HW#5: Recommended Solution - Munster.tamu.edu

AGSM 440 / Spring 2012HW#5, 6, 7: Recommended SolutionAssignment Date: February 7, 2012HW#5 Due Date: February 14, 2012- Team AssignmentHW#6 Due Date: February 20, 2012- Individual AssignmentHW#6 Due Date: February 23, 2012- Team AssignmentHW#7 Due Date: February 28, 2012- Team AssignmentDue Time: 11:45 pmHW#5 (100 points) is the initial draft of the Recommended Solution report section.HW#6 (100 points) is a peer-review of another teams’ Recommended Solution.HW#7 (200 points) is the revised and improved version of the Recommended reportsection incorporating the peer-review suggestions.____________________________________________________________________________Recommended Solution Section (HW#5 - initial draft)The Recommended Solution section of your team’s final report will be a document thatfully describes the solution that your team has decided to recommend to your client. As a team,you have consulted with your client and have identified a potential solution for your project. Asa team you should determine the content of this section, and the order of presentation.What should be included in the Recommended Solution?The Recommended Solution section should be a clear, detailed description of thesolution that you recommend to your client. This solution should address all of the variousrequirements of the project problem statement. This section should concentrate on what youconsider to be the deliverable product that your client would utilize. For some teams, this willbe a specific set of equipment that would be purchased and assembled into an operating system.For other teams, this deliverable product will be a tool or a set of procedures that should be usedto by interested parties to determine an optimal solution for their situation. This deliverableproduct will be unique to each team, but all teams should keep in mind how theirrecommendation will be used, and describe that recommendation in a manner consistent withthat anticipated use.This report section will be used as the basis for the other sections in the final report,including the implementation plan, the economic analysis and the risk and uncertainty section.The solution description should be sufficiently detailed to make those additional sections easilyunderstood. All parts or aspects of the Recommended Solution should be included anddescribed. This would include things like the size and construction characteristics of anybuildings or facilities that might be necessary, machines required, all steps in a process flow,software required, vendors or contractors who can supply the materials listed, etc. If there is a

ange of potential applications for your solution, select an appropriate number of applicationsituations and describe those in greater detail. Appropriate figures, tables and charts should beused to illustrate your solution. Detailed lists, such as vendor quotations should be placed in anappendix and summarized in the text. If this is appropriate for your solution description, thedocument you submit should have the appendix included.One aspect of this assignment that may cause you problems is uncertainty in yoursolution. It is likely that your team is still waiting for information to finalize the solution thatyou will recommend. You must proceed based on the best information that you have at thistime. The goal of this assignment is to get a draft for this section of the final report completednow, so that it can be modified and improved as better information becomes available. The laterassignments (economic analysis, implementation, risk analysis) will require this section to beincluded so that the reviewers can better understand your recommendations.Required:1. Write a comprehensive Recommend Solution report2. Submit report to the class webpage using the following file naming convention given below.Team X HW5.doc(where X = your team number)Grading:Grading of the Recommended Solution initial draft will use the following rubric.Description of complete Recommended Solution45 pts- all aspects of the solution are included = 15 pts- adequate details on equipment/software/practices/training/construction = 15 pts- detailed justification of solution = 15 ptsEffectiveness of communicating concepts45 pts- clear and concise report = 15 pts- illustrated with figures/tables/charts/photographs/etc. = 15 pts- grammatically correct = 15 ptsFollowing procedures for submission (file naming and submission)10 ptsTotal = 100 pts____________________________________________________________________________Recommended Solution Section (HW#6 – Peer Review)

Your assignment is to provide constructive criticism to the Recommended Solution reportwritten by another team by providing comments and suggestions for improvement. You can alsoprovide limited edits of the draft to correct wording or punctuation, but your task is to helpimprove the document, not to edit it. You are required to use the Track Changes feature in MSWord when making comments.Review Procedures:You will make a sincere effort to improve content, organization and the writing of theassigned Recommended Solution Report. This does not mean that you will rewrite theRecommended Solution Report, but rather to point out any problems in missing content,clarity, logical flow of concepts, grammatical errors, misspellings and typos, etc. Thisreview will be done in MS Word with Track Changes.Each team will be assigned another team for this peer review (see reviewer assignmenttable below). The peer review process will be a combination of individual and teamreviews.After the individual reviews are complete, each team will be expected to meet to discussthe strengths and weaknesses of the Recommended Solution report with the other team.Then each team will provide the other team with written suggestions on how to improvethe Recommended Solution report in general.Timeline for the peer review process.o Monday, February 20, individual reviews due. Submit to class webpage.o Tuesday, February 21, in-class team discussions. Bring individual reviews toclass.o Thursday, February 23, written team reviews due. Submit to class webpage.Required:1. Retrieve the assigned (see below) Recommended Solution Report from the BAENDepartmental K drive in the K:\AGSM 440\HW5 folder. Copy the file into a folder that youcontrol and immediately rename the file using the naming convention below. Do not edit thecopy on the K drive. If you do not find a file for a team that you are assigned to review, selectanother report from assigned team in place of the missing assigned file.2. Individually edit the assigned Recommended Solution Report using the Track Changesfeature of Microsoft Word. Submit to the class webpage using the following file namingconvention given below. Bring a copy of your peer review to class on Tuesday, February 21.Yourlastname HW6 Team Y.doc(Y is the team number that you reviewed)3. Come together as a team in class on February 21 to discuss the strengths and weaknesses ofeach report. Provide recommendations on how to improve the Recommended Solution report.Submit one copy of the group comments to the class webpage using the following file namingconvention given below.

Team X HW6 Team Y.doc (X is your team number and Y is the team number you reviewed)HW# 6 Grading:Individual Assessment CriteriaPossiblePointsComments to improve understanding of the recommended 30solutionComments to improve organization of the recommended 20solutionComments to improve spelling / grammar 10Total Points 60Team Assessment CriteriaPossiblePointsIdentification of strengths and weaknesses 10Specific recommendations for improvement 30Followed file naming convention 10Total Points 40PointsEarnedPointsEarnedGrading of the Recommended Solution Report peer reviews will be based on the scope anddetail of the comments and suggestions submitted relative to the quality of the individualRecommended Solution Report. If you put in a good effort to identify and highlightcommunications problems in the Recommended Solution document, you will earn full points.Peer Review Assignments:Review TeamReview TeamTeam 1 Team 2Team 3 Team 4Team 5 Team 6Team 7 Team 8Team 9(Kerlin / Reiley) Team 10Team 11 Team 12Team 9Team 13(Truax / Luehrs)Team 14 Team 15

____________________________________________________________________________Recommended Solution Section (HW#7 - final draft)1. Go to the K:\AGSM440\HW#6 directory and download the individual peer reviewed fileand the team suggestions on how to improve of your Recommended Solution. Alsoobtain the review from the class instructor.2. Examine the individual peer reviewed documents, the team suggestions, and feedbackfrom the instructors to modify your Recommended Solution to improve thecommunication of your concepts.a. Note, you do not have to make all of the suggested changes; only the ones thatyou feel improve your Recommended Solution.3. Submit the final draft of your Recommended Solution report using the file namingconvention given below.Grading:Team X HW#7 (where X is your team number)Grading of the final Recommended Solution will be based primarily on whether it is a clear,concise and comprehensive write-up that is easy to understand. Grading of the finalRecommended Solution will be based on the following rubric.Description of complete Recommended Solution95 pts- all aspects of the solution are included = 35 pts- adequate details on equipment/software/practices/training/construction = 30 pts- detailed justification of solution = 30 ptsEffectiveness of communicating concepts95 pts- clear and concise report = 35 pts- illustrated with figures/tables/charts/photographs/etc. = 30 pts- grammatically correct = 30 ptsFollowing procedures for submission (file naming and submission)10 ptsTotal = 200 pts__________________________________________________________________________