Report on Two Software Programs with Business Application

Recommendation Report In this report, you are going to find two software programs with business applications and compare them according to four well-defined criteria. You will then recommend one program over another on the basis of your comparison. Your report will be written to me – assume I’m your boss, we work together in a small company, and I’ve asked you to find the best program for our purposes. The choice of programs is up to you, but you must choose two programs that do roughly the same thing. Don’t choose a tax program and a spreadsheet, for example.

You then need to think of the criteria you are going to use to make the comparison. Your choice of criteria is very important. This forms the basis for your comparison; if you don’t choose concrete, specific, and relevant criteria that allow you to make a detailed comparison of the two programs, your comparison is not going to be informative or meaningful. Also, one of the criteria you choose must be the cost of the program. This will, obviously, be a very simple point of comparison. Your recommendation report will have three sections: The Introduction will give a short introduction to the two programs you’ve chosen to discuss – tell us the name of the software, who manufactures it, etc. You are also going to inform me as to the criteria you choose to use to make the comparison, and why you choose those criteria. – The Findings section will compare the two programs according to cost and the three other criteria you’ve chosen. The format you choose for this section is up to you, but the comparison should be easy to process visually. This will be the longest section of your report. The Recommendation In this section you will describe why one of the programs you have discussed in the Findings section is better than the other one. You need to make clear reference to what you’ve discovered in the Findings section in order to fully justify your recommendation. | Unsatisfactory| Needs Work| Satisfactory| Exemplary| Mark| Introduction| – Introduction absent, or one component absent or completely inadequate. | – Outline of programs too general. – Introduction of four criteria lacks specifics, no justification. -Clear and concise outline of two programs-Clear, concise introduction of four criteria. | – Clear, concise and detailed outline of two programs-Clear, concise and detailed introduction of four criteria. | /10| Findings| -Many details absent or vague. -Criteria make meaningful comparison impossible. -Document is a mess. | -Details are clearly absent or vague. -Criteria are flawed in some way which renders the comparison somewhat ineffective. -Organization detracts from ease of visual processing, parallel form mistakes. – Programs compared with a reasonable amount of detail. – Criteria relatively well-chosen. – Organization does not interfere with visual processing, parallel form used. | – Programs compared fully according to cost and three other criteria. -Criteria are well-chosen and work to fully illuminate the two programs. -Organization allows for ease of visual processing, parallel form used. | /25| Recommenda-tion| – Reasons not clear or detailed, section too short. | – Gives general, somewhat vague reasons why one program was chosen and the other was not. – Gives clear and detailed reasons why one program was chosen and the other was not. | – Gives specific, clear and detailed reasons why one program was chosen and the other was not. | /10| Grammar and Style| – Errors, major and minor, pervasive. – Subheadings not used. | – Two or three major errors. – More than five minor errors. – Subheadings used. | -One or two major errors. – Three to five minor errors. – Subheadings used. | – No major errors. – One or two minor errors. – Subheadings used. | /15|