Strayer JWI599 2022 January Assignments Latest (Full)

JWI599 BUSINESS ANALYTICS AND CAPSTONE

Assignment 1

Board Brief Part A – Framing the Problem/Opportunity

Overview

Effective leaders understand that actions must be based on facts. Which facts are most important, however, depends on how the problem is framed. Failure to adequately define the problem can set in motion a series of misguided undertakings in which irrelevant data are gathered, unnecessary analyses are completed, and unsupported decisions are made. The first step in developing your Board Brief is to craft a clear statement of the problem/opportunity, and then determine which data are most critical to solving that problem. This is your opportunity to begin using the business analytics tools that will guide you throughout your Capstone Project. Instructions

For all assignments in your Capstone Project, your work will be based on the organization you identified in your Week 2 Discussion Question post. In this assignment, you will submit a 2 to 3-page paper in which you will include a brief overview of market conditions and develop a clear and well-focused problem/opportunity statement. This requires you to provide sufficient background on the competitive environment and the organization to accurately frame the problem for your Board. Your deliverables are:

1. Present a brief overview of market conditions, the competitive environment, and the strengths and weaknesses of your organization relative to your competitors. You should draw on one of the methodologies you have studied in the program (such as Jack’s 5 Step Strategy Framework, SWOT, PESTEL, or Porter’s Five Forces) to guide you, but DO NOT present a full-blown market analysis to the Board. Your Board members will already possess significant knowledge of the market and the company, so use this overview to set the stage for the rest of your brief. Distill your overview down to 2 components.

a. First, provide a general overview of market conditions, trends, and big issues. For example, you may begin with a line such as “As you know, we have experienced considerable challenges in this space over the last two years…”

b. Then, summarize the competitive environment. Open with a sentence such as “Our biggest competitor ABC has made bold steps to develop X and has made significant gains in market share in Y. This has presented us with a number of challenges…”

2. Problem/Opportunity Statement

Following your overview, identify the specific problem or opportunity that, if properly addressed, will have a significant positive impact on the success of the organization. This will include your “testable hypothesis” for which you will gather and analyze data to validate in your next assignment. To accomplish this:

a. Define a clear problem or opportunity that addresses what is important to the organization in order to meaningfully improve its competitive strength. Note: It is expected that you will refine the problem/opportunity statement you drafted for your Week 2 Discussion Question, leveraging the feedback you received from your classmates and professor.

b. Identify key data and metrics you will study that are relevant to addressing the problem/opportunity.

c. Identify stakeholders who will be involved in addressing the problem/opportunity. At this stage, you do not need to name specific people, but you must identify functions, departments, geographical areas, etc., that will be impacted. You must also explain the nature of the potential impact.

d. Include relevant information on previous experiences or findings related to this problem/opportunity. This information may be noted in an appendix if that is more appropriate for context and flow.

 

JWI599 BUSINESS ANALYTICS AND CAPSTONE

Assignment 2

Assignment 2: Board Brief Part B – Data Analysis

Overview

The second part of your Board Brief picks up where the last one left off. Having accurately framed the core problem/opportunity in Assignment 1, you will now turn your attention to collecting, organizing, and analyzing the data you are using to test your hypothesis. You are not yet ready to propose a specific action plan for your business. You will focus on evaluating what data you have and don’t have, and on identifying patterns, trends, and anomalies. Because you can never have complete data, your analysis must acknowledge what you know and what you don’t know. But, even with incomplete data, your actions must be reasonable given the time frame and resources you have. Those actions – your strategic plan – will be developed in Assignment 3.

Instructions

For this assignment, you will build on your first assignment by including an additional 3 to 4 pages to present your analysis of the data. Your submission must include the work you did in Assignment 1 and must provide relevant and quantifiable data, models, calculations, and analysis. Use the topics below to organize this section of your Board Brief:

1. Data Sources and Reliability

a. What data were the most critical to the analysis of the problem/opportunity you identified in Assignment 1? Explain.

b. What sources did you use to gather the data?

c. How reliable and complete are the data you are using? What steps did you take to validate this?

d. What data are unknown (or unknowable) at this stage? How does this impact your analysis?

2. Data Tools and Analysis

a. Drawing from the “Types of Analysis” guide and other resources from the course, what tools and techniques have you used in your analysis? Why did you select these?

b. Applying the analysis tools to your selected data, what patterns, trends, and anomalies did you uncover?

c. How do these patterns, trends, and anomalies shed light on the problem/opportunity you identified?

d. Leveraging your work in the Discussion Questions and the guidance from our course materials, include charts, tables, and/or other visual supports to ensure that your data tells a clear story that your reader can easily understand.

3. Conclusion and Action Items

a. What does your analysis tell you about where you should focus your efforts to drive meaningful improvement?

 

JWI599 BUSINESS ANALYTICS AND CAPSTONE

Assignment 3