• Choose an organisation / company / business
• Give business name, their background & their business plan (what does it do/sell)
• Introduce a problem / opportunity that has arose within the business, in a specific
department (sales, finance, marketing, HR, etc…) → this is your reason for working for them
and creating a dashboard and doing critical analysis
Theoretical Framework
• Do research on the problem / opportunity you mentioned in the introduction → here you
need to research AT LEAST 4 papers related to the issue, cite them and reference them
correctly in Harvard format
Evidence (Dashboard)
• Create a dashboard in Excel / PowerBI (or Tableau if you want and have knowledge of it)
• The dashboard should be based on the dataset you select
• Perform statistical analysis on your data (DO NOT just use the dataset you find as it is,
critically think what metrics will give you more information about the data you have and can
help you understand and study the company and its performance !!)
• Make sure you critically select how you aggregate your data (pivot tables), what charts you
use for each data, what formatting you use.
• Make sure to place your dashboard elements in a way that will make them look neat,
organised and “professionally” made
Critical Analysis
• Here you’ll need to provide an analysis of your dashboard
• Tweak your dashboard elements appropriately in order to visualise your responses and add
screenshots of it
• Justify the statistical tools / methods you used and how they provided more information in
your dataset
• Critically evaluate the performance of the company and pinpoint “problematic” areas
Conclusion & Recommendations
• Conclusion (5%) & Recommendations (5%)
• Wrap up of your work, reflect again on the results of your critical analysis
• Recommend what the company should do based on the analysis – link your
recommendations to your dashboard

Sources for your Datasets:
• Statista
• Kaggle
• Fame
• Datahub.io (Business & Financial)
• Data.world

Students will select an organisation of their choice. (This could be the organisation
they work for.

Taking the role of an external Consultant, they will be required to conduct a
performance review of the organisation and will submit a 2500-word report that
will critically review and evaluate a chosen area of interest, department, or
sector.
The report will include the design and a deployment plan for a business
intelligence/data analytics system (using appropriate data analytics software).

Secondary data sources will be used to direct the analysis as well as frame the
problem/opportunity statement regarding the case company.

There is no expectation that students should collect primary data.

As part of the written assignment, students will be required to develop a
decision support dashboard for the organisation.

The dasboard will be designed and developed by using appropriate data analytics
software and should be submitted separately using Blackboard.

A 2500 word report justifying the use of business intelligence and data
analytics solution methods should also be submitted using Blackboard.

Students will be given written feedback so they will be able to feed into the
workplace and/or further study.

Formative feedback will be provided to students during the semester by the
module tutor during interactive workshop sessions. In addition, assignment
briefing session will be run which will provide further opportunities of formative
feedback to students.

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Summative feedback will be provided to students on completion of their
assignment to assess their performance.
The following marking criteria will be used to mark the report and the
decision support dashboard;
1. Introduction to the problematic situation/opportunity regarding your
selected organisation – 400 words (10%) .Kindly read the introduction in
the assignment file provided.with problematics situation follow the points
below, to complete the assignment.
2. Theoretical frameworks to link problem/opportunity of the case
organisation- 800 words (20%)
3. Evidence of knowledge and understanding of business
intelligence/data analytics systems. Marks will be awarded on the
quality of analysis, data visualisations, interactive use of data
analytics software and dashboard features (30%)- submitted
separately as a dashboard
4. Critical analysis and justification of dashboard solution to
address the problematic/opportunity situation in the selected
case company- 800 words (20%)
5. Conclusion and recommendations for the implementation of business
intelligence/analytics system in the case organisation for the focused
area of investigation- 400 words (10%)
6. Presentation including appropriate language, references used, clarity
of expression and style; appropriate structure and format; length and
the relevance of appendices if used (10%)
100% Coursework
0% Examination

READING LIST
Required:
Cadle, J., Paul, D. & Turner, P. (2014), Business analysis techniques: 99
essential tools for success, British Computer Society (BCS), London.
Eckerson, Wayne W. (2006), Performance dashboards: measuring,
monitoring, and managing your business, John Wiley & Sons, New
Jersey.
Sharda, R., Turban, E., Delan, D. (2014) Business intelligence and analytics;
systems for decision Support, Boston: Pearson.
Wisniewski, M. (2010). Quantitative methods for decision makers with
mathxl. Pearson Education.
Recommended:
Brynjolfsson, E., Hitt, L.M. and Kim, H.H. (2011). Strength in numbers: how does
data-driven decision making affect firm performance?. Available at SSRN
1819486.
David Santiago Rivera & Graeme Shanks (2015) A dashboard to support

B4/41 March 2019
management of business analytics capabilities, Journal of Decision Systems, 24:1,
73-86, DOI: 10.1080/12460125.2015.994335.
Graeme S. and Nargiza B. (2012). Achieving benefits with business analytics
systems: an evolutionary process perspective, Journal of Decision Systems, 21:3,
231-244, DOI: 10.1080/12460125.2012.729182
Gross, D., Akaiwa, F. & Nordquist, K. (2014), Succeeding in business with
microsoft excel 2013: A problem solving approach, Cengage Learning,
Stamford, USA.
Hashmi, A. (2015), Do you need a balanced scorecard for performance
measurement? Print Replica Kindle Edition.
Kaplan, R. & Norton, D. (1992), The balanced scorecard as a strategic
management system, Harvard Business Review pp61-66.
Kaplan, R. & Norton, D. (1996), The balanced scorecard-translating strategy
into action, Harvard Business School press, Boston.
Kopanakis, I., Vassakis, K. and Mastorakis, G., (2016), Big data in data-driven
innovation: the impact in enterprises' performance. In Proceedings of 11th
Annual MIBES International Conference, 22nd of June-24th of June (pp. 257-
263).
Nørreklit, H, Nørreklit, L, Mitchell, F, Bjørnenak, T, (2012) 'The rise of the
balanced scorecard! Relevance regained?', Journal of Accounting &
Organizational Change, Vol. 8 Iss: 4, pp.490 – 510.
Russom, P., 2011. Big data analytics. TDWI best practices report, fourth
quarter, 19(4), pp.1-34.
Srinivasa, S. and Bhatnagar, V., 2012. Big data analytics. In Proceedings
of the First International Conference on Big Data Analytics BDA (pp. 24-
26).
Winston, W. L. (2011), Excel 2010: Data analysis and business modelling,
Microsoft Press, Washington, USA.

SUMMARY DESCRIPTION
This module provides students with the knowledge and practical skills for applying
business intelligence and data analytics principles to support management
decision making in a business context. The module also help develop students'
quantitative analysis and data visualisation skills to derive valuable insights from
the data in a business context. The module will help students to design, develop
and deploy a performance dashboard as part of their performance management
system case organisation.

LEARNING RESOURCES
QA Library website.

B4/41 March 2019
QA’s library website is a great place to start your research. This site brings together
the resources provided by Ulster University library and the resources provided by
QAHE library. Everything you need is in one place!
·         The Ulster University page includes links to databases, ebook
collections, open access sources, referencing, and much more.
·         The Homepage contains information on research skills, extracting information
from textbooks and accessible learning recommendations.
·         The contact us page contains a live chat box so you can ask questions and
receive immediate answers from a librarian. You can also book one-to-one sessions
or join the regular ‘online hangout with a librarian’. There are lots of ways to ask for
help with your research!

SCONUL
Ulster University is part of the SCONUL network. This allows students to visit other
university libraries and use their books. If you’d like to do this, contact QA
Library and we will arrange SCONUL membership for you.

Studiosity
Ulster University subscribes to Studiosity, which enables students to receive
feedback on draft assignments. Simply upload your draft, select the type of feedback
you want (eg grammar, referencing etc), and submit. Feedback will be provided
within 24 hours.