Quality Improvement Storyboard

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Practice Experience: Quality Improvement Storyboard

Storyboard Instructions

The Practice Experience Project Storyboard is a brief, visual summary of a completed quality improvement initiative. The storyboard highlights key aspects of a quality improvement effort by documenting the Practice Experience Project from beginning to end.

The course template uses a PowerPoint format to complete this assignment. You only need to provide two slides, no more. The first slide is the summary of your project; the second slide is the reference page. You will need to choose the most pertinent information from your practice experience and Capstone Paper to complete the Storyboard. No voice over is required.

Why is it important that cross-functional team members value, respect, and appreciate each other’s unique contributions to the team?

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As the newly hired brand manager for your favorite brand, you are thrilled to have an opportunity to make your mark. Innovation is high on the company’s list of priorities, so one of your brand’s goals will be to launch a new product this year. You are eager to start the process of developing and marketing a new product, but first you must learn the business.

For this first project submission, you will select your company for the project and conduct research to examine the company’s competitive advantage and the competitive environment in which it operates. Please note that this is a three-part assignment. All three parts will be completed as one paper with headings (e.g., “Company Background”) that clearly identify each part. To complete the assignment, do the following:

Part 1 – Company Background

  1. Select a company to focus on for the project.
  2. Before conducting research, describe what you believe is your selected company’s competitive advantage.
  3. Conduct research on the company and address the following:
    1. Provide an overview of the industry that the company competes in. If the company competes in multiple industries, describe the industry in which you plan to launch the new product.
    2. Describe the factors that a company must have to succeed in your chosen industry.
    3. Evaluate the marketing strategies of your selected company and two competitors in the industry. Describe the competitive advantage of each company. What makes each company or its offering unique and distinctive?
    4. In 2-3 short, declarative sentences distill the findings of your research into a bullet-pointed list that describes your chosen company’s competitive advantage.
    5. Now that you’ve conducted research on your company’s competitive advantage, evaluate your previous ideas about the company’s competitive advantage. How does your initial view compare to what you discovered during the research process?

Part 2 – New Product Idea

  1. Describe the new product that you will focus on for the project. Include a rationale for your product decision. Your explanation should be supported by the research you conducted on the company.

Part 3 – Cross-functional Team

  1. Identify at least three (3) functional areas needed on the cross-functional team to will launch your new product, then answer the following questions:
    1. What type of expertise will each functional group you’ve identified bring to the project?
    2. What are the benefits of having diverse perspectives in a cross-functional team?
    3. What potential issues may arise when diverse perspectives are not represented in a team?
    4. Why is it important that cross-functional team members value, respect, and appreciate each other’s unique contributions to the team?
  2. Cite at least five credible sources in your paper, with at least two from academic databases. Feel free to use the Rasmussen Online Library databases like Business Source Complete via EBSCO and Business via ProQuest for your academic research. Include in-text citations, a title page and a reference page formatted according to APA standards. Your paper should be a minimum of three (3) pages. Write your paper as if you are writing to your senior management team. Keep this audience in mind throughout the project and establish the appropriate tone to engage your audience.

Examine how theory and sociological concepts apply to everyday life. Identify sociological concepts that affect one’s own field of study.

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Project Outline

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:

  • Competency 1: Examine how theory and sociological concepts apply to everyday life.
    • Identify sociological concepts that affect one’s own field of study.
  • Competency 2: Evaluate the basic tools of sociological inquiry.
    • Identify resources to support project analysis from a sociological perspective.
  • Competency 4: Analyze the influence of culture and socialization on both the individual and society.
    • Summarize the relevancy of concepts included in project sections.
  • Competency 6: Demonstrate written and verbal communication skills for effectively presenting sociological concepts, ideas, and analyses.
    • Write in a professional style using APA 6th edition referencing and format with correct grammar, usage, and mechanics.

In this assignment, you will provide an outline for your course project. The outline should identify concepts you will be using to analyze, provide a brief summary of why each concept may be relevant, and identify some resources that you intend to use.

The purpose of the outline is to make sure that you are actively thinking about and working on your final project. It may be helpful, as we go through each unit, to determine which concepts in that unit you feel are relevant to your Sociology of Me project and begin your analysis at that time. Complete the following:

Step 1: Section Outline

Outline what you plan to discuss in each section (including identifying concepts you will use). The sections are outlined below and list potential concepts that could be used.

  • Culture and Socialization: Examine the impact culture and socialization has had on your life.
    • Socialization, agents of socialization, culture, culture, values, language, norms, subculture, counterculture, ethnocentrism, and cultural relativism.
  • Social Structure and Groups: Discuss the impact social structure and groups have had on your life.
    • Social structure, hierarchy, power, bureaucracy, role, status, primary groups, secondary groups, and group think.
  • Education: Discuss how a sociologist would explain your experience with education.
    • Hidden curriculum, tracking, social stratification, and stereotypes.
  • Professional field: Discuss the main sociological issues that affect your field of study.
    • All concepts from other sections are relevant.
  • Technology and Media: Analyze the role technology and media in your everyday life.
    • Media, digital divide, framing, and social change.

Step 2: Identify Preliminary Supporting Resources

Your sociological analysis of yourself should be supported by credible, scholarly sources, such as those from academic journals. You should identify at least one scholarly source for each section above. Provide a brief summary of each source identified. Use appropriate citations and include a list of your resources in APA format.

When complete, submit your outline in the assignment area.

Does the title capture the central focus?

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Writing a Persuasive Essay

For this assignment, you will research a topic, choose a position, and write a paper that clearly supports one side of the argument, with the intent of challenging or changing a reader’s viewpoint.  You will write a 3-5 page paper (not including the title page or references page) with 3-4 references used (paraphrased) to support your points.  The aim or purpose of this essay is to clarify your position on your chosen topic/issue, develop that position deeply, and write an essay explaining your opinion in such a way that you challenge your reader to evaluate his or her own position.  The underlying goal of the persuasive essay is to persuade the reader to agree with your position, and possibly to change his or her own position on the issue.

Structural requirements:

•  A focused presentation of the issue.  The writer presents the issue so the reader understands it.  Issues need more or less explanation and examples, depending on what the audience already knows.

•  A clear position.  The thesis is positioned effectively, usually at the beginning or end of the essay, and repeated for emphasis and clarity as needed.

•  Plausible reasons and convincing support. The writer must provide reasons for supporting the position. The writer must go beyond simply asserting reasons, by including examples, statistics, expert testimony, and/or anecdotes to support the reasons.

•  Anticipating opposing position and objections. An effective argument for a position includes recognizing and refuting opposing arguments, as well as anticipating and answering a reader’s questions. You must clearly and objectively articulate the opposing position.

•  Careful use of sources. Sources must be used and documented in APA format.

Questions to address as you write your Persuasive Essay:

•  Purpose and audience: Does the writing meet the assignment requirements and engage the audience?

•  Idea development: Is the topic appropriate, neither too broad nor too narrow? Is the writer’s position clear? Are the major reasons for support included, and are they clear and logical and specific? Are the reasons supported with convincing specific examples? Are opposing arguments recognized and countered?

•  Organization: Does the title capture the central focus? Does the introduction capture attention, give necessary background and convey the position? Is the thesis clear?  Is forecasting, if used, effective and clear? Do transitions and the overall organizational pattern provide a smooth flow? Does the conclusion provide a sense of closure and make the topic relevant to the reader (Is it more than just a summary)?

•  Style: Are the sentence and word choices appropriate to a college essay?  Are words vivid, exact and correct?  Does the sentence structure add impact? Are sentences complete, smooth, clear, correct and efficient?

•  Conventions: Are there few, if any, mistakes in following the conventions of Standard Written English?

•  Citing Sources: Do the sources used provide reliable and adequate information?  Is source material properly cited and documented in a standard format?

List of topics

Select one of the topics below.  Choose a side – agree or disagree and support your points with research.  If you are passionate about a topic that is not on the list, seek your professor’s approval before moving forward with your paper.

1.  Is gun control an effective method of reducing crime?

2.  Is death penalty justified?

3.  Do you believe euthanasia (assisted suicide) is right?

4.  Torture is never justified.

5.  Smoking in public places should be banned.

6.  Legalization of marijuana in some states is wrong.

7.  Production and sale of cigarettes should be made illegal.

8.  Cross-cultural marriages contribute to racial tolerance.

9.  Single-parent children behavior is different than that of children with both parents.

10.  Women are less engaged in criminal activity than men.

11.  Young people are predisposed to negative influence because they are more rebellious by nature.

12.  Sexual content on TV has a negative impact on teenagers.

13.  Homeschooling is an ideal way to obtain quality education.

14.  Forests are the lungs of the Earth. Should rainforests destruction be prohibited?

15.  Should countries drill for oil in protected areas to reduce gas prices?

16.  Global warming is a myth.

17.  To what extent are electric cars a solution to global pollution?

18.  Media influence the female perception of the body image.

19.  Violent video games directly correlate to violence in schools.

20.  Domestic terrorism is not really an overwhelming issue in America.

21.  A border fence will solve the dilemma of immigration.

22.  Cyber-attacks are a vital intelligence tool for all countries.

23.  Sex orientation is determined in childhood.

24.  The capital punishment is a crime.

25.  The humans are the main causes of a climate change.

26.  Euthanasia should be allowed.

27.  The U.S. Supreme Court should allow the federal, a state, or a local government to ban same-sex marriage.

28.  The ways to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict exist.

29.  Defending yourself should be a constitutional right under the Second Amendment.

30.  Illegal immigrants shouldn’t be put in prison and forced to work to pay for their upkeep.