MIS462 Project 2
Excel Spreadsheet Application

Students individually or in groups to create, revise, automate or improve an Excel spreadsheet application or application(s) using Microsoft Excel Visual Basic for Applications.
For this project you can either select a spreadsheet project from the list below, or you can suggest a spreadsheet application that is of special interest to you.
The spreadsheet must be of a business nature.
If you are currently employed you can contact someone at your place of business and ask them if there is a spreadsheet application for which they need assistance.

Project 2 Topics & Groups

MIS462 Spring 2025 Project02 Ideas:

Here are some possible projects for a university course in business analytics using Excel, Excel VBA, and introductory Power BI, along with websites where you can find relevant data:

1. HR Analytics Dashboard: Create a comprehensive dashboard to analyze employee attrition, including metrics such as turnover rates, reasons for leaving, and demographic breakdowns. Use Excel for data analysis and visualization, and VBA for automating data updates and report generation. You can find datasets for HR analytics on Kaggle, such as the IBM HR Analytics Employee Attrition & Performance dataset ​1 ​.
2. Sales Performance Analysis: Develop a project to analyze sales data, track performance against targets, and identify trends. Use Excel for data manipulation and visualization, VBA for automating repetitive tasks, and Power BI for creating interactive reports. Kaggle offers a wide range of datasets that can be used for sales performance analysis.
3. Financial Statement Analysis: Create a project to analyze financial statements of a company, including income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements. Use Excel for calculations and visualizations, VBA for automating financial models, and Power BI for presenting insights. Kaggle is a valuable resource for finding financial statement data.
4. Customer Segmentation: Develop a project to segment customers based on purchasing behavior, demographics, and other relevant factors. Use Excel for data analysis, VBA for automating segmentation processes, and Power BI for visualizing customer segments. You can find customer segmentation data on Kaggle.
5. Inventory Management: Create a project to manage and analyze inventory levels, turnover rates, and stockouts. Use Excel for tracking inventory data, VBA for automating inventory updates, and Power BI for visualizing inventory trends. Kaggle offers datasets related to inventory management.
6. Marketing Campaign Analysis: Develop a project to analyze the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, including metrics such as conversion rates, ROI, and customer engagement. Use Excel for data analysis, VBA for automating campaign tracking, and Power BI for presenting campaign performance. Kaggle is a great resource for finding marketing campaign data.

These projects will help you gain practical experience in using Excel, Excel VBA, and Power BI for business analytics.

2 references

1

IBM HR Analytics Employee Attrition & Performance

sorted by group number

Corporate interaction:
You are expected to behave in a professional, business-like manner in all dealings for this project.
Make sure you are dressed appropriately, in business casual attire, when you meet with any of the people associated with this project.

When working with someone else's Excel application remember- do not experiment on their original copy, make backups often, and 'Do No Harm'!!

This project involves working with real world organizations. These organizations are contributing their personnel, data, knowledge and other resources to this project. This is a wonderful opportunity to gain experience with how organizations depend on information technology. If you perform well enough, the organization you work with may be willing to provide you with a letter of reference, very valuable when looking for employment. You are expected to be professional in all dealings with these organizations and their personnel. 

Intellectual Property Rights:
By participating in ths project each student agrees to give a royalty free, non exclusive right to any creative work produced during this project to the collaborating partner. You will be expected to provide a copy of requested work product to the colloaborating partner by Friday, April 30th, 2011.
Ref: MnSCU Board Policy 3.26-Intellectual Property
See Part 4, Subpart A.5.(b) as modified by this statement per Subpart B.2.

If you do not agree with these terms, please contact the professor as soon as possible so that other arrangements can be made.

Deliverables:

1. (100) Project idea form, filled out and submitted. See D2L for due date.
2. (700) Final Report- which must be posted on each students website. See D2L for due date.
3. Place a copy of your work in a folder that contains your Group Number in the folder name, and put this folder at:
   \\store\classes\20255001619\Shared
   
   My evaluation will be based on the following criteria:
   1. Documentation-
      1. is the application stand alone?
      2. have you included a worksheet that lists assumptions, variables, important information?
   2. Does your spreadsheet application solve the problem given?
   3. Remember that poor spelling and grammar will be penalized.
      You can lose up to 50 points for this project. Make use of the Writing Center.

Suggested Projects List