BUS 215
Extra Credit Project
The purpose of this extra-credit assignment is for students to demonstrate to themselves how data analysis
(statistics) and decision making might be applied in a real world situation, and for students to demonstrate
to their professor that they have integrated some of the course material into their decision-making toolkit.
The Excel® spreadsheet containing the data set and preliminary analysis is posted on Blackboard in the
Documents section and is titled Extra-Credit Project.
Your assignment is to analyze the data set and identify the company’s problem … unbelievably strong
hint – its job profitability varies by way too much for the company president’s comfort. After you have
verified (quantified) this, you must identify the reason why and make a recommendation supported by
data analysis to reduce this variability meaningfully. Remember to provide the client with an appropriate
tool to facilitate implementation of your recommendation.
Your written report must be typed using Word® and all your data analysis must be completed using a
statistical software package – either Statistix for Windows, Excel® with the MegaStat add in, SPSS, SAS,
R or any other legitimate software package. Your report must include a technical appendix that includes
all data, calculations, tables, graphs, and other analyses completed so that an independent researcher could
reproduce your work. You must be certain to include all interpretations of these analyses and all
conclusions made based on these analyses.
There is no minimum or maximum length for this report as it is a pretend real world assignment. The
quality of the writing counts, as it does in the real world. The writing should be literate, grammatically
and typographically correct in all ways, clear, concise, and logically organized. Avoid technical language
wherever possible, and avoid MBA consultant speak, creative writing, academic paper writing (BS),
editorials, colloquialisms, anthropomorphisms (look it up), and bullets. This should be professional work
that could be submitted to the client company’s president who has a sixth-grade formal education but who
is very intelligent. It should be e-mailed to your professor as soon as it is complete but, in any case, no
later than the last day of class. You must work on this project alone. Remember the academic integrity
policy.
Contact your professor with any questions. Good luck.
