BUSM130 Module outline 2018-19 Page 1 of 5 Group Project in Business Analytics (BUSM131) 2019-20 Module Outline (9/4/2020 version) Semester 3 www.busman.qmul.ac.uk BUSM130 Module outline 2018-19 Page 2 of 5 Module Organiser Name: Dr. Yossi Lichtenstein Email:
[email protected] Module Mentors Name: Dr. Tomasz Popiel Email:
[email protected] Name: Dr. Chris Sutton Email:
[email protected] Additional mentors will be announced Module Description This is the capstone module for the MSc in Business Analytics. Students will work in teams to analyse data related to a business problem provided by an industry partner. Each team will be assigned a mentor from the School of Mathematics who will guide it through the process of structuring the analytical problem, obtaining and organising the data, data analysis and presentation of results. The industry partner will guide the team with the business aspects of the data. Students will present results as a group to an audience consisting of mentors and industry partners. Final assessment of the module is based on individual essays which cover specific aspects of the project and reflect on the students work, in the light of the methods and theories which their learning in the MSc has touched upon. Organisation of the Module Each team will be assigned a mentor from the School of Mathematics, an industry partner and a project. During April 2020 the team and mentor will meet the industry partner’s contact person and discuss the business problem, data and the partner’s expectations. During June the team and mentor will meet the contact person to discuss initial work and initial results in order to get feedback. The team will provide the industry partner a project report by 14th August 2020. The team and mentor will meet the contact person during August to present the results and receive final feedback from the industry partner. BUSM130 Module outline 2018-19 Page 3 of 5 During the project work, the mentor will meet the team every other week, and at least five times. During these meetings the team and mentor will conceptualize the industry partner’s problem description as a business analytics project, review relevant business and technical literature, design analysis work and agree upon specific tools, analyse results and draw conclusions. Aims The aim of the module is to give students an opportunity to practice the entire process of undertaking business analysis as a team. This will require that they apply the entire range of skills which the MSc course covers, including self-management, leadership and communication skills. Work in obtaining and analysing the data will allow students to demonstrate their ability to apply the technical skills covered in the course. Work in presenting and communicating the results of their analysis will allow students to gain experience in conveying results to a non-specialist and possibly critical audience. Finally the individual essay will give each student the opportunity to deepen their understanding of a specific aspect of their work in the group further. Learning Outcomes • Knowledge and understanding of frameworks for data analysis in business contexts • Knowledge and understanding of the main intellectual frameworks in use in the fields of management and strategy and of key methodological issues involved in empirical research and data analysis in business contexts • Knowledge and understanding of team work, team organisation and communication with non-team members Feedback You will be given feedback throughout the module by the mentor and the industry partner. The mentor will provide you with written feedback in the form of comments on your essay. The purpose of this feedback is to explain the mark that the mentor has given, to explain how your work met or fell short of the standards we expect. BUSM130 Module outline 2018-19 Page 4 of 5 Assessment Type Weighting Details Submission Date Team joint report 40% Essay of 2,000 words and related slide presentation 24th August 2020 Team presentation -- Fifteen minutes presentation to the industrial partner To be coordinated with the industrial partner Individual report 60% Essay of 4,000 words 24th August 2020 Additional information/breakdown regarding assessment details: The relation between the different essays is dependent on the project. It will be discussed and agreed upon during the project work. • One possibility is for the joint essay to summarize the full project, while each of the individual essays describe in detail one part of the project, such as Literature Review, Methodology, Results. • Another possibility is for the individual essays to cover all the project parts, but from somewhat different perspectives; for example, using different analysis tools. The joint essay will summarize the individual essays. • Other structures are also acceptable, depending on the project and the discussions with the mentor. Assignments of teams, projects and individual cases Teams: FOUR students per team. Preferably, each team will include one student with good programming experience, preferably from his/her undergraduate degree. Students should form teams during April 2020. The team will assign one member as its contact person who will email the module organizer with the names of the other three team members. The team’s contact person will be responsible for the coordination with their mentor. Projects: industry partners and their projects will be published during April 2020. At the time of publishing this syllabus, E&Y, Celonis, Sabre Insurance, Mimecast, Fintech Sandpit, Petro-China have been contacted for projects. Assignment of projects will be done by the module organizer and mentors, based on students preferences if possible, given the limited range of partners and projects. BUSM130 Module outline 2018-19 Page 5 of 5 Please include general instructions /Criteria for coursework and exams (models essays/ exams and answers where possible Reports should include detailed explanation of the business problem, the business and technological context of the industry partner, review of academic and trade literature relevant to the project, theoretical framing of the project if applicable and then hypotheses development, data collection methods and data description, analytical tools used and those that were also considered, results, discussion of the insights, reflection on the project and the interaction with the industry partner. The individual report must include the Peer Assessment Form filled-in and signed individually. The word count for the essay are 2,00 and 4,000 words. This does not include reference lists and bibliographies. The stated word count may be exceeded by a maximum of 10%. Lecture and Seminar Programme Summer Semester Meeting 1: Initiation During April Initiation of the projects, with the students and mentors Meeting 2: Reflection During August Short presentations of the projects and reflection Additional meetings, workshops or presentations may be requested by the industrial partner. Key Text and Reading List: The full reading list of the various course modules is assumed to be available to the students and used as required by each of the projects.
