27 Mar Budget Negotiations and Communication

Guiding Questions

Budget Negotiations and Communication

This document is designed to give you questions to consider and additional guidance to help you successfully complete the Budget Negotiations and Communication assessment. You may find it useful to use this document as a pre-writing exercise, an outlining tool, or as a final check to ensure that you have sufficiently addressed all the grading criteria for this assessment. This document is a resource to help you complete the assessment. Do not turn in this document as your assessment submission.

Executive Summary

Write an executive summary of the operating budget you designed in Assessment 2 that makes a compelling case for why funds should be allocated for your budget.

Outline a strategic plan that ensures profitability and fiscal success.

• Does your executive summary begin with a strong first paragraph that captures the reader’s attention and compels her to read through the rest of the document?

• Is your plan truly strategic, rather than just an operational or business plan?

• Have you captured the key elements of your plan that you wish to communicate to executive leaders?

• Have you identified responsibilities for implementing the plan?

• What data or case studies support your plan?

Present a plan to meet staff productivity goals, while staying within budget parameters.

• Does your plan address the major factors affecting staffing and productivity?

• How will proposed staffing levels affect the attainment of organizational goals?

• What staffing metrics or case studies support your plan?

Justify equipment and service costs.

• How will the equipment and services contribute to organizational goals?

• How did you calculate costs?

• What information can be gathered from stakeholders to ensure that you maximize available resources?

Analyze department, unit, or project alignment with the organization’s mission and goals.

• Does your analysis clearly communicate these linkages?

• What evidence do you have to support your analysis?

Write clearly and concisely, using correct grammar and mechanics.

• Express your main points and conclusions coherently.

• Proofread your writing to minimize errors that could distract readers and make it more difficult to focus on the substance of your summary.

Integrate relevant and credible sources of evidence to support your assertions, correctly formatting citations and references using APA style.

• Integrate relevant evidence from at least five scholarly or professional sources.

Submission Reminders

• Have you effectively outlined a strategic plan that ensures profitability and fiscal success?

• Have you presented your plan for meeting staff productivity goals, while staying within budget parameters?

• Have you provided rational and compelling justification for the costs of equipment and services?

• Have you analyzed the alignment of your department, unit, or project with the organization’s mission and goals?

• Is your summary well-supported by at least five sources of credible evidence?

• Is your summary properly formatted and 3–5 pages in length, not including the title page and reference page?

• Have you proofread your writing to minimize errors that could distract the reader and make it more difficult to focus on the substance of your summary?