learning journal

Course Overview

Great analysts are more than mere data users; they are key decision makers and strategic owners in their underlying data processes. As such, analysts team up with and rely heavily upon their technology partners. Where these two groups intersect, innovation is part of dynamic business decisions. In that dynamism, the two groups cooperate from their own perspectives, and struggles can emerge as each group roots their work in their own specialties. Unexpectedly, the languages and techniques on both sides can drive apart individuals in ways that impede the timely delivery of useful information into the hands of the analysts. This core course helps bridge that gap by developing your knowledge of data technology concepts, leading to more informed decisions for quantitative projects.

The course looks at key topics that frequently occur within techno-analytic conversations. Course material will cover three meta-concepts that are common stumbling blocks in defining new work: the Technology/Analyst Relationship, Database Engines and Associated Technology, and Data System Governance.

Throughout the course, you will work in groups and individually to examine key questions and key decision criteria, and to experience the challenges, frustrations, and resolutions of developing a Business Requirements document for an analytics project. To that end, you and your classmates will interact and present group deliverables each week. You will also participate in discussions that focus on the process of working on both sides of the Technology/Analyst Relationship.

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Learning Objectives

By the end of the course, you will be able to:

• Articulate data-driven business enhancements and requirement needs to business technology partners

• Develop useful criteria when seeking potential data vendors and sources

• Identify the key differences between relational databases such as Oracle and MSFT SQL Server; big data tools such as NoSQL; open source technologies; and hybrid design approaches

• Be conversant in the common elements of database servers and storage, as well as design implications (pros and cons)

• Plan for governance of your data driven system

• Utilize reflection for continued improvement of your work with technology groups

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Required Readings

Please find below the list of required resources. Additional recommended resources are identified in the Course Schedule. Access to all resources can be found in the individual modules and through the Course Reserves list.

• Baker, P., & Gourley, B. (2014). Data divination: Big data strategies. Boston: Course Technology PTR. Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, & 6.

• Boulton, C. (2016, February 5). Disconnect between CIOs and LOB managers weakens data quality. Retrieved February 22, 2016, from http://www.cio.com/article/3030249/business-analytics/disconnect-between-cios-and-lob-managers-weakens-data-quality.html 

• Goldsmith, R. F. (2004). Discovering real business requirements for software project success. Boston, MA: Artech House. Chapter 3.

• Podeswa, H. (2009). The business analyst's handbook. Boston, MA: Course Technology PTR. Chapters 1 , 4, 5, and 6. 

• Cadle, J. (2014). Developing information systems: Practical guidance for IT professionals. London: BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT. Chapters 2, 4,  & 5. 

• Charles, L. (2015, October 29). Have zombies taken over your IT department? Retrieved February 22, 2016, from http://www.cio.com/article/2998270/leadership-management/have-zombies-taken-over-your-it-department.html

• Davis, B., & Radford, D. (2014). Going beyond the waterfall: Managing scope effectively across the project life cycle. J. Ross Publishing. Chapters 7 & 8.

• White, S. K. (2015, November 10). Study reveals that most companies are failing at big data. Retrieved February 22, 2016, from http://www.cio.com/article/3003538/big-data/study-reveals-that-most-companies-are-failing-at-big-data.html

• Erl, T. K., Wajid; Buhler, Paul. (2016). Big Data Fundamentals: Concepts, Drivers & Techniques. Boston: Prentice Hall. Chapters 5, 6, & 7.

• Kudyba, Stephan. Big Data, Mining, and Analytics: Components of Strategic Decision Making. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2014. Chapters 2, 3, & 6. 

• Choi, Y.-L. J., Woo-Seong; Yoon, Seok-Hwan. (2014). Improving Database System Performance by Applying NoSQL. Journal of Information Processing Systems, 10(3), 355-364.

• Azarmi, B. (2016). Scalable Big Data Architecture: A Practitioner’s Guide to Choosing Relevant Big Data Architecture. New York: Apress. Chapters 2 & 4.

• Lake, P., Drake, R., & Hill, R. (2014). Information systems management in the big data era. Cham: Springer International Publishing. Chapters 8 & 10. 

• Achari, S. (2015). Hadoop Essentials. Birmingham, [England] Packt Publishing. Chapter 1.  

• Datasift. (n.d.). Introducing Human Data Intelligence. Retrieved from http://datasift.com/library/introducing-human-data-intelligence/

• Datasift. (n.d.). Delivering Human Data Intelligence. Retrieved from http://datasift.com/library/delivering-human-data-intelligence/ 

• Ishikawa, H. (2015). Social big data mining. Boca Raton: CRC Press. Chapters 1, 2, & 4. 

• Smallwood, R. F. (2014). Information Governance: Concepts, Strategies, and Best Practices. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. Chapters 1, 3, & 4.

• Groskopf, C. (2015). The Quartz guide to bad data [Web log post]. Retrieved February 23, 2016, from https://github.com/Quartz/bad-data-guide/blob/master/README.md

• WNYC News. (2015, December 22). Are Your Numbers Naughty or Nice? [Audio blog post]. Retrieved February 23, 2016, from http://www.wnyc.org/story/numbers-naughty-or-nice/  

• Aiken, P. (2013). The case for the chief data officer: Recasting the C-suite to leverage your most valuable asset.  Walthan, MA: Morgan Kaufman.

• Chen, M. M., Shiwen; Zhang, Yin; Leung, Victor C.M. (2014). Big Data: Related Technologies, Challenges and Future Prospects. Sham [Switzerland]: Springer. Chapters 2 & 4. 

• Rajkumar Buyya, James Broberg, Andrzej Goscinski.(2013). Cloud computing: Principles and paradigms. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

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Course Requirements (Assignments)

Create a Project Requirements Document for a Data Dependent Technology Project

One of the closest moments of interaction between technology and business partners is during the development of a project requirements document. In this course, you will work in groups to develop mock project Requirements Documents. The assignment will give you an opportunity to experience firsthand the respective challenges business and technology partners encounter when working on a Requirements Document.

The assignment has two parts. In Part I, your Requirements Document group will develop a business case and prepare the business requirements section of a Requirements Document. Your group will need to make sure that the analytical problem/needs are detailed clearly, and in a way that both the business and the technology sides can understand. The business requirement section should include a clear problem and purpose statement with as much detail about business usage, anticipated data volume, access needs, uptime needs, retention—and any other requirements necessary for the business to do their work. The section should be no more than four pages long.

In Part II, you will take on the role of the technology partners. Specifically, you will work with your group to prepare the functional/technical specifications for a Requirements Document that another group (acting as the business partners) started in Part I of the assignment. The functional/technical specifications section must be detailed and clear with explanation on how the technology supports the business requirements. The section should be no more than four pages long.

Across the Requirements Documents, all specifications must provide enough explanation so that the clients can understand if the technical solution is a good fit and the technologists fully understand the business problem they need to solve.

There are multiple assignment deliverables built into the semester. The deliverables are as follows:

• Submit Draft 1 of the business requirements section of your group’s assigned Requirements Document.

• Submit the final business requirements section of your group’s assigned Requirements Document.

• Submit Draft 1 of the functional/technology specifications section of your group’s assigned Requirements Document.

• Submit the final functional/technology specifications section of your group’s assigned Requirements Document.

It is expected that groups will interact between submissions and class meetings through discussion forums on the course site. You will receive feedback from the instructor during weekly breakouts at the class meetings.

Develop a Learning Journal

Learning is enhanced by reflecting on and explicating what you have learned. To this end, you will submit a learning journal twice during the course—once at the midpoint and again at the end of the course. The journal is an individual assignment. In the first journal submission, you will submit a 1-2 page summary of the key issues, resolutions, and learning from the first half of the course. In the second submission, you will write a 1-2 page reflection of the group project (e.g., insights you plan to apply beyond the course, challenges that arose and how you overcame them, revisions you would make to either section of the Requirements Document). Both journal submissions will be read and graded by the instructor.

Group Presentations

Your Requirements Document group will present its work twice during the semester—once after the business requirements section is due and once after the technical requirements section is due.

You should treat the presentations as though they are updates to senior management. The presentations may use slides, or other presentation forms as determined by your group. For the first presentation, you will have five minutes to share an executive summary of the business problem. For the second, you will have five minutes to describe the technology solution your group created and then another five minutes to discuss the appropriateness, advantages, and challenges of the solution with the group that defined the business need.

You are required to represent your group and contribute to both presentations. It is up to each group how its members contribute.

Class Participation

In addition to attendance, participation includes three distinct elements: class meeting group work, course site reflective posts, and interaction during presentations from classmates and guest speakers. Active participation in the group activities is required, as is active audience participation (when your group is not presenting).

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Evaluation / Grading

The final grade will be calculated as described below:

The assignments (detailed in the section above) will be evaluated as follows:

Group Requirements Document - Business Portion: As mentioned above, deliverables throughout the semester will be tracked as complete/incomplete based on timely submission. The final grade for this assignment will be based on a 30 point scale as described below

• 10 Points: You will receive 5 points for each of the Requirements Document development discussion forums you participate in between Live Sessions.

• 5 Points: You will receive 5 points for uploading Business Requirements Draft 1. The first draft will be marked complete upon timely submission.

• 15 Points: You will be able to earn up to 15 points for the final business requirements portion of the Requirements Document. You will be evaluated on the criteria outlined in the assignment description above. A detailed rubric can be found in the course site.

Group Requirements Document - Technology Portion As mentioned above, deliverables throughout the semester will be tracked as complete/incomplete based on timely submission. The final grade for this assignment will be based on a 30 point scale as described below

• 10 Points: You will receive 5 points for each of the Requirements Document development discussion forums you participate in between Live Sessions.

• 5 Points: You will receive 5 points for uploading Functional Specification Draft 1. The first draft will be marked complete upon timely submission.

• 15 Points: You will be able to earn up to 15 points for the final Functional/Technology Specification portion of the Requirements Document. You will be evaluated on the criteria outlined in the assignment description above. A detailed rubric can be found in the course site.

Learning Journal: This deliverable is worth 10 points. Each learning journal submissions is worth 5 points. The process of thinking through and creating the journal entries is the learning exercise – and as such the journal entries will not be graded.

Group Presentations: As noted above, your groups will be responsible for two structured presentations detailing your Requirements Document group work. Your group will participate in two presentations: one after completing the business requirements section and another after completing the technical requirements. Your presentations will be assessed on their thoroughness and consistency of logic and process.

Class Participation (Live Sessions & Course Site): This grade is based on attendance, and contributions to class discussions in Live Sessions and across the course site. Full participation includes your ability to link the required readings and optional resources you select each week with the module topic as demonstrated in various class discussions.

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Policies & Expectations:

Participation and Attendance

You are expected to do all assigned readings, attend all class sessions, and engage with others in online discussions. Your participation will require that you answer questions, defend your point of view, and challenge the point of view of others. If you need to miss a class for any reason, please discuss the absence with me in advance.

Late Work

There will be no credit granted to any written assignment that is not submitted on the due date noted in the course syllabus without advance notice and permission from the instructor.

Citation & Submission

All written assignments must use APA formatting, cite sources, and be submitted to the course website (not via email).

Academic Integrity

All work is expected to be original either from team effort or individual design; cheating and plagiarism will not be tolerated. It is fundamental University policy that academic dishonesty in any guise or personal conduct of any sort that disrupts the life of the University or denigrates or endangers members of the University community is unacceptable and will be dealt with severely. It is essential to the academic integrity and vitality of this community that individuals do their own work and properly acknowledge the circumstances, ideas, sources and assistance upon which that work is based.

Academic honesty in class assignments and exams is expected of all students at all times. SPS holds each member of its community responsible for understanding and abiding by the SPS Academic Integrity and Community Standards. You are required to read these standards within the first few days of class. Ignorance of the School's policy concerning academic dishonesty shall not be a defense in any disciplinary proceedings.

Copyright Policy

Please note—Due to copyright restrictions, online access to this material is limited to instructors and students currently registered for this course. Please be advised that by clicking the link to the electronic materials in this course, you have read and accept the following:

The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted materials. Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction.

One of these specified conditions is that the photocopy or reproduction is not to be "used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research." If a user makes a request for, or later uses, a photocopy or reproduction for purposes in excess of "fair use," that user may be liable for copyright infringement.

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Course Schedule

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Course Summary: