Q 1. Why are the gates so important to AFLAC?

ans. AFLAC ,the largest provider of supplemental insurance in the United States.
It operates in United states and Japan, and has its worldwide headquarters and corporate offices in an eighteen story tower.
Gates being step by step procedure to reach the goal of completing IT projects on time and efficiently, is very essential for issues faced like that of AFLAC, as can be defended by the fact that AFLAC at the end of 2009 insured more than 60 million people worldwide. It is the largest provider of guarenteed-renewable insurance in the United States and the largest insurance company overall in Japan, when measured by individual insurance policies in force.

Company now offers several types of insurance policies in the United States, including the following:
>Accident
>Dental
>Cancer etc...
Gates help manage all the streams of project management in efficient and much more planned manner, thus is very essential to AFLAC. Though the gates plan is being employed in solving existing problem the problem is solved only when every gate is passed after thorough study, thought process, future view, analysis and tactics involved in it.
Gate 2 which plays crucial role in projects life is very important in the whole process which actually leads to the success of the total system.
Thus concluding saying that gates are very essential for AFLAC's functioning.

Q 2. What is the relationship between project management and systems development?

ans. Project management is the discipline of planning, organising and managing resources to bring out the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives.
It is a temporary endeavor, having a defined beginning and end undertaken to meet unique goals and objectives.
The primary challenge of project management is to acheive all the project goals.

Systems development ,is the process of creating or altering systems and the models and methodologies that people use to develop these systems.These methodologies form the framework for planning and controlling the creation of the information system.

Though these two entities have been described sepsrately we can clearly identify the involvement of project management in systems development. It is the soul of system development, involved in minimising the perplexed situations that would arise in its absence leading to frequent failures here and there in the development as totality.

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