stage 4

due friday

Case Study, Stage 4: Executive Briefing on Business Benefits and Considerations of Proposed Technology Solution

Before you begin this assignment, be sure you have read the “UR UMUC Healthy Fitness Center Case Study” and Case Study Staged Projects 1-3, the Walmart Example and any feedback you’ve received on your assignments.

Purpose of this Assignment

This assignment gives you the opportunity to demonstrate your ability to communicate effectively with an important group of stakeholders. This assignment specifically addresses the following course outcomes to enable you to:

· analyze business strategy to recognize how technology solutions enable strategic outcomes

identify and plan IT solutions that meet business objectives

Executive Briefing on Business Benefits and Considerations

For your Stage 2 Project, you proposed a technology solution to improve a business process at your UR UMUC Healthy Fitness Center. In Stage 3 you evaluated a list of IT considerations. In this Stage 4 Project you are to prepare an Executive Briefing, using Microsoft PowerPoint, addressing how the solution you proposed in Stage 2 could support and enhance the UR UMUC Healthy Fitness Center, explaining the business benefits of the solution, and addressing the considerations you determined to be most important in Stage 3. You will present this briefing to the owner of the Fitness Center to provide the justification for the funds needed to implement your technology solution. For purposes of this exercise you do not need to focus on costs of the proposed solution, but just focus on convincing him that it will improve the operation of the UR UMUC Healthy Fitness Center and that you have addressed key issues.

Assignment

Using the technology solution you proposed in Stage 2 and the considerations you analyzed in Stage 3, along with any feedback on your assignments, you should prepare an Executive Briefing that:

· Clearly identifies and describes the problem area or process that needs to be improved

· Briefly describes the technology solution (showing major components)

· Addresses how the solution you propose could support and enhance the UR UMUC Healthy Fitness Center, explaining the benefits of the solution,

· Identifies major risks associated with your solution, and

· Addresses the considerations you determined to be most important in Stage 3.

Remember that this presentation is to be designed as an oral presentation to the Fitness Center owner and should not be designed to stand on its own, viewing just the slides, by a reader. Each slide should have a title and a limited number of short bullet points. A presentation should use key bullet points to highlight key factors, (or what you want the audience to remember) and not include complete paragraphs and/or detailed text.  The bullet points in your presentation will be
supported by relevant details in the Notes section of the slides, which contain the actual words you would say to present each slide
. Presentations with limited or no “Notes” will receive much lower grades, because the bullets should not tell the whole story.

While use of external resources is not required, your presentation may be strengthened by incorporating research. Remember to correctly cite and reference any sources. Any direct quotes should be indicated within the slide text with appropriate quotation marks and an in-text citation (however direct quotes should be short and used sparingly, if at all). Complete references for all sources should be included in the corresponding Notes section. Paraphrased material can just be referenced within the Notes section of the slides without an in-text citation on the slide. This deviates from APA style but keeps the slides more readable.

General Guidelines: Your presentation format should be professional and use frames, illustrations, color and/or style to make it interesting in appearance to keep your audience’s attention. Use bullet points – 6-8 words per line; 4-7 lines per slide; Font – suggest Arial, Verdana or Calibri (sans serif) size 24; use Design templates built into PowerPoint. Use graphics sparingly but to emphasize key points and add interest. Proofread and Spellcheck (including notes information)!

Use the Grading Rubric to be sure you have covered everything. Submit your presentation via your Assignment Folder as a Microsoft PowerPoint (

20

03, 2007 or 20

10

) document with your last name included in the filename.

Your presentation should be at least 10 slides, to include:

· A cover slide with a title, your name and date as a minimum

· 1-2 slides that provide the purpose of the presentation and what you will cover

· 1 slide that describes the problem area or process that needs improvement, including, either on the slide or in the “Notes” (from the end of Stage 1):

· Generic Strategy:

· Strategic Business Area:

· Process to be improved:

· 1-2 slides that summarize the proposed solution and listing or showing the major components

· 1-3 slides that explain the benefits and risks to the UR UMUC Healthy Fitness Center of the proposed technology solution, telling how the solution supports the business strategy and what quantifiable (and perhaps non-quantifiable) benefits are expected and what risks there are in the solution and project.

· 4-6 slides on the most important considerations from the list in Stage 3 and the impact on the UR UMUC Healthy Fitness Center – why you are addressing them, what they mean to the UR UMUC Healthy Fitness Center and what needs to be done about them.

· Summary/conclusion slide

Concepts:

How to Excel at Briefing Senior Executives:

http://www.melissalewis.com/articles/A-Briefings

GRADING RUBRIC:

10

Comments:

Comments:

Comments:

10

Comments:

25

Comments:

Attribute	Full Points	Partial Points	No points	Possible Points	Points Earned
Introduction/ Purpose, and Description of Problem Area or Process	Appropriate introduction for briefing; brief explanation of the problem to be solved or process to be improved through implementation of the technology solution demonstrates understanding of the course concepts, sophisticated analysis and critical thinking.	Introduction is lacking or may not be appropriate; and/or Explanation of Problem is adequate; or may not adequately describe the process or problem of the UR UMUC Healthy Fitness Center; may be lacking in demonstration of understanding of course concepts, analysis, and/or critical thinking.	No description of problem area or process to be improved is provided.			10
					Comments:
Summary of Proposed Solution	Brief explanation of solution effectively sets stage for presentation; major hardware, software, and communications components included.	Explanation of solution is not completely adequate to set stage for presentation and/or major components may not be shown.	No explanation of proposed solution provided.
Benefits and Risks	Benefits and Risks identified are relevant to the UR UMUC Healthy Fitness Center and derive from the proposed solution. Well supported explanation is provided of how solution supports the business strategy.	Benefits and Risks identified may not be relevant to the UR UMUC Healthy Fitness Center and/or may not derive from the proposed solution. Explanation may be adequate, or not explain how the solution supports the business strategy, or may not be well supported.	No benefits provided.	20
Considerations	The explanations of the impact to the UR UMUC Healthy Fitness Center of the most important considerations and explanation of what must be done demonstrate understanding of the course concepts, sophisticated analysis and critical thinking.	Explanations are adequate; or (some) do not adequately describe the impact on the UR UMUC Healthy Fitness Center and/or what must be done; may be lacking in demonstration of understanding of course concepts, analysis, and/or critical thinking.	No explanations of the considerations are provided.		25
Conclusion	Conclusion is effective and relevant to the presentation; demonstrates sophisticated analysis.	Conclusion is adequate, or may be somewhat effective and/or relevant to the presentation.	No conclusion provided.
Presentation Format	Presentation is clear and concise and supported by appropriate notes that adequately explain the material on each slide, and contain the words that would be spoken. It reflects effective organization, sophisticated writing and creative design; correct structure of slides, grammar, and spelling; presented in a professional format; references are appropriately incorporated and cited using APA style as indicated in the instructions.	Presentation is not supported by appropriate notes, and/or is not well organized or presented, and/or contains grammar and/or spelling errors; and/or does not follow APA style for references and citations as indicated in the instructions.	Presentation is extremely poorly done and does not convey the information.
TOTAL Points	100
100 points =13% of final course grade	Points Recorded (total points x .13)
Recommendations:

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