Applying Business Analytics

In the last assessment, you were asked to prepare the first part of your analytics report by
creating graphs and calculating some descriptive statistics. In this assessment, you will write your
5-8 page analytics report by interpreting those graphs and statistics, and explicitly connecting
those interpretations to implications in the practical business context.
The first step in creating meaningful information from raw data is to represent the data
effectively in graphical format and to calculate any required statistics. The second step is
interpreting and explaining those graphs and statistics in order to apply them in the
business context.
In the previous assessment, you were asked to create the first part of your analytics
report by preparing graphs and calculating some descriptive statistics. In this assessment,
you will complete your analytics report by interpreting those graphs and statistics, and
connecting those interpretations explicitly to implications in the business context.
In business and applied analytics, oftentimes you are interested in drawing conclusions
about a population of interest. However, it may not be feasible or practical to gather
data on the entire population. In those cases, data is gathered from a sample or subset of
the population. Analyses done on the sample are then used to draw inferences regarding
the overall population; this mathematic process is referred to as inferential statistics. In
this assessment, we begin discussing the topics of sampling and drawing inferences.
All the inferential statistical techniques and methods covered in this course are
considered parametric techniques and require certain assumptions to be used and for
the results to be reliable, many of which are assumptions about an underlying
distribution. Nonparametric techniques require no assumption about underlying
distributions and are often used when the assumptions of parametric techniques are not
met. Although these are beyond the scope of this introductory course, they are a great
option for additional reading and research.
Analytics projects often result in two distinct types of reports or summaries: one tailored
to the executive level, which takes the form of a presentation, and the other, a detailed
analytics report, which documents an analysis so thoroughly that another analyst can
reproduce the analysis exactly. Many times, the latter type is referred to by other
departments or analysts wishing to conduct a similar analysis on similar data or by the
same analyst who wants to repeat the analysis on a new or revised set of data. In this
assessment, you will learn the essential elements that should be included in a report at
this level of detail and you will create your own analytics report addressing the business
problem you have been working on.
The first step in creating meaningful information to develop a business report for
decision making. The business report includes the analyzed raw data, effectively
presents the analysis results in text and graphical format, as well as calculate any
required statistics.The second step is interpreting and explaining the graphs and statistics to understand
the impact in the practical business context.
In the last assessment, you were asked to create the first part of your business analytics
report by introducing a company, analyzing company stock data, developing graphs, and
calculating some descriptive statistics.
In this assessment, you will adjust your business report to minimize limitations of one
year’s worth of data. You will use the same company for this assessment and you will use
5 years of data!
You will also enhance your introduction or business context section of your business
report based on your new graphs and your interpretation of the data graphs and
descriptive statistics over a five year period. Your interpretation efforts of graphs and
descriptive statistics will explicitly connect in the conclusion area. Conclusions and
recommendations are the final effort in the development of a practical business report
and should be supported by citations. Remember that opinion is not allowed.
Your supervisor has asked you to prepare a report for the quarterly company meeting.
The first part of the task was to download the data and create scatterplots and
histograms, and to calculate mean, median, and mode of 5 years of stock prices for your
report. Now you must analyze and interpret those graphical representations of the
company stock and write the report of your findings and recommendations for your
supervisor.
You are an analyst using the same company and five years of stock data. Having
accessed the company data and placed it in an appropriate graphical format, you must
now use descriptive statistics and analysis to develop a report to inform business
decisions.
After reviewing and integrating your instructor’s feedback on your previous Assessment,
complete the report as follows:
• For each graph you created, write at least one well supported paragraph
interpreting the graph: What does that graph represent? What does the shape of
the graph tell you about how the data have changed over time?
• For each statistic you calculated, include at least two to three well-supported
sentences explaining what the statistic represents:
o What does the mean tell you? How do you know?
o What does it imply if the median is different from the mean?
o• Write a new conclusions section in which you explain how these interpretations
can be used in the company:
o What are some trends about which company leaders should be aware?
o How might the information you have provided be used in decision making in
the company?
o What are other analysts indicating about the stock?
• Explicitly connect other analysts’ comments and recommendations to your
interpretations to possible impact to the business context
• Lastly, should your company invest of partner with the company or stock being
evaluated?
Create a 5-8 page report containing:
• APA-formatted title page.
• 1-2 page introduction of your chosen company that you created in your previous
assessment.
• Section labeled Graphical Representations of Data that includes the four graphs
you created as well as your interpretations of the graphs.
• Section labeled Descriptive Statistics, with the statistics you calculated as well as
your interpretations of the statistics.
• One-page conclusion in which you describe the potential business applications of
the data and interpretations.
• APA-formatted references page (remember to cite the source of your financial
data, analyst comments and support for your interpretations).