...Pearson was in the middle of its first major upgrade of its SuccessMaker product when Greg Adams-Woodford joined the firm. Despite the best efforts of all the people involved, the upgrade was not going to plan because of which Pearson moved from the traditional waterfall model to the new agile development methodology. Benefits realized in shifting from Waterfall to Agile 1. With the iterative and evolving approach, the agile methodology allowed Pearson to have a customer driven approach to development which allowed them to meet customer expectations in a more efficient manner compared to earlier. 2. Since the agile model focused on short iterative sprints, it helped in reducing the costs related to changes to the product features midway through the development cycle. 3. The agile model allowed teams in Pearson to adapt, design, and prioritize product features based on the feedback they received from product managers and customers. 4. Another advantage that Pearson realized was that using the agile model made the process backward scalable. In other words, it became easier to develop the software as the requirements kept coming in from the customers. Despite the advantages that Pearson realized from moving to the agile model, there were also some downsides that Pearson faced when they shifted from the waterfall model to the agile development model. Downsides associated with shifting to Agile 1. In the waterfall model there were clear lines between what developers...
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...Critical Thinking Means Business: Learn to Apply and Develop the NEW #1 Workplace Skill By Judy Chartrand, Ph.D., Heather Ishikawa, MA, & Scott Flander Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. or its affiliate(s). All rights reserved. 3881-09 Table of Contents Introduction to Critical Thinking Means Business ...................................................... 1 Too Little Critical Thinking = Big Problems .................................................................. 2-3 Critical Thinking in the Workplace ................................................................................. 4 How Critical Thinking Works: Introduction to the RED Model .................................. 5 Using the RED Model in Decision Making: A Case Study ........................................... 6 For Trainers - Developing Critical Thinkers and Problem Solvers Using the RED Model: A Sample Training Program ................................................... 7 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 8 References .......................................................................................................................... 9 Critical Thinking Means Business Introduction When more than 400 senior HR professionals were asked in a survey to name the most important skill their employees will need in the next five years, critical thinking ranked the highest – surpassing innovation...
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...Log-Pearson Type III Distribution What is it? The Log-Pearson Type III distribution is a statistical technique for fitting frequency distribution data to predict the design flood for a river at some site. Once the statistical information is calculated for the river site, a frequency distribution can be constructed. The probabilities of floods of various sizes can be extracted from the curve. The advantage of this particular technique is that extrapolation can be made of the values for events with return periods well beyond the observed flood events. This technique is the standard technique used by Federal Agencies in the United States. How is it calculated? The Log-Pearson Type III distribution is calculated using the general equation: where x is the flood discharge value of some specified probability, is the average of the log x discharge values, K is a frequency factor, and is the standard deviation of the log x values. The frequency factor K is a function of the skewness coefficient and return period and can be found using the frequency factor table. The Log-Pearson Type III distribution tells you the likely values of discharges to expect in the river at various recurrence intervals based on the available historical record. This is helpful when designing structures in or near the river that may be affected by floods. It is also helpful when designing structures to protect against the largest expected event. For this reason, it is customary to perform the flood...
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...market. However, he goes through some difficulties. The main obstacle is that most of the employees have never experienced Agile approach, so some resistance should be expected. It is a huge and fast shift. The teams start the new approach during the process which makes them confused and stressed about the upcoming process. The shift happens in less than a week, so the employees have to familiarize with it quickly. The training that the coach provides, is not enough to help them be in harmony with Agile. Additionally, the teams notice that they have to change almost every single step they have used to. In my perspective, the shift has to be, but the problem is that the time may not be appropriate and the project is also very critical to Pearson, so this step should be thoroughly taken to ensure the...
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...Liebeck v. McDonald’s and Pearson v. Custom Cleaners Legal Case Analysis AMBA 610 9043 University of Maryland University College Introduction Frivolous lawsuits can be a determent to those who are really seeking justice through the court system. Lawsuits that are frivolous in nature are filed in the court systems that lack legal merit (Frivolous Lawsuit Law & Legal Definition, 2015). Plaintiffs and attorneys who decide to partake in meaningless claims against other parties can anger society by wasting tax payer’s money on cases that are filed and argued with loop holes in litigation (Frivolous Lawsuit Law & Legal Definition, 2015). Evaluating the product and service liability laws will give insight into the two cases that will be discussed in this paper. The two cases covers how product liability effects the consumer and company owners of each industry of businesses. Cases that are brought to courts for product liability is always initiated by the plaintiff who has to prove if the defendant is liable for alleged action claims (Jones, 2015). Two cases that have made an impact on the pursuit of filing frivolous lawsuits is the Liebeck v. McDonald’s and Pearson v. Custom Cleaners case, which will be discussed in further detail throughout this paper. If cases set precedence’s in the court systems, then these two cases show how people can obtain or attempt to collect monies from others that lacks in importance to bringing legal justice per society standards. Case...
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...Pearson Case Analysis I. Executive Summary: Pearson’s Digital Learning Division’s Vice President of Product Management, Greg Adams-Woodford, is beginning to feel the growing pains of a new product development process that he launched after joining the organization one-year ago. The process transformation from a “Waterfall” to “Aigle” methodology was introduced as a means to tackle a disconnect between what the customer wants and what the software developers are producing. As Adams-Woodford works to develop a product road map, he is faced with three critical decisions: 1. Move from one form of the Aigle process (Scrum) to a newer process (Kanban), 2. Extend the Aigle methodology to other teams within the business unit, and 3. Expand Aigle to other teams outside of the business unit in the organization at large. Recommendations for Adam-Woodford are as follows: * Meet with a software development product managers and other key influencers within the business function to analyze, evaluate, and decide to move forward with a Scrum or Kanban process, * After a sufficient Aiglie problem resolution with the software development group, Adam-Woodford should expand Aigle to other teams within the business unit deemed appropriate, * And postpone extending the Aigle process to other Pearson business units in order to focus on the current, more urgent needs, within his product management scope. II. Problem: How can the VP within the Digital Learning Division of the North American...
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...Noel Pearson's eulogy for Gough Whitlam (http://www.smh.com.au/comment/noel-pearsons-eulogy-for-gough-whitlam-in-full-20141105-11haeu.html) Edward Gough Whitlam was the 21st Prime Minister of Australia, serving from 1972 to 1975. He was the Leader of the Labor Party from 1967 to 1977. Noel Pearson is an Aboriginal Australian lawyer, academic and land rights activist. Since the end of the 1990s his focus has encompassed a range of issues: he has strongly argued that Indigenous policy needs to change direction, notably in relation to welfare, substance abuse, child protection, education and economic development. Why Noel Pearson personally is grateful to Gough Whitlam “In June 1975, the Whitlam government enacted the Aboriginal and Torres...
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...Cindy Nunez Chapter 1: Learning Objectives 1. Explain the importance of the terms applied and interdisciplinary as they help to define the field of child development. Interdisciplinary is when it has grown through the combined efforts of people from many fields of the combined efforts of people from many fields of study. When it comes to applied it is added to an experiment or study theory and it can be changed. 2. List the age periods researchers use to study child development, and cite and describe the three domains in which development is often divided. There are six periods researchers use to study child development. The first is the prenatal which is conception to birth. Next is the infancy and toddlerhood which is from birth to two years. Early childhood is next and that stage is two to six years old. Then it’s the middle childhood which is from six to eleven years old. Adolescence follows after which is from ages eleven to eighteen. Next is the emerging adulthood which is eighteen to twenty five years old. With age periods there is also three domains in which development is divided. First is physical which includes change in health, functioning of the body system, perceptual and motor capacities, body size proportion and appearance. Next is cognitive which describes changes in intellectual abilities. Last is emotional and social, which are changes in emotional communication, interpersonal skills and relationship, moral reasoning and behavior, self-understanding...
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...Coulter ©2012 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 1-1 Why are Managers Important? ©2012 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall ©2012 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 1-2 ©2012 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 1-4 Who Are Managers? • Organizations need their managerial skills and abilities more than ever in these uncertain, complex, and chaotic times. • Managerial skills and abilities are critical in getting things done. • The quality of the employee/supervisor relationship is the most important variable in productivity and loyalty. Management, Eleventh Edition by Stephen P. Robbins & Mary Coulter Management, Eleventh Edition by Stephen P. Robbins & Mary Coulter 1-3 • Manager – Management, Eleventh Edition by Stephen P. Robbins & Mary Coulter Classifying Managers Exhibit 1‐1: Levels of Management • First‐line Managers ‐ Individuals who manage the work of non‐managerial employees. • Middle Managers ‐ • Top Managers ‐ Individuals who are responsible for making organization‐wide decisions and establishing plans and goals that affect the entire organization. Management, Eleventh Edition by Stephen P. Robbins & Mary Coulter ©2012 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 1-5 Where Do Managers Work? Management, Eleventh Edition by Stephen P. Robbins & Mary Coulter ©2012 Pearson Education, Inc....
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...Memorandum To: Cooper-Pearson From: Consultant Date: 14 September 2012 Subject: case study I have been asked to research different medical insurance plans to assist Cooper-Pearson in selecting an insurance program for their marketing company. My goal is to provide them with enough details to make an informed decision on the different managed care plans. This information will allow them to provide their employees with a compensation package that is both affordable and desirable. Once an attractive compensation plan is in place; we expect the retention rate to improve and the recruitment of quality employees to increase. The primary differences between the HMO plan and the PPO plan is that you are required to have a primary care physician within the primary care network that you are assigned to. You don't have the option of visiting a physician outside of the network. You must have a referral from your physician to see a medical specialist and the specialist must be within the approved network. HMO plans normally cost less than a PPO but you may have a higher co-payment with a HMO plan. The PPO provides more information to the insured concerning cost sharing in or out of the network (Kongstvedt, 2007, p 25). According to (“benefithouse.com”, 2011), an indemnity plan allows you to use a medical provider of your choice to receive medical care. You must pay an annual deductible for the coverage before the insurance repayment takes effect. Once the deductible is paid then...
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...Background Last minute sick calls by staff at California University Hospital (CaUH) increases operational costs. Since the hospital needs to provide 24 hour nursing coverage and adhere to mandated staffing ratios, this results in staff callbacks, increased overtime, and the need to outsource staffing to outside agencies. Business Problem California law mandates specific nurse to patient ratios based on patient acuity, location, and population served. Although there is a budget allocated to “backfilling” and replacing employees that are on vacation or protected leaves of absence, over utilization results in the creation of a variance that exceeds the allocated budget. The desire of this learning team is to find ways to not only decrease sick call utilization but decrease the operational payroll dollars required to maintain proper staffing levels. Role of the Team The team will assess the current Attendance Policy and look at the employee attendance calendars to identify trends and patterns associated with last minute sick call. Factors may be department specific, hours/shifts worked, full-time vs. part-time, recent denial of time off requests, etc.. This data will be collected and analyzed into a summary with statistical techniques applied. Research Question from Independent and Dependent Variables Our management dilemma began when a manager asked if they are over budget in premium dollars due to excessive last minute sick call replacement coverage. We formulated...
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...Projective technique – Word associated Word association is a projective technique where the respondent is presented with a stimulus and is asked to respond with the first thing that comes to their mind when shown a given name, photo or event (Malhotra (1999)). According to Malhotra & Berks (2000) the assumption of using this technique is that the association allows respondents to reveal their inner feelings about the topic. Responses can be analysed by calculating either of the following: 1. The frequency of any word that is given as a response. 2. The amount of time it takes before a response is given (hesitation). 3. The number of respondents that don’t respond to the test word (blocking). If the respondent takes more than three seconds to answer a particular question this is called hesitation, and this indicates some comparison between emotional involvement from that chosen word. Which will mean sometimes the stimulus word will evoke such strong feeling that the respondent will be unable to give any response because of the ‘block’ (Chisnall (2005)). According to Kolb (2008) this technique gains emotional responses to questions instead of the respondents giving intellectual thoughts or information about the company so we thought that this would be an acceptable method to use as it offers something different than your traditional questionnaire for example. By us as the research team using this technique we may decide to ask the respondents to give the first...
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...Lester B. Pearson was a true Canadian leader through his leadership as Prime Minster and also through serving Canada during wartime. Pearson was the Prime Minster of Canada beginning in April 2nd. 1963, and resigned in 1968. Throughout his role of Prime Minster, Pearson was first hand involved with establishing a sense of Canadian nationalism and internationalism that made Canada stronger and helped distinguish Canada separately from other countries. With Pearson as prime minster Canada at this time was seen as a strong bicultural country. A country that was moving toward as one great nation and other countries were taking notice. Lester Pearson was the son of Annie and Methodist minister, Edwin Pearson. The Pearson’s resided in Aurora Ontario....
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...ASSIGNMENT COVER SHEET Course Name: | Edexcel BTEC Level 5 HND Business and Management | Assignment Name: | Managing Financial Resources and Decisions | Section 1: Understanding the Source of Finance Available to Business IDENTIFY THE SOURCES OF FINANCE AVAILABLE TO BUSINESS In order to set up a business the owner or business needs money to get it going, and in cases of established businesses, keep it growing. Business owners will usually use some of their own money coupled with other sources of finance to start their business. There are several ways to acquire financing and a few of them are personal capital and borrowing from friends, borrowing from a bank, factoring, invoice discounting, leasing, hire purchase and franchising. For larger companies they have the advantage of being able to sell shares to raise capital, they can also have large investors, and being able to ‘raise capital’, they can also retain earnings in order to use the money as cash flow for further developments in the company or for a particular project (this money belongs to shareholders). Companies who are already established can retain their profits for a period of time and use this money in the future for projects or business needs, this is usually shareholder dividend and ultimately belongs to the shareholders, but the company is using it to expand or better the business. The selling of company assets is also seen as a way of raising capital, however if you are selling off your assets...
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...PRIVATE LAW FIRM – PEARSON SPECTER Pearson Specter is a fictitious law firm in New York City (Picked from Suites-TV series). REASON: After watching the TV series ‘Suits’, we felt that we could relate to the organizational designs. Also, practically, we are currently studying the main topics such as culture, ethics, motivation, impact of organization hierarchy, leadership. We can clearly see the human emotions and the internal hierarchy in the series. These emotions and practical demonstrations of work culture and ethics will help us learn better about the building blocks of a successfully running organization. We can analyze the facts and we already have some suggestions for the operation of the firm. Hence, we think this would be a very good topic for discussion on organizational design and implementation (orientation). LEARNING FROM THE PROJECT: ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE Key Persons: * Managing Partner : Jessica Pearson , Harvey Specter * Senior Partner : Louis Litt * Partner : Paul Porter, Watson * Associates : Mike Ross and other associates * Paralegals: Rachel Zane etc. * Assistants: Donna Paulsen, Norma etc. Observations: * There are less layers in the organization. * Hence, more transparency and more interaction. * There need to be more departments for very specific tasks or mundane tasks which can prevent mismanagement. Need to work on this analysis and suggest some improvements. CULTURE Analysis Points: *...
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