Business Statistics

Assignment:

Write a 10 page report journaling a exploration of a data-driven topic relevant to a personal business interest.

Requirements:

Double-Spaced

10-12 point font, Times New Roman

1” margins

References Cited Using APA

Must include graphs, charts, tables and other reporting instruments (not   included in the page count)

Outline:

1. Introduction – Introduce the topic you are interested in exploring.  Discuss the questions you have on the topic, and possible questions you may hope to find answers for.  Is there a current point of reference on the topic you are interested in? Is it in the news, or is it a lifestyle topic that matters to you?  Is there a broader business implication in the topic you are going to explore and tell us about? (Less than 1 Page).

 

2. Summary of the Resources that influence your Data Driven Perspective – Go into more detail about the topic and the questions you would like to explore.  Also detail the source of your data set and the specifications of the data set.  How many instances, or lines, of information do you have to analyze.  How is the data structured?  Talk about the categories of data and the figures, whether financial, measures of quantity, and so forth.  Describe the industry standard for measures and if the measures you are using makes sense.  Did you have to clean the data or pare the data down so you could use a part of it? Did you select a cross section of data sample points, or did you select a longitudinal segment of the data (chronological data points).  You may select several data sets and analyze them collectively and compare them, or you may stick to just one larger data set and go deeper into the insights you derive. (2-3 Pages).

 

3. Manipulation of the Data – Describe what sort of manipulations you performed to the data to gain insights from the data set.  Discuss the types of charts you created, how you presentated the data in graphical form, and why you chose certain types of reporting visuals, tables, and methods.  If you perform statistical analysis, and you should do some, describe the items you selected for cross-tabulation, correlation, single and multi-factor analysis, and other types of statistical analysis.  This is the section where you detail the types of reporting tools you use, the software you use to run reports, and why you think it is important to report data in a certain format, graphic or table.  (2-3 Pages)

 

4. Summary of Insights Derived from the Data – So here is where you talk about what you discovered.  Talk about the graphs, charts, tables and other reporting instruments you created from the data, and what you gain for insights from the data set and subsequent manipulation.  Tie the insights back to the initial problem and what you discovered in the analysis. So, if your initial question was, “What type of imports are most significant to the United States in the current economic climate?”  The an insight might be the table showing each major trade partner, their relative amount of trade by import category, and the comparison between the top three partners in the top five trade classes, and the relative trade-offs. (One can imagine each trade partner may have a top trade category and several lower ones, or maybe not).  But from a trade implication, it would matter depending on trade relationships, which partner we would want to increase or decrease trade from, and so if you had year over year data, you could argue that these decisions affect trade volumes, as we saw in the example form class. However, the purpose is that the insights either prove or disprove your initial questions.  In fact, they may give to other questions, and that is alright. However, here you explain what you discovered from the data.  (2-3 Pages)
5. Conclusion – Here you need to go back and summarize the work you did and the line of thought from beginning to end.  You begin with a brief description of the initial question or line of curiosity, then you discuss the data you found, and to which extent it fit the problem, whether your problem formulation changed and how based on the data available. Then describe how you consolidated the data into usable form, including tables, charts, graphics and so forth. Describe what you learned from the data, and finally describe what implications this analysis has for practical business use.(Less than 1 Page)

Data Sources:

1. http://data.gov
2. http://www.census.gov/data.html
3. https://www.healthdata.gov/
4. http://www.gapminder.org/data/

Due Date:

06/28 @12 pm Central Time