| Course | GB601 MBA Capstone |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 7 |
| Paper type | Implementation roadmap |
| Length | About 1,030 words, 6 pages double-spaced |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Purdue University Global |
| Program | MBA |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for GB601 Unit 7
Scheduled Backward from Engagement Season: A Unit 7 Implementation Roadmap for Brightwater's Wedding Party Program
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
GB601: MBA Capstone
Unit 7 Implementation Roadmap
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
Brightwater Formalwear, its people and every figure are composite and illustrative; the frameworks and sources cited are real.
Why the Calendar Runs Backward
Brightwater's year has three seasons that matter. Many engagements happen in December, and couples begin choosing vendors in January and February. Prom fittings crowd into the spring, and the wedding months from late spring to mid-autumn carry most of the year's wedding volume. A wedding party program that launches in March misses the booking window for that year's weddings. The roadmap therefore starts from the first December and works backward to set every earlier task, then forward through the seasons that follow. A program that misses December waits a full year for its next chance at the season's weddings.
Phase One: Ready for the First Engagement Season, Months 1 to 8
Month 1 (May). The president approves the program and its budget. The store operations manager, the author of this capstone, is named program lead.
Months 2 to 4. Two wedding coordinators are recruited and hired by the end of August, one based at the largest Columbus store and one covering the outer stores. Scheduling software for wedding parties is selected and configured.
Months 3 to 6. The head tailor designs the remote measurement process: a measurement kit mailed to each out-of-town groomsman, a fifteen-minute video call with a fitter, and a rule for which measurements are double-checked. The process is tested on forty volunteers from recent weddings.
Months 4 to 7. The coordinators sign partnership agreements with twenty venues and planners, starting with those interviewed in Unit 4.
Month 7 (November). Backup inventory of common sizes is placed at the three stores closest to the most popular venues.
Month 8 (December). The program launches at three pilot stores in time for engagement season.
Before launch, the president and the program lead will visit every store to explain the program to fitters and managers, including those at the six stores not in the pilot. Kotter (1995) lists under-communicating the vision among the most common reasons change stalls, and fitters who hear about the program from customers first are likely to see it as a threat to their work rather than an extension of it.
Phase Two: Pilot to Full Program, Months 9 to 20
Months 9 to 13. The pilot runs through the first spring and early wedding season. The coordinators track every wedding party: how many members rented, how many were fitted remotely and how many needed a day-of fix.
Month 14 (June). The president weighs the pilot results against the three thresholds below before any of the other six stores join.
Months 15 to 20. If approved, the program extends to all stores, venue partnerships grow to about forty-five, and the option for grooms to buy their suit at a credit is launched before the next engagement season.
Phase Three: Scale and Handover, Months 21 to 36
The program runs at full scale through two more wedding seasons. By month 30, routine tasks such as scheduling and measurement kits move to store managers, and the coordinators focus on venue partnerships and complex parties. By month 36, the program is part of normal operations, with its measures reported in the monthly store review.
Responsibilities
President, sponsor. Approves the budget, reviews the pilot decision and resolves conflicts between the program and store priorities.
Store operations manager, program lead. Owns the schedule, budget and measures, and reports monthly to the president.
Head tailor. Owns the remote measurement process and its accuracy, and trains fitters in every store.
Wedding coordinators. Own venue partnerships and each wedding party's experience from booking to the wedding day.
Store managers. Own day-of fixes, backup inventory and fittings at their stores.
Finance manager. Tracks spending against the model and reports variances.
Each task has one accountable role. Kerzner (2017) notes that projects with shared accountability for a task tend to leave it undone, and the table assigns each task to exactly one role even where several help.
A Budget That Matches the Model
Start-up spending totals about $135,000: $120,000 for backup inventory, measurement kits and software setup, as in Unit 5, plus $15,000 for training fitters in all nine stores, which the Unit 5 model omitted. Operating costs follow the model exactly, roughly $165,000 for FY2027 and $150,000 a year from FY2028. The training addition reduces the program's net present value by about $15,000, to roughly $439,000, which Unit 9 will reconcile.
Pilot Before Scale
The pilot decision in month 14 uses three thresholds. At least 60 percent of out-of-town groomsmen in pilot wedding parties must be fitted remotely rather than ordering elsewhere. Day-of fixes must be needed for no more than 5 percent of remotely fitted suits. And pilot stores' wedding rentals must be at least 10 percent higher than in the same months of the prior year, while non-pilot stores serve as a comparison. If any threshold is missed, the program stays at three stores for another season while the cause is fixed.
Measures in Two Layers
Leading measures, reviewed monthly: remote fittings completed, share of wedding parties with every member renting from Brightwater, referrals from partner venues and day-of fixes as a share of remote fittings.
Lagging measures, reviewed quarterly: wedding rentals, share of the area's rentals, revenue against the model and cumulative cash flow against the projection.
Kaplan and Norton (1996) recommend pairing leading indicators, which predict results, with lagging indicators, which confirm them, so that managers can act before outcomes arrive. The leading measures here will show within the first season whether the program is working, while the lagging measures will take a year.
Risks to the Schedule
The tightest link in the schedule is hiring the coordinators by August, since they must sign venue partnerships before December. If hiring slips, the program lead and one experienced store manager will cover partnership work until the coordinators start, and the pilot will launch at two stores instead of three.
References
Kaplan, R. S., & Norton, D. P. (1996). Using the balanced scorecard as a strategic management system. Harvard Business Review, 74(1), 75-85.
Kerzner, H. (2017). Project management: A systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling (12th ed.). Wiley.
Kotter, J. P. (1995). Leading change: Why transformation efforts fail. Harvard Business Review, 73(2), 59-67.
Reading the GB 601 Unit 7 instructions
GB601 Unit 7 asks you to turn your selected alternative into an implementation plan. Explain what drives the schedule, such as seasons, contracts or regulatory dates, and build the timeline from it. Divide the work into phases with dated tasks. Assign each task one accountable role, and describe the responsibilities of each role. Show a budget that matches your financial model, and explain any differences. Plan a pilot with clear thresholds for expanding. Define measures in two layers, leading measures that predict results and lagging measures that confirm them. Address communication with staff and the main risks to the schedule. About eight pages with a Gantt chart or equivalent and APA 7 citations is common.
Inside the GB601 Unit 7 example
The roadmap explains why December drives the schedule, and the highlighted sentence warns that missing it costs a year. Phase one dates eight months of tasks, from hiring coordinators by August to a December launch, and Kotter on under-communication supports store visits before launch. Phase two runs the pilot to a month 14 decision. Phase three scales and hands over. A responsibility section names six roles, with Kerzner on single accountability. The budget adds $15,000 for training and notes the effect on net present value. Three pilot thresholds and two layers of measures follow, using Kaplan and Norton on leading and lagging indicators, and a schedule risk closes the plan.
Reading the GB601 Unit 7 grading rubric
Points in the GB601 roadmap depend on whether the plan could actually be run. A timeline built from the real driver of the business, here the wedding calendar, earns credit over a generic quarterly chart. Dated tasks in phases with one accountable role each demonstrate managerial clarity. A budget that matches the financial model, with differences explained, shows integration across units. A pilot with stated thresholds for expansion shows the plan can be tested before full commitment. Leading and lagging measures show the writer knows how to monitor progress. Attention to communication and schedule risk, a clear chart and APA 7 citations complete the grade.
GB601 Unit 7 help: mistakes that cost points
GB601 roadmaps often schedule tasks by fiscal quarter when the business runs on a different calendar, so the plan launches just after the season it needed. Others assign tasks to teams rather than to one accountable role, which leaves no one responsible. A common gap is a budget that does not match the financial model, with no explanation. Pilots are frequently described without thresholds, so they never end. Measures are often all lagging, which means problems show up a year late. Build the schedule from the business's real calendar, give every task one owner, reconcile the budget, set pilot thresholds, pair leading and lagging measures and plan for the tightest link. A free custom roadmap is one request away.
Get a GB601 Unit 7 example written to your instructions
Whatever alternative your capstone selected in Unit 6, send it together with the implementation brief, its grading criteria, and whatever constraints the organization faces, from budget limits to busy seasons. A custom roadmap follows within 24-48h, every task given an owner, a date and a budget line. It costs nothing the first time. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.
More GB601 papers and MBA samples
- GB601 Unit 1: Problem Statement and Scope
- GB601 Unit 2: Research Plan
- GB601 Unit 3: Industry and Market Analysis
- GB601 Unit 4: Competitive Positioning Evidence
- GB601 Unit 5: Financial Projections
- GB601 Unit 6: Strategic Alternatives Comparison
- GB601 Unit 8: Risk and Contingency Analysis
- GB601 Unit 9: Integrated Capstone Document
- GB601 Unit 10: Capstone Defense Presentation
- GB600 Unit 7: Stakeholder Response Plan
- GB590 Unit 7: Sustainability Trade-Off Paper
- GB580 Unit 7: Global Strategy Paper
- GB570 Unit 7: Integration Case Analysis
GB601 Unit 7 questions, answered
Does a GB601 roadmap need a Gantt chart?
Many sections expect one or something like it, because a chart shows sequence and overlap faster than prose. The chart is not the plan, though: owners, dependencies, resources and measures still need a table or narrative. A chart whose time scale matches the organization's own rhythm, fiscal years, seasons or school terms, reads as more credible than generic quarters.
How long should the implementation period be?
Long enough for the chosen strategy to show results and short enough to plan with real detail, which for many capstones means one to three years. Beyond that, later phases can be sketched rather than scheduled. The period should also reach the point where the Unit 1 target can be measured, or say plainly when that happens.
Where does change management fit in the roadmap?
Inside it, as tasks with owners and dates, rather than in a separate essay. Training staff, briefing partners and communicating with customers all take time and can delay launch, so they belong on the chart. Instructors tend to reward plans that anticipate who will resist or be inconvenienced and schedule something specific for them.
Where can I find a free GB601 Unit 7 sample paper?
This page carries a complete GB601 Unit 7 implementation roadmap for a composite formalwear chain's wedding party program, scheduled backward from December in three phases with owners, budget, pilot thresholds and measures.
Why does the roadmap change the budget from Unit 5?
Planning the work revealed a cost the model left out, training fitters in all nine stores. The roadmap adds it, states the effect on net present value and leaves the reconciliation for Unit 9.