UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS: 2019/2020
EXAMINATION FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE IN
DATA ANALYTICS
MDA 5301: LOGIC, SENSE MAKING&BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE
ORDINARY EXAMINATIONS
DATE: MAY, 2020 TIME: 14 DAYS
INSTRUCTIONS: Answer ALL Questions
Take-Home Examination (THE)
QUESTION ONE (50 MARKS)
In broad terms, business intelligence systems are used to maintain, optimize and streamline
current operations. The term refers to technologies, applications and practices for the collection,
integration, analysis and presentation of business information. The purpose of business
intelligence is to support data-driven business decision making. Business intelligence is
sometimes used interchangeably with briefing books, report and query tools, and executive
information systems.
BI improves and maintains operational efficiency and helps companies increase organizational
productivity. Business intelligence software offers many benefits, including powerful reporting
and data analytics capabilities. Using BI’s rich data visualization mechanisms like real-time
dashboards, managers can generate intuitive, readable reports that contain relevant, actionable
data.
So BI offers reporting and analytics — isn’t that just two words for the same thing? Many people
both in and outside the software industry incorrectly use reporting and analytics interchangeably,
which is one cause for the confusion behind the BA/BI conflation. Reporting is “the process of
organizing data into informational summaries in order to monitor how different areas of a
business are performing.” It gathers data and delivers it in a digestible format. Analytics is “the
process of exploring data and reports in order to extract meaningful insights, which can be used
to better understand and improve business performance.” This function takes the “what” of the
data given by reporting and draws conclusions and insights, offering users a “why” and “how.”
Basically, reporting functions present data, and analytics features interpret data. Both are crucial
features and will typically be offered by both BA and BI solutions.
Additionally, business intelligence tools can analyze financial and operational statistics, identify
weak areas and provide ways to address these issues. The trends found through data analysis help
companies make better-informed, data-driven decisions. Other common BI features include data
visualizations, decision services, integrations and online analytical processing (OLAP). Data
visualizations serve a purpose similar to reporting. Both features function as a tool for the
organization and presentation of data. Visualizations amplify reporting functions by offering data
representations in an easy-to-interpret medium. Decision services narrow the focus of business
intelligence to financial reporting, with many systems offering built-in compliance measures and
fraud detection.
Integration capabilities ensure a business intelligence system can work seamlessly with
currently-in-place tools. Furthermore, integration features help pull data from multiple sources,
from in-house databases to more complex Big Data centers. Many BI tools employ online
analytical processing (OLAP) to perform sophisticated, multi-dimensional, drill-down analysis.
In addition, BI offers a goal management function. Managers are able to program data based on
goals, which may include sales goals, productivity measures or financial objectives, on a daily
basis. BI features contribute to the goal of providing an awareness of current business practices.
Popular business intelligence solutions include: QlikView, SAP Business Objects, Microsoft
Power BI, IBM Cognos and Microstrategy. When considering the virtues of business intelligence
software and the ways it differs from business analytics, it is important to acknowledge the
function of BI as an evaluator of the past and present. It is used to make improvements right
now. Business intelligence systems examine data on performance, finances, media reach and
more, and report the information in a format that can be interpreted in a useful way. With the
insights provided by business intelligence software, organizations can use their data to improve
current processes.
REQUIRED;
1. Review the literature to identify and understand the state of the art business intelligence
techniques
2. Suggest a novel technique that you feel has never been applied in BI
3. Using a case (business, natural phenomena, governments etc) of your own choice to give
suggestions of how your chosen technique can be operationalized.
4. Write a scholarly report
Note: Plagiarism will attract 0 mark for the entire report.
(50 Marks)
