محمد بن موسى الخوارزمي

Al-Khwarizmi (Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī محمد بن موسى الخوارزمي) was a Persian[1][2][3] Islamic mathematician, astronomer, astrologer and geographer. He was born around 780 in Khwārizm[2][4][5] (now Khiva, Uzbekistan) and died around 850. He worked most of his life as a scholar in the House of Wisdom in Baghdad.

His Algebra was the first book on the systematic solution of linear and quadratic equations. Consequently he is considered to be the father of algebra,[6] a title he shares with Diophantus. Latin translations of his Arithmetic, on the Indian numerals, introduced the decimal positional number system to the Western world in the 12th century.[5] He revised and updated Ptolemy's Geography as well as writing several works on astronomy and astrology.
His contributions not only made a great impact on mathematics, but on language as well. The word algebra is derived from al-jabr, one of the two operations used to solve quadratic equations, as described in his book

Few details about al-Khwārizmī's life are known; it is not even certain where he was born. His name indicates he might have come from Khwarezm (Khiva), then part of Greater Khorasan, the eastern part of the territory of Persia, in the Abbasid empire, now Xorazm Province of Uzbekistan.
His kunya is given as either Abū ʿAbd Allāh (Arabic: أبو عبد الله) or Abū Jaʿfar (أبو جعفر in Arabic).[9]

The historian al-Tabari gave his name as Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwārizmī al-Majousi al-Katarbali (Arabic: محمد بن موسى الخوارزميّ المجوسيّ القطربّليّ). The epithet al-Qutrubbulli indicates he might instead have come from Qutrubbull, a small town near Baghdad. Regarding al-Khwārizmī's religion, Toomer writes:
Another epithet given to him by al-Ṭabarī, "al-Majūsī," would seem to indicate that he was an adherent of the old Zoroastrian religion. This would still have been possible at that time for a man of Iranian origin, but the pious preface to al-Khwārizmī's Algebra shows that he was an orthodox Muslim, so al-Ṭabarī's epithet could mean no more than that his forebears, and perhaps he in his youth, had been Zoroastrians.[1]
In Ibn al-Nadīm's Kitāb al-Fihrist we find a short biography on al-Khwārizmī, together with a list of the books he wrote.[citation needed] Al-Khwārizmī accomplished most of his work in the period between 813 and 833. After the Islamic conquest of Persia, Baghdad became the centre of scientific studies and trade, and many merchants and scientists from as far as China and India traveled to this city—as such apparently so did Al-Khwārizmī. He worked in Baghdad as a scholar at the House of Wisdom established by Caliph al-Maʾmūn, where he studied the sciences and mathematics, which included the translation of Greek and Sanskrit scientific manuscripts.

Benchmarking - Uncovering Best Practices and Learning from Others

Have you ever asked yourself these questions:

"How are we doing?"
"Are we tracking the right measures?"
"How do we compare with others?"
"Are we making progress fast enough?"
"Are we using the best practices?"

Benchmarks and benchmarking can provide you with facts to answer these questions. They can provide you with data to show you what can be achieved. Perhaps more important, benchmarking can tell you how you can achieve the same type of results! In short, benchmarking gives you the external references and the best practices on which to base your evaluations and to design your work processes.

This tutorial provides an overview of how to implement benchmarking in your organization specifically, what you need to do and how to go about it. The tutorial starts with an introduction and some definitions and then gives a high level view of a benchmarking process, from both a results and a process focus.

"... benchmarking ...[is] ...'the process of identifying, understanding, and adapting outstanding practices and processes from organizations anywhere in the world to help your organization improve its performance.'" —American Productivity & Quality Center

"... benchmarking ...[is]... an on-going outreach activity; the goal of the outreach is identification of best operating practices that, when implemented, produce superior performance."—Bogan and English, Benchmarking for Best Practices

Benchmark refers to a measure of best practice performance. Benchmarking refers to the search for the best practices that yields the benchmark performance, with emphasis on how you can apply the process to achieve superior results.
All process improvement efforts require a sound methodology and implementation, and benchmarking is no different. You need to:
1. Set objectives and define the scope of your efforts
2. Gain support from your organization
3. Select a benchmarking approach
4. Identify benchmarking partners
5. Gather information (research, surveys, benchmarking visits)
6. Distill the learning
7. Select ideas to implement