Thursday, January 30, 2020

The Status of Women In the New Testament Essay Example for Free

The Status of Women In the New Testament Essay When assessing the history of womens role and position in society, it is notably the period of the New Testament which proved to be a major turning point in the status of women, and was the starting point for the near-equality experienced in todays society. Graham Stanton observes that The status of women was markedly inferior to that of men throughout the ancient world, including Judaism.1 Thus, by looking to the society preceding that of Christ, one can only understand what a profound influence Christ had on the previous Jewish and Greek customs of women. The society in which Jesus lived was strongly patriarchal; the worth and dignity of women was not recognized, the womens role was domesticated, to be a faithful wife and mother, and women who stepped outside this role were vilified. Women had almost no role at all in the wider arena of social life, in politics and religious affairs 2. By looking to the Old Testament the earliest evidence of such a society is indicated in the Book of Job, and arguably the Old Testament is a record of the mistreatment of women by men. Women were considered to be the cause of evil doing, a temptation to men, and a hindrance to his spiritual life. If my heart has been enticed by a woman, or if I have lurked by my neighbors door, then may my wife grind another mans grain, and may other men sleep with her. ( Job 31:10 -11) Better is the wickedness of a man than a woman who does good; It is a woman who brings shame and disgrace (Sirach 42:14) This patriarchal society which had no time for women in discussions, decisions or pleasures, left women as objects to fulfill the mens sexual desires and produce children, they lived their lives under the control of men, mainly their fathers and husbands. This belief came about from what was stated in Exodus 20:17, that a woman was a possession of the husband, You shall not covet your neighbours house; you shall not covet your neighbours wife Indeed in Jewish religious and social law, women, slaves and minors were often placed in the same category. The religious authorities had little respect or liking for women, the Rabbis were fearful of women as they were seen as a source of sexual temptation. Additionally, the Shema was not to be recited anywhere, where you could hear a womans voice or see her legs or her hair. However, there were exceptions to this 1st century treatment of women, E. Schussler Fiorenza argues that Although in rabbinic Judaism women are categorized with children and slaves for legal and religious purposes, the biblical stories about women indicate that women were not perceived as minors or slaves in everyday life. Such examples she uses are women including Ruth, Esther, Hannah, all of who are seen to have typical female roles and behavior, yet, they are not perceived as minors or slaves in everyday life.3 Certainly Deborah is also an important figure for the raising of the female status in the Old Testament, she was a Judge and was consulted by the Israelites over several issues, and it can be understood that the majority of her rulings were correct. In the face of threat created by Jabin, the Canaanite king, she roused Barak to lead the Israelites into battle, and ultimate victory. Thus she was clearly a heroine. Certainly then, as J and K Court observe, womens status was relative and could depend on various factors: family, employment, or religious background, and Jesus preaching and teachings of equality for all could only be possible in so far as such notions of equality are conceivable in the context of Jewish life and faith.4 However, through the scriptures of the Old Testament God asks his people to act compassionately toward those around you (Deuteronomy 24:17-22) but no account can be found of men respecting the human rights of women, thus they over look Gods commands. Such a corrupt system, constantly producing injustice and fear, was in true need of a change. Jesus overturned the social and cultural mores of this day and challenged legalistic traditions. 5 He showed no discrimination to others and treated all persons with respect, regardless of their race, sex, age, physical condition, political preference, economic status, or educational level. 6 He told all persons, You have worth and value, and there is rejoicing in heaven when you as an individual become part of My family (Luke 15:1-10). For God created both men and women in his image, both equal and complete, God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27). He did not separate one from the other in the ruling of the world for one cannot function without the other, It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him. (Genesis 2:18). It is this concept which Jesus tried to revive in his teachings. Throughout the New Testament, there are many references to women that demonstrate how Jesus reacted differently to women, and how he promoted the status of women. Jesus talks to women even though they are outcasts-much to the surprise of his disciples, as he was offending all the normal conventions.7 Jesus presents women as worthy and faithful through acts of forgiveness and numerous miracles performed on them. He also removes from women the domestic image that society had previously molded them into, and presents them as disciples equal to men, as shown in Luke 10:38-42 where Jesus favors the sister Mary who sat at the Lords feet listening to what he said rather than her sister Martha who was pre-occupied with the traditional female obligation of house work. Also in Luke 11:27-28 Jesus states Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it rather than the woman who brings life into the world, here again specifically telling women they are bound to no duty except to that of the Lord. Jesus, within this passage is shown to view women as equal to men, he makes no distinction, since Jesus main concern is to teach those who are willing to learn. This is a radical move away from Jewish thought, since up until this point it was unheard of within Judaism for a religious teacher to teach women. It is the evangelist Luke, who seems to show the most interest in women using Jesus positive references to women which were so different to the views at the time and including many unique stories of Jesus encounters with women in his Gospel that the other evangelists omit. Luke 18:1-8 shows a man in a superior position as a Judge supposedly working for what is true and Godly, however, with no sense of true loyalty or justice, compared to a widow with real faith, totally committed to God. It is only through the Judges selfish need does he see that she gets justice. By putting this story in of two contrasting characters, Luke must obviously be aware of womens hard deal in society, and also aware of some mens response to the superior positions that they hold in the first Century world. Thus this story is used to illustrate the faithful and faithless. Most of the references to women in the Gospels are there to portray positive examples of persons with great faith. Jesus welcomed the inclusion of women as disciples with the understanding that they could respond with obedience and commitment to the word of God. Luke 8:1-3 states by name women who followed Jesus in Galilee and to Jerusalem where they were present as faithful and active servants at the crucifixion. The three women were named as Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Susanna, who had apparently left everything and became disciples of Jesus as a result of the healing they had received from him, and followed him until the end. As Fiorenza states, the women are thus characterized as true disciples of Jesus who have left everything and have followed him on the way, even to his bitter end on the cross. 8 All four Gospels report that it was the women disciples who first saw and believed Jesus resurrection, however in Luke 24:10-11 the male disciples did not believe them. Mark too, shows that in the New Testament writings the status of women has been improved. Just as in the beginning of the Gospel of Mark, he presents four leading male disciples who hear Jesus call to discipleship, so at the end of his Gospel he presents four leading women disciples. He mentions them by name which is demonstrating their importance, since one has previously noted from the story of Bethany (14:1-11) that the author of Marks Gospel did not always see it necessary to include the name. It is significant that in this passage of Mark 14:9 where Jesus pronounces that wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her. This is in reference to the anointing of Jesus in Bethany by a woman. This verse shows to a reader two things, firstly that from the start Jesus treated women as equals since he is willing to identify and make clear the great act that the woman has performed. Secondly it shows to one that although Jesus realised the great act the woman had performed, the author of the gospel did not believe it was worth noting the name of the woman. Certainly Fiorenza believes the name of the faithful disciple has been lost since she was a woman.9 Hence, again highlighting what the early status of women was, even in the Christian world. Also in Marks Gospel it is included the idea that Mary Magdalene was the first human to have Jesus appear to her (Mark 16:9). Mark writes; He appeared first to Mary Magdalene but when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her they would not believe it. Therefore, here clearly one can argue that although Jesus himself accepted women and believed them to be equal. Nevertheless, 16:9 demonstrates that despite the fact his male disciples would like to believe they followed Jesus and all he taught them, they evidently did not for they refused to believe Mary Magdalene, thus one can state from studying Marks Gospel that the author was indeed keen to encourage women into apostolic and ministerial leadership, which was a drastic change to the status of women. This is the radical difference in Jesus ministry, and the gospels will not let the Christian Church forget this, although as Stanton observes, the early church did not always follow his teaching regarding women. However, this serves only to establish the increasing likelihood that Jesus teachings were authentic. 10 Jesus uses his power and authority to try to bridge the gap between men and women in society by his acts of compassion. He is not afraid to be touched by a ritually unclean woman who is suffering from a hemorrhage, or when he brings a widows dead child back to life in Luke 7:11-17 which shows Jesus genuine compassion for women as he shows with men and children alike, his heart went out to her 7:13 and he raised her son from the dead. Jesus challenged the Jewish mentality that women as witnesses to Jesus preaching had no value or significance by drawing women to be apart of his discipleship and thereby giving a value to their presence and making them effective witnesses to his life and message. And it was Finallythe women who, drawing close to the dramatic events of his crucifixion and death, when all the disciples deserted him and fled.'(Matthew 26:56) and when Peter denied him, followed him and were present at his crucifixion, death and burial11 they are portrayed as dedicated and f aithful follows who have been able to see through their suffering. The one woman who even at the time of Jesus birth through to today holds a superior position in the church is Mary mother of Jesus. Mary is shown as a dedicated and obedient disciple of Jesus, She agreed to accept Jesus birth and to be obedient to Gods will while knowing well that this would place her in a position of being a social outcast.12 The Gospel writers support her and highlight her considerable strength and bravery from the beginning of the Gospel- Jesus birth, through to his death at the end of the Gospel. It is telling that Luke compared to Matthew tells the birth story from Marys point of view rather than Josephs, as we have seen Luke is strongly aware of the difficulties which beset women in New Testament society and hugely supports Mary mother of Jesus who he feels represents the faithful and long suffering women and disciple. In the second century document called The Gospel of Mary, written about Mary Magdalene there are indications towards the role that she carried with the disciples that is ignored in her presentation in the New Testament. We find Mary Magdalene consoling the disciples after Jesus ascension Do not weep and do not sorrow and above all do not be indecisive. His grace will be with you and will protect you. Peter turns to her and says: Sister, we know that the Saviour loved you more than other women. Tell us those words of his, which you remember and know, not us. 13 This shows Mary holding a somewhat authoritative position towards the disciples and the passage indicates Mary had a personal relationship with Jesus outside that with the disciples, of such an authoritative position that she holds, however, was omitted or not specified in the New Testament, although the Gospels did write that Jesus accepted her for who she was and with her past, however, they failed to specify the closeness to which their relationship is suggested to be, and it can be deduced that she (and conceivably other women) had a much more significant role in the early church than is presented in the New Testament documents themselves. The evangelists throughout the different gospels are expressing their views about the role of women through the mouth of Jesus and his encounters with them. However, these views however honest they may seem considering the society they are writing for and are apart of, may still be somewhat constrained when deciding whether to write of a wom en having a greater and closer relationship with Jesus than men, would seem ridiculous and absurd to the people at that time. As Graham Stanton observes, the early church soon after Jesus time on earth did not always follow Jesus example in its treatment of women. Indeed it could be said that Paul and other later New Testament authors reverted back to a more Jewish approach to women and therefore distanced the early Church away from all that Jesus had done to promote the status of women. However, although it is true to say the Pauline teachings imply that in the worshipping congregation women should not have an authoritative teaching role, thus they should not have an equal status with men within the church. Nevertheless some of the teachings still keep the theme that in the kingdom of God any person baptized is a part of Jesus Christs kingdom and can no longer be differentiated from another Baptised believer, therefore all are a apart of one unity in Christ. Paul has thus understood Jesus essential message that all are welcome into Gods kingdom: There is neither Jew not Greek, slave nor free, male nor fema le, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.'(Galatians 3:28) However, he also establishes some rules that seem to diminish women but are actually aimed at creating order and dignity in the church. Although Paul clearly expresses his view that all people are equal in Jesus, in a letter to Timothy concerning the worship of men and women he does not deny the different roles both women and men should play, emphasizing clearly womans role of bearing children and prohibiting women to teach and lead a congregation or to have authority over a man'(1.Timothy 2:12). It is later in his instruction to the Corinthians that Paul places restriction on what women can do: women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak he then states that A man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but the women is the glory of man. For man did not come from woman, but woman from man; neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. For this reason the woman ought to have authority on her head because of the angels. (1.Corinthians 11:7-10) Pauls rules about the conditions for worship, although they may seem sexist, actually reflect the times. Women were usually covered apart from their heads and hands, however, to avoid distraction when worshipping it would be customary to cover their heads, so the only focus would be solely the Lord. Even though Paul has rules inside the equality of worship, he still stands by the view that In the Lord, however, there is neither woman without man nor man without woman. For as woman came from man. So also man is born woman, and everything comes from God.'(1 Corinthians 11:11-12)14 But it is passages such as Now as the Church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything (Ephesians 5:24) that have caused the most controversy and have been taken as literally wives being the husbands possession. For in traditional Western marriage services today the words I obeyARE often no longer included. It has been noticed that the Pauline and Petrine writers seek to limit womens leadership roles within the Christian community to roles that are culturally and religiously acceptable. However, ironically, these claims cannot allege the authority of Jesus. The status of women in modern times has a great deal to do with Paul and other later authors teaching. Certainly the practice of women covering their head before they went into churches was a common practice up until the II World War. This shows the long lasting effect of Pauls teachings in the church on the status of women. It is important that when looking at the texts written about Jesus teaching shortly after Jesus crucifixion that they must not be taken necessarily at face value, they must be interpreted in their cultural setting, so they may seem obscure to our standards and values in the twenty-first century. Even today, although huge developments have happened to the status of women since Jesus time, women are still thought in some countries to be of less social standing than their male counterparts, it is only in the developed countries that equal rights for men and women have been fought. There has been great dispute over the acceptance of women priests in the Church in the Western World. The argument against there being women priests within the Church of England, found much of its weight from the later New Testament authors, and much of what Jesus had taught was ignored. The main emphasis of the argument was placed on the idea that male and female were created to be equal but different, many against the ordination of women would have used this beginning to base the development of the role of priests as a male responsibility. Moreover, many scholars use the passage from 1Timothy:2:8-15, I permit no women to teach or to have authority over men; she is to keep; silent, to suggest that women should not be in a position to teach with authority in the Church. They argue that Christ was male and chose male apostles and that females cannot form legitimate succession or play the crucial part in the sacrificial and sacramental acts of the Eucharist. 15 Peter Vardy argues that just as Christians misapplied Jesus essential message to the Jews, similarly Christian Churches and individuals have done the same to women Women in terms of the Roman Law were considered inferior to men, and it was the Roman law which became the basis of the churches law. Women were also considered to be responsible for bringing sin into the world and for being a continuous source of seduction, and they were considered to be ritually unclean because of their monthly blood flow, thus almost as definition to the Roman Law and understanding women could not be ordained simply because they were a woman, as it would be inappropriate for an inferior, sinful and unclean person to represent God. It was such strong feelings as these that became so deeply imbedded in the Churches thinking in past centuries that have remained up until today. The Church of England is currently paving the way for women bishop however there is strong opposition and splits within the church and so it could take another twenty years before a woman is made a bishop in Britain. Passages in the Bible emphasize the order of creation of men and women and reflect the household code of their positions in the family and home. Therefore although some traditionalists still believe that women have a different role from men and are subordinate to men by God, through the creation, others maintain that before God all are equal16. For women to be equal in the Christian church the very fact that circumcision was to be replaced by baptism was a very important factor. Since women now could become equal and have the same status as men did before God. Fiorenza REF? believes this generated a fundamental change in women, not only in their standing before God but also in their ecclesial social status and function. She bases this argument on the fact that previously in Judaism women could never be viewed as equal since they could not be fully initiated into the religion due to circumcision. Therefore although much of the New Testament writings show women to be subordinate to man , the actual initiation into the Church is balanced. The sense of oppression that women have felt for centuries in both religious and everyday life seems to have stemmed from the very roots of religion, in the creation story and also from the misinterpretation of Jesus words in the Bible Feminist groups both within and outside the church have accused the church of propagating a negative view of women.17 The Feminist Movement has developed today as a result of the injustices women have suffered in the past and their desire for equal rights and opportunity in the future in all aspects of life. Mary Wollstonercraft applied the principle of natural rights to women arguing that women have equal worth with men and therefore have the same rights. Today it is seen as an act of discrimination for women not to have the freedom to be ordained; the last few decades have witnessed increasing sensitivity regarding womans rights and the need to redress injustices committed in the past. This new freedom has opened up new roles in all fields of work. The church although slow and reluctant to incorporate a true evaluation of women (Galatians. 3:28) into its institutions and rituals has finally succumbed. The position of women in the church reflects the changes in society and so today women find themselves challenging men in all walks of life. In conclusion, the status of women in the New Testament has a great deal to do with how the individual authors of each book viewed women. Certainly the Gospels indicate to the reader that Jesus wished to depict women as having just as many rights as men in the eyes of God. Furthermore, he showed that he himself saw women as equal beings to men, since he allowed them to become his disciples, as in the case of the Galilean women. So the gospels project them as being Jesus true disciples. The period of the New Testament marks a significant change in the role and attitude to women, which seems to have been initiated by Jesus. It was this dramatic change in attitude to women (although the early church did not always reflect these teachings) that has finally become the standard to which modern day women aspire and society have accepted. People are welcomed by Jesus irrespective of race, status, or gender, and those who are called to leadership are chosen on the basis of Gods gracious spirit not on accidents of birth.18 1 The Gospels and Jesus Graham Stanton, 1989, p102 2 The Puzzle of the Gospels Peter Vardy and Mary Mills, Fount 1995 pg170 3 In Memory of Her E. Schussler Fiorenza 1983, pg 109 4 The New Testament World J. and K. Court, Prentice-Hall, 1990 5 Equal to Serve G.G. Hull 1989, pg85 6 Ibid 7 Puzzle of the Gospels Peter Vardy and Mary Mills, 1995, pg173. 8 In Memory of Her E. Schussler Fiorenza 1983 9 ibid pg 316 10 The Gospels and Jesus Graham Stanton, OUP (1989) pg202 11 Mary Magdalene and Many Others Carla Ricci, BURNS OATES (1994), pg144 12 The Puzzle of the Gospels Vardy and Mills, pg175 13 May Magdalene and Many Others Carla Ricci, pg147 14 information from Pauls teaching on the Ministry of Women P. Nelson, Whittles Publishing (1996) 15 The New Dictionary of Christian Ethics and Pastoral Theology IVP(1996) pg 595. 16 Paul and the Eschatological woman R. Scroggs. Pg266 17 Dictionary of Christian Ethics and Pastoral Theology pg380 18 Oxford dictionary of the Bible W.R.F. Brownig. Pg 398

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Essay --

Schaefer, Ashleigh Ling 325 Professor Mathis Part 1: Annotated Bibliography: Gender Stereotypes in Subject Matter 1. Cvencek, D. , Meltzoff, A. , & Greenwald, A. (2011). Math–gender stereotypes in elementary school children. Child Development, 82(3), 766-779. Gà ¶mleksiz, M. (2012). This article focuses on the connection between one’s perception of their own gender and how it affects their belief of cultural stereotypes placed on their gender. Cveneck, Meltzoof, and Greenwald examined various children, 126 girls and 121 boys, between the ages of 6-10 in elementary school by giving the children Implicit Association tests and along with having them provide self-reports to see if their perception of gender affected their ideas of certain subject matters in the school. The self-reports asked the children questions regarding gender identity, gender stereotypes, and their self-concept. This article focuses on examining the cultural stereotypes about math. Their research focuses on the stereotype that â€Å"math is for boys†. Cvencek, Meltzoff, and Greenwald argue that this is because their self-concept is a â€Å"I am a female† along with the cultural stereotype that â€Å"math is for boys† tends to lead females to the belief that â€Å" I am a girl therefore I’m not good at math†. Cveneck, Meltzoof, and Greenwald had the children take a quiz on the computer. For each question the children were provided with a statement then asked to choose whether or not the male or female character possessed the aforementioned attributes. Once the children chose which character/gender possessed the attribute they were then asked whether or not their selected character possessed this characteristic â€Å"a little† or â€Å"a lot†. The second part of the study involved childre... ...eresting about their research was that it showed even at a young age girls tend to believe â€Å"math is for boys†. This suggests that the language used in regards to subject matter and gender is ingrained in young minds from a young age. Since math is a learned skill males and females should both have the ability to excel in the subject mater. However, cultural stereotypes regarding math as a primarily male domain run deep and hold females back. It was interesting to see the statements both genders related to in the studies. These articles suggest that gender stereotyping with subject matter is nurture based. If females didn’t hear from a young age that â€Å"math is for boys† then perhaps they could enter the subject matter in a confident manner. Overall, these articles follow the generalizations seen throughout the semester about the differences between females and males.

Monday, January 13, 2020

Project Management Ethical Issues

Melwin Fernandes 200083225 Ethics and Other Management Issues (CIS 485) Duncan Jeffries Project Management Issues What is Project Management? Project management  is the  discipline  of  planning,  organizing, and  managing  resources  to bring about the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives. It is often closely related to program management (Wikipedia). A  project  is a temporary endeavour, undertaken to meet particular goals and objectives, having a defined beginning and end, usually to bring about beneficial change or added value.The temporary nature of projects stands in contrast to, which are repetitive, permanent or semi-permanent functional work to produce products or services. In practice, the  management  of these two systems is often found to be quite different, and as such requires the development of distinct technical skills and the adoption of separate management. The primary challenge of project management is to achieve al l of the project goals  and objectives while honouring the preconceived project constraints. Typical constraints are  scope, time, and  budget.The secondary challenge is to  optimize  the  allocation  and integration of inputs necessary to meet pre-defined objectives. Project Management Approach There are a number of approaches to managing project activities: 1. The Traditional Approach: A traditional phased approach identifies a sequence of steps to be completed. 2. Critical Chain Project Management  (CCPM): It is a method of planning and managing projects that puts more emphasis on the resources (physical and human) needed in order to execute project tasks. . Extreme Programming: It is used in combination with the process modeling  and management principles of  human interaction management. 4. Event chain methodology: It  is another method that complements  critical path method  and  critical chain  project management methodologies. 5. PRINCE2: It   is a structured approach to project management 6. Agile Project Management: It is based on the principles of  human interaction management  are founded on a process view of human collaboration. Project Management Development StageProject development includes a number of elements: five stages and a control system. Regardless of the methodology used, the project development process will have the same major stages. Major stages generally include: ? Initiation ? Planning or development ? Production or execution ? Monitoring and controlling ? Closing The Use and Misuse of Security Technology The misuse of security Technology is one of the main issues in project management. There are a large number of people over the world with very little or no knowledge of security technology which is why certain projects fail.It is a subject which is under discussed but in today's world with relatively low cost, trusted, security technology is readily available and easy to use. It has become a cult ure among people who are not sufficiently educated with the tools of security technology as it is easy to use and has somewhat become a fashionable trend. Some consider technology to be bad for the society. People have to understand that this is only because of its misuse. Technology does not threaten the society, instead it is humans who are the users who use technology to threaten society.So technology itself is not at fault. In the field of information, technology has increased the speed, quantity and communication with co-workers and clients. Advancements in technology have also contributed to work being completed at home which imbalances their work and life. Lost revenue and productivity has become a reason for an increased need and demand for surveillance techniques to monitor employees. Employers have resorted to creating separate computer security departments or divisions to deal with both the internal and external threats.All companies weather large or small have the pressu re to maintain access to critical information in order to run the business and remain competitive. A corporation with hundreds of offices and thousands of employees would have the same pressure of holding critical information as any other small enterprise. A comprehensive data protection solution is going to involve a lot of consideration and contingencies. There are many things can go wrong with your data and you need to be able to respond to them.There are many companies that have opted to purchase solutions from different vendors to fully address these challenges but can be an extremely expensive approach in terms of acquisition, integration and ongoing management costs. There have also been companies who decided the cost is too high and taken their chances, which is an approach that has often resulted in disaster. In the business world today, the loss of important data can cause significant damage and lead to the demise of your business.The same complex and expensive solutions a s the major players in your industry can be cost-prohibitive and unnecessary. Software and People in Project Management The most comprehensive software solution for assessing security of web application, network systems, end point systems and email users is CORE IMPACT Pro. It allows you to take security testing to the next level by safely replicating a broad range of threats to your organization’s sensitive data and critical infrastructure. You gain extensive visibility into the ause, effect and prevention of data breaches, enabling you to drive effective risk mitigation enterprise-wise. Impact enables you to safely assess an organization's security posture against the attack methods that jeopardize data today. Exploitation of network defenses in operating systems and services, client applications that run on desktop systems, attacks on employees, contractors and other end users via social engineering, manipulation of web applications to access backend data via cross-site sc ripting (XSS), SQL injection and remote file inclusion techniques only.It allows you to utilize penetration testing to assess your information security in such an integrated, comprehensive, in-depth andseamless fashion. CORE IMPACT Pro gives confidence in your security infrastructure by enabling you to validate network vulnerability, end-user threat response and web application exposure on a regular basis. You not only identify but also distinguish critical network vulnerabilities from false positives, identify where your organization is at risk from social engineering threats such as spam, validate security exposure in web applications.With all this you can intelligently plan, prioritize and execute policy adjustments, ensuring cost-effective use of security and development resources while improving overall security posture. Next-generation data protection, or NGDP, is a term that describes a large number of disk-based backup and recovery technologies, including disk-to-disk (D2D), virtual tape library (VTL), snapshots, continuous data protection (CDP), remote office backup consolidation (ROBC), bare machine recovery (BMR), disaster recovery (DR), wide area file services (WAFS) and others.The Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack It integrates to provide organizations with a complete data protection, archive, and retention and recovery solution. It also extends disk-based, block-level incremental data capture to a repository in another location, sending changed blocks of data over a WAN or Internet connection. Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack was designed to be bandwidth efficient to help minimize the impact on other applications that rely on WAN and Internet links.It can be set individually for each location to meet specific needs of the business while avoiding unnecessary costs in bandwidth and storage.. The features also include data differencing (sending only the changes from the previous job run), compression, bundling of small files to help reduce TCP/IP overh ead, bandwidth throttling and multi-threading. There have been a wide variety of industries who have taken Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack to improve backup and recovery performance across a diverse set of support tasks. It helps organizations: Reduce server backup times from hours or days to a few minutes. †¢ Reduce server volume restoration times from hours or days to a few minutes. †¢ Increase backup frequencies from once per week to multiple times per day, without disrupting operations. †¢ Enable rapid recovery of granular Exchange objects that are typically too difficult to recover. With next-generation data protection and recovery solution set at mid-market prices, these solutions can help companies reduce operational risk and costs, increase productivity and resiliency, and improve levels of service.It delivers a common foundation for managing both business and technology requirements and is designed to quickly address most pressing service management needs to changing business demands. The Tivoli portfolio is backed by world-class IBM Services, IBM Support and an active ecosystem of IBM Business Partners. Project Management Software It is a key tool in your effort to consistently finish projects on time and within budget. It allows you to do the critical steps Project Managers must do efficiently.There are a number of benefits that Project Management Software can provide such as spotting problems before it’s too late to fix them, optimizing the use of resources so you can finish early, updating the plan each week so you know where you are and updating everyone’s schedule when things change. These are the basic tools that every Project manager should have. Ideally Project Management Software provides managers with time-saving scheduling and analysis tools as well as archive data for use on future projects.Unfortunately Project Management trainings do not include practical skills in using Project Management Software nor the v alue that comes from archiving data on every project. Tasks like scheduling skills to optimize the use of resources to finish as early as possible and project software to identify problems early are best done with Project Management Software which otherwise can waste a considerable amount of time if done manually. With the appropriate Project Management Software, tracking actual performance in terms of hours of work and completion dates builds a database for estimating on the next project.Practically, there are far too many Project Managers who do not have the training or the tools to optimize their schedule or make efficient use of their resources resulting in projects that are guided by guesses. Project Management Software does not make the managers more effective, it just makes them more efficient. Project Management Software does not teach you how to define scope, communicate to the Project sponsor but just lets you accomplish these tasks more efficiently. There are three genera l classes of software available: Statistical Software: To blend in one direction with relational database software such as Oracle or Sybase. †¢ Mathematical Software: MATLAB in the other direction exhibits not only statistical capabilities flowing from code for matrix manipulation, but also optimization and symbolic manipulation useful for statistical purposes. †¢ Visualization Software: Overlaps to some extent with software intended for exploratory data analysis. The user interfaces common range from command line to graphical user interfaces (GUI) to hybrid drag and drop system interfaces.The Statistical Analysis System is available on PC and UNIX based platforms, as well as on mainframe computers. This modern database technique with queries is very easy to use and also accomplished easily. System for Statistical Analysis among the products are for management of large data bases, time series and most classical statistical problems including multivariate analysis, linear m odels (as well as generalized linear models), and clustering; data visualization and plotting.Users with a need to write an applications program using a matrix language, the product SAS/IML provides the ability to program using matrices as objects. SAS is to a large extent an industry standard statistical software package. The demand for students with SAS skills is greater than with skills other than statistical packages. Other statistical of the same general vintage as SAS are MINITAB, BMDP and SPSS. All of these systems began as mainframe systems, but have evolved to smaller scale systems as computing have evolved.MINITAB Inc was formed more than 20 years ago around its flagship product, MINITAB statistical software. MINITAB Statistical Software provides tools to analyze data across a variety of disciplines, and is targeted for users at every level i. e. Scientists, business and industrial users, faculty, and students. It has broadened the scope of its products to include quality control, designed experiments, chemo metrics and an array of general statistics from the original software that helped faculty to teach basic statistics.MINITAB is available on the most widely-used computer platforms, including Windows, DOS, Macintosh, OpenVMS, and UNIX. BMDP features a comprehensive library of over forty statistical routines and has set the standard for high-end statistical analysis software. It has its roots as a bio-medical analysis package from the late 1960’s and each statistical routine has been thoroughly time-tested based on the most advanced algorithms available. Current versions come in several flavors including the BMDP New System Personal Edition.The Professional Edition combines the full suite of BMDP Classic for PCs Release 7 statistics with the powerful data management and front-end data exploration features of the BMDP New System Personal Edition. SPSS Software products run on most models of all major computers and statistical analysis can now be done on the desktop. It is a multinational software company that provides statistical product and service solution for survey research, marketing and sales analysis, quality scientific research, government reporting and education. e SPSS products are a modular system and includes SPSS Professional Statistics, SPSS Advanced Statistics, SPSS Tables, SPSS Trends, SPSS Categories, SPSS CHAID, SPSS LISREL 7, SPSS Developer's Kit, Exact Tests, Teleform, and MapInfo. S-PLUS is a supported extension of the statistical analysis language. It was originally developed at AT;T Bell labs manufactured and supported by the Statistical Sciences Corporation, now a division of Mathsoft. Some of the code has been contributed by prominent individuals from the academic and industrial communities.MATLAB is an interactive computing environment used for scientific and statistical data analysis and visualization. The basic data object in MATLAB is the matrix with functions for basic data analysis and gra phics which are text files that the user can read and adapt for other uses, giving the ability to create their own M-files functions and script files, thus making MATLAB a programming language. The most useful capability is the tool available for visualizing data. It also provides Handle Graphic and there is a considerable amount of contributed MATLAB code available on the internet.The above descriptions of statistical software cover the most well-established commercially available software packages and among them the most extensively used mathematical packages is MATLAB. MINITAB is used in the educational community for introductory courses. BMDP and SPSS find users among communities in which they originated respectively the biomedical and social sciences community. Mainstream applied statisticians tend to use SAS more extensively whereas on the other hand S-plus seems to be a package that is highly regarded among the more research oriented particularly those interested in computati onal statistics.JAVA is a programming language which represents an extension of the World Wide Web capabilities. Basic documents on the web are constructed using HTML, in the sense that once the server delivers the HTML text to the browser, the server has done its job and the static text is interpreted and displayed by the client’s browser. It is a fully distributed, object oriented programming language which allows for creation of a fully interactive web-based system. The data and tools can be sent to the clients’ browser and allows attributes and methods to be linked together.In particular, JAVA allows applets, small applications or subroutines, to be created and transmitted across the web just as static HTML documents are now transmitted. JAVA is intended to be a secure system although security problems do exist with present implementation. However, access to local data is restricted and the JAVA is a secure environment. JAVA has been declared as is related to stati stical data analysis software of the future because it is a practical implementation of a new paradigm in distributed computing.It allows not only the distribution of text and multimedia but also of computing applications and data. It is a response to the enormous popularity of the World Wide Web and under this framework, new statistical, data analytic and other methodologies could be made available and tried out by practitioners in other research fields on their own data and their own computer. Considering the possibility of extending the web in a natural way to acquire data in the same way we acquire human-consumable information, new mechanisms must be sought to provide for the distribution of that data.Best Practices in Project Planning Project managers deal with sponsors who are organizational levels above them and sign their paychecks so Project Managers can’t really argue about the best way to do the project. Having data to quantify the impact of changes and model alter native ways of solving problems gives them much more credibility to give their executives a solid data on which to make their Project decisions rather than having due dates and budgets plucked out of the air.The ethical issue and its consequences, its resolution and its effect on Management In project management, timing is everything. Justifying, Planning, Activating, Controlling and Ending it the right way is the key to a successful Project. It is a disciplined process and a full circle project management that holds every development project together. The project plan, schedule, budget, resources, risk, scope, motivating the players and launching all project activities with communication play a very essential role in project management.It must be constructed in a way that reaches a busy, important audience with the right amount of the right information, a strategic marketing entity in a tight package that must be backed up with well-researched facts and figures that speak directly to the needs, goals, and problem-solving missions of the business. Present them with the business case report and explain it via a well-crafted, well-rehearsed presentation, accompanied by the sponsors. Starting off with a strong solid foundation of research and a creative solution to a business need do the utmost to obtain approval and present justification for the project.Plan Project produces the detailed project plan, project schedule, project organization, and resources. The approved project plan includes understanding the potential risks and the actions that are necessary to manage them. The goal of every project is to drive it to a successful and appropriate conclusion. Controlling a project is imposed not to create a bureaucratic layer, but to ensure that the project proceeds to its planned and scheduled ending. The activity of the project rests with the Project Manager. He controls, monitors, makes decisions ensuring that the project proceeds as planned taking corrective ac tions when necessary.End Project tasks archive the project materials and release the project resources for use on other projects. Conclusion Project management and project planning processes can contribute to an organization's survival and success, while the absence of project management and project planning processes can lead to an organization's demise. This helps in developing the concept for the project, which in turn is used to secure approvals to proceed to the execution phase of a project. Collectively these five steps form the life-cycle phases of project management, and all steps require adequate attention to ensure that a project is adequately managed.Costs, time-frames, quality targets, and other relevant factors are very essential while considering the planning process. Project management ensures that organizations are able to achieve strategic initiatives that extend beyond normal operations through a recognized process, thus aiding organizations in fulfilling strategic objectives such as new product development, process re-engineering, organizational change or financial growth. In conclusion, project management is needed within organizations to support temporary endeavors that create unique products or services.