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In Developing And Refining The Goals Of A Task Such As

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In developing and refining the goals of a task such as the capstone paper, one must ensure he or she has a clear understanding of the scope of the policy issues at hand, along with how such issues will assist or impede the progress of the capstone. For help achieving this level of understanding, Eugene Bardach, in his book A Practical Guide for Policy Analysis, outlines an eight-step process by which one can diagnose the problems with and begin making changes to existing policy. Bardach further enumerates a number of questions intended to help guide his readers down this eightfold path. By answering Bardach’s questions, I will therefore gain valuable insight into how the agency involved in my capstone project, the settlement conference …show more content…

Even the few trial judges that expressed slight misgivings about not hearing their own cases’ settlement conferences admitted that the overall monetary and time savings (if they are indeed occurring) are far better for the court as a whole. This strong level of support has additionally prevented any competitors from interfering with the scope of the settlement unit, which has enjoyed an all but unobstructed assimilation into the court’s operations. As a result of the high level of support behind the settlement unit, its task environment has also remained relatively stable as the same judges continue to work within the unit and no significant changes have seen implementation. While the overall budget of the Superior Court of Alameda does continue to face unpredictable changes, the settlement unit will not likely experience any major disruptions as a result, as this unit is saving money, not expending unnecessary resources. With the settlement unit’s mission and operating environment thusly defined, I can now make an accurate diagnosis of the problem my capstone will solve, namely, that no court employees have yet undertaken a formal analysis of the settlement conference unit. This is problematic for the court because, while the settlement unit should theoretically save time and money, the court does not know whether such theoretical savings have manifested themselves. By analyzing the

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