The Literature Review will contain a summary of leading thoughts on how this project should be approached. If we use the client farm example from Part 1 you would need to find what the literature says about the development, presentation and maintenance of budgets. You should be getting the literature to help you answer such questions as 'what sort of budget should I prepare?' 'how should the budget be presented to be meaningful for the client' and 'how can I set up the budget so that it is easy for the client to maintain it?' It is expected that you use more than the textbook and other texts in this research. Professional journals like In the Black and the Harvard Business Review may be good sources of information. Include a reference list at the conclusion of your literature review using APA style.

The second part of this section of the report is the Methodology, i.e. how have you decided to develop your strategic information based in part on the information that you have gathered in the literature review. What data will you collect and which people will you talk to in order to gather the information. If we go back to the farm example the data that will be collected will be from the monthly accounts, information about auction sale dates, discussion with the partners about optimum times to sell stock. There may also be the preparation of an initial draft budget that is discussed with the partners and then revised with feedback. There may also be discussions as to how to maintain the budget after the completion of the project.
Rationale

This assignment is designed to demonstrate your ability to:

• use strategic management principles and technologies in making and assessing business decisions for profit and not for profit organisations;

• generate, evaluate and use quantitative and qualitative information to measure financial and non financial performance of an organisation;

• generate, evaluate and use information for planning and controlling operations within an organisation;

• develop and evaluate computer spreadsheet models.

In particularly this part of the assignment will demonstrate your ability to conduct research to support your professional activities, an important skill for the professional accountant