Assignments<\/p>\n
Assignment 1<\/strong><\/p>\n In the first assignment you need to write a project brief of about 1000 words, assuming it is for a<\/p>\n senior manager of an organisation you choose from the list below:<\/p>\n Choose one out of the four organisations below:<\/p>\n 1) Goodlife Health Clubs,<\/p>\n 2) United Nations,<\/p>\n 3) Stan, or<\/p>\n 4) World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)<\/p>\n Assume that the chosen organisation has contracted you to develop a dashboard for them.<\/p>\n Provide a project brief to the organisation including the following points where each point is<\/p>\n worth 15% of the mark (6*15=90% in total; remaining 10% see marking criteria below):<\/p>\n 1) What are the benefits that a dashboard can bring in general (be as specific as you can to<\/p>\n that organisation\u2019s business needs)<\/p>\n 2) Initial thoughts on which data should be included (including internal and external data)<\/p>\n 3) Potential challenges in implementing the dashboard (eg: data quality, data availability)<\/p>\n 4) Suggested audience for the dashboard (eg: management, all staff, partners and<\/p>\n suppliers)<\/p>\n 5) Planned method for implementing, including who needs to be involved<\/p>\n 6) Sample dashboard from another organisation<\/p>\n Assignment 2<\/strong><\/p>\n This is a group assignment to be done in pairs. <\/em><\/p>\n (External students may do the assignment individually)<\/em><\/p>\n The second assignment consists of two activities and relates to the organisation you have chosen<\/p>\n for Assignment 1. If your partner had a different organisation in Assignment 1 then this is fine:<\/p>\n 1) Practical activity (40% of mark): submission of a working dashboard. Create the design of a<\/p>\n dashboard using one of the tools shown in the practicals (Microsoft PowerBI or Tableau). You<\/p>\n should submit the dashboard by saving the dashboard as a file (*.pbix or *.twbx) and submit that<\/p>\n file with your report (see below). Also include a screenshot in the report. Further you need to<\/p>\n add a description of what it contains and how someone can interact with it. Make sure that you<\/p>\n use at least one of the new types of visualisations (not just charts). Note that you should focus<\/p>\n on externally available data and the data can be different to what you have mentioned in<\/p>\n Assignment 1.<\/p>\n 2) Written activity (50% of mark): explain the approach taken in deciding what to put into the<\/p>\n dashboard to demonstrate your understanding of the business\u2019s need and how often the data<\/p>\n will need to be changed (there will always be more data available).<\/p>\n Outline the challenges in developing the dashboard. Provide advice on (a) how the organisation<\/p>\n would benefit from more BIA and (b) specific recommendations on what the organisation could<\/p>\n do to make implementation easier (eg: data quality, governance of classifications, etc) \u2013 refer to<\/p>\n BIA lifecycle. For the written component, create a report in a similar format to the first<\/p>\n assignment addressing the points above.<\/p>\n Page 3<\/strong> of 10<\/strong><\/p>\n References should be included in particular for the BI life cycle part.<\/p>\n Scope<\/p>\n You can choose to cover all areas of the organisation or focus on particular field of operation<\/p>\n (eg: marketing, HR, manufacturing, environment sustainability, public reputation). If you are doing a<\/p>\n degree in that area, you might find that useful.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n For example: Apple Inc<\/em><\/p>\n One of Apple\u2019s strengths is being able to manufacturing and deliver to millions of customers<\/p>\n globally. A threat to that may be worker injury, equipment breaking down or unreliable<\/p>\n distribution. Which groups\/users in Apple would want data to deal with those issues \u2013 what data<\/p>\n would they need? In what form?<\/p>\n A company that needs to do a better job of recruiting the right staff \u2013 the dashboard then would<\/p>\n be for HR managers.<\/p>\n Marking criteria<\/p>\n The assignments will be marked on how well you cover each of the requirements mentioned above<\/p>\n as well as the following points worth 10% of the mark:<\/p>\n \uf0b7 Referencing<\/p>\n o Correct referencing<\/p>\n o Referencing quality<\/p>\n o Reference recency<\/p>\n \uf0b7 Layout<\/p>\n \uf0b7 Academic\/Business Language<\/p>\n \uf0b7 Grammar and Spelling<\/p>\n See below for more details.<\/p>\n Aim of the assignments<\/p>\n Together the two assignments will give you practice at developing a real-world business proposal.<\/p>\n As well as meeting academic requirements you could consider yourself as a consultant to that<\/p>\n organisation \u2013 if your proposal is adopted they would be paying you to do the work. Assume that the<\/p>\n reader knows little about BI.<\/p>\n However the assignments are not just a sales pitch \u2013 you have to demonstrate that you know what<\/p>\n you are talking about, back up your arguments with evidence, communicate new concepts and<\/p>\n demonstrate to the reader that you have understood their business requirements enough to<\/p>\n recommend specific BI in the form of a dashboard.<\/p>\n Make use of the course material and especially the BI Lifecycle to develop the parts of the<\/p>\n assignment \u2013 this is business problem-solving and understanding someone\u2019s requirements \u2013 a skill<\/p>\n you will use as a professional. Like all skills can take practice!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n How the assignments fits with the lectures<\/p>\n \uf0b7 Organisations need to be better at finding opportunities and dealing with threats to do<\/p>\n better due to increased competition (Lecture 1).<\/p>\n Page 4<\/strong> of 10<\/strong><\/p>\n \uf0b7 BI can help in dealing with the problems (threats) and opportunities or \u2013 put another way \u2013 BI<\/p>\n can assist with the organisation\u2019s normal planning and performance management processes<\/p>\n (Lecture 2).<\/p>\n \uf0b7 Which is a specific opportunity and threat (or what business priorities\/risks) is the<\/p>\n organisation facing related to the Scope you choose? There are some generic examples in<\/p>\n Lecture 4, but for your assignment you need to work that out for yourself. Based on what<\/p>\n you choose to focus on, there will be specific users and data you need to focus on<\/p>\n (Lecture 4).<\/p>\n \uf0b7 Then you need to build the dashboard \u2013 Lecture 5 also makes some suggestions about how<\/p>\n to deliver BI and what approach you will use (how to implement it). Remember that the<\/p>\n focus of the assignment is BI, so you don\u2019t need to spend lots of time looking for threats and<\/p>\n opportunities\/business priorities \u2013 just one.<\/p>\n \uf0b7 Lectures on how to better manage data in the organisation to support BI (Information<\/p>\n Management for BI and Analytics \u2013 Lectures 9 and 10 and Lecture 11 on Data Warehousing)<\/p>\n as well as challenges to be considered (e.g., data quality) are relevant to recommendations<\/p>\n you will make in Assignment 2.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Presentation\/structure<\/p>\n The structure should address the points listed in the assignment outline (at beginning of this guide).<\/p>\n As a minimum include a title page and section headings. The title page is separate to the assignment<\/p>\n cover page.<\/p>\n Sample templates for the two assignments are available on the course website. You don\u2019t have to<\/p>\n use these. You can also use some parts of these templates (eg: the sample templates include Table<\/p>\n of Contents and Executive Summary, you can leave these out if you want).<\/p>\n Since this is proposal for a business audience, it should be presented in a professional format,<\/p>\n however the effort should be on what the assignment.<\/p>\n Using bullet points are OK for some sections but you\u2019ll need sentences for each point (ie. just a bullet<\/p>\n point list with no explanation won\u2019t work)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Page 5<\/strong> of 10<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Word limit<\/p>\n Assignment 1: 1000 words +\/- 10%.<\/p>\n Assignment 2: 2000 words +\/- 10%<\/p>\n One mark will be deducted if the assignment is too short or too long for each 10% too short or too<\/p>\n long. Keeping to a word limit requires a focus on what the reader most needs to know.<\/p>\n These are included in the word count:<\/p>\n \uf0b7 The \u2018body\u2019 of the assignment:<\/p>\n \uf0b7 Headings<\/p>\n \uf0b7 Direct quotes<\/p>\n \uf0b7 Summary\/Executive Summary (if you chose to include one)<\/p>\n \uf0b7 Diagram headings and captions<\/p>\n \uf0b7 Footnotes<\/p>\n <\/p>\n These are excluded:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \uf0b7 Title page<\/p>\n \uf0b7 Table of contents<\/p>\n \uf0b7 References<\/p>\n Referencing\/Backing up your statements<\/p>\n Referencing is important for both assignments to: (a) expand your knowledge of the assignment<\/p>\n topic and (b) provide evidence to the claims you make and (c) demonstrate you know what you are<\/p>\n talking about to make a convincing proposal.<\/p>\n UniSA has a number of resources here: www.unisa.edu.au\/referencing<\/p>\n The general rule is if you are using information or data that is not of your own creation then you<\/p>\n need to acknowledge it. Not only is this for academic integrity but to add weight to your<\/p>\n recommendations \u2013 to show they are just not opinions.<\/p>\n This includes the screenshots, data you use and points taken from the lectures.<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n How many references?<\/strong><\/p>\n That depends on how many points you are making. Generally more is better because you have used<\/p>\n more sources to understand the topic and reinforce your points.<\/p>\n A minimum of 3 references is required, not including the lecture material and where you source<\/p>\n sample dashboard and data from. Just adding as many references as possible without using them in<\/p>\n the assignment won\u2019t earn maximum marks.<\/p>\n If you plagiarise (ie. copy from references and don\u2019t include it in quotes or include a reference) you<\/p>\n will be penalised \u2013 we have failed students for doing this!<\/p>\n Page 6<\/strong> of 10<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n We want your understanding on the topic, not copied words from experts \u2013 this only demonstrates<\/p>\n that you can research well, not apply your learning.<\/p>\n Reference quality<\/strong><\/p>\n The type (quality) of references makes a difference and this is considered in the marks as well. Feel<\/p>\n free to use the readers and links from the lectures and Course Outline.<\/p>\n Avoid marketing\/vendor sites and general websites \u2013 the quality is not assured, ie. anyone can get a<\/p>\n website up regardless of their expertise and marketing material from software companies is usually<\/p>\n biased. The exception would be news sites when you want to report an event.<\/p>\n Finding references by Googling them is a poor approach \u2013 try the library catalogue instead.<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n Reference recency<\/strong><\/p>\n Since BI is a fast moving area use references from the last 5 years*. Consider if you were the CEO<\/p>\n receiving the proposal \u2013 in a fast changing business environment would you trust a report that is<\/p>\n using data from 6 years ago?<\/p>\n However in some cases \u2013 especially for data for Assignment 2 \u2013 you not be able to find recent data<\/p>\n then explain that.<\/p>\n * eg: agile methodology, self serve BI, big data, spatial data, more user-friendly\/accessible<\/p>\n predictive analytics, BI being initiated and funded by business not IT and cloud infrastructure<\/p>\n that are new to mainstream BI in the last 5 years. These are significantly changing the<\/p>\n approach to making BI available<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n Referencing style<\/strong><\/p>\n Please use the Harvard style of referencing in-text citations. Refer to section on \u2018Harvard Rules\u2019 and<\/p>\n \u2018Harvard Guide\u2019 here www.unisa.edu.au\/referencing<\/p>\n The references for data used can be included in the references section.<\/p>\n References must be in English.<\/p>\n References must be available when the assignment is being marked.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Assignment 1 \u2013 Benefits of a dashboard<\/p>\n \uf0b7 Be as specific as you can to that organisation\u2019s business needs.<\/p>\n \uf0b7 Outline what information needs relating to a business priority would the dashboard answer.<\/p>\n \uf0b7 Making general statements about the benefits for a dashboard will not be useful \u2013 the test is<\/p>\n <\/p>\n whether what you write applies only to your organisation and not to a number of other<\/p>\n organisations: if it is not specific enough then it won\u2019t get as many marks.<\/p>\n Page 7<\/strong> of 10<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Assignment 1 \u2013 Sample dashboard from the Web<\/p>\n \uf0b7 Make it as relevant as possible to the scope of the dashboard \u2013 the reader wants to get a sense<\/p>\n of what you would build for them \u2013 eg: if you are focussing on HR, it\u2019s no good providing a<\/p>\n dashboard about manufacturing.<\/p>\n \uf0b7 Include a paragraph describing the sample dashboard.<\/p>\n \uf0b7 Samples can be found on the web and in sample downloads (eg: Microsoft Power BI, Tableau,<\/p>\n IBM Cognos Mobile iPad app available from iTunes).<\/p>\n \uf0b7 It doesn\u2019t have to be an actual organisation.<\/p>\n \uf0b7 Make sure to reference where you obtained the sample from.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Data to be used<\/p>\n Initial thoughts on what data should be included (including internal and external data) \u2013 should be<\/p>\n relevant to the questions the dashboard is going to answer (related to the opportunity or threat the<\/p>\n organisation is facing).<\/p>\n You don\u2019t have to find real data for Assignment 1 but it is beneficial and makes your proposal more<\/p>\n convincing if you do some research on potential data sources and provide suggestions on which<\/p>\n available data could be used.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Finding Data<\/p>\n Finding data about the industry of your organisation is not a requirement but it is a useful skill to<\/p>\n develop and as a professional you will have to do it often in your career. It is rarely easy to find good<\/p>\n quality and reliable data, however it is getting easier! But done well, you can bring new insight and<\/p>\n value to an organisation if you can obtain information, especially if it is not already available to from<\/p>\n internal systems (eg: like benchmarking info).<\/p>\n Importantly think about the questions you want to answer with your dashboard because this will<\/p>\n focus your search (too much data is also a problem!). Publicly listed companies (those that have<\/p>\n shares and are on a stock exchange) will often have an investor page. Many organisations have to<\/p>\n report to government bodies like regulators (ASIC, ombudsmen, etc). Look for annual reports and<\/p>\n the Australian Bureau of Statistics (or US and European equivalents) are useful. Federations,<\/p>\n associations and industry bodies (like the Australian Bankers Association if you were studying a<\/p>\n bank) are another source. Often the data will be confidential and you can\u2019t obtain it \u2013 so consider<\/p>\n using data related to that industry\/sector.<\/p>\n Examples<\/p>\n \uf0b7 Qantas\u2019 performance is impacted by tourism, exchange rate, fuel prices, visa conditions,<\/p>\n other airlines and terrorism.<\/p>\n \uf0b7 A physiotherapy practice you would look for health related data and aging population. Aging<\/p>\n population is a hot topic especially in South Australia.<\/p>\n \uf0b7 Demographic information on which age groups use mobile phones.<\/p>\n The importance is the relevance to the question and the reliability of the data to answer the<\/p>\n question \u2013 not the volume!<\/p>\n Focus on external data made available by public accessible web portals (see links below).<\/p>\n Page 8<\/strong> of 10<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Do research on data that is related to the industry.<\/p>\n It is likely that you will not find data that is directly related to your organisation. Therefore think<\/p>\n about the industry and in a wider scope think about how can data that is publicly available be useful<\/p>\n for the organisation.<\/p>\n Do not use any data that is confidential or commercially sensitive you may access to.<\/p>\n Do not pay for any data.<\/p>\n Do not contact the organisation and ask for data.<\/p>\n Allow enough time to find and prepare the data \u2013 do not leave to the last minute.<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n Sample data sources: <\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \uf0b7 Gartner\u2019s analysis by industry (see Using Gartner Resources tip sheet)<\/p>\n \uf0b7 IBIS World (via the UniSA Library)<\/p>\n \uf0b7 Census and Statistics Department HK<\/p>\n \uf0b7 HK Government http:\/\/data.gov.hk\/<\/p>\n \uf0b7 Open Data HK https:\/\/opendatahk.com\/<\/p>\n \uf0b7 Economic Report & Business Statistics http:\/\/www.gov.hk\/en\/business\/market\/economic\/<\/p>\n \uf0b7 Economic & Financial Data for HK http:\/\/www.hkma.gov.hk\/eng\/market-data-and-<\/p>\n statistics\/economic-and-financial-data-for-hong-kong.shtml<\/p>\n \uf0b7 http:\/\/lemire.me\/blog\/archives\/2012\/03\/27\/publicly-available-large-data-sets-for-database-<\/p>\n research\/<\/p>\n \uf0b7 http:\/\/bitly.com\/bundles\/hmason\/1<\/p>\n \uf0b7 http:\/\/www.kdnuggets.com\/datasets\/index.html<\/p>\n \uf0b7 http:\/\/aws.amazon.com\/datasets\/<\/p>\n \uf0b7 Tableau resources: http:\/\/public.tableau.com\/s\/resources<\/p>\n Assignment submissions<\/p>\n \uf0b7 Electronically as MS Word or PDF document.<\/p>\n \uf0b7 Don\u2019t include your report in a zip archive because Turnitin won\u2019t work then.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Assignment 2 Mock-up Dashboard<\/p>\n \uf0b7 You need to submit a sample example in PowerBI or Tableau by submitting a packaged Tableau<\/p>\n file (*.twbx) or PowerBI (*.pbix) file.<\/p>\n \uf0b7 A screenshot of the dashboard must be included in the report.<\/p>\n \uf0b7 To demonstrate the value of combining data your dashboard needs to use at least more than<\/p>\n one data source.<\/p>\n \uf0b7 There are many online resources available that help you in learning to use both tools.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Page 9<\/strong> of 10<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Other<\/p>\n \uf0b7 Do not write in the first person (\u201cI\u201d)<\/p>\n \uf0b7 Use formal language \u2013 this is a report intended for the CEO\/Head of your organisation.<\/p>\n \uf0b7 Feel free to use diagrams, tables, quotes to explain your ideas.<\/p>\n Page 10<\/strong> of 10<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Assignments Assignment 1 In the first assignment you need to write a project brief of about 1000 words, assuming it is for a senior manager of an organisation you choose from the list below: Choose one out of the four Read More …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78397\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}