Case Studies Mastery Reflection
Case Studies very much met my expectation of providing real-world, practical insight and application to the skills learned throughout the M.S. Business Intelligence program. Moreover, I expected this course to push me beyond my comfort zone for growth. However, I did not realize I would be given the skills to jump into a 10-K to analyze and support through industry data. I thought I would simply be translating from an end user. I now understand how the organizational mission can be leveraged in extending a BI initiative and meeting the needs of the end user.
The Case Studies course positioned my thinking to that of a Business Analyst. I am now able to credibly find and digest industry materials, case studies, and financial reports. I am now able to elicit the appropriate information from these materials to find innovative activations for an organization’s bottom line and appropriate communicate the need and benefit of such an initiative. The course positioned me to think critically and creatively while requiring that a take an interdisciplinary approach to understand business and technical needs while meeting the needs of all stakeholders involved.
I am now very confident in my post-graduate ability to create a boisterous eFolio to demonstrating my ability to leverage business objectives and increase efficiencies. In my capstone research, I have found a plethora of case studies and I can use the skills from this course to find organizations of interest and help devise an innovative solution to showcase. This course also improved my confidence by clarifying the need for cognitive skills in becoming a Business Analyst, I was extremely concerned about my lack of technical skills. However, with my new understanding of case analysis, I feel confident in my ability to leverage my naturally analytical, process oriented, creative mindset to benefit business. I can now go beyond simply offering a solution to a known problem by allowing the end user, the industry, the company, and my creativity inform a novel solution or opportunity. I now have a full scope understanding of the professional range in Big Data and understand how to leverage my current strengths while working toward others needed.