In this lab, we will explore the use of spreadsheet software to perform some simple data analysis. While spreadsheets can be used to perform simple, straightforward (though tedious) calculations, spreadsheets such as Microsoft’s Excel can also perform more sophisticated data analysis and what if analysis.
The following is a set of videos that provide instruction on the basics of writing Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, along with instructions as to how to use some of the advanced features:
The following link, Excel Easy) is a short reference to some of the topics covered in the above videos.
The lab below consists of four parts. You will submit a single workbook (a .xls file) for this lab, but each of the parts should be in a separate worksheet (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwbho0CgEAE : The Beginner’s Guide to Excel – Excel Basics 2017 Tutorial – Youtube). In addition to your Excel Workbook, you must also submit a PDF document with your responses to the questions asked in this lab (the questions to answer in the PDF document will appear in red.). Label each response with the lab part number and the question number within the part.
Part 1: A basic spreadsheet with formulas (totals, means, medians and standard deviations)
You are given the following information in the data file Part1Lab1Data.xlsx, which consists of sales data for a company with eight salespeople. Copy and paste this data to a new workbook that you will submit for this assignment. Rename the worksheet hold the data you just copied to Part 1.
For each salesperson, the company has their sales for the last year broken down by month. The company wants you to summarize the data as follows:
Once you have the columns and rows described above defined, sort the table by highest total sales first. Then, answer the following questions (It may be useful to define additional columns and rows to answer these questions or to resort the table; if you modified the table to answer the question, indicate what modfiication you made.):
Part 2: Projecting Growth
For this part of the lab, use the data in the file Part2Lab1Data.xlsx. Copy and paste the data in this file to a new worksheet in your workbook and do all of the work for this part in the new worksheet. Call the new worksheet Part 2.
In the new information system under development for Domestic Car Sales, seven tables will be implemented in the new relational database. These tables are: New Vehicle, Trade-in Vehicle, Sales Invoice, Customer, Salesperson, Installed Option, and Option. The expected average record size for these tables (in bytes) and the initial record count per table are given in the file Part2Lab1Data.xlsx. The company wants to project the growth of the tables over the next three years in order to ensure that appropriate hardware is obtained to handle the increase data load. The company assumes that each table has a 35% storage overhead above the storage required for just the data records, themselves. The company assumes the the company (and the size of the tables) will grow at a rate of 10% per year. Add the columns to show the total storage require by each table, including overview along with the growth for the three year period. When writing the formula to include overhead and the formula to calculate growth, use the cells label Overhead and Growth Rage in your formulas.
Answer the following questions (again, if you make additions or modify the table to answer the questions, indicate the modification.)
Part 3: What-if analysis
For part three of this lab, we will use the table you built from part 2, but in a new worksheet called Part3. Copy and paste your table from the Part 2 worksheet (be sure to copy the Overhead and Growth Rate cells along with the rest of the table).
If you did not do so in part 2, ensure that your formulas reference the Overhead and Growth Rate cells and do not simply use the constants .35 and .1, otherwise you will not be able to perform the what if analysis.
We will be using the Data table method using both the row and column variables. We will focus on a what if analysis of the third total size of the Trade-in Vehicle table. As in the video tutorial for what if analysis, you need to do the following steps:
Answer the following questions:
Part 4: Pivot tables
For this part of the lab, you will use the data in the Part4Lab1Data.xlsx file. Copy and paste this data into a new worksheet and call the worksheet Part 4. This file contains sales information for a company that sales paper, ink, printers and shredders nationally. The company has six regional areas: NorthEast, SouthEast, MidWest, NorthWest, SouthWest, and the WestCoast. Sales are booked quarterly by quanitity of an item and price per item by each salesperson in each area. The data is presented as a table with a row for each sale with the following information in each column:
A pivot table will allow you to reorganize this data to answer a lot of questions.
Do the following
Answer each of the questions below using the pivot table row, column, value, and origin areas.