You are required to identify a dataset(s) (at least 1,000 rows) publicly available (e.g. Kaggle) relevant to your research gaps/questions.

Assessment Brief

Report outline (50%)

This 4,000-word report is worth 50% of the module marks in which you are required to submit a detailed report highlighting the significance of data analytics to a business of your choice.

Business scenario

As a newly formed analytics department, your team has been invited by the senior board of directors to submit a detailed business report to support business operations at your company. The company and senior management have largely relied on intuitive decision-making and are optimistic about taking a more data-driven approach to support their decisions.

Therefore, your aim is to demonstrate how data relating to their business can help the organisation understand its performance to date as well as make relevant predictions. As the organisation are new to Business Data Analytics, they would also like to understand current and future trends, challenges, and opportunities of data analytics for businesses.

You are required to identify a dataset(s) (at least 1,000 rows) publicly available (e.g. Kaggle) relevant to your research gaps/questions. 

Structure of report

Below is a suggested structure of the group report:

1. Executive Summary & Introduction (5%)

• A brief overview of the key findings of the report
• Providing context of the research (sector/industry)
• Setting the scene and justification for the research
• Clearly outline the business goal and objectives

2. Literature Review (10%)

• Conduct a critical literature review (refer to scenario brief for indicative topics to cover)

3. Methodology (6%)

• A discussion relating to the provenance of the chosen dataset(s) for your project
• Discuss and justify analytical techniques to be utilised.

4. Findings (15%)

• Using SAS, report your findings and include at least six techniques.
• Basic statistics (e.g. mean, median, standard deviation, confidence intervals) & interpret them
• Data visualisations (e.g. histogram, scatterplots) and interpret them
• Conduct hypothesis testing using any of the techniques as appropriate & interpret outputs:
• One-Sample t-Tests
• Two-Sample t-Tests
• One-way ANOVA
• Correlation test
• Simple linear regression
• Multiple linear regression
• Chi-square test

5. Discussion/Conclusion (10%)

• Critically analyse your findings and outline whether the data aligns with the business objectives 
• Discuss any implications based on your findings
• Propose key business recommendations based on the analysis

6. Please make sure that your written expressions are clear and that the overall consistency of your argument and the structure of the coursework, including referencing (following Harvard referencing), are all sound (4%)

Please use Arial font, size 12. Text should be double-spaced.

Work that is over the stated word length will attract a penalty in proportion to the additional words (e.g. 5%)

Presentation outline (20%)

1. Content: Relevance of presentation content and alignment with group report (4%)

• Establishing the purpose of the presentation.
• Technical terms are well-defined in language appropriate for the target audience.
• Presentation contains accurate information.

2. Application: Application of academic concepts and analytical techniques (4%)

• The extent to which relevant concepts and techniques have been applied
• Appropriate application of techniques to issues at hand.
• Use of appropriate examples

3. Evaluation & Research: Quality of reflection, interpretation and evaluation (4%)

• Demonstration of critical analysis of findings
• Coverage of the relevant issues
• Logical reasoning, analysis and debate
• Originality and use of initiative

4. Visualisation: Quality of data representation (4%)

• Effective use of visual aids
• Brevity of data
• Use of non-attentive attributes

5. Communication: Structure and clarity of presentation (4%)

• Polished & coherent structure
• Clear expression of thoughts & ideas
• The logical structure of presentation
• Ability to engage the audience in the presentation
• Utilisation of technology to support presentation