Stage-1 exercise: Lakeshore Print Co.

What a full-marks stage 1 looks like

Below is the stage-1 response for Grand River Family Dental, the practice case this module has carried, with each R-psp-1 line labelled in brackets where it is earned. Read it for shape: five short headed parts, each one answering exactly one rubric line, with the assumptions listed and nothing recommended. Then write Lakeshore's.

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Role and task. [role and task named] I am a co-op student at the practice-management consultancy that keeps Grand River Family Dental's books, writing to Tomas Reyes, office manager, who runs the front desk and will implement any change. He has asked, in a short email by next Friday, whether the clinic should switch from its paper appointment book to online booking software, and if so which kind.

Context. [context in 2–3 facts] (1) A two-dentist Waterloo clinic that has booked on paper and by phone for eleven years, so any change is a large one for the front desk. (2) Missed appointments run at about 12 % — at a small clinic, a material share of revenue. (3) Double-bookings have started to occur (two last month), which is what prompted the question.

Stakeholders and objectives. [stakeholders listed with what each wants] Internal: the two dentists (owners — fewer no-shows, justified cost, no disruption to clinical days); Tomas Reyes (no double-bookings; a front desk not tied to the phone); the two receptionists (simple to use; not carrying the transition alone). External: patients (easy booking, reminders, never double-booked — the group harmed now); software vendors (the sale; replaceable); our consultancy (the clinic well advised). Ranked: dentists and patients first, Tomas second, receptionists third, vendor last.

Constraints. [constraints stated] Time: an answer by next Friday, and any switch to avoid the clinic's busiest weeks. Money: no budget has been named — the subscription must be justified against no-show revenue, so a figure is needed from Tomas. Information: the 12 % no-show figure is Tomas's estimate, not a count; the clinic has no digital records to migrate, which removes one cost.

Analysis chosen, and why. [the kind of analysis chosen and why] Both. A simple quantitative comparison — the annual subscription against the revenue recovered if no-shows fall — because the decision turns partly on whether the software pays for itself; and qualitative judgements on ease of use, disruption and patient uptake, because the decision also turns on whether the front desk will actually adopt it.

Assumptions. [assumptions listed] Online booking with reminders reduces no-shows (a range, not a figure, until evidence is found); the paper book costs nothing beyond staff time and the phone line; the receptionists can be trained within a week; a meaningful share of patients will book online.

[no recommendation yet] — no product is named and no answer to "should they switch" is given.

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Now Lakeshore

You have every piece: the brief (L4.2), the stakeholders and their ranking (L4.3), the objectives converted to criteria and the context in three facts (L4.4), the analysis and the assumptions (L4.5). The exam item below asks you to assemble them into one stage-1 response in the shape above. Write it from the template, not from memory of the lessons — the rubric marks what is on the page, in the place the marker looks for it.

One warning before you start. Stage 1 is the stage in which the temptation to recommend is strongest, because by the time the constraints are written down the answer often feels obvious. Resist it: a stage-1 response that ends "…so the lease is clearly the best option" loses the last rubric line and, more importantly, tells the reader that the analysis to follow was written to justify a conclusion already reached.