Data & Decisions DMIB1 Individual Assignment Two

Instructions & Answer Sheets

Instructions Overall
The answer for each section may not exceed the page on which the section heading occurs. An automatic four-point deduction will
occur for any section that exceeds one page.
Aim to provide a professional business document. Write a document that is well-laid out, as we have practised on assignment one.
If your work looks easy to read it is more likely your manager or client will read it. Divide your text into sections and use headings
wherever relevant. Give titles to figures and lists.
Instructions for Part One: Analysing and Visualizing Data (10 points)
Step 1: Open the spreadsheet Food & Beverage Orders for December 2021 under ‘Modules’. Inside the spreadsheet, insert a pivot
table on a separate worksheet. Use the pivot table to examine total sales revenue for the month by salesperson. Create a bar chart
to show the relationship between these two variables. Sort the bars on the chart so they appear in order: highest to lowest revenue
for the month. Format the chart to your personal, unique style and colour. (Note: You do not need to upload this spreadsheet with
your assignment, because you will copy the chart onto your answer sheet as per instructions in Step 2)
Step 2: With December 2021 just finished, your manager wants some insights about the sales results achieved. Firstly, identify the
best salesperson. On your answer sheet, write an appropriate heading/headline for this question. Underneath the heading,
comment on the best salesperson and copy/paste the bar chart you just made (described in Step 1) to support your statement.
Step 3: Next, identify two further insights of your choosing about sales in December 2021. Report those insights, repeating the
format used with respect to the best salesperson: 1) heading, 2) comment, 3) supporting data. You can choose what supporting
data to use for each insight, whether you choose a visual such as a chart, or a table, or a simple summary of statistics. This is your
analysis, so do your own work.
Instructions for Part Two: What Should the Committee do? (20 points)
Read the briefing document for ‘What Should the Committee do?’. Identify what is the core business issue in precise and clear
terms. Ask yourself what type of analysis you would need to perform to address that issue (recall the talk by Ahmed El Nawawi –
your analysis can only have impact if you address the issue for decision or action). Now, open the accompanying Excel sheet as
per the briefing. You will need to run at least one technique from inferential statistics to provide valuable insight to the Committee.
The final step is to write up your management report for the Committee using the Management Report Template that we practised
in assignment one (you will find it replicated on the answer sheet). This should be where you spend 90% of your time. Follow the
exact same guidelines and approach. Remember you should make recommendations that address the core issue, are based on the
data you analysed, and recommend a clear action or decision. Once again, do not exceed one page. Recall again that the whole
paper should follow a clear line of argument, from one section to the next. You must upload your spreadsheet together with your
report.
Instructions for Part Three: Data Analysis in Business and Society (10 points)
The models we examined on the course (e.g., 5-levels of decision making) and the assigned readings for the course provide
valuable material on many themes relevant to the role of data-based decision making, subjective data vs objective data, and
data analysis in business and society. For example, such themes include: Your personal experience is not objective data;
Most of our decisions are biased, even when we think we are being objective; The plural of anecdotes is not data; Data
analysis is not a decision: It is a route to a decision; The dangers of misused and miscommunicated data etc. You may use
one of these themes as your heading, or you may create your own heading on a similar theme from the course based on your
personal insights from the course reading. In either case, your writing must be supported by one or more of the articles
assigned as course reading.
Start with a journalistic heading that indicates the theme. Write a short article of the kind that might be published in a
business blog or as a LinkedIn article. Your article should be between 300 and 500 words. Add your references at the end of
the article in APA 7. (Note that the way these articles are listed by me on MyCourses is the correct format).
Instructions for Part Four: Demonstrating Learning (10 points)
Throughout the course you were asked to record – and then recall – your own personal insights based on the material and the
exercises. In part four, list your five most important insights. Write them as we practised in class: each insight is one clear, simple
overall statement of a learning written in your own words. Each insight can come from any part of the course. Ideally you would
cover a wide range of material. This is your opportunity to showcase the quality and the range of what you were able to take away.
 Part One: Analysing and Visualizing Data (10 points)

Highest sales per person

Statement –
Nancy Freehafer had the highest sales with a sum of
revenue of 17137.58.

Revenue per city

Statement –

New York had the highest sales revenue with sum

of revenue of 12368.9

Revenue per product

Statement –
Coffee is the best-
selling product with
the highest revenue
of 12190
 Assisting decision committee board on which approach to utilize for data and decision course

Objective

The objective of the study is to provide intelligence and insights to the assessment committee using the help of data analysis which
would help them influence their decision making.

Background

 The assessment committee needs to decide on how the data and decision course should be designed and how to ensure that
the understanding of the course is had been developed within students.
 Two approaches were highlighted in order to design the course, approach one where the course should focus 75 % on
manipulating data and 25 % on interpreting data. Approach two where the course should focus 25 % on manipulating data
and 75% on interpreting data.
 Data was collected of a class of 35 MIB students, where the students were provided a survey pre course and post course
based on approach 2 to understand how affective the approach is.

Methodology

 A quantitative survey was conducted and data of 35 MIB students was collected using a 7 point Likert survey and a
sliding scale from 0 to 100.
 The survey had a 100% response rate where a pre and post survey was conducted, the data collected was analyse using
inferential statistic methodology and paired two sample for means t test to determine pre and post effect on students.
 Survey questions – For understanding - 7 point Likert scale where 1= No Understanding at all, 7= Expert understanding
 For experience - 7 point Likert scale where 1= No Experience at all, 7= Extremely experienced
 For agreement - 7 point Likert scale where 1=Strongly disagree , 7= Strongly agree
 For anxiety – Sliding scale from 0 to 100.

Findings

 There is a significant decrease in the anxiety post course ( Mean pre course= 58.71 , Mean post course =19.55, p value=
0)
 There is a significant increase in understanding post course ( Mean pre course= 3.68, Mean post course = 5.6 , p value
=0)
 There is a significant increase in the experience level towards the course ( Mean pre course = 3.6 , Mean post course =
4.91, p value = 0)

 Most no of students agree that their understanding of difference between qualitative and quantative research data has
increased ( Mode = 6 , S.D = 0.45)

Recommendations

 The board should use approach 2 and rely on data to reach to decisions as that would lead to more accurate decisions.

 The board should implement the course considering that it has improved capabilities of students in understanding of the
course and implementing it.
 The course should be implemented by the board in the first year of students because it will assist in relying and using of
data and decisions in other courses as well.
 Instead of having final exams the board could implement regular assignments to hone the skills of the students of this
course.
Muhammad Mussa
Data Analyst
Feb,2020
Part Three: Data Analysis in Business and Society (10 points)
(Your article should be 300-500 words long, followed by one or more references from the reading list in APA7 format)

The dilemma between Qualitative and Quantitative Decision Making.

In this day and age, the scope and importance of data analytics have skyrocketed. Almost every medium to large firm
around the globe is implementing data analytics within their organizations one way or another. With the immensity
of data that is presented to us, it has become a lot easier for companies to drive insights based on different
quantitative variables. Data analysis also allows the companies to build their decisions on highly important fact-based
information that is crucial in decision making and remove a lot of biases. The quantitative analysis allows us to
understand the immense data with simplified tables and charts and give us a synthesized analysis on a lot of different
variables.
With this approach, there are a lot of different groups who now confuse data-based decisions to be the final one even
though the data analysis is a path to decision making and not the decision itself. Each industry today wants to have
their decision-making routed through data analysis and for that, they are making use of different data variables that
aid them in this process. Most of the leaders are now turning towards data analytics to solve their problems but they
are hardly getting towards an adequate solution. The reason behind this is mainly related to focusing on the what
part and not giving enough importance to the why.

In most cases, we have seen that the applications of Big data analytics are being used everywhere and that has
resulted in a lot of processes being simplified. However, when it comes to identifying the reasons for behaviour, this
is where the data analytics doesn't have enough insights. Because of this, researchers suggest that we should take a
qualitative approach to identify the why element in the behaviours that consumers show. This can be done through
either observations, focus groups, or one on one interviews. These focus groups and interviews allow the researcher
to probe further behind the reasoning of one specific action that an individual has done. Combining big data analytics
with small-scale qualitative research would allow the companies to understand the decision-making in an even better
manner.
With this approach, companies around the globe would have better insights into the thinking of the consumers and
what are the key drivers behind their purchase of a specific product. It also helps them to understand what key data
variables are important for their future usage and what needs to be discarded as that may not be resulting in a
behaviour change. For example, a product that is not gender-specific doesn't need to have gender analysis as other
variables like age and income might be more important. However, the emphasis should not be done alone on the
qualitative aspect and both of them should be given enough importance. The perfect combination of these two
variables would allow the companies to build better products, make better campaigns, and provide better offerings to
the consumers.

References

1. Shapiro, J. (2018). Help Your Team Understand What Data Is and Isn’t Good For. Harvard Business Review.
2. Tufekci, Z. (2019). Big data and small decisions. Scientific American, 320(3), 73-73.
 Part Four: Demonstrating Learning (10 points)
List your five most important insights.

 I have learnt the importance of data and utilizing data in decision making and how easily we have
biases beforehand that influence decision making whereas we should not have an biases beforehand
and let the data guide us into the decision.

 Relying on past experiences in decision making can also lead to wrong decision being made it is very
important to be objective and use systematic data to influence our decision making.

 The difference between Qualitative – more of descriptive, relating to words kind of data and
Quantative – countable measurable data. How these both are utilized in different manners to reach to
a comprehensive decision and extract intelligence from raw data.

 How we can utilize descriptive statistics to describe a group of data and collect insights from there
which could lead to potential valuable intelligence which can contribute in decision making.

 Collecting data in the right manner is as important as analysing data hence sampling and utilization of
surveys should be in a manner where maximum amount of data is collected in a precise and cohesive
manner. The structure of surveys should be made in a way where it is easily understandable to the
person filling up and should be precise and accurate so that confusions do not arise and accurate
quantative data is collected.

 Utilizing the 5 levels of decision making is very important to reaching an accurate decision, level 3 to
5 should be employed in decision making where objectivity is there and biases are not influenced in
the whole decision making process. Testing your hypothesis and collecting data according to it the
best way to reach a decision as you are making sure that your decision are backed by factual and
objective data.