Description Your manager, Pat Williams, invites you to meet again to discuss another project. It turns out that Cybertech’s competitors have been closing in on market share. Pat asks you to analyze data about the company’s workforce and to prepare an analysis of its current composition. The report is due in two weeks. Your quantitative analysis will be used to advise the company’s management on the cost of doing business, and how to achieve success and income revenues, as well as make recommendations on the allocation of salaries across the company. Pat explains more about the requirements. Pat asks that your report must consider personnel by organizational roles, salaries, length of service, level of education, age, race, gender, marital status, and region. Pat explains that your analysis will be reviewed to determine how the company’s employee demographics compare with industry peers and competitors. You learn that you will present your report to leadership at their quarterly strategic planning meeting. You know that you’ll need to use your statistical skills and technical skills to identify and manipulate the data. You’ll also need to draw relevant conclusions based on quantitative reasoning. First, sketch out a plan to review your skills in math, statistics, and Excel. Second, you’ll need to work through the data to produce supporting charts and graphs. Third, you’ll need to complete the analysis well before the due date. Time to get busy.  This project will help you advise your company’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. Over this two-week period, 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. There are 10 steps that will lead you through this project. Each step should take no more than two hours to complete. Begin by watching the video above, which introduces the project as it might occur in the workplace, and then continue with Step 1  Apply Critical ThinkingTranscriptEarly one morning at work, CEO Alice Johnson asks if you have a moment to chat. I need your expertise and advice on a complicated situation for the company regarding an international hacking lawsuit. In her office, Alice explains that CyberTech is serving as the cyber forensics consultant for a law firm handling the suit from a 2015 hack of the Office of Personnel Management, OPM. The OPM hack compromised background information on millions of workers. In a related case Anomalous, a non-US gray hat hacking group suspected in the OPM breach case, is claiming that US-based Equation Set attempted to hack its facilities. So we have a non-US and a US set of test hacker groups involved. With Anomalous, the non-US group, being a client plaintiff in one case against Equation Set, the US group, and as a suspect in the OPM breach. But Alice then outlines why the case is problematic. Along with the OPM victims, CyberTech represents clients from some of the OPM breach suspect companies in unrelated cases, which could appear to be a conflict of interest. This could affect the way our company is perceived by others. We need to maintain our image as an unbiased cyber security consultant. Should CyberTech remain on both the OPM breach investigation and the overseas case at the same time? Or should we drop one of the cases? Apply your critical thinking and analytical skills to figure out what happened what we know and don’t know, and how the company might remedy this situation. I’d like a paper by the end of the week with your recommendationsStep 1: Prepare to Think CriticallyIn this first step, you will prepare to respond to your boss’s request for an analysis of a problem in your organization. You realize that this will require careful thinking. So, you take time to review the process and to engage in critical thinking and analysis.When you have completed the critical thinking exercises, you will move on to the next step: identifying the problem.Step 2: Identify the ProblemNow that you’re prepared to think critically, it’s time to analyze the situation. Remember the direction from your CEO is to analyze the situation and advise on the two lawsuits. Review the video or transcript in Start Here as needed.A suggested area of focus is to determine if a conflict of interest would exist in handling the two cases that might be related, and advise how to proceed.Outline the points that you want to make in the first two sections of your paper (introduction, explanation) and draft those sections.Next, it’s time to analyze the information.Step 3: Analyze the InformationNow that you have some understanding of the nature of the breach and the parties involved, it’s time to gather and analyze information. The problem analysis resources will further aid your analysis and development of the third section of the paper.Outline the points that you want to make in Section 3: Analysis of the Information of your paper, and draft that section.In the following step, you will consider other viewpoints, conclusions, and solutions.Step 4: Consider and Analyze Other Viewpoints, Conclusions, and SolutionsOnce you have completed your analysis of the incident, the next step is to analyze alternative viewpoints, conclusions, and solutions. To do this, you will need to apply ethical decision-making and reasoning. Also, read the highly recommended  Randolph Pherson’s “The Five Habits of the Master Thinker,” a paper written for intelligence analysts, but applicable to all analytical thinking and reasoning.Outline the points that you want to make in Section 4: Analysis of Alternative Viewpoints, Conclusions, or Solutions of your paper, and draft that section.When you are finished, move to the next step, which involves developing conclusions.Step 5: Develop Well-Reasoned ConclusionsYou considered alternative viewpoints in the last step. Now you’re ready to develop personal conclusions and suggest remedies so that your boss is well-equipped to brief  leadership about the situation.Remember, you may need to consult outside references, but this is not a research paper. It is more investigative in nature about the facts of the case. Cite outside sources carefully.Now, outline your argument and draft Section 5: Conclusions and Recommendations, the final sections. Your boss is expecting to receive a concise, focused paper to prepare  for further meetings. Stay to the main points, although you may have more facts to answer any questions. You will submit your paper in the final step. Step 1: Refresh Your Math, Statistics and Excel SkillsEveryone will begin this project with different background skills in math, statistics and Excel. Let’s start by thinking about what it means to engage in quantitative processes and the role these skills play in this project.Next, assess your current baseline by refreshing your skills in math, statistics, and Excel. You will choose how much you already know and where you need to concentrate more attention in order to complete this quantitative analysis project.After this refresher, you will create a spreadsheet based on the template provided in the next step.If you need help outside the classroom, register for the STAT 689 tutoring room (go to the Project 4 Discussion for registration information) in which you can access tutoring help and other resources to complete this project successfully. Help is free and immediate.Step 2: Set Up Your SpreadsheetNow that you’ve assessed and refreshed these important skills, you’re ready to begin. First download the Excel template and use it to set up your spreadsheet. This step has you set up a basic view in preparation for the use of several tools.After you’ve formatted and set up the basic view and saved it with your name, you’re ready to move to the next step and add data.Step 3: Add DataWith the 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.Step 4: Use Functions to Summarize the DataWith the data built, you are ready to start using 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, you’re ready to begin your analysis.Step 5: Analyze the WorkforceYou’ve summarized the data. Next, you will employ descriptive or summary statistics to analyze the workforce. Your summary tables 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.You will be working in Section 3 of the Data tab in the spreadsheet to complete the descriptive statistics for the five categories (Salary, Hourly Rate, Years of Service, Education, and Age). Using Excel formulas, complete the table.After you have used Excel formulas to find this information, you will next use the Toolpak to find summary statistics.Step 6: Use the Analysis ToolpakWith the 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, you’ll create charts and a histogram for Tabs 3 and 4.Step 7: Create Charts and a HistogramWhere would we be without the ability to view data in charts? It is sometimes easier to grasp the context of data if it is 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: Graphs—Charts and Tab 4: Histogram. After you complete these tabs, you’ll be ready to sort the data.Step 8: Copy and Sort the DataYou’ve accomplished a lot with the data set, summary stats, charts, and histograms. Another skill you’ll need to be able to do is sorting data in an Excel worksheet for reporting purposes. You’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 you’re finished, you’ll be ready to conduct a quantitative analysis.See below for example of a sorted spreadsheet.Used with permission from Microsoft.Step 9: Conduct Quantitative AnalysisIn this step, your hard work bears fruit. What does it all mean? Think back to your boss’s reasons for tasking you with this project. Bring your powers of analysis to bear to determine what the data may be telling you. Apply your quantitative reasoning skills to answer five questions that demonstrate your interpretation of the data. The questions are located on the QR Questions_Responses tab in your workbook.After answering the five questions, finish the project by writing a short essay. The essay will include:a one-paragraph narrative summary of your findings, describing patterns of interestan explanation of the potential relevance of such patternsa 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.Good job! In the next step, you’ll submit the workbook and analysis.Step 10: Submit Your Completed Workbook and AnalysisYou’re now ready to submit the workbook and analysis for review and feedback. Review the requirements for the final deliverable to be sure you have:1-Excel Workbook with Six TabsTab 1: Data – completed data sheet (Steps 1–6 above)Tab 2: Excel Summary Stats (Step 6)Tab 3: Graphs – Charts (Step 7)Tab 4: Histogram (Step 7)Tab 5: Sorted Data (Step 8)Quantitative Analysis (Step 9; see detail below and move to first position upon completion.)2-Quantitative Analysis: Answers to Questions and Short EssayPrepare 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:Quantitative AnalysisDataExcel Summary StatsGraphs–ChartsHistogramSorted Data3-Format to Be Printed Format this workbook so that all the spreadsheets can be printed. Finding the P Value – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=008UJIjq0OMTwo Sample T-Test – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6CgUfMwqtIANOVA – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xQd7_c9weAConducting a Regression – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IwTWdaSBFA User generated content is uploaded by users for the purposes of learning and should be used following Studypool’s honor code & terms of service.