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Never neglect an opportunity for improvement.

The words of Sir William Jones are not only apt for your personal well-being but also for the well-being of your home. If you think that there is a room for improvement in your home, consider your savings and make a decision.

Home Improvement is more common than you think

Today, homeowners are deciding against selling their current homes. The reason is easy availability of experienced home renovation contractors who ensure successful home improvement projects.

But before you start looking for a contractor, consider the following factors:

The Purpose
Think about the reason behind the home improvement project. If you do not want to sell your home, you can consult the contractor for customizing your home to suit the growing needs of your family.

Once your purpose is clear, you will be able to decide whether a specific home improvement project is worth your time and money.

The Budget Factor
When a contractor pitches you the idea of building your dream home, you may get emotional and say yes to his every suggestion. But, consider your financial situation before making any commitments to the contractor. Spend your money wisely and choose the project that guarantees maximum returns.

The Market Value of your Home
Even if you are not planning to sell your property in the near future, the market value of your home should be considered before spending money. It is important to understand that the increase in the market value will not be the same as the cost of the home improvement project. Remember that any construction work that corrects a major structural defect will be more advantageous than any renovation work done to suit your needs.

Government Grants
A home improvement project can be an expensive affair. But, you can reduce your expenditure with the help of the local government. The local government provides grants and rebates for the purpose of upgrading your home. For example, if you replace an inefficient toilet with a water-saving one in the City of Toronto, the government will provide you with a $75 rebate for each toilet.

Geographical Location of your Home
Certain home improvement projects are better suited to a specific geographical location. If you are contemplating about building a swimming pool in your yard, you must consider your geographical location. If you live in a colder region of the country, it will not add any value to your home.

What are the Common Home Improvement Projects that add Value to your Home?

· Plumbing – It will save you from costly repairs in the future and maintain the health of your family members.

· Maintenance – Taking care of mold, mildew, water leakage, etc. is a crucial task for every homeowner.

· Remodeling a kitchen – Upgrading a kitchen has it benefits. But, make sure that the upgraded kitchen matches the rest of your home.

· Bathroom additions – If there is empty space in your home, adding a bathroom can be beneficial.

· Painting your home – Paints provide a fresh look to your home at a very nominal cost.

· Upgrading the electrical systems – It is mandatory for old homes as upgrading the electrical system will make it safe for habitation.

· Insulation – It can reduce your electricity bills.

· Adding a deck or a patio – It will increase the curb appeal of your home.

Your home is your paradise. And, when it comes to your paradise, never make an emotional decision. You may be attracted to the idea of upgrading your home and making it luxurious. But, remember that not every home improvement project is beneficial in the long run. Adopt a cautious approach so that you spend your money on home improvement projects that add value to your home.

On the need for an individualistic educational psychology emphasizing on the central role of the learner

Education and psychology are related in more than just one way and the psychology of education could be related to educational principles in psychology or how education as a discipline is taught within psychology as a subject and how these two disciplines merge. This is primarily the focus of educational psychology which studies how human learning occurs, what ways of teaching are most effective, what different methods should be used to teach gifted or disabled children and how principles of psychology could help in the study of schools as social systems.

Psychological education would be completely focused on learning methods as structured or imparted according to psychological and individual needs of the students. Education would differ according to culture, values, attitudes, social systems, mindset and all these factors are important in the study of education in psychology.

Educational psychology is the application of psychological objectives within educational systems and psychological education as I distinguish here is application of educational objectives in psychological processes. The first focus of using psychology in education is more general and the second approach of using education in psychology is more individualistic. However as far as present study of educational approach to psychology is concerned, there is no difference between individualistic educational psychology and general educational psychology and all interrelationships between psychology and education are considered within the broad discipline of educational psychology.

However a distinction between the more general educational psychology and more specific psychological or individualistic education could help in understanding the nuances of individualistic study and give a subjective dimension to the study of psychology in education. This could also help in making learning systems more student based and according to the needs of culture, society, individual or personal factors. This sort of study with a focus on personal/psychological aspects of learning is not just about social objectives and objectives within educational systems but also about personal goals and objectives and the psychological processes involved in learning. There has to be a clearer demarcation between education in psychology as a general study and individualistic education in psychology as a more specific and subjective discipline.

As of now educational psychology encompasses a wide range of issues and topics including the use of technology and its relation to psychology, learning techniques and instructional design. It also considers the social, cognitive, behavioural dimensions of learning but it would be necessary to make education more personal and individualistic through a special branch with a psychological focus on education so that individual needs are considered. There could be two ways in which this branch of knowledge could evolve – either by strengthening psychological education or individualistic approach to the psychology of education or by having two distinct branches of general educational psychology and individualistic educational psychology.

As in client centered approach to psychology, a psychology of education should also include further research that would highlight the need for individualistic dimensions in learning. Learning psychology is the use of psychological theories for example that of Jean Piaget and Kohler in the study of learning techniques, especially among children. I have already discussed Piaget but briefly Piaget’s theory higlights different stages of learning in children and Kohler suggested that learning occurs by sudden comprehension or understanding, however I will not go further into learning theories here. Whereas the focus of educational psychology is on learning techniques per se and the role of the learner is considered only secondary, a branch of individualistic psychology in education could help in emphasizing the role of the learner considering not just their disabilities or giftedness but also their personality patterns. This focus on personality patterns brings out the central role of understanding psychology in educational systems.

Software development teams and software testing teams have numerous choices of defect management tools to help support their software defect efforts. Selecting and utilizing an effective tool is really only part of an overall defect management system.From a high-level view, defect management systems are made up of a combination of some defect management tools or tool and a defect management process. These two primary components work together to support each other. Ignore either one, and sub-optimal results can be expected. Below I will provide an overview of a typical defect management process. I will also list the key features to look for in an effective defect management tool. All of this information will be useful for you to review. But I would be remiss if I left out one of the most overlooked aspects of software defect management that goes beyond tools and processes, which I will also disclose later in this article.Defect Management ProcessHigh Level Steps in a typical defect management process:The typical defect management process includes the following high-level process steps. When implemented inside of a specific organization, each of these high-level steps would have more detailed standard operating procedures along with policies to carry out the details of the process.
Identification – This step involves the discovery of a defect. Hopefully, the person discovering the defect is someone on the testing team. In the real world, it can be anyone including the other individuals on the project team, or on rare occasions even the end-customer.
Categorization – When a defect is reported, it is typically assigned to a designated team member to confirm that the defect is actually a defect as opposed to an enhancement, or other appropriate category as defined by the organization. Once categorized, the defect moves on in the process to the next step which is prioritization.
Prioritization – Prioritization is typically based on a combination of the severity of impact on the user, relative effort to fix, along with a comparison against other open defects. Depending on the size and structure of the organization, the prioritization is often handled by a formal change control board. The priority should be determined with representation from management, the customer, and the project team.
Assignment – Once a defect has been prioritized, it is then assigned to a developer or other technician to fix.
Resolution – The developer fixes (resolves) the defect and follows the organization’s process to move the fix to the environment where the defect was originally identified.
Verification – Depending on the environment where the defect was found and the fix was applied, the software testing team or customer typically verifies that the fix actually resolved the defect.
Closure – Once a defect has been resolved and verified, the defect is marked as closed.
Management Reporting – Management reports are provided to appropriate individuals at regular intervals as defined reporting requirements. In addition, on-demand reports are provided on an as-needed basis.
Defect Management ToolsFeatures of a defect management tool:Following are the core features of a defect management tool:
Provides a centralized repository for tracking defects across projects.
Provides automated notifications of resource assignments.
Ability to define defect resolution status in order to map back to your defect management process.
Ability to provide management reporting, like the number of open defects grouped by various criteria such as open defects by project, severity, and priority.
Following are a few optional features worth mentioning when selecting a defect management tool:
Ability to capture other items in addition to defects, such as customer suggestions and project-related issues. Items such as customer complaints or enhancement suggestions are often lost if not logged in a centralized system. If other tools are not already available, a defect management tool can be used to track these types of items as long as they can easily be filtered out or logically separated from defects.
Ability to support internal and external teams. This feature provides the opportunity to involve external teams and in some situations, customers if appropriate.
Another consideration when selecting a defect management tool includes ease-of-use. Comparing a list of features is useful, but seeing how intuitive a system is to the people who have to use it provides a more concrete sense of how much training might be needed along with how well the system will be received.The Missing Component of Software Defect ManagementMost discussions on the topic of software defect management focus on defect management processes or defect management tools. That is where most stop. There is an additional and often overlooked aspect which is more important than the specific defect management tools or defect management process being used. I consider it the important critical success factor in software defect management. I call it “Organizational Culture,” which is comprised of the shared values, beliefs, and accepted norms of the people in an organization. But wait. Before you succumb to your sudden urge to tune out because this article just seemed to take a sharp turn towards some soft and fuzzy, executive management-level, buzzword-compliant rhetoric, please read on a bit more because there is a practical side of this that you may want to know. Getting even a crude understanding of how organizational culture affects software defect management could make the difference between success or failure on a high-profile project you are involved with.From my experience, in many organizations, defects are considered something negative, for which blame should be assigned as a way of preventing similar defects in the future. This sounds perfectly reasonable, right? The problem is that just because something seems to make sense on paper doesn’t mean it directly translates to the real world.Here are a couple of questions to consider. If team members feel like any mistakes they make may be used against them in a performance review which could affect their compensation or job stability, are they less likely to make mistakes which would decrease the number of defects? Possibly. But I would ascertain that the side effects are much more negative than having lots of defects. You want to know what defects you have and you want to know about them as soon as possible.As is commonly understood, the later in the process defects are identified, the most costly they are to fix. If defects are treated as negative things to be avoided, people will become less likely to disclose them, and may spend too much time on certain tasks in an attempt to avoid mistakes and subsequently defects. A hyper-focus on avoiding defects may be appropriate for certain situations, but for most business settings, an unrealistic focus on perfection can be a fatal flaw that leads to suboptimal performance, which can lead to outcomes which are far more negative than the defects some strive to avoid.”Field experience and data from leading research in organizational culture shows that a large majority of organizational cultures are defensive in nature, where people are punished rather than coached on correct procedures when they make mistakes,” said Buz McOmber, President of Constructive Cultures, an Atlanta-based organizational performance consultancy. “Fearing negative consequences, people learn quickly to cover their own mistakes, blame them on others, or push the correction off as ‘not my job’. These behaviors push defect identification to later in the development process or, worse, to the production environment, significantly raising costs to the business and harming both operational effectiveness and customer satisfaction. Fear of negative consequences is intensified in tough economic times, increasing the need to identify these defensive behaviors before they make a difficult situation worse. For the Project Manager, it can be very difficult to regain the trust that’s lost when their team fears retribution for mistakes.” McOmber said.If you are serious about having an effective defect management system, at a minimum you need to have a defined process, effective tools, and a culture that understands that defects are a simple by-product of getting work done in the real world. They are not mistakes that need to be avoided or covered up at all costs.ConclusionA defect management system is made up of a combination of defect management tools or tool and a defect management process.In addition, the effectiveness of a defect management system is influenced by the organizational culture it operates within. For most environments, it makes sense to utilize tools and processes that focus on the speed of identifying, tracking, and resolving defects. This provides the basis for understanding root cases and making appropriate process improvements. If the culture of the team or organization considers defects as negative, people spend more time trying to avoid defects and also are less likely to report a defect when encountered. This can lead to some defects being identified later in the process, when they are harder and more costly to fix.Based on my experience, organizations which consider defects as part of the process seem to be able to deliver high quality software faster than organizations which consider defects negative events for which blame should be assigned.