Finally, you’ll complete an end-of-course project. The project is an opportunity to apply the skills and knowledge you developed during this course in a workplace scenario. For this project, you’ll prepare project planning documents and solve a business problem using BI.
Learning Objectives
- Identify the key features and attributes of a portfolio project.
- Discuss the benefits and uses of portfolios in a job search.
- Respond to the information contained in a Strategy Document in order to begin a BI project.
- Apply BI skills and knowledge in order to correctly complete a Stakeholder Requirements Document.
- Apply BI skills and knowledge in order to correctly complete a Project Requirements Document.
Apply your skills to a workplace scenario
Video: Welcome to module 4
Anita, Finance Senior Business Intelligence Analyst at Google, is talking about experiential learning and how it can help you in your BI career.
Experiential learning is learning by doing. It involves immersing yourself in a situation where you can practice what you’ve learned, further develop your skills, and reflect on your education.
Anita shares her experience of training to become a yoga teacher as an example of experiential learning. She learned by doing and reflecting on her experiences.
She then talks about how experiential learning can be applied to the Google Business Intelligence Certificate. The end-of-course project is an opportunity to put experiential learning into practice by working on a BI case study.
This project will enable you to bring together everything you’ve learned about BI in a compelling and instructive way. It will also help you identify the specific types of industries and projects that are most interesting to you, and help you discuss them with potential employers.
Anita encourages you to keep some notes about your approach, methods, systems, and accomplishments as you work on the project. This will help you identify important points to share with a hiring manager, such as the many transferable skills you’ve gained.
Transferable skills are capabilities or proficiencies that can be applied from one job to another. Highlighting your transferable skills is especially important when changing jobs or industries.
For example, if you learned how to solve customer complaints while working as a host at a restaurant, you could highlight the transferable skill of problem-solving when applying for a job in the BI field. Or, maybe you learned how to meet deadlines, take notes, and follow instructions while working in administration at a nonprofit organization. You could discuss how your organizational skills are transferable to the BI industry.
Anita concludes by saying that experiential learning is a valuable opportunity to learn by doing and reflecting on your experiences. It can also help you stand out during a job search by demonstrating your skills and knowledge to potential employers.
Hello! I’m Anita, Finance Senior Business
Intelligence Analyst here at Google. I’m very happy to be with you
as you begin this first video about your future business
intelligence career. Watching an instructional
video – like this one – or attending a class
or reading an article – are all great ways to gain new knowledge. However, there’s simply nothing like applying that knowledge. When you actually do something, this really helps you confirm that you understand what you’ve learned. This concept is called
experiential learning, which simply means
understanding through doing. It involves immersing
yourself in a situation where you can practice
what you’ve learned, further develop your skills, and reflect on your education. A few years ago, I trained
to become a yoga teacher. It was a bit intimidating at first, learning all the ins
and outs of each pose; figuring out how to create an
effective sequence of poses; and eventually, leading a
yoga studio full of people. But I paid attention to what worked, and what I could improve
upon during each class. Then I reflected on that and revisited many of the lessons from my training as well. And with each class I taught, that learning experience helped
me get better and better. Experiential learning, whether
for a hobby or for work, is always an awesome opportunity. It gives you a broader view of the world, provides important insight into your particular
interests and passions, and helps build self-confidence. So let’s start experiencing your end-of-course project. In the context of this Google Business
Intelligence Certificate, experiential learning will
give you the opportunity to discover how organizations
use BI every day. This type of activity
can help you identify the specific types of
industries and projects that are most interesting to you, and help you discuss them
with potential employers. This can really help you
stand out during a job search. Soon, you will put experiential
learning into practice by working on an end-of-course project. As a refresher, a portfolio
is a collection of materials that can be shared with
any potential employers. It’s also an amazing way to
make your application shine. Portfolios can be stored
on public websites or your own personal website or blog. And they can be linked
within your digital resume or any online professional
presence you may have, such as your LinkedIn account. The project you’ll be working
on is a BI case study, which will enable you to bring together everything you’ve learned about BI in a compelling and instructive way. If you earned your Google
Data Analytics Certificate, you spent a lot of time
working on a portfolio to showcase your knowledge and skills. This is a great moment
to revisit those lessons in order to ensure that you
have the necessary foundations to create a BI portfolio that’s impactful and impressive. Or if you didn’t complete the program, you may want to check on that content before moving forward with this project. Creating an end-of-course project
is a valuable opportunity, as companies often will ask you to complete a case study
during the interview process. Employers commonly use this method to assess you as a candidate and gain insight into how you approach common business challenges. This end-of-course project
will help you succeed if you encounter this situation when applying for BI jobs. Coming up, you’ll be introduced to the specific case study involved in your end-of-course project. You’ll also receive clear
instructions to follow in order to create many BI deliverables. As you begin working, you’ll consider the knowledge and skills you’ve acquired in this course and how they can be
applied to your project. I encourage you
to keep some notes about your approach, methods, systems, and accomplishments. This will help you identify important points to share
with a hiring manager, such as the many transferable
skills you’ve gained. A transferable skill is a
capability or proficiency that can be applied
from one job to another. Highlighting your transferable skills is especially important when
changing jobs or industries. For instance, if you learned how to solve customer complaints while working as a host at a restaurant, you could highlight the transferable skill of problem-solving when applying for a job in the BI field. Or, maybe you learned
how to meet deadlines, take notes, and follow instructions while working in administration at a nonprofit organization. You could discuss how
your organizational skills are transferable to the BI industry. The point is: if you’ve developed the ability to problem-solve or keep things organized in one role, you can apply that knowledge anywhere. There are all kinds of transferable skills that you can add to your notes document. Plus, this process will help you consider how to explain technical concepts clearly while demonstrating how you
would apply your BI expertise across all kinds of tools and scenarios. And by the time you’re done, you’ll not only have
some very useful notes, but also a finished case study for your online portfolio. Sounds exciting, doesn’t it? Let’s get going.
Video: Patrick: Be a candidate of choice
Patrick Lau, a business intelligence manager in Google Legal, talks about how to create a strong BI portfolio.
He says that the best portfolios are those that tell a story and show the candidate’s passion for data. He also recommends that candidates keep their portfolios simple and focus on the message they want to convey to hiring managers.
Here are some tips for creating a BI portfolio:
- Include a video that tells the story of your work. This could be a short video that shows you walking through a dashboard or explaining how you used data to solve a problem.
- Focus on the message you want to convey. What actions or recommendations do you want hiring managers to take away from your portfolio?
- Keep it simple. Hiring managers are busy people, so they don’t have time to look at a complex portfolio. Focus on your most impressive work and make sure it’s easy to understand.
- Show your passion for data. Let hiring managers know why you’re excited about BI and what you can contribute to their team.
Patrick also emphasizes the importance of diversity in the BI industry. He encourages everyone to apply for BI jobs, even if they don’t have a traditional background in the field.
[MUSIC] I’m Patrick Lau, I’m a business
intelligence manager in Google Legal. I manage a team of five analysts, and we work on dashboards, reports, and queries
for all of the Google Legal team. I started at Google in
a non-technical role. I actually started as a legal assistant in
the legal department. I got a lot of opportunities in my first
role to work with data because data was everywhere. We needed reports to report on data,
to visualize data. And that opportunity gave me a lot
of chances to develop my skills and start presenting data and dashboards. At Google, I’ve conducted about 40
interviews all for BI analyst roles. Usually, what I’m looking for are candidates who are really strong
with their business judgment, who are able to make a recommendation
to find solutions and leverage data to do that. As a hiring manager,
I see a lot of resumes, and sometimes they start to look alike. What I really get excited about though is
when a candidate includes a portfolio, and not a lot of applicants
include a portfolio. What makes me excited about seeing
a portfolio is looking beyond just a one page resume and
seeing what kind of work they can do. The kind of passions they have with data,
kind of really just to hear their voice, that’s what really helps
me get to know a candidate. The portfolios that I really like to
see aren’t just a suite of dashboards. I actually really like to see a video,
maybe on YouTube or recorded on any other video platform, because that lets me see
a story from beginning to end. I really enjoy seeing their slides, or
seeing them walk through a dashboard, clicking on different widgets,
showing how their trends. Telling a story like this
really helps me get engaged. I find those kinds of portfolios a lot
more interesting than just, hey, here’s a bunch of links, they click on it,
they’ll look at it yourself. For candidates creating a portfolio for
the first time, I really recommend keeping it simple. Assume the hiring manager is only going to
spend a few minutes looking through your dashboard, your reports, or queries. Think about the message you
want them to walk away with. The actions or recommendations you have
should really stand out very quickly and very clearly. Don’t think too much about
impressing a hiring manager. Really, what’s important for
me is seeing the recommendation you make, how you want to influence
the business with your data. As a hiring manager, I would say,
I really want everyone to succeed. I want you to succeed. You belong in the BI industry. We need you, we need more people with unique
career paths with unique experiences. That’s how we build
a more diverse industry. That’s how we can really
increase our skills and innovate. [SOUND]
Video: Introduction to your end-of-course project
A strong portfolio is important for BI job seekers. It helps candidates showcase their knowledge, skills, and experience in a clear and compelling way.
In addition to the content of the portfolio, hiring managers also look at how it is organized and designed. A well-designed portfolio is easy to use and understand, and it demonstrates that the candidate has put thought into the user experience.
The end-of-course project for this course is a BI case study. The project will give you the opportunity to apply everything you have learned about BI in a real-world setting.
The project will also help you create a BI process document that demonstrates your thought process, approach to the business problem, and key skills you have gained. This document can be a valuable asset during job interviews.
By the end of this course, you will have designed a BI solution that you can use to impress hiring managers. You will also have a BI process document that demonstrates your skills and knowledge.
When candidates interview
for jobs here at Google, my colleagues in People Operations and Human Resources love checking out their online portfolios. They often feel more confident in candidates who can
demonstrate their knowledge in a clear and compelling format. And when they review portfolios
by people who want to join teams such as mine, in
business intelligence, dashboards are particularly helpful because they are visually compelling, but also straightforward and
easy to use and understand. So, together with the
hiring managers, we look for both content and how
the dash is organized and designed to understand
how much thought has been put into the user experience. Having a portfolio has
become extremely common in the business intelligence field. During a job hunt, it is so valuable to showcase
your knowledge of BI, your experience with the BI toolbox, and some of the interesting
projects that you’ve worked on. Your portfolio can
really help you stand out from other candidates. So far in this course, you’ve gained lots of knowledge and job-ready
skills to help you succeed in BI. You’ve discovered the
role of BI professionals within an organization, as
well as typical career paths. You’ve explored core
BI practices and tools – and witnessed how BI
professionals use them to make a positive impact. All of these things will help
you successfully complete your end-of-course project. In addition, you will
apply what you’ve learned about team members, stakeholders, and clients, such as their
particular roles or priorities. Along the way, you’ll ensure the metrics
you select are relevant and effective. And you’ll
apply what you now know about defining a strategy and gathering stakeholder
and project requirements. You’ll begin by reading about
the specific case study. This reading will explain the type of organization you’re working
with, the people involved, the business problem to be
solved, and other key details. You will complete a Stakeholder
Requirements Document, using information provided by your client. This will enable you to further
define the business problem, understand the stakeholders, and consider important questions to answer in order to achieve a successful result. Then, you will create a
Project Requirements Document, with information about
the project’s purpose, key dependencies, success
criteria, and more. Finally, you will thoughtfully
plan your approach to the example situation, so you’re prepared to develop
an effective solution. As you learned, the Project
Requirements Document includes the project’s
purpose; its audience; and key dashboard
features and requirements, including metrics and charts
that the dash should contain. Then in later courses,
you will continue working on your end-of-course project.
And by the time you’re done, you will have designed
something that you can use to really, really impress hiring managers. Plus, you’ll have a BI process document that demonstrates your thought process, your approach to the business problem, and the key skills you’ve
gained, and lots more. These are all great things to talk about during an interview. All right, let’s get started. It’s time to discover how
you will help an organization advance through the exciting
world of business intelligence.
Reading: End-of-course project introduction
Reading
Welcome to the end-of-course project!
Congratulations on your progress in the Google Business Intelligence Certificate! The final module of each course includes an end-of-course project that provides hands-on practice and an opportunity to showcase your BI knowledge. The projects will build in complexity, just like job tasks that you will encounter as a BI professional. After completing all of the courses and projects, you will have a portfolio to share with potential employers.
Importance of communication in the BI career space
In addition to the technical and organizational skills needed to complete end-of-course projects, you will need to practice effective communication skills. To prepare you, each project will require you to:
- Gather information about the business problem to be solved or question to be answered
- Complete key BI documents, including the Stakeholder Requirements, Project Requirements, and Strategy documents
- Define team members
- Understand time and budget requirements
- Identify metrics and KPIs
- Know how to measure success
- Highlight your transferable skills
Expectations
You will be given the tools, resources, and instructions needed to apply your new skills and complete each end-of-course project. You will also have access to thoughtful questions and helpful resources designed to guide and inspire your data analysis workflow. In the end, your effort will be rewarded with work examples that will demonstrate the effectiveness of your BI skills. They will include design patterns; schemas; pipelines; dashboard mockups; data visualizations; and, finally, actual BI dashboards! If you get stuck at any point, you’ll find links to review relevant information within each course.
Your end-of-course project won’t be graded, but you will have access to example deliverables that you can compare to your own work to ensure your project is successful. Unlike other activities, the end-of-course project activities will be less guided to allow you to test your knowledge and practice what you’ve learned. Along the way, you are highly encouraged to participate in the discussion forums to chat with learners working on their own case studies, share strategies, ask questions, and encourage each other! Please note that it’s appropriate to share general project strategies, but not specific steps, processes, or documents.
Start your project
In your Course 1 end-of-course project you will:
- Review relevant project material from stakeholders to identify key requirements
- Develop project requirement documents to align with stakeholder needs and guide project planning
Key takeaways
The end-of-course projects enable you to apply your new BI skills and knowledge, demonstrate fundamental BI skills to prospective employers, and showcase what you have learned from the Google Business Intelligence Certificate. Having a portfolio to share during job interviews is a proven way to become a competitive BI candidate. Plus, you are investing lots of time and effort in the program, so completing this project will be a grand celebration of your learning achievements!
Reading: Design effective executive summaries
Reading
Business intelligence professionals need ways to share and communicate plans, updates, and summaries about projects. A common document called an executive summary is used to update decision makers who may not be directly involved in the tasks of a project. In your role as a BI professional, you will often be involved in creating executive summaries.
Additionally, an executive summary can be a useful way to describe your end-of-course project to potential employers. This document can give interviewers exploring your portfolio an easy-to-understand explanation of your projects and be a useful way to reference your projects during the actual interview.
In this reading, you will learn more about executive summaries and how to prepare them for stakeholders. At the end of your project, you will fill out an executive summary about the work you completed– so it will be useful to start thinking about how to approach that document now.
Executive summaries
Executive summaries are documents that collect the most important points contained in a longer plan or report. These summaries are common across a wide variety of businesses, giving decision makers a brief overview of the most relevant information. They can also be used to help new team members become acquainted with the details of a project quickly. The format is designed to respect the responsibilities of decision makers and/or executives who may not have time to read and understand an entire report. There are many ways to present information within an executive summary, including software options built specifically for that purpose. In this program, you will be focusing primarily on a one page format within a presentation slide. Regardless of how they are created, there are some items that are commonly included.
Elements of an executive summary
The provided sample executive summary deals with an imagined wildfire predictability project. The intended audience of this summary is a group of decision makers from many different departments within teams that service a variety of parks. The purpose of this summary is to share the insights gained through data analysis of wildfires in the US. Each section delivers a short statement without embellishment. This allows decision makers who are often short on time the ability to quickly grasp the most relevant points about a project. Reference this document as you review each of the following sections.
Project title: A project’s theme is incorporated into the executive summary title to create an immediate connection with the target audience.
The problem: A statement that focuses on the need or concern being targeted or addressed by the project. Note, also, that the problem can also be referred to as the hypothesis that you’re trying to prove through analysis.
The solution: This statement summarizes a project’s main goal. In this section, actions are described that are intended to address the concerns outlined in the problem statement.
Details/Key insights: The purpose of this section is to provide any additional background and information that may assist the target audience in understanding the project’s objectives. Determining what details to include depends heavily on the intended audience. It may also be the case that you choose to include some project reflections.
Key takeaways
Executive summaries are important ways to share information with decision makers, clients, and executives. These documents include a summarized version of the most important information within a project or plan of action. The executive summary is usually broader in scope, not focusing on specific responsibilities or tasks. The executive summary summarizes the status of a project and its discoveries, describing a problem and proposing a solution.
Reading: Explore Course 1 end-of-course project scenarios
Cyclistic scenario
Reading: Course 1 workplace scenario overview: Cyclistic
Reading
Learn about the workplace scenario
The end-of-course project is designed for you to practice and apply your skills in a workplace scenario. No matter which scenario you select, you will discuss and communicate about data analytic topics with coworkers, internal team members, and external clients. You only need to follow one of the scenarios in order to complete the end-of-course project. Continue reading to learn more about the fictional bike-share company, Cyclistic. If you would like to explore the Google Fiber project instead, go to the reading that provides an overview to that workplace scenario. As a reminder, you only need to work through one of these scenarios to complete the end of course project. But you can complete multiple if desired.
Welcome to Cyclistic!
Congrats on your new job with the business intelligence team at Cyclistic, a fictional bike-share company in New York City. In order to provide your team with both BI business value and organizational data maturity, you will use your knowledge of the BI stages: capture, analyze, and monitor. By the time you are done, you will have an end-of-course project that demonstrates your knowledge and skills to potential employers.
Your meeting notes
You recently attended a meeting with key stakeholders to gather details about this BI project. The following details are your notes from the meeting. Use the information they contain to complete the Stakeholder Requirements Document, Project Requirements Document, and Planning Document. For additional guidance, refer to the previous reading about the documents and the self-review that involved completing them.
Project background:
Primary dataset: NYC Citi Bike Trips
Secondary dataset: Census Bureau US Boundaries
Cyclistic has partnered with the city of New York to provide shared bikes. Currently, there are bike stations located throughout Manhattan and neighboring boroughs. Customers are able to rent bikes for easy travel between stations at these locations.
Cyclistic’s Customer Growth Team is creating a business plan for next year. The team wants to understand how their customers are using their bikes; their top priority is identifying customer demand at different station locations.
Cyclistic has captured data points for every trip taken by their customers, including:
- Trip start time and location (station number, and its latitude/longitude)
- Trip end time and location (station number, and its latitude/longitude)
- The rented bike’s identification number
- The type of customer (either a one-time customer, or a subscriber)
The dataset includes millions of rides, so the team wants a dashboard that summarizes key insights. Business plans that are driven by customer insights are more successful than plans driven by just internal staff observations. The executive summary must include key data points that are summarized and aggregated in order for the leadership team to get a clear vision of how customers are using Cyclistic.
Stakeholders:
- Sara Romero, VP, Marketing
- Ernest Cox, VP, Product Development
- Jamal Harris, Director, Customer Data
- Nina Locklear, Director, Procurement
Team members:
- Adhira Patel, API Strategist
- Megan Pirato, Data Warehousing Specialist
- Rick Andersson, Manager, Data Governance
- Tessa Blackwell, Data Analyst
- Brianne Sand, Director, IT
- Shareefah Hakimi, Project Manager
*Primary contacts are Adhira, Megan, Rick, and Tessa.
Per Sara: Dashboard needs to be accessible, with large print and text-to-speech alternatives.
Project approvals and dependencies:
The datasets will include customer (user) data, which Jamal will need to approve. Also the project might need approval by the teams that own specific product data, including bike trip duration and bike identification numbers. So I need to make sure that stakeholders have data access to all datasets.
Project goal: Grow Cyclistic’s Customer Base
Details from Ms. Romero:
- Understand what customers want, what makes a successful product, and how new stations might alleviate demand in different geographical areas.
- Understand how the current line of bikes are used.
- How can we apply customer usage insights to inform new station growth?
- The customer growth wants to understand how different users (subscribers and non-subscribers) use our bikes. We’ll want to investigate a large group of users to get a fair representation of users across locations and with low- to high-activity levels.
- Keep in mind users might use Cyclistic less when the weather is inclement. This should be visible in the dashboard.
The deliverables and metrics:
- A table or map visualization exploring starting and ending station locations, aggregated by location. I can use any location identifier, such as station, zip code, neighborhood, and/or borough. This should show the number of trips at starting locations.
- Tip: You can show either a table or a map. For more about creating maps in Tableau, check out the Build a simple map guide on Tableau Help . For a table, you could include just starting locations or a combination of starting and ending locations.
- A visualization showing which destination (ending) locations are popular based on the total trip minutes.
- Tip: Focus on peak months.
- A visualization that focuses on trends from the summer of 2015.
- A visualization showing the percent growth in the number of trips year over year.
- Gather insights about congestion at stations.
- Tip: For each day, use a table calculation to calculate the net of start and ending trips per station. This gives an approximation of whether there are more bikes coming in or out of a station.
- Gather insights about the number of trips across all starting and ending locations.
- Gather insights about peak usage by time of day, season, and the impact of weather.
*Dashboard must be created in 6 weeks!
Measure success:
Analyze data that spans at least one year to see how seasonality affects usage. Exploring data that spans multiple months will capture peaks and valleys in usage. Evaluate each trip on the number of rides per starting location and per day/month/year to understand trends. For example, do customers use Cyclistic less when it rains? Or does bikeshare demand stay consistent? Does this vary by location and user types (subscribers vs. nonsubscribers)? Use these outcomes to find out more about what impacts customer demand.
Other considerations:
The dataset includes latitude and longitude of stations but does not identify more geographic aggregation details, such as zip code, neighborhood name, or borough. The team will provide a separate database with this data.
The weather data provided does not include what time precipitation occurred; it’s possible that on some days, it precipitated during off-peak hours. However, for the purpose of this dashboard, I should assume any amount of precipitation that occurred on the day of the trip could have an impact.
Starting bike trips at a location will be impossible if there are no bikes available at a station, so we might need to consider other factors for demand.
Finally, the data must not include any personal info (name, email, phone, address). Personal info is not necessary for this project. Anonymize users to avoid bias.
People with dashboard-viewing privileges:
Adhira, Brianne, Ernest, Jamal, Megan, Nina, Rick, Shareefah, Sara, Tessa
Roll-out:
- Week 1: Dataset assigned. Initial design for fields and BikeIDs validated to fit the requirements.
- Weeks 2–3: SQL and ETL development
- Weeks 3–4: Finalize SQL. Dashboard design. 1st draft review with peers.
- Weeks 5–6: Dashboard development and testing
Questions:
- How were bikes used by our customers?
- How can we apply insights from the data generated by trip data?
Next steps
As you use these notes to complete the key BI documents, take time to consider:
- How to organize the various points and steps
- How to group similar topics
- Whether the information is relevant to the project
- Whether the metrics are effective or not
Lastly, keep in mind that this project is not graded. However, a compelling project will enable you to demonstrate fundamental BI skills to prospective employers. After you complete the documents, be sure to compare them to the example deliverables. You might also record the steps you took to complete each phase of this project so that you can complete the executive summary. This will be important as you continue working on the project in subsequent courses.
Practice Quiz: Activity: Complete the business intelligence project documents for Cyclistic
Reading
Activity Overview
In this activity, you will complete the three key business intelligence project documents: the Stakeholder Requirements Document, the Project Requirements Document, and the Strategy Document. To fill out each section, you will use your meeting notes from your meeting with the Cyclistic stakeholders to identify key project requirements and stakeholder asks.
Be sure to complete this activity before moving forward. The next course item will provide you with a completed example of each document to compare to your own work. You will not be able to access the exemplar until you have completed this activity.
Scenario
Review the following scenario. Then complete the step-by-step instructions.
In this scenario, you are working as a BI professional for a fictional consumer electronics and fitness company, Cyclistic. In order to provide your team with both BI business value and organizational data maturity, you will use your knowledge of the BI stages: capture, analyze, and monitor. By the time you are done, you will have an end-of-course project that will demonstrate your knowledge and skills to potential employers.
Step-By-Step Instructions
Follow the instructions and answer the following question to complete the activity. Then, go to the next course item to compare your work to a completed exemplar.
Step 1: Open your notes
Open your meeting notes from the reading that details the Course 1 workplace scenario overview about Cyclistic and keep your notes open in another window so you can refer to them while completing the three key BI documents.
Pro Tip: Use all available resources
A big part of being a BI professional is researching solutions, troubleshooting, and knowing where to go for support. For this activity, it is highly recommended that you refer to the previous reading about the key business intelligence documents and the activity that involved completing them for additional guidance.
Step 2: Access the templates
To use the templates for this course item, click the following links and select “Use Template.”
Links to templates: Stakeholder Requirements Document
Step 3: Complete the Stakeholder Requirements Document
Use your meeting notes to fill out as much of the project requirements document template as you can. If you find that there are some fields that you can’t fill out, make note of them for later in the exercise.
The Stakeholder Requirements Document enables you to capture stakeholder requests and requirements so you understand their needs before planning the rest of the project details or strategy. It should answer the following questions:
- Business problem: What is the primary question to be answered or problem to be solved?
- Stakeholders: Who are the major stakeholders of this project, and what are their job titles?
- Stakeholder usage details: How will the stakeholders use the BI tool?
- Primary requirements: What requirements must be met by this BI tool in order for this project to be successful?
Here are some questions BI professionals ask to successfully complete this document:
- What questions must be answered before starting this project?
- What does the BI team need to know before starting this project?
- What are the questions that must be answered or problems that must be solved by this project?
- What datasets are considered important to this project?
- Who should have access to the dashboard? Will the entire dashboard be visible to all stakeholders?
Typically, the Stakeholder Requirements Document is a one-pager with notes, but it can be longer and more detailed for complex projects.
Step 4: Complete the Project Requirements Document
Use your meeting notes to fill out as much of the project requirements document template as you can. If you find that there are some fields that you can’t fill out, make note of them for later in the exercise.
The Project Requirements Document contains the following details:
- Purpose: Briefly describe why this project is happening and explain why the company should invest its resources in it.
- Key dependencies: Detail the major elements of this project. Include the team, primary contacts, and expected deliverables. Are there any inter-team deliverables required?
- Stakeholder requirements: List the established stakeholder requirements, based on the Stakeholder Requirements Document. Prioritize the requirements as: R – required, D – desired, or N – nice to have.
- Success criteria: Clarify what success looks like for this project. Include explicit statements about how to measure success. Use SMART criteria.
- User journeys: Document the current user experience and the ideal future experience.
- Assumptions: Explicitly and clearly state any assumptions you are making.
- Compliance and privacy: Include compliance, privacy, or legal dimensions to consider.
- Accessibility: List key considerations for creating accessible reports for all users. Who needs to access this feature? How are they viewing and interacting with it?
- Roll-out plan: Briefly describe the expected scope, priorities and timeline. Consider at what points during the rollout will measurements be made to determine whether the feature is performing as expected? Is there a rollback plan and timeline if this feature does not meet its intended goals?
Step 5: Complete the Strategy Document
Use your meeting notes to fill out as much of the strategy document template as you can. If you find that there are some fields that you can’t fill out, make note of them for later in the exercise.
The Strategy Document is a collaborative place to align with stakeholders about project deliverables. You will work together to establish information about dashboard functionality and associated metrics and charts.
This is a time to explore what metrics will be required, how metrics are calculated, and any limitations or assumptions that exist about the data. Stakeholders think through these details and help the BI professional make final project decisions. Then, the BI professional provides stakeholders with a dashboard mockup to get useful feedback.
Generally, the BI professional will create the document, then request review and sign-off from stakeholders. Then, they can begin working on the project with all of the details they need.
Step 6: Write follow-up questions for your client
By now, you’ve filled out each of the templates with information from the interview. But you might have noticed that you’re missing some information for fields in the template. In a professional setting, you might need to ask a stakeholder follow-up questions to properly complete planning documents.
Write 3-5 questions about information that is missing from the interview notes. In a professional setting, you could ask these questions to your stakeholder to help you fully complete your documents.
Pro Tip: Save the template
If you haven’t already, be sure to save a blank copy of the templates you used to complete this activity. You can use them for further practice or in your professional projects. These templates will help you work through your thought processes and demonstrate your experience to potential employers.
What to Include in Your Response
Be sure to address the following elements in your completed planning documents:
- A Stakeholder Requirements Document, completed as fully as possible with information from your notes and the supporting materials
- A Project Requirements Document, completed as fully as possible with information from your notes and the supporting materials
- A Strategy Document, completed as fully as possible with information from your notes and the supporting materials
- At least three questions about missing information from the meeting notes
Reading: Activity Exemplar: Complete the business intelligence project documents for Cyclistic
Reading
In this activity, you generated project planning documents in order to align with stakeholders. This will allow you to understand the team’s needs as you begin to develop a BI solution. As a BI professional, you will need to be able to communicate effectively with stakeholders and execute solutions that answer their specific needs. This end-of-course project showcases your ability to do just that.
The exemplar you are about to review will help you evaluate whether you completed the activity correctly. In this case, you might have discovered a solution that works just as well as the exemplar. That’s great! This exemplar is an example of how a BI professional might have approached this challenge. As long as your process achieved the same results, you can move on to the next phase of the project. And you can always iterate on your work!
To review the exemplars for this course item, click the following links and select Use Template.
Links to exemplars:
Assessment of Exemplars
Your end-of-course project isn’t graded, but the exemplars will enable you to compare your own documents to completed BI documents. This helps you ensure they reflect quality work.
An exemplar is a type of model. It’s used to demonstrate the characteristics of a successful project, assignment, or other educational output. Exemplars help learners understand an expected standard, then reach that level. In other words, they provide a clear representation of the end goal so learners might compare their own work to the model; self-assess; and, when necessary, improve.
Now that you have completed filling out your three key BI documents, it’s time to review the exemplars. Be sure to read through them carefully, so you know what you did well and what you can do to strengthen your BI products in the future.
Keep in mind that there might be more than one correct way to approach these documents, just like any business problem can have more than one solution. The exemplars are designed to help you to think about the content within your completed documents and—perhaps more importantly—your thought process and general approach to the assignment. They will also ensure you are successful when you continue working on your project in subsequent courses.
Pro tip: If you notice something that seems to be missing or different in the exemplars, ask yourself why. For instance, you might find that some of the metrics requested by your stakeholders were not included in the documents. You’ve been learning that it’s the BI professional’s responsibility to avoid vanity metrics (data points that are intended to impress others, but are not indicative of actual performance and, therefore, cannot reveal any meaningful business insights). So ask yourself, “Were these metrics vanity metrics? Is that why they don’t exist in the exemplars?” Put on your data detective’s hat to find the answers. And as always, use the discussion forums to find out if other learners have the same questions or insights into how to answer them.
Key takeaways
Using exemplars thoroughly and purposefully will enable you to clearly understand what constitutes quality work, gather essential BI knowledge, and apply the strategies needed to complete a task to a high standard. Refining your documents, if necessary, will also confirm that you are prepared to continue with the end-of-course projects in future courses.
Google Fiber scenario
Reading: Course 1 workplace scenario overview: Google Fiber
Reading
Learn about the workplace scenario
The end-of-course project is designed for you to practice and apply your skills in a workplace scenario. No matter which scenario you select, you will discuss and communicate about data analytic topics with coworkers, internal team members, and external clients. You only need to follow one of the scenarios in order to complete the end-of-course project. Continue reading to learn more about the fictional Google Fiber project. If you would like to explore the fictional Cyclistic bikeshare project instead, go to the reading that provides an overview to that workplace scenario. As a reminder, you only need to work through one of these scenarios to complete the end of course project. But you can complete multiple if desired.
Welcome to Google Fiber!
You are interviewing for a job with Google Fiber, which provides people and businesses with fiber optic internet. As part of the interview process, the Fiber customer service team has asked you to design a dashboard using fictional data. The position you are interviewing for is in the customer call center, where Fiber uses business intelligence to monitor and improve customer satisfaction.
To provide the interviewers with both BI value and organizational data maturity, you will use your knowledge of the BI stages: capture, analyze, and monitor. By the time you are done, you will have an end-of-course project that demonstrates your knowledge and skills to potential employers.
Your meeting notes
You are interviewing with the Google Fiber customer service team for a position as a BI analyst. At the end of the first interview, you spoke with the BI team and hiring manager to gather details about this project. Following are your notes from the meeting. Use the information they contain to complete the Stakeholder Requirements Document, Project Requirements Document, and Planning Document. For additional guidance, refer to the previous reading about key BI documents and the self-review about completing the documents.
Project background:
The team needs to understand how often customers again phone customer support after their first inquiry; this will help leaders understand whether the team is able to answer customer questions the first time. Further, leaders want to explore trends in repeat calls to identify why customers are having to call more than once, as well as how to improve the overall customer experience. I will create a dashboard to reveal insights about repeat callers.
This fictional dataset is a version of actual data the team works with. Because of this, the data is already anonymized and approved. It includes:
- Number of calls
- Number of repeat calls after first contact
- Call type
- Market city
- Date
Stakeholders:
- Emma Santiago, Hiring Manager
- Keith Portone, Project Manager
- Minna Rah, Lead BI Analyst
Team members:
- Ian Ortega, BI Analyst
- Sylvie Essa, BI Analyst
*Primary contacts are Emma and Keith
Per Minna: Dashboard needs to be accessible, with large print and text-to-speech alternatives.
Project approvals and dependencies:
I need to make sure stakeholders have access to all datasets so they can explore the steps I’ve taken.
Project goal: Explore trends in repeat callers
Details from Mr. Portone:
- Understand how often customers are calling customer support after their first inquiry; this will help leaders understand how effectively the team is able to answer customer questions the first time
- Provide insights into the types of customer issues that seem to generate more repeat calls
- Explore repeat caller trends in the three different market cities
- Design charts so that stakeholders can view trends by week, month, quarter, and year.
The deliverables and metrics:
- A chart or table measuring repeat calls by their first contact date
- A chart or table exploring repeat calls by market and problem type
- Charts showcasing repeat calls by week, month, and quarter
Measure success:
The team’s ultimate goal is to reduce call volume by increasing customer satisfaction and improving operational optimization. My dashboard should demonstrate an understanding of this goal and provide stakeholders with insights about repeat caller volumes in different markets and the types of problems they represent.
Other considerations:
In order to anonymize and fictionalize the data, the datasets the columns market_1, market_2, and market_3 to indicate three different city service areas the data represents.
The data also lists five problem types:
- Type_1 is account management
- Type_2 is technician troubleshooting
- Type_3 is scheduling
- Type_4 is construction
- Type_5 is internet and wifi
Additionally, the dataset records repeat calls over seven-day periods. The initial contact date is listed as contacts_n. The other call columns are then contacts_n_number of days since first call. For example, contacts_n_6 indicates six days since first contact.
People with dashboard-viewing privileges:
Emma Santiago, Keith Portone, Minna Rah, Ian Ortega, Sylvie Essa
Questions:
- How often does the customer service team receive repeat calls from customers?
- What problem types generate the most repeat calls?
- Which market city’s customer service team receives the most repeat calls?
Next steps
As you use these notes to complete the key BI documents, take time to consider:
- How to organize the various points and steps
- How to group similar topics
- Whether the information is relevant to the project
- Whether the metrics are effective
Lastly, keep in mind that this project is not graded. However, a compelling project will enable you to demonstrate fundamental BI skills to prospective employers. After you complete the documents, be sure to compare them to the example deliverables. You might also record the steps you took to complete each phase of this project so that you can complete the executive summary. This will be important as you continue working on the project in subsequent courses.
Practice Quiz: Activity: Complete the business intelligence documents for Google Fiber
Reading
Activity Overview
In this activity, you will complete the three key business intelligence project documents: the Stakeholder Requirements Document, the Project Requirements Document, and the Strategy Document. To fill out each section, you will use your meeting notes from your meeting with the Google Fiber stakeholders to identify key project requirements and stakeholder asks.
Be sure to complete this activity before moving forward. The next course item will provide you with a completed example of each document to compare to your own work. You will not be able to access the exemplar until you have completed this activity.
Scenario
Review the following scenario. Then complete the step-by-step instructions.
In this scenario, you are interviewing for a position with internet provider Google Fiber’s customer call center. As part of the interview process, you have been asked to complete a fictional project. You will use your knowledge of the BI stages: capture, analyze, and monitor. By the time you are done, you will have an end-of-course project that will demonstrate your knowledge and skills to potential employers.
Step-By-Step Instructions
Follow the instructions and answer the following question to complete the activity. Then, go to the next course item to compare your work to a completed exemplar.
Step 1: Open your notes
Open your meeting notes from the reading that details the Course 1 workplace scenario overview about Google Fiber and keep them open in another window so you can refer to them while completing the three key BI documents.
Pro Tip: Use all available resources
A big part of being a BI professional is researching solutions, troubleshooting, and knowing where to go for support. For this activity, it is highly recommended that you refer to the previous reading about the key business intelligence documents and activity about completing the documents for additional guidance.
Step 2: Access the templates
To use the templates for this course item, click the following links and select “Use Template.”
Stakeholder Requirements Document
Step 3: Complete the Stakeholder Requirements Document
Use your meeting notes to fill out as much of the project requirements document template as you can. If you find that there are some fields that you can’t fill out, make note of them for later in the exercise.
The Stakeholder Requirements Document enables you to capture stakeholder requests and requirements so you understand their needs before planning the rest of the project details or strategy. It should answer the following questions:
- Business problem: What is the primary question to be answered or problem to be solved?
- Stakeholders: Who are the major stakeholders of this project, and what are their job titles?
- Stakeholder usage details: How will the stakeholders use the BI tool?
- Primary requirements: What requirements must be met by this BI tool in order for this project to be successful?
Here are some questions BI professionals ask to successfully complete this document:
- What questions must be answered before starting this project?
- What does the BI team need to know before starting this project?
- What are the questions that must be answered or problems that must be solved by this project?
- What datasets are considered important to this project?
- Who should have access to the dashboard? Will the entire dashboard be visible to all stakeholders?
Typically, the Stakeholder Requirements Document is a one-pager with notes, but it can be longer and more detailed for complex projects.
Step 4: Complete the Project Requirements Document
Use your meeting notes to fill out as much of the project requirements document template as you can. If you find that there are some fields that you can’t fill out, make note of them for later in the exercise.
The Project Requirements Document contains the following details:
- Purpose: Briefly describe why this project is happening and explain why the company should invest its resources in it.
- Key dependencies: Detail the major elements of this project. Include the team, primary contacts, and expected deliverables. Are there any inter-team deliverables required?
- Stakeholder requirements: List the established stakeholder requirements, based on the Stakeholder Requirements Document. Prioritize the requirements as: R – required, D – desired, or N – nice to have.
- Success criteria: Clarify what success looks like for this project. Include explicit statements about how to measure success. Use SMART criteria.
- User journeys: Document the current user experience and the ideal future experience.
- Assumptions: Explicitly and clearly state any assumptions you are making.
- Compliance and privacy: Include compliance, privacy, or legal dimensions to consider.
- Accessibility: List key considerations for creating accessible reports for all users. Who needs to access this feature? How are they viewing and interacting with it?
- Roll-out plan: Briefly describe the expected scope, priorities and timeline. Consider at what points during the rollout will measurements be made to determine whether the feature is performing as expected? Is there a rollback plan and timeline if this feature does not meet its intended goals?
Step 5: Complete the Strategy Document
Use your meeting notes to fill out as much of the strategy document template as you can. If you find that there are some fields that you can’t fill out, make note of them for later in the exercise.
The Strategy Document is a collaborative place to align with stakeholders about project deliverables. You will establish information about dashboard functionality and associated metrics and charts for this project.
This is a time to explore what metrics will be required, how metrics are calculated, and any limitations or assumptions that exist about the data. Stakeholders think through these details and help the BI professional make final project decisions. Then, the BI professional provides stakeholders with a dashboard mockup to get useful feedback.
Generally, the BI professional will create the document, then request review and sign-off from stakeholders. Then, they can begin working on the project with all of the details they need.
Step 6: Write follow-up questions for your stakeholder
By now, you’ve filled out each of the templates with information from the interview. But you might have noticed that you’re missing some information for fields in the template. In a professional setting, you might need to ask a stakeholder follow-up questions to properly complete planning documents.
Write 3-5 questions about information that is missing from the interview notes. In a professional setting, you could ask these questions to your stakeholder to help you fully complete your documents.
Pro Tip: Save the template
If you haven’t already, be sure to save a blank copy of the templates you used to complete this activity. You can use them for further practice or in your professional projects. These templates will help you work through your thought processes and demonstrate your experience to potential employers.
What to Include in Your Response
Be sure to address the following elements in your completed planning documents:
- A Stakeholder Requirements Document, completed as fully as possible with information from your notes and the supporting materials
- A Project Requirements Document, completed as fully as possible with information from your notes and the supporting materials
- A Strategy Document, completed as fully as possible with information from your notes and the supporting materials
- At least three questions about missing information from the meeting notes
Reading: Activity Exemplar: Complete the business intelligence documents for Google Fiber
Reading
In this activity, you generated project planning documents in order to align with stakeholders. This will allow you to understand the team’s needs as you begin to develop a BI solution. As a BI professional, you will need to be able to communicate effectively with stakeholders and execute solutions that answer their specific needs. This end-of-course project showcases your ability to do just that.
The exemplar you are about to review will help you evaluate whether you completed the activity correctly. In this case, you might have discovered a solution that works just as well as the exemplar. That’s great! This exemplar is an example of how a BI professional might have approached this challenge. As long as your process achieved the same results, you can move on to the next phase of the project. And you can always iterate on your work!
Completed Exemplars
To review the exemplars for this course item, click the following links and select Use Template.
Links to exemplars:
Stakeholder Requirements Exemplar Document
Project Requirements Exemplar Document
Strategy Document Exemplar Document
Assessment of Exemplars
Your end-of-course project isn’t graded, but the exemplars will enable you to compare your own documents to completed BI documents. This helps you ensure they reflect quality work.
An exemplar is a type of model. It’s used to demonstrate the characteristics of a successful project, assignment, or other educational output. Exemplars help learners understand an expected standard, then reach that level. In other words, they provide a clear representation of the end goal so learners might compare their own work to the model; self-assess; and, when necessary, improve.
Now that you have completed filling out your three key BI documents, it’s time to review the exemplars. Be sure to read through them carefully, so you know what you did well and what you can do to strengthen your BI products in the future.
Keep in mind that there might be more than one correct way to approach these documents, just like any business problem can have more than one solution. The exemplars are designed to help you to think about the content within your completed documents and—perhaps more importantly—your thought process and general approach to the assignment. They will also ensure you are successful when you continue working on your project in subsequent courses.
Pro tip: If you notice something that seems to be missing or different in the exemplars, ask yourself why. For instance, you might find that some of the metrics requested by your stakeholders were not included in the documents. You’ve been learning that it’s the BI professional’s responsibility to avoid vanity metrics (data points that are intended to impress others, but are not indicative of actual performance and, therefore, cannot reveal any meaningful business insights). So ask yourself, “Were these metrics vanity metrics? Is that why they don’t exist in the exemplars?” Put on your data detective’s hat to find the answers. And as always, use the discussion forums to find out if other learners have the same questions or insights into how to answer them.
Key takeaways
Using exemplars thoroughly and purposefully will enable you to clearly understand what constitutes quality work, gather essential BI knowledge, and apply the strategies needed to complete a task to a high standard. Refining your documents, if necessary, will also confirm that you are prepared to continue with the end-of-course projects in future courses.
End-of-course project wrap-up
Video: End-of-course project review
You have completed the first part of the business intelligence end-of-course project, which is a valuable experience that will help you prepare for your future job hunt. You have learned how to:
- Understand stakeholder requests
- Establish a clear and straightforward project plan
- Complete an effective strategy document
- Identify relevant metrics and KPIs
- Communicate about your transferable skills with potential employers
This knowledge will be extremely useful during job interviews and in your future BI career.
The next step in the project will come at the end of the next course, where you will use the assets you developed here to continue creating your solution. At the end of the program, you will bring everything together to finalize your unique approach to the example situation.
Your documents won’t look exactly like the exemplar, but they should achieve the same goals. You are always welcome to go back and review what you created to ensure success as you continue through the program. The goal is to have a great example of your work that clearly demonstrates your skills to potential employers.
Congratulations again on your progress! I hope you have a rewarding experience as you work on the project throughout this program.
You’ve completed the first part of the business intelligence
end-of-course project. Congratulations! Planning and documenting your approach to the example situation is a valuable experience as you begin thinking
about your future job hunt. Soon, you’ll be able to
impress hiring managers by discussing your BI experience, including understanding
stakeholder requests, establishing a clear and
straightforward project plan, and completing an effective
strategy document. In addition, you’ll understand how to share everything you know about identifying relevant metrics and KPIs. This is a big part of the BI process. Also, as you’ve learned, it’s
super helpful to communicate about your transferable skills
with potential employers. The information you’ve
added to your BI notes will be extremely useful
during job interviews. The following step in
your end-of-course project will come at the end of the next course. At that point, you will use
the assets you developed here in order to continue
creating your solution. Then, at the end of the program, you’ll bring everything
together in order to finalize your unique approach to
this example situation. Keep in mind: Your documents won’t look exactly like the exemplar, but they should achieve the same goals. You’re always welcome to go back and review what you created
so you’re set up for success as you continue through this program. The goal is to have a
great example of your work that clearly demonstrates
to potential employers just how skilled you are. Congratulations again! And I hope you have a rewarding experience as you work on the project
throughout this program.
Course review: Foundations of Business Intelligence
Reading: Glossary terms from module 4
Reading
Experiential learning: Understanding through doing
Transferable skill: A capability or proficiency that can be applied from one job to another
Reading: Course 1 glossary
Reading
Video: Course wrap-up
Congratulations on finishing the first course of the Google Business Intelligence Certificate! You have learned a lot and are now ready to take your knowledge and skills to the next level.
The next course will build directly on the topics you have learned so far, and will give you more insights into data models, pipelines, data transformation, and much more.
The instructor for the next course is Ed, a Product Manager at Google. He is ready to help you take your next step towards finishing the program and becoming a business intelligence professional.
Before you get started, the instructor would like to thank you for joining the course and choosing to pursue this exciting learning opportunity. He believes that education is a lifelong journey, and that the time and effort you put into this program will better equip you for anything you choose to do in the future.
Take a moment to celebrate everything you have accomplished, then head over to the next course to get started with Ed.
Congratulations on
finishing this first course of the Google Business
Intelligence Certificate. You’ve already learned so
much and now you’re ready to take your
knowledge and skills and keep moving forward. But remember, if one day
you feel like you need a refresher or just
some extra practice, these videos, readings, and activities will still be
here whenever you need them. Now I’m excited for you to begin working with the instructor
for the next course. You might remember Ed from the video that
introduced this program. He’s a Product Manager
here at Google. Ed is ready to help you
take your next step towards finishing this
program and becoming a business intelligence
professional. This course builds directly on all of the exciting topics
you’ve learned thus far. It will give you lots more
insights into data models, pipelines, data
transformation, and much more. As you progress, you’ll continue building
your BI expertise. Before you get started though, I’d like to thank you for
joining me in this course and choosing to pursue this
exciting learning opportunity. I strongly believe that
education is a lifelong journey. For me, it has taken the form of learning Python on
the job to speed up my analysis and
reading books about well-being to become a healthier and more
resilient person. In the same way, I have no doubt that all of
your time and effort here will better equip you for anything you choose
to do in the future. You’ve come a long way, so take a moment to celebrate everything
you’ve accomplished, then head over to
the next course. Ed is ready and waiting to
get you started. Goodbye.
Reading: Get started on Course 2
Reading
Congratulations on completing the first course of the Google Business Intelligence Certificate! In this part of the program, you learned more about the role BI professionals fill within an organization and some typical BI career paths. You also explored how BI professionals use tools and approaches to make a positive impact for their team. And finally, you learned more about how this program can prepare you to make meaningful and lasting contributions as a professional in the field of BI.
The entire program has three courses:
- Foundations of Business Intelligence: (you are here!)
- The Path to Insights: Data Models and Pipelines: In this course, you will explore data modeling and ETL processes for extracting data from source systems, transforming it into formats that better enable analysis, and driving business processes and goals.
- Decisions, Decisions: Dashboards and Reports: In this course, you will apply your knowledge of business intelligence and data modeling to create dynamic dashboards that track KPIs to meet stakeholder needs.
Now that you have completed this course, you are ready to move on! To make continuing with the program easy, you can go to the next course by clicking this link: The Path to Insights: Data Models and Pipelines.
Keep up the great work!