Case Study Template

Copy this structure into docs/case-studies/case-study-slug.md and replace the bracketed placeholders.

Required: declare the type

Every case study must begin with an admonition stating whether it is Real (with a citable source) or Illustrative (synthetic, written for teaching). Never present a synthetic scenario as a report on a real project.

# Case Study — [Title]

!!! warning "Illustrative case"
    This is a **synthetic teaching scenario**, written for this course. It does not report on
    any specific real project, organisation, or person, and it contains no real statistics or
    quotations.

    <!-- For a REAL case, replace the block above with:
    !!! info "Real case"
        Based on [source title, publisher, year]. All figures are taken from the cited source.
    -->

!!! info "At a glance"
    - **Related modules:** [NN, NN]
    - **Type:** [Real | Illustrative]
    - **Estimated time:** [NN minutes]

## Situation

[The background: who, what, when, and the constraints. Give enough detail that the reader can
reason about trade-offs, but not so much that the answer is obvious.]

## What is known at the start

- [Fact]
- [Fact]
- [Fact]

## Sequence of events

**[Time marker].** [What happened and why it mattered.]

**[Time marker].** [Continue. Include at least one decision that went well and one that did
not.]

**[Time marker].** [Continue.]

## Discussion questions

1. [A question that requires diagnosis — "what was missing and why did it matter?"]
2. [A question that requires analysis — "identify three…"]
3. [A question that requires judgement — "was this a failure?"]
4. [A question that requires a decision — "what would you change?"]

??? note "Model answers"
    These are reasoning guides, not the only correct answers. Credit is for sound reasoning
    grounded in the facts given.

    1. [Answer]
    2. [Answer]
    3. [Answer — for judgement questions, present both sides before a position]
    4. [Answer]

## Take-aways

- [Lesson grounded in the case]
- [Lesson]
- [Lesson]

## Related material

- [Link to the relevant module]
- [Link to a related lab or template]

Authoring rules

• Declare Real or Illustrative at the top, always. This is a hard requirement.
• Real cases need a source. Quote no figure that is not in the cited source.
• Hide the model answers so readers reason first.
• Give judgement questions two sides. Teaching readers to present both before a position is part of the value.
• Keep the scenario consistent with the facts you state — no late revelations that contradict the setup.
• Add the case to mkdocs.yml nav and to the table in docs/case-studies/index.md.