Application Project Guidelines:

You application project should deal with a “real” professional situation. This project should integrate all major ideas covered in class. You will turn in a comprehensive report of your analyses and a short power point presentation (maximum 10 slides). Use the following guidelines to structure your work and format your report/presentation.

Situation: Describe the business need for analysis and modeling.

Objective: Outline a specific objective for your project. Identify a metric for your outcome variable. Describe (using charts and descriptive statistics) the historical behavior of this variable.

Variables: Describe all variables that you think may be related to the outcome in this section – both environmental and decision variables. Each variable can be analyzed separately using charts and descriptive statistics. Examine for trends in your data if applicable.

Modeling: Look for relationships between independent and outcome variables using scatter plots and correlations. Describe the estimation of your models using regression analyses. Sometimes, regression may not be relevant for the representation of you model. In this case, describe the mathematical relationships between your input and outcome.

Decision Support System / Spreadsheet Model: Implement your model(s) in a spreadsheet application with inputs and outcome(s). Demonstrate how this model can be used to determine the optimal values for your decision variables or for forecasting the value of the outcome. Demonstrate the use of scenario analyses and goal-seeking analyses in decision support.