Reference no: EM132360595 , Length: word count:3000
Assignment - Individual Draft and Final Reports
This assignment comprises an individual written report, which is submitted in two parts:
- as a draft for you to receive feedback on your writing and referencing, and
- as a final report which incorporates the feedback from your draft.
An organisation's business plan outlines the way in which a particular organisation strives to achieve its objectives. This is no different for engineering organisations, where the organisation's business plan exerts a strong influence on its structure and, in turn, the manner in which engineering projects are planned and executed. This means that before you start working on an engineering project, you will need to equip yourself with some basic knowledge about the organisational context in which you will be carrying out this project. This will require you to conduct some essential research into the elements of the organisation's business plan. For this assignment, you will need to demonstrate that you are able to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of a business plan in regards to its influence on the planning and execution of engineering projects; and draw on scholarly research to inform the planning and execution of your engineering projects.
For the final report you will be required to:
1. Select two engineering or technology related company business plans from Bplans website or elsewhere.
2. Write a 10 to 15 page report which contains:
- an introduction;
- a brief description of each company's business plan (2 pages each) detailing each of the following:
1. business profile
2. vision, mission and goals
3. market research
4. operational strategy
5. products and/or services
6. marketing plan
7. financial strategy.
- the three strongest components of each plan as they relate to planning and execution of engineering projects (and why);
- the three weakest components of each plan as they relate to planning and execution of engineering projects (and why);
- an analysis of how the two business plans compare and contrast;
- recommendations on how the business plans could be improved to facilitate the planning and execution of engineering projects;
- demonstrated competencies (outlined in the Stage 1 Competency Standards for Professional Engineers) you believe you have demonstrated and the extent to which you have demonstrated these in preparing this report; and
- challenges you faced working on this assignment, strategies for overcoming them, and five lessons learnt about business planning.
For the draft report (written first):
Write:
- the introduction for the report (properly structured with full sentences), and
- a draft outline of the remainder of the report showing clear headings for each section with a brief overview of what is in each section. This outline should incorporate scholarly references using APA 6th edition referencing
- the reference(s) should be cited in-text (in the introduction or outline) and end-text.
For both assignments type your work on A4 size paper with 1.5 line spacing.