Content:
Report objectives: the report will not tell:
- “I plan to do this, …” kind of a story.
It needs to rather be more like this:
- “I changed this, I designed this, I partially built this, I fixed this, here is the evidence, and here is what is left to be done to achieve the originally set goals, etc…“
Progress–oriented: show visuals of the things you did, including plans, drawings, systems, charts, excel, etc. This assignment is about reporting progress. You no longer need to talk about why you are doing this. Rather, focus on what you have already done, and what to do until Aug.
Intro: use the first page, no more, to remind us of the company, project, issues, solutions, etc.
Scope: if changes are made to the original scope, please clarify, and show the original process submitted in the proposal, then highlight the changes. How does that change the rest of the project?
Schedule: the report should show where you are in your original Gantt Chart and whether milestones have shifted around. Some had a very basic Gantt Chart in the proposal. The interim report needs to be a very detailed one.
Financials: the report should have a financial table of expenses incurred up to date. This is not money you personally spent. These are expenses your stakeholder has spent/incurred so far. Classify expenses in financial terms (operational, capital, etc.). Present financial calculations of IRR, cash flow, NPV, where needed (Not everyone needs this).
Include all expenses: nobody works for free. If an employee in your company spent 3hr on a task. That is worth the money. Estimate their hr rate and include it in your financials. Everything is worth $. If your company already has software and pays $X/year in license fees, and you are using 10% of it for your project, your operational cost for using this software is $0.1X/year. It is not free.
Budget note for start-ups: you may have spent $ on your project; this would be part of your financials as well.
Pilot: what is the status of the pilot/partial implementation, if applicable?
Stakeholders: who has done what so far? Please dont say we did this and that …. I need to know what your role was, and what other people on your team did.
Procurement: if your solution necessities the procurement of equipment/software/service, and they are too large/expensive to be procured by April (due to budget, company restrictions), then at least, show your procurement strategy, selection criteria, compare suppliers, requirements, and present formal quotes (mandatory for all to-be-procured goods/services).
Creative visuals: some find it difficult to explain certain things in simple words. Try visuals. There are a lot of free tools online: block diagrams, flow charts, tables, and figures, where possible. Please explain them! Many lost marks in the proposal because visuals were not explained.
Project Challenges: list any challenges you have faced so far, and propose solutions
For start-up projects: your website/store/product needs to be fully ready to show to customers. You will have the period May-Aug to market only. But, from now until April, you are to build a fully working ready-to-sell, store. I expect that you also have a formal logo and a working www domain. If this start-up is going to be a real project for you, please legally register your company.
Strategic analysis (independent projects): I expect that all background work, literature review, analysis, and full stakeholder engagement are complete. Initial recommendations should also be formulated. I expect that during the May-Aug period, you will be working on finalizing and carrying out your recommendations, at least on a partial/pilot scale.
References: I will be stricter on references, in-text citations, and APA styling. Plagiarism will be taken more seriously.
Content from Proposal
Do not re-submit any content you have submitted already in the proposal. This is a fresh report and I expect fresh content. Re-submitting content is considered plagiarism.
Attached Files (PDF/DOCX): Capstone Prospectus_DE.pdf, Capstone_proposal_DE.pdf
Note: Content extraction from these files is restricted, please review them manually.