Business Analytics for Decision Making (Coursera)

A key element of decision making is to identify the best course of action. Since businesses problems often have too many alternative solutions, you will learn how optimization can help you identify the best option. What is really exciting about this course is that you won’t need to know a computer language or advanced statistics to learn about these predictive and prescriptive analytic models. The Analytic Solver Platform and basic knowledge of Excel is all you’ll need. Learners participating in assignments will be able to get free access to the Analytic Solver Platform.

Course 3 of 5 in the Advanced Business Analytics Specialization

Syllabus

WEEK 1

Data Exploration and Reduction — Cluster Analysis

WEEK 2

Dealing with Uncertainty and Analyzing Risk

WEEK 3

Identifying the Best Options — Optimization

At the end of this module students should be able to: 1. Develop a spreadsheet model for an optimization problem 2. Use Excel to solve optimization models 3. Interpret solutions and conduct what-if analysis

WEEK 4

Decision Analytics

At the end of this module students should be able to: 1. Given a business situation, apply an appropriate technique to identify the best solution alternatives 2. Formulate and solve models for business problems that requires yes/no decisions and logical constraints 3. Create models that mix techniques and tools such as simulation and optimizationAnalyze and interpret results to make informed decisions