37685 - Computational Tools (A-L)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the Teaching Activities related to the course “Computational Tools”, students will be familiar with programming techniques, plus, they should have gathered a knowledge on basic instructive concepts that would help them accomplish an optimal research on resources like the internet (and other databases), develop an awareness to select, deploy and elaborate some bibliographical data, statistics, balance sheets, market data, benchmark, outcomes of working groups operating in the corporate/business fields, develop the ability to set-up and structure the information coming from financial support, from the management and from other different professions. This course is intended to complement the analytical skills of the student when it comes to: - perform a research on the internet, on scientific databases, identify data, select it, group them, assess it. - compute the data with the purpose of drafting summaries, documentation and other files that may be useful for the working group. - conducting simple numerical analysis of dynamic economic and accounting models on a spreadsheet - compute indicators and indexes and work them from a graphical standpoint, rely on the use of alternative models e display all outcomes, results and strategies knowing how to assemble all this information. - Evaluate and assess all the different options to reach a full automation of the firm.

Course contents

This course provides students with basic theoretical and practical skills in Business Intelligence, Data Modeling and Data Management to support research and decision-making in business contexts. Emphasis is placed on using Spreadsheet and Database resources effectively, selecting and processing corporate data, and organizing information from diverse corporate sources. Students will learn to analyze business data using spreadsheets and Analisys Databases to compute and visualize indicators to support the decision-making process. The course also explores the computational language techniques needed to synthesize data and support strategic decisions across various corporate domains.

Structure of the course:

1 Introduction to IT Systems, Databases, ERPs, SpreadSheets

2 Basic Excel functions and limitations

3 Pivot Tables and Calculated Fields in Excel

4 Primary keys and join between tables (VLOOKUP)

5 Limits of Excel and Introduction to the Business Intelligence Workflow

6 Power Query and Power Pivot for Excel – How to overcome Excel limitations

7 DAX Introduction to the language to write measures and calculated columns

8 DAX Aggregators and introduction to Iterators

9 Introduction to Power BI Desktop to create a full corporate BI Reporting System

10 How to create a dashboard and automatically refresh data

11 DAX Table Functions, AND and OR conditions.

12 Hints on advanced calculations and nature and purpose of measures and calculated columns

Readings/Bibliography

Turban/Volonino/Wood, Information Technology for Management - International students version 10^th edition), 2015, Wiley

Jelen/Alexander, Pivot Table Data Crunching Excel 2016 (2^nd edition), 2015, Que Publishing

Teaching methods

The main instructional approaches used in the course are:

- Lectures in laboratory

- Problem-Based Learning on Personal Computers

Assessment methods

Though not compulsory, class attendance and participation in team-work assignments is strongly encouraged.

Component Weight (%)

Final Exam 80

Class Participation 20

- Exam and group project structure:

The final exam is practical at the Computer. Students have to solve different exercises on the course topics and answer two theory open questions. To each exercise a given maximum number of points is associated, and to get it the student has to solve correctly the exercise and all the steps must be justified. The theoretical maximum number of points achievable in case of a perfect exam is 33.

The evaluation of the answers of the exam depends on the correctness, completeness and rigor of the answers

- Exam policy:

Students attend a final test and will be allowed to refuse the mark

Grading scale:

< 18: failed

>=18: pass

Erasmus: at most 20 Erasmus and Overseas students, and 10 UADE students, selected in chronological order, will be admitted to the course and the exam.

Students with disability or specific learning disabilities (DSA) are required to make their condition known to find the best possibile accommodation to their needs.

Teaching tools

Tools, platforms, or resources used during the course:

- Learning platform: Virtuale (virtuale.unibo.it) contains the files developed in each lecture

- Communication tools: Virtuale and emails

- Other digital tools/software: Excel and Power BI

Office hours

See the website of Francesco Bergamaschi