GM591 · Management

GM591 Strategic Project Selection and Initiation sample papers, unit by unit

Reviewed by Chester Goodwin, MBA Strategic Project Selection and Initiation Purdue University Global Free custom samples in 24–48h

The decision that matters most is made before any plan exists. GM591 sample papers compare projects against each other under a real capacity limit, and treat stopping one as a result rather than a failure.

How this shelf works

Send the exact assignment or rubric from your classroom and a custom sample written to it lands in 24 to 48 hours, the first one free. GM591 is Purdue Global’s Strategic Project Selection and Initiation course. It centers on choosing which projects an organization should fund, authorizing them properly, and stopping the ones that stop making sense. Searches like "gm 591 unit 4 assignment example", "GM591 sample paper", and "GM591 unit samples" land on this page.

What GM591 is really about

Selection is comparison, and comparison needs more candidates than capacity. Organizations rarely have one idea; they have eleven, each with a sponsor who believes in it, and the graded work is a defensible ordering rather than an endorsement. Financial screens are precise about a narrow question: payback, net present value and internal rate of return each say something exact about money and nothing at all about strategic position, regulatory obligation or the unglamorous work that keeps a plant licensed. Scoring models cover that ground and are soft in return, because whoever sets the weights sets the answer. Strong submissions run both, state what each screen cannot see, and say which one they would defend to a sponsor whose project came second.

Initiation is authorization, not planning. A charter names a sponsor with money and the standing to cancel, states the business problem, fixes the measure of success and gives a manager permission to spend somebody else's people; it does not contain a task list, and papers filling it with dates have written the wrong document. The harder half of the course is stopping. Gates exist so that work can end early without anyone being disgraced, which only functions when the conditions for stopping were written down while everybody was still optimistic. Money already spent is the standing argument against that, and assessments frequently put a sunk investment in front of you to see whether the recommendation survives it.

What GM591’s assessments ask for

Opening units generally ask about a project that should have been stopped and was not, drawn from somewhere you worked. Screening assignments follow in most sections, usually supplying several candidate projects and asking for a ranking with the method exposed. Financial exercises appear alongside, with payback or discounted figures computed and then argued rather than left sitting on the page. A business case is a common mid-term deliverable, and the benefits inside it are expected to carry an owner and a date. Charters feature in many sections, graded on authorization rather than detail. Portfolio work against staffing capacity arrives late in many terms, along with a gate recommendation carrying stopping conditions, while seminar work tends to test whether anybody has seen a project canceled cleanly.

Where students lose points in GM591

The single largest loss is the scorecard built after the conclusion, where weights arrive in whatever configuration makes the writer's preferred project win, and the giveaway is a criterion nobody would have chosen in advance. Second is a business case whose figures have no source; a benefit worth two hundred thousand a year has to be traceable to something countable. Third is a charter written as a plan, complete with tasks and a schedule. Marks also go where only one option gets examined, which is not a selection at all, where strategic alignment is asserted in a sentence and never tested, where no stopping conditions exist, and where a sunk cost quietly decides the recommendation while the paper claims otherwise.

GM591 grading scale at Purdue Global: how the work is graded, from Purdue Assignments
How Purdue Global grades GM591, visualized by Purdue Assignments.

The GM591 drawers

Unit 1

GM591 Unit 1 discussion board post example

Unit 1 opens on a project everyone knew should have stopped. On request, free, 24-48h.

See the example →
Unit 2

GM591 Unit 2 project screening matrix example

Unit 2 puts several candidates through one set of filters. On request, free, 24-48h.

See the example →
Unit 3

GM591 Unit 3 financial screening exercise example

Unit 3 computes payback and discounted figures, then argues from them. On request, free, 24-48h.

See the example →
Unit 4

GM591 Unit 4 weighted scoring model example

Unit 4 sets the weights before anybody scores a candidate. On request, free, 24-48h.

See the example →
Unit 5

GM591 Unit 5 business case example

Unit 5 traces every claimed benefit back to something countable. On request, free, 24-48h.

See the example →
Unit 6

GM591 Unit 6 seminar reflection example

Unit 6 seminar work asks who has watched a clean cancellation. On request, free, 24-48h.

See the example →
Unit 7

GM591 Unit 7 project charter example

Unit 7 authorizes work without smuggling a schedule inside it. On request, free, 24-48h.

See the example →
Unit 8

GM591 Unit 8 gate review memo example

Unit 8 writes the conditions under which this project ends. On request, free, 24-48h.

See the example →
Unit 9

GM591 Unit 9 portfolio capacity review example

Unit 9 checks the approved list against the people available. On request, free, 24-48h.

See the example →
Unit 10

GM591 Unit 10 selection recommendation example

Unit 10 ranks the candidates and defends the order to a sponsor. On request, free, 24-48h.

See the example →
Different?

Your classroom shows something else?

Purdue University Global revises courses; unit counts and deliverables shift between terms. Send what your classroom shows and the desk matches it exactly.

Send it over →

Using a GM591 sample the right way

Read a selection sample backwards from its recommendation. Ask whether the criteria and weights would have produced the same answer if the candidates had been shuffled, because a model that only works pointing one direction is not a model. Then check where each figure in the business case came from, and whether the benefits have somebody's name against them. Look for the conditions under which the writer would stop the project, since a paper with none has not finished. Then rank the candidates your own unit supplied. Composite by construction, every example here is rebuilt around the brief you upload, and you are not billed for the first, which takes 24-48h.

How these samples are written

The discipline behind every paper here: the rubric is the outline, each row gets its section, seminar-option write-ups follow their expected shape, and the format layer ships exact. Send your unit's instructions with a request and the sample matches them, revisions included.

GM591 questions, answered

Which screening method should I use?

Both kinds, and say what each one misses. Financial measures answer a narrow money question exactly and ignore obligation, risk appetite and position against competitors. Weighted scoring covers those and is only as honest as its weights, which is why the weights need setting before any candidate is scored. A paper running one method and stopping has answered half the question.

What belongs in a charter and what does not?

In: the business problem, the sponsor and their authority, the measure of done, deliverables at a high level, the manager's mandate over resources, and the assumptions everybody is accepting. Out: the breakdown, durations and a schedule. A charter authorizes work and the plan comes afterward, and mixing them costs marks in the opening units.

How do I write about canceling a project without sounding negative?

Frame it as capacity returned. An organization unable to stop work has no way to start anything new, so a clean cancellation releases people for the next candidate waiting. Writing the stopping conditions at approval, while nobody is defensive yet, is what makes that possible, and rubrics tend to reward it explicitly.