Different companies use different structures for their case studies, but all should follow same general pattern: 1. Company overview and challenge 2. Project details 3. Positive results (of course)

Customer Overview and Challenge Start with a 2-3 paragraph overview of customer's company. This should be very positive - since you're going to detail a problem customer was having, last thing you want to do is make them sound like jerks. So compliment them. Feel free to adapt overview from their own Website text, where they're already placing themselves in best possible light. Then move on to business challenge. Don't make customer sound stupid or incompetent. The challenge should always be centered on something good that is happening to them - fast growth, industry prominence, strategic IT changes - whatever. Their challenge should be applicable to your readers' own business issues.

Project Details No project goes perfectly, but save debriefing for longer-form trade journal article. These short case studies should report on successful project by briefly discussing specific products and benefits.

Don't go all over map. If project is fairly narrow or specific, you won't have any trouble sticking with main point. In case of large and complex installations, concentrate on main point. For example, Microsoft Great Plains has more modules than you can shake a stick at. Concentrate on ones that had most positive impact on your customer.

People are innately imaginative and creative. However, most people are simply not conscious of their imaginative and creative selves.

Creativity is cognitive process of developing a novel idea or concept.

Teresa M. Amabile, a creativity expert, argues that creativity is not a quality of a person. Rather, it is a quality of ideas, behaviors or products.

According to her, creativity has 3 basic ingredients:

1. Domain-Relevant Skills - These are skills associated with expertise in a relevant field (e.g., artistic ability, technical ability, talent, etc.).

2. Creativity-Relevant Skills - These skills include a cognitive style or method of thinking oriented towards exploring new directions, approaches that can be used to generate new ideas, and a work style conducive to developing creative ideas.

3. Task Motivation - Recent evidence suggests that a genuine interest in a task for its own sake, rather than for achieving external rewards such as money, enhances creativity.