Week 1 Prepare 2: Selecting a Data Analysis Project Topic

Take some time now to select a topic for your data analysis project. Please note that every learner in this course must have a unique topic. Complying with the following recommendations will help narrow the topic and ensure logical flow and reasonable scope.

• Locate a research study that has already addressed the issue and focus on 1–3 performance indicators examined in that study.
• Check your logic: Is it already established in the literature that there is a direct relationship between the problem you have identified and the performance indicators you are going to review? If not, read the literature once again to discover what performance indicators or variables are relevant to your problem.
• Determine whether you can draw a visual diagram, graph, pie chart, or any other visual infrastructure to summarize or group the data you are examining. If you can label an X and Y axis, then you probably have a measurable topic.
• Remember that, if you are using benchmarks, the organizations or topics must be similar in scope and nature for a valid comparison. For example, avoid benchmarking aspects of a rural 20 patient average daily census non-profit hospice against a national for-profit hospice with an average daily census of 17,000 patients.