SYLLABUSBUAD 899—Business Consulting ProjectSection 50 Spring, 2012 (12S)30 January 2012The syllabus may change several times during the semester, so please check the professor’shome page periodically to be sure you have the latest update.Faculty Mentor: Dr. John KmetzCampus (302) 831-1773; Home office (302) 738-9340; Mobile (302) 345-0408; Skype: [email protected] page: http://www.buec.udel.edu/kmetzj/.Required text: Linda K. Stroh and Homer H. Johnson, The Basic Principles of EffectiveConsulting. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2006. ISBN 0-8058-5420-7.Recommended text (especially for those seeking more depth in project management):Samuel R. Mantel, Jr., Jack R. Meredith, Scott M. Shafer, and Margaret M. Sutton, CoreConcepts: Project Management in Practice (with CD), 4th ed. New York: Wiley, 2010. Third edition also acceptable (ISBN 978-0-470-12164-1). Additional readings: Hyperlinked items in this syllabus (readings, contract forms, and others). Many of these are supplemental to the texts and provide additional information helpful forspecific purposes. Description of the CourseThe Business Consulting Project is a capstone practicum course offered by the MBAprogram in the Lerner College. The course provides the opportunity for MBA and otherprofessional-program students to gain applied consulting project experience while providing avaluable service to the business community. Students work in teams of two to five people onsignificant business projects under the guidance of business professors with considerableprofessional experience. Student project groups will dedicate up to 500-1000 person-hours to aspecific business project. Business projects may originate from large corporations, non-profitand government agencies, small businesses, entrepreneurs, and may include projects derivedfrom students’ employers.BUAD 899, Business Consulting Project, Spring, 2012 Page 2The course is designed to meet the needs of the majority of students who work in existing organizations, where issues such as changes in strategy, changes in organization, processimprovement, feasibility studies, quality certification, marketing projects, and many other kindsof challenges routinely arise and may require internal consulting skills. However, the course isalso appropriate for new venture development and entrepreneurial projects. For those studentswho have career interests in consulting, whether working for a large global consultancy orstriking out on their own, this is also an appropriate.To the greatest extent possible, students are encouraged to form multidisciplinary groups. We all learn from each other most effectively when we have a mix of skills in our team andbring different points of view to the clients’ problems and opportunities.Appropriate consulting projects may come from any area of business and may supportone or more of the concentrations or specializations in the MBA program. Three attributes of anacceptable project are: (1) the problem is one that has been sufficiently articulated by the clientto define an initial scope of work; (2) the organization will allow the student group to implementand test their solution, or accept their recommendations if action is not possible; and (3) theorganization will cover the necessary expenses of the project. Students in the MBA program may elect to take BUAD 899 twice, for a maximum of sixcredits. The information below is provided for those students taking the course for the first time,and in the event that students are repeating, the initial orientation requirements will not apply,but rather, full course grading and credit will be placed on the second client project.Students should keep records of out-of-pocket expenses not covered by regular coursetuition or fees (travel, copying, special supplies, etc.). These are reimbursable to students from aspecial fund maintained for that purpose, created from fees to clients.What to ExpectYou are enrolled in a course that is probably unlike any you have experienced. Yourresponsibility for the semester will be to satisfy the business needs of a client—after our initialclasses your work will be mostly with the client and driven by the client’s schedule and needs. You will be working for them, often at their location, on problems that are very real to them andfor which they seek a real and useful solution. You are expected to actually solve their problem,not tell your professors about a possible solution. Students take the lead in these projects—faculty mentors are responsible for providing tools for the course and organizing the teams andclients; after that, mentors have little interaction at all with clients, and in most cases will not seeher the students or the client again until the final team project presentation.Do not be misled by the lack of formal classroom structure. Even though there are only afew formal class sessions, expect to put in many hours of effort. There may well be times whenyou will wish for a more traditional lecture-type course that has more structure—there are noregular exams; clients may cancel or change meetings with your team and disrupt your schedule;client needs may not be well defined, especially at the beginning of the project; and more. Yourclients will contribute significantly to the evaluation of the project for your grades; and, unlikeBUAD 899, Business Consulting Project, Spring, 2012 Page 3many professors, they feel no obligation to be nice or to reward you for the “old college try.” They are expected by their superiors to deliver results, and they will expect no less from you. Class and Online MeetingsRegular class meetings will be the exception rather than the rule—there will be onlythree regular “classes,” and two of those are primarily focused on working with the clients. Most meetings will be “virtual,” where teams meet using electronic groups or consult withprofessor(s) by e-mail or through their e-groups (which are discussed below). Similarly, mostassignments in the early part of the course are completed and submitted on line. Formation ofelectronic groups will be required, although the use of them will be determined by the needs ofthe group and the project. Meetings between project teams and faculty mentor(s) may also beheld at times mutually suitable to team members and faculty mentors, and these may be at timesother than regularly scheduled class times; students are encouraged to request