BUS 410: Research Methods for Business

 

Reverse Engineering Assignment

Instructions

Please create a report and also a YouTube video.  I want you to create a video this week because in week 7 you are creating a high stakes 7 to 10 minute video and I want you to practice using Screencast-o-matic and uploading a video to YouTube when you don’t have as much at stake as you will have in week 7.

I urge you to start learning/practicing how to copy the Tableau output into a MS Word and ultimately PDF file for presentation into a report…..this will be part of the process in your Midterm assignment report.

Let me remind you that there is a digital copy of the Murray book available in the Newman library.  It is a recommended reading item.  Perhaps you will find useful tips if you scan the index.  The recommended chapter for this week is chapter 5, maps.  With all of the geospatial information that is being captured each day, ideas in this chapter may be very useful to you now and in the future.

Please reverse engineer a Tableau visualization and make a YouTube video explaining the deconstruction of the visualization process. Remember to reference your course textbook (Murray) and the concepts we have covered previously when it comes time to work on the Assignments. 

The goal of this week’s assignment is to give you a practical hands-on experience with working with real life data in preparation for your midterm project. The assignment starts with you selecting a source Article/Visualization. Each source Article/Visualization is embedded in a detailed report. The source Article/Visualization examples also include a dataset, from which the visualizations are generated. The reports in these source Article/Visualization examples are similar to what you will generate for your midterm report.

On the Make Over Monday website the data is grouped by years (2018, 2017, 2016 etc) for each year there are Weekly, Daily, Data, and Source Articles/Visualizations. The data from 2018 is from Data.world while that from 2017 is in different formats (XLS TDE, CSV TDE etc). Most of the data in 2016 is in XLS format. Pick what works for you.

 

Your assignment is to

1.      pick one source Article/Visualization from the website ()

2.      study the source Article/Visualization in detail

3.      download the data associated with the source Article/Visualization

4.      recreate the visualizations (reverse-engineer) using Tableau

5.      copy the output from Tableau into a Ms Word document (or other word processor), include brief comments accompanying your visualizations at the appropriate sections to mimic the reports

6.      the final report should closely resemble the source Article/Visualization and should be in a PDF file format

7.      Create a 3 to 4 minute video describing your reverse engineering process

8.      Submit your final report in PDF file format to Blackboard. Include the link for your YouTube video in the comments area when you make your submission.

Your final report should closely resemble the report and visualizations you are reverse engineering. You don’t need all the details….but just enough text to show that you understand how to integrate visualizations and text to generate a comprehensive well formatted report.

Additionally, make sure it is easy for your readers to pick the key information from your reports. A picture is worth a thousand words….or so the saying goes.  Aim for quality and not quantity in your visualizations. Remember, the TMT (Top Management Team) members have limited time to wade through detailed reports and thus you should aim at capturing their attention ASAP.

To copy/capture the screenshots of your Tableau output into a word processor program (e.g. Ms Word document) you can use the free “snipping tool” on your computer. Use the search section on your device (click the windows logo on the bottom left corner) and enter snipping tool. If not sure how to use the snipping tool, google is a good friend. I also use the MS Word Screen Clipping function:

 

The reports in these examples are similar to what you will generate for your midterm report.

Below are some sample URLs that will direct you to sample reports (you don’t have to use these examples).

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Grading Criteria for Reverse-Engineering Videos

Demonstrate Tableau proficiency: Do a good job of explaining how Tableau is used to make interesting, sophisticated visualizations and dashboards.	2 points
Technological competence: Upload your video to YouTube as public or unlisted not as private. I should be able to hear your presentation and the image should be large enough so that I can read anything important on the screen.  Your video should be between 3 and 4 minutes long, points will be deducted if it is longer than 4 minutes.	1 point
Teaching style: Your presentation should be easy to understand, well organized and entertaining.  It is not easy to fit all of your compelling ideas into 4 minutes so write and follow a script.  Identify the visualization’s or dashboard’s research question.	1 points
Demonstrate academic skill: Include a 200 word description of your project with reference(s) for the website or organization your data is from.  Include the Tableau file that your project is based upon.	1 points
Meet the deadline: Submit your video link on or before the due date.  Paste the link for your video in the comments area when you submit the Tableau file and your script as a Word file to BlackBoard.	1 point
Reflect upon what you accomplished: Provide an explanation of what you learned by completing this project.  Tell us what the purpose of your spreadsheet is.  Describe a particular feature you learned that you found helpful in the completing this project.	1 point

 

The video must be of the Tableau screen with the cursor moving around as you explain what you are doing. This is a “how to” video. You do not need a webcam, I don’t want to see your charming countenance. 

I recommend that you create the video using Screencast-O-Matic: .  You can also use your Smartphone or other mobile device to create the video, for example just point the camera on your Smartphone towards your computer, make the video and upload it to your computer.  

Upload your video to YouTube.  You need to have a Gmail account.  Once you are logged on, follow the prompts.  After your video is uploaded, a link that you can post on Blackboard will be created. 

WikiHow (n.d.), .

It is important to make the privacy setting for your videos public or unlisted.  If you set a video to private, I will not be able to access it. See: Studio 300 Blog, March 11, 2014,  

The following excerpt from the textbook Business Intelligence: A Managerial Perspective on Analytics may be helpful to you. 

·       Think of your analysis as a Story – Use a Story Structure

·       When crafting a data-rich story, the first objective is to find the story.  Who are the characters?  What is the drama or challenge?  What hurdles have to be overcome?  And at the end of your story, what do you want your audience to do as a result?

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