Agile Development And Variation In SCRUM Sprint Information Technology Essay

Lithe Development And Variation In SCRUM Sprint Information Technology Essay In Agile improvement SCRUM is exceptionally adequate methodology. Furthermore, fundamental assortment of SCRUM is driven by the run. Exercises in the SCRUM run are run meeting, run survey, run excess, improvement, acknowledgment testing, scrum meeting, run review, and last shippable work item. it is seen that there are despite everything missing exercises that can be obliged to improve the run. The exploration recommends some more exercises that can be suited from other light-footed systems such XP, DSDM, and RUP/EUP. The new methodology will upgrade the run capacity. Watchwords: Agile turn of events, SCRUM, Extreme Programming, Rational Unified Process, Dynamic Systems Development Method Presentation Lithe improvement is a gathering of strategies where necessities and arrangements create through cooperation between self-sorting out, cross-practical, firm groups. The principle center is around making working programming that could be given over to the client rapidly as opposed to investing a ton of energy reviewing determinations front. Spry spotlights on quick emphasis, with nonstop client contribution all through the advancement lifecycle. In this paper we present an advancement procedure, in this procedure we have distinguished the missing exercises in the SCRUM and worked together the exercises that are accessible in other Agile philosophies, for example, XP, DSM and RUP Exploration METHODOLOGY The system chose for this exploration depends on the subjective examination of the nimble structures accessible in the business. Spry Spry has advanced as a light weight programming improvement system against the unbelievable substantial weight programming advancement approachs, for example, cascade, winding, fast prototyping, steady. Spry technique depends on iterative and gradual advancement that break errands into little additions with ostensible arranging called cycle. Cycles are brief timeframe outlines that regularly last from one to about a month. Every emphasis includes a group working through a full programming improvement cycle. Coordinated ALLIANCE In spring of 2001, 17 programming engineers met at UTAH to see whether there was anything in like manner between the different light philosophies such asAdaptive Software Development, XP, Scrum, Crystal, Feature driven Development, Dynamic System Development Method (DSDM). Light-footed MANIFESTO We are revealing better methods of creating programming by doing it and helping other people do it. Through this work we have come to esteem: People and cooperations over procedures and apparatuses Working programming over far reaching documentation Client joint effort over agreement arrangement Reacting to change over after an arrangement [Martin C. Robert , Agile Principles, Patterns, and Practices in C#, Martin Micah, 2006] SCRUM Scrum is a steady iterative procedure. In Scrum, item advancement is done in iterative cycles called Sprints. Runs are regularly 1 a month long, and the time box isn't extendable, for example the excess things that couldn't be finished in one run are cooked in the following run. When a run date is submitted it is rarely expanded. Toward the beginning of a Sprint, there is a run gathering wherein need things of item build-up are chosen and group figures the endeavors and resolves to finish them in the Sprint. Consistently there is a day by day standup meeting in which group reports the advancement to one another and update basic visual portrayals of work staying in run copy down outline. [The Scrum Papers: Nuts, Bolts, and Origins of an Agile Process Jeff Sutherland, Ph.D. Ken Schwaber Co-Creators of Scrum, 2007] [Deemer.P and Benefield.G, SCRUM PRIMER, 2006] Outrageous PROGRAMMING Outrageous Programming is a coordinated advancement philosophy that centers around the basic exercises required to manufacture programming. Like other dexterous procedures it likewise underpins the advancement in little emphasess after a work item is accessible to be discharged. Dissimilar to conventional SDLC, outrageous programming doesn't bolster various periods of necessity assembling , investigation, structure and advancement rather it advocates a situation where the customer is the piece of the group and all the periods of SDLC are executed at the same time in iterative steady request. DSDM Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM) is a product improvement technique initially dependent on the strategy for fast application advancement. DSDM is a steady and iterative procedure that centers around ceaseless client coordinated effort. Its will likely convey programming frameworks on time and as per the money related plans while altering for prerequisite changes alongside the advancement procedure. Among every deft system DSDM is an essential philosophy of Agile Alliance. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DSDM ] RUP The Rational Unified Process (RUP) is an iterative programming improvement process structure made by the Rational Software Corporation, a division of IBM since 2003[http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Desktops-and-Notebooks/IBM-Acquires-Rational/]. The RUP is a four-stage (initiation, elaboration, development, change), prescriptive procedure whose extension is programming advancement. The EUP stretches out the RUP to make it an undeniable IT process. The EUP includes two stages, creation and retirement. In addition to the fact that you need to create frameworks, you additionally need to run them underway and possibly even expel them from creation sooner or later. [The Object Primer, Third Edition,Scott W. Ambler 2004] Correlation In spite of the fact that there are numerous other spry techniques, for example, Feature Driven Development, ICONIX, PRINCE2, Lean Software Development and Crysatal yet for the examination of the exercises we have chosen four most utilized deft philosophies which incorporate Extreme Programming, SCRUM, DSDM and RUP. Extraordinary Programming is a progressive strategy which centers around the cross utilitarian programming advancement process and tending to the center programming designing practices, for example, examination, improvement and testing. It has XP a considerable effect to the nature of the final result. SCRUM is likewise a coordinated structure, which centers for the most part around how to oversee assignments inside a cross useful group condition. Before AGILE there was a light weight philosophy called DSDM. At the point when Agile was formulated a considerable lot of the DSDM standards were incorporated in the nimble improvement strategy [http://www.agile-programming development.com/2007/02/10-things-you-have to-think about-agile.html] Arranging And Requirement Gathering In extraordinary programming, so as to design an undertaking, we should know something about the necessities, however we dont need to know without a doubt. For arranging purposes, we have to know just enough about a prerequisite to evaluate it. In SCRUM same is being dealt with by Product Owner And Team commonly concurring on the advancement of the arranging of the things dependent on the item accumulation. In DSDM there is a different Elaboration stage to assemble the necessity and plan the stages likewise. RUP has an Inception Phase, Business process re-building is an intricate undertaking, and the RUP just gives procedures to business demonstrating, not for the supporting procedure. Assuming, be that as it may, the business procedure is straightforward or surely known, its conceivable that chip away at it might be attempted in the initiation stage. If so, an increasingly perplexing beginning stage will be required. [www.scribd.com/doc/41162/Planning-a-venture with-RUP] Determination Artifacts The experiments and code advance together in extraordinary programming, with the experiments driving the code by an extremely little division subsequently; an exceptionally complete assortment of experiments develops alongside the code. These tests permit the software engineers to check whether the program works. Significant ancient rarities in SCRUM are Sprint overabundance, Product Backlog, Sprint Burn down Charts. Item build-up contains [Deemer.P and Benefield.G, SCRUM PRIMER, 2006] highlights (empower all clients to put book in shopping basket), improvement prerequisites (revise the exchange preparing module to make it adaptable), exploratory work (research answers for accelerating charge card approval), what's more, known bugs (analyze and fix the request preparing content blunders). DSDM has various relics that are made and develops with the venture. These relics incorporate Feasibility Reports, Non-Functional Requirements, Business necessities, Review meeting records, Systems Architecture Definition, Development Plan, Functional Model, Implementation Plan, Test records, User documentation, Project Review Document. In RUP Use case model, Supplementary prerequisites, Use case (Describes a help gave by the framework), User interface model (Simulates the UI, as characterized and testable by clients) Functional test (Tests the usefulness expected to meet a specific necessity), Development condition (Sets up the advancement condition and oversees changes to this condition) Progress To gauge the group progress in outrageous programming there is a controlling group, record progress outline is utilized. SCRUM meeting, torch outline in SCRUM, Big obvious diagrams in DSDM and in RUP characterized hotspots for venture pointers. Characterized edges for the undertaking pointers. coding In extraordinary programming Code is composed by sets of developers cooperating at a similar workstation. One individual from each pair drives the console and types the code. The jobs change much of the time. In SCRUM same is finished by the ability And Commitment Of Team. In DSDM at first a Design Prototype is made which is tried by the client after the approval of Design the tried System is given over to the following stage. In RUP Coding is done on the bases of the accessible use cases, long use cases might be separated in to a few cycles [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DSDM#Stage_3:_Design_and_Build_Iteration http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RUP] Testing As talked about before in outrageous programming All

Assessing Students with Special Needs

Evaluating Students with Special Needs Evaluating understudies with learning incapacities can be testing. A few understudies, for example, those with ADHD and mental imbalance, battle with testing circumstances and can't stay at task sufficiently long to finish such evaluations. Be that as it may, appraisals are significant; they give the youngster a chance to show information, aptitude, and comprehension. For most students with exceptionalities, a paper-and-pencil undertaking ought to be at the base of the rundown of appraisal techniques. The following are some other proposals that help and improve appraisal of learning incapacitated understudies. Introduction An introduction is a verbal exhibit of expertise, information, and comprehension. The kid can describe or address inquiries concerning her assignment. Introduction can likewise appear as conversation, banter or an absolutely interrogatory trade. A few kids may require a little gathering or one-on-one setting; numerous understudies with incapacities are scared by bigger gatherings. In any case, dont markdown the introduction. With continuous chances, understudies will start to sparkle. Meeting A meeting is a one-on-one between the instructor and the understudy. The instructor will provoke and sign the understudy to decide the degree of comprehension and information. Once more, this removes the weight from composed errands. The meeting ought to be to some degree casual to comfort the understudy. The emphasis ought to be on the understudy sharing thoughts, thinking or clarifying an idea. This is a very valuable type of developmental appraisal. Meeting A meeting causes an educator to explain the degree of comprehension for a particular reason, movement or learning idea. An instructor ought to have inquiries as a primary concern to ask the understudy. A great deal can be learned through a meeting, however they can be tedious. Perception Watching an understudy in the learning condition is an amazing appraisal strategy. It can likewise be the vehicle for the instructor to change or upgrade a particular educating procedure. Perception should be possible in a little gathering setting while the kid is occupied with learning errands. Things to search for include: Does the youngster persevere? Surrender without any problem? Have an arrangement set up? Search for help? Attempt exchange procedures? Become anxious? Search for patterns?â Execution Task An exhibition task is a learning task that the youngster can do while the educator evaluates his presentation. For instance, an educator may request that an understudy take care of a math issue by introducing a word issue and asking the kid inquiries about it. During the undertaking, the instructor is searching for aptitude and capacity just as the childs demeanor toward the errand. Does he stick to past systems or is there proof of hazard adopting in the strategy? Self-Assessment Its consistently positive for understudies to have the option to recognize their own qualities and shortcomings. Whenever the situation allows, self-evaluation can lead the understudy to a superior feeling of comprehension of her own learning. The educator ought to pose some managing inquiries that can prompt this disclosure.

Fed Ex Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Taken care of Ex - Case Study Example The way in to the accomplishment of these arrangements is that FedEx centers upon characteristics, for example, speed, cooperation, and accuracy to grow the company’s worldwide intrigue. FedEx the board supports creative musings from its regular workers since it comprehends the worth that they bring to the table. This shows how FedEx is such a genuine case of the board who lead their staff in the correct manner. FedEx likewise comprehends the significance of compensating workers with the goal that their inspiration levels will remain high. This is an indication of good initiative since it compensates great conduct through additional impetuses. Some of FedEx’s prizes and acknowledgments programs are the Humanitarian Award, Five Star Award, and the HR Award of Excellence. Rather than being a reactionary organization, FedEx is a proactive organization that is continually searching for approaches to improve working conditions for its representatives. This is most likely why FedEx is an industry head, since it is continually thinking of imaginative approaches to rouse staff to perform to the best of their

Compare and Contrast Your College and University Essay

Compare and Contrast Your College and University EssayIf you are a college student or graduate student looking for college and university essays to compare and contrast with, then I have some advice for you. Do not put all your eggs in one basket, because the basket may not be full enough to create an essay of worth. Here are some tips to help you become a better essay writer and use your college and university essays to compare and contrast with.- Where do you want to go with your college and university writing? Are you trying to write about a particular topic for a course you are taking? Or are you writing an essay to compare and contrast with a sample? The answer to this question will determine how you can best compare and contrast a specific college essay and sample.- Do you want to write an essay that is a comparative analysis, or can you give a more detailed description of the examples and samples that you found? If you want to have a more detailed description and think you nee d to put more emphasis on the particular example and samples, then you should follow the guidelines below.- When do you decide that the examples and samples are more than just an echo of what you wanted to say? Once you make this decision, it will become easier to pick out and compare and contrast between them. Look at them closely and think about how much emphasis to put on each sample. To really get an idea of how to compare and contrast a college and university essay, you have to really dig deep into your brain and figure out what your ideas are.- Do you want to look at each sample in more detail? It might be a good idea to take out each sample and look at each paragraph of it, and then break it down to see how important each paragraph is to your essay. Sometimes you may find that it is a very strong paragraph, while at other times it might bea weak paragraph.- What do you find most interesting about the college and university examples and samples? This is an important question t o ask yourself when you are looking for an example of the college and university example that you are comparing and contrasting with.Once you understand this process, it will be much easier to find and compare and contrast college and university examples and samples with a clear focus on the areas of your essay that you want to be more in depth about. You may also find that there are a few items of commonality between the college and university examples and samples that you find. By placing a little more emphasis on the commonality, it will make it easier to easily compare and contrast between the college and university samples and examples.

20 Famous Female Architects

Graduation Speech High School - 1049 Words

It is often believed that during high school, everyone changes, wither it’s in a good way or a bad way, we all change. I was that typical high school cheerleader that didn’t care about her grades, I just wanted to have fun with friends and brush by school with C’s, but I was okay with it during those times. It was the beginning of senior year, when we had re-tryouts for the cheer team. I was nervous when the try-out day came along, but I had confidence in myself. I was waiting in the try-out line until I heard my number being called. â€Å"Number 33 is up next† yelled one of the judges. I started sweating before I walked onto the stage. It was dead silent, I could feel the heat of the spotlight and the eyes of the judges all over me.†¦show more content†¦During halftime, my mom came down to talk to me. â€Å"Tori why are you sitting out?† said mom. I tried to make up a lie as fast as I could, but my coach was right next to me, so the truth had to come out. â€Å"I..I did bad on my math test, but I’m cheering the next half, so it’s okay.† I said. â€Å"Are you serious tori? That’s really embarrassing .† said mom. â€Å"I know mom I’m sorry† I said â€Å"Don’t apologize to me, it’s your grade and your game† said mom She walked away and went home. I was upset with myself and I wanted to go home, but I knew my mom was going to want to talk to me about school. After the game was over, I got a ride with some friends and they took me home. I walked into my house and it was very dim, there was one lamp on, I could barely see my mom sitting in the corner of the living room on her phone. â€Å"I don’t like how you’re not caring about your grades; it’s your senior year and colleges are going to be looking at your applications.† said Mom. â€Å"You didn’t go to college, why is it a big deal for me to go?† I replied. â€Å"Because I want you to be better than me† said Mom. â€Å"I’m trying mom† I answered, as I slowly walked towards my room to get the conversation over with. â€Å"No you’re not† Mom replied. â€Å"I’ll try harder, I promise† I said, ending the conversation. A few months went by, and colleges started to reply to everyone’s applications, but mine. I would come home every day to see if any mail has come in for me, but thereShow MoreRelatedGraduation Speech : High School934 Words   |  4 Pageslife would be graduation. For many people, graduating from high school is an objective. 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It is necessary that they understand how responsible they need to be with the freedom that is being offered to them. When choosing what college or university to attend it may be tempting to want to go to a school thatRead MoreGraduation Speech : High School Graduation1507 Words   |  7 PagesForest English 1010 9/9/2014 Graduation During our lives, most of us have hated getting up early. Whether we as humans enjoy mornings or not, we’re always looking forward to that unforgettable day. That special is high school graduation for me. Graduation is a ceremony that recognizes students that have excelled through school. Graduation was one of the best days of my life, perhaps even better than the day that I started college. There is no other day like graduation where there comes this feelingRead MoreGraduation Speech : High School Graduation933 Words   |  4 PagesHigh School Graduation With regards to high school graduation, Balfanz, Herzog, and Iver (2007) followed 12,972 Philadelphia students enrolled in traditional middle schools from six grade (1996-1997) until 1 year beyond their expected graduation from high school (2003-2004) in order to understand what indicators would affect their projected graduation date. Unlike many of the early K-8 schools, the population Balfanz et al followed consisted of 64% African American, 19% White, 12% Hispanic,Read MoreGraduation Speech On High School Graduation851 Words   |  4 PagesThere Is No Success Without The Opportunity to Fail High School graduation can be an exciting time in a student’s life. It is a time when they begin to experience the kind of freedom that comes along with growing up. 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Behavior Modification And Principles Samples †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Behavior Modification And Principles. Answer: Introduction Behavior modification is an approach that is systematic and is directed at changing a behavior by applying principles of conditioning (Weisten et al., 2013). A behavior is achieved through conditioning, learning, and environmental control. This approach assumes that people can unlearn what they learned reconditioning (Bandura, 2007). This behavior modification as mentioned above is systematic and has five steps. Step one; specifying your target behavior. Step two; Gathering baseline data. Step three; designing your program. Step four; executing and evaluating the program. Step five; preparing my report. The first step involves an acknowledgment that one has a problem which is affecting their daily life and they need help. The second step involves gathering information on the problem. What aggravates and hinders the behavior. With all this information it is easier to come up with a strategy to deal with the problem. The reinforcers, punishers and control antecedents. With all this one can design a program with a stipulated time. In mine, it took three weeks. If behavior change is not achieved within the specified time it can be extended. It should adhere to the later. There are ways to ensure adherence is maintained. For example getting social support, a sponsor, focus group. After the stipulated time an evaluation is done in most cases there is the modification of behavior if there was adherence. Target behavior There are eight psychosocial development stages which begin from infancy to adulthood. The sixth stage is intimacy vs isolation. It targets young adults between the ages of 18-40 years. The basic virtue targeted here is love. If this stage is not attained/completed well it leads to loneliness, depression, and isolation. The hindrance to successful achievement/ completion of this stage includes masturbation, being in a bad relationship (where one is being treated badly, beaten, and cheated on) (Kendra, 2017; Sackett, 2010). The target behavior I would like to change is masturbating. I am in the age group of stage 6 development. Masturbating takes three to five hours weekly. As days go by the urge to do it increases. This means an increment in the hours. This is affecting my school. The concentration at class is poor. It is affecting my sexual life (Lipstick and McCann 2013). The long-term effect is worse as it will affect my psychosocial development. If this behavior continues I will not attain intimacy and I will end up lonely, depressed and isolated. It will affect my body image. Myself esteem (Shulman and Home, 2014). It will also affect attainment of other stages. This behavior should be modified before it causes more damage. Baseline data In baseline data there three things that I did put into consideration. I identified possible controlling antecedents, the initial level of response and lastly possible control consequences. Last one week all I did was gather baseline data. The hours I did masturbate. The antecedents (the events that preceded masturbation) and lastly what made me not masturbate, the hindrances. From the findings, it was clear that I was having a problem. Masturbating is affecting my academic and social life. It is affecting my sexual relationship life (Hurlbert and Whittaker, 2012). If this behavior goes on it endangers my future. I asked myself questions that guided me to gather the information. How many hours does it consume? I'm I guilt for doing it? Do I want to have a change? Does it affect my daily activities? Is it affecting my performance at school? When/ what makes me do it? What hinders me from doing it? The answers to this question gave me a baseline to the design of the program to modify m y behavior. The chart above shows the hour's masturbation consumes daily. An average of five hours daily. That is almost a fifth of my day. The third day the hours are lower because I was preoccupied with a continuous assessment test CAT. The revision took most of my hours. On the seventh day being a family day, I did not have time to do it. I spent the whole day with my family. The antecedents to my behavior are; being alone, after watching a romantic movie, taking a warm shower and lastly being idle (Pinkerton, S 2013). The control consequences are being busy, staying with a friend, avoiding romantic movies/novels, taking cold showers and lastly rewarding myself when a day passes without masturbating or when I conquer an urge to masturbate. Program design This is the third step. This is the intervention stage. Having identified the specific problem, the baseline data that is the control consequences, the initial responses and lastly the antecedents. With this, I will be able to come up with a program design to reduce masturbation and later on stop masturbation. To achieve this the following is required; reinforcement, control antecedents, and punishment. The reinforcers, in this case, will be those things that will strengthen the behavior of not masturbating and decrease the behavior of masturbating. Reinforcers are the responses from the environment which brings an increase in the probability of a behavior being repeated. The behavior can be negative or positive. Punishers, on the other hand, are the environmental responses that bring a decrease in the likelihood of the target behavior being repeated. Punishment weakens a behavior. Punishment cannot be used alone as it will cause nonadherence. It is usually combined with positive rei nforcement. The reward reinforcement. In my case what is the reinforcer? This is the questions that will help me come up with the reinforcers. What kind of praises do I like? What kind of things do I like? What are my major interests? What makes me relax? What makes me have fun? Whenever I have extra dollars, how do I spend them? What do I buy? What are my fantasy and dreams? (Watson et al, 1997). With all this analysis I came up a reinforcer. Every time I overcome an urge to masturbate I will be rewarding myself with chocolates. The expensive chocolates, I will be sampling different flavors and different brands. The punishers, in this case, if I am unable to control the urges I will be punishing myself by not taking chicken which is my favorite and substituting it with vegetables. For a punishment to be effective it should be mild so that I can stick to it and also so that I can be able to administer it myself. The third thing in the program design is the control of antecedents. Th is is the control of those things that directly or indirectly promote the behavior. In this case, it is those things that encourage masturbation. As mentioned earlier they are; idleness, being alone, romantic movies and novels and lastly long warm showers. To bring an end to masturbation. I should avoid long warm showers and alternatively take cold showers. I should not allow myself to be idle. I should keep myself busy. Whenever that thought comes up I should channel it into something useful (sublimation). For example, go for a jog, read a book. Avoid romantic movies/novels at all cost until I recover. Another way to achieve my goal is through aversion, which is, inflicting pain in my body whenever I get an urge to do it. For example through pinching myself hard. The design is by having reinforcers, punishers, control antecedents, aversions, and sublimation. With this, it will be possible to decrease the behavior and ultimately achieve the goal of stopping the behavior. Program execution This step involves putting the designed program to a test. The successfulness of this program depends on ones ability not to cheat on themselves. There are two ways to be used to ensure that there is no cheating. One is by having a behavioral contract, this is, writing a promise to adhere to the contingencies that are meant to modify the behavior (Janz et l., 2011). I drafted my goals and aims. The objectives were to be met in three weeks. Week one the target was to reduce the masturbating hours by half. The second week reduce it by two and the third week not to masturbate. The second way to ensure there is adherence is by having some else reward me and punish me when required or specified by the program ( Weisten, 2013). Gerber et al. (1986) state that to have a successful modification of behavior adherence is key. For one to achieve adherence the following should be achieved, have a collaborative framework, problem-solving approach, focusing on behavior, social support, stress inoc ulation and relapse prevention (Davis, 2009). Masturbating is not something I can just open up and tell someone, people judge (Coleman, E., 2015). To get someone to walk with me through this journey was hard but all in all, I had to tell someone so as to get social support which will, in turn, help me in adherence. I joined a sex addiction association where all people with sexual problems meet twice a week. I met people with worse sexual problems than me, people who have made it stop masturbating. I was able to get someone to help me through the journey (sponsor). My sponsor's responsibility was to ensure I recover by making sure I follow my designed program. Objectives By the end of week one, I should have cut the masturbating hours by half (less than 2.5 hours). By the end of week two, the masturbating hours should be less than 1.5 hours. By the end of week three, I should not be masturbating at all. Adherence plan For these objectives to be attained. Adherence is key. I used the seven phases of adherence to the designed program. With this structure I was able to identify motivators, create an expectancy of success, be able to establish priorities when it comes to self-care, be able to assess the effectiveness of the plan, have an activation towards success and change, and be able to deal with the effect of feeling helplessness and passivity. The program design execution. Week one Day Hours of masturbating Challenges Reward Punishment 1 5 Urges were so strong. I couldnt stop myself. I spent my leisure hours alone watching a lovely series. __________ For supper that day I took a vegetable salad 2 4.5 I did not masturbate in the morning, I went jogging. In the afternoon and evening, I couldn't help myself. A bar of Jacques Torres No chicken a fruit salad and fruits for supper. 3 3.8 I did not masturbate in the afternoon. I spent the whole afternoon in the library (a public place) Two bars of Jacques Torres __________ 4 3.5 I did not masturbate in the morning and afternoon. As usual in the morning I went for a jog. In the afternoon I went swimming in a public pool. Three bars La Maison du chocolate I pinched myself so hard whenever I found myself thinking about touching myself. In the evening I had to take a warm shower, it was so cold. Thats how I started touching. 5 2.5 No masturbation in the morning and afternoon, as usual, I went jogging and in the afternoon I went to a public place. 4 bars of Vosges Haut Chocolates I pinched myself hard after masturbating while in bed. I also had vegetables for supper. 6 2 Masturbation at night. 5 bars of Richard Donnelly Chocolate My best friend visited me and we watched a romantic movie which made me get a strong urge. I couldnt stop myself. 7 0 No masturbation A whole packet of Chuaos Chocolatier It was a Sunday. I spent most of the day with my family. Week two Day Hours masturbating Challenges Reward Punishment 8 3 It was raining heavily I couldnt go jogging. I did masturbate twice. Morning and evening. ___________ Supper was vegetables. 9 2 Had a long day, had no minute to think about it. It only happened in the evening. 4 bars of Debauve and Gallais Pinching myself hard and taking vegetables. 10 1.8 Happened in the evening. I was alone at my cubicle did not even fight the urge. 5 bars of Pierre Marcollin Pinching myself hard and taking vegetables. 11 1.5 Felt a strong urge in the evening. Tried to pinch myself but the urge could not go away so I went ahead doing it. 6 bars of Richard chocolate Pinching myself hard and taking vegetables. 12 1 Had lots of assignments which consumed a lot of time reducing my free time to touch myself. A whole packet of Godiva G collection Pinching myself hard and taking vegetables. 13 1 Came back to my room so tired. I had been hiking all day so had little time to shower did it only when I was taking a shower. A pack of Delafee Pinching myself hard and taking vegetables. 14 0 It was a Sunday. I spent most of the day with my family. A pack of Noka vintage collection ___________ Week three Day Hours used in masturbation Challenges Reward Punishment 15 0 The urge to touch me is so strong. A pack of chocopologies by Knipschildt I pinch myself and remind myself of the goal. 16 0 The urge is strong although my aims to achieve the goal is more important. A pack of Chuao I pinch myself and remind myself of the goal. 17 0 I did not think of masturbating the whole day. Have only thought of it now when writing this. A pack of Richard Donnelly __________ 18 0 No urge or thoughts to touch myself. A pack of Debauve and Gallais __________ 19 0 No urge or thoughts to touch myself. A pack of Richart __________ 20 0 No urge or thoughts to touch myself. A pack of Richard Donnelly __________ 21 0 No urge or thoughts to touch myself. A pack of Pierre ___________ Conclusion and evaluation Accepting that one has a problem is the number one step to healing (Marlatt, 2013). Masturbating had been taking a lot of my time. A minimum of five hours daily. This is a lot of hours considering I have to study and attend classes. At first, it did not bother me. The thrill to rush home and touch myself was intoxicating. I remember skipping classes to go and do it. Lagging behind in my studies, the fact that I could not maintain any relationship I got into and the fear of isolation in future made me want to change my behavior. With the help of this unit and also a group I joined after the studying modifying behavior. I was equipped with the knowledge and skills on modifying behavior. I was able to come up with a strategy. I gathered enough baseline data then came up with a design program. The design program was a success. I was able to modify my behavior within the three weeks. My sponsor was of great help through the journey. He encouraged me to move on and also he helped me in adh ering to the schedule through rewarding and punishment. Week one had so many challenges. So many setbacks. The urges were so strong. Masturbating was deeply rooted in me. Using the adherence table, reinforces in combination with punishers, having a written design program and a sponsor made it a success. The reward by the end of the day made me not masturbate. The morning jogging is what prevents me from touching myself in the morning. Most of the afternoon I am usually very busy; I either go to the library, mall, and charity work, church or malls. I avoid spending my afternoons alone and idle. This has been effective in curbing the afternoon habit. The evening habit, was hard letting it go. At evening I sleep alone and the urges were really strong. To prevent touching, I had to make sure I was really tired during the day so that when I enter the bed I just fall dead asleep before I thought about masturbating. This plan worked really well. I feel so good about myself. The five hours I used to direct in this habit, I use it for self-care. I exercise more, I use my leisure time studying or helping the society. Unexpected experiences This was a very bold step in my life. I did not even think it will be effective. I did put my all in it. The energy, prayers and time. I was committed. The shame and fear of saying that I used to masturbate are no longer in me. I started blogging about overcoming masturbation. If I conquered masturbating, anyone else can do it. All is required is a commitment, prayers and forging forward. I can stand at church and school clubs and talk about its effects, causes, and ways of stopping the habit. This is a great achievement. I am actually planning to go see the dean. The school should register a group of those having sexual disorders who find it difficult to communicate. They should be provided with platforms where they can share their experiences and get solutions. From the group I attend, sexual addition association. I have been given someone to sponsor. I am so proud of myself. Behavior modification in healthcare context In health care, so many patients brought to seek medical care express a desire to change/modify their behavior. The behaviors they desire to change includes, sexual addiction, alcoholism, smoking, aggressiveness, substance use addiction. To have a successful change the health care provider (me), I should help the patient identify the problem. Help them gather the baseline data. Help them formulate the program design. Execute the program. Evaluate the program. Rosenstock, (1985) for success in modifying a behavior adherence to the design program is key. To have adherence the following are the guidelines I would use to ensure the patient follows. One, every patient is unique, they all have different knowledge levels, beliefs, attitudes, and expectations. To have compliance I have to educate them, get to know their expectancy and deal with all the misconceptions. Two, learning happens best when done in bits that is incremental. The changes should be over a given time not abrupt. Use of reinforcers motivates the patients. Behaviors that were acquired long time ago will tend to take longer to be left. In this case, the patient should continue to be encouraged. Learning involves both the cognitive and the intellectual parts. To have effective learning and compliance the patient education should always be there (Davis, 2009). Should ensure they get social support through this journey. With this, they will be able to achieve behavior modification. References Bandura, A., (2007). Self-efficacy towards a unifying theory of behavioral changes. Psychology review. Edition 104, pg. 191-215 Coleman, E., (2015). Masturbating as a means of achieving sexual health. Journal of human psychology and human sexuality. Ed 14(2), pg. 5-16 Cummings K., et al., (2009). Psychosocial factors affecting adherence to medical regimens. Medical care. Ed 20. Pg. 567-580. Davis. A., (2009) Variation in patients compliance with doctors orders: analyses of congruence between survey responses. Journal of medical education. Vol. 51, pg. 1037- 1057 Epstein, L. H., Valoski, A., Wing, R. R., McCauley, J. (1994). Ten-year outcomes of behavioral family-based treatment Hurlbert, F., Whittaker, K., (2012). The role of masturbation in marital and sexual satisfaction: A comparative study of female masturbators and non-masturbators.Journal of Sex Education Therapy, ed.17, pg.272-282. Janz, N., Becker, M., Hartman P., (2011). Contingency contracting to enhance patients compliance. Patient Education Counseling. Ed 5. pg. 165-175 Kaplan, R., Robinson, E., French, J., (2012) Adhering to the medical regimen. Institute for social research. Lipstick, J., McCann, D., (2013). Male psychogenic sexual dysfunction: The role of masturbation. Sexual and relationship therapy. Edition 25(2) pg. 448-471 Marlatt, G., Gordon, J., (2013). Determinants of relapse; implications for the maintenance of behavior change. Behavioral medicine. Edition 7, pg. 131-164 Martin, G., Pear, J. (2011). Behavior modification: What it is and how to do it. Boston, MA: Pearson Education. ENT for childhood obesity. Health Psychology, edition 13(5), pg. 373-383. Pinkerton, S., et al., (2013). Factors associated with masturbation in a collegiate sample.Journal of human psychology and sexual orientation. Edition 14, pg. 154-163. Rosenstock, I.M. (1985). Understanding and enhancing patient compliance with diabetic regimens. Diabetes Care, edition 8, pg. 610-616 Sackett, D., (2010). The magnitude of compliance and non-compliance. In compliance with the therapeutic regimen. The John Hopkins University Press. Edition 3, pg. 9-25. Shulman, J., Home, S., (2014). The use of self-pleasure: Masturbation and body image. Psychology of men quarterly. Ed 27(3), pg. 262-269. Watson, D. L., Tharp, R. G. (2014). Self-directed behavior: Self-modification for personal adjustment. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Edition 10. Weiten, W. (2013). Psychology: Themes and variations Belmont, CA: Cengage/Wadsworth. 9th Ed.)

The Struggles of Writing the Personal Statement

Does everyonehave an obvious story to write about for their personal statements? No. When you read the final essay, it might seem like the writer had it all figured it out from the start. But, the truth is almost everyone struggles with the personal statement at first. Take it from Mazoo, USC 19heres her experience:After a few minutes spent blankly staring at a blank word doc, you’d think you would come to the realization that it’s impossible to sum up the whole of a complex human being in 500 words. Well, it took me something more like a few weeks, but eventually the epiphany came. Yet even then, I had no idea what I was doing—personal statement? What could I possibly write? I’d never experienced an absolutely life-changing moment or battled my way through poignant tragedy or won a Nobel Peace Prize. Still haven’t, to be honest. So I cast prompt to the side for a while and in the end simply chose the most versatile one (about identity), crafting my own topic to fit. But let’s tell the story from the beginning: I started with abstractions, brainstorming the personal qualities and ideas I wanted to showcase: aspirations, capacity for perseverance, quirkiness, curiosity, and the like. If you’re initially unsure what exactly to write about, I think it’s actually incredibly helpful to begin this way, since as immaterial as it might seem, this provides you with some sense of direction. From there, I searched for a significant concrete experience to ground my ideas in. Significance was difficult for me to find—at first I found myself looking for heroism where there was none, essentially seeking that Nobel Peace Prize I had never even earned. I must have sat for hours at a time internally debating the single perfect topic I could expand on. It’s funny the way ideas often come to you when you’re not really intensely looking for them, though. Eventually I went on a walk one day and spontaneously thought up a perfect simple metaphor—genes—that tied in with my search for confidence, my personal characteristics, my summer research experience, and my future goals. Killing two birds with one stone? I killed four. That really seems too easy, right? Yet looking back, I think it makes sense that the best ideas pop up during times of relaxation and in environments of calm inspiration. Essentially I built the bare foundation for my personal statement—the abstract messages I wanted to convey—and then let the overarching inspiration come in its own time. Sitting there with a stumped expression won’t do you any good—take it from the girl who has wasted hours upon unproductive hours doing exactly that. If you’re stuck, go on a walk; paint a picture; do something completely unrelated that stimulates creativity. That’s what will give you the most unexpected of ideas, the ones that stand out and tie an essay together with unprecedented cohesion. And when the idea you’ve been looking for comes, just sit down and let the words flow. Want to read the final version of the essay that got her accepted to USC? You can unlock her profileand read her full application. For more inspiration, make sure to search through profiles of students accepted to see essays, stats, and advice. See how they got in, and how you can too!

Free Essays on The Man Who Was Almost a Man

â€Å"The Man Who Was Almost a Man† by Richard Wright, In this story, the main character Dave expresses his needs to be acknowledged as an adult. I do not think he was prepared at all to become an adult, he just thought he was. Some of the biggest objects that held him back were not being able to handle problems, the characters in his surroundings, and his immature actions. Dave exhibits his immaturity and the fact that he is not yet an adult and cannot handle adult problems. His actions lead him into trouble that proves the fact that he is still an adolescent who cannot handle problems of the adult world. When Dave was faced with real problems of the everyday world, he just ran away from them. The characters around Dave make him feel like he is still a child. He wants to purchase a gun to feel more powerful. In the beginning of this story, Dave talks about how a gun would change the way people acted towards him. He feels that if he owns this power, the men in the field who work with him will have more respect for him, and his mother will start treating him as an adult. Dave feels as if he is surrounded by people who treat him as a child and he does not like this at all. â€Å"You ain’t nothing but a boy. You don’t need a gun.† This statement said by Joe, is the main reason why Dave truly wants a gun, to feel independent. Although Dave wants to be acknowledged as an adult, his actions are very immature and childlike. The act of asking his mother for a gun and feeling as though he cannot ask his dad for the gun for fear of rejection, gives you an example of immaturity. Dave’s challenge to his mother’s rules is another example of immaturity. Dave’s mother agrees to allow Dave to buy the gun as long as he promises to bring it straight to her. He agrees to this, although he does not go along with her wish. The next morning, Dave set out to the fields early to shoot his gun. He ends up accidentally killing Mr. Hawkins mule, Jenn... Free Essays on The Man Who Was Almost a Man Free Essays on The Man Who Was Almost a Man â€Å"The Man Who Was Almost a Man† by Richard Wright, In this story, the main character Dave expresses his needs to be acknowledged as an adult. I do not think he was prepared at all to become an adult, he just thought he was. Some of the biggest objects that held him back were not being able to handle problems, the characters in his surroundings, and his immature actions. Dave exhibits his immaturity and the fact that he is not yet an adult and cannot handle adult problems. His actions lead him into trouble that proves the fact that he is still an adolescent who cannot handle problems of the adult world. When Dave was faced with real problems of the everyday world, he just ran away from them. The characters around Dave make him feel like he is still a child. He wants to purchase a gun to feel more powerful. In the beginning of this story, Dave talks about how a gun would change the way people acted towards him. He feels that if he owns this power, the men in the field who work with him will have more respect for him, and his mother will start treating him as an adult. Dave feels as if he is surrounded by people who treat him as a child and he does not like this at all. â€Å"You ain’t nothing but a boy. You don’t need a gun.† This statement said by Joe, is the main reason why Dave truly wants a gun, to feel independent. Although Dave wants to be acknowledged as an adult, his actions are very immature and childlike. The act of asking his mother for a gun and feeling as though he cannot ask his dad for the gun for fear of rejection, gives you an example of immaturity. Dave’s challenge to his mother’s rules is another example of immaturity. Dave’s mother agrees to allow Dave to buy the gun as long as he promises to bring it straight to her. He agrees to this, although he does not go along with her wish. The next morning, Dave set out to the fields early to shoot his gun. He ends up accidentally killing Mr. Hawkins mule, Jenn...

Reflection paper on a comparison of the narrative Ararat by A. Egoyan Essay

Reflection paper on a comparison of the narrative Ararat by A. Egoyan and documentary AGHET(catastrophe) - Essay Example Although they rarely take part in solving these problems, they provide an avenue of addressing these problems. Many films, targeting the social arena focus on issues such as drug abuse, crime, prostitution, child abuse among others. Further, they suggest solutions to these issues. Other films shed light on the certain important issues among us. While some are investigative, others base their ideas on research. Such are the kinds of films that either seeks to unearth certain phenomena affecting our current society. In various instances, we disregard film directors whenever they come up with a science fiction movie, creatively directed and produced to entertain us. Few are the times when we however disregard films when they address reality. This remains the biggest role played by the two films discussed in this essay, the narrative Ararat and AGHET Documentary. Based on the same idea, these two films mainly address the same topic, which is the Armenian Genocide. Approaches used by thes e films’ directors form the only difference in the films. While the Ararat is an acted narrative, the AGHET is a documentary of various accounts of witnesses during the genocide. They thus boost the human rights campaign, just as other films focusing on the social issues have done. Commonly referred to as the Armenian genocide, actions by Ottoman’s government of systematically exterminating a majority of the Armenian subjects from their historic homeland in the current State of Turkey define the genocide. The genocide took place in two phases. One of them was the mass murder of all bodied men in the region, as well as subjection to forced hard labour. The second phase was the deportation of women, children and the elderly where they were marched to the Syrian Desert, leading to numerous deaths. This was an inhumane way of dealing with these subjects. What was so important, leave along the political power and supremacy to warrant such actions to the people? For a long t ime, power hungry individuals have sacrificed innocent citizens for their individual selfish gains. Since the time of evolution, as revealed by Darwin, people and animals have had to override on others for success. This however did not warrant the Germans to treat people with the heightened levels of cruelty portrayed by the films during the genocide. Nothing justifies the actions of Ottoman Turk and his administrators to the Armenians during the genocide that claimed at least one and half people. Observers and experts describe the Armenian genocide as the first ever genocide to occur in the modern world. Owing to the organised manner in which the Ottoman’s administrators conducted the massacre to eliminate the Armenians, this is one of the most studied cases in the world so far from the holocaust. This forms the main reason why the filming of the events took place, 96 years later after their happening. They are still very significant to the world until this day. The effects of the genocide felt among the Armenians 98 years later after it took place shows the depth of the matter. The genocide started on the 24th April 1915 when Ottoman’s army arrested at least 250 Armenians and took them away from their homes. This day, commonly referred to as the Red Sunday was the night, which the interior minister Mehmed Talaat ordered the army to arrest and move to two holdings in Ankara, all notable Armenian leaders. However, the Tehcir War of 29th May 1915 led

Audit Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words - 2

Audit - Essay Example Auditing procedure is also applicable in case of stock and inventory management because this is also an area where high chances of corruption take place. Many organization has own internal audit department by which the company can control and monitor business activities after certain period or as and when necessary. External auditors will generally visit any company once in a year to provide more biased free judgment about the financial position of the company. Independent reports are required by auditor to increase the faith of stake holders on the company’s activities and attract more amount of capital for the purpose of business. For the above mentioned reasons rotation of auditors are also important which is recognized as precaution to save the interests of all the parties who are related in the business activities. Auditor rotation also can be said as independence of auditor and this method can be applied on both internal and external auditors. At the time of conducting audit of any particular company day after day or year after year then he will get information about all the strategies the company has taken or will going to take. They can make friendly relationship with the management and employees of the organization which will affect to provide unbiased opinion about the current condition of the company (Loughran, 2010). So this is clear that auditor rotation is required for the independent opinion of auditors. There are generally 3 types auditor can be observed. These are external audit, internal audit and audit committee. In case of internal auditor independence means bias free opinion from those parties whose interests may be affected by the audit operation or the disclosure of auditor’s report (Clayman, Fridson and Troughton, 2012). Poor governance, inadequate risk management, inadequate internal control etc. are few reasons where

Ancient Greeks Essay Example for Free

Ancient Greeks Essay Greek ages were a very unforgiving religious era. Athens was the capital of Greece. Ancient Greeks interpreted the bible and other religious teachings very literally. Kings and their followers believed they were obligated to impersonate the gods. Greek theatre lasted a short time. The changes resulting from the Greek era are infinite. In 1677, Jean Racine, created Phedre. The film was a violent tragedy. The main characters were; Phedre, Wife of the King; Theseus, King of Athens; Hippolytes; Son of the king; Aricia; Princess Hippolytus falls in love with. Theseus killed Aricias six bothers. The play contains violence, anger, deceitfulness. The rulers were certain this were the proper way to honor and obey the Gods. â€Å"Wars were frequent and whenever one occurred all the serfs controlled by the local lords were forced to take part† (Yudkin, P 64). Not everything about this era was negative. Ancient Greece history lasted one century. The entire country did not exceed 150, 000 people (Cohen, Theatre: Sixth Edition P. 59). Genius inventions and developments were invented. Theatre drew crowds. Sometimes, the audience stood up in the pit to watch the performances. They had no technology or measuring devices. Pyramids were built. Epidaurus theatres were built. Seats were hundred of feet up. There were no microphones or audio devices. The actors were at the bottom of the stages. The actors were heard by everyone. Working conditions improved. Education, although not available to everyone, started to become more widespread. Jean Racines, Phedra The overall content of the play Phedre, was tragedy, death and violence. Death was anticipated, not feared. The recognition of life were expected to evolve after death. Everything honored Gods. Their death honored the Gods. The characters in Phedra, saw their death as a celebration. Phedra speaks of seeing her daughter for the last time. â€Å"What! Still are you in love with death? Shall I ne’er see you, reconciled to life, Forego those cruel acts of despair? † Death is part of their life. Then Phaedra responds â€Å"Would I were seated in the forest’s shade! When may I follow with delighted eye, Thro glorious dust flying in full career, A Chariot. † (Racine, Phedra) Phedra could not wait for her final hour. Life expectancies were short. Forty years old were the life expectancy. It was also an honor to the Gods to kill anyone who disgraced their kingdom. All good they did was honored years after they died. Likewise, all disgrace associated with the Kingdom were recognized after death. Panope informs Phedra of her husband’s death. â€Å"Fain would I hide from you tidings so sad, But ‘tis my duty, Madam to reveal them. The had of death has seized your peerless husband, And you are the last to hear of this disaster. The queen, deceived by a vain trust in Heav’n, begs safe return for Theseeus, while Hipplytus his son Learns of his death from vessels that now in port. Phaedra responds â€Å"Ye Gods! † (Racine, Phedra) Slavery was common. â€Å"Most people were serfs and spent their lives in miserable conditions† (Yudkin, P 64). Slavery was not glorified. Death was. Enone is convincing Phedra to live. If she lives her son becomes a king. If she dies, he becomes a slave. â€Å"Madam, Theseus is no more, you must supply his place. He leaves a son, A slave if you should die, but if you live, a king. † Phedra replies, â€Å"To your consent, Yes, I will live, if life can be restored, if my affection for a son has pow’r to rouse my sinking heart at such a dangerous hour. † (Racine, Phedra) Since the king has died, the son becomes the next king. Phedra agreed to live longer. The plays in the Greek era speak as though death is a choice. Every aspect of life was influenced by religion. Music and singing had one purpose. The purpose was to worship the gods. Composers wrote songs with religious meanings and teachings. The Greeks music in theatres began with chanting in church. The chanting by theatre actors was recited the exact same as it was in church. Monks stayed in a chapel for days on end chanting in musical harmony. Monks chanting was described as â€Å"several people may be singing one line in unison, but there is no accompaniment and no harmony† (Yudkin P 65). Songs or what was considered songs, were created from prayers. â€Å"Because Christianity was the dominate religion as well as the principle unifying feature of much of Europe, most of the surviving music from the medieval period was for use in Christian religious services† (Yudkin, P 62-69). As with music, dance had religious meanings. Liturgical dancers in white robes performed in churches and for religious ceremonies. Dancing worshiped the gods, send messages to the gods, and got attention from the gods. Dances interpret bible stories. Sometimes, stories are clearer by acting out the interpretations. Young children and older grandparent’s attention span last longer with music and movements. â€Å"Dance in the west took a separate course from the east in its development. Records of dance during the dark ages are few, although folk dancing and ritual celebrations almost certainly continued† (Cohen, Dance Workshop P. 16-23). Belly dancing progressed. In the Greek era, belly dancing were taught to Middle Eastern women to prepare them for child birth. Midwives borned the babies. They had no fancy hospitals, no medication, or injections to ease the task of childbirth. Belly dancing through a woman’s pregnancy made childbirth much easier. Ballet played an important in religious settings. It was popularized during the Renaissance/William Shakespeare era. In the 17th century, men had to prove they were proficient at ballet before they could hold any positions relevant to legislation. King Louis XIV was a professional dancer. â€Å"The steps as we know ballet evolved out of the 17th century† (Ellison, P 9-11). Ballets were performed for church services, just as liturgical dances were. Athens, or Greece, is famous for training and turning out superior Olympic athletes. A child started training for the Olympics at a very young age. People in the Greek era were Genius that surpasses advanced technology of today. Athens refused to admit defeat. Defeat was not defined as winning or losing one game. Athens may have lost one game. For them the war was not over if they lost. Athens did not allow disabled people into their country. If kings or soldiers were hurt in war, they were not allowed to return to Athens. Grandparents were responsible for putting deformed newborns to death. A disabled newborn was considered a disgrace to the kingdom. Greeks believed they would be punished by the gods if they allowed a deformed newborn to live. Everyone had physical task to do. Women and children had physically active lifestyles. Renaissance era was the beginning of development in all areas. Renaissance theatre focused on humans, not groups. Renaissance was not atheist era. Shakespeare changed what was believed to be religious. In the Greek era, it was anti-Christian to educate a woman. Anyone who educated a woman was killed. Their death was considered a disgrace. The educated woman was killed. Shakespeare introduced the idea of allowing women to perform in theatre. At the time, young boys played all female parts. Phedra was written during the Renaissance or Shakespeare ages. The setting of the play, however were in the Greek ages. Greek theatre established religious beliefs. Renassiance era challenged those beliefs. Greeks were firmly convinced they could not go wrong if honoring the gods. The behavior or actions were not considered. Jean Racine’s wrote Phedre, in the Renaissance era to show how much the beliefs and cultures have progresses since the Greek ages.

What is an expert? Essay -- essays research papers

Currently the most prevalent is that an expert is a person who has some skill or knowledge in some domain that is matched by only a few other people. These people are thus extraordinary in some way. Anders Ericsson, probably the best known of the researchers on expertise defines expertise as Relatively stable outstanding performance.Experts are often labeled as such. People called exceptional, superior, gifted, talented, specialist, expert, etc. tend to belong to the set of experts. There is no doubt that there are large differences in the quality of performance of different people on different tasks or in different domains. We can think of this difference as a scale of expertise. Novices are those who do not perform very well, and we can move through different levels of expertise until we find some individuals that we might say are skilled or knowledgeable beyond that of almost everyone else in the world, or world class. What is the nature of this dimension? What are the categories within which this level of expertise motif applies? Becoming an expert in any domain requires experience and effort. Don Norman introduced the notion that an someone requires 10,000 hours of experience and practice for reasonably complex domains to have the possibility of being an expert. Most people seem to agree with that assessment. In order for someone to become an expert in physics, music, chess, psychology, mathematics, baseball, etc. takes many hours, even years, of hard work and practice. ***Keith Ericsson in viewing the development of expertise argued that the most important factor, perhaps even necessary and sufficient for developing expertise is deliberative practice. Deliberative practice has four properties: (1) it is at an appropriate level of difficulty, (2) the participant receives informative feedback, (3) the participant has many opportunities for repetition, and (4) the participant has th opportunity to correct for errors (from Ericsson (1996; found in Sternberg & Ben-Zeev (2001). If we focus on the process of becoming an expert rather than the claim that only a few become expert, we may come to a position I first heard from Micki Chi. Children are universal novices. They have not developed very many of the component skills needed for any domain. Decalage is the order of the day; many of the skills needed are relatively domain specific. The topics in t... ...wa workshops; Miss America candidates from Texas; Prodigies of all sorts. Winton Marsalis view on becoming an expert: commitment, listening, training, practice, confidence, independence. Component skills and knowledges. Must borrow many of them, learn to apply them in the right places, and integrate them to the new task. Some knowledge and skill must be learned from scratch. Many skills need to be developed more highly. It is possible that all of the component skills can be decomposed into simple enough parts that they are known a priori; however, expertise still requires integrating and restructuring them into usable schemata. What is the state of novice performance? Inchoate states, random trial and error, frustration, backward chaining, small units, surface form, separate nonintegrated components, bottom-up Expert performance--focused, much forward chaining, top-down, coherent and integrated, abstract organization, large units, proceduralization, integrated sequences, skillful, selective. Ericsson, K. A. (1996). The road to excellence. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum Sternberg, R. J. & Ben-Zeev, T. (2001) Complex Cognition: The psychology of human thought. New York: Oxford.

The Information of Different Needs of Different User Groups

1 Introduction to accounting Introduction n this opening chapter we begin by considering the role of accounting. We shall see that it can be a valuable tool for decision-making. We shall identify the main users of accounting and financial information and discuss the ways in which this information can improve the quality of decisions that those users make. We shall then go on to consider the particular role of financial accounting and the differences between financial and management accounting.Since this book is concerned with accounting and financial decision making for private-sector businesses, we shall also examine the main forms of business enterprise and consider what are likely to be the key objectives of a business. I Learning outcomes When you have completed this chapter, you should be able to: ? explain the nature and roles of accounting; ? identify the main users of financial information and discuss their needs; ? distinguish between financial and management accounting; ? e xplain the purpose of a business and describe how businesses are organised and structured. 2 CHAPTER 1INTRODUCTION TO ACCOUNTING What is accounting? ? Accounting is concerned with collecting, analysing and communicating ? nancial information. The purpose is to help people who use this information to make more informed decisions. If the ? nancial information that is communicated is not capable of improving the quality of decisions made, there would be no point in producing it. Sometimes the impression is given that the purpose of accounting is simply to prepare ? nancial reports on a regular basis. While it is true that accountants undertake this kind of work, it does not represent an end in itself.The ultimate purpose of the accountant’s work is to give people better ? nancial information on which to base their decisions. This decision-making perspective of accounting ? ts in with the theme of this book and shapes the way in which we deal with each topic. Who are the users of accounting information? For accounting information to be useful, the accountant must be clear for whom the information is being prepared and for what purpose the information will be used. There are likely to be various groups of people (known as ‘user groups’) with an interest in a particular organisation, in the sense of needing to make decisions about it.For the typical private-sector business, the more important of these groups are shown in Figure 1. 1. Take a look at this ? gure and then try Activity 1. 1. Figure 1. 1 Main users of financial information relating to a business Several user groups have an interest in accounting information relating to a business. The majority of these are outside the business but, nevertheless, have a stake in it. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list of potential users; however, the groups identified are normally the most important. W HO ARE THE USERS OF ACCOUNTING INFORMATION?Activity 1. 1 Ptarmigan Insurance plc (PI) is a lar ge motor insurance business. Taking the user groups identified in Figure 1. 1, suggest, for each group, the sorts of decisions likely to be made about PI and the factors to be taken into account when making these decisions. Your answer may be along the following lines: User group Decision Customers Whether to take further motor policies with PI. This might involve an assessment of PI’s ability to continue in business and to meet their needs, particularly in respect of any insurance claims made. CompetitorsHow best to compete against PI or, perhaps, whether to leave the market on the grounds that it is not possible to compete profitably with PI. This might involve competitors using PI’s performance in various aspects as a ‘benchmark’ when evaluating their own performance. They might also try to assess PI’s financial strength and to identify significant changes that may signal PI’s future actions (for example, raising funds as a prelude to mark et expansion). Employees Whether to continue working for PI and, if so, whether to demand higher rewards for doing so.The future plans, profits and financial strength of the business are likely to be of particular interest when making these decisions. Government Whether PI should pay tax and, if so, how much, whether it complies with agreed pricing policies, whether financial support is needed and so on. In making these decisions an assessment of its profits, sales revenues and financial strength would be made. Community Whether to allow PI to expand its premises and/or whether to provide representatives economic support for the business.PI’s ability to continue to provide employment for the community, the extent to which it is likely to use community resources and its likely willingness to help fund environmental improvements are likely to be considered when arriving at such decisions. Investment Whether to advise clients to invest in PI. This would involve an analysts asses sment of the likely risks and future returns associated with PI. Suppliers Whether to continue to supply PI and, if so, whether to supply on credit. This would involve an assessment of PI’s ability to pay for any goods and services supplied.Lenders Whether to lend money to PI and/or whether to require repayment of any existing loans. PI’s ability to pay the interest and to repay the principal sum would be important factors in such decisions. Managers Whether the performance of the business needs to be improved. Performance to date would be compared with earlier plans or some other ‘benchmark’ to decide whether action needs to be taken. Managers may also wish to decide whether there should be a change in PI’s future direction. This would involve looking at PI’s ability to perform and at the opportunities available to it.Owners Whether to invest more in PI or to sell all, or part, of the investment currently held. This would involve an assessme nt of the likely risks and returns associated with PI. Owners may also be involved with decisions on rewarding senior managers. The financial performance of the business would normally be considered when making such a decision. Although this answer covers many of the key points, you may have identified other decisions and/or other factors to be taken into account by each group. 3 4 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TO ACCOUNTING The conflicting interests of usersWe have seen above that each user group looks at a business from a different perspective and has its own particular interests. This means that there is always the risk that the interests of one group will collide with those of another group. Con? ict between user groups is most likely to occur over the way in which the wealth of the business is generated and/or distributed. A good example is the con? ict that may arise between the managers and the owners of the business. Although managers are appointed to act in the best interests of t he owners, there is always a danger that they will not do so.Instead, managers may use the wealth of the business to award themselves large pay rises, to furnish large of? ces or to buy expensive cars for their own use. Accounting information has an important role to play in reporting the extent to which various groups have bene? ted from the business. Thus, owners may rely on accounting information to check whether the pay and bene? ts of managers are in line with agreed policy. A further example is the potential con? ict of interest between lenders and owners. There is a risk that the funds loaned to a business will not be used for purposes that have been agreed.Lenders may, therefore, rely on accounting information to check that the funds have been applied in an appropriate manner and that the terms of the loan agreement are not being broken. Activity 1. 2 Can you think of other examples where accounting information may be used to monitor potential conflicts of interest between t he various user groups identified? Two possible examples that spring to mind are: ? ? employees (or their representatives) wishing to check that they are receiving a ‘fair share’ of the wealth created by the business and that agreed profit-sharing schemes are being adhered to; overnment wishing to check that the profits made from a contract that it has given to a business are not excessive. You may have thought of other examples. How useful is accounting information? No one would seriously claim that accounting information fully meets all of the needs of each of the various user groups. Accounting is still a developing subject and we still have much to learn about user needs and the ways in which these needs should be met. Nevertheless, the information contained in accounting reports should help users make decisions relating to the business.The information should reduce uncertainty about the ? nancial position and performance of the business. It should help to answer qu estions concerning the availability of funds to pay owners a return, to repay loans, to reward employees and so on. Typically, there is no close substitute for the information provided by the ? nancial statements. Thus, if users cannot glean the required information from the ? nancial statements, it is often unavailable to them. Other sources of information concerning the ? nancial health of a business are normally uch less useful. HOW USEFUL IS ACCOUNTING INFORMATION? Activity 1. 3 What other sources of information might, say, an investment analayst use in an attempt to gain an impression of the financial position and performance of a business? What kind of information might be gleaned from these sources? Other sources of information available include: ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? meetings with managers of the business; public announcements made by the business; newspaper and magazine articles; websites, including the website of the business; adio and TV reports; information-gathering agencies (for example, agencies that assess businesses’ creditworthiness or credit ratings); industry reports; economy-wide reports. These sources can provide information on various aspects of the business, such as new products or services being offered, management changes, new contracts offered or awarded, the competitive environment within which the business operates, the impact of new technology, changes in legislation, changes in interest rates and future levels of inflation.However, the various sources of information identified are not really substitutes for accounting reports. Rather, they are best used in conjunction with the reports in order to obtain a clearer picture of the financial health of a business. Evidence on the usefulness of accounting ? There are arguments and convincing evidence that accounting information is at least perceived as being useful to users. Numerous research surveys have asked users to rank the importance of accounting information, in relation to oth er sources of information, for decision-making purposes.Generally, these studies have found that users rank accounting information very highly. There is also considerable evidence that businesses choose to produce accounting information that exceeds the minimum requirements imposed by accounting regulations. (For example, businesses often produce a considerable amount of accounting information for managers, which is not required by any regulations. ) Presumably, the cost of producing this additional accounting information is justi? ed on the grounds that users ? nd it useful.Such arguments and evidence, however, leave unanswered the question of whether the information produced is actually used for decision-making purposes, that is: does it affect people’s behaviour? It is normally very dif? cult to assess the impact of accounting on decision making. One situation arises, however, where the impact of accounting information can be observed and measured. This is where the shares (portions of ownership of a business) are traded on a stock exchange. The evidence reveals that, when a business makes an announcement concerning its accounting pro? s, the prices at which shares are traded and the volume of shares traded often change signi? cantly. This suggests that investors are changing their views about the future prospects of the business as a result of this new information becoming available to them and that this, in turn, leads them to make a decision either to buy or to sell shares in the business. Although there is evidence that accounting reports are perceived as being useful and are used for decision-making purposes, it is impossible to measure just how useful 5 6 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TO ACCOUNTING ccounting reports are to users. As a result we cannot say with certainty whether the cost of producing those reports represents value for money. Accounting information will usually represent only one input to a particular decision and so the precise weight attached to the accounting information by the decision maker and the bene? ts which ? ow as a result cannot be accurately assessed. We shall now go on to see, however, that it is at least possible to identify the kinds of qualities which accounting information must possess in order to be useful.Where these qualities are lacking, the usefulness of the information will be diminished. Providing a service One way of viewing accounting is as a form of service. Accountants provide economic information to their ‘clients’, who are the various users identi? ed in Figure 1. 1. The quality of the service provided is determined by the extent to which the needs of the various user groups have been met. To meet these users’ needs, it can be argued that accounting information should possess certain key qualities, or characteristics: relevance, reliability, comparability and understandability. ? ? Relevance. Accounting information must have the ability to in? uence decisions. Un less this characteristic is present, there is really no point in producing the information. The information may be relevant to the prediction of future events (for example, in predicting how much pro? t is likely to be earned next year) or relevant in helping to con? rm past events (for example, in establishing how much pro? t was earned last year). The role of accounting in con? rming past events is important because users often wish to check the accuracy of earlier predictions that they have made.The accuracy (or inaccuracy) of earlier predictions may help users to judge the accuracy of current predictions. To in? uence a decision, the information must, of course, be available when the decision is being made. Thus, relevant information must be timely. ? Reliability. Accounting should be free from signi? cant error or bias. It should be capable of being relied upon by managers to represent what it is supposed to represent. Though both relevance and reliability are very important, t he problem that we often face in accounting is that information that is highly relevant may not be very reliable.Similarly, that which is reliable may not be very relevant. Activity 1. 4 To illustrate this last point, let us assume that a manager has to sell a custom-built machine owned by their business and has recently received a bid for it. This machine is very unusual and there is no ready market for it. What information would be relevant to the manager when deciding whether to accept the bid? How reliable would that information be? The manager would probably like to know the current market value of the machine before deciding whether or not to accept the bid.The current market value would be highly relevant to the final decision, but it might not be very reliable because the machine is unique and there is likely to be little information concerning market values. BUT †¦ IS IT MATERIAL? When seeking to strike the right balance between relevance and reliability, the needs of users should be the overriding consideration. ? ? ? Comparability. This quality will enable users to identify changes in the business over time (for example, the trend in sales revenue over the past ? ve years).It will also help them to evaluate the performance of the business in relation to similar businesses. Comparability is achieved by treating items that are basically the same in the same manner for accounting purposes. Comparability may also be enhanced by making clear the policies that have been adopted in measuring and presenting the information. ? Understandability. Accounting reports should be expressed as clearly as possible and should be understood by those at whom the information is aimed. Activity 1. 5 Do you think that accounting reports should be understandable to those who have not studied accounting?It would be very useful if accounting reports could be understood by everyone. This, however, is unrealistic as complex financial events and transactions cannot normall y be expressed in simple terms. It is probably best that we regard accounting reports in the same way that we regard a report written in a foreign language. To understand either of these, we need to have had some preparation. Generally speaking, accounting reports assume that the user not only has a reasonable knowledge of business and accounting but is also prepared to invest some time in studying the reports.Despite the answer to Activity 1. 5, the onus is clearly on accountants to provide information in a way that makes it as understandable as possible to non-accountants. But . . . is it material? ? The qualities, or characteristics, that have just been described will help us to decide whether accounting information is potentially useful. If a particular piece of information has these qualities then it may be useful. However, this does not automatically mean that it should be reported to users. We also have to consider whether the information is material, or signi? cant.This mean s that we should ask whether its omission or misrepresentation in the accounting reports would really alter the decisions that users make. Thus, in addition to possessing the characteristics mentioned above, accounting information must also cross the threshold of materiality. If the information is not regarded as material, it should not be included within the reports as it will merely clutter them up and, perhaps, interfere with the users’ ability to interpret the ? nancial results. The type of information and amounts involved will normally determine whether it is material. 8 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TO ACCOUNTING Weighing up the costs and benefits Having read the previous sections you may feel that, when considering a piece of accounting information, provided the four main qualities identi? ed are present and it is material it should be gathered and made available to users. Unfortunately, there is one more hurdle to jump. Something may still exclude a piece of accounting infor mation from the reports even when it is considered to be useful. Consider Activity 1. 6. Activity 1. 6 Suppose an item of information is capable of being provided. It is relevant o a particular decision; it is also reliable, comparable, can be understood by the decision maker concerned and is material. Can you think of a reason why, in practice, you might choose not to produce the information? The reason that you may decide not to produce, or discover, the information is that you judge the cost of doing so to be greater than the potential benefit of having the information. This cost–benefit issue will limit the extent to which accounting information is provided. In theory, a particular item of accounting information should only be produced if the costs of providing it are less than the bene? s, or value, to be derived from its use. Figure 1. 2 shows the relationship between the costs and value of providing additional accounting information. Figure 1. 2 Relationship between co sts and the value of providing additional accounting information The benefits of accounting information eventually decline. The cost of providing information, however, will rise with each additional piece of information. The optimal level of information provision is where the gap between the value of the information and the cost of providing it is at its greatest. WEIGHING UP THE COSTS AND BENEFITS The ? ure shows how the value of information received by the decision maker eventually begins to decline. This is, perhaps, because additional information becomes less relevant, or because of the problems that a decision maker may have in processing the sheer quantity of information provided. The costs of providing the information, however, will increase with each additional piece of information. The broken line indicates the point at which the gap between the value of information and the cost of providing that information is at its greatest. This represents the optimal amount of informat ion that can be provided.This theoretical model, however, poses a number of problems in practice. We shall now go on to discuss these. To illustrate the practical problems of establishing the value of information, let us assume that someone has collided with our car in a car park and dented and scraped the paint from one of the doors. We wish to have the dent taken out and the door resprayed at a local garage. We know that the nearest garage would charge ? 250 but believe that other local garages may offer to do the job for a lower price. The only way of ? nding out the prices at other garages is to visit them, so that they can see the extent of the damage.Visiting the garages will involve using some petrol and will take up some of our time. Is it worth the cost of ? nding out the price for the job at the various local garages? The answer, as we have seen, is that if the cost of discovering the price is less than the potential bene? t, it is worth having that information. To identif y the various prices for the job, there are several points to be considered, including: ? How many garages shall we visit? ? What is the cost of petrol to visit each garage? ? How long will it take to make all the garage visits? ? At what price do we value our time? The economic bene? of having the information on the price of the job is probably even harder to assess. The following points need to be considered: ? What is the cheapest price that we might be quoted for the job? ? How likely is it that we shall be quoted a price cheaper than ? 250? As we can imagine, the answers to these questions may be far from clear – remember that we have only contacted the local garage so far. When assessing the value of accounting information we are confronted with similar problems. The provision of accounting information can be very costly; however, the costs are often dif? cult to quantify.The direct, out-of-pocket, costs such as salaries of accounting staff are not really a problem to i dentify, but these are only part of the total costs involved. There are also less direct costs such as the cost of the user’s time spent on analysing and interpreting the information contained in reports. The economic bene? t of having accounting information is even harder to assess. It is possible to apply some ‘science’ to the problem of weighing the costs and bene? ts, but a lot of subjective judgement is likely to be involved. No one would seriously advocate that the typical business should produce no accounting information.At the same time, no one would advocate that every item of information that could be seen as possessing one or more of the key characteristics should be produced, irrespective of the cost of producing it. The characteristics that in? uence the usefulness of accounting information and which have been discussed in this section and the preceding section are set out in Figure 1. 3. 9 10 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TO ACCOUNTING Figure 1. 3 The char acteristics that influence the usefulness of accounting information There are four main qualitative characteristics that influence the usefulness of accounting information.In addition, however, accounting information should be material and the benefits of providing the information should outweigh the costs. Accounting as an information system ? We have already seen that accounting can be seen as the provision of a service to ‘clients’. Another way of viewing accounting is as a part of the business’s total information system. Users, both inside and outside the business, have to make decisions concerning the allocation of scarce economic resources. To ensure that these resources are ef? ciently allocated, users need economic information on which to base decisions.It is the role of the accounting system to provide that information and this will involve information gathering and communication. The accounting information system should have certain features that are co mmon to all valid information systems within a business. These are: ? identifying and capturing relevant information (in this case ? nancial information); ? recording the information collected in a systematic manner; ? analysing and interpreting the information collected; ? reporting the information in a manner that suits the needs of users. The relationship between these features is set out in Figure 1. . ACCOUNTING AS AN INFORMATION SYSTEM Figure 1. 4 The accounting information system There are four sequential stages of an accounting information system. The first two stages are concerned with preparation, whereas the last two stages are concerned with using the information collected. Given the decision-making emphasis of this book, we shall be concerned primarily with the ? nal two elements of the process: the analysis and reporting of accounting information. We shall consider the way in which information is used by, and is useful to, users rather than the way in which it is ident i? ed and recorded. Ef? ient accounting systems are an essential ingredient of an ef? cient business. When the accounting systems fail, the results can be disastrous. Real World 1. 1 provides an example of a systems failure when two businesses combined and then attempted to integrate their respective systems. Real World 1. 1 Blaming the system FT When Sir Ken Morrison bought Safeway for ? 3. 35bn in March 2004, he almost doubled the size of his supermarket chain overnight and went from being a regional operator to a national force. His plan was simple enough. He had to sell off some Safeway stores – Morrison has to date sold off 184 stores for an estimated ? . 3bn – and convert the remaining 230 Safeway stores into Morrison’s. Sir Ken has about another 50 to sell. But, nearly fifteen months on, and the integration process is proving harder in practice than it looked on paper. Morrison, once known for its robust performance, has issued four profit warnings in the past ten months. Each time the retailer has blamed Safeway. Last July, it was because of a faster-thanexpected sales decline in Safeway stores. In March – there were two warnings that month – it was the fault of Safeway’s accounting systems, which left Morrison with lower supplier incomes.This month’s warning was put down to higher-than-expected costs from running parallel store systems. At the time of the first warning last July, Simon Procter, of the stockbrokers Charles Stanley, noted that the news ‘has blown all profit forecasts out of the water and visibility is very poor from here on out’. But if it was difficult then to predict where Morrison’s profits were heading, it is impossible now. Morrison itself cannot give guidance. ‘No one envisaged this,’ says Mr Procter. ‘When I made that comment about visibility last July, I was thinking on a twelve-month time frame, not a two-year one. Morrison says the complexi ty of the Safeway deal has put a ‘significant strain’ on its ability to cope with managing internal accounts. ‘This is impacting the ability of the board to forecast likely trends in profitability and the directors are therefore not currently in a position to provide reliable guidance on the level of profitability as a whole,’ admits the retailer. Source: ‘Morrison in uphill battle to integrate Safeway’, Elizabeth Rigby, Financial Times, 26 May 2005. As a footnote to Real World 1. 1, though Morrison had its problems, these were quickly overcome and the Safeway takeover has proved to be a success. 1 12 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TO ACCOUNTING Management accounting and financial accounting Accounting is usually seen as having two distinct strands. These are: ? ? ? management accounting, which seeks to meet the accounting needs of managers; and ? financial accounting, which seeks to meet the accounting needs of all of the other users identi? ed earlie r in the chapter (see Figure 1. 1). The difference in their targeted user groups has led to each strand of accounting developing along different lines. The main areas of difference are as follows. ? Nature of the reports produced.Financial accounting reports tend to be general- ? ? ? ? ? purpose, that is, they contain ? nancial information that will be useful for a broad range of users and decisions rather than being speci? cally designed for the needs of a particular group or set of decisions. Management accounting reports, on the other hand, are often speci? c-purpose reports. They are designed with a particular decision in mind and/or for a particular manager. Level of detail. Financial accounting reports provide users with a broad overview of the performance and position of the business for a period.As a result, information is aggregated and detail is often lost. Management accounting reports, however, often provide managers with considerable detail to help them with a particula r operational decision. Regulations. Financial accounting reports, for many businesses, are subject to accounting regulations that try to ensure they are produced with standard content and in a standard format. The law and accounting rule makers impose these regulations. As management accounting reports are for internal use only, there are no regulations from external sources concerning the form and content of the reports.They can be designed to meet the needs of particular managers. Reporting interval. For most businesses, ? nancial accounting reports are produced on an annual basis, though some large businesses produce half-yearly reports and a few produce quarterly ones. Management accounting reports may be produced as frequently as required by managers. In many businesses, managers are provided with certain reports on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, which allows them to check progress frequently. In addition, special-purpose reports will be prepared when required (for example, to evaluate a proposal to purchase a piece of equipment).Time orientation. Financial accounting reports re? ect the performance and position of the business for the past period. In essence, they are backward looking. Management accounting reports, on the other hand, often provide information concerning future performance as well as past performance. It is an oversimpli? cation, however, to suggest that ? nancial accounting reports never incorporate expectations concerning the future. Occasionally, businesses will release projected information to other users in an attempt to raise capital or to ? ght off unwanted takeover bids. Even preparation of the routine ? ancial accounting reports typically requires making some judgements about the future, as we shall see in Chapter 3. Range and quality of information. Financial accounting reports concentrate on information that can be quanti? ed in monetary terms. Management accounting also produces such reports, but is also more likely to pr oduce reports that contain information of a non-? nancial nature, such as physical volume of inventories, number of sales orders received, number of new products launched, physical output per employee and so on. Financial accounting places greater emphasis on the use of objective, veri? ble evidence when preparing reports. Management accounting reports may use information that is less objective and veri? able, but nevertheless provide managers with the information they need. SCOPE OF THIS BOOK We can see from this that management accounting is less constrained than ? nancial accounting. It may draw from a variety of sources and use information that has varying degrees of reliability. The only real test to be applied when assessing the value of the information produced for managers is whether or not it improves the quality of the decisions made.The distinctions between management and ? nancial accounting suggest that there are differences between the information needs of managers and those of other users. While differences undoubtedly exist, there is also a good deal of overlap between these needs. Activity 1. 7 Can you think of any areas of overlap between the information needs of managers and those of other users? We thought of two points: ? ? Managers will, at times, be interested in receiving a historical overview of business operations of the sort provided to other users.Other users would be interested in receiving information relating to the future, such as the planned level of profits and non-financial information such as the state of the sales order book and the extent of product innovations. The distinction between the two areas of accounting re? ects, to some extent, the differences in access to ? nancial information. Managers have much more control over the form and content of information they receive. Other users have to rely on what managers are prepared to provide or what the ? nancial reporting regulations require to be provided. Though the scope of ? ancial accounting reports has increased over time, fears concerning loss of competitive advantage and user ignorance concerning the reliability of forecast data have led businesses to resist providing other users with the same detailed and wide-ranging information available to managers. In the past, it has been argued that accounting systems are far too geared to meeting the regulatory requirements of ? nancial accounting to be able to provide the information most helpful to managers. This is to say that ? nancial accounting requirements have been the main priority and management accounting has suffered as a result.Recent survey evidence suggests, however, that this argument has lost its force. Modern management accounting systems tend to provide managers with information that is relevant to their needs rather than what is determined by external reporting requirements. Financial reporting cycles, however, retain some in? uence over management accounting and managers are aware of expectations of external users (see the reference at the end of the chapter). Scope of this book This book is concerned with ? nancial accounting rather than management accounting. In Chapter 2 we begin by introducing the three principal ? ancial statements: ? the statement of ? nancial position (sometimes known as the balance sheet); ? the income statement (also called the pro? t and loss account); and ? the statement of cash ? ows. 13 14 CHAPTER 1 ? INTRODUCTION TO ACCOUNTING These statements are brie? y reviewed before we go on to consider the statement of ? nancial position in more detail. We shall see that the statement of ? nancial position provides information concerning the wealth held by a business at a particular point in time and the claims against this wealth. Included in our consideration of the statement of ? ancial position will be an introduction to the conventions of accounting. Conventions are the generally accepted rules that accountants tend to follow when pre paring ? nancial statements. Chapter 3 introduces the second of the major ? nancial statements, the income statement. This provides information concerning the wealth created by a business during a period. In this chapter we shall be looking at such issues as how pro? t is measured, the point in time at which we recognise that a pro? t has been made and the accounting conventions that apply to this particular statement.In the UK and throughout much of the industrialised world, the limited company is the major form of business unit. In Chapter 4 we consider the accounting aspects of limited companies. Although there is nothing of essence that makes the accounting aspects of companies different from other types of private-sector business, there are some points of detail that we need to consider. In Chapter 5 we continue our examination of limited companies and, in particular, consider the framework of rules that must be adhered to when presenting accounting reports to owners and extern al users.Chapter 6 deals with the last of the three principal ? nancial statements, the statement of cash ? ows. This ? nancial statement is important in identifying the ? nancing and investing activities of the business over a period. It sets out how cash was generated and how cash was used during a period. Reading the three statements will provide information about the performance and position of a business. It is possible, however, to gain even more helpful insights about the business by analysing the statements using ? nancial ratios and other techniques. Combining two ? ures in the ? nancial statements in a ratio and comparing this with a similar ratio for, say, another business, can often tell us much more than just reading the ? gures themselves. Chapters 7 and 8 are concerned with techniques for analysing ? nancial statements. The typical large business in the UK is a group of companies rather than just a single company. A group of companies will exist where one company cont rols one or more other companies. In Chapter 9 we shall see why groups exist and consider the accounting issues raised by the combination of companies into groups.The scope of ? nancial reporting has tended to alter over the years. In Chapter 10 we shall consider where ? nancial reporting has come from and how it seems to be developing. Finally, in Chapter 11, we shall consider the way in which larger businesses are managed and how directors and other senior managers are accountable to the owners and to other groups with an interest in the business. Has accounting become too interesting? In recent years, accounting has become front-page news and has been a major talking point among those connected with the world of business.Unfortunately, the attention that accounting has attracted has been for all the wrong reasons. We have seen that investors rely on ? nancial reports to help to keep an eye both on their investment and on the performance of the managers. What, though, if the manag ers provide misleading ? nancial reports to investors? Recent revelations suggest that the managers of some large businesses have been doing just this. HAS ACCOUNTING BECOME TOO INTERESTING? Two of the most notorious cases have been those of: ? Enron, an energy-trading business based in Texas, which was accused of entering into complicated ? ancial arrangements in an attempt to obscure losses and to in? ate pro? ts; and ? WorldCom, a major long-distance telephone operator in the US, which was accused of reclassifying $3. 9 billion of expenses so as to falsely in? ate the pro? t ? gures that the business reported to its owners (shareholders) and to others. In the wake of these scandals, there was much closer scrutiny by investment analysts and investors of the ? nancial reports that businesses produce. This led to further businesses, in both the US and Europe, being accused of using dubious accounting practices to bolster reported pro? ts.Accounting scandals can have a profound effec t on all those connected with the business. The Enron scandal, for example, ultimately led to the collapse of the company, which, in turn, resulted in lost jobs and large ? nancial losses for lenders, suppliers and investors. Con? dence in the world of business can be badly shaken by such events and this can pose problems for society as a whole. Not surprisingly, therefore, the relevant authorities tend to be severe on those who perpetrate such scandals. In the US, Bernie Ebbers, the former chief executive of WorldCom, received 25 years in prison for his part in the fraud.Various reasons have been put forward to explain this spate of scandals. Some may have been caused by the pressures on managers to meet unrealistic expectations of investors for continually rising pro? ts, others by the greed of unscrupulous executives whose pay is linked to ? nancial performance. However, they may all re? ect a particular economic environment. Real World 1. 2 gives some comments suggesting that wh en all appears to be going well with a business, people can be quite gullible and over-trusting. Real World 1. 2 The thoughts of Warren BuffettWarren Buffett is one of the world’s shrewdest and most successful investors. He believes that the accounting scandals mentioned above were perpetrated during the ‘new economy boom’ of the late 1990s when confidence was high and exaggerated predictions were being made concerning the future. He states that during that period You had an erosion of accounting standards. You had an erosion, to some extent, of executive behaviour. But during a period when everybody ‘believes’, people who are inclined to take advantage of other people can get away with a lot.He believes that the worst is now over and that the ‘dirty laundry’ created during this heady period is being washed away and that the washing machine is now in the ‘rinse cycle’. Source: The Times, Business Section, 26 September 2002, p. 25. nisyndication. com. Whatever the causes, the result of these accounting scandals has been to undermine the credibility of ? nancial statements and to introduce much stricter regulations concerning the quality of ? nancial information. We shall return to this issue in later chapters when we consider the ? nancial statements. 15 16 CHAPTER 1INTRODUCTION TO ACCOUNTING The changing face of accounting Over the past 25 years, the environment within which businesses operate has become increasingly turbulent and competitive. Various reasons have been identi? ed to explain these changes, including: ? the increasing sophistication of customers; ? the development of a global economy where national frontiers become less important; ? rapid changes in technology; ? the deregulation of domestic markets (for example, electricity, water and gas); ? increasing pressure from owners (shareholders) for competitive economic returns; ? he increasing volatility of ? nancial markets. This new, more c omplex, environment has brought new challenges for managers and other users of accounting information. Their needs have changed and both ? nancial accounting and management accounting have had to respond. To meet the changing needs of users there has been a radical review of the kind of information to be reported. The changing business environment has given added impetus to the search for a clear framework and principles upon which to base ? nancial accounting reports. Various attempts have been made to clarify the purpose of ? ancial accounting reports and to provide a more solid foundation for the development of accounting rules. The frameworks and principles that have been developed try to address fundamental questions such as: ? Who are the users of ? nancial accounting information? ? What kinds of ? nancial accounting reports should be prepared and what should they contain? ? How should items (such as pro? t and asset values) be measured? In response to criticisms that the ? na ncial reports of some businesses are not clear enough to users, accounting rule makers have tried to improve reporting rules to ensure that the accounting policies of businesses are ore comparable and more transparent, and that they portray economic reality more faithfully. While this has had a generally bene? cial effect, the recent accounting scandals have highlighted the limitations of accounting rules in protecting investors and others. The internationalisation of businesses has created a need for accounting rules to have an international reach. It can no longer be assumed that users of accounting information relating to a particular business are based in the country in which the business operates or are familiar with the accounting rules of that country.Thus, there has been increasing harmonisation of accounting rules across national frontiers. A more detailed review of these developments is included in Chapter 5. Management accounting has also changed by becoming more outward looking in its focus. In the past, information provided to managers has been largely restricted to that collected within the business. However, the attitude and behaviour of customers and rival businesses have now become the object of much information gathering. Increasingly, successful businesses are those that are able to secure and maintain competitive advantage over their rivals.To obtain this advantage, businesses have become more ‘customer driven’ (that is, concerned with satisfying customer needs). This has led to management accounting information that provides details of customers and the market, such as customer evaluation of services provided and market share. In addition, information about the costs and pro? ts of rival businesses, which can be used as ‘benchmarks’ by which to gauge competitiveness, is gathered and reported. WHAT KINDS OF BUSINESS OWNERSHIP EXIST? To compete successfully, businesses must also ? d ways of managing costs. The cost base of modern businesses is under continual review and this, in turn, has led to the development of more sophisticated methods of measuring and controlling costs. What kinds of business ownership exist? The particular form of business ownership has important implications for accounting purposes and so it is useful to be clear about the main forms of ownership that can arise. There are basically three arrangements: ? sole proprietorship; ? partnership; and ? limited company. Each of these is considered below. Sole proprietorship ?Sole proprietorship, as the name suggests, is where an individual is the sole owner of a business. This type of business is often quite small in terms of size (as measured, for example, by sales revenue generated or number of staff employed); however, the number of such businesses is very large indeed. Examples of sole-proprietor businesses can be found in most industrial sectors but particularly within the service sector. Hence, services such as electrical repairs, picture framing, photography, driving instruction, retail shops and hotels have a large proportion of sole-proprietor businesses.The sole-proprietor business is easy to set up. No formal procedures are required and operations can often commence immediately (unless special permission is required because of the nature of the trade or service, such as running licensed premises). The owner can decide the way in which the business is to be conducted and has the ? exibility to restructure or dissolve the business whenever it suits. The law does not recognise the sole-proprietor business as being separate from the owner, so the business will cease on the death of the owner.Although the owner must produce accounting information to satisfy the taxation authorities, there is no legal requirement to produce accounting information relating to the business for other user groups. However, some user groups may demand accounting information about the business and may be in a position to h ave their demands met (for example, a bank requiring accounting information on a regular basis as a condition of a loan). The sole proprietor will have unlimited liability which means that no distinction will be made between the proprietor’s personal wealth and that of the business if there are business debts that must be paid.Partnership ? A partnership exists where at least two individuals carry on a business together with the intention of making a pro? t. Partnerships have much in common with sole-proprietor businesses. They are usually quite small in size (although some, such as partnerships of accountants and solicitors, can be large). Partnerships are also easy to set up as no formal procedures are required (and it is not even necessary to have a written agreement between the partners). The partners can agree whatever arrangements suit them concerning the ? nancial and management aspects of the business.Similarly, the partnership can be restructured or dissolved by agre ement between the partners. 17 18 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TO ACCOUNTING Partnerships are not recognised in law as separate entities and so contracts with third parties must be entered into in the name of individual partners. The partners of a business usually have unlimited liability. Activity 1. 8 What are the main advantages and disadvantages that should be considered when deciding between a sole proprietorship and a partnership? The main advantages of a partnership over a sole-proprietor business are: ? ? ? sharing the burden of ownership; he opportunity to specialise rather than cover the whole range of services (for example, in a solicitors’ practice each partner may specialise in a different aspect of the law); the ability to raise capital where this is beyond the capacity of a single individual. The main disadvantages of a partnership compared with a sole proprietorship are: ? ? the risks of sharing ownership of a business with unsuitable individuals; the limits placed on individual decision making that a partnership will impose. Limited company ? Limited companies can range in size from quite small to very large.The number of individuals who subscribe capital and become the owners may be unlimited, which provides the opportunity to create a very large-scale business. The liability of owners, however, is limited (hence ‘limited’ company), which means that those individuals subscribing capital to the company are liable only for debts incurred by the company up to the amount that they have agreed to invest. This cap on the liability of the owners is designed to limit risk and to produce greater con? dence to invest. Without such limits on owner liability, it is dif? cult to see how a modern capitalist economy could operate.In many cases, the owners of a limited company are not involved in the day-to-day running of the business and will, therefore, invest in a business only if there is a clear limit set on the level of investment risk. T he bene? t of limited liability, however, imposes certain obligations on such companies. To start up a limited company, documents of incorporation must be prepared that set out, among other things, the objectives of the business. Furthermore, a framework of regulations exists that places obligations on limited companies concerning the way in which they conduct their affairs. Part of this regulatory framework requires annual ? ancial reports to be made available to owners and lenders and usually an annual general meeting of the owners has to be held to approve the reports. In addition, a copy of the annual ? nancial reports must be lodged with the Registrar of Companies for public inspection. In this way, the ? nancial affairs of a limited company enter the public domain. With the exception of small companies, there is also a requirement for the annual ? nancial reports to be subject to an audit. This involves an independent ? rm of accountants examining the annual reports and underl ying records to see whether the reports provide a true and fair view of the ? ancial health of the company and whether they comply with the relevant accounting rules established by law and by accounting rule makers. All of the large household-name UK businesses (Marks and Spencer, Tesco, Shell, BSkyB, BA, BT, easyJet and so on) are limited companies. Limited companies are considered in more detail in Chapters 4 and 5. HOW ARE BUSINESSES ORGANISED? Activity 1. 9 What are the main advantages and disadvantages that should be considered when deciding between a partnership business and a limited liability company?The main advantages of a partnership over a limited company are: ? ? ? ? the ease of setting up the business; the degree of flexibility concerning the way in which the business is conducted; the degree of flexibility concerning restructuring and dissolution of the business; freedom from administrative burdens imposed by law (for example, the annual general meeting and the need f or an independent audit). The main disadvantage of a partnership compared with a limited company is the fact that it is not possible to limit the liability of all of the partners.This book concentrates on the accounting aspects of limited liability companies because this type of business is by far the most important in economic terms. The early chapters will introduce accounting concepts through examples that do not draw a distinction between the different types of business. Once we have dealt with the basic accounting principles, which are the same for all three types of business, we can then go on to see how they are applied to limited companies. It must be emphasised that there are no differences in the way that these three forms of business keep their day-to-day accounting records.In preparing their periodic ? nancial statements, there are certain differences that need to be considered. These differences are not ones of principle, however, but of detail. How are businesses organ ised? As we have just seen, nearly all businesses that involve more than a few owners and/or employees are set up as limited companies. This means that the ? nance will come from the owners (shareholders) both in the form of a direct cash investment to buy shares (in the ownership of the business) and through the owners allowing past pro? s, which belong to them, to be reinvested in the business. Finance will also come from lenders (banks, for example), who earn interest on their loans and from suppliers of goods and services being prepared to supply on credit, with payment occurring a month or so after the date of supply, usually on an interest-free basis. In larger limited companies, the owners (shareholders) are not involved in the daily running of the business; instead they appoint a board of directors to manage the business on their behalf. The board is charged with three major tasks: ? etting the overall direction and strategy for the business; ? monitoring and controlling its activities; and ? communicating with owners and others connected with the business. Each board has a chairman, elected by the directors, who is responsible for running the board in an ef? cient manner. In addition, each board has a chief executive of? cer (CEO), or managing director, who is responsible for running the business on a dayto-day basis. Occasionally, the roles of chairman and CEO are combined, although it is usually considered to be a good idea to eparate them in order to prevent a single individual having excessive power. We shall come back to consider the relationship between directors and shareholders in more detail in Chapter 4. 19 20 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TO ACCOUNTING The board of directors represents the most senior level of management. Below this level, managers are employed, with each manager given responsibility for a particular part of the business’s operations. What is the financial objective of a business? A business is created to enhance the wealth of its owners.Throughout this book we shall assume that this is its main objective. This may come as a surprise, as there are other objectives that a business may pursue that are related to the needs of others associated with the business. For example, a business may seek to provide good working conditions for its employees, or it may seek to conserve the environment for the local community. While a business may pursue these objectives, it is normally set up with a view to increasing the wealth of its owners. In practice, the behaviour of businesses over time appears to be consistent with this objective.Real World 1. 3 reveals how one well-known business has changed its focus in order to improve pro? tability. Real World 1. 3 Profiting from change It speaks volumes for the work done by Kate Swann in turning around W H Smith that when she became chief executive five years ago, the company was being spoken of in similar tems to Woolworths. Comments such as ‘You wouldn’t invent it if you were starting out today’ and ‘What is it actually for these days? ’ were typical among analysts, as they were with Woolies.Indeed, many thought that W H Smith was beyond help and argued that the supermarkets were eating away at sales. Ms Swann has defied the sceptics, achieving an impressive turnaround. The company’s magazine and newspaper distribution division was hived off as a separate entity and new outlets were opened at airports and railway stations – so much so that sales by W H Smith’s travel unit now threaten to overtake those of its traditional high street stores. Lower-[profit-]margin lines, such as CDs and DVDs, have been cleared from the shelves to make way for higher-margin items, such as stationery.The last plank of the strategy was in evidence again in yesterday’s update, in which Ms Swann reported that sales in the nine weeks to January 17 were down by 7 per cent in the high street stores and by 2 per cent in the travel stores, partly because W H Smith is continuing to reduce its exposure to the entertainment category. That was the bad news. The good news was that, although sales overall were down, the reduced focus on entertainment was good for profits. W H Smith made an extra 2p of profit in every ? 1 of sales, compared with the same period a year earlier, a stunning achievement given the deflation hitting the high street.Source: ‘Business big shot’, Ian King, The Times, 27 January 2009, p. 39. nisyndication. com. Within a market economy there are strong competitive forces at work that ensure that failure to enhance owners’ wealth will not be tolerated for long. Competition for the funds provided by the owners and competition for managers’ jobs will normally mean that the owners’ interests will prevail. If the managers do not provide the expected increase in ownership wealth, the owners have the power to replace the existing management team wit h a new team that is more responsive to owners’ needs. WHAT IS THE FINANCIAL OBJECTIVE OF A BUSINESS?Does this mean that the needs of other groups associated with the business (employees, customers, suppliers, the community and so on) are not really important? The answer to this question is certainly no, if the business wishes to survive and prosper over the longer term. Satisfying the needs of other groups will normally be consistent with increasing the wealth of the owners over the longer term. The importance of customers to a business cannot be overstated. Dissatis? ed customers will take their business to another supplier and this will, in turn, lead to a loss of wealth for the owners of the business losing the customers.Real World 1. 4 provides an illustration of the way in which one business acknowledges the link between customer satisfaction and creating wealth for its owners. Real World 1. 4 Checking out Sainsbury’s objectives J Sainsbury plc is a leading food retailer that recognises the importance of customers to increasing the wealth of the owners (shareholders) as follows: Our objective is to serve customers well and thereby provide shareholders with good, sustainable financial returns. Source: Investor FAQs, www. j-sainsbury. co. uk, 8 January 2009, p. 1. A dissatis? d workforce may result in low productivity, strikes and so forth, which will in turn have an adverse effect on owners’ wealth. Similarly, a business that upsets the local community by unacceptable behaviour, such as polluting the environment, may attract bad publicity, resulting in a loss of customers and heavy ? nes. Real World 1. 5 provides an example of how two businesses responded to potentially damaging allegations. Real World 1. 5 The price of clothes FT US clothing and sportswear manufacturers Gap and Nike have many of their clothes produced in Asia where labour tends to be cheap.However, some of the contractors that produce clothes on behalf of the two com panies have been accused of unacceptable practices. Campaigners visited the factories and came up with damaging allegations. The factories were employing minors, they said, and managers were harassing female employees. Nike and Gap reacted by allowing independent inspectors into the factories. They promised to ensure their contractors obeyed minimum standards of employment. Earlier this year, Nike took the extraordinary step of publishing the names and addresses of all its contractors’ factories on the internet.The company said it could not be sure all the abuse had stopped. It said that if campaigners visited its contractors’ factories and found examples of continued malpractice, it would take action. Nike and Gap said the approach made business sense. They needed society’s approval if they were to prosper. Nike said it was concerned about the reaction of potential US recruits to the campaigners’ allegations. They would not want to work for a company tha t was constantly in the news because of the allegedly cruel treatment of those who made its products. Source: ‘Fair shares? , Michael Skapinker, Financial Times, 11 June 2005. 21 22 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TO ACCOUNTING It is important to recognise that generating wealth for the owners is not the same as seeking to maximise the current year’s pro? t. Wealth creation is a longer-term concept, which relates not only to this year’s pro? t but to that of future years as well. In the short term, corners can be cut and risks taken that improve current pro? t at the expense of future pro? t. Real World 1. 6 gives some examples of how emphasis on short-term pro? t can be damaging. Real World 1. 6 Short-term gains, long-term problemsFT Human beings are bad at learning and changing. It takes a good crisis to drive home what may have been staring us in the face. So what in particular are the lessons for all those concerned with saving, investment, borrowing and lending? For many years, under the guise of defending capitalism, we have been allowing ourselves to degrade it. We have been poisoning the well from which we have drawn wealth. We have misunderstood the importance of values to capitalism. We have surrendered to the idea that success is pursued by making as much money as the law allowed without regard to how it was made.Thirty years ago, retailers would b