Tag Archives: A short description of the situation that prevails for your client at the outset of problem solving.

Business Problem Solving Project

Section One: The business client and their business problem (10%, 250 words)

• A brief summary and history of your client, including decision-maker who has commissioned this project.
• A short description of the situation that prevails for your client at the outset of problem solving (i.e., the state of affairs that are problematic).
• Provide clear evidence of the business problem, ideally quantifying the problem and illustrating it graphically.
• A set of observations or complications around the situation that creates the tension or dynamic that captures the problem (i.e., what changed or what went wrong that created the problem).
• In the form of an objective (e.g., To reduce Coca-Cola’s plastic waste by 50% by 2026 without sacrificing profit margin), define a specific, measurable and actionable problem.

Section Two: Problem structure and components logic tree (20%, 500 words)

• Use an initial logic tree (i.e., factor/lever/component) to break the problem into component parts or issues (e.g., causes of the problem) to illustrate and define the basic structure of the problem.
• This should be evidence-based, using a combination of credible industry and academic literature, evidence and theory, covering the problem generally (based upon the academic literature) and the problem in the context of your client (based upon the industry literature).
• Provide a fully-referenced commentary of the logic tree.
• It is expected that this logic tree will have three layers – branches should expand at each layer.

Business Problem Solving Project

Section Three: Solution drivers and hypothesised solutions logic tree (30%, 750 words)

• Using the basic problem structure logic tree as a guide to locate further industry and academic literature, evidence and theory, produce a more complete logic tree (i.e., deductive logic, hypothesis or hybrid of the two) of:
  1. solution drivers, which help us to see potential pathways to solve the problem,
  2. concluding with your hypothesised solutions as the leaves of your logic tree.
• Provide a fully-referenced commentary of the logic tree.
• It is expected that this logic tree will have four layers – branches should expand at each layer, although not necessarily for the fourth layer of hypothesised solutions.

Section Four: Prioritisation of hypothesised solutions (20%, 500 words)

• Using the prioritisation matrix, consider all of the hypothesised solutions from the leaves of your second logic tree to prioritise those that have the biggest impact on solving the problem and which you can most affect to find the critical path to solving your problem.
• Prune the tree to remove the ‘leaves’ that are not on the critical path to solving the problem, establishing the hypothesised solutions that will be taken forward to be workplanned.
• Provide a fully-referenced commentary of the prioritisation matrix.

Business Problem Solving Project

Section Five:  Workplan (15%, 375 words)

• Starting from the prioritised hypothesised solutions established in the previous step, propose a workplan for how you will test your hypothesised solutions and inform their implementation via data collection and analyses, so to be able to reach a conclusion on the solution to the problem.
• For each prioritised hypothesised solution identify the following columns in a chunky workplan:

1. a research question that will guide data collection and analysis to test each hypothesised solution and inform their implementation,
2. the data required and how you will access or collect it,
3. the data analysis techniques you will use,
4. timing of this work and
5. the anticipated analysis end product (e.g., a graph).

• Using a Gantt chart, produce a lean project plan covering key activities and fixed milestones of your proposed project over a three-month period of work.

Section Six: One-day answer (5%, 125 words)

• Conclude your problem-solving project proposal with a one-day answer to convey what understandings are emerging, what unknowns still stand between you and the problem resolution and your best guess at a resolution. Use APA referencing style.