This project will help you advise your companyâ€™s management on the cost of doing business, how to achieve success in income revenues, and make recommendations on the allocation of salaries across the company. Management will be able to use your analysis to fairly adjust salary anomalies, and also show profitability which might be used for further investments, hiring additional staff, or even employee incentive pay.
You will use mathematical operations and data analysis to solve problems and inform decision making. Your final assignment will be the creation of a comprehensive Excel workbook with supporting charts and graphs and a short analysis of the data.
This project will enable you to refresh and refine your skills in math and statistics before you tackle a real-world data set using Excel to analyze and display the data.
Quantitative reasoning uses a process similar to the qualitative research process in that you will first identify an issue or problem and then use mathematical formulas or an analytic tool to derive a solution. You will construct graphs, charts, and tables to display data and inform analysis and interpretation. You will evaluate the results of the information, draw analyses and validate them by applying them to the issue or problem.
This project will enable you to see the connection between data and how the use of quantitative analysis of that data informs solutions to practical problems with potential impact on your organization or industry.
After youâ€™ve formatted and set up your basic view and saved it with your name, youâ€™re ready to move to the next step and add data.
Now that youâ€™ve assessed and refreshed these important skills, youâ€™re ready to begin. First download the Excel template and use it to set up your spreadsheet. This step has you set up your basic view in preparation for the use of several tools.
After youâ€™ve formatted and set up your basic view and saved it with your name, youâ€™re ready to move to the next step and add data.
With your spreadsheet set up and saved with your last name, you're ready to add data. In Section 1 on the Data page, complete each column of the spreadsheet to arrive at the desired calculations.
When you're ready, move on to the next step, where you will use functions to summarize the data.
With your data built, you are now ready to start using some tools to summarize the data, using Countif and the Sum function to do the math. In this step, you'll begin to see patterns in the data and the story of the workforce.
Take a breather here if you need it. You should strive to work through the first four steps this week. Check in with your instructor.
With this step complete, youâ€™re ready to begin your analysis.
You've summarized the data, and next, you will employ descriptive or summary statistics to analyze the workforce. Your summary table described "how many." Now you will calculate mean, median, and mode for the categories of data, and derive the deviation, variance, and dispersion, and distribution. This is where it gets interesting!
Your data set in Tab 1 should now be built. Next, youâ€™ll create Tab 2: Excel Summary Stats.
With your data set built, you will now use the Analysis Toolpak to do those same functions. This is a handy feature to know. Remember that there may be some minor differences in the answers depending on the version.
You should now have Tab 2 complete: Excel Summary Stats. Next, youâ€™ll create charts and a histogram for Tabs 3 and 4.
Step 7: Create Charts and a Histogram
Where would we be without the ability to view data in charts? It is sometimes easier to grasp context of data if we can see it captured in an image. In this step, you will work with data to create charts, adding a tab for charts, and another for a histogram.
In this step, you will build Tab 3: Graphsâ€”Charts and Tab 4: Histogram. After you complete these tabs, youâ€™ll be ready to sort the data.
Youâ€™ve accomplished a lot with your data set, summary stats, charts, and histograms. Another skill youâ€™ll need to be able to do is sort data in an Excel worksheet for reporting purposes. Youâ€™ll copy the data so that you can learn how to sort it. This is a good skill that applies to any Excel application.
In this step, you will create Tab 5: Sorted Data. When youâ€™re finished, youâ€™ll be ready to conduct your quantitative analysis.

After you have answered the five questions, please finish the project by writing a short essay. Your short essay will include:
â€¢ a one-paragraph narrative summary of your findings, describing patterns of interest
â€¢ an explanation of the potential relevance of such patterns
â€¢ a description of how you would investigate further to determine if your results could be perceived as good or bad for the company.
Prepare your responses in your workbook on the QR Questions_Responses tab.
Review the requirements for the final deliverable to be sure you have:
1. Excel Workbook with Six Tabs
o Tab 1: Data â€“ completed data sheet (Steps 1â€“6 above)
o Tab 2: Excel Summary Stats (Step 6)
o Tab 3: Graphs â€“ Charts (Step 7)
o Tab 4: Histogram (Step 7)
o Tab 5: Sorted Data (Step 8)
o Quantitative Analysis (Step 9; see detail below and move to first position upon completion.)

2. Quantitative Analysis: Answers to Questions and Short Essay
Prepare your response in this workbook. Create a tab for Quantitative Analysis, create a text box, and paste your answers to the questions in it. Move the Quantitative Analysis tab to the first tab position.
Your final workbook tabs:
o Quantitative Analysis
o Data
o Excel Summary Stats
o Graphsâ€“Charts
o Histogram
o Sorted Data

3. Format to Be Printed
Format this workbook so that all the spreadsheets can be printed.
Before you submit your assignment, review the competencies below, which your instructor will use to evaluate your work. A good practice would be to use each competency as a self-check to confirm you have incorporated all of them in your work.
â€¢ 1.1: Organize document or presentation clearly in a manner that promotes understanding and meets the requirements of the assignment.
â€¢ 1.2: Develop coherent paragraphs or points so that each is internally unified and so that each functions as part of the whole document or presentation.
â€¢ 1.4: Tailor communications to the audience.
â€¢ 1.5: Use sentence structure appropriate to the task, message and audience.
â€¢ 1.6: Follow conventions of Standard Written English.
â€¢ 3.1: Identify numerical or mathematical information that is relevant in a problem or situation.
â€¢ 3.2: Employ mathematical or statistical operations and data analysis techniques to arrive at a correct or optimal solution.
â€¢ 3.3: Analyze mathematical or statistical information, or the results of quantitative inquiry and manipulation of data.
â€¢ 3.4: Employ software applications and analytic tools to analyze, visualize, and present data to inform decision-making.

This project will help you advise your companyâ€™s management on th...