Business Analytics – MIS171 / MISP171 Assignment 2 Trimester 2 2020 DUE DATE AND TIME: Due by 8:00 pm AEST Friday 28 August 2020 PERCENTAGE OF FINAL GRADE: 20% of the final grade Learning Outcome Details ULO1: Apply quantitative reasoning skills to analyse business problems. ULO2: Create data-driven/fact-based solutions to complex business scenarios. ULO3: Implement contemporary data analysis tools to analyse business performance. ULO4: Interpret findings and effectively communicate solutions to business scenarios. Assessment Feedback: Students who submit their work by the due date will receive their marks and feedback on Moodle on or before Friday 11 September 2020. Your assignment feedback will be returned in a rubric via Moodle with an overall mark together with comments. In order to understand the areas where improvement is required, students are expected to refer, and compare, their answers to the suggested solutions and discuss further improvements with the teachers. General Description / Requirements The assignment requires that you analyse a data set, interpret, and draw conclusions from your analysis, and then convey your conclusions in a written report. The assignment must be completed individually. The assignment must be submitted by the due date electronically in Moodle using the assignment submission link (Turnitin). When submitting electronically, you must check that you have submitted the work correctly by following the instructions provided in Moodle. Please note that we will NOT accept any hard copies or assignments submitted via email. The assignment uses the Microsoft Excel file ‘Assignment 2 T2 2020’ which can be downloaded from Moodle. The assignment must be completed individually. The assignment focuses on materials presented up to and including Week 6. Scenario ReadyToShop Limited ReadyToShop Limited: Background ReadyToShop Ltd is one of Australia's leading supermarket chains. Originating from a family-based chain of general stores, ReadyToShop now has supermarkets all over Australia. Each state capital has a company office. The company planning and direction take place in the company Head Office in Melbourne. A principal role of the Research and Development department in the Melbourne office is to provide statistical advice on matters affecting the company. You (Adam Brown) are one of the leading analysts in the department. You have received an email from the Director of Analytics (Kayden Li), that contains specific questions that you must answer. Email from the Director of Analytics To: Adam Brown From: Director of Analytics, Kayden Li Subject: Analysis of the provided data set Dear Adam, At the resent board meeting, the directors have decided to initiate certain business analysis on a survey conducted three months ago. As one of the leading analysts, can you do the following analysis and provide a report? 1. Revenue is the most important measure that the ReadyToShop is interested in. Provide with an overall estimate of the average revenue for all the stores in all the locations? Hint: You will need to produce the relevant tabulated summary statistics and graph(s). Then, you will need to calculate a 90% confidence interval for average Revenue 2. Are there any differences in the overall proportion of stores surveyed in ACT, NSW, NT, QLD? That is, is there any one state sampled proportionally, that is represented more than the others? Hint: You will need to calculate the proportion of the number of stores surveyed in ACT, NSW, NT, QLD produce the relevant tabulated summary statistics and graph(s). Then, you will need to calculate, compare and contrast, 90% confidence interval estimates for the proportion of stores in ACT, NSW, NT, QLD. Make sure that you interpret your findings. 3. Are there any relationships between the variables wages, number of staff, advertising, competitors and trading hours with the sales of the business (Consider Sales as the dependent variable)? Hint: You will need to calculate suitable association measures and create relevant graph(s). Then interpret the highlights of key measures. 4. Assuming that the Sales is approximately normally distributed, answer the following questions: a. What is the probability that Sales exceeds $17million? b. What is the probability that Sales would be less than $8million? c. What is the minimum value of Sales that only the top 10% of the stores will achieve annually? Hint: You only consider the sales distribution for this question. To answer this question, you will need to produce descriptive summary statistics and find relevant information to apply for the probability calculations. 5.a. It has been suggested at our most recent meeting that the average sales of the 4 states NSW, ACT, QLD and VIC are now more than $14million. Does this data confirm this hypothesis? 5.b. Further, is there sufficient evidence to conclude that the proportion of sales in any state is below 35% of all sales? Hint: To answer this question, you will need to conduct appropriate hypothesis testing for each state separately (using 5% significance level). Finally, include an interactive Dashboard to explore the performance of Wages, Number of staff and Gross profit. I look forward to your response and the Dashboard Sincerely, Kayden Li Please note that this diagram is only related to part c of this question Assignment instructions The assignment consists of three parts: Part 1: Data Analysis When conducting the analysis, you will apply techniques from descriptive analytics, visualisations, probabilities, and confidence interval calculation. Hence, you will use various tables, graphs, and summary measures. When exploring data, we often produce more results than we eventually use in the final report, but by investigating the data from different angles, we can develop a much better ‘feel’ for the data: a deeper understanding of the data. Always ensure that you consider relevant modelling assumptions such as considerations of the level of measurement of the variable, the method of sampling, the shape of the population distribution, and the sample size. The analysis section you submit should be on Q1 to Q5 sheets of the Excel file. Where possible, it is always useful to produce both numerical and graphical statistical summaries as sometimes, something is revealed in one that is not obvious in the other. Your analysis should be clearly labelled and grouped around each question. Poorly presented, unorganised analysis, or excessive output will be penalised. Part 2: Email You are required to reply by email, detailing all essential information and relevant conclusions from your data analysis. You are allowed no more than 2 pages to cover your written conclusions. Please use the font size 11 (Arial), 1.5 line spacing and leave a margin of 2.54 cm. Please consider the following dot points very carefully. Keep the English simple and the explanations succinct. Avoid the use of technical statistical jargon. Your reader will not necessarily understand complicated statistical terms, thus your task is to convert your analysis into plain, simple, easy to understand language. The email is to be written as a stand-alone document. Thus, you should not have any references in the email to your analysis, nor should you include any charts and tables in your email. Use an email format for your reply. That means the email heading (e.g. To: From: Subject :) should be included, the recipient should be addressed at the beginning and the signature or name of the sender should be included at the end. When composing your reply, make sure that you actually answer the questions asked. Do not copy the questions in the email. Sequentially number your answers in both your email and your analysis (1, 2 ...5) to match the email. Include a simple introduction at the start of the email and a summary/conclusion at the end. Marks will be deducted for the use of technical terms, irrelevant material, poor presentation / organisation / formatting and emails that are over two pages long or copy questions in the email. When you have completed the email, it is a useful exercise to leave it for a day, return to it and re-read it as if you knew nothing about the analysis. Does it flow easily? Does it make sense? Can someone without prior knowledge follow your written conclusions? Often on re-reading, you become aware that you may have made some unclear points, and find that you can re- phrase them much more clearly. Part 3: Interactive Dashboard The minimum requirement is a neat, functional, interactive dashboard. It is expected that the dashboard includes up to 5 interactive components. The Microsoft Excel file should contain a separate sheet for the interactive Dashboard. The following questions will help guide you in designing an interactive dashboard. What are the most appropriate visualisations for the dashboard? What about the choice of colour? How can I make the dashboard interactive? Submission Instructions Your submission will comprise of two files: 1. Your report in Microsoft Word format. 2. A Microsoft Excel workbook file (Containing: Your Analysis including all the graphs, charts etc.). 3. Submission should have the following format: MIS171_T2_StudentID.doc (or .docx) and MIS171_T2_StudentID.xls (or .xlsx). 4. This assessment is to be submitted ONLINE ONLY into the Assessment 2 Turnitin link available on the MIS171 Moodle site. 5. All work you submit is checked electronically or by other means to detect potential collusion and/or plagiarism. 6. When you are required to submit an assignment through Moodle (Turnitin link), you will receive an instant notification on the screen confirming that it has been submitted. Notes Penalties for late submission: The following marking penalties will apply if you submit an assessment task after the due date without an approved extension: 5% will be deducted from available marks for each day up to five days, and work that is submitted more than five days after the due date will not be marked and you will receive 0% for the task. 'Day' means working day for paper submissions and calendar day for electronic submissions. The Unit Coordinator may refuse to accept a late submission where it is unreasonable or impracticable to assess the task after the due date. For more information about academic misconduct, special consideration, extensions, and assessment feedback, please refer to the unit outline or Deakin College student portal. Requests for Extensions: Students who are unable to submit an assignment by the due date, due to exceptional circumstances, may contact the Unit Coordinator (
[email protected]) to discuss options. Please submit evidence of the progress on your analysis and the extension request via email. Before contacting the Unit Coordinator, you must obtain appropriate documentation to support your request. You must be able to demonstrate exceptional circumstances. All requests must be made prior to the due date. Good luck!