The MDDE 605 course required creating a detailed business plan for a designed program. I developed the Pre-Professional Preparatory Distance Education program (PPDE), which is a suggested precursor to the existing program I work for at the CPA Western School of Business. The PPDE program was designed to prepare prospective students for their Chartered Professional Accountants designation journey and establish the foundations of them becoming great CPA members in the future.

The fifth artefact closes the loop of my portfolio collection, which started with a designed distance educational program in Artefact 1. These two projects demonstrate a full one-year progress in the M.Ed. program, as the assignments were relatively close in nature, and they show my evolution as a developer and planner.

I believe that the business plan created for the Planning and Management course reflects my better understanding of the DE market and the business environment, presents adequate marketing projections, outlines efficient workflow and human resource planning and provides the details of the program infrastructure, technology, budget, revenue and projected cash flow.

Working on a detailed business plan showed me how many factors have to be taken into account when a new program is being proposed. Even though my plan suggested the use of the existing infrastructure and outlined the target audience, there still were numerous elements, the alteration of which could affect the program development. Drawing the organizational chart (part of which exists de-facto with the addition of my proposed staffing needs for the PPDE program) showed me that that the personnel component is complicated (6.5).

I have never created a business plan before, so the step-by-step instructions from the textbook and other course materials were especially valuable. For instance, the sales plan was calculated based on certain projections of the number of students in the program per every semester. The additional workflow plan outlined the production and delivery deadlines per each program module. The staffing needs were detailly described along with the number of contractors (e.g. facilitators and exam proctors) that would be required. All these stipulations were new to me, so it took a significant amount of time to study the theory first, before coming up with some concrete suggestions (6.4). From the time management perspective, this assignment was one of the most demanding in the program – which made it very rewarding in the end. I was glad that I was only enrolled in one course that semester, and I could allocate for enough time to complete this assignment. I always check all the assignments when I get access to the course, so I was aware that it is quite massive. Therefore, I started working on it as I had submitted my previous one. I have also heard that many of my peers felt discouraged when their assignments were returned to them for further development in this course. Although mine was returned as well, I was not surprised, as the assignment description stated that there was the "first draft" submission deadline. This experience also encouraged me to make sure I do not miss any details and follow the instructions precisely (6.5). The benefits of having advanced time management skills are long-term: they improve my deliverables, allow to provide a better quality of work, and increase productivity and efficiency. I also believe this will enhance not only my further career development, but, having been transferred into personal life, will augment the quality of life in general. 

For the academical aspect of my PPDE program, I developed a set of 8 core and elective program modules and provided short course descriptions. Being familiar with the CPA student needs and knowing what topics will be beneficial for them, I planned the personnel involvement, based on the plans outlined in the course materials (2.4, 2.5). This assignment also demonstrated how educational business proposals must consider all aspects of program establishment, such as the target audience, contractors to develop course materials, executives to hire and manage the contractors, instructors to facilitate the courses, and administrators to launch and run the program.

Several years ago, I was part of the budget planning team at work, so I did have some experience by the time of the MDDE 605 assignment. However, this assignment required a much more comprehensive approach, which included coming up with a start-up funding idea, cash-flow projections and prognosing revenues (6.4). The financial plan had to be developed for at least the next five years. This exercise significantly improved my planning skills, as I typically did not create plans advancing that much in the future, either personally or professionally (6.5). 

Another section of the business plan, Balanced Scorecard, contributed to the improvement of my strategic thinking. It required an outline of the objectives, measures, targets and initiatives of program growth, as well as the customer and financial perspectives. Having to provide the implementation timeline and work priorities let me see the technicalities of the program introduction and development (6.5).

A significant part of the assignment referred to the technological provisions and the physical infrastructure that the program would require.

My intention was to utilize the exact same software tools that are used in the professional CPA education. This would ensure the consistency throughout all of the programs and provide the students with the necessary training. Looking back at it, I would have proposed a change of the examination software being used. I did have concerns about its reliability; as practice showed later, that program caused a lot of student anxiety. In 2018, it was newly developed software, and, from my experience, the first few versions always work with errors. It is especially frustrating during an exam when students are nervous and the stakes are so high (6.3).

The program infrastructure and hardware needs are somewhat connected to the technological requirements. Due to the exam software compatibility limitations, it can only be installed on Windows-based computers, so no other OS is allowed. In my business plan, I did not emphasize this issue strongly enough. If I were to write a new proposal, I would have the budget thoroughly recalculated based on a different examination software which would remove those limitations. Switching to another technology will cause financial losses, but now I believe it will be more beneficial and will provide better customer service in the end (6.2, 6.4). 

One of the sections of the plan, the Business Strategic Direction, referred to the mission, vision and values of the entire organization (CPA WSB). Working on this section was a good refresher, as I often tend to forget the exact wording. This also a good reminder about the bigger organizational picture, especially since I often get preoccupied with my routine tasks (6.1).

Even though the entire business plan was never applied to my work situation, I was able to use the skills obtained during working on this project towards the discussion of my program budget and student feedback. Creating a detailed business plan for the precursor program made me better understand the foundations of the program I coordinate.