DB-FPX8640 is the course where the DBA stops being coursework and starts being your doctoral project. Building on the gap-in-practice work from DB-FPX8610 and the change-leadership themes from DB-FPX8630, you create an individualized project topic within organizational leadership using Capella's capstone template, then write the initial portion of your project proposal. The signature assignment, topic approval, is a hard gate: you don't move forward without it. This guide explains the assessments and where academic support for DB-FPX8640 fits.
Course Overview
Seminar: Leadership Topic Development has you create an individualized project topic within the organizational leadership specialization using the capstone template. You write the initial portion of your project proposal. Including your problem of practice, topic background, project justification and theoretical framework, and a preliminary project plan. And identify how you'll disseminate your research, including through presentations within your industry and professional communities of practice. Prerequisites are DB-FPX8630, RSCH-FPX7860, RSCH-FPX7864, and RSCH-FPX7868, so the human-subjects and research-methods groundwork must already be in place.
Key Assessments
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1Problem of Practice and Topic Background
You define your problem of practice, the real organizational leadership issue your project addresses, and provide background establishing why it matters.
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2Project Justification and Theoretical Framework
You justify the project's scholarly and practical significance and identify the theoretical or conceptual framework that will ground your analysis.
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3Preliminary Project Plan
An initial plan outlining your intended approach, data sources, and timeline, not yet the full methodology, but enough to demonstrate feasibility.
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4Topic Approval (Signature Assignment)
The compiled, reviewer-approved topic package. Successful completion of this signature assignment is required to pass the course and proceed to DB-FPX8650.
How We Help With DB-FPX8640
- Narrowing a genuine organizational leadership problem of practice to a scope that's feasible for a DBA-level applied project
- Selecting a theoretical framework that's defensible and directly tied to the problem (not just popular in the literature)
- Writing a preliminary project plan with realistic, specific data sources and a credible timeline
- Preparing the full topic-approval package to meet committee/reviewer expectations on the first pass
- APA 7 formatting and Capella capstone-template compliance throughout
Common Challenges in This Course
The single biggest risk in this course is scope: a problem of practice that's too broad gets sent back for revision, costing you real time given the signature-assignment gate. The theoretical framework selection is the second common stumbling block. Students sometimes pick a framework because it's popular rather than because it actually fits the problem; reviewers notice the mismatch quickly. Build in buffer time for at least one round of topic-approval feedback.
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Related Courses
DB-FPX8640 FAQ
You revise and resubmit based on reviewer feedback. It's common not to pass on the first try, so build in time rather than treating it as a single-shot deadline.
Not yet. Full IRB approval comes later in DB-FPX9802. This course requires only that you've completed human-subjects research certification (RSCH-FPX7860/7864/7868).
Significant changes become harder (and slower) the further you progress, since later courses build directly on the approved topic. It's worth getting this stage right.
Capella's standardized doctoral project template. A required structure your proposal sections must follow exactly, including section headings and formatting.
DB-FPX8650 (Seminar: Leadership Literature Review), where you build the full literature review supporting the topic approved here.