The Case Study Analysis written report must include the following elements:
Cover page
This page must include: title of the report, course information, date of submission, author’s information.
Executive summary
This should be a brief summary of your work (for this course, no more than one page), written for managers and so should be less technically oriented than for specialists or for technical readers. The purpose of an executive summary is to present an overview of a longer report to people who may not have time to read the entire document. Some activities that you can probably perform to prepare one are: summarize key points (purpose of the report, problem addressed, findings, conclusions, and recommendations), prepare an outline with headings (purpose, findings, conclusions, and recommendations), begin with the purpose, follow the report order, eliminate nonessential details, and control the length (no more than 10% of the original document).
Table of contents
This table must include all headings and appendices, and their beginning page numbers.
Introduction
This section must include: background, motivation/significance, objective(s), scope/limitations, and methodology. Also, if needed, include the definition of key terms
Statement of the situation
This statement must be clear, complete, and concise. Some important assumptions and considerations should be stated as well. The writer’s position and intentions also can be expressed. This statement should respond to the question: what is the situation? This section is also an organization, concentration, and description of the key effects or outcomes that constitute the situation.
Analysis
All the elements in the situation (people, departments, companies, etc.), the available data (financial, performance, productivity, quality, etc.) must be diagnosed, and analyzed by applying some pertinent tools (approaches, methodologies, processes, procedures, techniques, etc.). A decision criterion should be stated clearly and concisely. The final decision and/or solution must be justified and properly supported by a complete demonstration of the applied procedure. Alternative decisions and/or solutions should be considered and explained. What-if analysis can be applied in order to define other hypothetical situations. At MOST two qualitative and two quantitative methods from units III and IV should be applied to analyze and/or solve (action plan) the case. You may use fewer techniques if you believe you can analyze the case and demonstrate your understanding through application using fewer methods, that is acceptable.
Action plan
An action plan and final recommendations should be presented in order to fix the situation. According to William Ellet (2008), an effective action plan has the following characteristics: set goals based on the argument, address the actionable content of the argument, consists of specific steps, has realistic short – and long-term steps, and identifies and responds to the major risk to the plan.
Conclusion
In this section, a closing conclusion should be presented to remark the principal elements of this work (context-problem-analysis-outcomes). In order to convince readers that your conclusion is valid ensure offer enough credible evidence in this regard.
References (use APA style)
Appendices
Include in this section only the information cited as an appendix. Please do not include as appendices tables, figures, or charts that can be inserted within the text of the report.
Format specifications:
The full length of the report should not exceed 10 pages excluding cover page, executive summary, and appendices. - This report should be written in 11 points Times New Roman font, it should be 1.5 spaced, and its margins should be 2.54 cm. (1 inch) per side.