COURSEWORK SPECIFICATION 2017 - TASK 2 : BIA DESIGN & SCRIPT SUMMARY UPDATES FROM ORIGINAL VERSION ARE HIGHLIGHTED IN YELLOW You will explore a data set in Tableau to develop actionable business information against a scenario and communicate this through a visual story that explains and justifies a datainformed decision. You will also produce a written script to accompany the graphics that includes explanation and justification of the decision and the designs used to inform and communicate it. All references cited in these documents must be listed. You will need to submit three files as a result of this activity … i. ii. iii. a Tableau packaged workbook containing a data informed story (TWBX); a script to support the story with commentary on decision & designs (plain text); a document containing a full list of all references cited in the work (PDF). BI&A SCENARIO Leicestershire County Council must save £500,000 from its annual Library Services budget by reducing the opening hours of libraries across the county. As an intelligence officer in local government you must explore and analyse a data set in which daily library usage is recorded over a period of up to one year. You must develop and then present an actionable recommendation for reducing library opening hours over the full year to meet this target. The recommendation must be justified by the data. You must do this in a short scripted presentation to local government executives. The executives are not familiar with the libraries data, but will make a decision based upon your data-informed proposal. You have been asked to present a slide-deck of 3 static1 dashboards that show actionable information selected and derived from the data. The dashboards must do so with clarity and in meaningful and compelling ways. You will use a written script in conjunction with the graphics when presenting your case. This decision justification explains and justifies your proposed course of action. It must : i. summarise operational issues - setting the context with an overview of the current library system across the county as described by the data; ii. make strategic recommendations - explain your actionable recommendation and the rationale for this proposed course of action; iii. consider implications - identify any consequences of the proposal suggested by your assessment of the data in terms of service provision and access to services No animation, dynamism, filtering, highlighting, zooming, panning, etc. are allowed in your story. We will just click through the storypoints.. Imagine the dashboards are going to be printed on paper. 1 JASON DYKES / AIDAN SLINGSBY V4 - 22/03/17 1/6 COURSEWORK SPECIFICATION 2017 - TASK 2 : BIA DESIGN & SCRIPT The written script should complement the graphics – using the information that they reveal as a basis for the proposal and making reference to relevant data, patterns and labels. You must also produce a short scripted presentation for colleagues in the Business Intelligence & Analytics group at your organization. This second written script is a design justification that explains the challenges faced and choices made in developing your graphics, and provides a rationale for these. You must make reference to established principles for effective data graphics that inform these decisions, identify design challenges and explain and justify design solutions. Presentations like this on the designs produced by Business Intelligence & Analytics are considered to be good reflective professional practice within the unit in which you work. Design justification presentations amongst colleagues help to establish a knowledge base of best practice in your unit. Both scripts will be read in conjunction with the graphics used in the story and should thus make direct reference to them and the features they show. They should be written so that they could be read aloud by a colleague who was presenting your decision to the executives or your design to your colleagues. In reality, the academics marking your coursework will use a screen reader to read the scripts aloud as they consider your story. So you must use full sentences. Bullets, tables and text in note form are not appropriate. You must operate within the following constraints : • libraries must remain a generally accessible service to citizens • libraries may be opened at times when they are currently closed • libraries can't open more than once on any day – opening and closing is expensive, so once they are closed, libraries remain closed for the rest of the day • libraries must be accessible to residents of each district outside of the 9-5 weekday period every week • you may vary schedules for different libraries, but you must recommend the same schedule for each individual library in each week of a season. A season consists of no less than three consecutive months. Seasons begin and end at the same time for all libraries and you may only schedule two seasons in the year in your planning. The libraries are of three different types, each with different fixed costs per hour open : • major libraries cost £750 per hour open; • shopping libraries cost £500 per hour open; • community libraries cost £250 per hour open. These costs must be used to establish savings of at least £500,000. This could be achieved in many ways, for example, by closing 5 shopping libraries (£500 per hour) for 5 hours, on 2 days over a 20 week season (5 libraries @ £500 per hour * 200 hours of closures = £500,000). We are looking for more sophisticated and data informed ways of achieving this total. JASON DYKES / AIDAN SLINGSBY V4 - 22/03/17 2/6 COURSEWORK SPECIFICATION 2017 - TASK 2 : BIA DESIGN & SCRIPT LIBRARY USAGE DATA You have access to a data set that contains the names, types and locations of a series of libraries along with the numbers of issues made at these sites for each hour of each day over a period of up to one year. An issue involves a book or other item being loaned from the library by a library user. For the purposes of the scenario we can relate the number of issues to demand for the library service in a particular location at any particular time. However, as with almost all business data sets the library usage data contains some uncertainties. We do not have specific data about current library opening hours – these must be inferred from the numbers of issues and, assuming that libraries have the same schedule each week, the weekly patterns that you detect. Note however that issues are not related to hourly periods with great certainty – sometimes it takes a while for an issue to be registered. In fact, at times, where there is a backlog or where staff shortages occur, issues are actually registered by staff when the library is closed! The data set has another interesting feature. All times when < 5 issues have been recorded at any particular library have been removed. Unless you find evidence to contradict this, it is fair to assume that libraries are closed at these times. You should also assume that libraries are closed at times when the numbers of issues are >=5 but particularly low in comparison to similar times at the same site – there are no cost savings to be made here. Establishing the likely current opening hours of each library will be an important first step in determining context - what is the operational status of the Library system in Leicestershire given the data? Your data set contains a sample of the libraries that are really managed by Leicestershire County Council. Each of you has a different subset. These data sets were created through structured random sampling. For the purposes of your scenario you must assume that the libraries included in your individual data set are the only libraries in Leicestershire. Note that these data are based upon real numbers of issues kindly provided by Leicestershire County Council. The data have, however, been numerically perturbed. These data must not be forwarded to third parties. Also note that we are not expecting you to use additional information about library usage or management in this scenario – the information that you have been given regarding items issued per hour, the locations of the libraries and the default locations and mapping in Tableau should form the basis of the proposals. You may use groupings, calculations and the analytics available in Tableau, but are not expected to perform any external modelling or use auxiliary data in your work. This assessment is about exploring data with graphics, and using graphics to effectively communicate items of interest, trends and actionable information. So please make use of the data that we have provided and focus on exploring this well and communicating findings effectively with graphics. This will enable you to show your capabilities in Business Intelligence and Analytics in line with the Module Learning Outcomes. JASON DYKES / AIDAN SLINGSBY V4 - 22/03/17 3/6 COURSEWORK SPECIFICATION 2017 - TASK 2 : BIA DESIGN & SCRIPT SUBMISSION FORMAT You must make three submissions – one to each of the three assignment areas on Moodle: 1. WORKBOOK - a Tableau Packaged Workbook (TWBX) This must contain a single story entitled ‘recommendation’ that consists of 3 storypoints through which you make your case. These must focus, in the following order, on : i. overview – operational : the current spatial and temporal pattern of library usage; ii. proposal – strategic : your planned changes to opening hours that save £500,000; iii. consequences – any likely impacts in terms of citizen access to library services. Each storypoint must have associated explanatory text and labels and include a Tableau dashboard2 that uses established principles for effective design and communication to present actionable information to the executives. The Tableau storypoints must all be of landscape orientation and sized at 1400x800 pixels. You MUST submit your workbook in the TWBX format. This packages your data within the workbook. This will ensure that markers (and executives and colleagues!) are able to view your graphics. If you do not use this format then you will not receive credit for the work. 2. SCRIPT – Commentary (plain text) A short script, to be read when viewing the Tableau story. The markers will use a screen reader to play this script when they assess the work. The script must consist of two separate sections, each of no more than 250 words – so 500 words in total : i. decision justification – 250 words max … in which you detail exactly what will you say to contextualise, explain your proposal and identify implications when presenting the graphics to the executive. The script should make direct reference to storypoints, graphics and any labels and annotation that you have added to the story and comment on important features in the graphics that support your recommendations; ii. design justification – 250 words max … in which you explain, justify and rationalise the design challenges and choices you have made when presenting the graphics to your fellow intelligence officers. The script should explain your approach to visualization and discuss the most important principles, decisions and challenges involved in the exploration and design and how these have been addressed; 2 Note that ‘dashboard’ is a term used in Tableau to describe a tiled composite graphic and this is does not necessarily consist of a dashboard as a particular visualization device as discussed in the ‘Designing Dashboards’ session and described by, for example, Stephen Few. However, some of Few’s ideas may be relevant here and should be considered! JASON DYKES / AIDAN SLINGSBY V4 - 22/03/17 4/6 COURSEWORK SPECIFICATION 2017 - TASK 2 : BIA DESIGN & SCRIPT Create the text for your commentary in a word processor or text editor, complete a spelling check and then copy the text and paste it into the text entry box on Moodle. Be sure to add spaces after all full stops. Use blank lines to separate paragraphs, with two blank lines separating the decision justification from the design justification. Do not use any other formatting such as tables, indentation, bullets, bold text or italics. Markers will use a screen-reader to automatically read the script as they consider the story that you have produced in Tableau. So the script and the story should match up. 3. DOCUMENT – References (PDF) The reference list must contain comprehensive details of all sources cited in your submission. This includes academic literature, Web pages and any other sources that directly influence or inspire your designs. Use citations in the script and workbook to show specifically where and how these sources have informed your work. You must use Harvard or an established alternative style, with a minimum font size of 11pt. The reference list must consist of exactly 1 page3 and be in PDF format . You can submit in advance as many times as you wish before the deadline and are encouraged to submit early and then consider any revisions and updates subsequently. If you have any problems with or questions about the submission process, please contact your Course Officer - ANITA GRANT - who manages this process. GRADING CRITERIA Marks will be awarded for : • evidence of analytical thinking and data-informed problem solving; • the detection and communication of patterns and trends that inform decisions; • effective visualization that shows complexity with clarity; • the explicit use of established principles for visual design and communication; • solutions that address the scenario and its constraints comprehensively and in detail - including the temporal and spatial aspects of the problem and the various uncertainties involved; • presentations that relate the script and the graphics in a compelling narrative; Specific Grading Criteria accompany this Coursework Specification and should be consulted to inform your work. Do not add title or contents pages please, unless you have been diagnosed with a Specific Learning Disability by Learning Success at City University. If this is the case, then please add a title page with a yellow sticker that informs markers of your condition and any allowances that should be made. 3 JASON DYKES / AIDAN SLINGSBY V4 - 22/03/17 5/6 COURSEWORK SPECIFICATION 2017 - TASK 2 : BIA DESIGN & SCRIPT INDIVIDUAL WORK This is an individual piece of work and you will each be given access to a different data set. You must only download and consider the data set that you have been allocated – the one available to you through Moodle. These data are the only library issues data that you may refer to in your decision-making and solutions. If you are unable to access a data set, please contact your course officer – ANITA GRANT. You are welcome to support each other with general help in using Tableau, and in thinking about approaches to problem solving. However, you must not discuss or share your own solutions, scripts or justifications with other students. Accusations of academic misconduct (collusion) may arise if you are found to do so. SUBMISSION Your assessed work must be submitted via Moodle before the specified deadline. Submissions that are late or in a format other than that stated here will not be marked. A mark of zero will be returned in such cases other than where the University’s procedures for reporting extenuating circumstances have been followed and the Board of Assessment has accepted any such circumstances. You are strongly advised to check the submission deadline on Moodle immediately and to submit your work well before it. Work is only considered ‘submitted’ if a readable digital copy is uploaded through Moodle on time using the appropriate assignment mechanism. All submitted work will be analysed using the Turnitin plagiarism detection service. Where academic misconduct is deemed to have occurred a mark of zero will be returned. Where poor academic conduct is deemed to have occurred marks will be reduced significantly to account for this. JASON DYKES / AIDAN SLINGSBY V4 - 22/03/17 6/6