MIDTERM 2

1. What is a “problem”? (Write a generic definition, not specific!)

A problem can be simply defined as the description of the difference between the situations which we have now and which we want to have. This description should be done after a detailed observation and include a statement of purpose and associated aims. To have a good solution for a problem, the description needed to be done as concentrate and detailed as possible. It is needed to give quantitative descriptions. If it is not fully possible, then they should be given qualitatively. To do a full definition of problem for a system, there are some components. These may be the function of system, size of the things in this system, environment, skills and ability, people, other systems…etc. There are three basic methods to solve problems.

1. The Good Idea Method
2. The Scientific Method
3. The System Approach

Sources:
http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/CUTS/ce790/problem.pdf
http://www.biodiversity.ru/coastlearn/policy-eng/problemanalysis_definition.html
http://aspire.cs.uah.edu/textbook/projdev2005.html

2. What does “method” mean?

Method can be defined as a mean of procedure. It is a regular and systematic way of doing something or steps to reach an end. In a scientific way it can be defined as the sum of the techniques for investigating phenomena, getting new knowledge or correcting a previous knowledge. There are 8 steps of scientific method:

1. Defining a problem
2. Doing observations about the problem
3. Collecting quantitative and qualitative data
4. Forming a hypothesis which explains the problem
5. Making predictions about the hypothesis. They are usually in the form “if…., then….”
6. Doing experimental studies to test the hypothesis
7. If experiments justify hypothesis, a theory can be derived. If experiments do not justify hypothesis, a new hypothesis should be formed and new experiments should be done
8. If other scientists accept this theory and they justify it with other experiments, it can become to a scientific law

Sources:
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/method
http://www.kutupsal.com/6-Bilimsel-Yontem-Ve-Canlilarin-Ortak-Ozellikleri.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method#Problems_and_issues

What does “methodology” mean?

Methodology can be simply defined as the systematic study of finding information or doing something. It includes the methods, procedures and information of collecting and analyzing techniques. In other words, it is an organized and documented set of procedures for the phases of an analysis or design. Most of the methodologies have a diagram to show the results of a procedure. To follow the procedure a step-by-step way is used. To determine the acceptability of a result, a fully quantified set of criteria should be given. It should include the following concepts:

1. A collection of theories, concepts or ideas
2. A comparative study of different approaches
3. Critique of the individual methods

Sources:
http://www.lillytrials.com/docs/terminology.html
http://www.learnthat.com/define/view.asp?id=4709
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methodology

3. What does “theory” mean?

Theory has many different meanings in different fields of knowledge, depending on their methodologies and the context of discussion. In general, theory can be defined as a set of statements or principles devised to explain a group of facts or phenomena, especially one that has been repeatedly tested or is widely accepted and can be used to make predictions about natural phenomena. In science; hypotheses are the first step of creating a theory. In scientific definition, theory means a comprehensive explanation of an important property of nature which is supported by many facts tested many times. Also, they are capable of being tested through experiments; otherwise it stays as an empirical observation. It summarizes one or more hypothesis which has been tested many times. It is valid until an evidence to dispute it is found.

Sources:
http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_1741588395/Theory.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory
http://www.yourdictionary.com/theory
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/theory

What does “hypothesis” mean?

The most generally it can be defined as a statement or prediction. In daily use it is an assumption taken to be true for the purpose of argument or investigation. In science, it is an educated guess about the outcome of an experiment and it is based on observations or scientific theories. It explains a phenomenon or a scientific problem that can be tested by more observation, investigation or experimentation. It could be tested by other people and other scientific methods. To verify its validity hypothesis is tested by scientific method.

Sources:
http://chemistry.about.com/od/chemistry101/a/lawtheory.htm
http://www.allwords.com/word-hypothesis.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypothesis
http://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hipotez

What does “paradigm” mean?

There are many definitions for paradigm in different areas of knowledge. In general meaning it is a pattern or model, an exemplar. In the history of science, Thomas Kuhn gave this word a meaning. In science philosophy, it is the sum of the hypothesis, theories or methods which defines a rapprochement to scientific problems. According to Khun, there is a positive evolution in natural sciences and public- one after is better than the one before. In psychology it is defined as a model of social structure like capitalist paradigm, socialist paradigm… etc. In scientific research, the paradigm is the set of exemplary experiments that are likely to be copied or emulated. Kuhn explains scientific paradigm with some questions:

• “What” is to be observed
• The kind of “questions” that are supposed to be asked
• “How” these questions are to be structured
• “How” the results of scientific investigations should be interpreted
• “How” is an experiment to be conducted and “what” equipment is used in experiment

According to Kuhn paradigms cannot be compared to each other, they are independent. Also, the new paradigm does not have to be better than the old paradigm, because the judgment criteria depend on the paradigm.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradigm
http://www.termbank.net/psychology/5462.html

4. What is “strategy”?

Strategy is used in military to maneuvering troops into position before the enemy is actually engaged. The concept of this has been taken from military and modified for use in business. In business, strategy is a long term plan of actions to achieve a particular goal. It is the way followed to achieve a long term aim or to solve a problem. They make problems easier to understand and solve. It is about the attainment of ends, not their specifications. Strategy deals with the ways how you reach your aims, it does not deal with whether your aim is true or not. It is the relation between aim and the end. They are different from tactics because they are often practically rehearsed. There are four elements to achieve an aim.

1. “Ends” to be obtained.
2. “Strategies” to obtain them
3. “Tactics”; the ways in which resources that have been deployed are actually used or employed.
4. Resources, the means of our disposal.

As it is seen in this list, tactics and strategy fills the gap between end and means.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategy
http://home.att.net/~nickols/strategy_definition.htm

What is “plan”?

The general meaning of plan is a representation drawn on a plane as a map to show the top view of a building. But in daily life and in business, it is used as a method or procedure thought to do or achieve something. Plans which are used by many people are occur in projects, diplomacy, careers, economic development, military or in other business. In military and business, after plans have been created as ideas, they have written down or drawn up to allow more reliable collaboration in execution of the plan. A created plan is the most important document to grow up for a management. A plan should be realistic to correspond expectations. Depending on the activity a plan can be long term, intermediate term and short term. Plans can be described by their breadth, time frame and specificity but these classifications cannot be considered as independent of one another. There are some purposes of a plan such as keeping in view the necessities of the enterprise. It helps management to clarify, focus and research their businesses; it provides a considered framework within which a business can develop and it offers a benchmark against which actual performance can be measured and reviewed. A plan can help people or managements to avoid mistakes and can show the hidden opportunities.

Sources:
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/plan
http://www.brainyquote.com/words/pl/plan203536.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planning

What is “control”?

In daily life control is used as noun with meaning authority or ability to manage or direct. But in management, it is a managerial function like planning, organizing, staffing...etc. It helps to check the errors and take the corrective action so that deviations from standards are minimized and stated goals of the organization are achieved in desired manner. Control in management combines three main activities. Firstly, it sets standards; secondly it measures the actual performance and thirdly, it takes a corrective action. In other words it can be defined as the function of the system which adjusts operations as needed to achieve the plan. Planning and controlling has close meanings. But we should not forget that; planning is a process which establishes the methods to achieve the objectives of an organization and controlling is a process which measures and directs the actual performance against the planned objectives of the organization. Control has some characteristics:

• It is a continuous process
• It is a management process
• It is included in each level of organizational hierarchy
• It is forward looking
• It closely linked with planning
• It is tool for achieving organizational activities

There are four basic elements in a control system:
1. The characteristic or condition to be controlled: We select a specific characteristic which may be output or condition of the system in a stage.
2. The sensor: To measure the characteristic or condition.
3. The comparator: Determines the need for correction by comparing what is occurring and what has been planned.
4. The activator: The corrective action taken to return the system to expected output.

Sources:
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/control
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_%28management%29

5. What is “model”?

Model can be defined as the miniature representation of a thing, with several parts in due proportion. It contains the essential structure of some object or event in the real world. It can be physically solid or symbolic like math equations. There are some basic properties of models. Firstly, they have never been completed. Because, if it includes every aspect of the real world; it will be no longer a model. To create a model, a scientist needs to make some assumptions about the essential structure and he should relate it to real world. Secondly, the model may be changed or manipulated with relative ease. Because it is much easier to make changes and observe the results on a model than doing similar operation in the real world. The values changed in the model are called parameters.

To define a scientific model, I can say that, it is a physical, mathematical or logical representation of a system entity, phenomenon or process. After a problem is chosen, scientist figures out his model by four steps:

1. Simplification: Essential structure of objects or events.
2. Representation: Translating symbols into the algebraic expressions.
3. Manipulation: Implications of the model is derived.
4. Verification: Implications selected in the previous step is compared with the real life.

To have a good model, the maximum number of simplifying assumptions about the essential structure of the real world should be done.

Sources:
http://www.brainyquote.com/words/mo/model191086.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_%28abstract%29

What is “snowball effect”?

Snowball effect is a term used for a process or situation which starts from a small initial state and gets bigger in time by building itself. This term comes from a comparison to rolling of a small snowball of snow down a snow covered hillside. While rolling down small snowball gets bigger by gaining more snow. Snowball effect has a similarity with this situation, so it has this name. Sometimes snowball effect can be dangerous instead of being beneficial.

Sources:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=snowball+effect
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowball_effect

What is “waterfall diagram”?

Waterfall diagram is a type of process diagram which shows the development method that is linear and sequential. It is a popular version of the system development life cycle model. In waterfall development when a phase is completed, the development proceeds to the next phase and it cannot turn back. The advantage of using waterfall development is that, it allows departmentalization and managerial control. Because there can be deadlines for each steps and product can be proceed through this development process on time. In this process there are strict phases and they cannot overlap or there cannot be new iterative steps. These phases are; concept, design, implementation, testing, installation, troubleshooting, operation and maintenance. The disadvantage of using waterfall development is that, it does not allow any reflection or revision. When the process starts, it is too difficult to go back and change something.

Sources:
http://www.billiondollargraphics.com/waterfalldiagram.html
http://searchsoftwarequality.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid92_gci519580,00.html

6. What does “validation/validity” mean?

Basically validity can be defined as the strength of a conclusion, inference or proposition. More formally, according to Cook and Campbell it is the “best available approximation to the truth or falsity of a given inference, proposition or conclusion." Each type of validity shows a different aspect of relationship between the treatment and observed outcome. There are four types of validity used in social research:

1. Conclusion validity: It asks whether there is a relationship between the program and the observed outcome.
2. Internal validity: It asks whether the relationship between the program and observed outcome is a casual relationship.
3. Construct validity: It asks if there is a relationship between how the concepts are operationalized in the study to the actual causal relationship being tried to study.
4. External validity: It refers to our ability to generalize the results of the study we did.

Sources:
http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/tutorial/Colosi/lcolosi2.htm

What does “significance” mean?

Significance is said to be the state or quality of being significant. So, the meaning of significant is needed to be explained. Significant is an adjective which means designed to make something known to have a meaning. This explanation is not enough to clarify its meaning so I want to clarify it by giving an example. For example in science significant figures are used. They are the digits that carry meaning to its accuracy. Let’s consider you are taking data with a ruler and you write 0.250m. The zero in the end is a significant figure and means that “There are some values beyond 0.25m but they cannot be read it properly.” So, it has a meaning there. Also, in statistic, a result is called statically significant if is unlikely to have occurred by chance which gives a meaning to the statistic we have.

Sources:
http://www.brainyquote.com/words/si/significant219618.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Significant_figures
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistical_significance

What does “reliability” mean?

Reliability can be defined as the repeatability of the measurement. It is the degree to which the instrument measures under same conditions. If the measurement on the same test is simlar twice, it is said to be reliable. Reliability cannot be measured, it can be estimated only. There are two ways of reliability estimation:

1. Test/Retest: Same test is done twice and same scores should be got on test 1 and test 2.
2. Internal consistency: To estimate reliability questions in a questionnaire which measure the same concept are grouped.

The main difference between these two methods is that, in test/retest there are two tests are needed but in internal consistency one test is enough to estimate reliability.

Sources:
http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/tutorial/Colosi/lcolosi2.htm

What does “relevance/relevant” mean?

Relevance is a term used to describe how pertinent, connected or applicable some information is to a given matter. The word relevant is the adjective form of relevance. The most general definition of relevant is connected. It can be simply defined as having some logical connection with something else such as a matter being discussed or investigated. In business, the term relevant market is used with the meaning; a market where the competition takes place and this term is used to identify the products and undertakings which are directly competing in a business.

Sources:
http://www.competition.ro/en/regulament/guidelines%20on%20relevant%20market%20definition.pdf
http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/dictionary/DictionaryResults.aspx?refid=1861700302

7. What is an “event”?

The word event can be defined as an occurrence or happening. In other words it is something that takes place; it is the final result or outcome. A festival, ceremony, competition, meeting can be some examples of events.

Sources:
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/event

What is a “process”?

A process can be defined as a series of actions or changes or a method of doing or producing something. It is a set of transformations of input elements into products in respect to constraints. Industrial and business processes have slightly different meaning than this definition. They have meaning related to the defined area. Industrial processes are procedures which have chemical and mechanical steps to help in the production of an item or items. A business process can be defined as a set of activities designed to produce an output for a particular customer or market.

Sources:
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/process
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Process_%28engineering%29#CPRET_definition_of_processes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_process
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_process#Definition

What is a “life cycle”?

A life cycle of an organism can be defined as the time passes from birth to death. Life cycle of a product is similar to the life cycle of on organism. Product life cycle is the life of a product in the market with respect to business/commercial costs and sales measures. There are some stages that a product passes through in its life cycle.

• Research and development: There are no sales in this stage.
• Growth: Sales are slow and needed to be supplemented by heavy sales.
• Expansion: Sales grow more rapidly.
• Maturity: Sales start slowing down because most of the people who want this product already have it.
• Saturation: Everyone who wants the product has it so there are a few opportunities for increasing sales.
• Decline: Sales fall and product becomes old.
It is claimed that, every product has a life cycle. It is launched, grows and may die.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_life_cycle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_life_cycle_management
http://www.investorwords.com/2805/life_cycle.html

8. What does “iterative” mean?

Iterative is an adjective with the meaning characterized by or involving repetition. The word iteration is the noun form of iterative. Iteration means the act of repeating. It is the process for arriving at a progressively better decision or a desired result by repeating the cycles of operations. The aim is to bring the desired result closer to discovery with each repetition. Iteration in a project is a technique of developing and delivering incremental components of business functionality. Multiple iterations repeat to create a fully integrated product.

Sources:
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/iterative
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/iteration.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iterative

What does “sequential” mean?

A sequence is an ordered list of objects or events. Sequential is the adjective form of sequence. It means forming or characterized by a regular sequence. In other words, it means relating or arranged in a sequence.

Sources:
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/sequential
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequence

9. Correlate beautiful vs. Kitsch picture taking exercise with “data collection”, “observation”, “abstraction” and “awareness”.

Data collection: Process of preparing and collecting data.
Observation: the act of observing or taking notes. They are the statements determined by using five senses.
Abstraction: A process of identifying which details in a given context are essential and should be visible, and which are non-essential and can be hidden.
Awareness: A human’s perception and cognitive reaction to a condition or event. It does not necessarily imply understanding, it is an ability to be conscious of, feel or perceive.

For Beautiful vs. Kitsch picture taking exercise, firstly I needed to make observation. This process lasted a long time because I needed to abstract the environment for data collection. I took many pictures and then I choose the best beautiful and the best kitsch from my point of view.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_collection
http://www.brainyquote.com/words/ob/observation195459.html
http://eidx.comptia.org/reference/glossary/gloss_a.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Awareness