Design

1. 0 Introduction During the 19th century, Malaya had been colonised by the British and many Chinese and Indian had migrates to Malaya. As a city, Kuala Lumpur had become the most crowded and fast development place. Many colonial and migrations stay at Kuala Lumpur. Through colonisation and migration, both knowledge and methods of house construction had been adapted to the Malaya architecture during that time. Therefore there are many heritage buildings especially the Chinese shop houses had been influence by the foreign design.

In this essay, I had make a field trip to Petaling Street to collect photographs of shophouses. Through the characteristic of the design of the shophouses I need to identify the Malaysia and foreign design influences of the traditional shop houses in Petaling Street. Description and contrast had been made of the influences of the shop houses by comparing the buildings which the structures had been influence by. 2. 0 Background 2. 1 British Colonisation In Malaysia During 19-20 Century Figure 1: Tin mine Tim mining, a popular activity amongst there and they increases many Chinese workers to migrates to Malaya (figure 1).

Chinese migrates brought their tradition dwelling design where the two storey Chinese shop houses becomes common. “During British colonise Malaya, many public and private building had been built by the British which contain the mixture of architecture styles such as Renaissance, Palladia, Neoclassical and revived Gothic because Kuala Lumpur has become the Federal Capital and Headquarters of the Resident General. ” (Mohammad Iza,(2010),p. 45. ) 2. 2 Shophouses Before 1880’s Chinese shophouses was a very simple construction of one storey houses which only use wooden parts supporting on attap roof which is open to the street.

While the rear section of the shophouses was usually built on piles over a river to facilitate the delivery of goods. Most of the construction is use the locally available materials combine with Chinese architecture influence. Therefore curved gable are glazed ornamental tiles are some of the Chinese shop houses characteristic. Moreover the stucco decorations is the intention of which was to emphasis the character and background of the owner. The early shophouses are build in rows with uniforms facades and a continuous, covered five-foot way in front (figure 2).

There are also jack roof on the shop houses which rise above the main roof to allowed accumulated hot air in the house to escape (figure 3). Besides that, there is also low rickety, shuttered window on the front of the first floor. Figure 2: Five-foot way Figure 3: Jack roof “Before World War II, the commercial centre of every Malaysian town was featured by one or more streets lined with usually two storeys high shophouses, where trading were occurred at the lower floor and the upper floors as residential accommodation area. ” (Anon,(2008),p. 44. However, the position of the shop and residential space might be different depending on the number of floors of a shophouse. For an example, a single story shophouse tends to include residential area behind the shop; while for the shophouses of two or more storeys have residential space typically located above the shop. Early masonry shophouses were often built around 6-7 metres wide and 30 metres deep occasionally extended to 60 metres according to its location. They were often built in rows with uniform facades and a covered five-foot way in front of the shophouse. The five-foot way was first imposed by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, a British colonial administration that founded the city of Singapore in 1822. ”(online,www. wikipedia. com). It is an old practice specifying that all shophouses should include a minimum five-foot-wide veranda on the ground floor. This building tradition addressed the extremes of the tropical sun and rain, and created pedestrian linkages at ground level. These shaded areas were conducive to the shopkeepers by providing an extra space area to displaying their products (figure 4) .

Apart from that, the typical Chinese shophouse was built in rows with a common wall between each unit. The walls that separate the shophouses are generally constructed by local manufactured baked clay. They are structural, load bearing walls to transfer the weight of the roof and upper floors down to the ground. Besides, the front of the shophouse on the ground floor has no walls, enabling goods to be displayed along the full width (figure 5) . Since the shophouse has no front walls, the front will be boarded up with fitted timber panels and secured with horizontal bars to lock up the shop.

In addition, to ventilate the shophouse, a central courtyard can be found inside, which was later reduced to an airwell when space became more precious (figure 6). It was built to cool the building before the air-conditioning was invented. Courtyards were typically for residence all over China especially in the less densely populated areas of the north where they were located at the central of the layout, which often surrounded by high walls. Besides, a lane was also allocated at the back of the shophouse as a sanitary lane.

It is a space found in between two rows of shophouses that faced back to back. This lane allows bullock carts to collect night soil as well as for safety purpose, for example, allow access for a fire truck when required. Figure 4: Displaying their products at the five-foot way Figure 5: Ground floor of the shophouses has no front walls Figure 6: Airwell found in one of the shophouse 2. 3 Foreign architecture and design influence There are five types of shophouses, Traditional, Neoclassical, Dutch Patrician, Art Deco and Modern.

There are three principal varieties of shop houses during 1930’s to 1940’s which are Utilitarian design is made by simple wooden shutters and a minimum of decorations. While the Neoclassical design had elaborate the Greek and Roman columns and arnately decorate the Greek and Roman columns and arnately decorated window frames, pediments, paraprets and cornices. However Art Deco is the simplest design which only use simplified lines and geometrical patterns to decorate. The Noeclassical style can by recognised by a Grecian pediment (figure 7) , columns (figure 8) and moulded plasters swags decorated the facade.

Besides, some of the Neoclassical style include a parapet and the top of the building and ornate window frames. Different from the Neoclassical, Dutch Patrician design as a Dutch-inspired gable was adopted for the front facade of the shop houses. Figure 7: Neoclassical pediment Figure 8: Original style Neoclassical column Art Deco was started during 1930’s. The design only contain geometrical shapes and simplified lines were departure from the 1920’s style. The ground floor and windows are not original.

This is because it is from traditional vernacular and Western Neoclassical styles to Early Modernism and International style. Art Deco style had marked the transition from traditional vernacular and Western Neoclassical styles to Early Modernism and International style. 3. 0 Analysis 3. 1 Compare and contrast between Kuala Lumpur’s Chinatown shophouses to the original foreign Neoclassical styles Figure 3. 1. 1: High ceiling found in Petaling Street shophouses(left) and St. George Hall, London(right). One of the special feature in Neoclassical architecture is high ceiling. High ceilings (Figure 3. . 1), tend to help to ventilate the air in the building through convection process, where the hot air rises and cool air sinks, as a result, the house will be cooling. The shophouses these days have a standard height of 8 metres, where space had become more precious besides saving cost. Figure 3. 1. 2: Petaling Street shophouses(left) and Rue De Rivoli, Paris(right) painted in white or pastel colours. Apart from the high ceiling, Neoclassical buildings are often painted in white or pastel colours (Figure 3. 1. 2). White and pastel colours are bright and attracts people’s attention.

Furthermore, these colours are poor conductor of heat, they helps to reflect more of the visible light spectrum, causing the particular building to be as cooling as posible. This may be the reason why the buildings in Neoclassical period painted in this series of colour. Figure 3. 1. 3: Petaling Street shophouses(left) and Arc De Thriump, Paris(right) with parapet on the top. Parapet (Figure 3. 1. 3) is a wall-like structure at the edge of a roof, which served as a fire wall, that prevents the flames from coming up to the exterior of the building, igniting the roofing membrane.

In addition, it also modifieds the wind flow over the roof so that the pressure exerted is distributed evenly to prevent it from collapsing. Figure 3. 1. 4: Petaling Street shophouses(left) and Madeleine Church, Paris(right) with pediment. A pediment is a classical architectural element which consist of the triangular section found on top of a building, supported by the columns. It is founded in the classical Greek temples, Renaissance, and Neoclassical architecture. The pediment of Madeleine Church, Paris is filled with relief sculptures while the one found in Petaling Street shophouses are filled with floral sculptures (Figure 3. . 4). Figure 3. 1. 5: Petaling Street shophouses(left) and New York City Hall(right) columns. A column is an upright pillar which supports a beam or a roof, sometimes it might just simple for decoration purposes. There are 3 types of columns which is doric (oldest and simplest of classical orders), ionic (more complex than doric, with a scroll on top) and corinthian (with most ornate). Ionic order is found in the Petaling Street shophouses, while New York City Hall contained the doric order (Figure 3. 1. 5). Figure 3. 1. 6: Petaling Street shophouses(left) and New York City Hall(right) are symmetrical.

Symmetry and balance are the most pedominat characteristic of Neoclassical buildings. This feature is recognizable easily as the left and the right portion of the building is the same to maintain the balance of the building so that it does not fall (Figure 3. 1. 6). 3. 2 Compare and contrast between Kuala Lumpur’s Chinatown shophouses to the original foreign Art Deco styles Figure 3. 2. 1: Petaling Street shophouses(left) and Caisse Nationale d’Economie, Monteal (right) with flag pole. Concrete flagpoles are one of the common feature of Art Deco buildings (Figure 3. 2. 1).

The flagpoles are stretched from the top of the building with bands or motif sculptured at the base of the poles as if it is attached to the wall of facade. Figure 3. 2. 2: Petaling Street shophouses column(left) and Patel’s Building, Durban’s column(right). On the other hand, Petaling Street shophouses and Patel’s Building (Figure 3. 2. 2) both have geometrical shapes running down the column, which is also a common feature of Art Deco architecture. Nonetheless, Petaling Street’s column has a mixture of both Art Deco and Neoclassical styles as on top of it’s column, since there’s some swirls on it which belonged to Ionic order.

Figure 3. 2. 3: Petaling Street shophouses(left) and Caisse Nationale d’Economie, Monteal’s (right) mouldings. Furthermore, plaster moulding is another characteristic of Art Deco architecture. Shanghai plaster is commonly used as it provides the same visual effect as stone and it’s a cheaper building material. This finished plaster was usually left in it’s original colour, sometimes painted in the pastel colour of the era. The fine vertical lines plaster moulding at Petaling Street shophouses and Caisse Nationale d’Economie, Monteal are easily recognizable (Figure 3. 2. 3). Figure 3. 2. : Petaling Street shophouses(left) and Thorp Coffee House(right) stated the year it was built. To the contrary, Art Deco buildings usually state the year that it was built on the top of the building. For example, the particular Shophouse in Petaling Street was built in the year 1910, therefore, the figure 1910 is placed on the top of the building as well as for Thorp Coffee House (Figure 3. 2. 4). Figure 3. 2. 5: Petaling Street shophouses(left) and Louis Hay’s Office(right) with air vents. Lastly, Art Deco buildings have horizontal air vents usually located above the windows (Figure 3. 2. 5).

The air vent is placed above the window to cool down the interior of the building as hot air are less dense and rises up, thus, escaping through the air vents. 4. 0 Conclusion Through compare and contrast of the different style of the shop houses, we able find out that the different style of the shop houses was influence by different background. From the 18th century until now we can see that the style of the Chinese shop houses change according to the place the shop houses was built. Beside that, the structure of the shop houses also depends to the need of the owner and the period of time those shop houses was built.

What factors suggest that Microsoft’s PSS Division needs a more comprehensive and flexible approach for its service offerings? Admittedly, Microsoft’s support services were not as good as those offered by some competitors. Several factors contributed to the nondescript nature of Microsoft services. Previous support service policy had been determined at the product level. Annually, each product manager negotiated with PSS over the type, extent, and pricing of services to be offered to customers along with their products.

Because Microsoft had 150 products, the result was a hodgepodge of service offerings. Some products had no support services, some offered unlimited “free” service that was accessed by phone via a “toll” number, and still others provided extensive telephone service “for fee”. For customers, particularly those that owned and used several Microsoft products, the service offerings were confusing because it was difficult to know which service came with which product. Moreover, expert users felt that they were paying for services they didn’t need on basic applications.

At the same time, they could not get sophisticated support services on some of Microsoft’s newly introduced line of highly technical advanced systems, even if they were willing to pay extra. Based upon the guidelines that senior management has provided to Trish May, what product support strategy has Microsoft envisioned? Before the PSS task force started its work in December 1992, Patty Stonesifer, Trish May, and key team members, along with the input of Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, and Mike Maples, devised a set of goals that were to guide efforts and serve as the basis for all technical support programs.

These included: Microsoft technical support services should reinforce and enhance the high quality of Microsoft products. Bill Gates insisted on this goal. He maintained that Microsoft needed to deliver a comprehensive offering to the marketplace that was comprised of both high quality products and support services. Gates was willing to invest significant resources into technical support services to improve their overall quality and customer perceptions of them. Choice, Quality, and Simplicity should characterize all technical support programs.

Based upon several market research studies and experience, the task force concluded that customer satisfaction would be sustained by delivering technical support that met customer needs in three ways. First, support programs should offer customers a choice. Those who “did not want to pay for support they didn’t need” should be able to buy software alone, at a price that did not include service costs. At the same time, customers that “wanted more support and were willing to pay extra for it” could also do so.

Second, all technical support provided by Microsoft should meet or exceed industry standards for quality. Third, all technical support programs should be marked by simplicity; that is, customers should have little difficulty understanding Microsoft’s offering and how it applied specifically to their needs. Technical support services should be a “cost center” for the Microsoft Corporation. On this point, there was uniform agreement in the company. As managers saw it, Microsoft’s “core competence” was its technology.

Though important, technical support services were not seen as a potential source of corporate profits. Instead, Microsoft was prepared to invest in them in the short run, with the eventual goal of breaking even. The Microsoft Corporation should be the technical service provider of “last resort”. Microsoft managers took progressive steps to leverage the work of PSS engineers. First, the development group engaged in continuous efforts to make all software as “user-friendly” as possible. Resulting reductions in user problems would lower demand for service.

Second, managers initiated special efforts to give customers tools and information, so that they could resolve as many problems themselves as possible. Third, the firm would inform customers about and encourage them to use third party service providers (e. g. , VARs, dealers, ISVs) in their communities and industries. Finally, if the first three methods proved ineffective, then managers would actively directed customers to PSS personnel. How should the Microsoft Support Network 1. 0 matrix be structured in terms of rows and columns?

Early on in their analyses, the task force hit upon the idea of using a matrix to summarize the various service offerings. Members referred to it as the Microsoft Support Network 1. 0. The rows of the matrix would consist of major service groupings, while the columns would capture the differences in those services across product or customer segment categories. In turn, each element in the matrix would describe a specific service offering and include a fee structure. To avoid customer confusion, the group concluded that 4 rows and 4 columns should be the largest size of the matrix; however, no research had been done to confirm this.

Although the concept of a service-offering matrix received enthusiastic and universal approval among Microsoft managers, there was widespread disagreement over the make-up of the rows, columns, and elements. Trish noted that the matrix could be constructed in several ways. Each had distinct advantages.  What implementation problems should PSS managers anticipate? How can PSS managers successfully overcome them? Main problem – to offer some free services for its software and if yes which ones.

Such services should be implemented and delivered to customers, some for free and some for a little fee. Also there exist many different competitors who offer rivalry products for the better terms. For example Adobe gives its customers some cards on which they get bonus points and then have the opportunity to exchange them for the service delivered. Company also has a problem with communication and making its customer to understand what they are selling. There are cases when customers did not clearly understand what they are paying for or what problems will this software solve for them.

Management first of all should allocate priorities, based on the overall corporate goal of the company. As far as I can see from the case company management clearly understands that they need something to change, they know that this something is the new support system more frequently working one. Also hey know that this would need investment and are ready to pay for it, because the most important they understand that without that system harmonic development of the company would be almost impossible. So as I think Microsoft first should listen to heir customers understand their needs clearly and deliver the value that way, cause without clear understanding what your customer wants good, workable strategy will be impossible to implement. And the last one Microsoft should understand that they do not need complicated software with many gadgets and etc. neither they are the experts (all of them) in the field of IT, so the one thing they want in easier solving of problem. If Microsoft will manage to this by better communication, more user friendly programs etc. it does not matter for the customer. Customer need problem solving not the exact product.

The Study Recently in the work space, there seems to be a shift from this traditional cubicle style to a more open environment for the employees. This shift has me questioning why are innovative companies shifting towards this more open environment? It seems that these companies are looking not only for a change in scenery, but a change in the how there employees utilize the environment.

During this study, I will use a variety of sources in order to understand a comma NYSE work space environment and other information pertaining the architectural design of a company. The questions especially want to explore are: How does the open workspace effect the collaboration between employees? How does this work space attempt to foster an environment for creativity and innovation? Informational Sources The sources have used ranged from a variety of places.

The information I collected from Kidders Studio and Kramer Design Group was a large group interview which was required for a summer class where we studied cultures of creativity in Detroit, Michigan. These two interviews took place on August 24, 2013. The large group interview also included a tour of both companies to actually see the working environment firsthand. Field notes were also taken to help record detailed descriptions of the environment at both companies. Another source used for this research included an online magazine called 991. . This magazine publishes research in a condensed and easy to understand format for the general public. It described research on how to build a collaborative work space. I read this to help better my understanding of what a collaborative work space might look like and what re some key components for a creative work space. Also watched a video created by Wall Street Journal on Google’s New York work space because, have never been there. This video allowed me to visually see the environment where Google employees work.

Another source utilized was a prCICS completed from an article called Building Research and Information. It included research done in this area which helped me orient myself with prior research already completed on this topic. Previous Research Completed on Work Space Environment One research prCICS I looked at included the importance of collaboration in the work space. They looked at three behaviors that contribute to effective collaboration: “awareness, brief interaction, and collaboration (working together)” (Hearing, Compromisers, Powell, and Loftiness, par. 2).

This term awareness means to understand what is going on in the environment around you. You are able to process this through “spatial features that promote awareness” and organizational factors that allow you to see other employees (Hearing, Compromisers, Powell, and Loftiness, pars. 4-5). They noted Some benefits to this ‘high awareness’ Were rapid information sharing and ability to recognize when other employees were struggling Hearing, Compromisers, Powell, and Loftiness, par. 6). However there are some concerns for ‘high awareness’ in a collaborative environment also.

It can be distracting, noisy from employees talking, and create a loss of privacy for the workers (Hearing, Compromisers, Powell, and Loftiness, par. 7). Another term discussed was ‘brief interactions’ which means unplanned and short discussions you have with other employees. This results in “spatial features that promote interaction” and organizational factors that allow you to run into other employees (Hearing, Compromisers, Powell, and Loftiness, pars. 9-10). Some benefits include improved information flow, increased learning, and increased development Of friendships (Hearing, Compromisers, Powell, and Loftiness, par. 1). There are, however, some drawbacks which include a high potential for stress, an increase in distractions, and the potential for over communicating with employees (Hearing, Compromisers, Powell, and Loftiness, par. 12). The other term discussed in the prCICS was collaboration. Collaboration in the work space can result in organizational factors that allow employees to work in project rooms (Hangmen, Compromisers, Powell, and Loftiness, ears. 18-19). Some benefits from these project rooms are quicker answers, access to other team members, and better project tracking (Hearing, Compromisers, Powell, and Loftiness, par. 0). Despite these benefits, there are some concerns including the possibility for information overload, a shorter amount of time on certain tasks, and less privacy for employees (Hearing, Compromisers, Powell, and Loftiness, par. 21). Evaluating Google and Two Outside Innovative Companies Google is the company which typifies an open work space concept. However, I needed to use Kidders Studio and Kramer Design Group in Detroit, Michigan because they were local and accessible. Both of these companies were much smaller than Google.

However, there are innovative and utilize the open work space concept. Google is known for their web search engine and try to make information easily accessible to the users. The Google New York campus occupies an entire floor and parts of other floors in a building covering an entire “city block in Manhattans Chelsea neighborhood” (Alter, par. 7). This campus has grown from around 2,000 employees to nearly 3,000 and hiring in the areas of media and advertising (Jordan). Due to the arrival of additional employees, the newly hired have had to move from floor to floor (Jordan).

In this campus as opposed to Silicon Valley, it is less tech focused and gives the employees a more natural working environment (Jordan). Google’s competitive and innovative nature attracts many young employees to their company. Despite Google’s great benefits, there is still a high turnover rate, which means they have a limited amount of time with their employees. Kidders Studio is an innovative company which is a part Of the creative community in Detroit, Michigan. Since 1 959, Kidders Studio has earned a beatable name for solving problems with designs.

They started off solving problems by designing logos for the automotive companies in Detroit. In 201 1, Kidders moved to their new location on Broadway Street near the Detroit Tigers Stadium. Their diverse team of 25 office employees design logos and websites for advertisements, but their goal is to create the extraordinary (Patrick). They started with 16 employees and are looking to expand to 35 employees. Some of their biggest clients are Dave and Buster’s, Detroit Tigers, and Andiron Restaurant. At Kramer Design Group in Detroit, they specialize in designing the interiors of buildings.

There are about 18 to 28 people that work at the office, because there are only 28 desks available. When they work with their clients, they focus on creating a particular environment in order to invoke a certain feeling (Kramer). They strive for listening to the client. However, sometimes the client does not know what they want until you show it to them. This company provides swatches of materials to help visualize the production or prototype built. They are known for creating traditional architecture, hotels, and presidential lofts. They have completed such projects in Detroit like the

Madison Building, Broodier Towers, and Whitney Building (Kramer). Kramer Design Group is starting to pick up some business throughout the state. Kramer Design Group and Kidders Studio Work Space Company ices are redesigning offices in order to get a more spacious working environment for their employees. This open work space is intended to foster creativity and innovation. Designing a place to enhance creativity takes a lot of work not only on the companies half, but on the architects half as well. It is important the architect works in collaboration with their client to create a specific environment.

In this case, the architect needs to create an environment that is not only functional to the employees, but pleasing to the customer. Open office spaces seem to fuel this creativity through the collaboration of diverse groups of people, the flexibility of the work space, and the atmosphere of the room with numerous examples from Detroit, Machine’s Kidders Studio and Kramer Design Group. A key component to this creativity and innovation is allowing the mixture of diverse groups of people to work together in an open area.

To define diverse, this word is meant to describe how individuals with various job titles and functions can ark cohesively together. Providing people an open environment encourages informal connections to be made and ideas to be bounced off one another (Patrick). For example, at Kidders Studio, their work place fosters an environment where colleagues can collaborate with each other (Patrick). The studio is set up with no doors on any of the offices, even the Coo’s office. Over the years, the company has developed this process to be successful.

During their meetings, they encourage administrative workers, designers, marketers, and writers to brainstorm ideas for projects (Patrick). These brainstorming sessions involve everyone in the company to work on a project where titles mean nothing (Patrick). Sometimes, disagreement can be a bad thing. But it has become a useful tool because, it encourages ideas to be explored and defended by the creator (Patrick). The end result is a better thought out solution which provides the customer with an outstanding product.

Creating flexibility in the work space seems to be another crucial element which allows this creativity and innovation to flourish. Kramer Design Group utilizes the portability and disability of the room to create an environment where creativity is maximized. The portable chairs in the lunch space allow the user to rearrange the space. The emphasis on designing a flexible work space allows people to freely converse amongst one another (Kramer). It also gives the workers an environment which allows easy access to coworkers (Kramer).

Some of the offices have glass walls to give the illusion of a more open space (Kramer). One thing that stands out is there are few private offices. Private offices close workers off from the company and do not allow for ideas to be exchanged while the open spaces help stimulate creativity. In an open space, the atmosphere plays an important role in the minimization of creativity and innovation. Kramer Design Group’s office is designed with a level of sophistication and professionalism to illustrate their knowledge in the design field (Kramer).

The minute you step into the office, it is meant to create a feeling bigger than meets the eye. There is wall to wall glass to give an expansive feeling to the area and it makes the ceiling appear taller (Kramer). In the hallway, there are columns spaced equal distances apart and a white strip on the carpet to give the illusion of a never ending hall (Kramer). Even the lighting plays into the comfortable ambiance of the room with their modern looking lights which use some incandescent lighting. Their office provides a creative, yet comfortable environment.

It allows their employees to think freely in the office with the respect of their fellow colleagues. Google’s Innovative Design Google’s New York campus has a similar goal in their office design like Kidders Studio and Kramer Design Group. “All of the design is meant to encourage interaction between structurally separate teams” (Jordan). By implementing this open work space, it influences the way groups of Google’s collaborate. Google’s intention by using an open work space is to create an environment specifically for the interaction between the workers.

A fun design plan Google’s architects implemented is the vertical ladder chutes between floors, because the elevators are never known to be on time. This vertical ladder chute promotes unplanned collaborations (Alter, par. 7). Another touch Google added was giving the employees a bag to place their laptop in while climbing up the ladder (Jordan). This bag helped Google’s minimize the chance of dropping their laptops. When workers causally intermingle, it encourages informal connections to be made among colleagues. Senior software engineer, Mike Labels moved from Google’s Silicon Valley to Google’s New York campus.

At Google’s Silicon Valley, their offices are created as an individual place with their own unique perks and specific design, which help the worker relate to their environment Road). Since Labels has transferred to Google’s New York office, he feels that coming to work here you will not mistake you are in some room at an ordinary building; you will know you are at Google in New York (Jordan). It seems Google’s New York office has created their own city within their building. Even some of their conference rooms are designed as a New York apartment to create a close environment for colleagues to collaborate within.

Directly outside these conference rooms, it is setup like city with a fire hydrant, subway grates on the floor, and a narrow hallway with a cityscape on the wall (Jordan). This use of schematics throughout areas of their building makes it seem like the real New York City outside of the building. Collaboration is a good thing, but too much can also be a bad thing sometimes. There are many places to get away from the hustle and bustle of the office area. These areas include a reflecting room, a library, a private hone booth, and more. The library is dotted with Victorian photos from Star Wars hanging on the walls (Jordan).

There are also secret door bookcases leading to refection or reading rooms (Jordan). Throughout the library are many books to help employees on coding, programming and working with different types of computers (Jordan). One of the coolest features is the virtual wall of books where employees can download books to their phones (Jordan). Theses rooms are meant to give the workers a place to escape to when they get stressed at work. Google jobs can cause high stress because Of all the work demands. They can stop by the library and pick out a book or even download one from the virtual wall.

By creating this comfortable environment, it gives the employees a place to relieve their stress. Regional facilities manager, Laura Gimped mentioned with groups growing in Google how proprieties and juxtaposition effect the workers interactions (loran). Laura understands generally information and ideas are shared with co-workers who are nearby. This is part of the reason that Google has positioned their offices no more than 150 feet away from food to enhance informal interactions between its employees. So at any office location there s a micro-kitchen, a restaurant, or cafeteria nearby.

This place encourages fellow Google’s to go grab a bite to eat whenever and where ever they may be in the building (Jordan). Their set up enables employees to “bump into coworkers from different teams within the” work space (Alter, par. 8). She has taken into account the growth of the company with an eye towards this idea of casual collision in the work space (Jordan). This allows fellow Google’s to have the opportunity to discuss an idea with someone they normally do not work with (Jordan). Some of the greatest ideas are inspired from unexpected inventions between people.

Findings Coming from an architectural background has enabled me to see rooms differently from other people. However, after this research, I was able to look at a room and see the choices and decisions the architect had to make in designing the room. For example, their placement of furniture, walls, doors and windows in a room plays a critical role in how the work space is used. The way an architect designs a room actually plays an important role for what the customer ultimately wants. Each of the companies I research ultimately had a similar goal through using the open work space concept.

Kidder’s goals was to create the extraordinary through logos and design. Their office design fostered their employees to be creative. Kramer Design Group specialized in interior designing. Their open work space also did the same by providing their employees with a creative environment. Both of these places were designed, so the employees interacted regularly in order to get their ideas. Through my research even though did not actually visit, Google, the above examples helped me visualize what I could not see at Google. I have come to greater appreciate the open work space concept and its purpose at

Google is to maximize its employees creativity. Through my research on open work spaces at Google, I have come to understand the choices the architects had to make while designing Google’s New York office. They choose to design the environment with many unique features to enhance the collaboration between employees. I have now come to see that through creating an open work space it results in good ideas from employees. Essentially, these good ideas are able to be obtained through creating these unexpected conversations and casual collisions. This new understanding can help companies understand ways to obtain ideas from their employees.

Through creating this type of environment similar to Google, companies will be able to design an environment to maximize the productivity of workers. Conclusion Google is known as the gold standard for innovation and creativity. Their architects have used the open work space to help them achieve this goal. Through the design of the open work space, Google’s from different teams or backgrounds bump into each other casually throughout the day. The intent is for these Google’s to discuss an idea with someone they may not work with daily. This chance interaction may be the catalyst for a new and creative idea.

This new open work space approach is intended to inspire its employees and support creativity where new ideas can be developed and new discoveries made. Further Questions If another research paper was completed, it may be interesting to see how other innovative companies like Apple, Paxar, and Twitter are set up in regards to their work space design. It would be interesting to see how these companies layout their work space, because there could be similar correlations to how their employee’s collaborate like Google. In order to answer this question, you would need to look at the interactions between the errors of the company.

Since work spaces are always being remodeled by companies, it would be interesting to track innovative companies over the next five year to see how their work space changed over time. It would be ideal to interview employees throughout the change of the work space to see how it has effected them. It may be interesting to also speak to the management to determine whether there were more ideas generated in the newer work space than in the current type work space. This could help understand the reason behind why companies design a creative environment for their workers.

Walking into Abjad Design’s office, the one thing I noticed right away is that the people behind this enterprise loved their work- this was evident from all the illustrations, print-outs and posters of their branding, logo and design projects that were scattered across the walls of the space. Founders Sheikha Bin Dhaher and Diana Hawatmeh set up around the end of 2010, which was when both of them had secured a few years of experience under their belts (Bin Dhaher had done branding work, Hawatmeh worked at a graphic design agency and at an internship in Amsterdam with multilingual designer , and both had worked in publishing houses and their own freelancing stints), and they now felt it was time for them to start something of their own. “The industry here, it lacks the whole culture of a design studio,” says Bin Dhaher, on what prompted them to start their business. “We see big branding agencies, but we don’t see the smaller design agency businesses.”

The founders met while studying in the the duo is passionate about graphic design, and their relationship with each other has moved from being just friends to business partners. When asked on whether this changed the dynamics between them, Hawatmeh likens a business partnership to a relationship between a couple: “They have their differences, but maybe it’s the differences that makes them better.” At some point, there’s bound to be challenges- Bin Dhaher says this definitely happened with them at the beginning, however she says that “through experience and time, you learn to accept the person and understand- it becomes like a balance, so this person complements you as this, and you complement this person in this.”

Having thus been able to establish a harmonious relationship, Hawatmeh adds that these days, Bin Dhaher concentrates on art direction, and while she still does that role too, her focus is more on business development, with both also aiming to foster an efficient working environment for their growing team. One of the ways they do this is by going to conferences, such as ING Creative, a creative event with talks and workshops from renowned artists and speakers, to keep everyone creatively motivated and give their graphic designers and team members “room to grow,” with Hawatweh saying, “Sometimes, they need to figure out the solution by themselves to be able to compete with their other designers.”

The duo also had their fair share of startup hurdles, especially in the beginning, as they were setting up. Without a , they’ve learnt on the go, with some guidance from their family members who were more adept and experienced in business. A family member, Dhaher bin Dhaher, who is a current silent partner, was helping them out, and has continued to advise them on business strategy, as well helping with connections and workspaces. As is the case with most startups, hiring was also an issue, since they didn’t have a big budget for salaries. This prompted them to hire interns, which turned out to be a good decision, as a lot of the interns ended up working with them, or even just freelance for them.

But while starting up might have been difficult, the founders have done pretty well in the six years of their business’ operation. They say they have received offers from a couple of entities who are interested in partnering, however Bin Dhaher asserts that “we are very particular of who we work with, because Abjad does very niche work.” To work with a partner, Bin Dhaher adds, “We’ll have to go for someone who understands our culture, understands our style.” Though she hopes to never need an investor, as the co-founder hopes to “build everything by ourselves,” Bin Dhaher hopes that, when they want to expand in a few years, they will one who understands their business to ease the transition.

Looking into the portfolio of Abjad Design, the graphic design studio has various expertise such as logo work, illustration, web, branding, spatial design, time-based design, print work, packaging, product, invites/greetings and information design. When I ask the co-founders to describe their brand, they say, “conceptual, clean, modern,” which varies per project: “You learn and develop a style that is simpler- it becomes more conceptual.” And from their works with brands, museums, galleries, F&B ventures and projects like Abu Dhabi Art 2015, RTA Dubai’s annual report 2013, , Candylicious’ web design and Ara Gallery, they have stayed true to their brand ethos.

Another detail I noticed was their knack for bilingual design, and being strong both in English and is an attribute that they count as one of their strengths and business value. “A lot of people do it here, but they do it badly,” says Bin Dhaher. “For example, the English looks really good, and the Arabic looks really bad,” noting how “the strokes are not correct- the Arabic looks more sloppy in the way it’s done. It’s more like an afterthought.” Bin Dhaher reasons that perhaps it’s because most designers study abroad and aren’t exposed to a lot of Arabic typography or even Arabic design, “so that’s why when Arabic get executed, either people lack the knowledge of the actual script or the language, or people  who are Arabs, but not yet exposed as much to dealing with Arabic type.”

But the times are changing, and Bin Dhaher notes that people are now trying to make Arabic look good again. She says that this has been the case especially with regional startups (usually in the fashion and F&B sectors), wherein even without a background in graphic design, they’re keen to create something interesting, as well presenting examples in mood boards for the designers to emulate, and what they usually choose is aligned to how Abjad Design would work with too.

When it comes to startups developing their , the duo suggests startups should know what they want and do their research, and most importantly, “know your startup’s message and why you’re doing it.” Creating clean and minimalistic work is something they try to promote as well. “I feel we can do both, it really depends on the actual requirement. We are adaptable. We adapt to the brands, and to the needs,” Hawatmeh explains, “because each brand has its personality, its own story.”

When asked about lessons they’ve learnt in their six years of operation, Bin Dhaher says, “We’re still learning, to be honest,” recalling how they did everything or taught themselves in the beginning, from accounting to managing teams before starting to hire more team members, and especially on building terms and conditions for creative work they created, in lieu of the copyright laws in the UAE. They’ve also learnt how to deal with people better, be it designers or clients. “The learning doesn’t stop,” Bin Dhaher reiterates. “No matter what degree you have, it’s always good to keep yourself informed.” As for the in the MENA: “I think we just need to give it time, it’s very young,” comparing the region’s scene to other parts of the world, where it’s booming.

But while their startup grows and expands, the founders have also made it a point to give back to the design community through teaching workshops, and they have collaborated with art conferences such as ING Creatives to conduct workshops on designing Arabic books and typography, with an upcoming one in September too with Tashkeel.

Final words of advice for their peers in the entrepreneurial ecosystem? “Go for it, don’t be afraid. It’s going to be challenging at the beginning. You need to find something that unique, something that you’re passionate about, as long as you’re passionate about it. I think being passionate or liking what you do- it will keep you going. Enjoy it, enjoy your business and being able to make money out of something you enjoy.”

Sheikha Bin Dhaher and Diana Hawatmeh, co-founders, Abjad Design. What is the abjad team planning to do next? Are you, as co-founders, going to venture outside your specialty?

“We hope to work on more cultural projects on an international level. Coming from the Middle East, we are used to importing talent from the outside; we’d like to change the common perception that everything from outside is better. We’d like creative Arab talent to rise from its point of origin and spread outwards. Perhaps, one day Abjad can be more than a design studio. It may incorporate an educational platform, a space for workshops or even a type foundry. Who knows?”

What’s in the pipeline for abjad design in the short-term? “In the next few months, we’ll be conducting an Arabic design workshop at Tashkeel [Art Gallery] and other places which are yet to be confirmed. We will also be launching our online store very soon.“

He was born September 8, 1952 in Corpus Christi, Texas. Carson and his family moved to New York City four years later. Since then he has traveled all around the world but has maintained New York as his base of operations. Carson now owns two studios; one in New York and another in Charleston, South Carolina. Because of his father, Carson traveled all over America, Puerto Rico, and the West Indies. These journeys affected him profoundly and the first signs of his talent were shown at a very young age; however, his first actual contact with graphic design was made in 1980 at the University of Arizona on a two week graphics course.

He attended San Diego St. University as well as Oregon College of Commercial Art. Later on in 1983, Carson was working towards a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology when he went to Switzerland, where he attended a three-week workshop in graphic design as part of his degree. This is where he met his first great influence, who also happened to be the teacher of this course, Hans-Rudolph Lutz. He became renowned for his inventive graphics in the 1990s. Having worked as a sociology teacher and professional surfer in the late 1970s, he art directed various music, skateboarding and surfing magazines through the 1980s.

As art director of surfing magazines and more famously style magazine Ray Gun , Carson came to worldwide attention. His layouts featured distortions or mixes of ‘vernacular’ typefaces and fractured imagery, rendering them almost illegible. Indeed, his maxim of the ‘end of print’ questioned the role of type in the emergent age of digital design, following on from California New Wave and coinciding with experiments at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. In the later 1990s he shifted from ‘surf subculture’ to corporate work for Nike, Levis, and Citibank.

During the period of 1982–1987, Carson worked as a teacher in Torrey Pines High School in San Diego, California. In 1983, Carson started to experiment with graphic design and found himself immersed in the artistic and bohemian culture of Southern California. By the late eighties he had developed his signature style, using “dirty” type and non-mainstream photography. He would later be dubbed the “father of grunge. ” Carson went on to become the art director of Transworld Skateboarding magazine.

Among other things, he was also a professional surfer and in 1989 Carson was qualified as the 9th best surfer in the world.  His career as a surfer helped him to direct a surfing magazine, called Beach Culture. This magazine lasted for three years but, through the pages of Beach Culture, Carson made his first significant impact on the world of graphic design and typography with ideas that were called innovative even by those that were not fond of his work. Not afraid to break convention in one issue he used Dingbat as the font for what he considered a rather dull interview with Bryan Ferry.  (However, the whole text was published in a legible font at the back of the same issue of RayGun, complete with a repeat of the asterisk motif). From 1991-1992, Carson worked for Surfer magazine. A stint at How magazine (a trade magazine aimed at designers) followed, and soon Carson launched Ray Gun, a magazine of international standards which had music and lifestyle as its subject. Ray Gun made Carson very well-known and attracted new admirers to his work. In this period, journals such as the New York Times (May 1994) and Newsweek (1996) featured Carson and increased his publicity greatly.

In 1995, Carson founded his own studio, David Carson Design in New York City, and started to attract major clients from all over the United States. During the next three years (1995-1998), Carson was doing work for Pepsi Cola, Ray Ban (orbs project), Nike, Microsoft, Budweiser, Giorgio Armani, NBC, American Airlines and Levi Strauss Jeans, and later worked for a variety of new clients, including AT&T, British Airways, Kodak, Lycra, Packard Bell, Sony, Suzuki, Toyota, Warner Bros. CNN, Cuervo Gold, Johnson AIDS Foundation, MTV Global, Princo, Lotus Software, Fox TV, Nissan, quiksilver, Intel, Mercedes-Benz, MGM Studios and Nine Inch Nails. He acted as the original design consultant for the tourism magazine Blue in 1997. In 2000, Carson opened a new personal studio in Charleston, South Carolina. In 2004, Carson became the Creative Director of Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston and designed the special “Exploration” edition of Surfing Magazine and directed a television commercial for UMPQUA Bank in Seattle, Washington.

Carson became interested in a new school of typography and photography-based graphic design and is largely responsible for popularizing the style; he inspired many young designers of the 1990s. His work does not follow “traditional” graphic design standards. Carson is emotionally attached to his creations. Carson’s work is considered explorative of thoughts and ideas that become “lost” in the subconscious. Every piece is saturated, but Carson still manages to communicate both the idea and the feeling behind his design.

His extensive use of combinations of typographic elements and photography led many designers to completely change their work methods and graphic designers from all around the world base their style on the new “standards” that have distinguished Carson’s work. Carson’s work is familiar among the generation that grew up with Raygun Magazine and its progeny such as huH and xceler8, and in general, the visually savvy MTV generation, but his work still receives criticism from a generation that refuses to engage with his connotative excesses.

Carson has been one of the greatest influences on modern graphic design in the last twenty five years. He took photography and type and manipulated and twisted them together and on some level confusing the message but in reality he was drawing the eyes of the viewer deeper within the composition itself. In November 1995, Carson published his first book the End of Print. It sold over 200,000 copies in five different languages and soon became the best-selling graphic design book worldwide. His second book, 2nd Sight, followed in 1997.

It is said that this book simply changed the public face of graphic design (Newsweek). In 1998, Carson worked with Professor John Kao of the Harvard Business School on a documentary entitled “The Art and Discipline of Creativity. ” The third book that Carson published was Fotografiks (1999) which earned Carson the Award of Best Use of Photography in Graphic Design. Carson’s fourth book, Trek, was released in 2000. Carson has also helped in the development of The History of Graphic Design by Philip Meggs and The Encyclopedia of Surfing by Matt Warsaw.

Fellness Systems Engineering Principles: Blue Spider Case Study Name: Professor: Course Name: Subject: Date Due: Executive summary Parks Corporation is a firm involved in R & D business; the firm does projects on behalf of the Department of Defense. Over the years, Parks Corporation has transformed its focus from the R & D business to being involved in low cost production. The process of retrenching employees in the firm was as a result of the recession and this brought down the number of staff to 2200 down from 6700.

The upturn in the spending habit of the Department of Defense in 1975 made the firm hanged its corporate strategy. The new strategy involved Parks improving its R & D staff in the engineering section. Considering the salaries which Parks was providing, there was limitation in terms of getting experienced engineers and hence they decided to employ the young who lacked experience. One of the recruits from college was Gary Anderson.

Despite his lack of experience, Gary Anderson was a great production engineer and this resulted to his promotion to a senior scientist who was in Judge of the R & D activities conducted at the Mechanical Engineering department. In 1978, Parks made a decision to bid for the 1st phase of Blue Spider Project together with Lord Industries being the major contractor for the Spartan Program for the Army. This project was meant to ensure improved structural capabilities as well as the age life related to the short range of the tactical missile; the tactical missile was showing failure because of fatigue as it had been used in the field for 6 years.

One of the conditions for the choice of the bid for subcontracting was based on the low bid with expertise in technical and also the management performance. Parks Corporation had a feeling that they had a unique advantage over TTS competitors since they had a previous experience in the Lord Industries projects. From the onset of this project, there was a problem which can be identified; this was that Gary Anderson was given the chance to be the head of project management due to his background in R & D; however, he lacks the experience vital in managing projects.

It is worth noting that the technical background is not enough to ensure an effective project manager. In specific a number of problems can be identified as the project took off; one of the problems is the informal way of starting the project was en and there was no particular guidelines, the proposal for the project was done in unethical manner, Parks Corporation seem to have issues in its behavior, problems in the operational process as well as problems in the organization’s architecture/ relations which was not clearly defined and also followed.

Project management often includes 9 specific areas of integration, management scope, time management, the cost management, the quality management, the human resource management, the communications management, the risk management as well as procurement management all of which lacked in the Blue spider project. Table of Contents Table of figures 1.

Introduction 1. 1 Summary of the Case study Blue Spider Case study represents a case where systems engineering principles failed; this case represents one of the failed projects as the head of the project team lacked the experience to manage projects and hence failure to use the systems engineering principles.

Among the major events in the case study are Gary Anderson accepting the position of the project manager; the DoD have asked Lord Industries through a contract to improve the operation of Spartan program; on November 3, 1977, Blue Spider project kicks off. The events in Blue Spider case are done in a quick manner in that there are a number of problems which arise right from the begging of the project because of the poor planning of the major events in the project.

Amongst the results of the events is the poor communication in the various departments due to the overburden that is caused by Gary Anderson; communication breakdown both internal as well as the departments which are associated with the project; the changes in the project are not well talked in advance. Despite the project going ahead, Lord industries accept the work of Parks Corporation reluctantly because of aviations from the requirements of the client due to changes in information and also implementation of the requirements. . 2 Objectives of the Report The aim of this report is to tie the systems engineering principles to the Blue Spider Case study. 1. 3 Organizational structure of Parks Corporation Figure : Parks Organizational Structure (sage & Rouse, 2011 : 80) 1. 4 SOOT Analysis of Blue Spider Project The current situation of the project is that it is influenced by a number of weakness as well as the strengths. Amongst the weakness of the Blue spider Project is that

Anderson was so much concerned with R & D works and also the administrative issues without creating any balance between them; there was a problem in the financial planning; the project lacked a standby schedule which would have been important in the event that the formal was affected by certain changes; there was poor communication with the Lord since the start of the project which resulted to more costs on communication; additionally, it was not possible for Gary to find Gable the time when he need some form of assistance; however, Gable would intervene in the midst of the project a number of times without the knowledge of Gary that exulted to more issues in the project management; some of the issues included rescheduling of the project or redoing some works during the last times. On the other hand, there is lack of leadership skills demonstrated throughout this project. Both Gary Anderson and also Henry Gable show lack of leadership skills in the various tasks which they are involved in doing the work, poor delegation skills as well as lack of team effectiveness.

Despite the weakness of this project, it is important to note that the project had enough backing from the top executives and directors. It is to often easier to find a project which has enough backing from the management just like Blue Spider Project, the level of attention given to the project was high, and there were enough resources for the project which came from the functional team. Some of the projects in project management have failed simply because of lack of backing and also priority which has resulted to issues. 1. 5 Definition of the requirements The requirements of a customer as well as the constraints of a project constitute the input to a process. The requirements of a process are directly related to the performance metrics of a system that is being designed.

The requirements often tell more about the needs of a customer in the system as well as the needs for the given system and they show clearly how the system is likely to work in the given environment. On the other hand, the constraints are some of the conditions which exist in a system due to the effect of the external interfaces, the support of the project or the life cycle systems. The constraints affect the opportunities of the design team in achieving their objectives. The major focus of the system engineering is changing the requirements into design (Grammar et al 2011:77). The requirements or the Spartan program was that the technical specifications needed all the components to operate in a normal way and successfully in a temperature range of -65 degree F to a temperature of 145 degrees F.

At the current time, the design of Parks Corporation was not able to operate over 130 degrees F. Despite this, one of the major constraints in the requirements was that the preliminary design material would not be operated over 130 degrees and this indicates that Gary Anderson and his technical team would not meet the set objectives. The requirements of a customer are very important in any design process; this is because they define the expectations of the customer, the environment, the measures of effectiveness as well as the suitability of the system requirements. According to O’Leary, et al 2012:562), the process of defining the requirements of a system provides the initial step in the development of a system.

However, in the Blue Spider case study, this is not given any meaningful importance with Gary Anderson and also Henry Gable conversing on the possible ways of changing the design material so that it would seem that they have followed the requirements of the customer. Henry Gable indicates that their reports would indicate that the design would be operative up to 155 degrees F so that the customer would be pleased something which was never true. This indicates that they both have failed to observe care in design process; this is likely to result to problems as this is likely to surface in the later stages of the life cycle of the Spartan program which will mean spending more time and also money in fixing these issues (Chandler et al 2011:375).

From system design, specification requirements and testing, all were not done in the right manner with unethical behavior seen in in much of the design process. Figure 1, indicates the various requirements in a system, clearly the requirements are established within a system in order to ensure accuracy and also completeness. Serener (2013: 208) asserts that, it is always not easy to establish good requirements for a system since it needs effective communication and technical skills; the head of Spartan program Gary Enders on lacks the technical expertise to lead the project the reason why the start of the project faces a number of challenges with the requirements not done in the right manner and this made the implementation of the project to seem mixed up.

Lack of ethical requirements are common in the project with Henry Gable stating that they can improvise the materials in order for the Spartan program to read 155 degrees F which is not the case as the customer would not know the improvises which the technical team would have done. 2. SE Management 2. 1 System engineering process According to Chandler et al (2011 :376), to ensure that a system is well engineered, it is important to conduct its development process in an orderly manner. Well-defined systems engineering process makes it possible to develop a system. However, for the gig projects, which involve a team, it is important to have a good systems engineering process (Coleman et al 2013:176). This is seen as guidance by the project participants to know the direction of the project and how they are going to achieve the objectives of a system.

There is a common agreement amongst the engineers on the main steps in the software process. In figure 3, this is indicated, the initial steps indicate the process of solving a problem in feasibility study, the fourth step is defined as being post-development phase and this is the stage where the project is deployed to he users, where maintenance is done and also improved to ensure that it meets the ever changing requirements. The initial steps of the process are often termed as being “what and how’ in the software development while the “analyses and specify’ step evaluates the problem which is to be solved while the “design and implement” provides information on how the problem is to be solved (SГ¶Darlene 2011 :155).

Figure : Systems engineering process Spartan program development process failed to pass through the right stages with several system engineering requirements not available in the different stages of the velveteen of Spartan program; this is vital so as to effectively achieve the customer requirements. The requirements of the customer were that the technical specification components were to operate in the normal way and in a successful manner through the temperature range of -65 degrees F to 145 degrees F. The analysis of the current system indicates that the design by Park Corporation is not likely to function at a temperature which is above 130 degrees F.

Additionally, the requirements of the Spartan program were not well stated early on during the initial stages of the project; this explains the reason why the project is running into robbers at the early stages. One of the problems of the project is cost which should be defined and the budget of all the expenses prepared at the analysis stage when the problem is being defined to avoid any further expenses on the way which were not budgeted for. Gary Anderson should be the one who should be answerable to any of the problems which the projects runs into since he is the project manager; his lack of experience in handling projects is affecting the smooth flow of this project. 2. Development process Young (2013:113) states that development process indicates the procedure for evolving the various parts of a project; this helps the various persons involved in the project to identify the different issues early on in the project before the occurrence of bigger problems which would alter the smooth running of the project. The development process is vital in a project as it helps to guide a project which does not have well defined goals and objectives which the customers are unable to define on their own. Morris and Considered (2011:68) argue that development process of a project provides a way of getting feedback instead of planning as their main control mechanism. The feedback is as a result of more and more regular tests and also the releases related to the evolving software.

In Blue Spider case study, the development process has failed and there are no consultations with the various departments in the preparation of the project proposal as well as consultation with the customer on their requirements. Although the customer’s requirements for the Spartan Program are not followed and intentionally altered so as to suit how both Gary Anderson and Henry Gable want it to be; this is attributed to lack of technical expertise in the development process as well as unethical business behavior. . 3 Life cycle integration Frangipani (2011:390) states that, life cycle integration is the process of bringing together the existing systems as well as the new technologies to form a new system that performs more tasks provide more and improved performance as well as ensuring that they enhance the existing systems.

According to Cravings (2011 :465), life cycle integration is seen as a way of using new as well as the expanded performance requirements in the most effective manner and also a timely manner during the design, the procurement, and installation and also in the operational infatuation that has specific modules where each of them may have some form of limitations and constraints. One of the major aims of the Blue Spider project was to ensure improved structural capabilities related to the Spartan missile which is a tactical missile made sue by the army. The missile was showing some form of fatigue in terms of failure after spending over six years in the field. The needs of the customer here were that they needed the new materials, which would last for longer for the Spartan missile.

By providing new materials the new program would last for Eng and ensure improved performance and also making the present Spartan missile more effective. This is one of the major purposes of the life cycle integration where improving the present system is of utmost importance to the army (Marques et al 2011:1058). 3. Program Life cycle 3. 1 Generic Business Life cycle According to Fiction & Skimmer (2012:309), the increased importance of transition to a greater and sustainable economy presents one of the most challenging aspects of the society. While the evidence where developing a highly sustainable business model is related to great profits, it is a problem to majority of the conventional manufacturers.

Because of this, firms are supposed to search for ways to improve the business models and in the process become more sustainable. Parks Corporation is always committed to developing new strategies so as to keep up with the changes in the market. The firm has performance criteria where the best and employees are promoted; the reason for Gary Andersen’s promotion is because the firm is committed to developing a sustainable business model. Park Corp.. Seems to make use of the product-service system in order to relate to particular life cycle stage in the development of a project. The business model in Park Corp.. Involves marketing, he software engineering process, design, production and operation.

Through marketing, Park corp.. Has been identified as one of the most successful firms in software engineering the reason why the Department of Defense (DoD) had several contracts with the firm. Stark (2011:10) notes that, software engineering is the next stage in the business life cycle with the firm making sure that the right project manager is in place to guide the development of a project. Gary Anderson was chosen as the project manager who was to oversee the completion of the Spartan program; Gary was to oversee the design of the project, production as well as operation. 3. 2 Simulation of DoD acquisition policy Diagram 4. System engineering product 4. System Requirement review According to Blanchard (2012:66) the system requirements review is done after the end of the functional analysis as well as the preliminary requirements allocation to the hardware configuration items, the computer software configuration items, the facility configuration items as well as the personnel so as to determine the objective and progress related to the system engineering management. The items to be reviewed include the mission and requirement analysis, the human factor analysis, he mission and requirement analysis, the functional factor analysis, the program risk analysis and also specification development (Shall et al 2011: 556). Kiss-off et al (2011:98) state that, the requirements of a system fall in different categories.

The customer requirement provide the statements or the facts as well as what the customer expects from the system in relation to achieving its set objectives, its effectiveness and also the suitability. One of the major requirements of the DoD contract was that the Spartan program was to operate normally and successfully on a temperature of -65 degrees F to 145 degrees F. However, the present design of the system indicated that the program would not function above 130 degrees F and this indicates that the objectives of the customer are to have the program operate at a temperature above 130 degree F. Despite the customer requirements stated clearly, the management in their proposal have developed a different system requirements which does not suite what the DoD want.

Gary and Henry Gable intentionally meet to discuss the inability of the preliminary design material being operated above 130 degrees F as the customer want but then because of lack of effective system acquirement analysis and accomplishment of the mission; they think of changing the design material or incorporate new materials and this problem has come as a result of poor system requirement review (Shall et al 2011 : 558). Another important factor in successful completion of a system is the human factor analysis. Stanton & Walker 2013:721) notes that despite the increase in technology, human factors are still vital to the success of a project. Thus effective interaction of human beings in the development of a project not only reduces the risk of project failure but also ensures hat the objectives of the customer have been met.

Additionally, the use of human factors ensures improved safety, increased reliability as well as efficiency of the system. Despite the increased importance of human factors in a project, there seem to be a challenge in the Blue Spider project because of lack of human factors. The process of bidding never followed staffing; one of the reasons provided is because Parks Corporation refused to give out its staff for the project; the engineering managers were not cooperative in giving out their key people towards the Blue Spider program. Human factors are important and should not be underestimated in successful project completion (Shall et al 2011: 558). Additionally, milestone is vital in the project completion (Adamant 2011:216).

This state the important dates in a system which the client need to be updated on the progress of the system should be considered so as to ensure that the customer’s requirements are well reviewed as the system keeps on being developed. Blue Spider project has successfully completed the first milestone of the project; the second milestone is scheduled to be after 180 days where acceptance of the raw materials and also the production runs ere considered; milestone is prepared in a way to avoid overlapping of activities in a system preparation something which Gary Anderson and his team have done effectively in terms avoiding an overlap of the lab development and also the full scale production. 5.

System engineering core process Schemas et al (2011:76) asserts that the system engineering major processes are developed so as to provide support to the people that are required to implement the systems engineering methodology. The core processes follow the following steps: provide an analysis, decomposition as well as allocation of the system requirements; litigation of the requirements of a system and management are important so as to ensure that the customer requirements have been met. Gary and Henry are making up important follow ups regarding the specifications of the system; despite the fact that Henry is imposing his own strategy in the initial phases of the program; the test matrix does seem to be a failure as the raw materials which the test result indicate do not seem to coincide with the particular specification requirements by the customer.

This means that analysis of the requirements of the Spartan program is aced by ethical challenges as Henry is stating that the customer would not be aware of the trouble changes which they are about to make regarding the specification requirements for the program. Next is definition of the system behavior where the system’s functionality as well as its operations is the major specifications at this stage. The functionality of Spartan program is well stated in the proposal by Gary team as well as the customer specification needs which is meant to improve the structural capabilities and also the age life related to the short range tactical missile.

According to Apparel et al (2011 :120), the definition of the system architecture is important in the system engineering process; this includes defining the internal and external interfaces; the subsystems and the components of the system; although the specification of this contract by the customer (Army) was that the Spartan program missile was to be improved its structural capabilities; the project team led by Gary failed to define the system architecture of the project in their proposal to the Lord industries; the reason for this can be articulated to the inexperienced project anger who has not handled similar projects in the past and therefore thinks that projects can be done without even specifying their system components and subsystems.

Marques et al (2011:1060) notes that, the most important systems engineering functions include operations concept development, architecture and the design development as well as identification of the requirements and management; however, these functions as well as the final products depend on one another. According to O’Leary, et al (2012:562), the system engineering functions, the validation, the prediction on performance, the analysis and trade off are important in optimization and development of a total system. In the system engineering life cycle, there is more refinement of the system requirements, the design as well as the operations concept in the lower levels to a point where the design has been realized. After that verification and validation of the system requirements is done and also planning for the events and resources.

Verification of the system requirements is done by both Henry Gable and Gary Anderson; however, their verification does not provide any importance to the success of this project as the customer requirements re ignored, making them to think of ways of devising the performance of the Spartan program missile to operate at a temperature of 130 degrees F. The events and also resources in Blue Spider project have not been planned well; despite that the project does not meet the planned milestone and this is because of the inexperience of Gary Anderson as he is left to do most of the work by himself to beat the deadline; the case indicates that Gary did not want to overburden the staff with the responsibility of the handouts and because of this he did this by himself, the reason why the reject does not have enough resources is because of lack of planning for the events and resources and hence putting in place the necessary budget for the same and this has resulted to cost overrun.

The system engineering is important so as to handle the challenges which the system engineers face during system development (Meredith & Mantel 2011:155). 6. System engineering process implementation 6. 1 Events where System Engineering was needed According to Apparel (2011 :130), the use of different engineering tools as well as the safety analysis tools is important during the design process. This is important as it ivies the designers an opportunity to identify the dangers in the early stages of the design process and this is the place when they are easily worked on. The use of system engineering would be possible in the analysis of customer requirements; this will translate the requirements if the customer into both functional and also the design parameters.

Both Gary Anderson and Henry Gable are contemplating on how to fix the materials so as to ensure that the Spartan program is operating at a temperature above 130 degrees F; something which the matrix test failed to produce the required raw materials. Additionally, functional requirements of the Spartan program are not identified early on at the start of the system planning, design and also the development phases; the result is failure to meet the system milestone. The important safety system requirements were not included in the Spartan program including the system-level safety analysis. 6. 2 Consequence of lack of system engineering Lack of system engineering in the Blue Spider project has resulted to a number of challenges in the development and completion of the project.

Key stages have been omitted and this has affected the achievement of customer requirements; the customer has complained about the materials included in the proposal which seem to contract with their requirement on how the system should be and how it should operate. It is worth to note that systems engineering is often implemented by coordination in the design engineering, effective architecture development as well as the design which are able to ensure that they meet the needs of the customer. Gary and Henry are unable to satisfy the needs of the customer in the Blue Spider project because they failed to in the use of system engineering principles during the design s well as systems requirement specification.

Blue Spider project headed by Gary Anderson has failed in the systems engineering as well as in the operations concept which failed to reflect the objectives of the Spartan program customer (the Army) as well as failing to schedule the project within the set budget. 6. 3 How to Implement Systems Engineering One of the objectives of systems engineering implementation is the full-integrated development as well as making products, which meet the needs of the customer within specified cost, schedule and also the risk constraints (Apparel et al 2011 :152). Therefore, this implies that a project needs to give a structured process for effective integration and link the requirements well, the schedule, the decision milestone and also validation and verification.

However, this is not the case in Blue Spider project as the project team lacks the needed cooperation to ensure that the implementation objectives are met as well as the systems engineering process. Gary Anderson is forced to do majority of the scheduled tasks in order to avoid expenses, which would mean that the project would not meet the set budget and hence the implementation of the system was a problem. Not all the departments are involved in the various phases of the project; the project team often needs to work on a “single, integrated set of requirements and also process” which mean that the integration of the system requirements and also the design stages will reduce the cost; a challenge being faced by Gary Anderson as the project cost is going high.

Additionally, effective implementation means that it is vital to lower the unplanned as well as the cost of reengineering that is important in solving the “omissions and challenges in integration”. 6. 4 Events where Systems Engineering were present Despite the challenges which the Gary Anderson and Henry Gable faced in the Blue Spider project, the use of systems engineering were present in the formation management of the software development project more so in the planning of the project, estimating the cost (budget), formation of the project team, allocation of work for the members of the team, the work schedule plan, reviewing of the progress of the project and also reporting the project’s milestone.

All these activities used the system engineering concept despite a few challenges. 6. 5 Benefits Davenport (2013:118), states that, systems engineering is important as it ensures that reduces which match the challenges of the global market are produced; it is clear that customers need a higher range of products and the choice which need that firms are supposed to produce products which match the customer needs; thus systems engineering helps firms to ensure that this objective is achieved. Systems engineering provides a way of ensuring that customer objectives are achieved and also the best way of achieving the market leadership by producing the best products in the market with good quality. 6. Comparison It is clear from the case study that concepts of design principles, specification acquirement, and risk management never made use of the system engineering principles, the reason why Gary Anderson and Henry Gable are faced with challenges of meeting the customer needs. 7. Systems Engineering Planning 7. 1 Project management Plan Marques and Laura (2011:1061) states that, project management plan involves organization, the relationship involved in reporting, the decision process as well as the role of the management committee in ensuring the success of the project. It shows the amount of time which the project manager is likely to spend in the project management. Therefore, the project team members should be written down as well as the details of the contact and any changes communicated to the program manager; the project need to state whether there is any need for training.

Gary Anderson is involved in majority of the work the reason why most of the plans are behind schedule. The decision by Gary to lower the costs through accepting to work on the bill of materials by himself indicates that there is lack of project management plan for the project; scheduling and making sure that all activities are accomplished thin the stipulated time is important to effectiveness of system engineering. 7. 3 System engineering plan According to Adamant et al (2011 :21 5), System engineering plan is a major activity that has an effect on the acquisition planning decision and as a result develops important methods which will be effective in achieving the objectives of acquisition.

This is important in the systems management in assuring of the technical activities’ identification and their management; ensure that the technical approach in the development team has been communicated, ensure that there is technical implementation and that decisions have been documented and finally help in establishing the benchmark of system development which is vital in meeting the needs of the customer and that of the systems engineering as well. Systems engineering plan has been followed in the Spartan program development; plans are put in place as Gary Anderson is appointed as the project manager with various persons involved in the development team; however, this is not done to satisfactory and this is because of lack of proper system engineering plan, the engineering integration distances themselves on the preparation of the bill of materials because

CASE TOOLS

There are CASE tools that assist software development process at every stage. They simplify, speed up and integrate the software development process. They aid prompt, accurate and successful completion of software projects. In fact CASE tools are indispensable for large software projects. However, CASE tools are expensive and require huge memory and CPU processing capacity. Still CASE tools are very helpful in software development.

Case tools stands for Computer-Aided Software Engineering tools. In particular these are computer based products that assist software development. There are several types of CASE tools, some of these are specific to a domain or life-cycle called vertical Case tools whereas others are common across life-cycle steps or domains and are called horizontal Case tools (Baumeister. H & Marchesi. M 2005).  In addition, there is a classification of tools in accordance to the precedence of use, the front end CASE tools are used in the early part of the life cycle of a software project, for example design support tools . In contrast back end CASE tools are used in the later part of the life cycle of software development like test support tools and compilers. In addition, those tools that are interactive in nature like design support tools are called CASE tools and those that are not interactive in nature such as compilers are called software development tools (Morris. E, Carney. D, Smith. D & Brown. A 1994).

The CASE tools are in fact software programs that comprise of automated tools that aid documentation, modeling, synthesis and analysis of software. These tools aid programmers. These tools aid the maintenance, operation, enlargement and removal of software.

The development of CASE tools has been strongly supported by the development of hardware with large memories. Personal computers and workstations not only have fast processors but also well developed bit-mapped graphics display that makes it relatively easy to show diagrams, graphs and charts. Further, the development of software has strongly been supported by extensive research in software design methods. Structured programming methods have facilitated the development of automated tools that can be used methodically be used in software development. The tools can easily be used to produce artifacts that can easily be incorporated into the software. Today there are many CASE tools that not only generate code but also generate systems analysis and design techniques such as user documentation, program specifications, entity relationships diagram, and database schema (Schach. S 2005).

The need for CASE tools emerged because of several reasons. First, there was the need for a large number of people to interact during software development. The CASE tools provide facilities for people to cooperate in the software development process interact in a controlled manner and systematize the thinking of teams on the development process (Tahvanainen. V & Lyytinen. K 1992). Moreover, the software that is developed now necessitates continuous up gradation and augmentation. In other words this means that the software must support the adding of new functions and features. For this not only should multiple copies of artifacts be available but there should also be well documented records of the design and testing process of the software. Finally, the most important need for CASE tools emerged because of the size of the software systems, the need for detailed documentation of the manner in which the system functions, elaborate software designs to provide solutions, implementation of that solution and the need to test the software and establish its precise processing.

Initially the use of CASE tools began with the use of disparate tools that were used at different stages of the software project lifecycle like design method support, version control of source code and document production. However, soon there emerged the need to integrate the processes that were crucial to projects. There was a need to integrate version control, documentation, coding, and design. The design of the software must be closely intertwined with the resultant source code. What has happened is that the CASE tools are provided to software developers as a part of an environment that has a common software and hardware platform. In fact the progress, control and support of the project is done through interactions in such an environment. Different personnel, like administrators, tool integrators and software developers interact with several CASE tools. In fact CASE tools and other components combine to form a CASE environment.

In such an environment some typical tools include configuration management tools, re factoring tools, model transforming tools, data modeling tools and compilers. Tools are now available that address every aspect of software development like testing, translation, code storage, system design and even business analysis. Software modeling techniques developed by researchers is given the credit for the development of CASE tools. In particular Jackson Structured Programming has been believed to have inspired the development of CASE tools (Storr. A & Jarvis. D, 1996).

Originally the word CASE was devised by Nastec Corporation, Michigan in 1982 whose vice president was Albert F. Case Jr., the CASE tool that they devised was called GraphiText and this system used hyperlinks for the first time in documents. After GraphiText came DesignAid and this tool had the capability of evaluating system design and software diagrams.  This tool also provided a facility to build a data dictionary. This tool was later expanded. Another CASE tool that entered the market at that time was Excelerator from Cambridge Technologies. This tool was launched on IBM PC/AT platform. This platform had several drawbacks. It did not facilitate networking nor did it support centralized database. Yet Excelerator flourished on this platform. Then there was a burst of competition from Texas Instruments, Knowledge Ware, and Arthur Andersen. However, when the mainframe became outdate in the 1990 AD/Cycle and Big CASE tools became outdated and most of the companies that were producing CASE tools were taken over by Computer Associates (Larman. C, 2004).

Some of the important functions of CASE tools of today are that they help the testing of code before it can be deployed. Further, CASE tools help in converting the system design into code. In addition, the case tools of today help convert software requirements into design specifications. Currently, apart from helping the documentation of software, the CASE tools also help translation of basic user needs into software requirements. The process of developing the laws of CASE tools is an evolving process.

The case tools bring certain benefits to the software development process. The most important benefit is that non programmers can do tasks that only advanced programmers were capable of. This is especially important because of server bases that are located at the client’s premises and an increased movement towards object oriented technology. Another important benefit of CASE tools is that documentation is very comprehensive and helpful for maintenance and development. From the cost-benefit perspective the use of CASE tools leads to lower maintenance costs. The reason is that CASE tools allows reengineering that is less time consuming, more efficient, and less expensive. In addition, the CASE tools not only help design well but also do improved analysis. The lower cost is also attributed to the facility of automatic code generation, quick testing and debugging.  In this context another benefit of CASE tools is that there is greater precision especially in the debugging and error checking phase of software development. Finally, the most important benefit of CASE tools is that these tools have been instrumental in reducing the time of project completion.

In using CASE tools there is need for caution. The CASE tools are costly and are avoided by small software developing firms. If CASE tools are used then additional costs are also incurred in hardware, software, consulting and training. The costs should be balanced against the benefits of using the CASE tools. Caution should also be exercised because using CASE tools take some time before expertise is developed. Often outside consultants can be hired to train CASE tools users but this means extra costs for the project. Finally, cautiousness should be exercised in selecting CASE tools. There is a need for CASE integration and data integration across all platforms. In case of large organizations and large projects integration across all platforms should be maintained. This may not be possible for small software developers. CASE systems contain several CASE tools and because of the large quantities of data they use, they require a large amount of disk space and CPU capacity (Peckham. J, 2003). Often the use of CASE tools requires several powerful servers and high memory disk arrays.

However, there are some distinct rewards that CASE tools provide which makes them indispensable for software development today. First, CASE tools provide reasonable means of reducing programming time (Morris. E, Carney. D, Smith. D & Brown. A 1994),. You cannot reduce programming time by increasing the number of programmer. Second, in large projects intra programmer communication reduces productivity. Using CASE tools reduces the need for such communication and increases programmer productivity and decreases the time taken for programming. CASE tools increase programmer productivity in large projects because with the increase in size of programs there is an increasingly high level of difficulty that programmers face. In a complex architecture, where data structures are difficult to comprehend and code is difficult to read, CASE tools are almost indispensable (Schach. S 2005),.

There are different types of CASE tools that are available. One type of CASE tools are for Systems Planning. Consider the CASE tool ADQ Planning Workbench by Knowledgeware. This is an upper case tool. This begins with the company’s business plan, the strategies that it has followed in the past, the present policies and the future strategies of the business. The tactics and strategies that need to be implemented, networks and databases to be set up and the applications that need to written around these specifications (Larman. C, 2004). Even though information can be entered in the form of matrices, pictures and descriptions, the matrices are considered vital. CASE tools can perform analysis on different matrices to trace logical clusters of planning information, functions and data. CASE tools help set priorities in the development of software; develop information systems, networks and databases.

There are several CASE tools for systems analysis and design. Some examples are ADW analysis, design, and Rapid Application Development (RAD) Workbenches and Systems Architect by Popkin Software. These tools help lay out the scope of the software project and help set up boundaries. In addition, these systems help marshal the available information, specify the user’s requirements and set up the prototype requirements for the objective of making well considered decisions. In the next stage these tools help design the software that will meet the user’s requirements. The CASE tools also help modeling the requirements for the project for the objective of detection, unearthing and confirmation (Fowler. M & Scott. K, 2003).

In the lower case there are CASE tools for the purpose of Systems Designs and implementation. There are tools for code generation, tools for component generation and workbenches for programmers. Consider Micro Focus Cobol/2 Workbench, this workstation supports the development of code that is compatible with COBOL standards on mainframes. Even though this workbench is PC based it facilitates COBOL coding , compiling, testing, and debugging.  The facilities provided by this Workbench are much greater than that provided by any other COBOL compiler. Let us consider another PC based CASE tool, the Bachman Database Administrator Workbench. This is used for the purpose of designing mainframe databases for IS. In addition, it also provides facilities for fine tuning the database and even redesigning it. This comes is different versions for different DBMS. The Bachman Database Administrator Workbench generator is an example of component generator.

There are some tools that can be used for linking upper case tools and lower case tools. These are the reverse engineering tools. What these do is to examine the current databases and programs code and help create higher versions of the code. Usually reverse engineering CASE tools are used with Systems Support CASE tools. The system support CASE tools support reengineering to house changes. Systems Support CASE tools also help the developers restructure the outdated codes and even the current code and makes them more maintainable. In addition, CASE tools for system support help integrate new technology, redevelop systems and recover information (Tahvanainen. V & Lyytinen. K 1992). The system support CASE tools also have helped in determining if maintenance cost of a system exceeds the benefits. Cost estimation CASE tools have a special role to play in large software projects. CASE tools like Hyperanalyst not only allows the project manager to estimate the size of the project but also the cost and the time that will be incurred in developing the software and implementing it.

CASE tools essentially help improve the productivity of software development. However, there are other technologies that also serve a similar purpose. For example, artificial intelligence or object oriented languages can also help accomplish a similar purpose. However, even if these technologies develop, CASE tools will remain the substratum for their development and growth. CASE tools can be used across different languages to achieve its goals. It has been seen in practice that CASE tools can mechanize and simplify any type of system development or software project. These tools can be adapted to almost any environment.

CASE tools are typically used by large teams of engineers to determine the specifications of the software. CASE tools automate documentation, code stubs and writing of frameworks. For example, CASE tools sold by Rational Software uses UML or Unified Modeling Language. UML is easily available and this allows software engineers to quickly convert system specifications into documented code (Fowler. M & Scott. K, 2003).

Another way of classifying CASE tools is to describe them as build tools and hybrids. The build tools are used in large projects for building and releasing of software packages. This is a difficult task if three to five different versions of the software are released at the same time and the software is used on two or three hardware platforms. An important function of these tools is to keep a record of different objects, executable files and sources. These are crucial to provide distribution and support to software. Hybrids are CASE tools like SourceForge and Collab.NET. The hybrids use ready made tools and mix them with Internet services to create a distributed system that can handle several types of sources.

To sum, CASE tools are software programs that assist programmers, project managers and software engineers in almost every stage of the software development process. CASE tools help in specifying the business process, ascertaining the need for systems, the planning for the software project, systems analysis, code production, documentation, maintenance and support of systems.

References:

Baumeister. H & Marchesi. M (2005) Extreme Programming and Agile Processes in Software Engineering, Springer

Fowler. M & Scott. K, (2003), UML Distilled: A Brief Guide to the Standard Object Modeling Language, Addison-Wesley Professional.

Larman. C, (2004), Agile and Iterative Development: A Manager’s Guide, Addison-Wesley Professional.

Morris. E, Carney. D, Smith. D & Brown. A (1994), Principles of Case Tool Integration, Oxford University Press US.

Peckham. J, (2003), Practicing Software Engineering in the 21st Century, Idea Group Inc. (IGI).

Schach. S (2005), Object-Oriented and Classical Software Engineering, McGraw-Hill Professional.

Storr. A & Jarvis. D, (1996) Software Engineering for Manufacturing System: Methods and Case-tools, Springer.

Tahvanainen. V & Lyytinen. K (1992) Next Generation Case Tools, IOS Press.

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