MIS271 Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing Trimester 1 2025

Assessment 1 Business Intelligence Solution Development and Report,

Group Assessment (Group of 4)

DUE DATE: Thursday, 1^st May, by 8:00 pm (Melbourne time)

PERCENTAGE OF FINAL GRADE: 40%

WORD COUNT: 4000 words (maximum)

Description

Purpose

This task provides you with opportunities to learn and apply the knowledge (GLO1 & ULO1) and skills (GLO4 & ULO2, ULO3) required in the study and practice of business intelligence. By completing this task, you will develop your skills in researching, understanding, applying, evaluating, and presenting information required of business intelligence professionals/business analysts.

Context/Scenario

Information dashboards are crucial in all business intelligence (BI) and analytics platforms. They visually display critical information in a cohesive format on a single screen, allowing users to comprehend key data points quickly at a glance. They are also designed to facilitate deep dives into the data, enabling users to drill down into specific metrics and explore underlying trends and details.

Practical sessions in this unit provide you with an introduction to data analysis and the production of visualisations with the help of Microsoft Excel and Power BI. This assignment is designed to broaden your understanding of BI tools and further develop your analytical skills. This assignment also explores a practice- based approach to assess the capabilities and limitations of BI tools.

For this task, assume you are a team of four graduate business intelligence analysts at Regal Retail (a fictitious company), a global retail giant with stores worldwide. You were assigned to prepare Power BI business intelligence reports and associated dashboards and produce a written report to provide insights for the management team on customer behaviours, performance, sales patterns, etc.

You are provided with a dataset named Regal Retail Dataset. You are required to (1) analyse the dataset,

(2) design BI solutions for managerial use, and (3) make a series of justifications and recommendations for the company managers (see specific requirements mentioned below).

Specific Requirements

1. DATA CLEANSING AND VARIABLE FORMAT STANDARDISATION

The first step is to clean the provided dataset (Regal Retail Dataset) using Excel. When cleaning data, you need to focus on the data quality issues with the provided dataset and prepare it for analytical purposes.

1. You must discuss the data cleaning process step by step in detail in the written report, supported by screenshots of your data cleaning process (i.e., before and after data cleaning).

1. Justify each step in the data cleaning

Note: Please feel free to (1) use reading materials and literature to support your arguments and (2) make reasonable assumptions or refine the data as needed.

2. ANALYSIS AND REPORTING

1. USING EXCEL: Analyse the dataset using Microsoft Excel. Report key findings with appropriate visualisations (e.g., screenshots of charts, tables, diagrams, etc. from Excel). At least four different visualisations should support the main Submit the Microsoft Excel file with cleaned data and all the visualisations to the Assessment drop box with the report.

1. USING POWER BI: Create two (02) reports. Each report must contain a collection of visualisations (i.e., screenshots from Power BI outputs). The minimum requirement is to have at least four charts per report. Explain important factors such as why you have chosen these visualisations and indicate what they show, why you picked them, etc.

3. DASHBOARD DEVELOPMENT

1. Develop at least two (02) dashboards to be used by two distinct business managers of your choice (e.g., you may create one dashboard for the Sales Manager and one for the Customer Relationship Manager, etc.). Report each dashboard with at least four charts per dashboard, including the intended audience, the purpose of the dashboard, and insights the manager can derive from it.

1. You must produce the actual visuals using the Power BI tool. Screenshots from Power BI should be provided as evidence in your report discussion.

4. JUSTIFICATION AND RECOMMENDATION

1. Justify why the above Power BI reports and dashboards could provide insights and why you have laid out the attributes in the fashion you proposed (feel free to include all other relevant justifications).

1. Using the insights gained from your analysis, propose a set of recommendations that would help your managers solve business problems and/or achieve goals.

1. You need to provide at least four specific detailed recommendations based on the
   
   
   • 1 recommendation based on your Excel analysis
   
   
   • 1 or 2 recommendations based on your Power BI analysis reports
   
   
   • 1 or 2 recommendations based on your Stakeholder Dashboards
   
   
   

Group Contribution Guidelines

This is a group assessment, and active participation is essential. Each group must consist of four team members. To help you find team members, a group formation discussion forum has been created under the Assessment Discussion Forum under the "Assessment 1 Finding a Group" topic. Once you have formed your team, please register your group by navigating to Tools Groups and selecting an available group number. Please do not enrol in a group without obtaining permission from the existing team members. Any students not in a group by 25^th March will be automatically assigned to a team. If your group has fewer than four members, additional students may be added to your group. So, the best thing is to find group mates and self-register to an available group as early as possible. To successfully manage your group work, it might be helpful to review Deakin's generic guidelines on group work.

Group Meetings: Your team is required to meet (virtually or physically) at least three times before the submission date: once at the beginning of the project, once mid-project for progress reviews, and once before the final submission. You can have more than three meetings (recommended) if required. All team members are expected to attend and contribute to each meeting. If a member cannot attend, they must provide a valid reason in advance. Failure to attend meetings without a valid excuse may result in a loss of marks. The goal is to keep everyone informed about the team's progress, identify any issues, and address major concerns quickly. The key requirement is that all members must meet at the same time, whether physically or virtually. This is not about sending individual summaries. The meeting must be conducted at a mutually agreed time.

Meeting Documentations (Meeting Minutes): It is crucial to document each meeting. A meeting minute template is provided for your reference. This includes recording the following details:

• Date and time of the meeting

• Attendees and absentees (including apologies)

• Action items and deadlines

• Tasks allocated to each team member, any difficulties and challenges

All three main meeting minutes should be included in the report's appendix. In addition, you need to submit the three main meeting minutes to the assessment Dropbox by the following due dates for progress monitoring. Please do not request extensions to upload meeting minutes, as they are for progress monitoring.

Recommended Platform: It is recommended that you use Microsoft Teams for all communications and meetings.

Team Contract: You need to complete the Team Contract (template provided) at the beginning, preferably in your first meeting. This ensures that everyone knows their roles and responsibilities and is ready for a successful project at the beginning. The completed contract should be submitted to the Assessment 1 drop box by 01^st April and attached to the group reports appendix as well. Any changes/updates to the team activity plan during the project can be updated in a separate document and attached to the appendix.

Group Contribution Form: All group members must sign the group contribution form and include it in the appendix of the group report.

Report Guidelines

• The entire assessment should be discussed and presented as one coherent report. The written report should include a title page, a table of contents, a series of logically organised sections, a list of references and an appendix with all required group work It might be helpful to look at Deakin report writing for more information on structuring and writing your report.

• All figures, diagrams, tables, charts, , should be numbered and labelled.

• All sources must be cited and referenced using the APA 7 referencing style. For more information, please refer to Deakin Referencing Guides.

• Your report has a maximum word count of 4000. The word limit of the assessment excludes the cover page, the table of contents, the reference list and the group work appendix.

• Use Times New Roman, font size 11, single line spacing for the main text, and headings/subheadings can be formatted in an appropriate font size. Leave page margins of 2.54 cm.

• Reports should be written in Microsoft Word and submitted as a Microsoft Word file (PDF or any other type of document file will not be marked).

• The contribution of each team member must be clearly stated in the Table of Contents (e.g., Introduction

John Barry).

• All members of the Group must include a screenshot of their Certificate of Completion for Power BI Essential in the Group Report Appendix section.

• All group meeting minutes, team contract, updated activity plan (if any), Group contribution form, and any other evidence related to group work should be included as an appendix of the report.

• When uploading your report, name your document using the following syntax: Group 5_MIS271_A1_Report.docx.

Learning Outcomes

This task allows you to demonstrate your achievement towards the Unit Learning Outcomes (ULOs) which have been aligned to the Deakin Graduate Learning Outcomes (GLOs). Deakin GLOs describe the knowledge and capabilities graduates acquire and can demonstrate on completion of their course. This assessment task is an important tool in determining your achievement of the ULOs. If you do not demonstrate achievement of the ULOs you will not be successful in this unit. You are advised to familiarise yourself with these ULOs and GLOs as they will inform you on what you are expected to demonstrate for the successful completion of this unit.

The learning outcomes that are aligned to this assessment task are:

Submission

You must submit your assessment report in the Assessment Dropbox on the unit CloudDeakin site on or before the due date. When uploading your group report, name your document using the following syntax:

Report: , e.g. Group 5_MIS271_A1_Report.docx

The following group work documentation should be submitted to the assessment folder by the due dates outlined in the Group Contribution Guidelines. Name your documents using the following syntax.

Team Contract: , e.g. Group 5_MIS271_A1_Team Contract.docx

Meeting Minutes: , e.g. Group 5_MIS271_A1_Meeting Minute_1.docx

In addition to the report and the project documentation, to support your analysis, submit the Excel data analysis file with cleaned data and all the visualisations used in the report to Assessment 1 Dropbox. Name your documents using the following syntax. , e.g. Group 5_MIS271_A1_Data_Analysis.xlsx

Only one group member, representing all the group members, needs to submit all required documents (Team contract, Meeting minutes, and report) to the assessment dropbox. All student names and IDs must be clearly included on the report's title page.

Submitting a hard copy of this assessment is not required. You must keep a backup copy of every assessment you submit until the marked assessment has been returned to you. In the unlikely event that one of your assessments is misplaced you will need to submit your backup copy.

Any work you submit may be checked by electronic or other means for the purposes of detecting collusion and/or plagiarism and for authenticating work.

When you submit an assessment through your CloudDeakin unit site, you will receive an email to your Deakin email address confirming that it has been submitted. You should check that you can see your assessment in the Submissions view of the Assessment Dropbox folder after upload and check for, and keep, the email receipt for the submission.

Marking and feedback

The marking rubric indicates the assessment criteria for this task. It is available in the CloudDeakin unit site in the Assessment folder, under Assessment Resources. These criteria act as a boundary around the task and help specify what assessors are looking for in your submission. The criteria are drawn from the ULOs and align with the GLOs. You should familiarise yourself with the assessment criteria before completing and submitting this task.

Students who submit their work by the due date will receive their marks and feedback on CloudDeakin 15 working days after the submission date.

Extensions

Extensions can only be granted for exceptional and/or unavoidable circumstances outside of your control.

Requests for extensions must be made by 12 noon on the submission date using the online Extension Request form under the Assessment tab on the unit CloudDeakin site. All requests for extensions should be supported by appropriate evidence (e.g., a medical certificate in the case of ill health).

Applications for extensions after 12 noon on the submission date require University level special consideration and these applications must be must be submitted via StudentConnect in your DeakinSync site.

Late submission penalties

If you submit an assessment task after the due date without an approved extension or special consideration, 5% will be deducted from the available marks for each day after the due date up to seven days*. Work submitted more than seven days after the due date will not be marked and will receive 0% for the task. The Unit Chair may refuse to accept a late submission where it is unreasonable or impracticable to assess the task after the due date. *'Day' means calendar day for electronic submissions and working day for paper submissions.

An example of how the calculation of the late penalty based on an assignment being due on a Thursday at 8:00pm is as follows:

• 1 day late: submitted after Thursday 11:59pm and before Friday 11:59pm 5%

• 2 days late: submitted after Friday 11:59pm and before Saturday 11:59pm 10%

• 3 days late: submitted after Saturday 11:59pm and before Sunday 11:59pm 15%

• 4 days late: submitted after Sunday 11:59pm and before Monday 11:59pm 20%

• 5 days late: submitted after Monday 11:59pm and before Tuesday 11:59pm 25%

• 6 days late: submitted after Tuesday 11:59pm and before Wednesday 11:59pm 30%

• 7 days late: submitted after Wednesday 11:59pm and before Thursday 11:59pm 35%

The Dropbox closes the Thursday after 11:59pm AEST time.

Support

The Division of Student Life provides a range of Study Support resources and services, available throughout the academic year, including Writing Mentor and Maths Mentor online drop ins and the SmartThinking 24 hour writing feedback service at this link. If you would prefer some more in depth and tailored support, make an appointment online with a Language and Learning Adviser.

Referencing and Academic Integrity

Deakin takes academic integrity very seriously. It is important that you (and if a group task, your group) complete your own work in every assessment task Any material used in this assessment that is not your original work must be acknowledged as such and appropriately referenced. You can find information about referencing (and avoiding breaching academic integrity) and other study support resources at the following website: http://www.deakin.edu.au/students/study-support

Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (genAI) in this Assessment

Deakin welcomes the opportunity to engage with emerging technologies in education and seeks to build your capability in the ethical and responsible use of current and emergent technology. Deakin also upholds a commitment to academic integrity and to ensuring high-quality educational outcomes that prepare you for an AI-driven future.

The use of genAI for pre-task planning purposes is appropriate in this assessment task. To support your learning in this assessment task, it is recommended that you limit genAl use to idea development and brainstorming. Your final submission should be your own work and show how you have developed and refined these ideas and what you have learnt in this unit.

It is important that you take responsibility for your final submission, including:

• Evaluating the accuracy and quality of any genAI generated

• Acknowledging how you used genAI tools in this assessment to ensure you are making informed decisions about your learning, demonstrating learning you have gained in the unit, and acting with

Please use the Acknowledgement statements to guide how you acknowledge the use of genAI in this assessment.

Your rights and responsibilities as a student

As a student you have both rights and responsibilities. Please refer to the document Your rights and responsibilities as a student in the Unit Guide & Information section in the Content area in the CloudDeakin unit site.