Post an application of strategic planning concepts to professional and academic contexts. Your application should include answers to the following:

• What concepts did you find that changed the way you developed your Background of the Problem?
• What connections did you discover that helped to familiarize the reader with the topic?
• How did your Background of the Problem statement incorporate any key learning outcomes for the course?
• How will this course content help you avoid Checklist Creep (refer to page 14 in the DBA Traditional Doctoral Study Capstone Research Handbook) and refine your Background of the Problem?

This is an example from a student:

DBA Capstone Background of the Problem Preparation

Writing a practical DBA capstone “Background of the Problem” section helps readers understand the business problem addressed in the study from the beginning. Several concepts helped me develop my Background of the Problem section, including learning scholarly writing. Walden University’s Writing Center provides multiple resources to help students enhance their scholarly writing skills (Walden University, n.d.-d). Other Walden resources that have been helpful include the Office of Research and Doctoral Services (Walden University, n.d.-a), the Doctoral Capstone Resources (Walden University, n.d.-b), and the Doctoral Capstone Form and Style (Walden University, n.d.-c) websites. Additionally, the Walden Residency program facilitated connections with other students in the DBA program of study.

Attending the Walden University residencies allowed me to meet other DBA students and learn about their program completion strategies. Through creating new connections with other DBA students, I learned about tools such as Grammarly, Zotero, and PERRLA and benefited from the peer mentorship interactions (Rohan & Fullerton, 2018). These tools helped me optimize research tasks allowing more time to concentrate on the content of the literature reviews. Moreover, streamlining my study activities permitted me to integrate key learning outcomes in developing my problem statement and the Background of the Problem section.

The outcomes of this course enhanced my ability to develop a problem statement and Background of the problem. Evaluating the foundational strategic planning approaches that support innovation and competitive advantages and assessing innovative and competitive business strategies that impact social change helped me formulate a concise problem statement. Additionally, evaluating the characteristics of effective strategic planning thinking, structures, processes, and leadership in business and synthesizing the use of business models for strategic planning, innovation, and competitive advantage were helpful in framing the potential business process areas of focus for my doctoral study. Furthermore, the new insights gained from the course content will help me avoid checklist creep.

I will better be able to avoid checklist creep thanks to the information I learned in this course. For example, completing the various course discussions and assignments taught me to focus on specific business processes and the checklist creep avoidance tactic discussed in the Walden DBA Doctoral Research Study Handbook (Walden University, n.d.-b). Overall, the activities of this course will help me complete the Background of the Problem and Problem Statement sections of my doctoral study.