MGT605 Business Capstone Project
Assignment 1 – Project Proposal/Plan
Learning Outcomes
- SLO a. Develop and articulate a theoretical or practical perspective on management issues through a substantial applied project.
- SLO b. Demonstrate collaborative leadership and ownership in the preparation of a significant original body of practical or theoretical work.
- SLO c. Use specialist research skills to analyse a complex management problem and then synthesise the research, communicating it effectively to both specialist and lay audiences.
Context:
This subject allows you to synthesise the knowledge and skills gained from all other MBA subjects that you have studied up to this point. The main deliverable in the subject is a major project and, in this assessment, you will negotiate your proposed project idea with your Facilitator.
Instructions:
In this assessment, you are required to propose how you are going to study your capstone project. Before you can propose, you first need to identify a project idea on which to develop your project proposal. Your project proposal must include the opportunity statement or pain/problem statement.
The capstone project proposal serves two basic functions. Firstly, it presents and explains how you are going to study and analyse the issue of your capstone project. This is essential to make clear what you aim to achieve by the end of this study period, what data you will collect and analyse and what MBA subject theory applies to your project. The aim/purpose statement of your project proposal must be a very precise, clear statement preferably in a single sentence.
Secondly, how you will conduct the capstone project. This is an account of the steps you will take until you produce the final report. This includes a timeline. The timeline will help you track your progress.
With this information, your facilitator will be able to guide you concerning the suitability and feasibility of your capstone project idea.
Formulating a project idea
As mentioned above, before you can develop your capstone project proposal, you need to identify a problem or opportunity. Ideally, this should be a project idea that is personal to you and your context, and of immediate relevance to you in your workplace or career. A project idea may be producing a business plan, business report, a marketing plan, a project for your employer, a new venture proposal, a critique, a strategy formulation, an academic research paper in an area relevant to your studies or profession – the topic ideas are limited only by your imagination. Check out the “Broad Capstone Project Ideas” pdf file in Blackboard for some possible ideas.
You need to ‘negotiate’ the assessment with your facilitator to check that they are happy with your project idea and that it will meet the requirements of the capstone unit.
If you are not able to identify a suitable project your facilitator may specify a topic for you. Avoid randomly picking a project idea. Also avoid a project idea involving common companies. Such project ideas have been studied many times, therefore there is nothing new you can do in your study that is not otherwise commonly available online.
Once ‘agreed’ with your facilitator, you need to present the project proposal in a manner that suits you and meets the marking criteria (rubric) below.
The project proposal
The project proposal needs to:
- have a clearly defined issue (‘problem’ or ’opportunity’ to address),
- a clear aim statement (advisably a single sentence only),
- identify sources of data relevant to analysing the issue,
- identify how analysis of the data will be done,
- relate to a theoretical base that allows you to apply the theory to your situation to make recommendations for resolution,
- provide a timeframe of your capstone project activities.
Word count
You can present your proposal in a document that can be up to 1500 words in length, or in an equivalent, detailed form. For example, a 1500-word paper is equivalent to a McKinsey style PowerPoint presentation of approximately 6 minutes. There is no tolerance on the word count. You are not expected to exceed 1500 words and penalties may apply for exceeding the word count.