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DISC 420-Business Analytics-Zainab Riaz
DISC 420-Business Analytics-Zainab Riaz
Lahore University of Management Sciences
DISC 420 – Business Analytics
Fall Semester 2017
Instructors Zainab Riaz
Room No. SDSB‐ 4‐38
Office Hours TBA
Email zainab.riaz@lums.edu.pk
Telephone 5130
Secretary/TA Sec: Muhammad Umer Manzoor, TA: TBA
TA Office Hours TBA
Course URL (if any) suraj.lums.edu.pk/~ro/
COURSE BASICS
Credit Hours 3
Core This is a core course for MGS majors
Elective Elective for all other majors
Open for Student Category Freshmen (ACF majors only)
Close for Student Category
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Lahore University of Management Sciences
Throughout the Management Science degree, students have already been exposed to a number of statistical and analytical
techniques such as decision analysis, regression, optimization, etc. However, before these can be practically deployed as
“business analytics” or “business intelligence” (i.e. analytical tools and techniques that rely on a business’ data to solve
business problems) three things remain. These three things, described as follows, are the focus of this course:
1. Understanding the systems and their organization to support business analytics: Why use a data warehouse on top
of a regular database? What components and processes have todays organizations developed to practically deal
with capture and dissemination of business intelligence? (The top left circle in the diagram above)
2. Data mining techniques: Certain analytical techniques rely on computerized “machine learning”. There are
supervised versus unsupervised learning and classification versus association. This course will approach the subject
from a business perspective: what is the objective of the technique? What business problems can it resolve? And
mostly hands‐on application of the tools. (the overlap between information systems circle and statistics circle)
3. Integration of business analytics topics: No real‐world problem comes with a label such as “Use regression or the a
priori algorithm.” After studying data‐mining techniques, the student should now have a full menu of approaches at
their disposal. It is the intelligence of the business professional that guides them in choosing which technique to
employ. Hence, this course aims to help students practice this judgment call at a basic level in various situations
essentially using a case‐based approach.
COURSE PREREQUISITE(S)
DISC 321‐Decision Analysis (AND) DISC 322‐Optimization Methods in Management Science
COURSE LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Be aware of typical business intelligence systems components, processes and organizational architecture
2. Learn about supervised and unsupervised data‐mining at a general level (not about details of the algorithms used but
their benefits and limits, their required inputs and expected outputs and how to evaluate their performance).
3. Be familiar with the vocabulary of data mining techniques, e.g. in text‐mining what is a “corpus”.
4. Learn how to prioritize and choose between the analytical techniques across the degree.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
Upon completion of the course, students will be able to
1. Understand the typical vocabulary used across various business intelligence systems, especially with respect to
datamining.
2. Avoid confusions created by proprietary names of business intelligence systems and components (e.g. SAP Business
Objects, Teradata, Microstrategy, Zambeel, etc.) and understand their functionality regardless of organization they work
for.
3. Select between descriptive, predictive and prescriptive analytical techniques according to the business problem at hand,
or at least know who to refer to within their business intelligence organization in order to solve this problem.
4. Efficiently self‐train to apply OR guide technical staff in applying data‐mining techniques when they engage with the
business intelligence systems and organization of modern businesses to solve typical real‐world business problems.
Lahore University of Management Sciences
UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM LEARNING GOALS & OBJECTIVES
Goal 1 –Effective Written and Oral Communication
Objective: Students will demonstrate effective writing and oral communication skills
Goal 2 –Ethical Understanding and Reasoning
Objective: Students will demonstrate that they are able to identify and address ethical issues in an organizational context.
Goal 3 – Analytical Thinking and Problem Solving Skills
Objective: Students will demonstrate that they are able to identify key problems and generate viable solutions.
Goal 4 – Application of Information Technology
Objective: Students will demonstrate that they are able to use current technologies in business and management context.
Goal 5 – Teamwork in Diverse and Multicultural Environments
Objective: Students will demonstrate that they are able to work effectively in diverse environments. Goal
6 – Understanding Organizational Ecosystems
Objective: Students will demonstrate that they have an understanding of Economic, Political, Regulatory, Legal,
Technological, and Social environment of organizations.
Major Specific Learning Goals & Objectives
Goal 7 (a) – Discipline Specific Knowledge and Understanding
Objective: Students will demonstrate knowledge of key business disciplines and how they interact including application to
real world situations (Including subject knowledge).
Goal 7 (b) – Understanding the “science” behind the decision‐making process (for MGS Majors)
Objective: Students will demonstrate ability to analyze a business problem, design and apply appropriate decision‐support
tools, interpret results and make meaningful recommendations to support the decision‐maker
Indicate below how the course learning objectives specifically relate to any program learning goals and objectives.
PROGRAM LEARNING GOALS AND COURSE LEARNING OBJECTIVES COURSE ASSESSMENT ITEM
OBJECTIVES
Goal 1 –Effective Written and Oral Objective #4 Exam
Communication
Goal 2 –Ethical Understanding and
Reasoning
Goal 3 – Analytical Thinking and All objectives Lab Assignments, Exam
Problem Solving Skills
Goal 4 – Application of Information All objectives Lab Assignments, Exam, Project
Technology
Goal 5 – Teamwork in Diverse and
Multicultural Environments
Goal 6 – Understanding Organizational Objective #1 Quizzes, Exam
Ecosystems
Goal 7 (a) – Discipline Specific All objectives All items
Knowledge and Understanding
Goal 7 (b) – Understanding the Objectives #2 & #4 All items
“science” behind the decision‐making
process
Lahore University of Management Sciences
GRADING BREAKUP AND POLICY
Attendance (4 allowed) 05%
Quizzes (5) 15%
Assignments (In‐Class + Other) (8) 30% NOTE: PLEASE READ QUIZ POLICY BELOW
Mid‐Term Examination (on computer) 15%
Final Exam 15%
Project 20%
EXAMINATION DETAIL
Yes/No: …................................................................... YES
Combine/Separate: …................................................. Separate
Mid Term
Duration: …................................................................. 75 minutes (Tentatively)
(In‐Class)
Exam Specifications: …............................................... Closed Book/Open Notes; Lab‐based Exam
…................................................................................ (Will need trading lab where R Studio is
…................................................................................ installed)
Yes/No: …................................................................... YES
Combine/Separate: …................................................. Separate
Duration: …................................................................. 120 minutes (Tentatively)
Final Exam Exam Specifications: …............................................... Closed Book/Open Notes; Lab‐based Exam
…................................................................................ (Will need trading lab where R Studio is
…................................................................................ installed)
Policy on Quizzes and Attendance
Petitions in general: Petitions should be submitted along with proper documentation (e.g. a medical certificate certifying
illnesses or OSA certifying participation in OSA activity) and shall be approved on case‐by‐case basis. NOTE: OSA activities are
planned events SO PLEASE BRING THESE (or at least e‐mail a scan) BEFORE THE CLASS YOU PLAN TO MISS. Later OSA petitions
will be assumed not to be genuine.
Quizzes: To keep the number of quizzes to a minimum, we reserve the right to use un‐announced quizzes. Quizzes will mostly
be objective‐based in order to test understanding of vocabulary throughout the course or if they are tied to a case discussion,
they may be subjective in that event. An “n‐1” policy will be applied only if the number of quizzes > 5. A missed (without
petition approval) quiz will automatically be graded zero (0).
Attendance: Absents beyond 4 will be lead to 1 mark deduction per leave from overall marks. The only valid document for
compensating for a leave is OSA approved application. No other applications will be entertained. Hard copy of OSA approved
applications must be handed over to the instructor directly on the last course day. Electronic and email submissions will not be
accepted. Compensation here means, average personal grade for that instrument would be applied in case of a valid OSA
approved application submitted as a hard copy.
COURSE OVERVIEW
RECOMMENDED READINGS
Sess. # TOPICS SESSION OBJECTIVE(S)
a. Build a mental map of the course
Introduction to Business Intelligence
1. b. Contract for the course
& Business Analytics
Lahore University of Management Sciences
To get familiar with R and get required
skillset for next sessions and advanced
topics.
Material for practice will be
2. Intro to R
uploaded on LMS
Working directory, Script file, library
and packages, objects in R, vectors,
data frame, matrix etc.
3. Business Intelligence Architectures, Learning Objective #1, 3
Data Assignment
V, Ch.3
Warehousing & Big Data Learning Objective #1, 3
4.