Description

Introduction

The Introduction section should provide a brief summary of the Case Study. It should be more

than a few sentences and describe the assignment and what follows in the sections below. You do not

need to have references in the introduction, but, if you are referencing any source for any statements,

or quoting any sentences from the case study, then you should include a citation and appropriate

reference. Consider briefly identifying the who, what, where, when, why and how of the case.

Background

This section provides the background information for the reader to understand and answer two

questions: What? And Why? This should describe the problem(s) encountered by the actors in the case.

This section contains your position statement from which everything in the rest of the paper will flow.

Think of the problem statement as the purpose of your paper.

This case study may be classified as a problem case, as such these types of cases may be more

difficult to write about because these types of cases involve multiple causes and effects. While it may be

tempting to include all of the problems/causes and effects, if you do include every problem, your paper

will lack depth and breadth. Therefore, identify the major issues associated with the case. However, it is

not simply the identification of the issues that matters; you must also provide recommendations to

alleviate the issues, or to mitigate those issues, in the future. Do not include all of that in the

background section of the paper, however. Keep the background section to a few paragraphs that

answer the who, what, where, when, and why questions.

Diagnosis (While I used this section header, think about what other titles you might use for this

section; I suggest that you do not use this header!)

Your next task is to summarize the diagnosis or principle causes of the problem. While common

sense and intuition are helpful in this endeavor, they are not sufficient. You must prove causal links. This

is where you will need to research the academic literature to support your diagnosis. For example, if one

of the issues is corporate culture, you need to not only define corporate culture (and provide an

appropriate citation and reference indicating where you obtained the definition of corporate culture),

but also provide supporting citations that validate your statement that corporate culture influenced –

either positively or negatively – the issue or facts or the case. What are the main issues? What are the

contributing or secondary issues? Describe the issues but do not provide recommendations in this

section. Were there any risks or assumptions that were made during the project? What are they?

Describe whether any issues, risks, or assumptions that were made were valid, or what impact these had

on the project.

Action Plan (Lessons Learned)

Once you have identified the background and diagnosis, it is time to develop an action plan for

the problem case study. In project management, Lessons Learned is a term used to describe a project

post-mortem. The goal is to identify what the project team did well, as well as the areas where the

project team could have improved upon, in order to provide a roadmap to future, similar type projects.

Consider the players involved in the project; how decisions were made and how that could be improved.