Skill Web School

Risk is perhaps the most uttered term on human lips. As the life has become more and more risk prone the probability of  uncertainties have increased phenomenally today and uncertainty is the key factor which leads to risk. The irony of fate is that we need carry risks through out our lives as Pierre Corneille says, “To win without risk is to triumph without glory.” and nobody wants to end up his life as a loser in this world!

If we look at the definition, Risk is defined as, The uncertainty of an event occurring that could have an impact on the achievement of objectives. We all set our own objectives and goals and there are every chances of slipping the objective because of such uncertainty factor. We should know that “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”, says T.S. Eliot.

If we want to measure the risk, we must remember that any Risk is measured in terms of consequences, and the impact is always translated into quantifiable terms, the financial losses. Now let us try to analyze the two terms associated with Risk, the uncertainty and loss. Uncertainty can be defined as,  Probably it might happen in the worst possible case and Loss is defined as,  What will be the amount of  loss, if the uncertainty factor comes into reality. Nevertheless, we need to accept the challenges as every living being has got the worry of risks for survival. We must remember the saying of  Albert Einstein,  “The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there’s no risk of accident for someone who’s dead.”

So, now if we want to derive an arithmetic formula for risk,

Risk is equivalent to the product of Probability and Impact.

So, one needs to calculate the probability of occurrence as well as the impact of losses if that probability really takes place. Let us take a simple example, If you start from a distance of 100 km to catch a train just one hour before the schedule departure of the train and tries to look for public transport, you are taking a huge risk. What you need to do is to immediately calculate the financial losses, in case you miss the train and simultaneously you need to calculate the cost of private transport vehicle and take the decision. Again the decision taking process should not be prolonged, so that by either means, you miss the train.

We will just touch Risk Management here and we will discuss it in details in future. Risk Management is the mechanism to reduce the probability of occurrence and to reduce the impact of such incidents.  But we should not be that defensive that we keep on loosing. After all, no risk, no gain.  As per  Charles Tremper, “The first step in the risk management process is to acknowledge the reality of risk. Denial is a common tactic that substitutes deliberate ignorance for thoughtful planning.”

The objective of talking about searching, the 2nd largest activity in the Internet is just to polish the search skill of beginners. We know everybody searches and the worst is that many of them start blaming the search engines and the Internet for not achieving the right information, they desire.

If you want to make your searching efficient, you must be aware of the crawling information/ news as well as the searching skill. You can find a brief guide about search skill in several websites. There is an website searchskill.net, which talks about various search techniques including the results  displayed by several search engines for a common phrase.

Perhaps, you might be unaware that even a , (comma) or + (symbol Plus) can make a difference in your search result. You may consult search skill for the latest.

We can use a bookmark to identify a specific location in the document that can be used for future reference. A section of the Word document, a character, range of characters or a graphics can be used as a bookmark. In order to insert a bookmark in our document we must follow the steps given below :1. Place the cursor at the location where the bookmark is to be created.2. Then, choose the Bookmark option from the Insert menu. Pressing Ctrl+Shift+F5 also achieves this.

3. Specify a name for the bookmark in the Bookmark name field.

4. In order to add the bookmark to the bookmark list, we have to click on the Add button.

All that is left is to click on the Add button.

In other way to bookmark that we have created earlier, we should follow the steps given below:Select Edit -> Go to or press Ctrl+G. The Find and Replace dialogue box will be appeared :1.From the Go to what list box, we will select the Bookmark option.

2.Select the bookmark name from the Enter bookmark name drop-down list.3. Click on the Go To button.We can delete a bookmark by following the steps given below:

i) Select the Bookmark option from the Insert menu.

ii) Choose the name of the bookmark that we have created and then click on the Delete button.

iii) Thereafter, we have to click on the Close button.

Bookmark names cannot be longer that 40 characters and must begin with a letter. The subsequent characters can be numbers, letters, and characters. However, the name of a bookmark cannot contain spaces, punctuation marks or other characters.

Background

• Oracle 11i
• Visual Basic 7.0
• Power Builder 8.0

What are these 11i, 7.0,8.0?

These are versions
Why so?

Oracle or MS or Power Soft come up with a product first. Depending upon the market requirement and Industry demand, they react. Some addition/ Alteration/ Obsolence in the existing version. Finally the new product is launched.

Requirement arises because Organizations are building Larger, Complex, Fully Integrated Software, Newly developed Applications are merged with the existing one

Why to record different versions?

Impact of Changes are necessary

1. Different people/ customers might use different versions
2. Moreover service is required for the older versions, until the product is declared Obsolete nPricing and Market survey is necessary

What are Configurable Items?

Any item, which may undergo a change is called a Configurable Item or CI in a brief. Any CI must have a version number. If one is preparing a Project, then the Project Plan, Team Composition, Schedule, SRS (Software Resuirement Specification), SDD, Programs etc. are CIs for that Project
Advantages

• Changes can be properly tracked
• The latest version can be made available
• More accountability (Say the Customer has changed the SRS 5 times, so the Pricing can be relooked at)
• Older versions and changes can help to make more correct estimation

Questions to be asked

1. Which one is the latest Specs?
2. Which version has been sold?
3. Are these programs for version 8.0 or 9.0?
4. What are the test results?
5. What are the Software Tests?

What is Configuration Management?

• Management Discipline Process
  Customer’s Requirement - Cheap Products, Fast Delivery
• Products and Services tailored
• Increased exacting expectation

Some Uses and Benefit

• Started in Defense and Aerospace
• Allows configure and Reconfigure as per customer’s requirement before and after sales

Effects

1. Instantly communicate and control engineering changes, and determine which changes have been implemented.
2. Plan and control product configurations, especially in supporting mass configure-to-order manufacturing and high levels of customization, using several supply sources.
3. Minimize the number of changes after production begins, reducing delays and re-work. nSynchronize parallel/concurrent or collaborative product development at divergent sites, reducing lead time without propagating errors
4. Synchronize multi-source procurement and multi-site manufacturing through centrally controlled and distributed Bills of Material (BOM) and related specifications, to yield a product consistent with a single set of specifications.
5. Quickly re-configure a complex supply chain to respond to rapidly shifting customer requirements.
6. Optimize the maintenance of highly varied technical assets and products, by ensuring that repair/ upgrade crews have the correct parts, tools and drawing to execute.
7. Trace problems back to their origins, and forward to locate faulty or out-of-date components or documents that may have been or will be placed in use.
8. Achieve “right-first-time” business execution.
9. Tangible value to all stages of Product Life Cycle
10. Properly modeled – Close-Loop Controls are implemented – Interface to the Next Stage is defined

The Definitionn

“The art of coordinating software development to minimize confusion”

“A discipline…to identify functional and physical characteristics, control and report changes to those characteristics”
Basic Task

1. Identify the baseline Items
2. Version Control
3. Change Control
4. Configuration Auditing
5. Configuration Status Reporting

How to do CM?

• Identify and Define all Items, need to be tracked
• Define a proper Document control System for SRS, SDD etc.
• Define a proper Identification system for all Programs
• Decide the Configuration Manager
• Define the Review and Approve Authority nMaster Index – Document and Programs

How to version?

• Go on your own
• Depends upon the type of requirement nMethodology varies from Organization to Organization
• No rigid rule
• Examples nSWS/PD/PMP/C2/1.0 nSR/SWS/CM/0102/1.0

What is required for SCM?

1. Repository to store all developed modules
2. A scientific self-devised mechanism to manage versioned modules
3. Controlled and Restricted access to the Repository
4. Strict policies for maintain security of the Repository

Baseline

• The repository, a known point, with proper access control - baseline
• A Properly reviewed item, agreed upon that thereafter serves as the basis for further development - a Baselined Item
• Any component which constitutes a work deliverable and designated for change control - CI
• A CI can be changed only through configuration control procedures.

Other Related Terms

Configuration Management Plan

The configuration management plan defines the implementation (including policies and methods) of Configuration Management on a particular project.

Configuration controller

A person authorised to do Configuration Control. The project manager nominates the configuration controller. His/ her responsibilities shall be defined in the Configuration Management Plan

Storage

Storage means preservation of documents.

Archival

Removal of Unused documents to a proper place
How to?

1. Identify the Configuration Controller
2. The CM Plan is prepared
3. Determine Review and Approve authorities
4. Determine Configuration controller

Change control

• Uncontrolled Change lead to Chaos
• Define procedures Review and Approve
• Access Control
• Useful Tools

Change Control Procedure

1. Change Request and Impact Analysis
2. Review and Approve
3. Assign the CI number, Baseline the CI
4. Synchronization control
5. Determine the Obsolete Plan

CI Audit

• Identify the Auditor
• Check all CIs and their Locations
• If any discrepancy found, it must be reported

Basis of Audit

1. CM policies, procedures and practices
2. Approval for S/W Documents
3. Compliance with Processes, Procedures, Contract Reviews, Customer Requirement

Let us discuss one basic function of Excel, which is oftenly required for most of us. If anybody has taken a loan or plan for taking a loan, this function will become immense help for him. You will discover yourself in a smarter situation, where NO Banks/ Finance Companies may play with you. Rather you can tell the EMI before they take out the chart from their old-torn diary to tell your EMI figures.

So, let us start step by step

1) Open Excel just by Start->Program->Microsoft Excel from your desktop/ laptop

You are landing up in a blank workbook format

This is a blank excel workbook for you, where you need to fiddle

2) Now you need to key in the figures for you

Go to each cell and Type Out the relevant Text/ Digits.

We have considered the Principal is 1,00,000.

The Loan Completion Period is 48 months.

Interest Rate is 0.99% per month

So, let us see, how your excel workbook looks like

Now this is to notice that the figure for interest rate is showing 1 instead of 0.99%. The reason is very simple, cells in the excel sheet has not been formatted to accommodate decimal places, so it has rounded upto the next higher digit.

3) Now comes the step for implementation of the formula.

To invoke the formula, simply click on Insert->Function in the menu bar

Alternatively you can also click on the button in the toolbar

Choose The Function PMT from the Function List.  Please note that the function PMT is available in Financial in Function Category.  You need to select the Function Category in the Left Hand Side Window

Once you reach at this stage, be careful, now you are heading towards the final step, which is getting into the calculation mode. Dont worry, you are not to do the calculation manually, Excel will do everything on your behalf. You need to just click on the mouse and press the Enter Key quiet a few number of times

The PMT function essentially look for 3 parameters - Rate, Nper, PV.

You need to toggle between the formula, window, which you got just at the earlier stage and the main excel workbook

Once selected, press Enter Key or double-click on the mouse.

You will find your selected figure in the Rate Column.

Click on the Rate, it will take you to the main Excel Window, where you can select the value just by placing your mouse pointer. 

 Repeat this process for all Rate, Nper, Pv. Finally you will find the function window like this.

Note the result is displayed at the bottom of the function window

Once you click on OK in the Function Window, you are left with the result in the Excel main Window (from where you set off).

That’s all,  you are through!

We have assumed interest is calculated on monthly diminishing balance.

So never depend on somebofy else, be an informed buyer and become smart!