting by reading through the document, before the meeting starts; most problems are found during this preparation.Preparation for inspections is difficult, but is one of the most cost-effective methods of ensuring quality, since bug prevention is more cost effective than bug detection. A14. What is Six Sigma? Ans. â€Å"Six Sigma† means Six Standard Deviations from the mean. It is a methodology aimed to reduce defect levels below 3. 4 Defects Per one Million Opportunities. Six Sigma approach improves the process performance, decreases variation and maintains consistent quality of the process output. This leads to defect reduction and improvement in profits, product quality and customer satisfaction.Q15. What is difference between CMM and CMMI? Ans. â€Å"CMM† means â€Å"Capability Maturity Model† developed by the Software Engineering Institute (SEI). It is a process capability maturity model, which aids in the definition and understanding of an organization’s processes. CMM is intended as a tool for objectively assessing the ability of government contractors’ processes to perform a contracted software project. Whereas â€Å"CMMI† means â€Å"Capabil ity Maturity Model Integration† & it has superseded CMM. The old CMM has been renamed to Software Engineering CMM (SE-CMM).Q16. What is Verification? Ans. Verification ensures the product is designed to deliver all functionality to the customer; it typically involves reviews and meetings to evaluate documents, plans, code, requirements and specifications; this can be done with checklists, issues lists, walkthroughs and inspection meetings. Q17. What is Validation? Ans. Validation ensures that functionality, as defined in requirements, is the intended behavior of the product; validation typically involves actual testing and takes place after verifications are completed. Q18.What is a Test Plan? Ans. A software project test plan is a document that describes the objectives, scope, approach and focus of a software testing effort. The process of preparing a test plan is a useful way to think through the efforts needed to validate the acceptability of a software product. The complet ed document will help people outside the test group understand the why and how of product validation. It should be thorough enough to be useful, but not so thorough that none outside the test group will be able to read it. Q19. What is a Walkthrough? Ans.A walkthrough is an informal meeting for evaluation or informational purposes. A walkthrough is also a process at an abstract level. It’s the process of inspecting software code by following paths through the code (as determined by input conditions and choices made along the way). The purpose of code walkthroughs is to ensure the code fits the purpose. Walkthroughs also offer opportunities to assess an individual’s or team’s competency. Q20. What is Software Life Cycle? Ans. Software life cycle begins when a software product is first conceived and ends when it is no longer in use.It includes phases like initial concept, requirements analysis, functional design, internal design, documentation planning, test plann ing, coding, document preparation, integration, testing, maintenance, updates, re-testing and phase-ou Q21. What is the Difference between STLC & SDLC? Ans. STLC means † Software Testing Life Cycle†. It starts with activities like : 1) Preparation of Requirements Document 2) Preparation of Test Plan 3) Preparation of Test Cases 4) Execution of Test Cases 5) Analysis of Bugs 6) Reporting of Bugs 7) Tracking of Bugs till closure.Whereas SDLC means † Software Development Life Cycle† is a software development process, used by a systems analyst to develop an information system. It starts with activities like : 1) Project Initiation 2) Requirement Gathering and Documenting 3) Designing 4) Coding and Unit Testing 5) Integration Testing 6) System Testing 7) Installation and Acceptance Testing 8) Support or Maintenance Q22. What is the Difference between Project and Product Testing? Ans. If any organization is developing the application according to the client specifi cation then it is called as project.Accordingly its testing is known as â€Å"Project Testing† Whereas If any organization is developing the application and marketing it is called as product. Hence its testing is known as â€Å"Product Testing† Q23. How do you introduce a new software QA process? Ans. It depends on the size of the organization and the risks involved. For large organizations with high-risk projects, a serious management buy-in is required and a formalized QA process is necessary. For medium size organizations with lower risk projects, management and organizational buy-in and a slower, step-by-step process is required.Generally speaking, QA processes should be balanced with productivity, in order to keep any bureaucracy from getting out of hand. For smaller groups or projects, an ad-hoc process is more appropriate. A lot depends on team leads and managers, feedback to developers and good communication is essential among customers, managers, developers, t est engineers and testers. Regardless the size of the company, the greatest value for effort is in managing requirement processes, where the goal is requirements that are clear, complete and testable. Q24. What is configuration Management? Ans.Configuration Management (or CM) is the processes of controlling, coordinating and tracking the Standards and procedures for managing changes in an evolving software product. Configuration Testing is the process of checking the operation of the software being tested on various types of hardware. Q25. What is the role of QA in a software producing company? Ans. QA is responsible for managing, implementing, maintaining and continuously improving the Processes in the Company and enable internal projects towards process maturity and facilitate process improvements and innovations in the organization.Tester is responsible for carrying out the testing efforts in the company. In many companies QA person is responsible both the roles of Testing as wel l as creating and improving the processes. Q26. What is Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA)? Ans. Failure Mode and Effect Analysis is a systematic approach to risk identification and analysis of identifying possible modes of failure and attempting to prevent their occurrence. Q27. What is Test Maturity Model or TMM? Ans.Test Maturity Model or TMM is a five level staged framework for test process improvement, related to the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) that describes the key elements of an effective test process. Q28. What is the difference between API & ABI? Ans. Application Programming Interface (API) is a formalized set of software calls and routines that can be referenced by an application program in order to access supporting system or network services. Whereas Application Binary Interface (ABI) is a specification defining requirements for portability of applications in binary forms across different system platforms and environments.Q29. What is I V & V? Ans. I V & V mean s Independent Verification and Validation. Verification typically involves reviews and meetings to evaluate documents, plans, code, requirements, and specifications. Verification can be done with the help of checklists, issues lists, walkthroughs, and inspection meetings. Whereas Validation typically involves actual testing and takes place after verifications are completed. Q30. What are the benefits of Software Validation? Ans. Software validation is an important tool employed to assure the quality of the software products.Few benefits are as under: 1) It increases the usability and reliability of the device software, resulting in reduced failure rates, less recalls and corrective actions, less liability to device manufacturers. 2) It reduces the long term costs by making it easier and less costly to reliably modify software and revalidate software changes. 3) It helps to reduce the long-term cost of software by reducing the cost of validation for each subsequent release of the sof tware. Q31. What is the role of Design Reviews in Software Development Life Cycle? Ans.Design review is a primary tool for managing and evaluating software development projects. Design reviews allow management to confirm that all goals defined in the software validation plan have been achieved. Formal design reviews are more structured and include participation from others outside the development team. Design reviews are documented, comprehensive, and systematic examinations of a design to evaluate the adequacy of the design requirements, to evaluate the capability of the design to meet these requirements, and to identify problems.Design reviews include examination of development plans, requirements specifications, design specifications, testing plans and procedures, all other documents and activities associated with the project. Q32. What is the need of Software Validation after a change? Ans. When any change even a small one is made to the software, following activities need to be performed: 1) Re-establishment of the validation status of the software. 2) Conducting necessary validation analysis – not for the sake of validation of the individual change, but o to know the effect of the change on the entire software system. ) Conducting suitable level of regression testing to show that unchanged but vulnerable portions of the system have not been adversely affected. Regression testing is meant to provide a confidence that the software has been validated after the change. Q33. How would you convince upper management that company needs a formal QA testing team? How would you explain that Software quality would not improve if the company get rid of QA team? Ans. Developing amazing applications isn’t the same as testing them, ut a experienced QA tester, I would rather have a developers testing application than the testers who can just plainly submit bug reports.QA team needs to build quality into software development life cycle. The bug in software d esign is 15times cheaper than a bug in code. QA productivity is really hard to measure. If QA team is doing testing right, , everything just happens smoothly, but if testers mess up even a little, everyone knows about it. To be successful, QA team must create test plans, create test harnesses, create test cases and use testing tools. QA should ensure whether the application code is effectively delivering on the business requirements provided.The developers should unit test their own code and deliver ‘perfectly good code’ , while QA testers should deliver ‘code that actually addresses business needs’. For a company that make software applications, a rock-solid QA department is absolutely irreplaceable. Q34. WhatQuality Assurance and Quality Control activities are done differently for COTS / GOTS project than for a traditional custom development project? | Ans. The activities themselves are broadly the same, but with different stakeholders, and different deta iled procedures for verification and validation.Often the challenge for SQA is to pin down the ownership of the requirements, which may be represented by a complex debate between marketing departments, technical eggheads, user groups, customer focus groups and other interested parties. | | Q35. What in your opinion is the role of SQA personnel with respect to inspections or testing? | Ans. Formally, the role is to make the inspection process or testing process visible, both to the participants (so they can see what they are achieving, how effective they are being) and to management (so that they can assess progress and risk).In practice, SQA personnel often need to act as facilitators or coaches. They are often regarded (wrongly) as the owners or custodians of the inspection or testing process, or even as the owners/custodians of the whole software process. Part of the training and mentoring for SQA personnel should address the difficult dilemma of how to be adequately engaged in th e software process without being landed with the responsibility for it. | | Q36. What are the most likely quality consequences of choosing an inappropriate life cycle model for a software project? | Ans. The most likely consequence is that the project will not deliver anything at all.Not because the lifecycle couldn? t be made to work technically, but because it will fail to contain the political tensions between stakeholders. | | Q37. What in your opinion, are the most important changes that occurred in the role of Software Quality Assurance during the last 5 to 10 years? Ho| Ans. rowing awareness and importance of public domain models such as SEI SW CMM, BOOTSTRAP and SPICE. Changing nature of software development, especially model-based development (CASE) and component-based development (CBD). Growing need to connect software of different ages and sources.Software projects not pure software development, but including maintenance, package selection and implementation, and other so ftware activities. (Perhaps software projects never were pure development, but such topics as project management, quality management and configuration management used to be taught as if they were. )   Faced with these changes, SQA needs to be both reductionist (giving close attention to the quality of components from various sources) and holistic (giving broad attention to the emergent properties of the whole assembled system, in terms of its overall fit to business requirements).As I see it, the mandate of SQA is to make defects in software products and processes visible to management. SQA fits into a context of software quality management where this visibility leads to corrective and preventative action (not itself part of SQA), and to general software process improvement. | Q38. Someone complains that during system testing the application often crashes. What likely process problem does that indicate? | Ans. Systematic failure to carry out proper unit testing.OR inconsistency be tween the development/unit test environment and the system test environment. AND ALSO management failure to respond promptly to the situation with corrective and preventative action. | | Q39. What exposure have you had to auditing? Internal? External? Certification related? | Ans. I have been trained as a lead assessor for ISO 9000 and also as an examiner for the European Quality Award. I have conducted internal audits and informal external assessments but not formal external audits. I have advised organizations on steps towards certification. | Q40. What in your opinion are the most significant fundamental differences between SEI SW-CMM and ISO 9000-3? | Ans. The main difference is what the two models tell you. ISO 9000-3 gives you a yes/no answer, whereas SEI SW-CMM gives you a more complex assessment. This implies different ways of using the models for SQA and process improvement. | 1. Difference is ISO is a standard and CMMI is a model with framework. 2. Other one is Specific pr actices should be determinded in ISO and where as CMMI model having predefined useful specific and general practices. | Q41. In your experience, who are the most important allies of SQA within an organization? | Ans. SQA is a form of risk awareness, and is therefore potentially allied to any senior management with a risk management focus. Within some companies/industries (e. g. insurance), software risks are seen as having mainly financial consequences, and so the main ally might be the financial director. Within other companies/industries (e. g. retail), software risks are seen as having mainly customer service implications, and so the main allies may be in marketing roles.In one client, we had useful conversations with the Company Secretariat, because of the due diligence implications of some software risks. These conversations were triggered by Y2K issues, but ranged much more widely. In practice, SQA often fails to make these alliances, because it gets bogged down in obscure sof tware technicalities and trivialities, which it is incapable of communicating effectively even to software engineers, let alone anybody else. | Q42. A company recruits its first and only SQA â€Å"specialist†. The person is new to the area.The company is relatively young, operates in a competitive commercial domain and has no previous SQA presence. The SQA specialist feels he needs to show some results during the next 6 to 9 months. What advice will you give him? | Ans. Start with a risk assessment, to identify the significant software risks and their business implications. Identify managers directly affected by these implications, who may be recruited as allies. Select a small number of issues to address in the initial phase. Try to include some quick wins, as well as some improvements that could be achieved within 3-6 months.Don? t try to do everything at once. At this stage, use whichever model you prefer (ISO 9000-3 or TickIT or SW-CMM or SPICE) merely as a framework, so that you know how what you? re doing fits into a larger picture. | Q43. What advice would you give to someone who asked you where to start to introduce to their company a metrics and quality reporting program? | Ans. Use the GQM approach to derive relevant metrics from personal and corporate goals. Select a small number of key metrics that will be directly relevant to project managers and/or software engineers.Put the metrics into the hands of the workers, as a tool for personal performance improvement. | | | | Q44. What is Total Quality Management? Ans. A company commitment to develop a process that achieves high quality product and customer satisfaction. Q45. What is Quality Circle? Ans. A group of individuals with related interests that meet at regular intervals to consider problems or other matters related to the quality of outputs of a process and to the correction of problems or to the improvement of quality. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

Broadening Your Prospective Essay

1. Compute the activity-based overhead rate for each activity cost pool. Activity-based overhead is determined by dividing estimated overhead by the estimated cost drivers. Activity cost Pool Estimated Overhead /Cost drivers=ACB Overhead Rate Market analysis 1,050,00015,000$70 Product Design2,350,0002,500$940 Product development3,600,00090$40,000 Prototype testing1,400,000500$2,800 2. How much cost would be charged to an in-house manufacturing department that consumed 1,800 hours of market analysis time, was provided 280 designs relating to 10 products, and requested 92 engineering tests? The total charged to an in-house manufacturing department would be $1,046,800. This dollar amount is determined by multiplying the overhead rates of each activity to the amount consumed for that activity and added together for a total. (1,800*70= 126,000), (280*940=263,200) (10*40,000=400,000), (2,800*92=257,600) 3. How much cost would serve as the basis for pricing an R&D bid with an outside company on a contract that would consume 800 hours of analysis time, require 178 designs relating to 3 products, and result in 70 engineering tests? $539,320 would serve as the basis for pricing an R&D bid with an outside company because that dollar amount is the breakeven point. (800*70=56,000), (178*940=167,320), (3*40,000= 120,000), (70*2,800=196,000) 4. What is the benefit to Ideal Manufacturing of applying activity-based costing to its R&D activity for both in-house and outside charging purposes? The benefit to Ideal Manufacturing of applying activity-based costing to its R&D activity for both in-house and outside charging purposes is it will allow the company to gain control of the operating costs of the department. Activity-based costing allows a company to appropriately assign overhead head cost. For example, Ideal manufacturing activities fell into four pools and activity-based costing helped the company to properly allocate its overhead dollars. Under using or over using overhead dollars means the company has to supplement those funds from or to another activity which is a waste to the company. The basis of activity-based costing is to assign cost only to those activities of a product that is actually using the activity in essences cutting costs. This is not only a benefit to Ideal Manufacturing but to any company that is looking to become more efficient and effective.

Appraisal Questionnaire Essay

1. Introduction Explain the purpose and structure. The performance appraisal is an opportunity to discuss on performance related issues, give clear feedback and reach a mutual agreement on objectives and what can be improved, finalising with a plan for further development. †¢ How do you think your performance was over the past six months – from December to May so I can a feedback from you and then have a discussion on that. †¢ What has gone well and what do you think was success for the period? 2. Measure on performance. 2.1. Areas of responsibilities/ Company business goals. †¢ Do you understand the targets and how to achieve them and how they comply with the company business goals: 2.2. Confirm what successful issues were. †¢ Will you summarise what do you mark as your personal success in regard of your responsibilities? 2.3 Areas that need improvement/ Behind target †¢ Which are according to you the areas of performance that need improvement? †¢ What factors have an impact on your performance? †¢ Do you think you may need any assistance and further couching? †¢ Are you ready to meet new challenges? 2.4.Offer support †¢ Is there anything you would like us to do in order to support you? †¢ Do you think regular reviews (one to ones) will be beneficial to your work? †¢ Can we offer you counselling or some other support? 3. Job satisfaction †¢ What gives you most satisfaction in work? †¢ Are there any ways we can improve your job satisfaction? (environment improvement, technical assistance, providing opportunity to develop in a specific area†¦) †¢ Are there any new areas you feel you want to improve? 4. Agree on an action plan – Meeting to discuss on specific trainings – Counselling from line manager – Monthly reviews/one to ones to discuss results, difficulties, needs for further counselling. – New objectives 5. Positive finish. We’d like to encourage your personal performance and I will advise for a further personal development in a new direction. Analysing your strengths and implementing the agreed plan for improvement I believe you will achieve the targets placed. You can rely on my assistance and advice. I will make sure you will have a copy of the documents and all the points we agreed on and the action plan for further development.

Women and children in mesopotamia Research Paper

Women and children in mesopotamia - Research Paper Example Many cultures have continually improved upon equality for women throughout time, and thus it seems that the ancient world would provide some of the most dangerous and unfair societies for women to live in. However, in Daughters of Isis: Women of Ancient Egypt, Joyce Tildesley argues that women in Ancient Egypt actually experienced a great deal of political and financial freedom (Tildesley, 2005), particularly when compared with its contemporary cultures. A number of goddesses (including Isis herself) played a huge role in Egyptian culture and there were also a huge number of ruling Pharaoh women who were able to take power without marriage to a man. This situation may be due to a huge number of factors, including the unusual geographical features of Egypt, which will be covered within this paper. However, despite the fact that women in Ancient Egypt experienced a number of freedoms that women in Mesopotamia, Ancient Greece and Rome did not have access to (Tildesley, 2005), it is clea r that men still dominated society, and some of the assumptions of fairness are based upon documents that may not be accurate. Geographical Features Ancient Egypt was subject to a number of geographical constraints, mostly related to its place on the river Nile. This is often suggested to have made a difference to the lifestyles that people led within the area and the constraints on what they were allowed to do. As an arid landscape, the Nile River provided the only source of water in the area, and the people relied upon this to grow crops. If the Nile did not flood as expected, food could be scarce for the next year (Stearns, Gosch & Grieshaber, 2008). In this way, the Egyptians placed a lot of emphasis on the way that the river worked and could only work in certain areas dependent on the seasons. It is perhaps this need for flexibility for living and working arrangements that meant that women could have a more flexible attitude towards work and property ownership, which would depe nd on the Nile (Stearns, Gosch & Grieshaber, 2008). Although Ancient Egypt is generally considered to be a separate culture than those surrounding it, it must be noted that there were several visitors to the region who may have had an influence on Egyptian culture (Stearns, Gosch & Grieshaber, 2008). Those from the Greek empire often came, and wrote many observations about the Egyptian way of life. Assyria and Canaan were neighbors, and it is military campaigns between these cultures and the Egyptians that may have played a role in the attempt to eradicate female pharaohs in the New Kingdom. Mesopotamia was also a hugely important ancient culture, and the status of women here represents well the treatment of women in the majority of the ancient world, and thus will be covered in more detail later. Women in Ancient Egypt It is often argued that women held a prized place in Ancient Egyptian society for a number of reasons. There were a huge number of influential female Pharaohs in Anc ient Egypt, including Cleopatra (Tildesley, 2005). The ability of women to hold a ruling position seems to go against much of what occurred within the Ancient World and even within modernized Europe and America. However, it could be argued that there were still a majority of male pharaohs and many of these ruling women did not take part in the same number of administrative duties as the men (Stearns, Gosch & Grieshaber, 2008). Both men and women in ancient Egypt did have the right to own property, as well as take this property with them as part of divorce proceedings. In this area, Egyptian women did seem to have a much more positive role in legal proceedings, particularly when it is noted that these freedoms were not part of

Professional Rounds in Education (Resources 7-12) Essay

Professional Rounds in Education (Resources 7-12) - Essay Example After the assessment, effective strategies observed can be borrowed and applied in bettering the education sector. The book describes the emergence of rounds as having been inspired by reflection. It is revealed that from the early 90s, educators used to come together and share issues which concerned their education at Harvard Graduate School of Education. These educators began visiting different schools, then sharing unique experiences collected by other schools. This idea was derived from medical schools in which apprenticeship was used to educate students. The learners would follow the doctors to patient wards and learn from seeing them execute their duties. Similarly, educators took to sharing their own experiences in rounds, and from which they would share and earn new ideas from fellow educators. It is the application of these new experiences which led to the realization that rounds were effective means of improving educational issues, or better still, solving problems related to the same. In a nutshell, Lyons sought to extend the knowledge regarding the power of reflection beyond professions such as medicine and law, and introduce it to the general teaching or learning. Apart from the history of rounds, the author brings out the application of reflection as applies across all professions as a means of bettering them. This source highlights the actual steps which an instructor (teacher) can apply in providing effective education. It provides three main applicable strategies and these are setting and communicating the goals of learning, analyzing students’ progress, and finally enjoying the success. It defines the issue of setting and communicating the goals of learning as the first step which has to be implemented. These steps are applicable both within and beyond the classroom for the establishment of effective learning. The author states that setting goals can be used to track

End of Life policies in USA and other countries Thesis

End of Life policies in USA and other countries - Thesis Example Advance directives/Personal wills, life support, communication, and decision making are core to any EOL policies and care. Methods The literature review was carried out by Meta Analysis, using available publications, reviews, the WHO policies and guidelines for end-of-life care. The publications were mostly concerning the US, and developed countries where there are more defined and evidence based studies carried out in this area. Conclusions Any model of the best EOL care practice or policies is generally lacking .It might be argued that the lack of a fixed and coherent model is due to the relevance of issues in EOL, such as specific cultural settings, patient-centered needs, and family ethics and ethos. The clinical ethical dilemmas (e.g. withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining treatment) has become quite difficult. However, it is desirable to have EOL policies adapt the model or policies to the specific needs and values of each patient, more than applying a fixed, although maybe comprehensive, model. Key Words: End of Life (EOL) Policies; Palliative Care; Health Care Introduction A large number of the people who die each year, of terminal disease and, old age, though the most vulnerable amongst all of us, do not have access to End-of Life (EOL) care or policies that could ease their suffering during final days of life particularly in developing countries. The clinical ethical dilemmas (e.g. withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining treatment) are becoming more intriguing yet , ethics consultation remain primitive and poor. Palliative care an essential aspect of End-of life (EOL) policies, nevertheless, is not uniformly practiced across the world. Although the support of family and friends is incomparable, EOL care or policy an important public obligation is more than often lacking in majority of countries. According to the WHO(2011), â€Å"Palliative care as an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing problems asso ciated with life-threatening illness through prevention and relief from suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, and physical, psychosocial, and spiritual care†. Background Literature Review Dying persons encounter unique emotional and physical challenges that are associated with dying process, support of love ones is considered irreplaceable, however, EOL care is an important public obligation ( Wilson and Ross Kerr 1998). The importance of addressing the needs of dying persons has been felt for decades (Kubler-Ross, 1973). Clinical ethical dilemmas have become quite difficult due to advances in life-sustaining interventions, an aging society, cultural diversity, and other commercial issues. According to Jonsen et al (2002) clinical ethical dilemmas should be reviewed by considering: (1) medical indications, (2) patient preferences, (3) quality of life, and (4) contextual features. Approach and beliefs invo lved with death and dying vary among different cultures, religions and countries (Volts et al. 1998). Due to the different needs of cultural groups it is necessary to address those needs in providing end-of-life (EOL) care (McGrath 2001), (Doorenbos and Nies 2003) in all kinds of health care settings including home based, as a growing proportion of dying persons desire home-based EOL care (Burge et al. 2003). Burgeoning aging population has necessitated more

Competition Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Competition Law - Essay Example 2 Competition is a fundamental economics theory and the supposed benefits to be derived from the working of competition in the market underlies the importance of competition law or policy. Classical theories of competition held that competition is a form of reciprocal rivalry in the market and government intervention in the market was frowned upon.3 The existence of competition, it is expected, should result in the lower prices, greater efficiency in markets, better products and services, and a broader choice of products and services for customers.4 It has been argued that the above mentioned benefits of competition cannot be attained in a monopolistic market.5 Where perfect competition exists, producers will produce more as long as the cost of each additional unit of production (i.e. marginal cost) will result in a profit. However, one's decision not to produce beyond what is profitable will not affect the market as there are other producers in the market. Consequently, the existence of competition will result in resources being allocated to produce goods at prices consumers are willing to pay and at prices that producers are also willing produce and able to make profit. This results in allocative efficiency.6 When competition is allowed to operate, it is also expected that it will promote productive efficiency. The reasoning is that, producers aim at producing at the lowest reasonable cost in order to win customers and stay in the market. Productive efficiency allows resources to be used efficiently and this maximises social welfare. Where a monopoly exists, the monopolists is not pressurised by competitive forces to be efficient in its production. The inefficiency of the monopolists is thus passed on to the consumer resulting in consumer having to pay more for less quality goods than they would have if competition was allowed to operate.7 Where monopoly persists, the monopolist can also create an artificial shortage of goods in order to raise prices. In such instances, allocative efficiency and productive efficiency would not exist and the welfare of society is undermined.8 Consequently, in order for society to benefit from these welfare advantages of competition, competition law is instituted to regulate the working of the market against monopolistic tendencies. Government intervention into the through laws, policies and institutions are thus justified to the extent to which it prevents market failure and allows competition to function effectively so as to achieve the social welfare benefits of competition. One of the most eminent economists of the 20th century, Frederich von Hayek, stated that: "The functioning of competition not only requires adequate organization of certain institutions like money, markets, and channels of information - some of which can never be adequately provided by private enterprise - but it depends above all on the existence of an appropriate legal system, a legal system designed both to preserve competition and to make it operate as beneficially as possible."9 Within the European Community (EC) competition law/policy is considered one of the important pillars for the functioning of the internal market. The Commission and the European Court of Justice (ECJ) thus frown on any form of behaviour by undertakings that have as its cause of effect, the prevention of competition from operating. Article 81(1) EC thus prohibits: " all agreements between undertakings, decisions by associations of

See Below Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 10

See Below - Essay Example Both theories have their merits and demerits. According to Roderick (part 5), Kantian ethics are an empty content. This is because it is dependent on what an individual is willing to will. Utilitarianism too has a problem. The theory seems to infringe on our sense of justice. Also, the two theories seem to ignore so many things in our lives including family, friends, special relations, and other relations that exist. The strong point of Kantian ethics is that they are based on fairness. For example, if executions are to be screened on television, then this might bring greater happiness since it will reduce crime. But, it is not fair to the individual or the individual’s family. Therefore, while Kantian ethics capture fairness, utilitarianism captures real decision making and content. This is because most of our decisions are based on bringing happiness, and hence this makes the theory of utilitarianism more practical and applicable during our everyday

The types of board diversity and its impact on board performance Essay

The types of board diversity and its impact on board performance - Essay Example This research will begin with the definition of diversity as the difference between things or people, the variety of assortment that makes us unique. Every person has unique skills, characteristics, and challenges that contribute much in the board performance. Despite that, the body structure is the same; physical characteristics differ making people have a greater deal of diversity. Diversity has the composition of age, gender, race, and ethnicity, education, physical appearance, political persuasion among others. It is the examination of these differences in a safe, affirmative, and fostering environment. Age diversity- workforce increasingly varied in age demographics, creating proficient environment loaded with experience and maturity as well as youthful enthusiasm. Companies that employ more workers in wide ranges of age have an advantage of creating a dynamic workforce with a diverse range of skills beneficial to the company. Gender diversity- it is an Umbrella term used by Aus tralians to swap transgender in a more comprehensive fashion. It is the skill of sex or gender identity beyond the biological and dual philosophy of male and female. It celebrates the diversity in gender identities rather than some categories of people. Gender composition in a workplace has its own advantages and disadvantages in the workforce. Most of the top boards in Australian do not have women. The following graph shows the percentage of women in 48 boards, in ASX 200 files. Available from: http://www.companydirectors.com.au/Director-Resource-Centre/Governance-and-Director-Issues/Board-Diversity/~/media/Resources/Director%20Resource%20Centre/Governance%20and%20director%20issues/Board%20diversity/Board%20Diversity%20images/Graph%20images/Percentageofwomen_19April.ashx?w=360&h=275&as=1 [accessed on May 03 2013] Race diversity- a race is a population distinguished from other populations within a species by hereditarily transmitted physical characteristics. It has a unique and distinct ensemble of genes and remains identified by this genetic ensemble. Members of the same race share distinguished genetic characteristics because they share the same ancestry. This also depends on language distribution. The following graph show race or ethnic diversity from a county make up. Available from: Http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl [accessed on May 06 2013] Culture diversity- this is about the ethnic groups, nationalities, lifestyles, and the educational level. Two people may appear similar on the outside but have different cultures, values, view points, and work styles. It is equally valuable for a business to acknowledge multiple cultures that exist within the work place. Mangers work in hand with the employees to ensure that their cultures remain respected. The following graph shows women cultural diversity on trusteeship in 1931. Available from: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl [accessed on May 06 2013] Religion diversity- people continue to express a high level of religion involvement that is highly significant and productive in both the work force and our daily lives. In the recent, religious discrimination, remain practiced highly in the workforce. This diversity contributes much in the performance of a company. Catholics and Christians have the highest percentage in Australia while others like Anglican, uniting church, Presbyterian and reformed among others follow. The following gr

Sentencing Within the Criminal Justice System Essay

Sentencing Within the Criminal Justice System - Essay Example Aggravating factors pointing to a larger sentence include relevant previous convictions, whether the offence was committed while on bail, whether excessive violence was used, whether the victim was engaged in public service or was old and vulnerable. Mitigating factors pointing to a shorter sentence include, young age at the time of the offence, the past character of the offender, the degree of provocation, and whether the defendant pleaded guilty. Clearly the sentence in any particular case will depend on the individual circumstances and it is therefore difficult to compare cases without being aware of the background of facts. In Northern Ireland and England, sentences are assisted by guideline cases which help to ensure consistency in decision making. 3Sentencing The criminal Justice Act 2003 made a number of changes to the sentencing framework for England and Wales. These stemmed from recommendations of the Halliday report, Making Punishments Work" in July 2001. Northern Ireland Ministers recognized that there were equivalent issues to be addressed in Northern Ireland. The sentencing framework in Northern Ireland differs somewhat from that in England and Wales, but not substantially. The notable difference is in relation to imprisonment and its aftermath; In England and Wales, with the exception of short term sentences, time spent in prison is linked to a period spent in the community under supervision and with conditions... These stemmed from recommendations of the Halliday report, Making Punishments Work† in July 2001. Northern Ireland Ministers recognized that there were equivalent issues to be addressed in Northern Ireland. The sentencing framework in Northern Ireland differs somewhat from that in England and Wales, but not substantially. The notable difference is in relation to imprisonment and its aftermath; In England and Wales, with the exception of short term sentences, time spent in prison is linked to a period spent in the community under supervision and with conditions attached. In addition, sentences of four or more years are subject to discretionary release on the decision of the Parole Board. However, the Criminal Justice Act 2003 in England and Wales changes that position. The Criminal Justice Act 2003 in section 2.1 addresses the issue of custodial sentences of 12 months or more, whereas an adult offender receives a custodial sentence of at least 12 months, but less than 4 years wi ll automatically be released at the half way point and will then be supervised under license until the three-quarter point of the sentence. The problem here is, the last quarter of the sentence has no effect on the offender unless he or she commits another offense. Additionally, there is good news for the authorities and perceived bad news for the public; When the offender leaves custodial confinement, the government will immediately begin to accrue savings on the 86,000 pounds which it cost to house him in the previous year.

Developments in Hacking, Cybercrime, and Malware Essay Example for Free

Developments in Hacking, Cybercrime, and Malware Essay The number one web based attack of 2009 was Malicious PDF activity 49% of web based attacksattempts to deliver malicious pdf content to victims through the web. The pdf attack is designed to exploit arbitrary vulnerabilities in applications that are able to process pdf’s. A successful pdf attack could compromise the integrity and security of affected computers. (Symantec Corporation, 2009) The number two web based attack of 2009 was the Microsoft Internet Explorer ADODB.Stream Object file installation weakness. This exploit accounted for 18% of the total number of web based exploits for the year. This vulnerability allows hackers to install malicious files on a vulnerable computer when a user visits a website hosting an exploit. In order for this attack to be successful, an attacker must exploit an arbitrary vulnerability that bypasses Internet Explorer Security settings.Then the attacker can execute the malicious files that were installed by the initial security weakness. This vulnerability has been known since 2003, and patches have been released since 2004. This exploit exposes the fact that many computer systems were not being kept up to date. (Symantec Corporation, 2009) The number three most common web based exploit of 2009 was the Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 uninitialized memory code execution vulnerability. This attack works by enticing a victim to open a malicious web page. Once a user opens the web page it gives the attacker the ability to execute remote code on the victims computer. Since this is a browser based attack, it gives the hacker potentially more targets than relying on a plugin that may not get installed. (Symantec Corporation, 2009) The top 3 Malware attacks of 2013 were W32.Downadup, W32.Sality, and W32.Ramnit. Although their names all begin with W32., each bug has it’s own way of exploiting a system. Let’s take for instance the W32.Downadup. This  worm has been around since 2008. This worm spreads by taking advantage of a remote code execution vulnerability found in Microsoft Windows server service RFC. This worm strives to block access to security related web sites while attempting to spread to protected network shares via brute force of weak passwords. The Security of the entire network is at stake with this worm. This virus demonstrates shows how important it is to keep servers and workstations updated with the latest virus definitions. (W32.Downadup.B, n.d.) The W32.Ramnit has been around since 2010. This worm is spread by infecting executable drives and removable drives. This malware steals bank usernames and passwords. Having a security policy prohibiting personal drives from being used in the workplace is paramount. This type of attack could cause data loss if unmitigated. (Symantec Corporation, 2013) The W32.Sality is in my opinion the nastiest of all three bugs. What makes the W32.Sality particularly nasty is that it can infect executable files on local, removable, and shared drives. W32.Sality is known as an (EPO) or entry point obscuring polymorphic file infector. Essentially, it’s a sophisticate worm-like virus that ensures its survival by downloading other malware and disabling security software. One of the most damaging features of the W32.Sality virus is how it decentralizes peer to peer networks with sophisticated code instruction that populates the network with infected computers. (W32.Sality., n.d.) References W32.Downadup.B. (n.d.). Retrieved June 26, 2014, from http://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2008-123015-3826-99 W32.Ramnit. (n.d.). Retrieved June 26, 2014, from http://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2010-011922-2056-99 W32.Sality. (n.d.). Retrieved June 26, 2014, from http://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2006-011714-3948-99 Symantec Corporation. (2009). Symantec Global Internet Security Threat Report Trends for 2009. Mountain View: Symantec Corporation. Symantec Corporation. (2013). Symantec Global Internet Security Threat Report Trends for 2009. Mountain View: Symantec Corporation.

J.J Thomson Essay Example for Free

J.J Thomson Essay J also had a brother that was two years younger than him-self named, Frederick Vernon Thompson. He went to private schools in the beginning of his education career, where he showed a great interest and passion for science, and when was 14 years old when he was accepted in to Owens College. His mother and father originally wanted him to study to be an engineer and get an apprentice for a local locomotive manufacturer, but due to his father’s death in 1873 his plans changed. He moved away from Owens College, and into Trinity College in Cambridge, where he then obtained his BA in mathematics in 1880. He married one of his students, Rose Elizabeth Paget, and they had one son and one daughter. J. J Thompson died still working on the college campus on August 30th, 1940 from unspecified causes at the age of 83. He married one of his students, Rose Elizabeth Paget, and they had one son and one daughter. J. J Thomson was without a doubt religious. He was a devout Anglican Episcopalian who regularly attended services at the Angelican church, and also went to Sunday evening college chapel services. I believe, that the best statement that I found, about the religious practices of Mr. Thomson was from one of his students, Sir Owen Richardson who said He was sincerely religious, a churchman with a dislike for Anglo-Catholicism, a regular communicant, who every day knelt in private prayer, a habit known only to Lady Thomson until near the end of his life. Further research shows that J. J Thompson never missed a day of prayer(as quoted above) and that every day before going to sleep, he would read his bible. Some of J. J’s speeches, and addresses also show that he was a devout believer in God, show in what he stated in his inaugural presidential address into the British association, As we conquer peak after peak we see in front of us regions full of interest and beauty, but we do not see ur goal, we do not see the horizon; in the distance tower still higher peaks, which will yield to those who ascend them still wider prospects, and deepen the feeling, the truth of which is emphasized by every advance in science, that Great are the Works of the Lord. Here we clearly see, that he doesn’t take credit for his accomplishments, he gives the credit to the Lord.

Effect of the CDM Regulations on Accident Statistics

Effect of the CDM Regulations on Accident Statistics The Effect of the Cdm Regulations on Accident Statistics within the UK The implementation of the CDM regulations under the CDM Co-ordinators. Abstract Health and safety in the construction industry has experienced considerable research over the last few decades in order to reduce the number of injuries and fatalities within the construction industry. Health and safety practices such as the HSC that introduced the CDM regulations in 1994 and the current revised regulations introduced in 2007 are perceived to provide numerous benefits in maintaining a safer industry. With approximately 7%-8% of employment within the UK involved in the construction industry and an estimated 8% of the UK’s GDP it is important to do so. There is a growing importance due to the high rate of employment in the construction industry to provide a detailed set of safety regulations known as the CDM regulations that everyone involved with construction must follow. As a result of this many organisations such as the HSC, have initiated targets to ensure that the health and safety on sites improves dramatically, and to encourage the government to formulate official targets to reduce the number of fatalities and injuries by a certain date. However, although the CDM regulations 1994 did have a positive effect on the health and safety in the industry there was still areas of concern within the regulations that professionals were unsure of who carried out different roles and the fact that the rate of fatalities and injuries was not decreasing significantly enough, this was the reason for the review of the CDM regulations 1994 and the implementation of the new CDM regulations 2007 which is designed to provide a clearer background into construction HS. Using a sample group methodology, and acknowledging specifically the principal contractor, this study aims to assess whether the HSC can achieve its aim of reducing the number of fatalities and injuries by 10% in the UK by 2010 and ultimately assess whether or not the CDM regulations make a significant difference to HS statistics. This will be reviewed by looking at the implementation techniques used by the PC’s on site and develop a framework to provide the best techn ique in which to do so. Chapter One: Introduction This chapter introduces the principal aim of the study, in addition to the proposed objectives and research questions. Introduction The construction industry has had HS regulations in place known as the CDM regulations for a number of years now which have recently been renewed. The CDM regulations have application to a majority of construction projects undertaken in the UK which provide the industry with specific standards involving HS that are considered acceptable to the government and alternatively, to the construction worker. The latest regulations represent an important trend towards the paternalistic intervention of the government in relation to health and safety. Historically, the ambit of health and safety on site was left to the individual company; this was due to the requirements of the Conservative governments, and if things went wrong it was up to the individual to cope. This tendency has developed during the twentieth century with great attention in recent years of government focus in developing the HS of the construction worker. 2.2 million (1 in 14) People work in Britain’s construction industry, making it the country’s biggest industry, but it accounts for 16% of major accidents and 25% of fatal injuries. It is has also been acknowledged that for a number of years in the UK it has been one of the most dangerous industries to be employed in. In the last 25 years, over 2,800 people have died from injuries they received as a result of construction work. Many more have been injured or made ill. HSE deals with all aspects of construction work in England, Scotland and Wales. In 2006-2007 alone there were 77 fatal injuries to workers in the construction industry, this was a 28% increase to the 59 in 2005-2006. The 77 fatalities in the construction industry during 2006-2007 accounted for 32% of all worker deaths. The rate of fatal injury to workers per hundred thousand rose to 3.7 in 2006-2007 compared to that of 3.0 in 2005-2006. In providing these statistics relatively closely to the date the fatality occurred, this means many cases are still under investigation. Consequently, these figures are highly provisional, and may be subject to revision as more relevant information becomes available. * The term Workers includes employees and the self-employed combined. RIDDOR (The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995) is the primary determinant as to whether a fatal accident is included in these figures or not. Improvements regarding the Health and Safety in the construction industry are urgently needed as it remains a disproportionately dangerous industry which is important not only for the people involved in the industry but also for the expected 2-3% growth within the next 5 years. The improvements require significant and permanent changes in duty holder attitudes and behaviour. Since the original CDM Regulations were introduced in 1994, concerns were raised that their complexity and the bureaucratic approach of many duty holders frustrated the Regulations’ underlying health and safety objectives. These views were supported by an industry-wide consultation in 2002 which resulted in the decision to revise the Regulations. The new CDM 2007 Regulations revise and bring together the CDM Regulations 1994 and the Construction (Health Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1996 into a single regulatory package known as the CDM regulations 2007. The health and safety process has always been a much talked about topic within England and Wales every since the first CDM regulations were launched in 1994. The need to reform this process has been highlighted by research carried out by the health and safety executive which shows that there is need for improvement in the implementation of these regulations which is the main reason for the introduction of the CDM regulations 2007. The research shows that: These have been developed in close consultation with construction industry stakeholders. The proposal for the CDM 2007 aims to: simplify the Regulations to improve clarity and make it easier for everyone to know what is expected of them; maximise their flexibility to fit with the vast range of contractual arrangements; focus on planning and management, rather than the plan and other paperwork; encourage co-ordination and co-operation, particularly between designers and contractors; and Simplify the assessment of the competence of organisation. The Approved Code of Practice (ACoP) has special legal status and gives practical advice for all those involved in construction work. If you follow the advice in the ACoP you will be doing enough to comply with the law in respect of those specific matters on which it gives advice. The ACoP which includes a copy of the CDM regulations explains: The legal duties placed on clients, CDM co-ordinators, designers, principal contractors, contractors, self-employed and workers. The circumstances in which domestic clients do not have duties under CDM 2007 (but that the regulations still apply to those doing work for them). Gives information on the new role of CDM co-ordinator – a key project adviser for clients and responsible for coordinating the arrangements for health and safety during the planning phase of larger and more complex projects. Which construction projects need to be notified to HSE before work starts and gives information on how this should be done. How to assess the competence of organisations and individuals involved in construction work. How to improve co-operation and co-ordination between all those involved in the construction project and with the workforce. What essential information needs to be recorded in construction health and safety plans and files, as well as what shouldn’t be included. Rationale for the Research The subject of this dissertation developed from a personal interest in the Health and Safety aspect of the construction industry and the significant research within the industry on how to minimise the injuries and fatalities on site. Most of this research has concentrated on the best ways to improve the implementation process of the CDM regulations 2007, whether the changes are necessary from the CDM regulations 1994 and in terms of whether these changes have brought about the desired results and effect on the industry that it intended I.e. have the CDM regulations brought about an improvement in the safety of site work with regards to a clearer, faster and easier process of implementation. Having looked at a wide range of literature and internet sites on the CDM regulations it is clear to me that there was evidence that the introduction of the CDM regulations was regarded by professionals as advantageous to the industry, however there are certain people that believe it has been less effective than it should have been on the industry. Although people have highlighted problems with the CDM regulations it is definitely an introduction by the government that is here to stay. This consideration has led me to undertake research into whether the new legislation has been implemented successfully and whether the changes are necessary. This was implemented under the research title; the implementation of the CDM regulations under the CDM co-ordinators. The CDM regulations have the potential to make a significant impact on the industry with regards to health and safety however it is unrealistic to think that this can be achieved very quickly without encountering any problems in an area which has had much debate regarding this topic. It will take time before the new legislation will be free flowing however improvements in both effectiveness and efficiency can be expected as lessons are learnt. E.g. more home CDM co-ordinators becoming qualified. The following information in this chapter gives further details about the principle objectives for this research topic. Aim As a result the fundamental aim of this study is to determine whether the Health and Safety Commissions aim is achievable and thus, determine whether there is a foreseeable optimistic future for the reduction of accidents within the construction industry. The overall aim of the project is to produce a coherent document which catalogues, in which detail the impacts which the CDM regulations have had upon the construction industry and which encapsulates some original, primary research. Objectives This aim will be investigated through a series of key objectives: To provide an understanding on the CDM regulations, evaluating the need, efficiency and reliability of them; To establish different professions understanding of the CDM regulations; To establish the application of the CDM regulations at both organisational level and implementation of the CDM regulations; To determine whether there is a foreseeable optimistic future for the reduction of accidents within the construction industry; To examine, compare and contrast the perceptions of construction professionals in order to determine whether the number of accidents on construction sites are likely to significantly decrease in the next five years; To assess whether the construction professionals are sufficiently protected by the CDM regulations and identify any implementing techniques that aid, or otherwise, the CDM regulations. The study will follow with a review of current literature regarding the effectiveness of the CDM regulations, and a description of the methodology used in order to collect and analyse the results of the data collected. The outcome of the findings will be discussed and conclusions will be made incorporating both limitations of the study and recommendations for future research. Outline Research Methodology My research topic has incorporated two research approaches in order to collect information which were the following: secondary data collection and fieldwork research. Secondary data collection This form of research refers to the ‘desk study’’ approach where data is obtained from sources that cite from primary sources. This method had been used to achieve the first, fourth and fifth objectives. These sources will be critically appraised by means of a systematic literature review which will cover textbooks, newspaper articles, research journals, thesis, reports, trade publications, etc. Fieldwork research This form of research refers to the methods of primary data collection which can take the form of a number of practical approaches. This method of research was accomplished to utilise objectives two and three. The selected method for this thesis will be a structured survey approach in the form of personal interviews and a questionnaire. This method was selected as it is the best form of gathering data from a large number of respondents in a relatively short time frame. The interviews and questionnaires will adopt a semi structured format, employing mainly open questions to gather the data. The research method is a way in which the research objective can be questioned and achieved. Throughout my research I will be using a number of core sources of references such as the books, the internet, newspapers, companies, journals and questionnaires in order to carry out my objectives. I will decide upon the most appropriate research strategy which can be carried out in two ways depending on the purpose of the study and the type and availability of the information required. These two methods can be classified as â€Å"Quantitative† and â€Å"Qualitative†. Quantitative research can be defined as â€Å"objective† in nature. It involves the description or analysis of statistical procedures that involves specific measurements of variables to determine whether a theory holds true. Qualitative research on the other hand can be defined as â€Å"subjective† in nature. It does not involve the use of specific variables, but relies on reasons behind various aspe cts of data. It emphasises the means, experiences and different descriptions of topics from different authors points of view. Chapter Two: Literature Review Introduction This chapter is intended to critically appraise issues and statements identified by the literature review and ascertain the industries, practitioners and authors opinions of the progress, implementation and success of the CDM regulations. A wide range of key literature from sources such as research journals, refereed conferences, thesis, textbooks, reports, trade publications and newspaper articles on this research topic were reviewed, analysed and appraised of their strengths and weaknesses. To best demonstrate these perceptions the author has chosen to break the critical appraisal into the following sub-headings; Cost of Implementation, Health and Safety Training, Additional Paperwork, Success of CDM. In doing so, it is anticipated that some individuals connected with the construction industry will be interviewed and their views on the success or failure of the CDM regulations on the construction industry. It is anticipated that these views will be assessed in conjunction with valid information gathered in relation to the CDM regulations and how they have developed within the UK in recent years. There will also be an assessment of how the CDM regulations could be improved upon, and how the project has contributed to this assessment. Chapter Three: CDM Regulations 2007 3.0 CDM Regulations 2007 The new Construction (Design and Management) Regulations were brought into place on the 6th April 2007 in order to consolidate the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 1994 as well as the Construction (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1996 into one regulatory package. In order to help achieve the implementation of this new process the supporting guidance for these regulations has been revised with the aid of a new approved code of practice available to assist each professional with their individual duties under the CDM regulations 2007. http://www.martineau-johnson.co.uk/publication_event/updates/CDM%20regulations%202007%20Flyer%20April.pdf It is necessary for all professionals involved in the construction industry to be aware of the new CDM regulations 2007 as they apply to all construction work. The aims of these regulations are to: Improve health and safety within the construction industry; Ensure that there are the right people for the right job at the right time to manage the potential risks on site; To focus on effective planning and managing risk manage the risk not the paperwork. 3.1 The Client A client can be described as an individual or organisation who in the course or furtherance of a business has a construction project carried out by another or himself, this however excludes domestic clients but not domestic premises. A domestic client is someone who lives or will live, in the premises where the work is carried out. The roles of the client under the new CDM regulations 2007 are similar to that of the 1994 regulations however they have been given a higher profile with emphasis on providing the construction team is provided with strong leadership and ensure that the client is responsible for their influence on the HS of people working on, or affected by the project. It is the role of the client under the CDM regulations to appoint a CDM coordinator and a principal contractor on all notifiable projects in order to advise and co-ordinate activities. It is the responsibility of the client to carry out a number of duties on all projects: Must check all appointee’s competence and resources using the ACoP competence criteria; Must also ensure that enough time and resource is provided to allow the project to be delivered safely, what you want, when you want it and on budget; Provide key information to contractors and designers; Ensure everyone involved with the project co-operate and co-ordinate their activities; Establish a competent project team as soon as possible to ensure the project is safe to build, safe to use, safe to maintain and deliver good value; Ensure suitable management arrangements are in place; Ensure adequate welfare facilities are on site; Ensure workplaces are designed correctly which should comply with the WHSW. On all notifiable projects the clients must carry out the above duties as well as: They must appoint a competent CDM Co-ordinator and provide them with key information; They must appoint a competent principal contractor; Ensure that there are suitable welfare facilities provided on site as well as a construction phase health and safety plan has been produced before the construction phase can start; Retain and provide access to the HS file as well as revise it with any new information; It is not the responsibility of the client to audit or supervise the work on site. In order for the client to explain their management arrangements then they may ask their project team or contractors to do this for them. For small projects where contractors employ less than 5 people then demonstrating management arrangements may be in the form of an oral briefing rather than have everything in writing. The client must perform simple checks regularly to ensure their management arrangements are being followed which include there is adequate protection for workers and the public on site, ensuring that there is good co-operation and communication between the contractors and the designers. They must also ask the contractors to confirm that the arrangements they agreed upon have been implemented. 3.2 The Coordinator The person appointed to advise and assist the client on how to comply with the CDM Regulations during the project, and to ensure that suitable arrangements are made and implemented for the co-ordination of health and safety measures during planning and preparation for the construction phase. The CDM coordinators replaced the role of the Planning Supervisor under the CDM regulations 1994 and are only appointed on notifiable contracts but this appointment must be made early. This role has been changed due to the overall consideration that the Planning Supervisor has not been a success with more expectation placed on the new role of the coordinator. The main aim of the coordinator is to act to reduce risks during the construction process rather than to generate unnecessary paperwork. The CDM coordinator has the responsibility to carry out a number of Duties during the project: Advise the client about selecting competent designers and contractors; Help identify what information will be needed by designers and contractors; Co-ordinate the arrangements for health and safety of planning and design work; Ensure that HSE is notified of the project (unless a domestic client); Advise on the suitability of the initial construction phase plan; Prepare a health and safety file (information for the client to enable future cleaning, maintenance and alterations to be carried out safely) You are the key advisor to the client and the catalyst for effective communication and co-ordination throughout the project A CDM coordinators role can be filled by anybody, however they must fulfil the competence requirements given in the ACoP, if no appointment has been made then it is generally the client who will carry out this role. 3.3 The Designer A designers duties under the CDM regulations applies to all construction work including domestic projects as well as non-notifiable ones. A designer can be described as someone that carries out the design process or specifies building work I.e. makes any project related decision, which therefore means there are a wide number of parties that can fall under this profession, such as Design and construction contractors, civil and structural engineers, clients who specify, etc. A designer has the responsibility to carry out their duties on all projects involving construction work. This includes: Making sure that the Client is aware of his duties; Making sure the client is adequately resourced and competent to carry out their own duties such as the health and safety issues that are involved with the design of a project; Provide substantial information about any potential risks that may be associated with the design that can be put in the health and safety file; Coordinating their work with others in order to improve the way potential risks are managed and controlled; Co-operate with others such as CDM Co-ordinators and the Principal Contractor; Avoiding foreseeable risks during the design work for people involved on the current and future uses of the structure. They should also eliminate hazards and risks associated with those hazards that remain. The most important role for a competent designer is to eliminate the hazards and reduce risks. 3.4 The Principal Contractor The changes in the CDM regulations have brought little change to the duties of the principal contractor. An early appointment of a principal contractor by the client is necessary on all notifiable projects. The principal contractor must ensure that everyone they appoint such as sub-contractors as competent. The main aim of the PC is to ensure that the construction phase is properly planned, managed, monitored and resourced. The principal contractor has a number of duties that must be carried out throughput the project: Inform contractors of the minimum time allowed for planning and preparation Provide relevant information to contractors Ensure safe working, co-ordination and co-operation between contractors Construction phase health and safety plan is prepared and implemented Plan needs to set out the organisation and arrangements for managing risk and co-ordinating work Plan should be tailored to the particular project and risks involved Suitable welfare from the start Prepare and enforce site rules as required Give reasonable direction to contractors including client appointed contractors Prevent unauthorised entry Provide plan to those who need it Promptly provide the CDM co-ordinator with information for the file Liaise with CDM co-ordinator in relation to design and design changes Ensure all workers have been provided with suitable health and safety induction, information and training Ensure the workforce is consulted about health and safety matters Display key project information to workers It is not the responsibility of the PC to provide training for workers they do no employ however contractors do. Neither do they have to undertake detailed supervision of contractors work. The construction phase plan must only be filled in with relevant information rather then endless generic paperwork. Other Contractors Sub Contractors are present on all projects not just notifiable ones. They are unable to start work on a construction site until they have obtained the pre construction information necessary from the client or PC. The sub contractors must manage their own work to make sure that their workers are safe as well as ensuring that hey and those they appoint are completely competent and adequately resourced. On all projects they must: Inform any contractor that they engage, of the minimum amount of time they have for planning and preparation Provide their workers (whether employed or self-employed) with any necessary information and training and induction Report anything that they are aware of that is likely to endanger the HS of themselves or others Ensure that any design work they do complies with CDM design duties Comply with the duties for site health and safety Co-operate and co-ordinate with others working on the project Consult the workforce Not begin work unless they have taken reasonable steps to prevent unauthorised access to the site Obtain specialist advice (e.g. from a structural engineer or occupational hygienist) where necessary On notifiable projects they must: Check that a CDM co-ordinator has been appointed and HSE notified before they start work Co-operate with the principal contractor, CDM co-ordinator and others working on the project Tell the principal contractor about risks to others created by their work Comply with any reasonable directions from the principal contractor Work in accordance with the construction phase plan Inform the principal contractor of the identity of any contractor he appoints or engages Inform the principal contractor of any problems with the plan or risks identified during their work that have significant implications for the management of the project Inform the principal contractor about any death, injury, condition or dangerous occurrence Provide information for the health and safety file Chapter Four: Methodology This chapter discusses the different methodological approaches for this study. Detailed accounts of the specific research strategies are also examined, highlighting the methods used to analyse and interpret the data collected. Finally, the location of the study and methodological restrictions are also considered. Comparative data can be collected in various forms, these being experimental, commercial and â€Å"official† data. Experimental data was chosen because it is derived from real life situations, and this was essential giving the fundamental aim of assessing the future of the CDM regulations. Nevertheless, it must be acknowledged that the reliability of experimental data is largely dependant on the willingness and honesty of the professional to participate (Morris et al., 2001). Research Strategies In order to explore the main perceptions and attitudes of principal contractors, a self completition postal questionnaire was decided on rather than a telephone survey or an interview survey primarily because it was Christmas time during the main period of data collection, and so it was assumed many construction workers would be on their Christmas break and would not be available for an interview or present in the office for a telephone inquiry. The idea behind the postal questionnaire was that they could complete it and send it back whenever they had time. Questionnaires are an â€Å"indispensable tool when primary data is required about people, their behaviour, attitudes, opinions and awareness of specific issues†. The questionnaires were enclosed with a self addressed envelope, intending to speed up and ensure the return of the questionnaires. One potential problem with the questionnaires was that they might not be filled out by the right person. Twenty principal contractors were randomly selected from a list of construction companies in the counties of Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, provided by the yellow pages. Each company was contacted by telephone to explain the basis of the study find out who to send it to, and gain his or her agreement to participate. A tick box at the bottom of every questionnaire gave the farmer the choice of whether or not they wanted to be contacted again, in the hope of setting up a number of interviews. The questionnaire design was of a semi-qualitative design, as the questionnaires incorporated a number of open and closed questions. The closed questions differed between multiple choices, dichotomous, likert, categorical and scaled questions. Although, open questions can be more difficult to understand and are perhaps harder to analyse than closed questions, it was important to include the