Course Works and Career Preparation
In the fall of 2016, I took the Data Science course (MIS 0855), which contributed greatly toward preparing me for my future career. Through the class, I learned how to use Tableau in order to analyze and visualize the data to get my message across. I also learned how to use infographic creation site Piktochart to create visually good looking graphics that capture the results from the data analysis process. Through this class, I can now look at a data source, analyze it, and then capture data in an easy-to-understand infographic. The skills I learned in MIS 0855 will help me find meaningful insights from data and present those insights to everyone else.
Through MIS 2101 (Information Systems in Organizations), I learned about the future career path for an MIS major and my role within an organization. I learned how to map out business processes through swimlane diagrams and how to show the relationship between people, objects, concepts and places through entity relationship diagrams. Finally, I gained knowledge about how businesses use technologies and information systems to improve business efficiency and profitability. Through MIS 2101, I am well acquainted with the current trends and technologies within big companies and corporations.
BA 2196 (Business Communications) class taught me how to write and present information in a succinct and understandable way. Through extensive writing exercises, I learned how to remove confusing and unnecessary sentence components to improve the clarity of my writings. I also learned how to create an effective PowerPoint presentation and how to engage the audience during the presentation.
In Data Analytics (MIS 2502), I learned the basics about data warehouse along with database management tool such as MySQL. MySQL lets the users query and pull data from the database to view it. MySQL also allows users to create their own database from scratch. Then using R and R studios, I can perform decision tree analysis, clustering analysis, and association rules analysis on a data set.
In Data-centric Application Development (MIS 3501) and Application Integration and Evaluation (MIS 3502), I learned how to use programming languages such as HTML, CSS, PHP, and Javascript to create a well-design and mobile-responsive web application. Me and my team elicit requirements from an actual client and developed the application through different sprints to get to the final deliverable.
In Project Management (MIS 3535), I worked in a team of three people as the Project Managers of an engineering project with a group of five engineers. We set up weekly meetings with the engineers to understand the project, elicited key requirements, and managed status updates on the progress of the project. Among the PMs, we also set up weekly meetings to align our understanding on the project scope and updated the documentations accordingly to reflect the latest state of the project.
Our documentations prove extremely useful to the engineers as they were able to keep each other accountable due to the more well-defined roles, view the project progress, and verify what has been previously agreed upon. Every week, we also wrote a status report to inform our sponsor on our accomplishments, goals for the following week, and any remaining issues. In the end, we were able to help the engineers deliver their project on time and within scope while meeting our sponsor’s high-level objectives.
Beside the project, another takeaway from the class is the ‘see-feel-change’ concept. Instead of trying to convince people through statistics and numbers, a more impactful way of doing this is by creating a dramatic visual to appeal to their emotions, which is more likely to lead to long-lasting change.