R. Saltzman
BUS 776: Data Analysis for Managers
General Information
Spring 2013
Professor
Class Time
Office Hours
Contact
Website
Robert M. Saltzman, Ph.D.
TH 6:30-9:15 pm in DTC 555
TH 5:55-6:25 pm in DTC 593 & TTH 1-3 pm in BUS 205C (main campus)
Email: saltzman@sfsu.edu; Tel: (415) 338-1232; Fax: (415) 405-0364
http://ilearn.sfsu.edu
Required Text
&
Software
* Doane, D. & Seward, L., Essential Statistics in Business and Economics, 2E,
McGraw-Hill/Irwin, ©2010. ISBN-13: 978-0-07-337365-2
* Microsoft Excel 2003 or later version
Course
Objectives
Prerequisite
Homework
By the end of the course, you should be able to:
 Distinguish between categorical and quantitative data
 Create and interpret graphical views of data, and numeric measures of the
center and spread
 Work with the basic rules of probability and several discrete and continuous
probability distributions to answer questions about the likelihood of events
 Understand the purposes of interval estimation and hypothesis testing
 Analyze relationships between two quantitative variables by creating and
interpreting scatterplots, correlation coefficients, and regression equations
 Perform all computations using spreadsheet software
Classified graduate status in business.
Mandatory Homework: Some weeks you’ll have an assignment requiring the use of
Excel. These assignments should be printed out and turned in; I will grade and return
them the following week. Late assignments will not be accepted.
Optional Homework: I’ll recommend text problems in order to give you a chance to
master the material. Although these won’t be collected, doing them will help you
prepare for the assignments and exams. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises are
given in Appendix G of the text. Solutions to all exercises will be posted to iLearn.
Exams &
Grading
There will be two take-home midterms and a take-home cumulative final exam (due
May 23, 2013) which will involve using MS Excel to solve relevant problems.
 No make-up exams or assignments will be given
 Late/missed exams and assignments will count as a 0
Final course grades will be based on the following:
100 points (22.2%)
 7 Excel assignments
200 points (44.4%)
 2 Midterm exams
150 points (33.3%)
 1 Final exam
450 points