Narrowed from a broad interest to one researchable problem about hybrid schedules and early-career quits, this Unit 9 problem statement draft from GB700 shows the gap and the stakes together. Searches like "gb 700 unit 9 assignment example", "gb700 unit 9 sample" and "gb700 unit 9 example" land here.
What a finished GB700 Unit 9 problem statement draft looks like
Five pages under headings many DBA templates use. The general business problem comes first in two sentences, with citations: professional services firms lose many early-career professionals within a few years, and hybrid policies are being set without evidence about that group. The specific business problem narrows to US engineering consultancies with hybrid policies, supported by industry data and the candidate's firm, where [31] percent of engineers hired in one year had resigned within three. A literature paragraph states what is known and names the gap from the Unit 5 matrix. A consequences paragraph explains who bears the cost. The population, a preliminary research question and a feasibility check follow: data access through three firms, de-identified records, and the candidate's conflict of interest at the home firm. A short list of rejected framings closes.
How a GB700 Unit 9 example is structured
Two tests shape every paragraph, and the draft is honest that the first version failed one of them. The candidate's original interest, whether hybrid work reduces turnover, turned out to be partly answered in print for some settings, so it failed the unsettled test. Narrowing to early-career engineers and adding the mentoring mechanism moved the question into the empty cell the synthesis matrix identified. The consequential test is met with evidence rather than assertion: replacement costs, project delays and the loss of engineers just as they become billable, each tied to a source or to the candidate's firm, with company figures bracketed. Its gap sentence names the evidence that would show it wrong. Researchability is argued in the open, including the conflict of interest: records from the candidate's own firm would be de-identified and extracted by someone outside the reporting line.
General, then specific
The general problem concerns professional services firms broadly; the specific problem concerns US engineering consultancies with hybrid policies and their engineers in the first three years. Each level carries its own citations, and the step between them is explained rather than assumed.
The first version, and why it failed
Does hybrid work reduce turnover? A randomized trial and a meta-analysis already speak to that for some settings. The draft says so openly and shows how narrowing the population and naming a mechanism produced a question the literature has not answered.
Consequence with sources
Early-career departures cost recruiting, training and project continuity, and they come just as engineers begin to earn their keep. The draft cites industry evidence for the pattern and brackets the candidate's firm figures, since they are illustrative here.
A question, not yet a method
The preliminary research question asks how in-person days relate to recorded resignations among early-career engineers and whether mentoring received accounts for any relationship. Design choices are deliberately left for later courses, and the draft says which ones remain open.
Can the data be reached?
Three firms, the candidate's own and two peers, have expressed willingness in principle to share de-identified records. The draft treats this as a feasibility claim still to be confirmed and states how the conflict of interest at the home firm would be handled.
Where marks go in GB700 Unit 9
Problem statements that name an area, hybrid work or employee retention, rather than something wrong that research could address are returned most often in this unit. Claiming that nobody has studied the subject invites a committee member to produce three studies that have. Consequence asserted without support, or shown through statistics from another industry applied without comment, weakens the practical side of the case. Instructors also look for alignment between the general and specific problem; a specific problem that is not a narrower instance of the general one breaks the argument's logic. Research questions that already assume the answer, how does hybrid work reduce turnover, are corrected quickly. Feasibility left unaddressed, especially where the candidate proposes studying an employer, draws questions about access and conflict of interest.
Get a GB700 Unit 9 example written to your instructions
Tell the desk the area you are drawn to, whatever draft of a problem statement exists so far, plus the Unit 9 template and prompt. A custom draft returns in 24-48h that narrows the area into a problem open in the literature and costly in practice, with its gap tied to evidence. A first draft costs the student nothing.
GB700 Unit 9 questions, answered
What makes a GB700 problem statement researchable?
Three things, roughly: the question is not already answered in the literature for the setting in question, the data needed to answer it could realistically be obtained, and the scope fits a doctoral project. Access is the test candidates most often underestimate, so a draft that names where the data would come from, and what could block it, reads as far stronger.
Is it acceptable for the problem to change later?
Yes, and at this stage it usually does. The Unit 9 draft is a working version; later courses typically sharpen or redirect it. What matters now is that the draft shows the reasoning, the evidence of a gap and a practical stake, so any later change is a revision rather than a restart.
Can a DBA problem come from the candidate's own workplace?
Often it does, since applied doctoral work aims at problems practitioners face. The draft should still show the problem exists beyond one organization, using published evidence, and should address access and conflict of interest openly. Studying one's own employees raises questions about pressure and confidentiality that committees expect to see answered before data collection is proposed.