Signature: ____________________

Date: _____/_____/_________

Progressive feedback to students, identifying gaps in competency and comments on positive improvements:

|_| Student attended the feedback session.

|_| Student did not attend the feedback session.

Signature: ___________________

Date: _____/_____/________

(C)

(NYC)

1. Weekly eLearning notes relevant to the tasks/questions

· This assessment has to be completed |X| In class |X| At home

· The assessment is to be completed according to the instructions given by your assessor.

· Feedback on each task will be provided to enable you to determine how your work could be improved. You will be provided with feedback on your work within two weeks of the assessment due date. All other feedback will be provided by the end of the term.

· Should you not answer the questions correctly, you will be given feedback on the results and your gaps in knowledge. You will be given another opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge and skills to be deemed competent for this unit of competency.

· If you are not sure about any aspects of this assessment, please ask for clarification from your assessor.

· Please refer to the College re-assessment for more information (Student Handbook).

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGES

Marks Allocated

Marks Received

Roman Solomon is a Programs Manager at “Tasty Products PTY LTD” (Tasty Products). His responsibilities include the management of a small project team who look after various projects for Tasty Products. His team members include, Timothy, the junior engineer, Rob, responsible for plant site repairs and grounds, administrator Rebecca and then Roman, an engineer and the Programs Manager. Roman was invited to a meeting held by his Director, Bill Compton, and Tasty Product’s Financial Controller, Tomas Trumper.

The meeting held discussions about the new Central Coast Council’s Environmentally Sustainable Solutions Project, which the Director, Bill Compton, attended and learned that the Council has recently approved a new environmental initiative project for Central Coast businesses in the aim to:

· minimise the ecological footprint for the Central Coast area;

· provide more work for local businesses;

· improve the local economy.

Central Coast businesses who wish to participate must develop a good business case about their environmentally sustainable project and present it to the Central Coast Council’s Environmental Manager, Bethany Hopkins, who will evaluate each project and approve funding of the project. If the project is successful and approved, Tasty Products can receive up to $10,000 financial contribution from the Council to enable Tasty Products to implement the project.

Tasty Products are located on a large acreage property, surrounded by large gardens, grassy areas and bushland; and as managers regularly host clients the gardens must be well maintained. For ages now, Tamas has been sending emails to employees asking them to be more conscious when using the taps in the bathrooms. In the past, he implemented competition for all employees to encourage minimising water usage, which resulted that Tasty Products now has a new policy when purchasing new toilets and taps to ensure that they all have water reduction capabilities. The new purchasing policy also specifies that employees, prior to purchasing new items, are to check if they can be sourced locally. Another policy implemented also included staff to reuse, repair and resell. The overall business plans and strategic direction for Tasty Products is to minimise their ecological footprint and this coincides with the local Government Policy, which is being strongly endorsed by the Central Coast Council.

Knowing the company’s preferences and business direction and Council’s initiative, Bill, Tomas and Roman want increase Tasty Product’s water saving capabilities and hence reduce the company’s ecological footprint. Roman, as he is the Program Manager, has a great overview of the company policies and procedures and will be developing the business case for the Council. Ronan has three (3) weeks to develop the business case draft and present it to Bill and the management team for comment prior to being submitted and presented to Bethany at the Council.

Roman has been busy getting information from all stakeholders to determine the best solution for his business case. He has met with his team, interviewed other managers and met with team leaders and other teams to gain good overview and information to gain lots of input.

He phoned the Councils and discussed their information about what would be a good proposal to put together to gain the required funding. Then he spoke to couple of friendly industry contacts and also spoke to some local competitors to discuss the Council initiative with them.

After meetings, discussions, emails and surveys he has finally identified that Tasty Products would benefit by purchasing some large water tanks for watering their gardens. The water tanks will also be used for cleaning of pathways and other small company areas such as the newly developed staff herb garden, which was an initiative the administration team organised a few months ago. Some staff who live in units use the garden and take fresh herb home for cooking.

When Roman met with Bill and Tamas to confirm and advise them about the water tanks, they were impressed with the idea. Bill told Roman to continue with this business case development and approved 2 water tanks, which he believed would be suitable solution and a good case to present to the Council.

Executive Summary (300-400 Words)

Issue

Anticipated Outcomes

Recommendation

Justification

Business case consultation and analysis team

Role

Description

Name

Project financial controller

Project approvals

Process Improvement

Project Manager

Project team

Communication forum

Problem impact Statement

Impact on Tasty Products

Technology

Project Overview and Goals and Objectives

Project Performance and monitoring

Project Constraints

Management of physical resources

Major Project Milestones

Business Alignment

Cost Benefit Analysis

Alternatives

Approvals

Your work for Amazing Projects and Sons (Amazing Project). Your manager asked you to visit the General Manager of Bounce Fitness in the Sydney Centre. The General Manager has contacted Amazing Project because Amazing Projects completed a shop fit out next door to the Fitness Centre. The shop owner was very impressed and told the Bounce Fitness staff how happy she is with the fit out and with the professionalism of Amazing Project contractors. So that General Manager of Bounce Fitness Sydney Centre called Amazing Projects and ask to have someone come in and have a discussion. She has some ideas but needs professional opinion.

Your job is to learn about the Centre, discuss the centre’s needs with the General Manager in the Sydney site, review services and clients; and any improvement needs. During your meeting you can also ask and identify and confirm a business improvement or a business problem.

On Monday this week, you met with the Centre Manager, Linda, who gave you a good overview of the company’s history, services and their needs to increase profit. You took lots of notes, especially when Linda spoke about the small coffee shop leased to a private operator which will be closing next month. The coffee shop has been in the building for ages and is very small and a little tired. Not an image that the Centre wishes to portray. Linda is worried that some of her clients will go to the Hyde Park gym which is 5 minutes away when the lease leaves next month. They have a nice modern light kitchen where their clients can sit after their sessions.

When you were leaving Linda asked if you could come up with some solution about sitting out a coffees shop.

Your next meeting will be in a week so you can come up with some ideas for business improvement and possibly confirm her needs.

Your notes:

“Bounce Fitness is made up of four fitness centres. Head office is currently established in Cairns, Queensland. The other centres are in Brisbane, (Queensland), Sydney, (New South Wales) and Melbourne, (Victoria).

It was established in 2001 by Margaret House as a single aerobic studio. After two years’ membership increases demanded the small leased centre be expanded and a new facility was built on land purchased by the organisation. In 2004 a second centre was established in leased premises in Brisbane and then Sydney and Melbourne in the subsequent two years.

The Head Office remains in Cairns and a Board of Directors has been established to oversee the function of the business in all of the centres. Each centre has a General Manager (Centre Manager) who reports to the CEO in Cairns, and a team of permanently employed fitness instructors and other casual instructors, all of whom report to the Centre Manager.

The business is operated on best business practice and complies with all legislative requirements, local by-laws and is registered with the national body.

Bounce Fitness intends to market its brand through excellence in service and expertise to establish itself as a premier provider of fitness and wellness in Australia.

All centres are carpeted in areas used for stationary activities, spacious, well-ventilated and air-conditioned to make the environment as safe and comfortable as possible. They are light and feature wrap-around mirrored walls.

Each centre features a retail section selling fitness shoes, clothes and other related fitness items. There is a small cafeteria which was in the building before the gym has opened and it is leased to a provider who supplies healthy, low calorie drinks.

Each Centre has scheduled various fitness classes ranging from high intensity to low intensity. The scheduling is left to each Centre but must sustain a minimum average of twelve in each class for them to continue to be held. The style of classes changes as new methods are developed to sustain interest and provide variety.

Funding is primarily from memberships. Memberships are sold on one, three, six- and twelve-monthly bases on a decreasing fee scale. Casual members are welcome, but the daily rate is a premium one.

Each Centre sells memberships to 120%. This means that at peak times it could be quite crowded, but experience demonstrates that there is a maximum of 80% usage.

The retail arm of the business accounts for about 30% of the takings from each centre. The strategic plan for retail is set to increase investment in sales this year to 35%. Each Centre will be given a budget to develop and implement a sales and marketing plan to trial. The most successful may be implemented nationally and will attract an incentive for the most successful Centre. When discussing this, Linda mentioned that the current cafeteria rent the gym receives from the lease is included in the retail business income. The cafeteria lease, is reconsidered during each annual planning session by the Board, which produces 5% of the income, less than the rent off-set

You have reviewed your notes the aim to identify business needs or issues prior to having a meeting with Linda and her team.

You have reviewed the organisation’s history, vision and mission statements, future inspirations for the organisation and checked your notes from the initial meeting with Linda; and you have organised a follow up meeting with Linda and her team, the decision makers.

It is important that you communicate and brainstorm with the decision makers who may have information and create other multiple options to insert into your business case. During the meeting you will need to analyse their requirements and clarify their objectives confirm any business problems, issues or goals that they wish to address, and discuss and consider various factors that may identify opportunities for improvement and constraints for the business case. Remember that:

· It is crucial to clearly define the problem and parameter of the solution.

· There should be an agreement about the scope between the person authorising the business case and those who will execute analysis.

Justification for the project could be based on the benefits to business operations, strategic direction goals, and/or cost benefit analysis.

Impact type

Description of the impact

Risk rating

1-Lowest/ 5 highest

Proposed solutions

Financial impact

Business case statement – overview of the proposed changes

Impact on operations and staff

(Guide: 50-80 words)

Technology and IT impact

(Guide: 80 words)

Impact on community (Guide: 50-80 words)

Impact on the environment (Guide: 50-80 words)

WHS safety impact (Guide: 50-80 words)

BUSICNESS CASE DOCUMENT

1. Executive Summary

This section should provide general information on the issues surrounding the business problem and the proposed project or initiative created to address it. Usually, this section is completed last after all other sections of the business case have been written. This is because the executive summary is exactly that, a summary of the detail that is provided in subsequent sections of the document. (Copy and paste your Task 12 answer in executive summary)

1.1 Issue

This section of the business case should briefly describe the business problem that the proposed project will address. This section should not describe how the problem will be addressed, only what the problem is.

1.2 Anticipated Outcomes

This section should describe the anticipated outcome if the proposed project or initiative is implemented. It should include how the project will benefit the business and describe what the end state of the project should be.

1.3 Recommendation

This section summarizes the approach for how the project will address the business problem. This section should also describe how desirable results will be achieved by moving forward with the project.

1.4 Justification

This section justifies why the recommended project should be implemented and why it was selected over other alternatives. Where applicable, quantitative support should be provided and the impact of not implementing the project should also be stated.

2. Business Case Analysis Team

This section of the business case describes the roles of the team members who developed the business case. It is imperative that participants and roles are clearly defined for the business case as well as throughout the life of the project.

The following individuals comprise the business case analysis team. They are responsible for the analysis and creation of the Project business case.

3. Problem Definition

3.1 Problem Statement

This section describes the business problem that this project was created to address. The problem may be process, technology, or product/service oriented. This section should not include any discussion related to the solution.

3.2 Organizational Impact

This section describes how the proposed project will modify or affect the organizational processes, tools, hardware, and/or software. It should also explain any new roles which would be created or how existing roles may change as a result of the project.

4. Project Overview

This section describes high-level information about the project to include a description, goals and objectives, performance criteria, assumptions, constraints, and milestones. This section of the Business Case consolidates all project-specific information into one chapter and allows for an easy understanding of the project since the baseline business problem, impacts, and recommendations have already been established.

4.1 Project Description

This section describes the approach the project will use to address the business problem(s). This includes what the project will consist of, a general description of how it will be executed, and the purpose of it.

4.2 Goals and Objectives

This section lists the business goals and objectives which are supported by the project and how the project will address them. Ensure that the goals/objectives are Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant and Timebound (SMART)

4.3 Project Performance

This section describes the measures that will be used to gauge the project’s performance and outcomes as they relate to key resources, processes, or services.

4.4 Project Assumptions

This section lists the preliminary assumptions for the proposed project. As the project is selected and moves into detailed project planning, the list of assumptions will most likely grow as the project plan is developed. However, for the business case there should be at least a preliminary list from which to build.

4.5 Project Constraints

This section of the business case template lists the preliminary constraints for the proposed project. As the project is selected and moves into detailed project planning, the list of constraints will most likely grow as the project plan is developed. However, for the business case there should be at least a preliminary list from which to build.

4.6 Major Project Milestones

This section lists the major project milestones and their target completion dates. Since this is the business case, these milestones and target dates are general and in no way final. It is important to note that as the project planning moves forward, a base-lined schedule including all milestones will be completed.

5. Strategic Alignment

All projects should support the organization’s strategy and strategic plans in order to add value and maintain executive and organizational support. This section provides an overview of the organizational strategic plans that are related to the project. This includes the strategic plan, what the plan calls for, and how the project supports the strategic plan.

6. Cost Benefit Analysis

Many consider this one of the most important parts of a business case as it is often the costs or savings a project yields which win final approval to go forward. It is important to quantify the financial benefits of the project as much as possible in the business case. This is usually done in the form of a cost benefit analysis. The purpose of this is to illustrate the costs of the project and compare them with the benefits and savings to determine if the project is worth pursuing.

The following table captures the cost and savings actions associated with the Project, descriptions of these actions, and the costs or savings associated with them through the first year. At the bottom of the chart is the net savings for the first year of the project.

An example has been provided for this section for your ease for understanding. You are required to delete the information in the table and complete the table as per your project requirement.

Based on the cost benefit analysis above we see that by authorizing the WP Project, Smith Consulting will save $247,239.00 in the first year alone. This represents a significant improvement in our operating costs and is a clear indicator of the benefit this project will have on the company.

7. Alternative Analysis

All business problems may be addressed by any number of alternative projects. While the business case is the result of having selected one such option, a brief summary of considered alternatives should also be included—one of which should be the status quo, or doing nothing. The reasons for not selecting the alternatives should also be included.

An example has been provided for this section for your ease for understanding. You are required to delete the information in the table and complete the table as per your project requirement.

The following alternative options have been considered to address the business problem. These alternatives were not selected for a number of reasons which are also explained below.

8. Approvals

The business case is a document with which approval is granted or denied to move forward with the creation of a project. Therefore, the document should receive approval or disapproval from its executive review board

The signatures of the people below indicate an understanding in the purpose and content of this Business Case by those signing it. By signing this document, you indicate that you approve of the proposed project outlined in this business case and that the next steps may be taken to create a formal project in accordance with the details outlined herein.