How Universities are Filling the Analytics Skills Gap

Hettie Tabor, Director of Master of Science in Business Analytics, Southern Methodist University

Ruth Gilleran, Senior Lecturer of Information Technology, Babson College

Today’s Presenters

Tableau and the

SMU Cox

MSBA Program

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Hettie Tabor

Director, Master of Science in Business

Analytics Program

Overview

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The Master of Science in Business Analytics (MSBA) degree at SMU Cox provides students with the expertise and specialized skills that employers in IT, marketing, operations and consulting are demanding now. The broad and intensive curriculum across a range of management disciplines and functions explores the latest methods of translating data into relevant information for decision-makers. In less than one year, the MSBA program prepares students to launch successful careers in the burgeoning field of business analytics.

The Master of Science in Business Analytics program began in 2014Check out our website: http://www.cox.smu.edu/web/msba-program/master-of-science-in-business-analytics.

The MSBA is a 33 credit hour, two semester (four, 7-week Modules) degree and is "jointly owned" by the Information Technology and Operations Management (ITOM) Department and the Marketing Department within the SMU Cox Business School.

Students have the option of two program specialization, or tracks: Business Process Analytics and Customer Analytics

Instruction is in traditional classroom with all courses being taught on the Main Campus.

Students enroll in the fall semester and graduate in May Class size is approximately 60 students Candidates come from a variety of backgrounds including

undergraduate degrees in economics, math, engineering and science and BBA graduates

The MSBA degree provides students with a both broad and intensive education in business analytics across a range of management disciplines and functions.

Graduates will be well prepared for jobs in IT, marketing, operations and consulting fields.

The MSBA Program has introduced a course called Data Visualization. In this course,

students are taught how to effectively communicate the results of the business

analytics that they perform, in both written and oral presentation. The key questions for

the analytic communications are: What is happening? Why is it happening? What

should we do from here?

The objective of this course is to enable students to learn:

• What Data Visualization is

• Best Methods of Communicating with Data

• Table and Graph Design Best Practices

• How to use a Data Visualization Tool (Tableau)

• How to tell a Story

This course is designed for Master of Science in Business Analytics (MSBA) students

who want to learn how to understand, document, analyze and improve data

visualization skills.

By the time students have completed this course, they will be able to:

• Understand and apply the principles and best practices of data visualization

• Design and implement data visualization using Tableau

Books: Show Me the Numbers, Designing Tables and Graphs to Enlighten, Analytics

Press, Second Edition, Stephen Few

Exercises are done using Tableau.

Data Visualization

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Day 1 Introduction to Data Visualization

• Statistics and Analytics

• Quantitative Relationships

• Quantitative (Facts/Measures) and Categorical (Dimensions)

• Relationships with Categories

• Relationships between Quantities

• Measures of Average

• Measures of Variation

• Data Joins

• Data Blending

• Connecting to Data

• Refreshing Extracts

Data Visualization Guidelines and Tables

• Best Methods of Communication

• Tables

• Table Terminology

• When to Use Tables

• Table Design Best Practices

• Fundamental Variations in Tables

Tableau Overview

• Marks Card

• Pages

• Filters

Syllabus – Day 1

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Data Visualization Guidelines and Charts

Graphs

• History of Graphs

• Graph Terminology

• When to Use Tables versus Graphs

• General Graph Design

• Basic Design Principles

• Gestalt Laws

• Visual Perception and Graphical Communications

• Charts

• Pie Charts

• Bar Charts

• Line Charts

• Area Charts

• Points

• Scatter Plots

• Bubble Charts

• Correlation

Syllabus – Day 2

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Geospatial Graphs – Mapping and Images

• Basic Mapping

• Web Map Services

• Background Images

• Custom Geocoding

Dashboard

StoryPoints

Advanced Graphics

• Paths

• Histograms

• Box Plots

• Tree Maps

• Word Clouds

• Waterfall Charts

• Bump Charts

• Control Charts

• Benford’s Law

Syllabus – Day 3

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Syllabus – Day 4

Syllabus – Day 5

Group Dashboard / Presentations

Syllabus – Day 6&7

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Syllabus – Day 8 – Final Exam

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Agenda

1. About Babson

2. Where we use Tableau

3. How we use Tableau

Welcome

• Babson CollegeSenior Lecturer, Technology Operations and Information Management Division

2001-2016 (15 years)

Teach executive education, graduate, and undergraduate courses in Business Intelligence, Social Business, Software Project Design and Development and general IT concepts

• Computer AssociatesAssistant Vice President Business Applications

1985-2000 (15 years)

Entrepreneurial Thought & ActionRanked Number #1 School in Entrepreneurship for the past 19 consecutive years by US News and World Reports

Entrepreneurship of all kinds

Entrepreneurial Thought and Action

How It All Started…

• 2012-2013: Industry Board (BCG, EMC,

IBM, Rexar Analytics, IDG) identified data

visualization as a key aspect of data analytics

• 2013: Business Analytics concentrations

introduced at the MBA and undergraduate

level

• Fall 2013: Introduced Tableau in the core

courses for the concentration

Undergraduate Courses

Department Core/Elective Course

InformationTechnology

Core (sophomores) Managing Information System (SME2012)

Elective (sophomores-seniors)

Business Intelligence and Data Analytics (MIS3545)

Math Elective (sophomores-seniors)

Case Studies in Business Analytics (QTM2000)

Graduate Courses

Department Core/Elective Course

Information Technology

MBA Core Global Connections Through Technology (MIS7200)

Elective Competing on Analytics Using Technology (MIS9530)

Math Elective Introduction to Data Science and Business Analytics (QTM9515)

We Don’t Teach

Tableau

We teach

Storytelling

&

The Power of

Data Visualization

Aristotle’s Appeals

Logos (Logical appeal) – The data (In

God we trust, all others must bring

data!)

Ethos (Credible appeal) – Knowledge

on data sources and data quality

Pathos (Emotional appeal) – Use of

colors, shapes, sizes, chart types

65% of People are Visual Learners…(neglected majority)

“I prefer images, colors, structures, touch, positions and emotions…. to text.”

Source: Tableau Software, Jason Schumacher

Source: Tableau Software, Jason Schumacher

Color Choice Matters

Use the same color to represent the same variable so the

readers can focus on comparing the data

Color Continued

Use graduating shades of one color or colors on the same

side of the color wheel so readers can focus on the data

We Don’t Teach

Tableau

The Students Use It

Undergraduate School

Session Preparation

We Display Targets (KPIs) on

Dashboards

Graduate School

Using data they mock-up in Excel,

students build dashboards for

SMB clients

Using Tableau sample data and data

marketplace data, students tell stories

Tableau Support Many Data Sources

Data Marketplaces

Source URL Description

Amazon http://aws.amazon.com/datasets Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Climate, Economic, Encyclopedic, Geographic,

Mathematics ( NOTE: With exception of the genome data, most of the data sets are

dated 2009.)

Factual http://www.factual.com/products#location-data Restaurants, doctors, hotels, local businesses, Yelp, Facebook, Foursquare

Finance http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~%20adamodar/New_H

ome_Page/data.html

Corporate governance, discount rate estimation, performance measures, capital

structures, dividend policy, cash flow estimation, growth rate estimation, multiples,

option pricing models

Geo Sites http://geocommons.com/ Agriculture, business and labor, demographics, economic and financial, education,

geographical boundaries, government and politics, health and medicine,

infrastructure, law enforcement, military and defense, real estate, retail, science and

environment, sports and culture, technology, travel

Government -

Federal

https://explore.data.gov/catalog/raw Data collected by the US Federal Government Executive Branch. 5800 datasets.

Search by government agency, office, or bureau.

Government-

Census

http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/ Population, births, deaths, health, and labor force

Machine

Learning

http://archive.ics.uci.edu/ml/datasets.html Datasets for machine learning. Life sciences, physical sciences, engineering, social

sciences, business, game, other)

Marketing http://research.chicagobooth.edu/kilts/marketing-

databases

Nielsen data-consumer panel data and retail scanner data.

Microsoft http://datamarket.azure.com/ Automotive, industrial, aerospace, finance, communications, consumer goods,

distribution, data quality, demographics, government, health and wellness, high tech,

electronics, manufacturing, media and entertainment, real estate, retail, hospitality,

science, statistics, sports, games, transportation, navigation, weather, climate

Transportation http://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/data_and_statistics/dat

abases

US Department of Transportation, Research and Innovation Technology

Administration (RITA), Bureau of Transportation Statistics (airline data, ferries,

border crossing, imports and exports, household travel survey , trans border freight

data

What’s Next….

• Explore additional datasets

• Beyond data visualization, Tableau for data exploration

RGILLERAN@BABSON.EDU

781-239-6469

Live Q&A

Questions? • Academic Programs: tft@tableau.com• Hettie Tabor: htabor@smu.edu• Ruth Gilleran: rgilleran@babson.edu