DPMI Plus

Deliverables and Requirements

Students in DPMI+ undertake professional assignments where they apply tools, frameworks and concepts introduced during the three-week DPMI certificate program to real world settings. Typically, placements, which last three to seven months, are in organizations that promote sustainable development, humanitarian assistance, or some related social change objective.

Program participants develop a set of negotiated deliverables which are reviewed and approved. The student’s deliverables proposal becomes a learning contract and is the basis for grading decisions.

Students also also required to create a case study that examines one or more DPMI-related issues relevant to the organization in which they are carrying out their professional activities. These issues may include project design; project monitoring; training; stakeholder participation; strategic partnering; social entrepreneurship; or innovation.

Students typically prepare six to ten deliverables during DPMI+ along with an organizational case study that examines how the organization behaves in relation to one or more content areas included in the DPMI curriculum.

Each deliverable includes a one- or two-page introductory, explanatory narrative that provides contextual information and a rationale for whatever decisions are implicitly embedded in the work product.

Illustratively, deliverables might include six or more of the following items: an annotated problem tree with supporting data; an annotated Results Framework with measurable indicators; an exit strategy for a complex development initiative; an outreach strategy that is designed to build an enabling environment for a set of development objectives; a scale-up and sustainability plan for a development initiative; a comprehensive intervention design that is consistent with a Results Framework; design of a training module for participatory development; a detailed plan with activities for engaging stakeholders in the change process; design of a participatory needs assessment; an organizational core competency map with background narrative; a strategic partnership plan; a community or organizational asset map with detailed narrative; a plan for the introduction of collaborative technologies to a development organization.

DPMI+ satisfies the MPA Capstone requirement.

DPMI students should keep in mind that they will be receiving 6 units worth of credits for their work products. We expect that the entire set of deliverables including the case study will be fully consistent in terms of level of effort and quality with what an on-campus student would be submitting to earn 6 units of course credit.