What is Literature Review ?

According to UNC College of Arts & Science (2012) literature review discusses the published information on a particular subject area or can include information of a certain subject belonging to a specific time period.  As stated by University of Canberra (2012) the world "literature" covers all the material published on a specific subject, such as: books, journals, newspapers, government reports, theses etc. Literature reviews are simply used as the foundation when conducting an research, simply if you are out of time for research literature review can be used as a stepping stone (UNC College of Arts & Science, 2012).

Key features of a Literature Review (University of Nottingham Student Services, 2012):

• Breath 
• Depth 
• Clarity
• Brevity 
• Consistency 
• Effective analysis 
• Effective synthesis   

University of Queens Library (2005) shows the purpose the of literature review as follows;

• Provide a context for the research  
• Justify the research  
• Ensure the research hasn't been done before (or that it is not just a "replication study")  
• Show where the research fits into the existing body of knowledge  
• Enable the researcher to learn from previous theory on the subject  
• Illustrate how the subject has been studied previously  
• Highlight flaws in previous research  
• Outline gaps in previous research  
• Show that the work is adding to the understanding and knowledge of the field  
• Help refine, refocus or even change the topic  

Types of literature reviews;

• Primary sources, scholarly works
• Chapters in a theses or dissertation
• Explicit section in a grant or research proposal
• Explicit section in a research report
• Full length, stand alone review article

Author understands that literature review is one of the most important section in a research papers, its more like a foundation before conducting a research. It should be up to the point does not contain any junk material. Simply it should not be a laundry list or an annotated  bibliography. Before writing the literature review the information or data found should filtered and sorted accordingly, and then a particular structure should be followed when writing.    

References

Canberra.edu.au (2012) Writing a Literature Review : Academic Skills Centre : University of Canberra. [online] Available at: http://www.canberra.edu.au/studyskills/writing/literature [Accessed: 1 Dec 2012].

University of North Carolina (2012) Literature Reviews. [online] Available at: http://ritingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/literature-reviews/ [Accessed: 1 Dec 2012].

University of Nottingham Academic Support (2012) Doing a literature review: Using your working bibliography to structure a  literature review. [online] Available at: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/studentservices/documents/adviceondoingaliteraturereview.pdf [Accessed: 1 Dec 2012].

University of Queens Library (2005) Purpose of the Literature Review. [online] Available at: http://library.queensu.ca/webedu/grad/Purpose_of_the_Literature_Review.pdf [Accessed: 1 Dec 2012].

Risk Management

What is Risk ?

UNISDR (2012) mentions that risk is a probability where hazard could turn into a disaster, however vulnerability and hazards are not dangerous when taken separately, but if both those factors come together it can be a risk.

Source: KOWALENKO (2011)

What is Risk Management ?

Ensures that an organization will identify and understands the risks which it is exposed and taking effective actions in mitigating or stopping the loss or damage made to the company by that risk (IBC , 2013). IBC (2013) shows that proper risk management does not cost much time or money, it is uncomplicated as answering the following questions;

1. What can go wrong?
2. What will we do, both to prevent the harm from occurring and in response to the harm or loss?
3. If something happens, how will we pay for it?

 (IBC , 2013)

Source: (EPM Channel, 2013)

Examples for risk faced during a project:

• Massive downturn in economy
• Loss of lives of employees due to natural disaster 
• Rise cost of raw material 
• Client asking for more requirements at the end of the project 

Risk management processes

SCU (2013) mentions that risk management process is the systematic application of management policies, procedures and practices to the task of establishing the context, identifying, analyzing, assessing, treating, monitoring and communicating. 

• Identify the risk: Listing down the constrains which hold back achieving your desired objective, also you can list down the things that will cater towards enhancing in achieving the objectives.
• Identify the causes: Listing down the factors which might have caused these risks to hold back your progress.
• Identify the controls: Identifying the basic protocols that you have placed initially in order to mitigate these kinds of risks arises. 
• Establish you likelihood and descriptors: Remembering that these depend upon the context of your analysis ie. if your analysis relates to your work unit, any financial loss or loss of a key staff member.
• Establish your risk rating descriptors: What is meant by a Low, Moderate, High or Extreme Risk needs to be decided upon ahead of time.
• Make a decision: Once all the above steps are accomplished and if there are no any other risks, the decision of whether going ahead or not should be made.
• Monitoring and review: This is one of the most important steps in effective risk management, regular monitoring should be made.

(SCU, 2013)

Reference

EPM Channel, 2013. EPM Channel. [Online]
Available at: http://www.epmchannel.com/2012/02/08/why-enterprise-risk-management-is-a-good-business-sense-for-a-software-company/
[Accessed 17 01 2013].

IBC , 2013. IBC. [Online]
Available at: http://www.ibc.ca/en/Business_insurance/risk_management/
[Accessed 18 01 2013].

KOWALENKO, K., 2011. IEEE. [Online]
Available at: http://theinstitute.ieee.org/career-and-education/career-guidance/webinars-examine-risk-management
[Accessed 17 01 2013].

SCU, 2013. Sourthern Cross University. [Online]
Available at: http://www.scu.edu.au/risk_management/index.php/8/
[Accessed 17 01 2013].

UNISDR, 2012. UNISDR. [Online]
Available at: http://www.unisdr.org/2004/campaign/booklet-eng/Pagina9ing.pdf
[Accessed 17 01 2013].

  

Ethics and Codes of Conduct

Introduction to the industry - How to face a job interview

What is an job interview ?

A formal discussion held between an interviewer and the candidates in order to obtain desired information by the the interviewer (Management Study Guide, 2012). The producing of information of the candidate should be clear and impressive which will make the individual stand out from the rest, because at this point employer will be deciding whether to recruit the individual or not.

Pre- interview preparations 

A job interview will be one of the turning points in your life, thus preparation for it should be at it's maximum, following can be taken as a checklist;

• Dressed formally, with an appropriate colour for the job applied and simply should look professional
• Carrying an extra CV, a notepad, a pen and other things is that are needed for an interview
• Background research of the company 
• Background research of the interviewer 
• Being punctual very essential, always the first impression can make a big change 
• Prepare for questions that could be asked during the interview
• Be aware of the future enhancement of the organization
• Be aware of the reason why they are hiring you

 (Management Study Guide, 2012)

Author understands that facing for an interview is another milestone that should be achieved in  life successfully because it can be a turning point, thus producing a charismatic figure is essential in front of the employer is vital, but that figure should not faked. The first impression an individual make could create a trigger effect in the interview, thus building confidence on you by the employer is very important for a successful interview.    

Source: UOW Center of Teaching Excellence (2012)

References 

Management Study Guide, 2012. Management Study Guide. [Online]
Available at: http://www.managementstudyguide.com/job-interview-tips.htm
[Accessed 18 01 2013].

UOW Center of Teaching Excellence , 2012. UOW Center of Teaching Excellence. [Online]
Available at: http://cte.uwaterloo.ca/teaching_resources/tips/academic_job_interview.html
[Accessed 18 01 2013].

Carrier Guidance

Understanding about writing a Curriculum Vitae and Cover Letter

Curriculum Vitae vs Resume

Graduate College of UOL (2012) mentions that CV and resume differs from each other when it comes to the audience that its written. 
CV mainly flashes out to an academic audience, thus it contains mostly your academic details, accomplishments and intellectual achievements, while resume flashed out to an organizations which hire employees, which basically means to a non-academic audience Graduate College of UOL (2012). Your resume is only reviewed for about 15 second because of the vast quantity of applicants for a job, therefore your resume should be written in a way that it would stand out from rest  Graduate College of UOL (2012).

Curriculum Vitae

CV contains the details of ones life, basically it's ones life story that would help he/she in getting a proper position in the industry, therefore it must be clear cut showing your achievements at different stages of your life. Keeping your CV up to date is very essential as the world is growing fast and people should adopt to that, hence the achievements made by an individual varies rapidly.

Simple format of a CV

Contact information

• Full Name
• Postal address which is permanet
• Mail Address
• Phone numbers

When providing your contact information it is a need that you provide with a permanent mailing address and the phone number you provide should work regularly, this will ease the process of contacting you by the company which hired you.

Sections of a CV

• Objective
• Education
• Honors & Awards
• Professional Experience
• Publications/ Presentations
• Extra-curricular & Volunteer Experience
• Interests

Optional

• Certifications  License
• Professional Affiliations
• Professional Activities
• Research
• Added Qualifications

General set-up features 

• Font: Time new Roman
• Regular paper: White
• Font size: 12 points
• No underlining but can bold or use caps to stand out things
• Single sided
• 1" margin in all around
• Number the pages
• No graphics
• Full name on every page

Cover letter 

The letter written by an individual in order to introduce your self, to prove the facts written in the CV are true, to show why you produce this CV and the show the eagerness of obtaining this job, in addition showing you capacity and the capability on how you can help the company to produce better results by hiring is favorable. 

Structure of a cover letter 

• Your address  and date
• Recipient name and address
• Salutation
• Body of the letter
• Reason for writing
• Point out qualifications
• Call attention to resume, reiterate interst
• Complimentary close and signature
• Title of respect
• Return address and  zip code

Ensure that your cover letter does not contain any grammar mistakes and spelling, therefore proofreading by another person is vital. 

Author understands that CV and resume has a vast difference, thus an individual should be able to differentiate and produce what is expected by the employer. Updating the CV is very essential with the fast growing world, thus your CV should be up to date as some people might forget the important milestones in their lives when the time passes. 

Reference

Graduate College of UOL, 2012. Graduate College of UOL. [Online]
Available at: http://www.grad.illinois.edu/careerservices/cvorresume
[Accessed 17 01 2013].

Project Management

What is a project ?

According to Old Dominion University College of Science (2012), a sequence of tasks planned from beginning to an end bounded by time, resources and required results is a project, in depth it contains a defined outcome and deliverable, deadline and a budget.

Source: CPM Scheduling (2012)

What is project management ? 

Application of knowledge, skills and techniques in order to achieve a particular task efficiently and effectively, thus it ensures that company's bond their project outcomes with their business goals (PMI, 2013). 

APM (2013) mentions that project management is controlling the tools which are used for change, therefore it involves the following factors;

• Understanding the needs of stakeholders.
• Planning what needs to be done, when, by whom, and to what standards.
• Building and motivating the team.
• Coordinating the work of different people 

Segmentation of project management ? 

As shown by PMI (2013) it is divided into 5 main segments, they are:

• Initiating
• Planning
• Executing
• Monitoring and Controlling
• Closing

Virginia Tech Information Technology (2013) has done further explanation of the segments;

Initiating: This is the starting point of any project, hence at this point all the key factors which is associated with achieving a successful project is taken into consideration, thus it is called the pre-sale, it means the service provider shows the capability and the confidence of completing the project as required by the client efficiently and effectively.

Planning: This is one of the key components of the segments, at this point if the team takes a wrong step a domino effect will be created, where all the other steps will be failed. Therefore the team is required to look into this matter detailed, this details includes the scope, budget and timelines. After the finalization of the above requirements the project scheduling is done, for this purpose gantt chart is used in general. 

Executing: After all the paper work is done, comes to the execution phase, where each team member is responsible for carrying out each task efficiently sticking to the timeline, the progress of the team members are monitored using the project detail schedule, most importantly the senior managers of the team requires daily reports of the process and the client may also keep track of the progress.

Monitoring and controlling: This stage is known as the testing stage or it can used as the troubleshooting stage, where the monitoring and controlling is done adhering to the initial protocols made, hence these protocols can be project plan, quality assurance test plan and the communication  plan.

Closing: This step can the conclusion or the closing out of a project, which is the final step of a project before handing it over to the client fruitfully. If all the project matches to the client requirements it is handed over to the client, or else an evaluation is done again to check any mistakes and errors adhering to the protocol. After this stage errors of the project will be a responsibility of the operation team. 

Source: SPM (2012)

Skills associated during project management

Marando (2012) shows that effectively and efficiently management of projects and programs are one of the important skills, however most of the project managers were not able to successfully achieve desired objectives and goals due to the lack of above skill. 

Therefore soft and hard skills are one of the fundamental skills associated with project management, thus balancing it is one of the great challenges faced by many project managers Marando (2012). 

Soft skills: According to Marando (2012) it an interpersonal skill which enables problems solving, influencing, leadership, communication, negotiation, expectation management and decision making also soft skills are vastly intangible.

Hard skills: The exact contrast of the soft skills, this involves the technical aspect of a project manger, generally used during producing tangible deliverables such as work breakdown structure, budget, project schedule, critical path diagram, earned value reports, dashboards etc.  Marando (2012). 

What is a triple constrain ?

Penn State University (2012) shows that each and every project carried out in world progresses adhering to the triple constrain, it includes time, money and scope, therefore it is very important that a project manger identify the constrains clearly as it is very important to stakeholder or the sponsor of the project. 

Source: UOU Higher Education Academy (2012)

Cost- Involves the budget and all the monetary issues related to the project

Time- Involves the schedule and the time constrains related to the project 

Scope- Involves the goals of the project

  Penn State University (2012)

Author understands project management is the key learning outcome of the Business and Information Technology degree, thus it is essential to master the subject in order to achieve a better position in the industry. First and fore most understanding of the skills involved in project management is vital, as 90% of the world's projects are failed due to lack skills in management. As mentioned in the skills area having a balance in the soft and hard skills is needed in order to proceed as a successful project manger. Finally author would like to state that none of the stakeholder or sponsors of projects are not willing to spend a single cent extra apart from their budget as the current world is running to an economic downturn in the long run, thus they expect more for what they pay.

References 

APM, 2013. APM. [Online]
Available at: http://www.apm.org.uk/WhatIsPM
[Accessed 17 01 2013].

CPM Scheduling, 2012. CPM Scheduling. [Online]
Available at: http://www.cpmscheduling.com/index.php/project-management/what-is-a-project
[Accessed 18 01 2013].

Marando, A., 2012. Brandies University. [Online]
Available at: http://projectmgmt.brandeis.edu/downloads/BRU_MSMPP_WP_Feb2012_Balancing_Project_Management.pdf
[Accessed 17 01 2013].

Old Dominion University College of Science , 2012. Old Dominion University College of Science. [Online]
Available at: http://www.cs.odu.edu/~cs410/whatisaproject.htm
[Accessed 18 01 2013].

Penn State University , 2012. Penn State University. [Online]
Available at: http://www.personal.psu.edu/glh10/ist110/topic/topic81/topic81_02.html
[Accessed 18 01 2013].

PMI, 2013. PMI. [Online]
Available at: http://www.pmi.org/About-Us/About-Us-What-is-Project-Management.aspx
[Accessed 17 01 2013].

SPM, 2012. SPM. [Online]
Available at: http://www.s-p-e.com/companyinfo/projectmanagement.htm
[Accessed 17 01 2013].

UOU Higher Education Academy, 2012. Zdnet. [Online]
Available at: http://www.ics.heacademy.ac.uk/Events/HEAYork2005/presentations/Tuesday/Kevin%20and%20Ken/project_mgmt/intro/intro_pm.htm
[Accessed 17 01 2013].

Virginia Tech Information Technology, 2013. Virginia Tech Information Technology. [Online]
Available at: http://www.itplanning.org.vt.edu/pm/processtable.html
[Accessed 17 01 2013].

        

Development Methodologies

What is a method ?

It is an established, habitual, logical or prescribed practice or systemic process used in achieving certain tasks with accuracy and efficiently (Business Dictionary , 2012). 

Source: Programme (2012) 

What is a methodology ? 

A system of broad principles or rules from which specific methods derived to interpret or solve different problems within a scope of a particular discipline (Business Dictionary, 2012). 

According to International Research Network  (2012) methodology is a series of choices made, they are;

• Choices about what information and data to gather 
• Choices about how to analyze the information and data that you gather 
• Other methodological choices  

Models and Life cycles 

1. Spiral model
2. Waterfall model
3. V life cycle
4. Incremental/iterative development
5. Reusable software model
6. Automated software synthesis 
7. Throwaway prototyping model
8. Evolutionary prototyping mode

Waterfall Project Life Cycle

Source: Holon Institute of Technology (2012)

Sequential development model with clearly defined  deliverables for each phase (ExecutiveBrief, 2012). According to the above life cycle returning back to the previous activity once it is completed is impossible. 

Evolutionary Project Plan

Gilb (1999) mentions that evolutionary project plan is an innovative way to get control over project results, thus it follows the principle "PLAN DO STUDY ACT". 

Spiral Life Cycle 

According to Sikder (2012) spiral model is similar to the incremental model, but concentrates more on the risk analysis factor. 

Spiral model has four phases, they are;

• Planning
• Risk analysis
• Engineering 
• Evolution  
  
  (Sikder, 2012)
  
  
  
  Source: Virginia Tech  (2012)
  
  

As mentioned by Virginia Tech (2012) in 1998 Barry Boehm proposed a more comprehensive model which is spiral model in order to overcome the inadequacies of the waterfall method.   

Author understand that spiral model is one of the best models that can used during project planining, as spiral model creates a risk driven approach to the software process while waterfall method is primarily document driven or code driven process.

References

Business Dictionary.com, 2012. Business Dictionary.com. [Online]
Available at: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/method.html
[Accessed 17 01 2013].

ExecutiveBrief, 2012. Project Smart. [Online]
Available at: http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/which-life-cycle-is-best-for-your-project.html
[Accessed 17 01 2013].

Gilb, T., 1999. SPI Partners. [Online]
Available at: http://www.spipartners.nl/data/Evo99.PDF
[Accessed 17 01 2013].

Holon Institute of Technology, 2012. Holon Institute of Technology. [Online]
Available at: http://www.hit.ac.il/staff/leonidm/information-systems/ch01.html
[Accessed 17 01 2013].

International Research Network , 2012. International Research Network. [Online]
Available at: http://irn.uit.tufts.edu/research_planner/documents/6/methodology_tips.pdf
[Accessed 17 01 2013].

Programme, 2012. Programme. [Online]
Available at: http://programmedevelopment.com/what-is-ability-/ability-and-methods
[Accessed 17 01 2013].

Sikder, F., 2012. Worldpress.com. [Online]
Available at: http://faisalsikder.wordpress.com/2009/12/18/software-development-life-cyclesdlc-spiral-model/
[Accessed 17 01 2013].

Virginia Tech , 2012. Virgina Tech. [Online]
Available at: http://courses.cs.vt.edu/csonline/SE/Lessons/Spiral/index.html
[Accessed 17 01 2013].

Personal Branding

What is a personal brand ?

Your personal brand is the power, clear, positive idea that comes into a people's mind when they think about you. It is what you stand for , the values and abilities that are embedded in you in order to stand out from others. It's a professional alter ego designed for the purpose of influencing how others perceive you.
This can be done by telling your audience the following;

• Who you are
• What you do
• What makes you different

(Marketing Library.net, 2012)

Source: Quick Sprout (2012)

According to Marketing Library.net (2012) in order to maintain perfect personal brand, you must evoke following 3 main perceptions;

• You are different: ability to see as an original or a unique person, which is one of the most important factors of personal branding that should be followed.
• Your are superior: You should have the belief that, you are the best among all others and that you provide higher and better high technology service.
• You are authentic: You brand must be built on the truth of who you are, what your strengths are, what your capabilities are and the love towards the particular work, if one fakes it's personal brand the person will end up loosing their image.   

Practical example; In Sri Lanka the graduates per year is 3750+ but on 7/8 companies hire them from universities, thus they should have a proper personal brand and should be expertise in the particular area. It can be understood that companies not only search for academically qualified graduates, most of them seek for people who has excel in both academic and extra curricular activities. 

There are companies which have built their personal brand successfully, when talking about companies like Coca Cola, Nike, Mc Donals, Google, Pizza Hut, Pepsi, Amazon, Mercedes Benz etc. they have managed to excel in the field of personal branding, basically if a person sees a logo, the brand is identified clearly. 

 Source: Start Up Sources.biz (2012)

Source: Lip Glossiping (2012)

Author understands that maintaining a proper personal brand is essential in the long run. Especially when you enter the industry, when seeking for a job survival of the fittest is very essential as the counts taken for companies from universities are very less. Your image should be able to adapt with the fast growing technical world, or else you will be left out from the on going trend. Basically thinking yourself as a company will cater towards building up a better foundation and maintaining your personal brand. 

Reference 

Lip Glossiping, 2012. Lip Glossiping. [Online]
Available at: http://www.lipglossiping.com/2009/12/brand-loyalty/
[Accessed 17 01 2013].

Marketing Library.net, 2012. Marketing Library.net. [Online]
Available at: http://www.petermontoya.com/pdfs/tbcy-chapter1.pdf
[Accessed 17 01 2013].

Qucik Sprout, 2012. Qucik Sprout. [Online]
Available at: http://www.quicksprout.com/2007/07/07/the-first-7-days-of-personal-branding/
[Accessed 17 01 2013].

Start Up Sources.biz, 2012. Start Up Sources.biz. [Online]
Available at: http://startupresources.biz/how-to-develop-brand-loyalty-on-a-budget/
[Accessed 17 01 2013].

   

Usage of library services efficiently...

Library is a room or a building containing collection of books, periodicals, records, journals etc. where people can read or borrow (Audio English.net, 2012). According to Online Library Learning Center (2012) libraries are divided into 3 main categories, they are, 

• Academic
• Public 
• Special 

Academic library- The main purpose of this library is to support the teaching and the research of a particular college or university, it is comparatively larger compared to a public library, also it does not contain any non- academic material.

Public library- These type of libraries provide popular best sellers, repair manuals and self help books, it rarely contains any academic material.

Special library- This kind of libraries mainly serves for unique purpose, might contain both academic and non academic books or not, for example libraries in government institutions, business institutions, cooperate sector etc.     

(Online Library Learning Center ,2012) 

Every library has a unique identifier to ease the search of books inside the library, for example in the APIIT library if you are searching for a programming book for C++ , the code is 005.133. C++ 118/8, this is defined as below, 

005.133- represents the subject

C++ - it is the extension of subject in the alphabetical order

118/8- is the item number and the edition of the book

For further practice an interactive session was done to arrange the books according library catalog code.

Basic search techniques

Search techniques are one of the main important things which an university should be aware of, because it will be very helpful during conducting research for certain project. As everyone's aware of it is the search engine provided by every browser, most of the time these engines provide with the desired information if only the correct syntax is entered. 

There are many searching strategies introduces, they are,

• Keywords
• Using of boolean operators- It defines the relationship between words or group of words, hence they are AND, OR, NOT, NOR (Pro Quest, 2012) 
• Nesting (Used to group synonymous spelling variations or other alternate terms)
• Phrase searching (Searches on the root of the word adding different word endings or  plurals)
• Truncation and wildcards- These can expand your search scope which uses symbols such as *. ? (Pro Quest, 2012).  

References

Audio English.net, 2012. Audio English.net. [Online]
Available at: http://www.audioenglish.net/dictionary/library.htm
[Accessed 17 01 2013].

Online Library Learning Center, 2012. Online Library Learning Center. [Online]
Available at: http://www.usg.edu/galileo/skills/unit03/libraries03_02.phtml
[Accessed 17 01 2013].

Pro Quest, 2012. Pro Quest. [Online]
Available at: http://www.csa.com/help/Search_Tools/boolean_operators.html
[Accessed 17 01 2013].

  

Discussion of Final Year Project

Final year project which is the spot light in the 3rd year or the final year of any kind of degree offered by an university. It can be called as the turning point of a student's life in their university carrier, hence it is called as one of the important segment which a student come across. FYP contributes a large amount to the marking criteria, thus the work load is very high. Therefore we are suppose to submit a the proposal of FYP by the mid of 2nd year, which will cater in reducing the workload by about 2 months as the problem is identified and analysis is made. In addition the problem identified by students for their FYPs are classified as macro and micro.

In the 3rd year according to the subject area chosen by the students, a supervisor is allocated in order to monitor the progress of the particular FYPs, please note that the supervisor will be a lecturer who is interested in the field chosen by the student, therefore in the course of 9 months the student is able to visit the particular supervisor and obtain feedback or advice.

The FYP should abide by the following criteria;

1. Feasible: Able to complete in the given time period
2. Useful: will result in the usable model
3. Balanced: Combination of the feasible and useful with the qualitative and quantitative sources

According to the university regulations, the university is bounded to provide with financial aid needed by any student to carry out the research related to their FYP, for this valid reasoning should be made. For example a student whose engaged in doing research on farmers in rural area needs to travel out of Colombo, thus they need funds to do so. 

Structure of the project:

Abstract 

• Introduction 
• Body

• Introduction to problem statement, research question, aim and objectives
• Industry analysis and business analysis
• Academic research
• Requirement specifications, recommendation of solution
• Software analysis and design
• Conclusions
• List of references 
• Bibliography 
• Appendices 

It is essential to follow the above structure in order to build up a successful FYP, mainly following the criteria is important during gathering information and analyzing.