Discrimination Within Private Physical Therapy Practices

Discrimination refers to the unequal treatment of persons based on characteristics that are illegitimate for or irrelevant to the outcome in question. I believe that discrimination within privately owned physical therapy practices occurs often. The goal on gender equality and impact of gender discrimination varies from country to country, depending on the social, cultural and economic context. Anti-discrimination laws have performed a critical role in expanding work place opportunities for women, yet they are still denied full equality in the workplace. Physical therapists are bound by a set of code of ethics determined by the House of Delegates of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA). It’s a set of 8 principles holding the purpose of providing good behavior and performance as well as guidance for physical therapists in facing ethical challenges. The ethical principle related to discrimination can be seen in principle number one, which states that â€Å"Physical therapists shall respect the inherent dignity and rights of all individuals† and a subset of this principle states â€Å"Physical therapists shall recognize their personal biases and shall not discriminate against others in physical therapist practice, consultation, education, research and administration†. This sort of discrimination can take a toll on the physical, mental and emotional well-being of employees rendering them unable to fulfill their duties and reach their goals. A very common term is used toShow MoreRelatedHow Does Telepsychol ogy Help Increase The Patient Or Client s Access For Psychological Services?1303 Words   |  6 Pagespsychiatric state can benefit from utilizing the electronic service methods in order to gain access to higher quality medical or mental assistance (Maheu, McMenamin, Posen, Pulier, 2012). New methods such as online psychoeducation and videoconferencing therapy are not only convenient to the patient but it can also ease the mental state of the patient by having them participate in a session in the comfort of their own home. In a diverse and multicultural society, the option to use telepsychology can be veryRead MoreDna Knowledge And Its Effects On The Human Of Individuals And Their Families1681 Words   |  7 Pagesthe scope of private decision based on the freedom of individuals and their families to exercise their reproductive rights to have children or not have them if their genetic characteristics include some kind of inherited disease (Fernà ¡ndez, 2009). In the 1940s and 50 s, the genetic counseling gained popularity, creating the prenatal diagnosis and the therapeutic abortion, a form of abortion that became legal in the 60s in many countries (Fernà ¡ndez, 2009). Since 1970, eugenic practices are widespreadRead MoreHuman Behavior And Social Systems Development : Case Management, Direct Practice And Advocacy For Policy Development1610 Words   |  7 Pagesbehavior and social systems development to support people’s positive interactions with the environment. Social workers play three major roles in working with children and their families. These three roles are key in the following practice arenas: case management, direct practice and advocacy for policy development. Case management is a collaborative process of assessment, planning, facilitation, care coordination, evaluation, and advocacy, all necessary components to meeting families’ and children’sRead MoreDance Therapy Essay1852 Words   |  8 PagesDance therapy is a type o f psychotherapy that uses movement to further the social, cognitive, emotional, and physical development of the individual. Dance therapists work with people who have many kinds of emotional problems, intellectual deficits, and life-threatening illnesses. They are employed in psychiatric hospitals, day care centers, mental health centers, prisons, special schools, and private practice. They work with people of all ages in both group and individual therapy. Some also engageRead More Dance Therapy Essay1803 Words   |  8 PagesDance Therapy Dance therapy is a type of psychotherapy that uses movement to further the social, cognitive, emotional, and physical development of the individual. Dance therapists work with people who have many kinds of emotional problems, intellectual deficits, and life-threatening illnesses. They are employed in psychiatric hospitals, day care centers, mental health centers, prisons, special schools, and private practice. 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Now, take all of these issues of discrimination and add in the dynamic of sports. Should transgenders be allowed to play a sport during or after their transition is over? The IOC (International Olympic Committee) recently had a meeting and â€Å"agreed that a male-to-female transgender athlete shouldRead MoreThe Theory Of Counseling And Therapy Theories6153 Words   |  25 Pagescounseling theories influence your understanding of how to work with consumers with disabilities. The theories we learned provided a broad-based understanding of numerous factors related to the evolution of counseling and therapy theories and practices, along with new counseling and therapy skills. The important premise that underscores one of the central challenges of counseling and psychotherapy is that we are all in the same world, but each of us makes different sense of what we see and experience. ThatRead MoreEthical Issues in Group Counseling Essay2126 Words   |  9 PagesEthics, Law and Practice April 28, 2011 Introduction Group counseling offers multiple relationships to assist an individual in growth and problem solving. Groups are an excellent treatment choice for numerous intrapersonal and interpersonal issues, and in helping people to change. Groups provide a sense of community to its members allowing them to see that they are not alone. In group therapy sessions, members are encouraged to discuss the issues that brought them to therapy openly and honestlyRead MoreThe Way Lgbtq Status, Disabilities, And Gender Affect Development1334 Words   |  6 Pagesresort to begging as a means of survival. This is of grave concern as rural to urban migration across the globe continues.† (Stone-MacDonald and Butera) They further note that as urbanization continues so will the disruption of the assimilation practices found in the more rural areas. Based on this information you can see how acceptance into the community impacts the sustainability of the individual but the ability of the disabled person t o continue to learn skills that make them a contributing member

Benefits And Dangers Of Corporate Social Responsibility

What are the benefits and dangers of corporate social responsibility, for employees, management, organisations, society and the environment? Introduction Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become an important part within business as more people are aware of what activities businesses are doing and how they are doing these activities. Corporate Social Responsibility is â€Å"The view that organisations should act ethically, in ways that contribute to economic development, the environment, quality of working life, local communities, and the wider society.† (Huczynski and Buchanan, 2013, p67). This means that businesses are working in an ethic way and attempting to not effect other people. There are advantages and dangers of using CSR such as some people do not believe that it is the role of an organisation to be ethical but the role of governing bodies. (Rady 2011). Employees Employees are people within a business that perform tasks in return for a wage or salary. CSR can be important to employees as it has the possibility to make their jobs easier and more enjoyable. An advantage of CSR for employees is job security because it retains staff as they want to stay in an ethical company rather than one that may not have the same values, therefore enjoy their job less. An example of an organisation that uses CSR to retain staff is Google. Google have varied incentives to retain their staff such as free meals, flexible workplaces and ability to share their ideas. (Meyer, 2015).Show MoreRelatedCorporate Social Responsibility For Employees1473 Words   |  6 Pagesgeneration without compromising the development of future generations. The Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) are in a sense the contribution of companies to respect the stakes of the sustainable development. The Corporate Social Responsibilities of companies base on social, environmental and economic concerns. This match the â€Å"triple bottom line† theory: â€Å"People, Planet, Profit†. Over the years, Corporate Social Responsibility expended and became very important in the Business organisation and aRead MoreVolvo : Corporate Social Responsibility1155 Words   |  5 Pages Volvo in Corporate Social Responsibility. Avinash Adapa(1678167) Prof Eleni P.Mylonas EPS 8R Fairleigh Dickinson University DATE: 09-27-2014 Abstract Corporate Social Responsibility means their responsibility towards the community and the environmentRead MoreCase Analysis : The Takada Family Company1108 Words   |  5 Pagesvehicle’s standard design. Takata found success in the new industry, which led the firm to expand into airbags as well as child safety restraint systems. With its strategic decision to enter the automobile safety industry Takata was reaping the benefits. The firm commanded a major portion of the airbag market, eventually becoming one of the top three airbag manufacturers in the automotive industry. However, despite the company’s early contributions to automobile safety, recent events have tarnishedRead MoreBusiness Ethics And Corporate Social Responsibility1512 Words   |  7 PagesSocial Responsibility ITC Ltd has worked exremly hard to start several procedures that have led to compliance of the standards of social responsibility. ITC’s dealings within the tobacco industry have contributed to the increase in company revenues and the company has worked towards following the triple bottom line and giving back to society. Most, businesses pay little attention to their social responsibilities and make it part of their overall strategy, instead they concentrate more on financialRead MoreCoca-Cola Case Study1574 Words   |  7 PagesIntroduction Corporate Social Responsibility is the corporate initiative to assess and take responsibility for the company s effects on the environment and impact on social welfare. The term generally applies to company efforts that go beyond what may be required by regulators or environmental protection groups.   Corporate social responsibility may also be referred to as corporate citizenship and can involve incurring short-term costs that do not provide an immediate financial benefit to the companyRead MoreCorporate Social Responsibility ( Csr )1636 Words   |  7 PagesCorporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has gained a reasonable reorganization in the world of business. Organizations are now voluntarily putting their money in the public cause’s way more than they are required or forced by the law and proud present their doing their annual reports CSR is a form of corporate self-regulation integrated into a business model. CSR policy functions as a built-in, self-regulating mechanism whereby business monitors and ensures its active compliance with the spirit ofRead MoreBusiness Ethics Essay1496 Words   |  6 Pagesrights and duties. d. When one taunts another person who then puts themselves in danger in response to the teasing, the teaser has a duty to rescue the other. ANSWER: D PAGE: 3-8 4. All of the following are considered exceptions to the general rule that there is no duty to rescue except: a. Contract – lifeguards, for example, have signed contracts agreeing to rescue people in exchange for pay and benefits. b. Witnessing an accident – this creates a duty to step in and help the injured Read MoreCorporate Governance And Corporate Social Responsibility Essay1456 Words   |  6 Pages8 Corporate Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility Learning Objectives In the wake of perusing this part, you will have the capacity to- â™ ¦ Define Corporate Governance and comprehend the expression partner â™ ¦ Explain different corporate administration activities in India and abroad â™ ¦ Understand Corporate Social Responsibility and the need and significance of being a Corporate Citizen â™ ¦ Explain the usage and rundown the advantages of Corporate Social Responsibility WhatRead MoreEnrons Ethical Dilemma1118 Words   |  4 Pagesethical dilemma provides lessons that will last long in light of corporate values and ethical issues. Learning Objectives: Since Enrons ethical dilemma provides numerous lessons for the corporate world, especially with regards to corporate ethics and ethics, it also offers some learning objectives. The first learning objective for the case is to examine how leaders face moral and ethical dilemmas or issues i.e. lessons for corporate leaders and managers. Secondly, the case shows how systems thinkingRead MoreThe Egyptian Corporate Responsibility Center1246 Words   |  5 PagesAccording to ECRC, corporate social responsibility in Egypt is defined as the adoption of sustainable business models and practices that have positive impacts on the society. The private sector in Egypt is responsible for creating about 70% of all employment in the country. However, there is room for the private sector to improve its social offerings to the society in general through corporate social responsibility. The Egyptian corporate responsibility center (ECRC) was established in the year

Birthday Bash and Crash Free Essays

Birthday Bash and Crash Nathan Blanchard Honors Language-2 August 9, 2013 On June 22, 2013, I woke up as if it were any other day, but it was not any other day, It was my birthday. I got up and took a shower, brushed my teeth and hair and dressed in a nice, but casual outfit. A pair of blue, white, and red plaid shorts with a solid red polo shirt and white under shirt was my outfit of choice. We will write a custom essay sample on Birthday Bash and Crash or any similar topic only for you Order Now I was excited for my party even though I knew what I was getting as a gift. All I had asked for was an Oxbow 360. I knew my mother and the rest of my family had done everything they could to make sure I got it. I was so happy for a lot of things though. I was getting an Oxbow, my older brother, Each was coming, and It was a cook out. Even though the party was small, it was the best party ever. My whole family would be coming to the party my mom had planned. Everyone began to arrive around 2:00 In the afternoon. My mom was busy cooking in the kitchen and a family friend, Mr.. Rick was cooking hamburgers and hotdogs on the grill. My granny, Winston and Gail, Brian, Each, and Gracie all came over. Once the food was all cooked and ready, we all ate. We had hamburgers, hotdogs, potato lad, Cole slaw, devil eggs, baked bears, macaroni and cheese, and potato chips. Of course there was a big cake with â€Å"Happy Birthday Nathan† in red letters for dessert. After eating lunch, it was time for presents. Got the best things ever. Everything I needed and wanted were nicely wrapped or boxed. My gifts included a metallic black Oxbow 360, five games, Including Mineshaft and Call of Duty. 1600 Microsoft points, a set of black and green Turtle Beach headphones, and an extra controller which was purple. I know these were very expensive gifts and I am very grateful to my family. I know that they love me a lot and the really care about my wants and needs. After opening my gifts, my brother, Each and I decided to throw the football. Before we went outside, he tossed the football in the alarm and I hit it. The ball crashed onto the table. I didn’t break anything, but my mom told us we had to go outside. When we got outside, my sister, Michael and her friends, Brian and Gracie came out also. We all threw the ball back and forth until my brother and I started to tackle. That was too much for the girls so, they played kickball. My brother kept taking the soccer ball from them. Next thing I heard was him yell, â€Å"He shot, he scored. † I looked to see what happened. Each had Just kicked the ball In the back of his truck. After we played in the yard for a while, we all went back inside for cake. The cake was served after the family and friends sang, â€Å"Happy Birthday. † The cake was great. It was vanilla cake with white sweet Icing. I had ice cream with mine. Once we all finished our cake, it was getting late and everyone needed to go home. The party ended and cannot wait until next year’s. Just to let you know, I play my all of the time. How to cite Birthday Bash and Crash, Papers

The Pros and Cons of the BPO Sectorâ€Free-Samples for Students

Question: Write a weekly journal over the duration of the 12-week teaching period that documents a critical analysis of their learning process. Answer: Introduction: In the present competitive business environment, every business is looking to provide best possible services for the fulfilment of business objectives. For that reason, I believe popularity of outsourcing has increased over the past few years. I feel that utilization of business process outsourcing helps businesses to maximize the effectiveness of the operational procedure. Now, during the conduction of research study, I had enough opportunities to understand the way BPO helps businesses in accomplishing all the requirements of the operational procedure. The development of study 1 and 2 had allowed me to identify the trend regarding the usage pattern of the BPO over the years. Now, I feel that proper understanding of the BPO will help to identify all the pros and cons in an effective way. In assessment 3, I will share my overall learning experience during the completion of 12 weeks teaching session. Week 1: The Nature, Process and Strategy of the Business Research During the completion of assessment 1, I have developed clear aims and objective to identify contributions of BPO sector in the Australian market. For that reason, I feel that it has helped me to gain practical knowledge regarding the best possible way to structure a particular research study. Moreover, I have focused on understanding the risk factors associated with the utilization of the BPO process. Therefore, I feel it will help me to understand the operational process of the BPO sector in Australia. For that reason, I feel that it will definitely create long-term impact on the quality of the research activities. Week 2: Research Design, planning and Process I have used mixed research methodology for identifying the pros and cons of the BPO sector. As a result, it has allowed me to capture both quantitative and qualitative data about the research topic. Utilization of mix method has induced me to develop two separate set of questionnaires, which has helped me to differentiate between qualitative and quantitative data. Moreover, I have also identified the kind of impact both qualitative and quantitative data can have on the operational procedure. For instance, collection of qualitative data has helped me to evaluate both verbal and non-verbal communication of the respondents. I have identified evaluation of non-verbal communication is critical for successful fulfilment of the qualitative data collection procedure. On the contrary, quantitative data collection process has allowed me to select different types of statistical tools and technique. Therefore, I feel that quantitative data will help my statistical knowledge and analytical skills in a major way. Now, I feel that gaining of practical knowledge from the employees and managers will help to cover all the details associated with the BPO procedure in Australian market. The research study has also induced me to develop a clear timeline for each activity. For that reason, I have developed Gantt chart for specifying required time for all the activities in an effective way. I have assessed the best possible way to accomplish all the requirements of business research are through the appropriate development of Gantt chart. Hence, I feel it will definitely help to cover all the requirements of future academic requirements in an effective way. In-depth evaluation of the BPO process in Australian market will help to assess all the changes in recent years. During the development of literature review, I had focused on capturing appropriate secondary information about the research topic. For that reason, I had to use different types of secondary sources like peer review journals, Google scholar, online library and other platforms. Therefore, it has enhanced my practical knowledge regarding the best possible way utilize secondary information for the successful completion of the study. In the literature review part, I had consciously tried to include opinions, theories and models of different past literatures for adding value to the overall study. Therefore, I feel learning from this 12 weeks session will help to fulfil all the future academic challenges in an effective way. In the literature review section, I have focused on highlighting the gap of the literature for selecting the necessary areas that studies need to cover for the successful completion of the study. For that reason, I feel that development of assessment 1 and 2 will help to enhance my critical evaluation knowledge, which will definitely help in my professional career and personal life as well. Week 3: Literature Review and Writing Business Research My professional career goal is to become senior manager in customer service department within a prestigious organization. I always like to talk with people from different cultural and geographical background. Therefore, I feel working in a top BPO organization will allow me to interact with different types of people on a regular basis. For that reason, I feel that gaining experience about the way BPO sector in Australia works will definitely help to cover all the areas in an appropriate way. In this study, I have focused on assessing the way operational procedure change has changed over the past few decades. Therefore, I feel that it will definitely help me to adjust in a working environment in BPO sector. Moreover, proper understanding of the operational procedure will help me to take much more effective decisions as manager. During the completion of assessment 1 and 2, I have covered all the areas associated with the business research activities. Therefore, I feel that learning fro m these to assessments will definitely allow me conduct effective research in future as well. Now, proper understanding of all the risk and positive factors will allow me to identify the best possible way to enhance the efficiency level of the operational procedure. Conclusion: The above evaluation has evaluated the fact that understanding of all the factors associated with the business research procedure. I believe successful completion of all the activities associated with the business research will help to enhance my professional career as well. The BPO sector in Australian market has grown over the past few years in a significant manner. Therefore, I believe proper understanding of the BPO operational process will help me to adjust in the professional world in an effective way. Thus, to conclude it can be mentioned that learning from 12 weeks sessions has definitely created positive impact on my theoretical and practical knowledge. References Brockbank, A. and McGill, I., 2012.Facilitating reflective learning: Coaching, mentoring and supervision. Kogan Page Publishers. Eppich, W. and Cheng, A., 2015. Promoting excellence and reflective learning in simulation (PEARLS): development and rationale for a blended approach to health care simulation debriefing.Simulation in Healthcare,10(2), pp.106-115. Gaevi?, D., Mirriahi, N. and Dawson, S., 2014, March. Analytics of the effects of video use and instruction to support reflective learning. InProceedings of the fourth international conference on learning analytics and Knowledge(pp. 123-132). ACM. Gould, N. and Taylor, I., 2017.Reflective learning for social work: research, theory and practice. Routledge. Krogstie, B.R., Prilla, M. and Pammer, V., 2013, September. Understanding and supporting reflective learning processes in the workplace: The csrl model. InEuropean Conference on Technology Enhanced Learning(pp. 151-164). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. Richards, P., Collins, D. and Mascarenhas, D.R., 2012. Developing rapid high-pressure team decision-making skills. The integration of slow deliberate reflective learning within the competitive performance environment: A case study of elite netball.Reflective Practice,13(3), pp.407-424. Rivera-Pelayo, V., Zacharias, V., Mller, L. and Braun, S., 2012, April. Applying quantified self approaches to support reflective learning. InProceedings of the 2nd international conference on learning analytics and knowledge(pp. 111-114). ACM. Ryan, M. and Ryan, M., 2013. Theorising a model for teaching and assessing reflective learning in higher education.Higher Education Research

The Relationship Between Judged Attraction and Assumed Wealth free essay sample

Whether a person is aware of it or not, everywhere they go, they are mentally judging people and creating an opinion about others without necessarily ever even meeting them. These judgments can be based off of simple appearance, or actions, or any other sort of visible aspect of a person. Simply put, humans are judgmental creatures. One of the most common aspects of a person’s life that is judged from outside appearance is wealth. Assumedly, if a person dresses well, they must have money to buy such a wardrobe. Though this is certainly not always the case, people generally assume that what is on the outside is reflected on the inside. In this study, people’s visual interpretation of a person and the person’s assumed wealth will be examined. The participants will be shown pictures of random people of various wealth and asked to judge their monetary net worth. We will write a custom essay sample on The Relationship Between Judged Attraction and Assumed Wealth or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The variables being studied through this experiment are conceived attractiveness and monetary success. The goal of this experiment is to find a correlation between the two. Many studies concerning this phenomenon have been performed in the past and many books on the subject of attraction have been written. The relationship between physical attractiveness and monetary worth has been an interest for scientists for many years. As long as there has been social class, people through the ages have been judging other’s wealth by their appearance, whether people have been conscious of it or not. These studies have been important because these two variables (attractiveness and wealth) have also been linked to desire and favorability, two of the most unique and profound of human emotions, as will be discussed in the following In an experiment conducted at Georgia Southern University by researchers Dawson and McIntosh, the relationship between wealth, attractiveness, and desirability was examined (Dawson McIntosh, 2006). Dawson and McIntosh believed that men looked for physical attractiveness in women, whereas women looked for material resources (wealth) in men. Alternatively, the experimenters predicted that if men and women were less advantageous in these physical and monetary traits, they would compensate with other personal traits, such as personality. Participants to be judged for the experiment were randomly chosen from Yahoo Personals. Members of the opposite sex then rated the attractiveness of the participants and generated adjectives that were believed to describe the participant. For the male participants, it turned out that if they were considered less attractive or wealthy by the raters, their profile would emphasize of other positive personal characteristics. On the other hand, for the females, there was a trending phenomenon that if a profile emphasized greatly on the woman’s physical attractiveness, it concentrated little on other personal characteristics. However, there was no relation between how physically attractive the rater found the participant and what other positive characteristics were used to describe the participant. Dawson and McIntosh (2006) believed that their hypothesis was moderately supported. The judgments that people make on a person’s physical attractiveness can influence much more than the assumed size of his or hers wallet. These judgments can influence decisions as important as whom to vote for in government elections. This phenomenon was studied by Hart, Ottati, and Krumdick at the University of Alabama and Loyola University. They hypothesized that the more attractive a candidate was, the more memorable their campaign was (Hart, Ottati, Krumdick, 2011). Hart et. al. (2011), explored this by showing participants photos of potential candidates (all Democrat) along with campaign policies. The photos and information was then removed and the participants were asked to recite all the information that they could remember about each candidate and answer various questions regarding their attitudes and standpoints about the candidate and his or her campaign. The results show that those who were considered novices on the subject matter, being those that were unable to remember the candidates’ specific campaign and policy points, seemed to favor those that they found more physically attractive. Alternatively, those that were considered experts on the campaign material seemed to favor the less attractive of the candidates (Hart et. l, 2011). One might ask, however, what exactly is it of a person physique that lead people the judge them as attractive? While most people look at a person’s overall appearance and make judgments based on that, there are much subtler cues that a person subconsciously picks up on. Each person’s tastes are unique, and different cues appeal to different people. Author Gordon L. Patzer Ph. D. described some of these cues in his book The Physical Attractiveness Phenomena (1985). Overall Patzer believed that personality was the main contributing factor. While physical first impressions are importan t, personality is what a person really remembers. A good impressions is key. If a person makes a bad impression of themselves upon meeting someone, their negativity or foolishness will forever live on in he or she’s new acquaintance’s eyes. After personality, however, traits that spark attraction become much more minute and specific. First, Patzer believed that height was a key contributor. Women have a tendency to be attracted to a man taller than herself, though not towering. Men, on the other hand, are attracted to women who are shorter than himself, but not unproportionately so. Even if one does not consciously acknowledge it, they are taking note of everyone’s height that they meet. People also take notice of someone’s facial aspects, such as shape of the jaw, hairline, etc. (Patzer, 1985). Specific combinations of all of these aspects, plus many more, determine how attractive a person finds another. Whereas none of these traits have an scientific relation to personal wealth, they do play a key role on how attractive someone is initially judged as. Whenever a person meets someone new, they subconsciously judge the stranger’s appearance and determine what level of attraction if had towards the stranger, even if there is no intent to pursue romantically. Other assumptions then stem off of this initial judgment of attraction. One of the most common is the attempt to judge a stranger’s wealth by their appearance and personal attraction. Scientists have been exploring the relationship between attractiveness and monetary value for years. The following study attempts to spread more light on the subject. Methods This study was designed to determine the correlation between ‘attractiveness’ and perceived wealth. Variables were defined as how personally attractive the surveyors found the estranged participants pictured versus how monetarily wealthy the stranger was based on the surveyors’ attraction. The data was collected using a Likert Scale to represent attractiveness and a scale with different levels of wealth. The results from the experiment allowed for the ratings of ‘perceived wealth’ to be compared to the rating of ‘attractiveness’ and discover if a correlation did in fact exist between the two. Based on the results of the previous study, â€Å"Attributions of physical attractiveness† (Johnson, MacEachern, 1985) ‘attractiveness’ should influence the perception of desirable traits, such as wealth. This may result for a multitude of reasons to be discussed in the future. Participants The participants sampled were the 10 females and 10 males pictured in the slide show. The participants varied all ages, ethnicities, and states of wealth in an attempt to make the sample’s characteristics representative of the public and mildly random. All participants were retrieved off of Google with some strategy to make sure that characteristics were varied in an attempt to be representative, making it a stratified sample. Also participating were the surveyors who rated the sample of participants. The surveyors consisted of a cluster sample of the Flagler College PSY 253 class. The sample totaled 17: 12 females and 5 males. Considering that the sample consisted of college students, assumedly between the ages of 19 and 22, the surveyors were not necessarily representative of the public but rather of college students in general. The participating surveyors received no compensation other than class participation and attendance points, which were awarded simply for showing up to the class. Materials For the experiment, a Powerpoint was used with 20 photos of participants, strangers to the surveyors, obtained off of Google: 10 pictures of females and 10 pictures of males, one per slide. Materials also included a paper survey handout on which the participants would record their responses. The survey consisted of two scales, one Likert scale rating attractiveness and one rating wealth. The Likert scale ran from 1-10 with one with the least attractive and ten the most and the scale for wealth ran from Poor($0-1000)-Average($1000-999,999)-Millionaire-Billionaire (See Appendix A). The participants provided their own writing utensils (pens and pencils). Procedure All participating surveyors were given a single handout survey (See Appendix A) by the administrators and then instructed to record their gender on the handout. Each surveyors’ gender determined whether they would be in Group A (Females) or Group B (Males). Both groups were instructed that they would be shown a slide show consisting of pictures of different individuals of the opposite sex and asked to record their opinions on attractiveness and wealth on the paper survey provided for each picture shown. Each picture was shown for approximately ten seconds and a totally of ten pictures were shown for each group. Group A was administered the survey first. The surveys were then collected by the administrators and a slideshow with ten different pictures was shown to Group B and the participants were asked to fill out the same survey as the prior group. The surveys were then collected by the administrators, concluding the experiment. Results Data was collected using a between subjects design. This experiment examined the correlation between how a person perceives attractiveness and how wealthy the person is then assumed to be. The experiment had two variables: Variable 1, perceived attractiveness, and Variable 2, assumed wealth. Participants were administered a survey listing the two variables, Variable 1 was measured on a Likert Scale of 1-10, when Variable 2 was measured on a scale of 1 (Poor, $0=1,000), 2 (Average, $1,000-$999,999), 3 (Millionaire), and 4 (Billionaire). The mean value for Variable 1 was M=4. 12 with a standard deviation of SD=1. 13314 and the mean value for Variable 2 was M=2. 36 with a standard deviation of SD=. 33066 (refer to Table 1). The median for Variable 2 was 3 and the mode is 2. The median and the mode for Variable 2 were both 2. The Pearson Correlation for the experiment was r=. 05 and the significance for each variable was p=. 891. This made the study’s finding significant and that there is a strong correlation between our variables. Discussion At the beginning of the experiment, it was hypothesized that there would be a positive correlation between how physically attractive someone was conceived as by a stranger and how wealthy they were assumed to be, judged on their rated attractiveness. At the end of the experiment, the results support this hypothesis. The significance of the variables was p=. 891, demonstrating that there is a high correlation between how attractive someone perceives a stranger and how wealthy the stranger is assumed to be, confirming the hypothesis. The positive correlation of the results suggests that the more attractive a person finds a stranger, the more monetary value the stranger is assumed to have. The Pearson Correlation was r=. 05 which proves that these results were reliable. The fact that r=. 05 means that the results were very specific, with few outliers, and can be condensed to a confined ranged of results, which all fit in together to support the hypothesis. Also, the low standard deviations of SD=1. 12212 and SD=. 33066 show how little overall variation there is to the variable means among participants. The results of this study can be interestingly related to the results of other studies previously performed, while the studies themselves may not mirror each other. As discovered by Dawson and McIntosh (2006), men and women on dating websites, if considered less attractive, emphasis more of their personal traits (Dawson McIntosh, 2006). Though it was not a component of the study being examined, some participants in the photos, when less attractive, dressed better, in fancier clothing, while those who were deemed more attractive tended to wear less flashy clothes. Perhaps if a person does not consider themselves to be physically appealing, they will try to look nice in other ways in public, such as clothing. Previously discussed, an experiment by Hart, Ottati, and Krumdick (2011) revealed that voters are more likely influenced by and likely to remember candidates that are perceived as more physically attractive and tend to think higher said attractive candidates (Hart et. al, 2011). This could have a relation to the current experiment in the respects that the survey takers may have had higher expectations of the participants’ monetary value if considered more attractive. This could be because people have a tendency to hold high hopes and expectations for those they find desirable. The experiment at hand has no relation, however, to the third theory Previously discussed by Patzer (1985). Patzer (1985) believed that there is a combination of specific attributes that causes a person to be attracted to another person. A specific feature that Patzer discussed was height, being that females prefer taller men and males vice versa (Patzer, 1985). However, there was no way for the surveyors to judge the participant’s height to their own through the pictures shown during the survey. For this experiment at least, height had nothing to do with personal attraction or attraction’s relation to wealth. There were very few flaws to this experiment that would have altered the results. The only obvious flaw was the issue of sexual orientation. For surveying ease, the experimenters divided the groups into male and female, rather than by sexual orientation because while attracted to males and attracted to females are two clear groups, there may have been bisexuals in the population and they would not have been able to take the survey twice. So though some surveyors may have felt that they were in the wrong group and it may have had an effect on the results, it effects were nothing detrimental. If repeated in the future, perhaps the experiment would involve surveys more catering to sexual orientation rather than being limited to division of gender. On the other hand, while there may have been a flaw, there was no experimenter bias because each participants’ correct wealth was never hinted at until the end. Also, it was impossible for the surveyors to develop practice effects because the survey involved no technique or talent. Also, there was no difficulty level so there was no floor or ceiling effects. In conclusion, the original hypothesis was supported. There was a positive correlation between perceived attractiveness and assumed monetary wealth, this meaning the more attractive a person found a stranger, the person then tended to assume the stranger proportionately more wealthy. There may be more triggers behind this phenomenon but judging by the survey results, the correlation was at least fueled by the attractiveness variable.

Ishmael essay Essays

Ishmael essay Essays Ishmael essay Essay Ishmael essay Essay Essay Topic: Push Precious Ishmael essay BY 1100205268 Ap World Summer Assignment Dennis Podvidz Coach Floyd Period 1 Floyd 8-10-12 How Agriculture Has Shaped Man assignment 1 Mr. In the novel Ishmael by Daniel Quinn it makes a brave point of how man has taken over Mother Nature and has claimed what is not his due to the fact that Agriculture has shaped man and his potential. In the movie by James Diamond Guns, Germs, and Steel it strikes a similar note in how the taker people compare to the leaver people and how they have more success than the original lifestyle of the leavers. Man has dvanced greatly through the progression of agriculture and from their into their civilization. Though in the end the taker people are starting to destroy themselves and ultimately mother earth. In Ismael and Guns, Germs, and steel it shows how man has progressed and ultimately start to destroy himself because of the agricultural progression of man. The world was made for man, but it took him along time to fgure that out(Quinn: pg 68). That is what was imposed for the novel Ishmael meaning that the whole world revolves around man. Man is why we have cities, technology, architecture and other luxuries. The place where all of this has come from though, has been from the way that man had expanded and how his agriculture had expanded. The idea of agriculture had happened back in the Fertile Crescent because the so-called takers were running out of food to take. They had to settle down and have a source of food to live off of so they could support villages and eventually Increase tnelr populatlon. I ne numan populatlon nas done Just tnat ana for the most part they have thrived, but because of this they have done unthinkable damage. Weve gobbled up irreplaceable resources as though they could never run ut-and we go on gobbling them up(Quinn: pg 80). As the Human Population had found out about the possibilities of farming and staying in one place as opposed to traveling and being gatherers, they have become successful. The success comes with its prices though on the other hand, The Takers had started to get very nasty and disgraceful with the leaver people. They had started to believe that the way to live is to farm and any group of people that does not abide by that rule will ultimately get whipped out when Ishmael clearly stats this when he says miou may no longer live by hunting and gathering. This is Wrong. This is evil. We forbid it. (Quinn: pg 167). As people had started to get greedier they had ultimately wanted more land and more power. The main reason of this power and land was to expand their population and to have growth in their economy. The takers did not have room for the leavers so they had simply had started to kill them off. They had started to kill them of for one simple reason, they needed that land for agriculture, and agriculture ultimately means expansion. Then people had started to feed of the Takers and had brought it into their culture because they see what uccess they have compared to the other leavers. An example of this type of people would have been the Jews. The Jews though had seen the value of the leaver people and they had left the leavers in their culture. The Takers though had a downfall later in the revolution. The Taker people had invested all of their might into the agriculture of the land and had expanded beyond the holding limit of mother earth. In Guns, Germs, and Steel by James diamond he makes a very valid point of why the taker people of the modernized world have so much more technology and an overall better wellbeing than the Native Papua New Guineans. The answer to this question is that the New Guineans are a leaver civilization, they didnt expand and didnt have such technological growth as the taker people, an example of this is cargo. Cargo is what the New Guineans had called the technology and the actual things that the modern world people have. The New Guineans have followed the same way of life since their fist appearance onto mother earth. They are hunter and gatherers and they do very littlie farming. They look as if though they were in the 1000 B. C. E and their culture is very reflective of that as well. They live in large ommunities and they are hunting to get their food and the women are staying home doing all of the work since they are counted less superior to man. The only reason that the New Guineans had not expanded was because they didnt have agriculture and that has pushed them back in the overall evolution of man. In Ismael and Guns, Germs, and Steel it shows how man has progressed and ultimately start to destroy himself because of the agricultural progression of man. The fact of the expansion of the human population had gone back to agriculture. That one step had put us in the position we are now, and the countries that had not aken that step are very behind in the cultural evolution. But the question is, did we take the right step with expanding through agriculture and ultimately killing our resources and Mother Nature? Only time will tell if we will fail or succeed. Diamond, James. Guns,Germs, and Steel Part One. Guns, Germs, and Steel Part One. N. d. Television. Quinn, Daniel. Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit. United States of America: Bantam/Turner, 1995. Print. Evaluatlon 0T How Man created Cltles to Isnmael ana -uns, Germs, ana s assignment 2 All three of these works present a very careful argument pretty much textbook example of the process of posing a research question, making a claim to answer that question, and presenting clear evidence, examples, and support for the claim. Show how each demonstrates this in the following matrix How Man Created Cities Ishmael Guns, Germs, and Steel What is the overall driving question? How did Man Invent cities? Why are things made up to be the way they are? Why do first world countries have so much more cargo than the people of Pupa New Guinea? What is the overall answer? (thesis) Man had invented cities on the fact that the place where the city had originated, that ertain geographical location had been able to supply mans needs. Things are made up to be the way they are because or society is based on a myth that is so deeply rooted into our society that we cant do anything about it and if we do then we make it worse. The people of first world countries have more cargo because they had the ability to farm and have good livestock, which they gained, through geographical location and experience with mother nature. .What are the main claims to support the answer? The place that you would chose to build a city would be place that had a good access to food, water, and shelter. People in our society believe that the people that have other lifestyles than our own are living a very uncivilized lifestyle. The people of the first world countries had wheat and barley as well as good livestock like cows and horses. While the people of Papa New Guinea had some roots and bananas. What evidence is there to support these claims? Examples. You wouldnt build a city in the desert because there is no food, water, or shelter. You would build a city next to a river which would have water to drink, fish to eat, and some type of vegetation to mage shelter out of. People from the first world countries nat are llvlng taker IITestyles tnlnK tnat people 0T tnlra world countrles tnat are llvlng leaver lifestyles are wrong and uncivilized. The first world countries are more developed and carry a much larger population because of the reliable food source. Pastoral (nomadic) Culture vs. Neolithic Agrarian Culture (nomadic) Culture Neolithic Agrarian Culture assignment 3 Pastoral Being any type of nomad is the oldest way of living in the world and it dates back to as far as 6000 B. C The Postaral Nomads Follow a specific pattern to which to graze their livestock and they are constantly on the move They move their livestock ccording to the seasons Each year they go back to the same place they were during that season last year to herd In areas with a decent amount of rainfall, the Pastoral Nomads live in villages that are designed of them to have a more relaxed stay for In the dry seasons the Pastoral Nomads stick to portable tents that they can easily set up and take down The Pastoral Nomads are people that make their own food and dont buy or take from others, they do trade though for other products that would include hard goods The Pastoral Nomads in habit the less fertile regions of the world that receive little ainfall as well The Pastoral Nomads live in the regions of West Africa and Central Asia The Pastoral Nomads are originally based to be part of a warrior culture, because they were despised by people they lived round The Neolithic Agrarians mostly lived in small little groups or tribes They had the chance to acquire livestock so they did Unlike the Pastoral nomad the Neolithic Agrarians had homes that they could settle down and not travel from place to place, most of the homes were built out of mud The Neolithic Agrarians believed in burials and they would usually wait until only ones were left of the dead person and would bury them in-between the houses or even under the floor of the house The Neolithic Agrarians Had lived in Europe since 6400 B. C and in countless other regions across the world like the fertile crescent and the Americas The Neolithic Agrarians had heavily relied on Farming, in earlier times it relied on the region that you were in that the farming was based on, but near the ena all 0T tne T Intake was Ilmltea Ine Neollt lc n Agrarlans were very SKIIlea tool maker and had made tons of tool for many different reasons including farming and weapons Continued Next Page) Catalhoyuk and the Bedouin as Examples Pastoral Example- Catalhoyuk How are the Bedouin an example of a pastoral society? The Bedouins are a prime example of the Pastoral society because they are Nomads. The Bedouins live in counties in the middle east that have a relatively low rainfall and that means fertility. They have their livestock Just as the pastoral Nomads had and they travel with their livestock all the time. The Bedouins dont have a real home Just like the Pastoral Nomads so they Just set up tents and take tents down. Lastly the Bedoui ns travel with the seasons, In the dry season they go to a solid watering hole just as the Pastoral Nomads did. How is Catalhoyuk an example of a Neolithic agrarian society? The Catalhoyuk were much like the Neolithic Agrarians in their plan of living. The Catalhoyuk had made permanent settlements Just as the Neolithic Agrarians did compared to the pastoral nomads. The Catalhoyuk had made their houses out of the same material (mud) as the Neolithic Agrarians did. The Catalhoyuk had also the same burial traditions by letting the body of the dead decay to the bone and then bury them underneath the floor of the house. Lastly the Catalhoyuk had made many tools and had a wide variety of crops River Valley/Foundations Cultures PIRATES Fill in evidence that aligns with the cultural traits listed below. Each column may not be necessarily even, but all should be filled in to some extent. Assingment 4 Cultures Political (Laws, Governance) Intellectual (Math, Science, Philosophic, Ideas) Rellglons Art/Architecture (Forms, styles, uses) Technology Economic (How they make a living-trade, farming etc) Social (Gender relationships, role of women, classes) Shang They had an overall king that that had allowed territory rulers to rule parts of the and in exchange for military support under that was priest class which was in charge of religion and records The People of the Shang dynasty had created a writing system that had over 3,000 symbols, they had also made a 12 month calendar and a decimal system The Shang Dynasty believed in the god Shang-Ti, This god was considered superior to all the other gods The type of art the Shang dynast had were different types of pots, bronze weapons, vessels and hairpins. The Shang dynasty was highly skillful in metalworking and they had created many types of weapons and tools. The Shang Dynasty had made a living y agriculture, the type of cr ops that they had grown were wheat, barley, and other types of grains. The Shang dynasty had classes that went from nobles, to priests, to craftsman to peasants and slaves Harappa The political system of the Harappans is not quite discovered but it is believed to be that their was one main government with rules of the cities to help out The Harappan people were masters in measuring length, mass and time, they were one of the first civilizations that made up as system of weights and measurements The religion that the Harappa civilization believed in was Polytheistic, in this religion ertain animal represent gods The Harappans civilization had large scale urban like settlements; the Harappans had different types of vessels, pottery, and Jewelry. The Harappans were among the first to purify gold and it was also found that they had been some the first people using dental techniques(drilling human teeth) They had a very strong trading system because they would trade their precious artwork with Mesopotamian settlements, making them a well know economic hub, farmed lots of dry grain The Harappans were divided into four classes, learned people, businessmen, warriors, and working class. Women were considered higher up then men Egypt The Egyptians had a main ruler which was the king, under the king was the vizier. I ne vlzler naa ne10 all 0T tne countless projects tnat tne anclent Egyptians naa. The Egyptians had a completely finished numerical system, they were also the first civilization that had shown evidence of mathematical equations The ancient Egyptians had believed in the Divine Kingship, which means that the king is also their god. The architecture in Egypt is some of the famous architecture in the world, The pyramid of Giza is one example, Architects in Egypt were also famous for their recise stone work The Egyptians new how to make ships up to 35 meters long, they also knew how to make glass and many artificial stones The Egyptians had relied heavily on farming, since the rainfall was scarce they had made good use of the Nile for irrigation systems, their main crops were wheat, barley and other grains, but they also had fruits and vegetables Women in ancient Egypt had the same rights as men, but the were treated a lot differently, the woman usually had stayed at home while the men had worked Sumer The Sumerians had a king that had ruled the city state government, the king would ut the laws into effect, but instead of punishing someone physically He would punish them with a fine The Sumerians were the first to make use of math like algebra and geometry, They also were the first that had used numerical order, a nd find the area of a triangle and volume of a cube The Sumerians did not have a specific religion; each state had its own priests and churches. The Sumerians were the first to have the right who to worship The Sumerians had a lack of wooden materials, so in result they had started to build mud houses, if wanting something stronger then you would use brick The Sumerians had been innovators of many tems such as wheels, saws, knives, axes chisels, etc. Many Sumerians had made their living of farming onions, wheat, mustard, lentils, barley etc. hey also traded with many surrounding civilizations Woman in the Sumerian civilization were considered freer than in the other leading civilizations but, the civilization was still in favor of man, the class was mostly divided into a fee person or a slave Chavin In the Chavin civilization to have the power to rule was brought only to a few elite members that had some sort of divine connection The Chavin people were the first eople that had carve d the faces into stone of the deities that they believed in The civilization of the Chavin believe in different types of deities, there are deities for the underworld, food and, the supernatural world The Chavin had created many pieces of art, though to the modern world we cannot understand what they mean, they were meant to be understood only by the chiefs The advancements in technology for the Chavin was their abilities to use abnormal techniques for firing their clay The Majority of the People from the Chavin civilization have been involved with omestication of llamas, they also have some crops including potatoes and quinoa The woman in the Chavin civilization are usually at home caring for the kids while the men are trying to bring home food Olmec The political structure of the Olmec was strongly centralized, this gave power to the elite that would have control over the people The Olmecs were the first Mesoamerican people that would have a calendar, understand the concept of zer o, and create a writing system The Olmecs believed that their priests were the most important fgure and the most sacred fgure The Olmecs make there art out of many OITTerent materlals Inclualng clay ana Dasalt, most 0T tnelr Tlgures represent real IITe things The Olmecs had many types of invented technologies, but the most notable of them all was their geomagnetic lodestone compass The Olmecs were farmers back in their time, they had grown beans, squash, maize, and cotton, they also had done long distance trading The woman of the Olmec had taken care of the children while the men had been out and had brought home the food (Continued Next Page) Venn Diagram Unique toa Culture In Common Among a Majority of the Cultures The Shang dynasty had classes that went from nobles, to priests, to craftsman to easants and slaves The woman of most of these civilizations were considers less dominant then men Most civilizations listed here have some type of agriculture All civilizations worshiped some sort of fgure All civilizations had found out some technology that is still used today Sumer The Sumerians were the first to make use of math like algebra and geo metry, They also were the first that had used numerical order, and find the area of a triangle and volume ofa cube Harappa Chavin The civilization of the Chavin believe in different types of deities, there are deities for the underworld, food and, the supernatural world Egypt The ancient Egyptians had believed in the Divine Kingship, which means that the king is also their god. Olmec The Olmecs were the first Mesoamerican people that would have a calendar, understand the concept of zero, and create a writing system (Continued On Next Page) How does either the Phoenicians or the Minoans compare culturally to the other Foundation cultures? (Your choice of who to use, looking for an in-depth analysis here of at least one page. The Phoenicians are one of the most sought out civilizations in the world and they can be easily compared with the founder cultures. The Phoenicians are people that ave traded countless of precious items (mostly to Greece) that are supplied to the elite; one of t hese items would be vivid purple die that is received from the snail shell. The Phoenician alphabet with its very ideal and strict forms can be compared to the great writing system of the Shangs. The culture of the Phoenicians is a learning culture because they had sat out and had taken in countless information from the ancient Egyptians. Every good civilization has to be able to learn to flourish and prosper above all the rest. The Phoenician civilization had a chance to come out and they did, In about 900 B. C Their was no real strict military power in the region of the Phoenicians so they came out and they started to trade with the surrounding areas. With the population of the Phoenicians rising they had started to expand into the Mediterranean Sea. With the time that the Phoenicians were at the Mediterranean Sea they had become very hefty with their glasswork and had helped out the Egyptians as well. The Phoenicians hold one of the oldest cities in the world, just recently archeologist have found remains of farms and fishermans houses that date back to as far as 7000B. C. To the end of their being in the main groups of ivilizations, the interests of the Phoenicians had become art, religion and trade. If a civilization that is capable to give as much as it is capable to learn then it should have the right to be compared and even be part of the foundation cultures. Conrad Demarest Comparison of Empires assignment 5 Refer to the complete listing of characteristics in the C-D Model before completing this chart. Include specific examples, not generalities. Characteristics Neo-Assyrian Empire Persian Empire 1. Necessary preconditions for the rise of empires†the region must have: a) State- level government b) agricultural potential c) An environmental mosaic

Restaurant takeover report and evaluation Essay

Restaurant takeover report and evaluation - Essay Example The legal framework in which the event has to be conducted within requires a lot of detail because it has various implications on key issues in the event including a significant impact on the customers, guests and any other participants at the event (Monica and Sally, 2005). The regulations also outline the roles and responsibilities of employers to their staff. Non compliance with the require legislation attracts heavy penalties. The event planners therefore need to take legal issues very seriously and comply with each legal detail so as to avoid the penalties and ensure that the event runs smoothly. A lot of attention also has to be given to the health and safety issues of both the members of staff serving during the event as well as the customers who will be attending the event. The place has to be safe for the day, most especially if it is going to attract a lot of people (Beth, 2007). There has to be a first aid team ready at hand to take care of any emergencies at the event. Th e members of staff have to have a safe environment to work within for that day so as to ensure their work is perfect. Safety planning also involves outlining a security plan of action. This will help restore things when they get out of hand. Most takeover events attract a lot of people who may have different characteristics. ... Background information This particular restaurant takeover that I was involved in happened a few weeks ago at my college. It was organized at the college restaurant and I happened to be part of the team involved in the planning period for the event. This was going to be a major event as we were expecting a huge turnout from both within and outside the college. The event was scheduled to take place on a Wednesday night between 6:00 pm and 9:00 pm. This being in the middle of the week, most students would be in campus and would come in large numbers to witness the event happening during the night. As part of the takeover team charged with the responsibility of planning and supervising the event, I was involved in almost every aspect of the event, we worked so hard to ensure the event went according to our script and that there were no sideshows or any major incidences during the occasion. Profile of the takeover Team The takeover team was made up of three people, my two colleagues and I. Our team was charged with the responsibility of managing the whole event from its preparation stage, supervising the event as well as wrapping up everything after the event. This task requires highly dedicated and committed individuals. The three of us had the necessary skills and dedication that was needed to see the event to a successful completion. It was a great opportunity for us to put in to practice the knowledge we had acquired in class. Specific Roles and Activities Undertaken My team was engaged with negotiations with the staff and supervisors of the college restaurant during the planning stages to make sure everyone understood their role during the event. These negotiations also helped us to deal with emerging

Case Study Based Report - Performance Management Essay

Case Study Based Report - Performance Management - Essay Example Based on the drawbacks, a new system is developed. The impetus for the new system of performance management was driven by the arrival of a new CEO in the organisation. His mission is the creation of a culture which is completely based on performance and the creation of a proper career path for the operational staff. Answer to Question 1 Review of the organisation’s previous approach to performance management The previous performance management system for the senior operational staff was meant to evaluate the performance of the employees against the set standards of performance. This would consequently help in the development of action plans for addressing the gaps identified (David, 2009, p.288). Since they were senior operational staff in the organisation, their performance were indirectly accountable for the performance of the personnel working under their supervision. The first step in the system included identifying the personnel’s performance dimensions. ... He is responsible for completing his assignments on time through the performance of his subordinates. He is supposed to demonstrate budgetary controls, monitor the subordinates’ activities, initiate the effective and timely corrective actions and suggest budgetary recommendations (California State University, p.1). Certain pitfalls have been identified with regards to the performance management system for the senior operational staff in the organisation. Firstly, the system is not found to promote or enhance productivity in any way. Moreover, it is not a favourable system which drives commitment in the workforce or motivates employees towards continuous improvement of performance (Montebello, 2004, p.1). Firstly, there are divergent goals and objectives. In other words, the goals are not very defined and do not provide a proper guideline to the operational staff for proceeding in his work activities. Secondly, there are loopholes in the implementation plan of the system. The s ystem is not implemented aggressively. Moreover, the technology used for implementing the plan is not based on the latest technology which allows errors and loopholes in the system. There is lack of transparency in the system which eventually causes improper performance appraisal. Inefficiencies creep in and at times, there is biasness in the appraisal system. The performance appraisal forms are constructed poorly. This implies that the factors for rating are not well defined and allows ambiguity. The rating scale also contains certain problematic terms. Thus, it is difficult to evaluate whether the performance meets requirements, exceeds it or is at par. The problem that arises because of this is that the process lacks validity and value and is considered to be impractical. The forms

How accurate are selection methods. How is accuracy measured Essay - 1

How accurate are selection methods. How is accuracy measured - Essay Example There are five determinants of accurate recruitment and selection process. They are reliability, validity, legality, generalization and utility. Recruitment involves a pool of candidates being attracted for vacant jobs while selection involves choosing the right candidate from a pool of candidates. It might either be external where recruitment is done or internal, which requires promotion. Employee selection is part of the staffing process of an organization, which also include human resource planning, recruitment and retention activities. In conducting human resource planning, an organization project its likely demand for personnel who posses particular knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs). Job analysis compares the present level of staffing to anticipated availability of the required personnel in the internal or external labor markets. Organizations carry out the recruitment processes when there is staff turnover or organizational expansion. This enables the organization to fill vacancies as required. Vacancies that are created by natural wastages should be filled as soon as possible. Natural waste is the process that oc curs when employees leave their jobs in order to retire or move to other jobs and not because their employer has made to them leave. When the organization, expands, vacancies are created and needs to be filled by the right personnel who will perform their duties towards achievement of organizational goals. When the organization wants to change direction from its initial business or when partners running organization decides to pull away from one another, the new organization will require new employees who have right abilities and knowledge, especially if most employees remains in one organization leaving the new with a few. When the organization conducts succession planning, vacancies are created. Succession planning is a process whereby internal personnel are identified and developed to fill key or critical organizational

Factors Affecting Web Applications Maintenance

Factors Affecting Web Applications Maintenance Chapter 1 1.1 Introduction Software engineering [PRE01] is the process associated with industrial quality software development, the methods used to analyze, design test computer Software, the management techniques associated with the control monitoring of Software projects the tools used to support process, methods, techniques. In Software Development Life Cycle, the focus is on the activities like feasibility study, requirement analysis, design, coding, testing, maintenance. Feasibility study involves the issues like technical/economical/ behavioral feasibility of project. Requirement analysis [DAV93] emphasizes on identifying the needs of the system producing the Software Requirements Specification document (SRS), [JAL04] that describes all data, functional behavioral requirements, constraints, validation requirements for Software. Software Design is to plan a solution of the problem specified by the SRS document, a step in moving from the problem domain to the solution domain. The output of this phase is the design document. Coding is to translate the design of the system into code in a programming language. Testing is the process to detect defects minimize the risk associated with the residual defects. The activities carried out after the delivery of the software comprises the maintenance phase. 1.2 Evolution of Software Testing Discipline The effective functioning of modern systems depends on our ability to produce software in a cost-effective way. The term software engineering was first used at a 1968 NATO workshop in West Germany. It focused on the growing software crisis. Thus we see that the software crisis on quality, reliability, high costs etc. started way back when most of todays software testers were not even born. The attitude towards Software Testing [BEI90] underwent a major positive change in the recent years. In the 1950s when Machine languages were used, testing was nothing but debugging. When in the 1960s, compilers were developed, testing started to be considered a separate activity from debugging. In the 1970s when the software engineering concepts were introduced, software testing began to evolve as a technical discipline. Over the last two decades there has been an increased focus on better, faster and cost-effective software. Also there has been a growing interest in software safety, protection and security and hence an increased acceptance of testing as a technical discipline and also a career choice. Now to answer, What is Testing? we can go by the famous definition of Myers [MYE79], which says, Testing is the process of executing a program with the intent of finding errors. According to Humphrey, software testing is defined as, the execution of a program to find its faults. Testing is the process to prove that the software works correctly [PRA06]. Software testing is a crucial aspect of the software life cycle. In some form or the other it is present at each phase of (any) software development or maintenance model. The importance of software testing and its impact on software cannot be underestimated. Software testing is a fundamental component of software quality assurance and represents a review of specification, design and coding. The greater visibility of software systems and the cost associated with software failure are motivating factors for planning, through testing. It is not uncommon for a software organization to spend 40-50% of its effort on testing. During testing, the software engineering produces a series of test cases that are used to rip apart the software they have produced. Testing is the one step in the software process that can be seen by the developer as destructive instead of constructive. Software engineers are typically constructive people and testing requires them to overcome preconceived concepts of correctness and deal with conflicts when errors are identified. A successful test is one that finds a defect. This sounds simple enough, but there is much to consider when we want to do software testing. Besides finding faults, we may also be interested in testing performance, safety, fault-tolerance or security. Testing often becomes a question of economics. For projects of a large size, more testing will usually reveal more bugs. The question then becomes when to stop testing, and what is an acceptable level of bugs. This is the question of good enough software. Testing is the process of verifying that a product meets all requirements. A test is never complete. When testing software the goal should never be a product completely free from defects, because its impossible. According to Peter Nielsen, The average is 16 faults per 1000 lines of code when the programmer has tested his code and it is believed to be correct. When looking at a larger project, there are millions of lines of code, which makes it impossible to find all present faults. Far too often products are released on the market with poor quality. Errors are often uncovered by users, and in that stage the cost of removing errors is large in amount. 1.3 Objectives of Testing Glen Myers [MYE79] states a number of rules that can serve well as testing objectives: Testing is a process of executing a program with the intent of finding an error. A good test is one that has a high probability of finding an as yet undiscovered error. A successful test is one that uncovers an as yet undiscovered error. The objective is to design tests that systematically uncover different classes of errors do so with a minimum amount of time effort. Secondary benefits include Demonstrate that Software functions appear to be working according to specification. That performance requirements appear to have been met. Data collected during testing provides a good indication of Software reliability some indication of Software quality. Testing cannot show the absence of defects, it can only show that Software defects are present. 1.4 Software Testing Its Relation with Software Life Cycle Software testing should be thought of as an integral part of the Software process an activity that must be carried out throughout the life cycle. Each phase in the Software lifecycle has a clearly different end product such as the Software requirements specification (SRS) documentation, program unit design program unit code. Each end product can be checked for conformance with a previous phase against the original requirements. Thus, errors can be detected at each phase of development. Validation Verification should occur throughout the Software lifecycle. Verification is the process of evaluating each phase end product to ensure consistency with the end product of the previous phase. Validation is the process of testing Software, or a specification, to ensure that it matches user requirements. Software testing is that part of validation verification associated with evaluating analysing program code. It is one of the two most expensive stages within the Software lifecycle, the other being maintenance. Software testing of a product begins after the development of the program units continues until the product is obsolete. Testing fixing can be done at any stage in the life cycle. However, the cost of finding fixing errors increases dramatically as development progresses. Changing a Requirements document during the first review is inexpensive. It costs more when requirements change after the code has been written: the code must be rewritten. Bug fixes are much cheaper when programmers find their own errors. Fixing an error before releasing a program is much cheaper than sending new disks, or even a technician to each customers site to fix it later. It is illustrated in Figure 1.1. The types of testing required during several phases of Software lifecycle are described below: Requirements Requirements must be reviewed with the client; rapid prototyping can refine requirements accommodate changing requirements. Specification The specifications document must be checked for feasibility, traceability, completeness, absence of contradictions ambiguities. Specification reviews (walkthroughs or inspections) are especially effective. Design Design reviews are similar to specification reviews, but more technical. The design must be checked for logic faults, interface faults, lack of exception handling, non-conformance to specifications. Implementation Code modules are informally tested by the programmer while they are being implemented (desk checking). Thereafter, formal testing of modules is done methodically by a testing team. This formal testing can include non-execution-based methods (code inspections walkthroughs) execution-based methods (black-box testing, white-box testing). Integration Integration testing is performed to ensure that the modules combine together correctly to achieve a product that meets its specifications. Particular care must be given to the interfaces between modules. The appropriate order of combination must be determined as top-down, bottom-up, or a combination thereof. Product Testing The functionality of the product as a whole is checked against its specifications. Test cases are derived directly from the specifications document. The product is also tested for robustness (error-handling capabilities stress tests). All source code documentation are checked for completeness consistency. Acceptance Testing The Software is delivered to the client, who tests the Software on the actual h/w, using actual data instead of test data. A product cannot be considered to satisfy its specifications until it has passed an acceptance test. Commercial off-the-shelf (or shrink-wrapped) Software usually undergoes alpha beta testing as a form of acceptance test. Maintenance Modified versions of the original product must be tested to ensure that changes have been correctly implemented. Also, the product must be tested against previous test cases to ensure that no inadvertent changes have been introduced. This latter consideration is termed regression testing. Software Process Management The Software process management plan must undergo scrutiny. It is especially important that cost duration estimates be checked thoroughly. If left unchecked, errors can propagate through the development lifecycle amplify in number cost. The cost of detecting fixing an error is well documented is known to be more costly as the system develops. An error found during the operation phase is the most costly to fix. 1.5 Principles of Software Testing Software testing is an extremely creative intellectually challenging task. The following are some important principles [DAV95] that should be kept in mind while carrying Software testing [PRE01] [SUM02]: Testing should be based on user requirements: This is in order to uncover any defects that might cause the program or system to fail to meet the clients requirements. Testing time resources are limited: Avoid redundant tests. It is impossible to test everything: Exhaustive tests of all possible scenarios are impossible, because of the many different variables affecting the system the number of paths a program flow might take. Use effective resources to test: This represents use of the most suitable tools, procedures individuals to conduct the tests. Only those tools should be used by the test team that they are confident familiar with. Testing procedures should be clearly defined. Testing personnel may be a technical group of people independent of the developers. Test planning should be done early: This is because test planning can begin independently of coding as soon as the client requirements are set. Test for invalid unexpected input conditions as well as valid conditions: The program should generate correct messages when an invalid test is encountered should generate correct results when the test is valid. The probability of the existence of more errors in a module or group of modules is directly proportional to the number of errors already found. Testing should begin at the module: The focus of testing should be concentrated on the smallest programming units first then expand to other parts of the system. Testing must be done by an independent party: Testing should not be performed by the person or team that developed the Software since they tend to defend the correctness of the program. Assign best personnel to the task: Because testing requires high creativity responsibility only the best personnel must be assigned to design, implement, analyze test cases, test data test results. Testing should not be planned under the implicit assumption that no errors will be found. Testing is the process of executing Software with the intention of finding errors. Keep Software static during test: The program must not be modified during the implementation of the set of designed test cases. Document test cases test results. Provide expected test results if possible: A necessary part of test documentation is the specification of expected results, even though it is impractical. 1.6 Software Testability Its Characteristics Testability is the ability of Software (or program) with which it can easily be tested [PRE01] [SUM02]. The following are some key characteristics of testability: The better it works, the more efficient is testing process. What you see is what you test (WYSIWYT). The better it is controlled, the more we can automate or optimize the testing process. By controlling the scope of testing we can isolate problems perform smarter retesting. The less there is to test, the more quickly we can test it. The fewer the changes, the fewer the disruptions to testing. The more information we have, the smarter we will test. 1.7 Stages in Software Testing Process Except for small programs, systems should not be tested as a single unit. Large systems are built out of sub-systems, which are built out of modules that are composed of procedures functions. The testing process should therefore proceed in stages where testing is carried out incrementally in conjunction with system implementation. The most widely used testing process consists of five stages that are illustrated in Table 1.1. Errors in program components, say may come to light at a later stage of the testing process. The process is therefore an iterative one with information being fed back from later stages to earlier parts of the process. The iterative testing process is illustrated in Figure 1.2 and described below: Unit Testing: Unit testing is code-oriented testing. Individual components are tested to ensure that they operate correctly. Each component is tested independently, without other system components. Module Testing: A module is a collection of dependent components such as an object class, an abstract data type or some looser collection of procedures functions. A module encapsulates related components so it can be tested without other system modules. Sub-system (Integration) Testing: This phase involves testing collections of modules, which have been integrated into sub-systems. It is a design-oriented testing is also known as integration testing. Sub-systems may be independently designed implemented. The most common problems, which arise in large Software systems, are sub-systems interface mismatches. The sub-system test process should therefore concentrate on the detection of interface errors by rigorously exercising these interfaces. System Testing: The sub-systems are integrated to make up the entire system. The testing process is concerned with finding errors that result from unanticipated interactions between sub-systems system components. It is also concerned with validating that the system meets its functional non-functional requirements. Acceptance Testing: This is the final stage in the testing process before the system is accepted for operational use. The system is tested with data supplied by the system client rather than simulated test data. Acceptance testing may reveal errors omissions in the systems requirements definition (user-oriented) because real data exercises the system in different ways from the test data. Acceptance testing may also reveal requirement problems where the system facilities do not really meet the users needs (functional) or the system performance (non-functional) is unacceptable. 1.8 The V-model of Testing To test an entire software system, tests on different levels are performed. The V model [FEW99], shown in figure 1.3, illustrates the hierarchy of tests usually performed in software development projects. The left part of the V represents the documentation of an application, which are the Requirement specification, the Functional specification, System design, the Unit design. Code is written to fulfill the requirements in these specifications, as illustrated in the bottom of the V. The right part of the V represents the test activities that are performed during development to ensure that an application corresponding to its requirements. Unit tests are used to test that all functions and methods in a module are working as intended. When the modules have been tested, they are combined and integration tests are used to test that they work together as a group. The unit- and integration test complement the system test. System testing is done on a complete system to validate that it corresponds to the system specification. A system test includes checking if all functional and all non-functional requirements have been met. Unit, integration and system tests are developer focused, while acceptance tests are customer focused. Acceptance testing checks that the system contains the functionality requested by the customer, in the Requirement specification. Customers are usually responsible for the acceptance tests since they are the only persons qualified to make the judgment of approval. The purpose of the acceptance tests is that after they are preformed, the customer knows which parts of the Requirement specification the system satisfies. 1.9 The Testing Techniques To perform these types of testing, there are three widely used testing techniques. The above said testing types are performed based on the following testing techniques: Black-Box testing technique Black box testing (Figure 1.4) is concerned only with testing the specification. It cannot guarantee that the complete specification has been implemented. Thus black box testing is testing against the specification and will discover faultsofomission, indicating that part of the specification has not been fulfilled. It is used for testing based solely on analysis of requirements (specification, user documentation). In Black box testing, test cases are designed using only the functional specification of the software i.e without any knowledge of the internal structure of the software. For this reason, black-box testing is also known as functional testing. Black box tests are performed to assess how well a program meets its requirements, looking for missing or incorrect functionality. Functional testing typically exercise code with valid or nearly valid input for which the expected output is known. This includes concepts such as boundary values. Performance tests evaluate response time, memory usage, throughput, device utilization, and execution time. Stress tests push the system to or beyond its specified limits to evaluate its robustness and error handling capabilities. Reliability tests monitor system response to represent user input, counting failures over time to measure or certify reliability. Black box Testing refers to analyzing a running program by probing it with various inputs. This kind of testing requires only a running program and does not make use of source code testing of any kind. In the security paradigm, malicious input can be supplied to the program in an effort to cause it to break. If the program breaks during a particular test, then a security problem may have been discovered. Black box testing is possible even without access to binary code. That is, a program can be tested remotely over a network. All that is required is a program running somewhere that is accepting input. If the tester can supply input that the program consumes (and can observe the effect of the test), then black box testing is possible. This is one reason that real attackers often resort to black box techniques. Black box testing is not an alternative to white box techniques. It is a complementary approach that is likely to uncover a different type of errors that the white box approaches. Black box testing tries to find errors in the following categories: Incorrect or missing functions Interface errors Errors in data structures or external database access Performance errors, and Initialization and termination errors. By applying black box approaches we produce a set of test cases that fulfill requirements: Test cases that reduce the number of test cases to achieve reasonable testing Test cases that tell us something about the presence or absence of classes of errors. The methodologies used for black box testing have been discussed below: 1.9.1.1 Equivalent Partitioning Equivalence partitioning is a black box testing approach that splits the input domain of a program into classes of data from which test cases can be produced. An ideal test case uncovers a class of errors that may otherwise before the error is detected. Equivalence partitioning tries to outline a test case that identifies classes of errors. Test case design for equivalent partitioning is founded on an evaluation of equivalence classes for an input condition [BEI95]. An equivalence class depicts a set of valid or invalid states for the input condition. Equivalence classes can be defined based on the following [PRE01]: If an input condition specifies a range, one valid and two invalid equivalence classes are defined. If an input condition needs a specific value, one valid and two invalid equivalence classes are defined. If an input condition specifies a member of a set, one valid and one invalid equivalence class is defined. If an input condition is Boolean, one valid and invalid class is outlined. 1.9.1.2 Boundary Value Analysis A great many errors happen at the boundaries of the input domain and for this reason boundary value analysis was developed. Boundary value analysis is test case design approach that complements equivalence partitioning. BVA produces test cases from the output domain also [MYE79]. Guidelines for BVA are close to those for equivalence partitioning [PRE01]: If an input condition specifies a range bounded by values a and b, test cases should be produced with values a and b, just above and just below a and b, respectively. If an input condition specifies various values, test cases should be produced to exercise the minimum and maximum numbers. Apply guidelines above to output conditions. If internal program data structures have prescribed boundaries, produce test cases to exercise that data structure at its boundary. White-Box testing technique White box testing (Figure 1.5) is testing against the implementation as it is based on analysis of internal logic (design, code etc.) and will discover faultsofcommission, indicating that part of the implementation is faulty. Designing white-box test cases requires thorough knowledge of the internal structure of software, and therefore the white-box testing is also called the structural testing. White box testing is performed to reveal problems with the internal structure of a program. A common goal of white-box testing is to ensure a test case exercises every path through a program. A fundamental strength that all white box testing strategies share is that the entire software implementation is taken into account during testing, which facilitates error detection even when the software specification is vague or incomplete. The effectiveness or thoroughness of white-box testing is commonly expressed in terms of test or code coverage metrics, which measure the fraction of code exercised by test cases. White box Testing involves analyzing and understanding source code. Sometimes only binary code is available, but if you decompile a binary to get source code and then study the code, this can be considered a kind of white box testing as well. White box testing is typically very effective in finding programming errors and implementation errors in software. In some cases this activity amounts to pattern matching and can even be automated with a static analyzer. White box testing is a test case design approach that employs the control architecture of the procedural design to produce test cases. Using white box testing approaches, the software engineering can produce test cases that: Guarantee that all independent paths in a module have been exercised at least once Exercise all logical decisions Execute all loops at their boundaries and in their operational bounds Exercise internal data structures to maintain their validity. There are several methodologies used for white box testing. We discuss some important ones below. 1.9.2.1 Statement Coverage The statement coverage methodology aims to design test cases so as to force the executions of every statement in a program at least once. The principal idea governing the statement coverage methodology is that unless a statement is executed, we have way of determining if an error existed in that statement. In other words, the statement coverage criterion [RAP85] is based on the observation that an error existing in one part of a program cannot be discovered if the part of the program containing the error and generating the failure is not executed. However, executed a statement once and that too for just one input value and observing that it behaves properly for that input value is no guarantee that it will behave correctly for all inputs. 1.9.2.2 Branch Coverage In branch coverage testing, test cases are designed such that the different branch conditions are given true and false values in turn. It is obvious that branch testing guarantees statement coverage and thus is a stronger testing criterion than the statement coverage testing [RAP85]. 1.9.2.3 Path Coverage The path coverage based testing strategy requires designing test cases such that all linearly independents paths in the program are executed at least once. A linearly independent path is defined in terms of the control flow graph (CFG) of the program. 1.9.2.4 Loop testing Loops are very important constructs for generally all the algorithms. Loop testing is a white box testing technique. It focuses exclusively on the validity of loop constructs. Simple loop, concatenated loop, nested loop, and unstructured loop are four different types of loops [BEI90] as shown in figure 1.6. Simple Loop: The following set of tests should be applied to simple loop where n is the maximum number of allowable passes thru the loop: Skip the loop entirely. Only one pass thru the loop. Two passes thru the loop. M passes thru the loop where m N-1, n, n+1 passes thru the loop. Nested Loop: Beizer [BEI90] approach to the nested loop Start at the innermost loop. Set all other loops to minimum value. Conduct the simple loop test for the innermost loop while holding the outer loops at their minimum iteration parameter value. Work outward, conducting tests for next loop, but keeping all other outer loops at minimum values and other nested loops to typical values. Continue until all loops have been tested. Concatenated loops: These can be tested using the approach of simple loops if each loop is independent of other. However, if the loop counter of loop 1 is used as the initial value for loop 2 then approach of nested loop is to be used. Unstructured loop: This class of loops should be redesigned to reflect the use of the structured programming constructs. 1.9.2.5 McCabes Cyclomatic Complexity The McCabes Cyclomatic Complexity [MCC76] of a program defines the number of independent paths in a program. Given a control flow Graph G of a program, the McCabes Cyclomatic Complexity V(G) can be computed as: V(G)=E-N+2 Where E is the number of edges in the control flow graph and N is the number of nodes of the control flow graph. The cyclomatic complexity value of a program defines the number of independent paths in the basis set of the program and provides a lower bound for the number of test cases that must be conducted to ensure that all statements have been executed at least once. Knowing the number of test cases required does not make it easy to derive the test cases, it only gives an indication of the minimum number of test cases required. The following is the sequences of steps that need to be undertaken for deriving the path coverage based test case of a program. Draw the CFG. Calculate Cyclomatic Complexity V(G). Calculate the basis set of linearly independent paths. Prepare a test case that will force execution of each path in the basis set. 1.9.2.6 Data Flow based Testing The data flow testing method chooses test paths of a program based on the locations of definitions and uses of variables in the program. Various data flow testing approaches have been examined [FRA88] [NTA88] [FRA93]. For data flow testing each statement in program is allocated a unique statement number and that each function does not alter its parameters or global variables. For a statement with S as its statement number, DEF(S) = {X| statement S contains a definition of X} USE(S) = {X| statement S contains a use of X} If statement S is if or loop statement, its DEF set is left empty and its USE set is founded on the condition of statement S. The definition of a variable X at statement S is live at statement S, if there exists a path from statement S to S which does not contain any condition of X. A definition-use chain (or DU chain) of variable X is of the type [X,S,S] where S and S are statement numbers, X is in DEF(S), USE(S), and the definition of X in statement S is live at statement S. One basic data flow testing strategy is that each DU chain be covered at least once. Data flow testing strategies are helpful for choosing test paths of a program including nested if and loop statements 1.9.3 Grey-Box testing technique Grey box testing [BIN99] designs test cases using both responsibility-based (black box) and implementation-based (white box) approaches. To completely test a web application one needs to combine the two approaches, White-box and Black-box testing. It is used for testing of Web based applications. The Gray-box testing approach takes into account all components ma Factors Affecting Web Applications Maintenance Factors Affecting Web Applications Maintenance Chapter 1 1.1 Introduction Software engineering [PRE01] is the process associated with industrial quality software development, the methods used to analyze, design test computer Software, the management techniques associated with the control monitoring of Software projects the tools used to support process, methods, techniques. In Software Development Life Cycle, the focus is on the activities like feasibility study, requirement analysis, design, coding, testing, maintenance. Feasibility study involves the issues like technical/economical/ behavioral feasibility of project. Requirement analysis [DAV93] emphasizes on identifying the needs of the system producing the Software Requirements Specification document (SRS), [JAL04] that describes all data, functional behavioral requirements, constraints, validation requirements for Software. Software Design is to plan a solution of the problem specified by the SRS document, a step in moving from the problem domain to the solution domain. The output of this phase is the design document. Coding is to translate the design of the system into code in a programming language. Testing is the process to detect defects minimize the risk associated with the residual defects. The activities carried out after the delivery of the software comprises the maintenance phase. 1.2 Evolution of Software Testing Discipline The effective functioning of modern systems depends on our ability to produce software in a cost-effective way. The term software engineering was first used at a 1968 NATO workshop in West Germany. It focused on the growing software crisis. Thus we see that the software crisis on quality, reliability, high costs etc. started way back when most of todays software testers were not even born. The attitude towards Software Testing [BEI90] underwent a major positive change in the recent years. In the 1950s when Machine languages were used, testing was nothing but debugging. When in the 1960s, compilers were developed, testing started to be considered a separate activity from debugging. In the 1970s when the software engineering concepts were introduced, software testing began to evolve as a technical discipline. Over the last two decades there has been an increased focus on better, faster and cost-effective software. Also there has been a growing interest in software safety, protection and security and hence an increased acceptance of testing as a technical discipline and also a career choice. Now to answer, What is Testing? we can go by the famous definition of Myers [MYE79], which says, Testing is the process of executing a program with the intent of finding errors. According to Humphrey, software testing is defined as, the execution of a program to find its faults. Testing is the process to prove that the software works correctly [PRA06]. Software testing is a crucial aspect of the software life cycle. In some form or the other it is present at each phase of (any) software development or maintenance model. The importance of software testing and its impact on software cannot be underestimated. Software testing is a fundamental component of software quality assurance and represents a review of specification, design and coding. The greater visibility of software systems and the cost associated with software failure are motivating factors for planning, through testing. It is not uncommon for a software organization to spend 40-50% of its effort on testing. During testing, the software engineering produces a series of test cases that are used to rip apart the software they have produced. Testing is the one step in the software process that can be seen by the developer as destructive instead of constructive. Software engineers are typically constructive people and testing requires them to overcome preconceived concepts of correctness and deal with conflicts when errors are identified. A successful test is one that finds a defect. This sounds simple enough, but there is much to consider when we want to do software testing. Besides finding faults, we may also be interested in testing performance, safety, fault-tolerance or security. Testing often becomes a question of economics. For projects of a large size, more testing will usually reveal more bugs. The question then becomes when to stop testing, and what is an acceptable level of bugs. This is the question of good enough software. Testing is the process of verifying that a product meets all requirements. A test is never complete. When testing software the goal should never be a product completely free from defects, because its impossible. According to Peter Nielsen, The average is 16 faults per 1000 lines of code when the programmer has tested his code and it is believed to be correct. When looking at a larger project, there are millions of lines of code, which makes it impossible to find all present faults. Far too often products are released on the market with poor quality. Errors are often uncovered by users, and in that stage the cost of removing errors is large in amount. 1.3 Objectives of Testing Glen Myers [MYE79] states a number of rules that can serve well as testing objectives: Testing is a process of executing a program with the intent of finding an error. A good test is one that has a high probability of finding an as yet undiscovered error. A successful test is one that uncovers an as yet undiscovered error. The objective is to design tests that systematically uncover different classes of errors do so with a minimum amount of time effort. Secondary benefits include Demonstrate that Software functions appear to be working according to specification. That performance requirements appear to have been met. Data collected during testing provides a good indication of Software reliability some indication of Software quality. Testing cannot show the absence of defects, it can only show that Software defects are present. 1.4 Software Testing Its Relation with Software Life Cycle Software testing should be thought of as an integral part of the Software process an activity that must be carried out throughout the life cycle. Each phase in the Software lifecycle has a clearly different end product such as the Software requirements specification (SRS) documentation, program unit design program unit code. Each end product can be checked for conformance with a previous phase against the original requirements. Thus, errors can be detected at each phase of development. Validation Verification should occur throughout the Software lifecycle. Verification is the process of evaluating each phase end product to ensure consistency with the end product of the previous phase. Validation is the process of testing Software, or a specification, to ensure that it matches user requirements. Software testing is that part of validation verification associated with evaluating analysing program code. It is one of the two most expensive stages within the Software lifecycle, the other being maintenance. Software testing of a product begins after the development of the program units continues until the product is obsolete. Testing fixing can be done at any stage in the life cycle. However, the cost of finding fixing errors increases dramatically as development progresses. Changing a Requirements document during the first review is inexpensive. It costs more when requirements change after the code has been written: the code must be rewritten. Bug fixes are much cheaper when programmers find their own errors. Fixing an error before releasing a program is much cheaper than sending new disks, or even a technician to each customers site to fix it later. It is illustrated in Figure 1.1. The types of testing required during several phases of Software lifecycle are described below: Requirements Requirements must be reviewed with the client; rapid prototyping can refine requirements accommodate changing requirements. Specification The specifications document must be checked for feasibility, traceability, completeness, absence of contradictions ambiguities. Specification reviews (walkthroughs or inspections) are especially effective. Design Design reviews are similar to specification reviews, but more technical. The design must be checked for logic faults, interface faults, lack of exception handling, non-conformance to specifications. Implementation Code modules are informally tested by the programmer while they are being implemented (desk checking). Thereafter, formal testing of modules is done methodically by a testing team. This formal testing can include non-execution-based methods (code inspections walkthroughs) execution-based methods (black-box testing, white-box testing). Integration Integration testing is performed to ensure that the modules combine together correctly to achieve a product that meets its specifications. Particular care must be given to the interfaces between modules. The appropriate order of combination must be determined as top-down, bottom-up, or a combination thereof. Product Testing The functionality of the product as a whole is checked against its specifications. Test cases are derived directly from the specifications document. The product is also tested for robustness (error-handling capabilities stress tests). All source code documentation are checked for completeness consistency. Acceptance Testing The Software is delivered to the client, who tests the Software on the actual h/w, using actual data instead of test data. A product cannot be considered to satisfy its specifications until it has passed an acceptance test. Commercial off-the-shelf (or shrink-wrapped) Software usually undergoes alpha beta testing as a form of acceptance test. Maintenance Modified versions of the original product must be tested to ensure that changes have been correctly implemented. Also, the product must be tested against previous test cases to ensure that no inadvertent changes have been introduced. This latter consideration is termed regression testing. Software Process Management The Software process management plan must undergo scrutiny. It is especially important that cost duration estimates be checked thoroughly. If left unchecked, errors can propagate through the development lifecycle amplify in number cost. The cost of detecting fixing an error is well documented is known to be more costly as the system develops. An error found during the operation phase is the most costly to fix. 1.5 Principles of Software Testing Software testing is an extremely creative intellectually challenging task. The following are some important principles [DAV95] that should be kept in mind while carrying Software testing [PRE01] [SUM02]: Testing should be based on user requirements: This is in order to uncover any defects that might cause the program or system to fail to meet the clients requirements. Testing time resources are limited: Avoid redundant tests. It is impossible to test everything: Exhaustive tests of all possible scenarios are impossible, because of the many different variables affecting the system the number of paths a program flow might take. Use effective resources to test: This represents use of the most suitable tools, procedures individuals to conduct the tests. Only those tools should be used by the test team that they are confident familiar with. Testing procedures should be clearly defined. Testing personnel may be a technical group of people independent of the developers. Test planning should be done early: This is because test planning can begin independently of coding as soon as the client requirements are set. Test for invalid unexpected input conditions as well as valid conditions: The program should generate correct messages when an invalid test is encountered should generate correct results when the test is valid. The probability of the existence of more errors in a module or group of modules is directly proportional to the number of errors already found. Testing should begin at the module: The focus of testing should be concentrated on the smallest programming units first then expand to other parts of the system. Testing must be done by an independent party: Testing should not be performed by the person or team that developed the Software since they tend to defend the correctness of the program. Assign best personnel to the task: Because testing requires high creativity responsibility only the best personnel must be assigned to design, implement, analyze test cases, test data test results. Testing should not be planned under the implicit assumption that no errors will be found. Testing is the process of executing Software with the intention of finding errors. Keep Software static during test: The program must not be modified during the implementation of the set of designed test cases. Document test cases test results. Provide expected test results if possible: A necessary part of test documentation is the specification of expected results, even though it is impractical. 1.6 Software Testability Its Characteristics Testability is the ability of Software (or program) with which it can easily be tested [PRE01] [SUM02]. The following are some key characteristics of testability: The better it works, the more efficient is testing process. What you see is what you test (WYSIWYT). The better it is controlled, the more we can automate or optimize the testing process. By controlling the scope of testing we can isolate problems perform smarter retesting. The less there is to test, the more quickly we can test it. The fewer the changes, the fewer the disruptions to testing. The more information we have, the smarter we will test. 1.7 Stages in Software Testing Process Except for small programs, systems should not be tested as a single unit. Large systems are built out of sub-systems, which are built out of modules that are composed of procedures functions. The testing process should therefore proceed in stages where testing is carried out incrementally in conjunction with system implementation. The most widely used testing process consists of five stages that are illustrated in Table 1.1. Errors in program components, say may come to light at a later stage of the testing process. The process is therefore an iterative one with information being fed back from later stages to earlier parts of the process. The iterative testing process is illustrated in Figure 1.2 and described below: Unit Testing: Unit testing is code-oriented testing. Individual components are tested to ensure that they operate correctly. Each component is tested independently, without other system components. Module Testing: A module is a collection of dependent components such as an object class, an abstract data type or some looser collection of procedures functions. A module encapsulates related components so it can be tested without other system modules. Sub-system (Integration) Testing: This phase involves testing collections of modules, which have been integrated into sub-systems. It is a design-oriented testing is also known as integration testing. Sub-systems may be independently designed implemented. The most common problems, which arise in large Software systems, are sub-systems interface mismatches. The sub-system test process should therefore concentrate on the detection of interface errors by rigorously exercising these interfaces. System Testing: The sub-systems are integrated to make up the entire system. The testing process is concerned with finding errors that result from unanticipated interactions between sub-systems system components. It is also concerned with validating that the system meets its functional non-functional requirements. Acceptance Testing: This is the final stage in the testing process before the system is accepted for operational use. The system is tested with data supplied by the system client rather than simulated test data. Acceptance testing may reveal errors omissions in the systems requirements definition (user-oriented) because real data exercises the system in different ways from the test data. Acceptance testing may also reveal requirement problems where the system facilities do not really meet the users needs (functional) or the system performance (non-functional) is unacceptable. 1.8 The V-model of Testing To test an entire software system, tests on different levels are performed. The V model [FEW99], shown in figure 1.3, illustrates the hierarchy of tests usually performed in software development projects. The left part of the V represents the documentation of an application, which are the Requirement specification, the Functional specification, System design, the Unit design. Code is written to fulfill the requirements in these specifications, as illustrated in the bottom of the V. The right part of the V represents the test activities that are performed during development to ensure that an application corresponding to its requirements. Unit tests are used to test that all functions and methods in a module are working as intended. When the modules have been tested, they are combined and integration tests are used to test that they work together as a group. The unit- and integration test complement the system test. System testing is done on a complete system to validate that it corresponds to the system specification. A system test includes checking if all functional and all non-functional requirements have been met. Unit, integration and system tests are developer focused, while acceptance tests are customer focused. Acceptance testing checks that the system contains the functionality requested by the customer, in the Requirement specification. Customers are usually responsible for the acceptance tests since they are the only persons qualified to make the judgment of approval. The purpose of the acceptance tests is that after they are preformed, the customer knows which parts of the Requirement specification the system satisfies. 1.9 The Testing Techniques To perform these types of testing, there are three widely used testing techniques. The above said testing types are performed based on the following testing techniques: Black-Box testing technique Black box testing (Figure 1.4) is concerned only with testing the specification. It cannot guarantee that the complete specification has been implemented. Thus black box testing is testing against the specification and will discover faultsofomission, indicating that part of the specification has not been fulfilled. It is used for testing based solely on analysis of requirements (specification, user documentation). In Black box testing, test cases are designed using only the functional specification of the software i.e without any knowledge of the internal structure of the software. For this reason, black-box testing is also known as functional testing. Black box tests are performed to assess how well a program meets its requirements, looking for missing or incorrect functionality. Functional testing typically exercise code with valid or nearly valid input for which the expected output is known. This includes concepts such as boundary values. Performance tests evaluate response time, memory usage, throughput, device utilization, and execution time. Stress tests push the system to or beyond its specified limits to evaluate its robustness and error handling capabilities. Reliability tests monitor system response to represent user input, counting failures over time to measure or certify reliability. Black box Testing refers to analyzing a running program by probing it with various inputs. This kind of testing requires only a running program and does not make use of source code testing of any kind. In the security paradigm, malicious input can be supplied to the program in an effort to cause it to break. If the program breaks during a particular test, then a security problem may have been discovered. Black box testing is possible even without access to binary code. That is, a program can be tested remotely over a network. All that is required is a program running somewhere that is accepting input. If the tester can supply input that the program consumes (and can observe the effect of the test), then black box testing is possible. This is one reason that real attackers often resort to black box techniques. Black box testing is not an alternative to white box techniques. It is a complementary approach that is likely to uncover a different type of errors that the white box approaches. Black box testing tries to find errors in the following categories: Incorrect or missing functions Interface errors Errors in data structures or external database access Performance errors, and Initialization and termination errors. By applying black box approaches we produce a set of test cases that fulfill requirements: Test cases that reduce the number of test cases to achieve reasonable testing Test cases that tell us something about the presence or absence of classes of errors. The methodologies used for black box testing have been discussed below: 1.9.1.1 Equivalent Partitioning Equivalence partitioning is a black box testing approach that splits the input domain of a program into classes of data from which test cases can be produced. An ideal test case uncovers a class of errors that may otherwise before the error is detected. Equivalence partitioning tries to outline a test case that identifies classes of errors. Test case design for equivalent partitioning is founded on an evaluation of equivalence classes for an input condition [BEI95]. An equivalence class depicts a set of valid or invalid states for the input condition. Equivalence classes can be defined based on the following [PRE01]: If an input condition specifies a range, one valid and two invalid equivalence classes are defined. If an input condition needs a specific value, one valid and two invalid equivalence classes are defined. If an input condition specifies a member of a set, one valid and one invalid equivalence class is defined. If an input condition is Boolean, one valid and invalid class is outlined. 1.9.1.2 Boundary Value Analysis A great many errors happen at the boundaries of the input domain and for this reason boundary value analysis was developed. Boundary value analysis is test case design approach that complements equivalence partitioning. BVA produces test cases from the output domain also [MYE79]. Guidelines for BVA are close to those for equivalence partitioning [PRE01]: If an input condition specifies a range bounded by values a and b, test cases should be produced with values a and b, just above and just below a and b, respectively. If an input condition specifies various values, test cases should be produced to exercise the minimum and maximum numbers. Apply guidelines above to output conditions. If internal program data structures have prescribed boundaries, produce test cases to exercise that data structure at its boundary. White-Box testing technique White box testing (Figure 1.5) is testing against the implementation as it is based on analysis of internal logic (design, code etc.) and will discover faultsofcommission, indicating that part of the implementation is faulty. Designing white-box test cases requires thorough knowledge of the internal structure of software, and therefore the white-box testing is also called the structural testing. White box testing is performed to reveal problems with the internal structure of a program. A common goal of white-box testing is to ensure a test case exercises every path through a program. A fundamental strength that all white box testing strategies share is that the entire software implementation is taken into account during testing, which facilitates error detection even when the software specification is vague or incomplete. The effectiveness or thoroughness of white-box testing is commonly expressed in terms of test or code coverage metrics, which measure the fraction of code exercised by test cases. White box Testing involves analyzing and understanding source code. Sometimes only binary code is available, but if you decompile a binary to get source code and then study the code, this can be considered a kind of white box testing as well. White box testing is typically very effective in finding programming errors and implementation errors in software. In some cases this activity amounts to pattern matching and can even be automated with a static analyzer. White box testing is a test case design approach that employs the control architecture of the procedural design to produce test cases. Using white box testing approaches, the software engineering can produce test cases that: Guarantee that all independent paths in a module have been exercised at least once Exercise all logical decisions Execute all loops at their boundaries and in their operational bounds Exercise internal data structures to maintain their validity. There are several methodologies used for white box testing. We discuss some important ones below. 1.9.2.1 Statement Coverage The statement coverage methodology aims to design test cases so as to force the executions of every statement in a program at least once. The principal idea governing the statement coverage methodology is that unless a statement is executed, we have way of determining if an error existed in that statement. In other words, the statement coverage criterion [RAP85] is based on the observation that an error existing in one part of a program cannot be discovered if the part of the program containing the error and generating the failure is not executed. However, executed a statement once and that too for just one input value and observing that it behaves properly for that input value is no guarantee that it will behave correctly for all inputs. 1.9.2.2 Branch Coverage In branch coverage testing, test cases are designed such that the different branch conditions are given true and false values in turn. It is obvious that branch testing guarantees statement coverage and thus is a stronger testing criterion than the statement coverage testing [RAP85]. 1.9.2.3 Path Coverage The path coverage based testing strategy requires designing test cases such that all linearly independents paths in the program are executed at least once. A linearly independent path is defined in terms of the control flow graph (CFG) of the program. 1.9.2.4 Loop testing Loops are very important constructs for generally all the algorithms. Loop testing is a white box testing technique. It focuses exclusively on the validity of loop constructs. Simple loop, concatenated loop, nested loop, and unstructured loop are four different types of loops [BEI90] as shown in figure 1.6. Simple Loop: The following set of tests should be applied to simple loop where n is the maximum number of allowable passes thru the loop: Skip the loop entirely. Only one pass thru the loop. Two passes thru the loop. M passes thru the loop where m N-1, n, n+1 passes thru the loop. Nested Loop: Beizer [BEI90] approach to the nested loop Start at the innermost loop. Set all other loops to minimum value. Conduct the simple loop test for the innermost loop while holding the outer loops at their minimum iteration parameter value. Work outward, conducting tests for next loop, but keeping all other outer loops at minimum values and other nested loops to typical values. Continue until all loops have been tested. Concatenated loops: These can be tested using the approach of simple loops if each loop is independent of other. However, if the loop counter of loop 1 is used as the initial value for loop 2 then approach of nested loop is to be used. Unstructured loop: This class of loops should be redesigned to reflect the use of the structured programming constructs. 1.9.2.5 McCabes Cyclomatic Complexity The McCabes Cyclomatic Complexity [MCC76] of a program defines the number of independent paths in a program. Given a control flow Graph G of a program, the McCabes Cyclomatic Complexity V(G) can be computed as: V(G)=E-N+2 Where E is the number of edges in the control flow graph and N is the number of nodes of the control flow graph. The cyclomatic complexity value of a program defines the number of independent paths in the basis set of the program and provides a lower bound for the number of test cases that must be conducted to ensure that all statements have been executed at least once. Knowing the number of test cases required does not make it easy to derive the test cases, it only gives an indication of the minimum number of test cases required. The following is the sequences of steps that need to be undertaken for deriving the path coverage based test case of a program. Draw the CFG. Calculate Cyclomatic Complexity V(G). Calculate the basis set of linearly independent paths. Prepare a test case that will force execution of each path in the basis set. 1.9.2.6 Data Flow based Testing The data flow testing method chooses test paths of a program based on the locations of definitions and uses of variables in the program. Various data flow testing approaches have been examined [FRA88] [NTA88] [FRA93]. For data flow testing each statement in program is allocated a unique statement number and that each function does not alter its parameters or global variables. For a statement with S as its statement number, DEF(S) = {X| statement S contains a definition of X} USE(S) = {X| statement S contains a use of X} If statement S is if or loop statement, its DEF set is left empty and its USE set is founded on the condition of statement S. The definition of a variable X at statement S is live at statement S, if there exists a path from statement S to S which does not contain any condition of X. A definition-use chain (or DU chain) of variable X is of the type [X,S,S] where S and S are statement numbers, X is in DEF(S), USE(S), and the definition of X in statement S is live at statement S. One basic data flow testing strategy is that each DU chain be covered at least once. Data flow testing strategies are helpful for choosing test paths of a program including nested if and loop statements 1.9.3 Grey-Box testing technique Grey box testing [BIN99] designs test cases using both responsibility-based (black box) and implementation-based (white box) approaches. To completely test a web application one needs to combine the two approaches, White-box and Black-box testing. It is used for testing of Web based applications. The Gray-box testing approach takes into account all components ma