Module 8 CPW4: Report Planning Document for Simmons Medical Practice

This document represents a student's completed 'Report Planning Document' for a business writing assignment (CPW4 Module 8), focusing on a network upgrade proposal for Simmons Medical Practice by ABC ICT Pty Ltd. The document outlines the essential steps in report planning, including defining the problem and purpose, identifying the target audience and their requirements, determining the information to include (physical and logical network layouts, budget), collecting and evaluating information through questionnaires and interviews, organizing the information under preliminary headings, and preparing a logical outline. It also includes specific questions to ask the client to gather necessary details about the current network infrastructure, its performance issues, and future growth plans. The final outline covers project scope, budget, requirements, staffing, restrictions, current network performance, proposed solutions, and an implementation plan, providing a structured approach to developing a comprehensive network upgrade proposal.

REPORT PLANNING DOCUMENT
Students are required to complete this report-planning document and submit an electronic copy to
your teacher (Task 2a).
STEP 1 – Define the problem and purpose of the report
It is important to analyse the problem and define your purpose. It is useful at this stage to ask
yourself questions.
Students to complete:
What will the report investigate? Network design and implementation
What is the scope of your investigation? An upgrade of the current network hardware
components using new technologies
What are the limitations of your investigation? The network is to be upgraded no introduction
of new technologies or network extension.
What method will you use to conduct your
investigation?
Observing the current network and questioning
the users on how the network is operating.
What is the significance of this investigation? Upgrading the network and hardware
components to boost the network
STEP 2 – Define the audience
It is relatively easy to define your audience: (your client). In the workplace this process requires
further analysis and will impact on the scope and style of your report in terms of issues such as
degree of technicality required. Given the audience of your report, you will need to present a
report that is well researched, shows a depth of understanding and uses appropriate academic
style (refer to the provided style guide.
Students to complete:
Who is your audience? All the user of the network in the medical
practice.
What is their requirement? To upgrade the network so that it can be more
efficient.
How will you contact them? Through Questionnaires to ask them how the
network is functioning
How will you source this information? Using questionnaires and interviewing one by
one.
STEP 3 – Determine the information to include
It is important to establish the information or topics you need to address. Make a list of all the
potential topics or sections of the report. From these, you can draw up a preliminary outline of
headings. This step will greatly assist in collecting the information you need to write the report.
 Students to add sections below as required.
 List all topics and sections of your report.
 Write your preliminary outline of headings.
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Physical layout.
Logical layout of the network.
Network topology.
The outlay of the current network system
The budget Estimate
STEP 4 – Collect the information
After having identified the issues, you need to locate the research and information needed.
There are two main categories of information used in report writing: primary (email your client
to source necessary information, conversations, interviews with clients) and secondary
(published materials, previous reports, statistics). Make sure that your sources are reliable.
Students to complete: Please be specific with your questions in order
to gain ALL of the information needed.
What questions will you ask the client in order
to gain the information you require?
How is the current network being used?
Is there any additional information you need?
What is it?
The components name and types of the
network components that were used to create
the current network and their properties.
STEP 5 – Sort and Evaluate the Information
Once you have gathered your information, review your material. As you review, highlight key
terms and ideas that relate to the purpose of the report. This highlighted material may make up
the findings section of the report. Place these in a file and put any irrelevant material into a
background file. Don't discard any information until the report is complete: circumstances can
change and you will save time if you need to make any major changes, or the purpose of the
report changes.
Students to complete:
How will you keep your information
organised?
By arranging them in the way that we have
collected them following the topics that we
were to investigate.
How will you decide what material is
important and what is not?
By rating it if it can help us improve the
network.
Do you have any preliminary
recommendations at this stage?
No recommendation.
STEP 6 – Organise the Information
Going back to the preliminary headings you drew up, begin to sort your information under these
headings if they are still appropriate. This step is very important because you must ensure that
you have a suitable structure or outline of the report. Keep the big picture in mind:
Students to complete:
How do the ideas link together? By arranging them in chronological order.
Are there any gaps in the information? Yes some parts may have been missed to be
addressed.
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If there are gaps, how will you fill these gaps?
How will you get ALL of the information you
need?
During upgrading, some information missed
can be addressed in this region.
What headings/issues are the most important,
and what sub-headings might come under
them?
Implementation plan.
Logical layout
Physical layout
You may need to revise your headings/outline during this process and add new topics or remove
redundant or irrelevant ones. Categorise your information under the headings and then plan
sub-headings. Having done this, ensure that your sequence of heading and sub-heading is
logical and appropriate. You may complete this section in a separate document as a draft
report.
STEP 7 – Prepare the outline
There are different ways to provide a logical order of information:
 chronological sequence
 order of importance: most important to least important and vice versa
 inductive order: from the general to the specific
 deductive order: from the specific to the general
 problem solving order
The order of the information in the report is closely linked with the purpose of the report, so the
above are generic suggestions.
At this step, students can draft their outline in a separate document.
Project scope
Budget
Requirement specifications
Staffing and future growth
Network restrictions
Current network
Network performance issues
Proposed solutions
Network infrastructure
Implementation plan
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