Provinces of the Philippines and Local Markets

Tapsilog is a popular Filipino dish commonly served for breakfast. The term is coined from combining the Filipino words tapa, sinangag, and itlog which are the main components of the dish. We chose to show how tapsilog can be geographical because we want to emphasize that anything can be geographical, and tapsilog, a common Filipino dish is usually not the kind of product that people would associate with geography. As mentioned, tapsilog is made up of tapa (dried meat), sinangag (fried rice) and itlog (egg), but it doesn’t stop there.Each ingredient is also made up of even more ingredients that we have traced to have originated from and traveled through different places in and out of the country before it reaches our plates. This further supports the idea that tapsilog, like every product, is geographical. Tapa, the first and main ingredient, is made from beef marinated in different spices. The beef is usually bought at the nearest local market by most cooks, but before reachi ng the local markets, it is first brought from a farmer’s market which is locally called bulungan or bagsakan.One example of this bagsakan is the Farmer’s Market Cubao from which its name was derived from. Slaughter houses and cow farms from different municipalities sell their product to the said farmer’s market. One of the biggest sources of cow meat in the Philippines is Padre Garcia, Batangas, the cattle trading capital of the Philippines, where they have the best temperature here in the country for raising cows. Cow breeders ensure that their livestock are bred well by supplying them with good feeds and steroids. Their diet usually contains well-grown grass and corn.The marinade consists of a blend of sugar, garlic, pepper, and salt, which are locally- found ingredients. The sugar comes from sugar mills like the San Carlos Bio Energy Inc. in Negros Occidental, while the sugarcanes are provided by small sugarcane farmers from Bukidnon, Misamis Oriental, Negro s and Panay, or by large agricultural companies like Del Monte and DOLE. Pepper is mostly from small and big exporters from Batangas, Laguna, Quezon, Negros Occidental, Zamboanga and Davao. Garlic usually comes from Sinait, Ilocos Sur, the garlic center of the Philippines where they celebrate the Sinait Bawang Fest.Like the beef, the spices are brought from its respective farmer’s market before reaching the local markets. Sinangag is the term for Filipino fried rice. Rice, the main ingredient of sinangag, is also bought from local markets that got their stocks from the National Food Authority. The NFA serves as the biggest warehouse or post harvest facility here in the Philippines. Before reaching the NFA, rice is harvested from rice fields, especially in the province of Central Luzon or sometimes imported from Vietnam. Farmers exert effort in tilling the lands for their crops to grow and watching the seasons to find the best time to plant and harvest.Like tapa, sinangag is a lso composed of the spices discussed earlier. Egg, the last main ingredient in making a tapsilog, is also bought from local markets. Like the other ingredients, eggs are brought from farmer’s markets before reaching local markets, or sometimes large companies or poultry farms like Bounty Fresh Inc. , which is located in Bulacan. They directly deliver their egg products to local markets to maximize profit. Maintaining a poultry farm requires water, chicken feeds, hormones and supplements, and machines which are commonly imported from Japan.

A Game of Thrones Chapter Sixty-six

Bran The oldest were men grown, seventeen and eighteen years from the day of their naming. One was past twenty. Most were younger, sixteen or less. Bran watched them from the balcony of Maester Luwin's turret, listening to them grunt and strain and curse as they swung their staves and wooden swords. The yard was alive to the clack of wood on wood, punctuated all too often by thwacks and yowls of pain when a blow struck leather or flesh. Ser Rodrik strode among the boys, face reddening beneath his white whiskers, muttering at them one and all. Bran had never seen the old knight look so fierce. â€Å"No,† he kept saying. â€Å"No. No. No.† â€Å"They don't fight very well,† Bran said dubiously. He scratched Summer idly behind the ears as the direwolf tore at a haunch of meat. Bones crunched between his teeth. â€Å"For a certainty,† Maester Luwin agreed with a deep sigh. The maester was peering through his big Myrish lens tube, measuring shadows and noting the position of the comet that hung low in the morning sky. â€Å"Yet given time . . . Ser Rodrik has the truth of it, we need men to walk the walls. Your lord father took the cream of his guard to King's Landing, and your brother took the rest, along with all the likely lads for leagues around. Many will not come back to us, and we must needs find the men to take their places.† Bran stared resentfully at the sweating boys below. â€Å"If I still had my legs, I could beat them all.† He remembered the last time he'd held a sword in his hand, when the king had come to Winterfell. It was only a wooden sword, yet he'd knocked Prince Tommen down half a hundred times. â€Å"Ser Rodrik should teach me to use a poleaxe. If I had a poleaxe with a big long haft, Hodor could be my legs. We could be a knight together.† â€Å"I think that . . . unlikely,† Maester Luwin said. â€Å"Bran, when a man fights, his arms and legs and thoughts must be as one.† Below in the yard, Ser Rodrik was yelling. â€Å"You fight like a goose. He pecks you and you peck him harder. Parry! Block the blow. Goose fighting will not suffice. If those were real swords, the first peck would take your arm off!† One of the other boys laughed, and the old knight rounded on him. â€Å"You laugh. You. Now that is gall. You fight like a hedgehog . . . â€Å" â€Å"There was a knight once who couldn't see,† Bran said stubbornly, as Ser Rodrik went on below. â€Å"Old Nan told me about him. He had a long staff with blades at both ends and he could spin it in his hands and chop two men at once.† â€Å"Symeon Star-Eyes,† Luwin said as he marked numbers in a book. â€Å"When he lost his eyes, he put star sapphires in the empty sockets, or so the singers claim. Bran, that is only a story, like the tales of Florian the Fool. A fable from the Age of Heroes.† The maester tsked. â€Å"You must put these dreams aside, they will only break your heart.† The mention of dreams reminded him. â€Å"I dreamed about the crow again last night. The one with three eyes. He flew into my bedchamber and told me to come with him, so I did. We went down to the crypts. Father was there, and we talked. He was sad.† â€Å"And why was that?† Luwin peered through his tube. â€Å"It was something to do about Jon, I think.† The dream had been deeply disturbing, more so than any of the other crow dreams. â€Å"Hodor won't go down into the crypts.† The maester had only been half listening, Bran could tell. He lifted his eye from the tube, blinking. â€Å"Hodor won't . . . â€Å" â€Å"Go down into the crypts. When I woke, I told him to take me down, to see if Father was truly there. At first he didn't know what I was saying, but I got him to the steps by telling him to go here and go there, only then he wouldn't go down. He just stood on the top step and said ‘Hodor,' like he was scared of the dark, but I had a torch. It made me so mad I almost gave him a swat in the head, like Old Nan is always doing.† He saw the way the maester was frowning and hurriedly added, â€Å"I didn't, though.† â€Å"Good. Hodor is a man, not a mule to be beaten.† â€Å"In the dream I flew down with the crow, but I can't do that when I'm awake,† Bran explained. â€Å"Why would you want to go down to the crypts?† â€Å"I told you. To look for Father.† The maester tugged at the chain around his neck, as he often did when he was uncomfortable. â€Å"Bran, sweet child, one day Lord Eddard will sit below in stone, beside his father and his father's father and all the Starks back to the old Kings in the North . . . but that will not be for many years, gods be good. Your father is a prisoner of the queen in King's Landing. You will not find him in the crypts.† â€Å"He was there last night. I talked to him.† â€Å"Stubborn boy,† the maester sighed, setting his book aside. â€Å"Would you like to go see?† â€Å"I can't. Hodor won't go, and the steps are too narrow and twisty for Dancer.† â€Å"I believe I can solve that difficulty.† In place of Hodor, the wildling woman Osha was summoned. She was tall and tough and uncomplaining, willing to go wherever she was commanded. â€Å"I lived my life beyond the Wall, a hole in the ground won't fret me none, m'lords,† she said. â€Å"Summer, come,† Bran called as she lifted him in wiry-strong arms. The direwolf left his bone and followed as Osha carried Bran across the yard and down the spiral steps to the cold vault under the earth. Maester Luwin went ahead with a torch. Bran did not even mind—too badly—that she carried him in her arms and not on her back. Ser Rodrik had ordered Osha's chain struck off, since she had served faithfully and well since she had been at Winterfell. She still wore the heavy iron shackles around her ankles—a sign that she was not yet wholly trusted—but they did not hinder her sure strides down the steps. Bran could not recall the last time he had been in the crypts. It had been before, for certain. When he was little, he used to play down here with Robb and Jon and his sisters. He wished they were here now; the vault might not have seemed so dark and scary. Summer stalked out in the echoing gloom, then stopped, lifted his head, and sniffed the chill dead air. He bared his teeth and crept backward, eyes glowing golden in the light of the maester's torch. Even Osha, hard as old iron, seemed uncomfortable. â€Å"Grim folk, by the look of them,† she said as she eyed the long row of granite Starks on their stone thrones. â€Å"They were the Kings of Winter,† Bran whispered. Somehow it felt wrong to talk too loudly in this place. Osha smiled. â€Å"Winter's got no king. If you'd seen it, you'd know that, summer boy.† â€Å"They were the Kings in the North for thousands of years,† Maester Luwin said, lifting the torch high so the light shone on the stone faces. Some were hairy and bearded, shaggy men fierce as the wolves that crouched by their feet. Others were shaved clean, their features gaunt and sharp-edged as the iron longswords across their laps. â€Å"Hard men for a hard time. Come.† He strode briskly down the vault, past the procession of stone pillars and the endless carved figures. A tongue of flame trailed back from the upraised torch as he went. The vault was cavernous, longer than Winterfell itself, and Jon had told him once that there were other levels underneath, vaults even deeper and darker where the older kings were buried. It would not do to lose the light. Summer refused to move from the steps, even when Osha followed the torch, Bran in her arms. â€Å"Do you recall your history, Bran?† the maester said as they walked. â€Å"Tell Osha who they were and what they did, if you can.† He looked at the passing faces and the tales came back to him. The maester had told him the stories, and Old Nan had made them come alive. â€Å"That one is Jon Stark. When the sea raiders landed in the east, he drove them out and built the castle at White Harbor. His son was Rickard Stark, not my father's father but another Rickard, he took the Neck away from the Marsh King and married his daughter. Theon Stark's the real thin one with the long hair and the skinny beard. They called him the ‘Hungry Wolf,' because he was always at war. That's a Brandon, the tall one with the dreamy face, he was Brandon the Shipwright, because he loved the sea. His tomb is empty. He tried to sail west across the Sunset Sea and was never seen again. His son was Brandon the Burner, because he put the torch to all his father's ships in grief. There's Rodrik Stark, who won Bear Island in a wrestling match and gave it to the Mormonts. And that's Torrhen Stark, the King Who Knelt. He was the last Kin g in the North and the first Lord of Winterfell, after he yielded to Aegon the Conqueror. Oh, there, he's Cregan Stark. He fought with Prince Aemon once, and the Dragonknight said he'd never faced a finer swordsman.† They were almost at the end now, and Bran felt a sadness creeping over him. â€Å"And there's my grandfather, Lord Rickard, who was beheaded by Mad King Aerys. His daughter Lyanna and his son Brandon are in the tombs beside him. Not me, another Brandon, my father's brother. They're not supposed to have statues, that's only for the lords and the kings, but my father loved them so much he had them done.† â€Å"The maid's a fair one,† Osha said. â€Å"Robert was betrothed to marry her, but Prince Rhaegar carried her off and raped her,† Bran explained. â€Å"Robert fought a war to win her back. He killed Rhaegar on the Trident with his hammer, but Lyanna died and he never got her back at all.† â€Å"A sad tale,† said Osha, â€Å"but those empty holes are sadder.† â€Å"Lord Eddard's tomb, for when his time comes,† Maester Luwin said. â€Å"Is this where you saw your father in your dream, Bran?† â€Å"Yes.† The memory made him shiver. He looked around the vault uneasily, the hairs on the back of his neck bristling. Had he heard a noise? Was there someone here? Maester Luwin stepped toward the open sepulchre, torch in hand. â€Å"As you see, he's not here. Nor will he be, for many a year. Dreams are only dreams, child.† He thrust his arm into the blackness inside the tomb, as into the mouth of some great beast. â€Å"Do you see? It's quite empt—† The darkness sprang at him, snarling. Bran saw eyes like green fire, a flash of teeth, fur as black as the pit around them. Maester Luwin yelled and threw up his hands. The torch went flying from his fingers, caromed off the stone face of Brandon Stark, and tumbled to the statue's feet, the flames licking up his legs. In the drunken shifting torchlight, they saw Luwin struggling with the direwolf, beating at his muzzle with one hand while the jaws closed on the other. â€Å"Summer!† Bran screamed. And Summer came, shooting from the dimness behind them, a leaping shadow. He slammed into Shaggydog and knocked him back, and the two direwolves rolled over and over in a tangle of grey and black fur, snapping and biting at each other, while Maester Luwin struggled to his knees, his arm torn and bloody. Osha propped Bran up against Lord Rickard's stone wolf as she hurried to assist the maester. In the light of the guttering torch, shadow wolves twenty feet tall fought on the wall and roof. â€Å"Shaggy,† a small voice called. When Bran looked up, his little brother was standing in the mouth of Father's tomb. With one final snap at Summer's face, Shaggydog broke off and bounded to Rickon's side. â€Å"You let my father be,† Rickon warned Luwin. â€Å"You let him be.† â€Å"Rickon,† Bran said softly. â€Å"Father's not here.† â€Å"Yes he is. I saw him.† Tears glistened on Rickon's face. â€Å"I saw him last night.† â€Å"In your dream . . . ?† Rickon nodded. â€Å"You leave him. You leave him be. He's coming home now, like he promised. He's coming home.† Bran had never seen Maester Luwin took so uncertain before. Blood dripped down his arm where Shaggydog had shredded the wool of his sleeve and the flesh beneath. â€Å"Osha, the torch,† he said, biting through his pain, and she snatched it up before it went out. Soot stains blackened both legs of his uncle's likeness. â€Å"That . . . that beast,† Luwin went on, â€Å"is supposed to be chained up in the kennels.† Rickon patted Shaggydog's muzzle, damp with blood. â€Å"I let him loose. He doesn't like chains.† He licked at his fingers. â€Å"Rickon,† Bran said, â€Å"would you like to come with me?† â€Å"No. I like it here.† â€Å"It's dark here. And cold.† â€Å"I'm not afraid. I have to wait for Father.† â€Å"You can wait with me,† Bran said. â€Å"We'll wait together, you and me and our wolves.† Both of the direwolves were licking wounds now, and would bear close watching. â€Å"Bran,† the maester said firmly, â€Å"I know you mean well, but Shaggydog is too wild to run loose. I'm the third man he's savaged. Give him the freedom of the castle and it's only a question of time before he kills someone. The truth is hard, but the wolf has to be chained, or . . . &rdquo He hesitated . . . or killed, Bran thought, but what he said was, â€Å"He was not made for chains. We will wait in your tower, all of us.† â€Å"That is quite impossible,† Maester Luwin said. Osha grinned. â€Å"The boy's the lordling here, as I recall.† She handed Luwin back his torch and scooped Bran up into her arms again. â€Å"The maester's tower it is.† â€Å"Will you come, Rickon?† His brother nodded. â€Å"If Shaggy comes too,† he said, running after Osha and Bran, and there was nothing Maester Luwin could do but follow, keeping a wary eye on the wolves. Maester Luwin's turret was so cluttered that it seemed to Bran a wonder that he ever found anything. Tottering piles of books covered tables and chairs, rows of stoppered jars lined the shelves, candle stubs and puddles of dried wax dotted the furniture, the bronze Myrish lens tube sat on a tripod by the terrace door, star charts hung from the walls, shadow maps lay scattered among the rushes, papers, quills, and pots of inks were everywhere, and all of it was spotted with droppings from the ravens in the rafters. Their strident quorks drifted down from above as Osha washed and cleaned and bandaged the maester's wounds, under Luwin's terse instruction. â€Å"This is folly,† the small grey man said while she dabbed at the wolf bites with a stinging ointment. â€Å"I agree that it is odd that both you boys dreamed the same dream, yet when you stop to consider it, it's only natural. You miss your lord father, and you know that he is a captive. Fear can fever a man's mind and giv e him queer thoughts. Rickon is too young to comprehend—† â€Å"I'm four now,† Rickon said. He was peeking through the lens tube at the gargoyles on the First Keep. The direwolves sat on opposite sides of the large round room, licking their wounds and gnawing on bones. â€Å"—too young, and—ooh, seven hells, that burns, no, don't stop, more. Too young, as I say, but you, Bran, you're old enough to know that dreams are only dreams.† â€Å"Some are, some aren't.† Osha poured pale red firemilk into a long gash. Luwin gasped. â€Å"The children of the forest could tell you a thing or two about dreaming.† Tears were streaming down the maester's face, yet he shook his head doggedly. â€Å"The children . . . live only in dreams. Now. Dead and gone. Enough, that's enough. Now the bandages. Pads and then wrap, and make it tight, I'll be bleeding.† â€Å"Old Nan says the children knew the songs of the trees, that they could fly like birds and swim like fish and talk to the animals,† Bran said. â€Å"She says that they made music so beautiful that it made you cry like a little baby just to hear it.† â€Å"And all this they did with magic,† Maester Luwin said, distracted. â€Å"I wish they were here now. A spell would heal my arm less painfully, and they could talk to Shaggydog and tell him not to bite.† He gave the big black wolf an angry glance out of the corner of his eye. â€Å"Take a lesson, Bran. The man who trusts in spells is dueling with a glass sword. As the children did. Here, let me show you something.† He stood abruptly, crossed the room, and returned with a green jar in his good hand. â€Å"Have a look at these,† he said as he pulled the stopper and shook out a handful of shiny black arrowheads. Bran picked one up. â€Å"It's made of glass.† Curious, Rickon drifted closer to peer over the table. â€Å"Dragonglass,† Osha named it as she sat down beside Luwin, bandagings in hand. â€Å"Obsidian,† Maester Luwin insisted, holding out his wounded arm. â€Å"Forged in the fires of the gods, far below the earth. The children of the forest hunted with that, thousands of years ago. The children worked no metal. In place of mail, they wore long shirts of woven leaves and bound their legs in bark, so they seemed to melt into the wood. In place of swords, they carried blades of obsidian.† â€Å"And still do.† Osha placed soft pads over the bites on the maester's forearm and bound them tight with long strips of linen. Bran held the arrowhead up close. The black glass was slick and shiny. He thought it beautiful. â€Å"Can I keep one?† â€Å"As you wish,† the maester said. â€Å"I want one too,† Rickon said. â€Å"I want four. I'm four.† Luwin made him count them out. â€Å"Careful, they're still sharp. Don't cut yourself.† â€Å"Tell me about the children,† Bran said. It was important. â€Å"What do you wish to know?† â€Å"Everything.† Maester Luwin tugged at his chain collar where it chafed against his neck. â€Å"They were people of the Dawn Age, the very first, before kings and kingdoms,† he said. â€Å"In those days, there were no castles or holdfasts, no cities, not so much as a market town to be found between here and the sea of Dorne. There were no men at all. Only the children of the forest dwelt in the lands we now call the Seven Kingdoms. â€Å"They were a people dark and beautiful, small of stature, no taller than children even when grown to manhood. They lived in the depths of the wood, in caves and crannogs and secret tree towns. Slight as they were, the children were quick and graceful. Male and female hunted together, with weirwood bows and flying snares. Their gods were the gods of the forest, stream, and stone, the old gods whose names are secret. Their wise men were called greenseers, and carved strange faces in the weirwoods to keep watch on the woods. How long the children reigned here or where they came from, no man can know. â€Å"But some twelve thousand years ago, the First Men appeared from the east, crossing the Broken Arm of Dorne before it was broken. They came with bronze swords and great leathern shields, riding horses. No horse had ever been seen on this side of the narrow sea. No doubt the children were as frightened by the horses as the First Men were by the faces in the trees. As the First Men carved out holdfasts and farms, they cut down the faces and gave them to the fire. Horror-struck, the children went to war. The old songs say that the greenseers used dark magics to make the seas rise and sweep away the land, shattering the Arm, but it was too late to close the door. The wars went on until the earth ran red with blood of men and children both, but more children than men, for men were bigger and stronger, and wood and stone and obsidian make a poor match for bronze. Finally the wise of both races prevailed, and the chiefs and heroes of the First Men met the greenseers and wood dancers a midst the weirwood groves of a small island in the great lake called Gods Eye. â€Å"There they forged the Pact. The First Men were given the coastlands, the high plains and bright meadows, the mountains and bogs, but the deep woods were to remain forever the children's, and no more weirwoods were to be put to the axe anywhere in the realm. So the gods might bear witness to the signing, every tree on the island was given a face, and afterward, the sacred order of green men was formed to keep watch over the Isle of Faces. â€Å"The Pact began four thousand years of friendship between men and children. In time, the First Men even put aside the gods they had brought with them, and took up the worship of the secret gods of the wood. The signing of the Pact ended the Dawn Age, and began the Age of Heroes.† Bran's fist curled around the shiny black arrowhead. â€Å"But the children of the forest are all gone now, you said.† â€Å"Here, they are,† said Osha, as she bit off the end of the last bandage with her teeth. â€Å"North of the Wall, things are different. That's where the children went, and the giants, and the other old races.† Maester Luwin sighed. â€Å"Woman, by rights you ought to be dead or in chains. The Starks have treated you more gently than you deserve. It is unkind to repay them for their kindness by filling the boys' heads with folly.† â€Å"Tell me where they went,† Bran said. â€Å"I want to know.† â€Å"Me too,† Rickon echoed. â€Å"Oh, very well,† Luwin muttered. â€Å"So long as the kingdoms of the First Men held sway, the Pact endured, all through the Age of Heroes and the Long Night and the birth of the Seven Kingdoms, yet finally there came a time, many centuries later, when other peoples crossed the narrow sea. â€Å"The Andals were the first, a race of tall, fair-haired warriors who came with steel and fire and the seven-pointed star of the new gods painted on their chests. The wars lasted hundreds of years, but in the end the six southron kingdoms all fell before them. Only here, where the King in the North threw back every army that tried to cross the Neck, did the rule of the First Men endure. The Andals burnt out the weirwood groves, hacked down the faces, slaughtered the children where they found them, and everywhere proclaimed the triumph of the Seven over the old gods. So the children fled north—† Summer began to howl. Maester Luwin broke off, startled. When Shaggydog bounded to his feet and added his voice to his brother's, dread clutched at Bran's heart. â€Å"It's coming,† he whispered, with the certainty of despair. He had known it since last night, he realized, since the crow had led him down into the crypts to say farewell. He had known it, but he had not believed. He had wanted Maester Luwin to be right. The crow, he thought, the three-eyed crow . . . The howling stopped as suddenly as it had begun. Summer padded across the tower floor to Shaggydog, and began to lick at a mat of bloody fur on the back of his brother's neck. From the window came a flutter of wings. A raven landed on the grey stone sill, opened its beak, and gave a harsh, raucous rattle of distress. Rickon began to cry. His arrowheads fell from his hand one by one and clattered on the floor. Bran pulled him close and hugged him. Maester Luwin stared at the black bird as if it were a scorpion with feathers. He rose, slow as a sleepwalker, and moved to the window. When he whistled, the raven hopped onto his bandaged forearm. There was dried blood on its wings. â€Å"A hawk,† Luwin murmured, â€Å"perhaps an owl. Poor thing, a wonder it got through.† He took the letter from its leg. Bran found himself shivering as the maester unrolled the paper. â€Å"What is it?† he said, holding his brother all the harder. â€Å"You know what it is, boy,† Osha said, not unkindly. She put her hand on his head. Maester Luwin looked up at them numbly, a small grey man with blood on the sleeve of his grey wool robe and tears in his bright grey eyes. â€Å"My lords,† he said to the sons, in a voice gone hoarse and shrunken, â€Å"we . . . we shall need to find a stonecarver who knew his likeness well . . . â€Å"

Public and Private Partnership Paddington Health Campus Scheme Essay

Public and Private Partnership Paddington Health Campus Scheme - Essay Example Governments have numerous strategies for supplying public goods and services. Numerous of these strategies are partnerships with the non-profit or private agencies. The most recent decades have seen a dramatic increase in the formation of public-private partnerships (PPPs). The United Kingdom engaged in a new form of PPP in the 1990s to boost the participation of the private sector in public service provision (Robinson et al., 2010). According to Yescombe (2007), called the private finance initiative (PFI), the British Treasury Department has generated roughly twenty billion pounds to spend in public service management and private financing in the UK. PFI in the region has already been privatised. PPPs are public acquisition mechanisms which require private agencies to deliver services that are usually the obligation of the government. Fiscal and infrastructure demands keep on making these strategies appealing to governments, hence it is important to evaluate their outcomes (Hodge & Greve, 2005). This essay examines the Paddington Health Campus Scheme. It evaluates the actual driving forces and problems of the Scheme in terms of two issues: (1) strategic planning, and (2) working in partnership. It indicates that PPPs had dual sources: (1) a core theoretical assumption that productivity or competency would be improved by controlling competition in the market via private sector bidding, and (2) a macroeconomic strategy plan, motivated by an interest in regulating public debt (Hodge & Greve, 2005). Nevertheless, in actual fact, these productivity benefits are a long way from being mechanical—as stated by Geddes (2005), the successful progress of any PPP scheme hinges on a coordination of the objectives of operational, tactical, and strategic ranks of authority. Overview of the Paddington Health Campus It is practically useless to plan a complete business scheme and other actual reports for a PPP scheme of the private sector, or the market, does not view th e scheme as commercially appealing or fiscally workable. In the initial period of the PFI numerous schemes were marked down by the public sector as PPP-feasible, though, afterward it turned out that a significant percentage of these projects were actually not appropriate, because of a mixture of problems such as heavy contract requirements, brief contract durations, inadequate flow of income, and overflow of risk transfer (Cartlidge, 2006). Of late, the failure of the PFI Paddington Health Campus Scheme generated massive abortive costs and consultant fees. The Paddington Health Campus scheme was a complicated and aggressive project to construct a top-notch medical and research facility which in the end revealed weaknesses in the ability of the partners to work towards success. The project planned to set up high-tech and sophisticated medical services and to replace the dilapidated hospitals of Harefield, Brompton, and St. Marys (Great Britain: National Audit Office, 2006a, 4). The s cheme partners were Partnerships UK, Imperial College, St. Marys NHS Trust, Harefield NHS Trust, and Royal Brompton. The Outline Business Case (OBC) was endorsed in October 2000 by the NHS’s London Regional Office. It projected the overall cost of construction to be roughly 300 million. In May 2005, estimated costs had increased to 894 million and the date of completion was extended from 2006 to 2013 (Great Britain: National Audit Office, 2006a, 4). Initially introduced in 1998, the project was abolished after a major partner declined to back up the business case for the scheme (Robinson et al., 2010). The scheme was then restored. Circumstances such as this are apparently unfavourable for the reputation of PPPs as it disputes the entire method of this form of acquisition, in addition to the substantial waste of resources, effort, and time. Hence, if there are some uncertainties about the interest of private agencies in taking part in a planned PPP scheme, market scanning mus t be carried out at the soonest

Health, Safety, and Nutrition for the Young Child Research Paper

Health, Safety, and Nutrition for the Young Child - Research Paper Example Developmental toys are essential for young children because they support the child’s learning process and have the added advantage of being less likely to cause unintentional injuries. (Herr, 2001). The guidelines which need to consider when selecting toys for young children are as follows:1. It is important to consider the child’s age, interests, and developmental abilities when selecting an appropriate toy. Developmental skills should be given foremost importance because the toy should be able to enhance his problem solving and reasoning skills.  2. High-quality construction features are important to consider such as durability, stability, and good design.3. Select toys that young children can use on their own with minimal parental supervision.4. Avoid selecting toys which have small pieces in order to eliminate the chances of choking. (Marotz et al, 2005).The pop-up farmhouse is a great toy for young children. The toy is safe and is not too heavy for the child to l ift. Pop up farmhouse can be used with minimal adult supervision because the toy is not made of small pieces. The toy is a good developmental item because it enhances the child’s imagination and dexterity. Moreover, it is great for eye coordination and is a good tool for familiarizing children with the sounds of farm animals. Therefore, I would advise parents to select this toy for their young children.  The Inch WormThe Inch Worm is an excellent toy for enhancing a child’s dexterity and locomotory skills.

Media Law Matrix Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Media Law Matrix - Assignment Example New technologies push the boundaries of ethical discussions on ownership of creative work First Amendment The media’s right to free expression is protected, with the amendment prohibiting the enactment of laws that abridge or curtail press freedom and free speech What are the bounds of press freedom? Can private individuals slighted wrongly by the press and by individuals seek redress under the law? This relates to libel as a legal recourse. Prior restraint prohibition An extension of the First Amendment, prohibiting government from prohibiting speech prior to the utterance of the speech. The effect is the broadening of the power of mass media, and the press in particular Ethical issues are again tied to limits of free speech as they pertain to the rights of private individuals Abridgements to First Amendment Rights Non-interference of government on free speech rights is not absolute, but may be justified by public safety considerations. The effect on media is the setting of b ounds on free expression, in cases where the public safety or the national safety are compromised There is the ethical issue of where the bounds of government power and the public and media lie. There is a tug of war in legal discourse/precedents relating to this Libel law The freedom of the press is not absolute, but is predicated on such freedom not trampling the rights of others. This is a curtailment and a bound on press freedom, because those slighted by media has recourse to libel law Libel law interpretations in courts determine the bounds of press freedom and free speech. Ethical issues are tied to making sure that judgments are just and fair to media and to private individuals Table inputs source: Vivian, 2011, pp. 424-445 B. Two Issues A. Local Media Issue The issue at hand in an article discussing the extension of the treatment of media organizations to private individuals posting online, in blogs and in social media, and the standards that ought to govern both forms of m edia, the traditional and the emergent, when it comes to considering the evidence and the arguments relating to possible defamation and libel charges. The issue at hand is tied to the emergence of social media and blogs in particular, and how those emergent media forms have empowered ordinary individuals to speak freely and to publish their thoughts with the same reach and power, and print permanence, as the newspapers and related media forms of old. There are established precedents for governing free speech issues for traditional media, but the precedent for emergent media is not always well laid out. On the other hand, recent court decisions seem to apply a different set of standards for blog-published and social media-published content on the one hand and traditional media on the other. The legal implications of the double standard are evident in the way there seems to be an unequal application of First Amendment rights as they apply to ordinary people in social media and to medi a practitioners, creating potential future problems in the interpretation of First Amendment and related laws. The ethical implications are profound, because the double standard may mean that the rights of private individuals, for instance, against defamation may be compromised by such unequal treatment of bloggers and ordinary social media users on the one hand a

The Economic Factors that Help Explainining the Expansion of Low-Cost Research Paper

The Economic Factors that Help Explainining the Expansion of Low-Cost Airline Carriers - Research Paper Example Accessibility of alternative modes of transport that are rationally close substitutes for air transportation diminishes with distance travelled. Globalization and free movement of merchandise and people between and within regions have a positive effect on air travel demand. Business travel market consists of time sensitive passengers; therefore, these customers are price inelastic in terms of fares. If the airline firm offers high quality service to this market segment, such as frequent and reliable frights, flexibility, comfortable seats, and excellent, frequent flyer programme rewards, business class customers will be willing to pay high prices (Junwook, 2011). However, with the introduction of low cost airlines the price elasticity of this business class market has changed and they display price elasticity. In previous years, airline industry relied heavily on business travel market as a major source of profit, however, this trend has changed, and the industry has noted that a hig her percentage of passengers considers price over service. Business class customers are willing to give up luxuries, food quality, flexibility or choice in return to lower prices. According to Rosario & Eddy, 2010, the economy travel market is largely determined by the costs being charged by the airlines; they are price sensitive. The first class air travel market does not generate much profit to the airline industry, as a result, many airlines are moving from three to a two-class cabin. The levels of consumer income influence the passenger’s choice of the air travel class; the choice of consumers with high levels of income will differ with those of consumers with low levels of income (Bijan, & Tom, 2008). The demand for leisure travel is influenced by the number of independent holidays and short term breaks; in this market passengers book flights, accommodation and car by themselves. According to Airport International, the changes in demand of leisure travel indicate that cu stomers are expecting and preferring low fares. Low fares in this market segment are the main stimulus for growth in luxury travel, and passengers are willing to change destination for fabulous deals. According to Susan, 2009, the prices of air tickets are largely influenced by the fuel prices, the exchange rates, and the costs of financing airline projects. High costs of financing, unstable exchange rates, and high fuel prices lead to high air fares. Other natural calamities, such tsunami and earthquakes among others results to decline in tourism and business travels thereby, affecting the air travel demand in the affected areas (Roger, 2008). The following diagrams and tables show the effects of fuel prices on operating costs of the airline industry. Prices of air tickets are determined by the price of fuel; fuel price is influenced by the prevailing economic conditions such as the exchange rates. Industry Fuel Costs and Net Profits. Source: Industry Financial Forecast Table (IATA Economics). Fuel Impact on Operating Costs Year % of Operating Costs Average Price per Barrel of Crude Break-even Price per Barrel Total Fuel Cost 2003 14% $28.8 $23.4 $44 billion 2004 17% $38.3 $34.5 $65 billion 2005 22% $54.5 $51.8 $91 billion 2006 26% $65.1 $68.3 $117 billion 2007 28% $73.0 $82.2 $135 billion 2008 33% $99.0 $88.9 $189 billion 2009 26% $62.0 $55.4 $125 billion 2010 26% $79.4 $91.0

Rhetorical Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Rhetorical - Essay Example In the course of this paper I will examine the rhetoric employed by Nathan Comp in his article entitled â€Å"An End to the War on Weed?† This article suggests that recent changes indicate the status quo with regards to the criminalization of marijuana may soon be at an end. Logos is an important aspect of Comp's argument. He wants to present his argument as eminently reasonable and the alternative to it as foolish. He presents many facts about the status quo which suggest that it is not working. He argues that there is a â€Å"growing sense that America’s marijuana policy is more harmful than the plant itself . . .† However, his reasoning is a bit simplistic. If the status quo is defective, simply remove the laws creating it, he says, and everything will be solved. This argument is a bit childish. As suggested below, legalizing marijuana does not solve the crime problems relating to other drugs. He argues that voters no longer seem to care that presidents have a dmitted to using marijuana. That is an important fact, but all presidents have said it is a negative thing and none support its legalization. If voters were to elect a stoner as president that might be more definitive. The suggestion is frequently made that marijuana is safer than alcohol, but again little evidence is used to support this claim. Experts are quoted saying: â€Å"The problem is that people still have a perception of harm that’s been built up over many years . . . If marijuana were legalized tomorrow, in 10 years these perceptions would be very, very different.† This is pure supposition and not logic. The evidence is divided on this issue. Nevertheless, this effort to appeal to authority sounds convincing and is useful logos. A great example of Comp employing ethos to recommend his argument is when he speaks about the Obama administration's potential backtracking on a liberalized regime towards marijuana. Comp does not believe these actions mean much. He writes, â€Å"to paraphrase Victor Hugo, not even the strongest government in the world can stop an idea whose time has apparently come.† This is a useful quote as it appeals to idealism and faith. It suggests that the people are opposed to the government and that the people have right on their side. By quoting Hugo, Comp sounds more credible, more classical, and more authoritative. This is a good example of using rhetorical ethos to make a point. The paraphrase is slipped into the argument but helps set a persuasive tone. The ethos Comp wants to communicate through this paper is one in which those who support legalization are pragmatists and progressives, and those who oppose it are retrograde and careless. This is a moral issue for Comp. The two sides are divided between good and bad. Pathos is as much a part of Comp's argument as any other rhetorical technique. He tries to frighten the reader into believing in his view on legalizing marijuana. Describing the situation in M exico, he writes that arguments for legalization â€Å"have taken on unusual gravity over the last year, as drug-fueled violence along the Mexican side of border has excited fears that the carnage and mayhem will spill over into American cities. Testifying before a House panel in March, a top Homeland Security official warned that the cartels now represent America’s largest organized-crime threat, having infiltrated at least 230 American cities.† He presumes that these facts support the argument for legalization,

Quality Tools in Decision Making Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 2

Quality Tools in Decision Making - Research Paper Example Since it is an essential instrument in the prosperity of organizations, examination and analysis of its background, strengths and limitations besides applications and benefits are critical. Background of the tool SWOT analysis originated from the research executed at Stanford Research Institute (SRI) from ‘60-‘70. The background to SWOT started from the need to establish why corporate forecasting failed. Fortune 500 companies sponsored the research to determine what could be done concerning this failure. The Research Team consisted of Marion Dosher and Dr Otis Benepe among others. It all commenced with the business-planning trend, which appeared originally at Du Pont in 1949. In ’60, each Fortune 500 business had a corporate forecasting manager or similar and organization of the extensive range corporate planners had emerged in both the US and the UK. However, a common opinion sprung in all of the companies that commercial planning in the shape of extended range pl anning was not operational, and was an expensive asset in futility. This was the period and stage when the organizations started to embrace this model in management planning (Dunne, Mard, Osborne, & Rigby, 2004). Strengths and weaknesses Strengths and weaknesses are constituents of internal factors of a business and, therefore, form significant advantages to the planners in business. Strengths relate to the viable advantages and other unique competencies, which can be utilized by the company on the market. Weaknesses are the challenges, which delay the progress of a company in a certain trend. To function productively in this respect, the company must direct its future goals on its strengths, while avoiding tendencies connected to the weaknesses of the company (Houben, el at, 1999). The strengths of the criminal field can take different aspects such as highly experienced and qualified personnel who offer legal advises. Additionally, charging affordable fees for legal services can cr eate an advantage over the rivals. Reasonable fees for consultation or representation in court matters shall draw clients to one’s firm hence serving as strength. Clients are vital assets in the daily operations of organizations, therefore, if well treated can create a superior rapport with them. If organizations access funds for investments, then modern technologies become essential to hire and qualified staffs can be employed at moderate market rates and wages. However, weaknesses can originate from limited access to investment funds to inject in the business. This means that the organization will be unable to adopt modern technologies or hire highly qualified staffs. Another form of weakness is the lack of healthy competition to organizations; firms will not be able to explore creativity and innovation. Production of substandard services poses long-term challenges especially if new firms are introduced in the market. Low wages to workers will morale them leading to low out put of efforts. This further results to high labor turn over due to lack of incentives. Brain drains from organizations are negative challenges to firms because the reputation of the firm is tainted and service provision will fall below standard (Hill & Jones, 2013). Common uses of SWOT analysis There are many uses of SWOT analysis in scrutinizing the different environments of a company: this instrument forms a structure for recognizing and analyzing strengths, challenges,

The First Persian Gulf War Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The First Persian Gulf War - Essay Example The main battles were aerial and ground combat within Iraq, Kuwait, and bordering areas of Saudi Arabia. The war did not expand outside the immediate Iraq/Kuwait/Saudi border region, although Iraq fired missiles on Israeli cities.The Iraqi seizure of Kuwait was of immediate interest to the western capitalist societies because Iraq and Kuwait together would control approximately 20 percent of the world's known oil reserves (Kellner 9). With the potential wealth generated from future oil sales and control over oil prices, Saddam Hussein could play a major role on the world's political and economic stage. Consequently, Iraq's invasion of Kuwait produced a crisis for the world capitalist system, for U.S. and European economic interests, and for the stability of the Middle East. Iraq was not able to get control of Kuwaiti investments because much of their money had been transferred out of the country. Yet, rather than encouraging a diplomatic solution to the crisis that would return Kuwai t's sovereignty and secure the region, George Bush responded with a military intervention, which inexorably led to the Gulf war itself. Interest in the crisis increased when the U.S. claimed that Iraq might also invade Saudi Arabia, which was said to control 20 percent of the world's known oil reserves and an investment portfolio even larger than Kuwait's. George Bush, who had initially attacked the invasion as "naked aggression," heated up his rhetoric and declared on August 5 that the invasion "would not stand." Two days later, he sent thousands of troops to Saudi Arabia. The Bush administration had thus set the stage for the Gulf war by failing to warn Iraq of the consequences of invading Kuwait and then by quickly sending troops to Saudi Arabia while undercutting diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis (Frank 20). There was no single reason why the United States relentlessly pursued the military option in the crisis of the Gulf. Dissection of the underlying forces that led the Bush administration to pursue the war option reveals a complex web of political, economic, and military considerations. The Gulf war was not solely a war for oil, for the greater glory of George Bush and the Pentagon, or for the promotion of U.S. geopolitical supremacy in order to bolster a faltering U.S. economy, although all of these factors played a role in producing the war. Instead, the Gulf war was "overdetermined" and requires a multicausal analysis (Kellner 11-12). In 1990, Bush's presidency was facing severe domestic economic and political problems, including: a sky-rocketing deficit caused by Reagan's and Bush's astronomical defense-spending; a severe S&L, banking, and insurance crisis caused by Republican deregulation policies; and proliferating public squalor marked by growing homelessness, unemployment, economic deprivation, deteriorating cities with epidemics of crime and drugs, health problems such as AIDS, cancer, and the absence of a national health insurance program. These and many other problems were in part caused, or aggravated, by the policies of George Bush and his predecessor Ronald Reagan. Consequently, it was in George Bush's interest to divert attention from current crises and the potentially deteriorating economy with a scapegoat for the economic imbroglio produced by Republican economics. That is, Bush could claim that the economic problems were caused by Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait and the ensuing crisis that drov e up

Study of The Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) 02165 Essay

Study of The Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) 02165 - Essay Example The only condition followed in this case is the investor has to behave in conformity maintaining prescription of portfolio theory. Early practitioners are of opinion that beta is the only explanatory factor, which has the ability to explain cross-sectional variation in the asset prices. Therefore, the CAPM model has successfully examined the predictions, which are made for measuring the risk-return relationship of asset prices (Black, Jensen and Scholes, 1972). Though the model was initially developed by Harry Markowitz, it was later modified by Lintner and Sharpe. The model actually explained that if a particular investor selects a portfolio for a period of time then he/she is said to be risk averse (Black, Jensen and Scholes, 1972). However, the modified version of the model is developed based on the following assumptions: CAPM has gained prominence in corporate finance, but there are many criticisms regarding its validity in the security market. The risk-return relationship is questioned, whether it has the ability to help the investor for making a good investment decision. Sharpe (1964) and Lintner (1965) had identified the linear relation that exists between return, risk and beta of a stock. Beta is defined as a variable, which aims at explaining cross sectional returns of the stocks. The equation aims at explaining the risk-return relationship of the stocks to a great extent. The beta value is dependent on type of assets (Roll, 1977). It also helps in gauging the volatility of the stock with respect to market risk. The following interpretations can be made from the different value of beta (Solnik, 1974; Lahrech and Sylwester, 2011; Levy and Sarnat, 1970). The above explanations indicates towards the fact that beta can easily establish the risk-return relationship of stocks. Therefore, it can be depicted that the CAPM is a perfect model for evaluating the debt and equity status of a company by examining its risk-rerun relationship of the

Internship Paper Essay Example for Free

Internship Paper Essay My role with the _____ County circuit courts varies pretty much daily. Originally I was assigned to circuit court three. As it turns out though, they have had a high school intern coming since the beginning of the semester also, who is interning for a class she has. I believe she comes in three times a week. In addition to this, they have a floater who rotates through all of the courts, there are seven, so they have more than enough help in their court. Most days when I go in, I start in court three, and then end up going to court services to help the ladies out there. When I am in court three, I basically do the filing that has accumulated throughout the day. Depending on the day, and if the other intern or the floater has been there, there might be anywhere from ten minutes to an hours worth of filing to do. After this is done, I might pull the mail, meaning pull any files that correspond with mail the court has received. These might be warrants, certified mail, requests to continue, follow up letters referencing a court case, etc. A few times, when there has been a computer available, I have been able to enter information into the JUSTIS system, mostly through certified mail cards. Sometimes I would enter information for small claims cases, and then if the attorney or plaintiff/defendant would need copies of the information, I would mail those out. I would say the majority of my time spent at the courts was spent in court services though. Here I would do a lot of work for Mary, who is in charge of juvenile cases. A few weeks ago, I did many spreadsheets with data about juveniles who were either in detention centers, or placed in treatment centers, ranging from 1998-2002. She has to have record of this and needed the material in an organized data format, so I did a lot of that. Ive also made many calls to agencies to see their per diem rates, or rates for those placed in those facilities per day that they stay. Another project I have done for Mary was tracking her mileage as she has traveled from facility to facility to visit the juveniles placed there. These facilities are located in various other places around the state, so  she often has to travel long distances to make these trips, and needs to track her mileage for record and compensation. These records also went back to I believe 1998 or 1999, and were recorded to the present date, so there was much tracking I had to do to figure out her total mileage per day, and then per year. Ive also worked several times with Lisa helping her. She is in charge of jurors and jury duty. She sends out notices once a month to those who are being called for jury duty for that month. I have helped her sort these names, put together the notices, and get them sent out to the potential jurors. This is a big job, as when it comes time to do it, she usually has boxes and boxes of notices needing to be sent out. Something else I have done for court services would be to take their daily outgoing mail and run it through the postage machine to be sent out. This must happen about 5-6 times a day would be my guess. I have only done this a few times, but each time I have gone back, there was a replenished supply to be sent out. Also, sometimes I would take documents that needed to be mailed out from circuit court three to court services and put them in their corresponding lawyers mail slots, or send them out with the outgoing mail. Also, a few times I have had to take packages or documents for someone in court services down to the courthouse. I have really enjoyed working in the court system, both in circuit court three and in court services. As a criminal justice major I think it has been a really good experience for me. I plan on graduating in December, and am hoping to go into Federal Investigations. Another interesting aspect of the internship where I did it was that I got to work somewhat along side of a fellow criminal justice major that I have known since our freshman year. She and I have had every criminal justice class together except for P100. We both applied for the internship, but never knew we would end up in the same place, since there were quite a few options of places to work! Also, my resident assistant from freshman year also works part time in the court system, so I was kind of reunited with  her, which was quite a coincidence, considering how big this campus is! Last page: The last page of the paper is supposed to be additional comments about our good experiences and shortcomings of the internship. My good experiences would definitely be the people that I met and worked with there. They are a wonderful group of people, from the few I already knew, my fellow CJUS major and my R.A from freshman year, to everyone that I got to know and work with there. And Mary was wonderful especially. I felt like I could talk to her about school stuff since she graduated from IU also, whether it be to gripe about classes or get advice about the major/future plans. I think the shortcoming I can think of would be that I ended up being an intern for circuit court three, not because I didnt like it, just for the fact that they already had a high school intern and a floater, so there really was not much for me to do there at all. I literally would go in court three for about a half hour or so and then spend the rest of my time in court services. Honestly I wish I could have been a general intern for court services or a second intern to Mary. Court services was where I spent the majority of my time and I loved it. I also was told when I did my orientation that I would probably get to sit in on court a few times and observe. To date I have not been able to do that. I dont know if the time hasnt worked out for when Ive been working, or if there just hasnt been much Id be able to sit in on. I remember Mary telling me that court three did have drug court, which I have heard them talk about a few times, and I would have loved to sit in on this, because the Drug Enforcement Agency is one of the Federal agencies Im very interested in. I would have definitely liked to participate in this aspect more than I was able to. I would say this has definitely been my toughest semester. I ended up dropping a class early in the semester because I was trying to take 19 hours, including the internship, so it was really even more since I had to  dedicate 10 hours a week to being there. At the beginning of the semester I thought I could handle all 19 hours and the internship, but I really felt like I didnt have time to even sleep, let alone study, so something had to go. I was literally booked solid all week as I worked most of the day Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays I had class from 8-5 and then Wednesdays I would work all day also. And while I didnt have classes on Fridays, I worked in my hometown at the job I have been working at for the past few summers; they let me come in part time and holidays so I can make some money. It was hard to juggle school, the internship, and my family situation this semester, but Im glad I was given the opportunity for the internship, I really do believe it was beneficial.

Managing People and Organisation Essay Example for Free

Managing People and Organisation Essay The purpose of this report to analyze the current situation in Shenzhen Filtroil and propose specific recommendation for the successful future management of Shenzhen Filtroil and its employee team. And work out detailed implementation plan. The report includes 5 key parts: 1. Analysis of external environments (PEST) and internal environments (SWOT) in which Shenzhen Filtroil operates. Key implication for people and organization in this sector. PEST and SWOT (Appendix). 2. Analysis the organization structure and organization culture of Shenzhen Filtroil. Key implication of this analyze for the successful future management of Shenzhen Filtroil and its employees. 3. Taking in to account national culture differences, analysis of leadership and management styles and capabilities as well as the employee team in Shenzhen Filtroil. Key implication of this analyze for the successful future management of Shenzhen Filtroil and its employees. 4. Recommendation for best of four options for the future, offered by Leahman and Randolph, and explanation why has made this choice. 5. Specific recommendations for the successful future management of Shenzhen Filtroil and its employee team. Include detailed implementation plan. (Appendix). The following key recommendations for the successful future management of Shenzhen Filtroil and its employee team: * Keep Core groups of workers * Keep Core business * Create Flexible Labor Force * Workers can be transferred to different activities and task * Take into account cultural differentiation of China and US management style * Change management style Part 1. Analysis of external environments (PEST) and internal environments (SWOT) in which Shenzhen Filtroil operates. Key implication for people and organization in this sector. PEST and SWOT (Appendix) For External and Internal environments we will use the Concentric Circle Framework depicts three levels of analysis necessary to the understanding of management of people and organizations in Shenzhen Filtroil. MACRO: Analysis of the global external environments in which Shenzhen Filtroil operates

Factors Affecting Web Applications Maintenance

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