Project Procurement Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Project Procurement Management - Essay Example s or resources required for the execution of a particular project should clearly outline his or her requirements in order to ensure that they meet the standard expectations. According to Fleming (2003), the project manager has a responsibility to ensure that all project activities are coordinated according to schedule and are in compliance with the desired outcomes. In this particular case, it can be seen that Gus reneged his responsibility of ensuring that Bob develops software that is compatible with the in-house database which he developed. Whilst he is happy about the software, he assumed that Bob will guess the correct application that is compatible with the database, which is not the case. Therefore, Bob has no problem and he is entitled to all his payment for the development of the software. In this case, Gus should have acted responsibly for the betterment of the organization and the following measures could have been taken. According to Burke (2007), the success of the project is mainly determined by the commitment of the project manager to ensure that all steps involved in the project are carefully implemented. In order to avoid this situation, both the buyer and the seller must clearly understand the terms of the contract, which is legally binding. According to Gibson (1988), there should be the agreement based on mutual understanding in any given contract, and this principle should always be upheld so as to avoid a situation like the one presented in the case study given above. In brief, it can be noted that there is a need for the project manager to constantly monitor all the developments in a project. Another effective way of doing this is to ensure that there is constant feedback from all parties involved in order to create mutual understanding among

Hybrid Cars Research Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Hybrid Cars Research Paper - Essay Example You never plug in these cars to recharge the battery -- you simply fill the gas tank. The Toyota Prius, a five passenger hybrid about the size of a Corolla, gets 52 miles per gallon around town and 45 on the highway. The smaller Honda Insight gets 70 miles per gallon overall, making it the highest-mileage car ever to hit the mass market -- ideal for today's soaring energy prices. Hybrid technology also works on a larger scale. In 1999, five hybrid busses ran up to 18 hours a day in New York City. The 40-foot busses used a diesel engine running at constant speed. The hefty batteries were used to accelerate and recover energy from braking. Hybrids combine the best of electricity and gasoline. Instead of recharging through a plug, the batteries get their juice from a small, light gasoline or diesel engine. When you hit the brakes, kinetic energy is converted into electricity, and then stored in the battery. At a stop light, the engine shuts down entirely. Hybrids sound good -- they are, for example, exempt from the range limitations of battery-powered cars. But even hybrids could seem passed by 2004, when major auto makers promise to start selling cars powered by fuel cells. Fuel cells make electricity without burning anything. They don't even have moving parts. In the effort to cut auto pollution, hybrids and battery cars are a step forward, assuming anybody will buy them. But they're far from perfect: Hybrids burn gasoline, making air pollution. Batteries run down, and even though battery cars are called "zero emissions" vehicles, they generally just move the pollution rather than eliminate it (Lovins 1995, pp.73). On the horizon, however, is a car where "zero emissions" meets truth-in-advertising. Bye-bye catalytic converters and associated pollution-control gadgetry. In fact, it will be so long to pollution entirely. In fuel-cell cars running on hydrogen, the waste products amount to water and heat. The fuel cell, furthermore, is a new kind of engine -- one without moving parts! Even if fuel cells burn alcohol or gasoline, they will be far more efficient than today's internal combustion engines, and will produce less carbon dioxide, the primary culprit in global warming. Fuel cells have been producing power since the start of the space age. But bulky, expensive and relatively weak, the cells seemed unlikely to find a place under the hood of Detroit's finest. Then, in the 1980s, Canadian engineer Geoffrey Ballard began tinkering with fuel cells in search of a cleaner way to move people and goods. Among the several possible varieties, Ballard selected the proton-exchange membrane, a technology that operates at low temperature and starts up quickly; making it suitable for a machine that would replace the Buick Road Master (Polokovic 2000, p.A1). Like batteries, fuel cells make electricity from chemical reactions. But while batteries have a limited supply of chemical energy, fuel cells get chemical energy from the fuel, so they drive until the tank runs dry. Like a battery, a fuel cell has a cathode, with a positive charge, and an anode, with a negative charge. The cell uses a catalyst -- often platinum -- to dissociate some electrons from atoms. These liberated