DSCI 5330Enterprise Applications of Business Intelligence BLB 060Fall 2015

DSCI 5330Enterprise Applications of Business Intelligence BLB 060Fall 2015

DSCI 5330Enterprise Applications of Business Intelligence BLB 060Fall 2015

Instructor: M.C. Jones Office: BLB 208A Phone: (940) 565-3167 email:

Office Hours: by appointment

Textbooks:Business Intelligence: A Managerial Perspective on Analytics, 3rd edition, 2014 by Ramesh Sharda, Dursun Delen, and Efraim Turban, Publishers: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Course Web Site:

You will need to refer to this website for various assignments and materials as well as for links to other websites you will be asked to use for the course.

Course Objectives:

  1. To develop an understanding of how Business Intelligence and business analytics (BI&A) are needed and used in managerial decision processes and everyday management situations;
  2. To develop the ability to explain how, why, and where BI&A is utilized;
  3. To develop the ability to compare and contrast different issues in current BI&A thinking;
  4. To develop an understanding of using BI&A in dealing with uncertain events;
  5. To develop an understanding of where BI&A fits in the ever evolving class of management decision making support systems.
  6. To enhance discussion and leadership skills.

Grading:

Component / Points
Exam 1 / 150
In-class assignment/discussion* / 50
Term Project / 150
Final Exam / 200
Total Points / 550

Grading Scale: 90-100 = A; 80-89 = B; 70-79 = C; 60-69 = D; <60 = F

* see details in the Discussion Points section on the last page of this syllabus
DSCI 5330 Tentative Class Schedule*

Date / Topic / Chapter / Assignment*
Aug 26 / Overview of BI, Analytics, and Decision Support / Sharda 1
Sept 2 / Overview continued / “” /
  • End of Chapter case p. 33-35

Sept 9 / Data Warehousing / Sharda 2
Sept 16 / Data Warehousing continued / “” /
  • End of chapter case pp. 90-92
  • Exercise 2 p 90
  • Application case 2.1 pp. 44-45
  • Application case 2.4 p 62 & exercise 1 p. 89

Sept 23 / Business Reporting, Visual Analytics, and Business Performance Management / Sharda 3 / (Instructor demos of various software)
Sept 30 / Business Reporting, Visual Analytics, and Business Performance Management continued / “” /
  • End of chapter case pp. 142-144
  • Application case 3.5 p. 121
  • Application case 3.6 pp. 122-124
  • Application case 3.7 pp. 129-130

Oct 7 / Data Mining / Sharda 4 /
  • Application case 4.1 pp. 150-151
  • Application case 4.2 pp. 155-156
  • Application case 4.6 pp. 189-192

Oct 14 / Exam 1
Oct 21 / Text and Web Analytics / Sharda 5
Oct 28 / Text and Web Analytics, continued / “” / Possible guest speaker
  • Opening Vignette pp. 202-204
  • Application case 5.2 pp. 211-212
  • Application case 5.3 pp. 215-217
  • Application case 5.6 pp. 231-232
  • Application case 5.8 pp. 251-252
  • End of chapter case pp. 270-271

Nov 4 / Big Data and Analytics / Sharda 6
Nov 11 / Big Data and Analytics continued / “” /
  • Opening vignette pp. 276-278
  • Application case 6.3 pp. 296-297
  • Application case 6.5 pp. 309-310
  • End of chapter case pp. 323-324

Nov 18 / Business Analytics: Emerging Trends and Future Impacts / Sharda 7 /
  • Opening vignette pp. 328-329
  • End of chapter case pp. 366-367

Nov 25 / Project Prep night
Dec 2 / Project Presentations / Projects due
Dec 9 / FINAL EXAM 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.

*assignments may be modified by the instructor to introduce new articles or cases for discussion depending on the topic and class structure
DSCI 5330 Policies and Procedures

Attendance and Class Participation:Because this course is largely interactive and depends on contributions from the class each week, attendance is critical. Although I recognize that masters students often must travel for work, excessive absences will impact your grade. In addition, while I realize that many of you drive up from D/FW and must fight traffic, coming in late disrupts class and is distracting to your colleagues learning environment. Therefore, excessive lateness will also impact your grade. Specifically, more than 3 absences may reduce your overall points by ½ a letter (5 points) and more than 6 absences will reduce your grade by 1 letter (10 points). Coming to class excessively late (defined by the instructor as 6:35 pm or after) more than 3 times may reduce your overall points by ½ a letter (5 points) and more than 6 times will reduce your overall points by 1 letter (10 points).

Endof semester evaluation of teaching: We provide two opportunities for student evaluation of teaching. One is a pencil and paper evaluation used by the College of Business in faculty annual performance evaluation. The other is the SETE which is a requirement for all organized classes at UNT. This short survey will be made available to you at the end of the semester, providing you a chance to comment on how this class is taught. I am very interested in the feedback I get from students, as I work to continually improve my teaching. I consider the evaluations to be an important part of your participation in this class. You will receive an email notification at your UNT Eagle Connect account when the evaluation process begins.

Cell Phones: You must not talk or text on your cell phones during class time. If you have a genuine emergency on a given day that requires this during class time please let me know at the start of class.

Disabilities: The College of Business Administration complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in making reasonable accommodations for qualified students with disability. If you have an established disability as defined in the ADA and would like to request accommodation, please see me as soon as possible.

Discussion Points: On the days in which discussion is indicated, you will prepare a summary and 3 or 4 questions that cover various points in the readings/exercises indicated. This should not just be a recitation of the text book. You should look to bring something external or your own experiences from work into the summary. You will present (not formal, can just do from your chair) your summary and lead the class in a short discussion of your assignment. The amount of time will depend on the assignment. Even on nights you aren’t presenting, you should read the material and be prepared to contribute to the discussion. This assignment is meant to stimulate learning beyond just what is in the assigned material and to encourage you think of ways to apply the material to practice.

I will grade you based on the quality of your summary, the questions you prepare, and the amount of discussion you generate. I anticipate that each of you should have a chance to lead at least 1 discussion for a total of 50 points. Thus, these assignments represent a total of 100 points for this portion of your grade. You should also remember that your classmates' grade depends on your contributions to their discussion, so come prepared, and don't be afraid to speak up! CAVEAT: I can’t always tell until the semester is underway how well this is going to work out. It depends on you, collectively! This is a risk I take, but I reserve the right to restructure this portion of the grading should I deem it necessary.

Term Project: This should be done in teams of 2 to 4 students. The paper will be a 8 - 10 page assessment of a particular application or topic covered in the course this semester with an eye to providing an overview of the types of business problems the subject can/does address, the advantages and disadvantages of using it, brief overview of the types of technology or packages available for it and a brief overview of 2 or 3 major vendors. I grade only the written project, but you will be presenting a summary of it in class so that everyone can learn from what you have discovered.

This course adheres to the UNT policy on academic integrity. The policy can be found at