Part A-

Assessment Overview-

Assignment 1: Group Assessment - Teams (of 4 or 5 students) will be formed at the beginning of the semester and students will remain in these teams throughout the semester for this part of the summative assessment. Once the teams have been created each team will select an organization (PepsiCo) that they would like to base their work on (the choice will need to be agreed by all team members and the tutor), and will act as a team of consultants who will present their findings to the client in the final presentation. An outline brief is shown below, which is generic in that it applies to whichever organisation the team chooses, but each team must tailor their findings appropriately. Whilst the organisation chosen must be real, teams will not perform primary research with them, but will use secondary sources when carrying out their investigations. In line with this, the presentations will be to members of the teaching team who will act as representatives of the chosen organisation. In other words, the involvement of the organisation is not required, but ethical considerations must be adhered to. It is hoped that this approach will provide flexibility for teams to choose an organisation that is perhaps more closely related to their discipline and/or interests.

Assignment 2: Individual Assessment - this is an individual assignment (2000 word report). The report will be a critical appraisal of project management and planning skills required for the implementation and deployment of a Business Intelligence / Business Analytics system; and a critical appraisal of the skills needed by a business / data analyst to make effective use of the system implemented.

Assignment 1: Outline Brief
Your team of consultants has been contracted by an organisation (the one you and your team choose) to investigate their current situation regarding the potential implementation and deployment of a Business Intelligence (BI) / Data Analytics system. Your team must investigate the situation with the ultimate aim of considering the feasibility of such a solution using SAS business analytics software, particularly the GUI (Graphical User Interface) frontend - SAS Enterprise Guide (SAS EG). In order to do this you will need to develop the following documentation in support of the implementation - a business case (with a comprehensive benefits appraisal) and a project charter. You are also required to use SAS EG to demonstrate the capabilities of a BI system.

The company has requested that you deliver your findings to them in a short presentation, which must include the following elements:

A. Intro / Overview giving background and context in relation to the organization.

B. The business case and project initiation plans supported by appropriate documentation i.e. business case, project charter and an outline Gantt chart

C. A data analysis model developed using SAS Enterprise Guide software to demonstrate the capabilities of a BI system e.g. queries, reports, graphical outputs. Note - as stated, this is a demonstration of the capabilities of BI software and is not an attempt to build a specific model for your client. However, it would be useful to demonstrate reports and outputs that have some relevance to your client and the potential benefits you have promoted. The data you use for the demonstration may be from the sample data sets provided for the workshops or other external sample data sources. You do not need to generate your own data or get data from the client

D. A conclusion providing an overall summary of the key points made and a summing up of the business case provided

The presentation will be to two representatives of the organisation, who will appraise and evaluate your findings, recommendations and accompanying documentation. You should consider the presentation to be like a pitch, where you are trying to demonstrate to the organisation that the proposed implementation will be managed professionally and bring measurable benefits.

The group presentation will take place in the week 12 workshop sessions. All teams will deliver a 15 minute presentation to at least 2 members of the module team, who will act as representatives of the organisation selected by the team. There will also be 5 minutes of questions. Deliverables should include all of the elements mentioned above and any other element deemed appropriate (this will become apparent during the module teaching sessions). Teams should provide appropriate paper handouts at the beginning of the presentation and be dressed in a professional manner. Individual peer assessment forms must also be submitted at the beginning of the presentation.

Assignment 2 Brief

As an individual you will write a 2000 word report that must include the following:

A. A short introduction giving background, context and an outline of the report.

B. A critical appraisal of the project management and planning skills required for the implementation and deployment of a core business information system in an organisation. You should base your report on the implementation of a Business Intelligence / Business Analytics solutions, using the SAS solution proposed in your group project as an example.

C. A critical appraisal of the skills needed by a business / data analyst within an organisation to make effective use of the BI / BA system implemented.

D. A conclusion providing an overall summary of the key points made and any recommendations for the successful implementation of a BI / BA solution in an organization.

E. The report must be supported by academic references and examples and include a single reference list.

Part B-

The critical appraisal of the project management and planning skills - the focus here should be on the key skills required to be an effective project manager, with the focus being on the implementation of a BI system. It should not focus entirely on the work you did for your group project, but you should use some of the areas you covered in developing your plans as example e.g. the development of project charters, risk assessment, benefits appraisal etc., which are done in most projects, whether IT focused or not! You need to critically appraise a range of key skills by citing references to literature about managing projects successfully / unsuccessfully. In other words, the work you did putting together the project proposals for the group project should provide some examples and therefore direction on areas to appraise.