This assignment is worth 20% of your total grade. Due Date: thursday, (Week 4) by 1:00 pm Word…

This assignment is worth 20% of your total grade.

Due Date: thursday, (Week 4) by 1:00 pm

Word limit: Maximum 2000 words

Name, student number and page number if        the footer of every page (excluding Title page)

Submission: Submit via Learnline as a single MS Word Document.

No attachments will be accepted.

Background

Charles Darwin University is offering a small business loan for a deserving student’s entrepreneurial endeavour. It has been left up to the CDU representative to oversee the business case submissions and ascertain whether they are indeed viable and worthy of funding.

To receive the funding, the project must meet the following criteria:

It must benefit a        community – either a community or a select segment of the   population.

It must be in      Australia.

It must be a unique    endeavour (i.e. no franchises)

It must be completed         within one (1) year.

It must have a   budget between $25,000 and $50,000

It can generate income (though not necessarily break even in the first year). If it         does not generate income it must provide significant benefit to a         community, which must be quantified by a high score using a weighted         score model

It must relate to         your area of study (degree program= Information Technology)

It must not rely on any sort of sponsor, grants, donations or volunteer help. This         means that all staff, supplies etc. must be part of the allocated     budget.

All statements must have legitimate references. (Refer to School of Engineering’s   homepage for further details on preferred format.)

Your tutor from Charles Darwin University is your project sponsor.

Business Case Proposal

Title page

Project              title

Name               and student number

Table        of Contents

Executive Summary

Overview

Purpose            or objectives of this proposal

Identify                     the problem to be solved or need to be filled.

Explain                      how the project will be conducted. Will it be managed using an                    iterative or traditional method? Include details of what is meant                       by iterative and traditional.

Describe           how you believe is the best way to measure the success of the                 project and explain why your suggested measures are appropriate                 over alternative measures.

Expected   Benefits

Context             and analysis

To                    provide context, briefly explain your organisational strategy or                         community expectations, and indicate how the project will align

Provide                     a brief outline of your SWOT analysis to explain why the project                      is worth doing.

Include                             details of how the project was conceptualised

Quantitative                      Analysis

Use                           one of the following techniques to quantify the viability of the                           project:

Weighted                                  scoring model

NPV

Payback

ROI

Identify             the expected benefits, ensuring benefits are informed by the                 strategic context.

This                  is an opportunity to sell the value of your project to decision                         makers.

Note: When doing your quantitative analysis, it is best that you provide a benchmark, and a comparison with your projected outputs. E.g. After you have showed your calculations and assuming your answer is 3.8yr (PB) you might write something like “Using 5 years as a viable payback period for projects of this nature 1 , this project having and estimated payback period of 3.8 years shows it is clearly viable.”

Project      requirements

List           and describe the requirements needed to carry out this project.

Include                     human resources

List           and describe the possible assumptions for this project.

List           and describe the constraints for this project.

Costs

Estimate            how much does it will cost.

Explain              how you estimated costs.

Major        Risks

Identify             five (5) risks and quantify their potential likelihood and                severity.

Indicate            how each of the above-mentioned risks will be managed

Timescale

How         long is the estimated time to complete the project?

List           and describe the major milestones.

Conclusion

References

Appendix A

CHOOSING YOUR PROJECT

Area                 of Study – It’s best to do something that is related to your degree              program. It can also be related to your current work or profession.                The reasoning behind this is that we want you to focus on Project             Management and how it will relate to your area of interest.

Business           case does NOT mean a business

Consider hosting an event. There are thousands of charities out there that undertake some sort of clever fundraising initiatives. Google away.

If              you’re still stuck on ideas, consider

Example:

Jane is studying business and works part-time as an assistant at a law practice.  Ideally, she would choose a project that incorporates her studies and takes advantage of her working knowledge of the legal system (she’s not a barrister so can’t provide actual legal advice.)

Most likely, while in that office, she has come across a few areas that she has found to be lacking in support or in need of a bit more attention. (Think, “If only we had….”). Well, besides a coffee and muffin delivery service, she’s not having any waves of inspiration.

Now, outside of work, Jane’s interests include basketball, reading and painting. She even volunteers by teaching arts and crafts classes once a week at the local senior centre. While teaching, she hears about the woes that some of the elderly attendees have encountered with legal issues related to estates, medical bills, wills, etc. Hmmm, maybe she could work with some first year barristers to get them to come in and provide reduced fee services. It’ would be a business and she knows the legal system. “Ok”, she thinks, “There’s an idea.”

But, as she is walking around the senior centre’s craft room she notices that a number of the students want to take their work outside, but because of their mobility scooters, it’s proving a difficult task. If only there was a device that would allow them to attach an easel to their scooters or walkers. Hmmm, there’s an idea.

Looking further, she sees that some of those scooters are looking a little worse for wear. Wouldn’t it be funny if some of them were painted like V-8 racecars?

Choosing          a less than ideal project for your assignment

Example

Jane also considers herself a pseudo-environmentalist. She recycles – but still isn’t quite sure if pizza boxes can go into the recycling bins. She understands the benefit of a compost pile, but since she’s in a city apartment, this isn’t really feasible. She had fans installed around the unit so she could do without air conditioning.  She’s heard about solar farms and wonders if she could get something like that established in one of the rural senior centres she regularly visits. First though, she needs to figure out exactly what a solar farm entails.

Bottom line: Jane has great intentions, but let’s face it, in the amount of time it will take her to learn all about solar farms – the logistics, the legalities, the zoning – she could have written a business plan for something of which she already has working knowledge.

“ Work smarter, not harder”

1 A reference to the source of “5years” would be good here.