Applied Assignment I – describe the primary business processes, key supporting processes, key work interdependences, and possible key deliberations. Describe them and give examples for how they might work for the organization I provided. You’ll find definition and examples of these in the supplemental information under the content area and in the applied assignment folder. You’ll find the information you need on pages 6-10 in the supplemental reading. 
All of the applied assignments are about the railroad organization. See content page for applied assignment material link.

I’m posting applied assignment 1 early so you can get used to the process. Due date remains the same which is by or before Saturday, Feb. 1, 10 pm. I will also be posting the practice exam 1 early.

A couple of people have asked me the same thing I used to ask teachers: what length should the applied assignment be? The basics are, of course, to describe what I ask for, for example, primary business processes, key supporting processes, etc. These are according to your perspective of the railroad organization and using guidelines I provided in the supplemental material. But do 
give a few examples and specifics about the nature of these items and if appropriate how you think they’d work or operate. The first applied assignment has several parts, so to answer it well it would probably take around 1 ½ to 2-3 pages. Certainly this depends on the conciseness of your writing, so use this as guidance, not something poured in concrete.

As far as formatting goes. Nothing specific required. Probably 12 or 14 point font, spacing up to you. If you’ve already submitted, don’t worry about that. Make it easy for me to see all aspects of the assignment. Some use an essay format and that’s OK, but be sure and designate in some way the major points your covering. Some use an extended outline format and that’s fine. You can provide a lot of detail in the extended outline approach.

I will set an assignment in Blackboard for each applied assignment. 
When you are ready to submit your work, in the assignment 1 tab, go to assignment submission and click on Type submission. There will be a space for you to paste your submission. My assistant and I will be reading a lot of these and when you submit it this way we don’t have to download, upload and all that, and we get it back to you more quickly, which is important to all of us.

These assignments use applications we used in actual organizational design and change projects. I hope you find the material useful in your work.