BTMA-444 Assignment 2: Lessons 1–4
This assignment consists of three parts, covers the material from Lessons 1 through 4, and is worth 15% of your final grade. You should submit this assignment after completing Lesson 4.
Academic Integrity
For all parts of this assignment, your work must be entirely in your own words. Where you quote or paraphrase any source, including the textbook, include appropriate citations in APA format that correspond to one APA-compliant reference list at the end of your assignment.
Your Choice, Your Responsibility
Each part of this assignment has several options for you to choose from. You should choose options that will demonstrate your understanding of concepts from different topics from the course. For example, if you choose a short essay that is mostly relevant to Lesson 1, make sure your applied task is most relevant to Lessons 2, 3, or 4.
In Part A: Short Answer, you will choose one question to answer from each lesson (in total, four answers from eight options). Each answer should be approximately one to two paragraphs in length and should draw primarily from the textbook.
In Part B: Short Essay, you will choose one essay prompt to respond to from two options. Your essay should be approximately 500 words in length and should draw from at least one academic source other than the textbook.
In Part C: Applied Task, choose one case analysis or applied problem to complete from two options. Your response to the applied task should be approximately 1000–1500 words in length and should draw from at least two academic sources other than the textbook.
What to Submit
Compile all parts of this assignment into one MS Word (or compatible) file. Include any figures, spreadsheets, or additional data either within the text or as appendices.
Part A: Short Answer
Choose four questions to respond to—one from each lesson. You should select questions to showcase your understanding of concepts across the full scope of the course; the questions you don’t submit for this assignment will help you prepare for the final exam.
Each answer should
· be approximately one to two paragraphs in length,
· draw primarily from the textbook,
· incorporate appropriate citations in APA format, and
· include the full question text to facilitate marking.
Lesson 1: Choose one question from the two options below
1. What is business intelligence and why it is important in the digital age? What are the major components and key challenges?
2. What are the three levels or categories of analytics? Give an example of each level and explain the various tools that are employed in each level.
Lesson 2: Choose one question from the two options below
1. Explain why statistics is very important in business analytics. Provide two examples of statistical methods and explain their importance in supporting business intelligence.
2. What is the role of information visualization in business intelligence and analytics? What is the difference between information visualization and visual analytics?
Lesson 3: Choose one question from the two options below
1. What is data warehousing? Identify and describe the major components of a data warehouse.
2. Compare the Kimball and Inmon approaches toward data warehouse development. Identify when each one is most effective.
Lesson 4: Choose one question from the two options below
1. What is data mining? Describe the three main data mining processes and explain the fundamental differences between them.
2. Why do we need a standardized data mining process? What are the most commonly used data mining processes?
Part B: Short Essay
Respond to one essay prompt from the four options below. This essay is an opportunity for you to showcase your ability to critically engage with the course concepts by taking and defending a position on a topic while taking multiple perspectives into consideration.
Your essay should
· be approximately 500 words in length,
· draw from at least one academic source other than the textbook, and
· include appropriate citations in APA format.
Short Essay Prompt 1
Select an industry (e.g., health care, manufacturing, etc.) and investigate the ways in which analytics, business intelligence, or data science is being used to support strategic goals. Provide a summary of your findings. Include examples from individual organizations but ensure that your summary reflects the level and types of adoption across the industry.
Short Essay Prompt 2
Commentators debate whether or not data warehousing is on its way out as cloud computing, Big Data, data lakes, and other innovations gain momentum. Investigate both sides of this debate and provide a summary of the two positions. Identify which position is more compelling to you and explain why.
Part C: Applied Task
Choose one case analysis or applied problem to complete from the two options below. The applied task is an opportunity for you to apply the course concepts in a real-world context.
Your response should
· be approximately 1000–1500 words in length,
· draw from at least two academic sources other than the textbook, and
· include appropriate citations in APA format.
Applied Task Option 1
Download the file City of London Water: Predicting Electricity Prices and Optimizing Operations from the Assignment 2 submission page.
Based on this case study and drawing on at least two additional sources (other than the textbook), answer the following questions:
1. What are the key challenges and issues that the City of London is facing with their water management?
2. Identify statistical tools that could be used to help the manager understand the issues.
3. Which prediction models would you suggest management use to address the issues?
Applied Task Option 2
If you choose to complete this applied task option, you will explore the relationships between movie-related parameters in Tableau, using a data set available on the textbook’s website.
First, go to the textbook’s website and download the Online Files for the 4th edition.
Open the zipped folder, select Chapter 2 Files, MFG – Movies, and save the Excel file titled Visualization_MFG_Sample.
Then, download Tableau Desktop (free for students at https://www.tableau.com/academic/students#form).
Familiarize yourself with this program by exploring the Getting Started resources and free training videos on the Tableau website.
To load the Excel file into Tableau:
a) Connect > To a File > Microsoft Excel > select Visualization_MFG_Sample
b) Drag Movie Data from the Sheets menu into the Drag Sheets Here area, then select Use Data Interpreter
c) Click on Sheet 1 (you can rename this) and start exploring the data.
Finally, use Tableau to explore the following questions:
1. What is the relationship between gross box office revenue and other movie-related parameters given in the data set?
2. How does this relationship vary across different years?
Present your findings in a professional-looking report that includes screenshots of your visualizations.
Assignment Checklist
Submit this assignment as one Word file (or compatible)—include any images or tables within the text or as appendices. It is your responsibility to ensure that your assignment is complete.
· Part A: four short answers, approximately one to two paragraphs each
· Part B: one short essay, approximately 500 words
· Part C: one case analysis or applied problem, approximately 1000–1500 words
· Reference list in APA format
· Appendices, if applicable
Marking Guidelines
Presentation and Mechanics – 10 marks
The assignment
should leave a positive overall impression and
·
be free of spelling,
typographical, grammatical, and punctuation errors.
·
communicate in a clear manner
with good sentence, paragraph, and section structure.
·
appear polished and
professional looking.
·
stay within the word limits
for each part.
·
include, where appropriate,
properly labeled and formatted tables, figures, or appendices.
Part A: Short Answer – 20 marks (5 marks each)
Each
response should
·
answer the question clearly,
completely, correctly, and concisely.
·
include thorough
details and relevant data.
·
include
relevant citations in APA format.
Part B: Short Essay – 20 marks
The essay
should
·
be well structured (introduction, body, conclusion), with one
main argument and supporting details.
·
be focused and clear with
little redundancy.
·
create an effective argument with convincing supporting
evidence and relevant details.
·
include relevant citations in APA format.
Part C: Applied Task – 45 marks
The applied
task should
·
be complete and
reflect all specific task requirements.
·
include relevant citations in
APA format.
References – 5 marks
The
references used throughout the three parts of the assignment should reflect the use of varied,
high-quality sources for reference materials as directed in each part. In
addition,
·
in-text citations
should be correctly formatted according to APA style.
·
the reference list
should be correctly formatted according to APA style.
·
all in-text citations should
be reflected in the reference list, and vice-versa.
