PLANNING

While searching the word ‘plan’ in Google, like every body does first off, I came across an internet page about ground plans for architects. In the essay appearing on this page, it stated that “A genuine footprint of a building on its site, the ground plan contains many of the key aspects of a project, at once a means of representation, an architect’s design tool, and a layout and instruction pattern for the builder. Though the ground plan is invisible to the inhabitant, it determines with precision the quality of the spaces we inhabit.”

This definition of a ground plan in architecture can be used to define the general idea of a plan for any project or goal, not just in our field->
Plans should ‘contain many of the key aspects of the project’; they are a ‘means of representation’ of the tasks needed to finish the project; they are a ‘design tool’ for a project, outlining its steps towards achievement; they are ‘a layout and instruction’ manual for the project at hand; and even though the plan is ‘invisible’ it still should ‘determine with precision the quality’ of the tasks and the results they may form.

In this essay it also speaks of the statement made by Le Corbusier that the plan is the generator. The author takes from this statement the idea that a plan is an abstraction that generates. ‘If understood as a generator of the architectural idea… the plan is more closely approximates its biological definition as expressed in the Spanish term for it: planta, which also translates the English word “plant”, an entity with the ability to grow.’
Therefore a plan has an ability to create something. This is a fundamental idea about planning-it forms and creates the goal required.

In our group environment, we tried as much as we could to create plans, forecasting the weekly schedules we had and assigning days and hours to finish off a certain tasks. When these tasks were not accomplished at the planned time, just like our guest lecturer stated, 'If there are problems, which there always will be, reschedule the plan to allow other activities to happen and get back to status quo'. This was our strategy most of the time.
She also spoke of Contingency which is 'stuff up' time and so she sarcastically said to 'plan' for it.
Float is time allowed for procrastinating, which we kept in mind also.
She also introduced the idea of Acceleration and how to do so:
-by Overlapping activites
-and using Additional resources

Planning Cycle and Objectives
In all sorts of businesses, there are set stages of the Planning Cycle: Situation Anaylsis, Strategic Audit, Objectives, Strategies, Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation. There are multiple variations of this but they usually include the same ideas, such as the image shown below:

There are strategic, tactical and operational Objectives (a Hierarchy of Objectives)
-Strategic Objectives- goals as a whole and supports the mission statement
-Tactical- Goals for each of the functional areas and supports the strategic objectives
-Operational- Goals for people working within each functional area and supports tactical goals

Tools
There are multiple tools to use in designing the plans and its layout.

General tools used to plan include Forecasting, Break-even Analysis, Decision Trees, and Budgets.

There are also software design tools to aid in the planning process. Here are some examples of software tools:
Plan Bee Pro with the use of the popular Gantt Chart

Rational Plan software tool with options including creating WBS and Gantt Charts, assigning resources to certain tasks, naming and listing tasks and also assigning the required duration of that task and many more

Here are some links to multiple listings of other planning software

http://www.filebuzz.com/files/project_planning_software/1.html

http://www.dotnetthis.com/corporate/projectmanagement/

References
Fernando Pérez Oyarzun, Four observations on ground plans, ARQ, n. 58 En planta / Plan view, Santiago, December, 2004, p. 24. (http://www.scielo.cl/fbpe/html/arq/n58/body-i/art04-i.htm)

Images
Image 1
http://www.projectmanagerkit.com/images/project-lifecycle-complete.jpg

Image 2
http://www.filedudes.com/PlanBee_project_management_planning_tool-screenshot-26367.html

Image 3
http://www.filebuzz.com/software_screenshot/full/19786-RationalPlan_Project_Management_Software.jpg

HIERARCHY

Hierarchy is difficult to discuss especially because me and my team decided not to have a leader, therefore the typical hierarchy wasn't much of a concept for us.

But as the guest lecturer had introduced, there is a type of hierarchy that is not so pyramidical as people would straight away imagine when speaking of hierarchy. This one is of an intergrated approach.

It's called the behavioural/ human approach to management. There is a supportive leadership where there is wide span of control and a flat organisational structure. This consists of a hierarchy of interlocking groups or people.

I believe that's what we are. We have a wide span of control for the task we tackle and there is a flat hierarchy where there are no clear distinctions between leader and other team players. Therefore this is called a decentralised approach. We all have certain responsibilty and this also shifts which creates a dynamic environment for the work we undertake.

A great report on the the knowledge and incentives created from groups or as they call them "horizontal communities" can be viewed from http://www.dime-eu.org/files/active/0/Lazaric%20Raybaut%20Knowledge%20and%20trust%20Febrruary%20200611.pdf

"Groups, teams or “communities of practice” play an important part in the creation of knowledge and could be an appropriate organizational design for implementing specific incentives (rewards, bonus ...). If knowledge creation by such ‘horizontal communities’ may be difficult in the absence of appropriate intervention regulating their creativity; the hierarchy should not be envisaged as pure gendarme or instrument of obedience. According to us, the “organisational loyalty” or the “human docility” should not be considered ex ante as in the Simonian framework , nor should individual opportunism be envisaged as the starting point."

To summarise, Lazaric and Raybaut believe that groups that work together are important for creating knowledge; their creativity should be regulated but too much by hierarchical obedience but not too free that individuals take advantage.

A different view is on the idea that hierarchy is a crucial concept for employees' perception and attitude of leadership roles, is investigated in this article. Here is the abstract:

"This article investigates whether authority hierarchy still serves as an important factor influencing employee perceptions toward organizational roles and expected behavior. Results of a study in a federal agency suggest that hierarchy does serve as a significant force influencing employee attitudes toward leadership roles, contrary to the notion that hierarchy will diminish in importance over time. Hierarchy remains a crucial structural force in public organizations
and is unlikely to wither away."

Gerald T. Gabris, Douglas M. Ihrke (March 2007). "No End to Hierarchy: Does Rank Make a Difference in Perceptions of Leadership Credibility?". Administration & Society, 39 (1), p107-123 Retrieved June, 2008 from http://online.sagepub.com/

As seen in these articles and in sooo many others, there is a clear debate on whether the flat organisational or the pyramid structure is appropriate in business. But i would say that it really depends on the type of business and field the people are in. As seen in the article 'No End to Hierarchy' the federal agency need structure and hierarchy because in this type of environment there are levels of significance and more responsiblities.

In business sense, the flat structure is becoming more adapting to the social environment of businesses as making teams, especially highly qualified and professional teams can be very advantageous to owners which can carry the business to new heights.

REMUNERATION

Remuneration is usually associated with pay, wages, salary, etc. Automatically people would assume that money is the primary motivator for employees. While it's true that we all value money, employees will intuitively offset this benefit with the perceived costs to themselves.[1] This is where the non-monetary rewards make the distinction. They may be direct or indirect but nonetheless should be received during any task.

As students and in reference to our project, I believe the non-monetary rewards are/should be- Task Complexity, Variability of Work, Acquiring New Skill and Education, Recognition and Professional Development.
These should be the basic incentives for attempting or completing a task, not just in the education system.

Teaching people new skills is an important non-monetary remuneration because being knowledgeable in multiple disciplines is always an advantage, for the employee and for the employer.

Being involved in variety of tasks and different disciplines, especially in team work, helps to gain the maximum amount of experience and should keep the person’s skills ‘sharpened’ and up-to-date.

Having knowledge is to understand something, but wisdom is putting that knowledge into practice. Task should vary in their difficulty and the challenge of a complex task helps keep this distinction.

Making sure that a person’s contribution and efforts are recognized is essentially for keeping them content with their job and motivated for the next jobs at hand. Recognition is also useful for a person’s career development when the public has the knowledge of their efforts.

Especially in contemporary society, pursuing a job for life is not the career objective. People take jobs for the experience and the advantages it may bring to their skill set. Acquiring new skill, handling complex tasks, and being involved in a variety of tasks all lead to a better career path. The professional development of an employee and a student is always dependent on the development of their knowledge and wisdom.

Other non-monetary remunerations include top-of-the-line tools (best of the best technology), work/life balance, security and safety, social relationship, a combination of autonomous and team work, job rotation and responsibility.
A term worth mentioning is Job Satisfaction. ‘Theorists such as Turner and Lawrence (1965), Hackman and Oldham (1975,1980), Szilogyi and Keller (1976), among others have proposed that intrinsically, satisfying jobs are those where there is Variety, where workers have Autonomy in choosing procedures, where Feedback is received concerning the effectiveness and work impact, where the work has some social Significance or makes an important contribution to a product or services.’[2]

‘The link between job satisfaction and performance is thought to be a spurious relationship’.[3]


Fig. 1-Job Characteristics that help Job Satisfaction [4]



Others that would usually be associated with employment would be in the form of fringe benefits. These are such things as health insurance, retirement benefits, daycare, sick leave, vacation, social security, funding of education, flexible working hours etc.

Fig 2 Examples of Physical Non-Monetary Remuneration [5]
Common perks (benefits of a more discretionary nature) are company cars, hotel stays, free refreshments, leisure activities on work time (golf, etc.), stationery, allowances for lunch.

[1] Giles, 2004
[2] Anonymous
[3] Wikipedia, 2008

[4] Cummings and Worley, 2004 p 333

[5] Indirect Compensation, 2007

Bibliography

Giles, Tanya (Oct 2004). Non-Monetary Rewards As part of the remuneration equation.
New Zealand Management; 51(9), 46-47. Retrieved May 15, 2008 from EBSCO Host (Accession No. 14775001)

Job satisfaction. (May 2, 2008). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved May 15, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Job_satisfaction&oldid=209789000

Park, Hee Sun; Baker, Colin; and Lee, Dong Wook (2008). Need for Cognition, Task Complexity, and Job Satisfaction. Journal of management in engineering; 24(2), 111-117. Retrieved 15 May, 2008 from ASCE Research Library (DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)0742-597X(2008)24:2(111))

Schnake, Mel E; Bushardt, Stephen C; and Spottswood, Curran. (1984). Internal Work Motivation and Intrinsic Job Satisfaction: The Effects of Goal Clarity, Goal Difficulty, Participation in Goal Setting, and Task Complexity. Group & Organization Studies (pre-1986), 9(2), 201. Retrieved May 15, 2008, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 656386091).

Cummings, Thomas G. and Worley, Christopher G.(2004). Organization Development and Change. Thomson South-Western.

James, Justin, (March, 2008). 10 non-monetary benefits to attract and retain top developers, 10 things, TechRepublic. Retrieved May 15, 2008 from http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/10things/?p=328

Anonymous, Job Satisfaction. Retrieved May 15, 2008 from All Free Essays.Com http://www.allfreeessays.net/student/JobSatisfaction.html%20/

Employee benefit. (May, 2008). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved May 15, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Employee_benefit&oldid=213022052

Indirect Compensation (2007). In Compensation, Payroll.Naukrihub.com. Retrieved May 15, 2008 from http://payroll.naukrihub.com/compensation/indirect-compensation.html

location, location, location!!!

amazingly when we reset the location of the static mesh to 0,0,0 using the advice in http://www.3dbuzz.com/vbforum/showthread.php?t=165993

[right click on the static mesh, select StaticMeshActorProperties from the dropdown, under the Movement header, select and change the locations of the object to 0,0,0]

,the mesh/model blew up to the accurate size (as it was like a small dot when we imported it :P) and then the view was not locked anymore, odd...

generic browser problem

if any one has a problem with trying to close the generic browser, just press the generic browser icon button in the toolbar and then try closing it :)

good importing tutorial

This link is great for importing

http://fordy.planetunreal.gamespy.com/gradientssmeshtutorials/contents.html

this pretty much summarises what russell was saying yesterday...i think :)

me and margaret are trying it out now, we made uv mapping and it importing it and everything, but the only thing is that it imported very small and the view is stuck on a camera view but when we exported from 3dsmax we specified no cameras so i dono...

any suggestions guys...

INTENT

Intent and Communication

In the realm of art, which incorporates architecture, technological creations, paintings, sculptures and the like, there is an urge for the “artist” to produce “art” and that process is connected to a ‘biological, spiritual and/or intellectual need to communicate.’ (Aesthetic Intention, Technology And The Art Praxis, p.509)

Whether the art was created to communicate a certain idea, follow in line with or against a procession of ideas or techniques, it all defiantly good word holds multiple variations of purpose and intent. Livingston, the writer of Art and Intention, defined an author of any form of art as “an agent who intentionally makes an utterance . . . an intended function of which is expression or communication” (p. 69) (Paisley Livingston, Art and Intention: A Philosophical Study, p.300)

How we interpret the art with our different cultural understandings can be very different to the original aesthetic intention of the creation of the art. Nonetheless, if the art work evokes feeling, understanding, and/or intrigue or is reacted to in the most simplest form then the art, the artist has communicated to an audience.

“[A]rt does not end with the production of the object alone but continues to be completed by the viewer. This is an inherent attribute in the activity of art making that links the maker to the receiver through the object. Undoubtedly, art then becomes a phenomenological human activity both in the reading and the making.” (Aesthetic Intention, Technology And The Art Praxis, p.509)

Some, like W.K. Wimsatt & Monroe Beardsley, Kevin Wilson, and George Dickie, believe that intention of the artist isn’t relevant to the interpretation of the art. But in the light of communication, communication is two-way and therefore in the eyes of these thinkers art is not communication between artists and audience but is only an interpretation of the art alone. They explain that "the design or intention of the author is neither available nor desirable as a standard for judging the success of a work of art." (Wikipedia, Intentional Fallacy)

References

Jerrold Levinson (2007). Artful Intentions: Paisley Livingston, Art and Intention: A Philosophical Study. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 65(3), 299 -305. Retrieved April 23, 2008 from Blackwell Synergy.

Maureen Nappi (1995). Aesthetic Intention, Technology And The Art Praxis. Computers & Graphics, 19(4), 509 -512. Retrieved April 23, 2008 from Science Direct (Doi: 10.1016/0097-8493(95)00028-B)

Wikipedia Contributors (2008, January 9). Intentional fallacy. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved April 28, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Intentional_fallacy&oldid=183068850