One way to think about the project (for framing purposes) is as follows: Imagine you are pitching

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Question:

One way to think about the project (for framing purposes) is as follows: Imagine you are pitching your project to a "client" (it could be your boss, your project mentor, or someone else), and you need to convince this person that (a) EEBDM is a useful way to consider your project and (b) that you are well-versed enough to use it effectively. You should assume, therefore, that this person is not well-versed in the terminology used in the course and would benefit from an explanation of key ideas, why they are important, and how they relate.

For example, you may be interested in designing an app that would allow users to do X for your MRP. Rather than focusing on the app itself for the assignments in this course, you could instead focus on arguing why evidence might be needed to determine whether such an app is necessary, why evidence might be needed to determine which pieces of data would be collected to ensure the app functioned properly, or why evidence might be needed to help identify conditions under which users would engage with the app. Alternatively, you might use this as an opportunity to consider why evidence would be needed to help determine whether the app was effective at meeting its stated purpose.

As a second example, you may be interested in writing about some intervention in organizations. Rather than focusing on the intervention itself, you might use your project here to argue why evidence would be needed to determine whether your organization would benefit from such an intervention, which types of employees would most likely benefit from such an intervention, or the conditions under which such an intervention may be more or less likely to be successfully implemented.

You will not be required to stick with this topic after completing this course, but we want you to start thinking through some of the issues inherent in constructing any sort of evidence-based project.

students may select topic related to any other project(s) they are planning to execute in the relatively near future (within the next year).

This assignment requires that you approach your topic through the lens of the Knowledge . This assignment is not a formal paper, but it must contain all the sections listed below with sufficient information provided in each section to allow your instructor to understand your reasoning and provide you with feedback.

What is the general topic or idea you want to explore? Why would such exploration be useful?
What is the specific decision or conclusion your exploration of this topic would enable you to make/reach? This decision should be a specific whether, which, or conditional decision, per Knowledge Horizon, and should be framed in the following way: I have an interest in X because it will allow me to decide/conclude [whether, which, when] Y
Explain your reasoning for why the whether, which, or conditional decision choice was made. (You will need to cite Knowledge Horizon and potential Smets from Week 1 in your explanation.)
Construct an initial argument map using some form of the following format for your claim: "Deciding [my decision/conclusion] will benefit from the use of evidence." You should then begin working through appropriate "because" and "but" explanations following the instructions provided in Mini-Lecture 1.4Links to an external site.. Note that you will, as you work your way through the course, be revising your argument map so it looks more like the example in the final project. (Please embed your argument map in the paper AND submit it separately as an image file.)
Why would evidence be important for making such a decision? (Note, you are essentially providing a brief, written version of your argument map here.)
What information (i.e., evidence) will you need to make this decision with any confidence? (Note, this will be revised later after we cover the different sources and types of evidence in Week 5. Right now, we simply want you to put some initial thoughts down)

Reflect on your personal frame of reference as a decision maker. How might your personal frame of reference (e.g., strong opinions, experience, values, degree of competence/expertise, decision-making tendencies) influence the way you gather, evaluate, or draw conclusions from the evidence (both positively and negatively)?