Management Fixing NJ Transit along the Hudson

Management Fixing NJ Transit along the Hudson

The project submission consists

of three components:

 the project essay which is in the form of a 12-page memorandum,

 a 2-page executive summary in memorandum format, and

 twelve (12) presentation slides to support a presentation of your cover memorandum.

Technical Requirements for the Projects

 The submission consists of the executive summary memorandum, the primary

memorandum, and printed versions of the Powerpoint slides. The project must be

submitted as a set of files in a Microsoft Word or Powerpoint format.

 The executive summary is to be no more than 2 pages long. The primary memorandum

is to be no longer than 12 pages long. The presentation submission is to consist of no

more than 12 slides.

 No appendices or attachments are allowed, except for appendices that are included

within the 12-page limit of the primary memorandum.

 The memoranda must be in Times New Roman 12-point font, single spaced within

paragraphs and double spaced between paragraphs.

For this assignment, each memo must begin with the following heading:

TO: (Insert the title and name of the official to whom the memo is addressed.)

FROM: (Insert your 6-field code, and do not include your name)

DATE: (insert the date that the memo is submitted for grading)

SUBJECT: (Insert a 5-6 word title explaining what the memo is about.)

The primary memorandum must be no more than 12 pages long and the executive summary

memorandum must be no more than 2 pages long. Paragraphs must be single-spaced, with

paragraph separations and headings double spaced. The document should be written in a 12-

point font. All margins should be one inch.

Guidance About the Presentation Slide Format: The twelve-slide presentation can be created

using a presentation program such as Powerpoint, or can be created with any other application

that produces an image that can be projected in a presentation. For example, a conventional

word processing program could be used with the paper in landscape mode.

The purpose of your slides is to assist a brief presentation of the results of your project. You should assume a presentation that generally supports the content of the 2-page cover

memorandum. An operationalization of the assignment is: If you were reading your executive summary to a small group, how would us use twelve slides to reinforce and support your presentation?

are to complete a policy analysis. The following guidance relates to the selection of a

topic.

 The project must involve a real agency or organization in a real jurisdiction.

 The project must respond to a problem that can be related to a policy deficiency – a

policy that is incomplete, insufficient, missing, mistaken, unworkable or inappropriate.

 If the policy exists, it must be precisely identified in the primary memorandum. If it does

not exist, the student must identify how the policy would be adopted and codified.

 The topic of the project must be related to the student’s specialization. The faculty

member for the section makes this determination.

 The memorandum must be addressed to a real official, although the official involved

should not be personally named or contacted. For example, a memorandum might be

addressed to a county commissioner, city councilor or state legislator without naming

the person involved.

 The student must frame the project in a question that asked by the official involved, and

the project should produce a response to the question. The question should be included

in the introduction.

 The analysis must be based on real information or data relating to the agency or

organization in the jurisdiction involved.

 The sources of the information or data must be cited. If the information or data is

unpublished, such as information provided based on an interview or information

request, the student must make the information available to the faculty member for the

section involved.

 Students may create original information or data by gathering it. For example, the

student could conduct interviews or measure distances or rate attributes of locations, or

the student could construct estimates of information based on comparable jurisdictions.

The primary memorandum must explain how the information is developed.

 The project must be at a scale that one person with the skills of an MPA student,

working alone, could complete in several weeks. For example, the elimination of the

national debt or the reversal of global warming are projects out of scale for this

assignment. In most cases, projects, issues and programs that are encountered in a local

government in a specific agency or local organization are preferable.

 The student must understand the data and the techniques of analysis involved. For

example, comparing methods used to assess the presence of water on Mars would be

beyond the capability of most MPA students based on what the student has studied.

Guidance for Projects

Policy analysts must often define problems for, and recommend solutions to, their superiors. A

policy is a high level statement or plan that defines goals and acceptable approaches to the

achievement of goals. A policy analysis evaluates the goals or the approaches to the goals. A

policy analysis project should include the following elements:

 Introduction

o Identify the action-forcing event.

o Identify the policy question asked by the official you are working for.

 Assessment of the Problem

o Provide an historical background and timeline.

o Define the policy problem.

 Literature Review

o Complete a literature review that includes scholarly articles, professional and

best-practice reports and articles, and reports and articles about how the policy

and problem has been managed in other jurisdictions.

 Stakeholder Analysis

o Develop an environmental scan table that identifies 4-5 people who are official

decision makers, experts and advocates. These are people whose views should

be considered by your client.

o Include at least one stakeholder representing the public interest.

 Options Specification

o Identify the policy strategies and options to be assessed.

o Develop an options specification table.

 Options Analysis

o Explain the analysis to be conducted.

o Collect the information or data.

o Identify legal, ethical, operational and financial constraints that limit strategies

and options.

o Identify legal, ethical, operational or financial implications of your

recommendation.

o Present and explain the results of your analysis in an options analysis table.

o Include at least the following criteria: public interest, ethical compliance,

political feasibility, administrative feasibility, financial feasibility, equity, and

effectiveness.

 Recommendation

o Recommend, based on the analysis, a policy strategy or option.

o Identify arguments for and against the policy strategy or option advocated.

o Defend the policy strategy or option advocated.

The topic will be improving the NJ train system that runs from Orange county NY (Port Jarvis – Middletown) will increase the amount of people opting to take mass transit as opposed to driving, there for reducing conjestion coming in and out of nyc.