Excel Project

The Excel Project was a great experience.  The project made understanding Excel easy with the real-world situation.  The project entailed analyzing data for the owner of a large fitness center.  The study included 500 participants that had their heart rates measured while they exercised for 15 minutes and had a 5 minute cool down.  There are 21 heart rate measurements for each participant taken over a 20 minute period.

The project required the use of many Excel skills.  A variety of formulas had to be created to find the necessary data needed.  Some of the data needed was: the maximum heart rate, target heart rate, highest heart rate, increase in heart rate, and whether the target heart rate was achieved.  The raw data had to be properly formatted and sorted.  During the project, I learned how to correctly produce formulas.  I soon found at that absolute and relative cell addressing were extremely important to get correct.  I found that the Excel help function was very useful when I came across troubled tasks.

Pivot tables were also created to help make data analysis more visual.  Pivot tables were made for the amount of participants that reached their target heart rate and the average percentage of increase of heart rates.  The pivot tables were very intuitive and interactive.  It made setting up the pivot table easy.  A screen capture of the average increase of heart rates is bellow.  This Excel Project has expanded my knowledge of the program.  I now feel confident creating reports for my manager.     

Tutorial 1: Choosing The Proper Application Software

Application software is designed to increase the users production by assisting them with tasks.  Having the proper applications can have detrimental affects on work efficiency.  Applications can be used to assist the user in word processing, math, graphics, and web browsing.  There is an endless array of applications available to help users with almost anything.

Application software can be broken down into 2 main divisions:

If you are a company with special needs such as customers relations management, you will need a vertical application.  Software such as word processors and graphics editors are horizontal applications.

Choosing the proper software is a 4 step process:

Step 1:  Perform a Needs Analysis:  In this step, the user must decide what their needs and requirements are for the program.  The user must decide what tasks the program must help them accomplish.

Step 2:  Software Options:  Do your research on the programs available to meet your needs.  Explore the web for reviews and better options.  Obtain references to efficient programs.  Websites are available such as www.cnet.com .  These sites offer reviews and information about various programs.

Step 3:  Compare Software Features:  Compare features of the programs in question.  Choose the program that best meets your needs.  When comparing options keep in mind key features like: hardware requirements, expandability, adaptability, and whether it is upgradeable.  www.cnet.com can also be used to compare programs.

Step 4:  Value Proposition:  Applications are designed to increase productivity and efficiency while lowering cost.  It today's world, time is money.  The more efficient a user is, the more money they can make. 

-Hardware and system requirements is another key issue.  Must the program be compatible with the current system or can upgrades be done?  

-Is training needed?  Training a large company can become costly. 

-Who will help with installation and support?  Will the program developers provide support?  Large companies may need an IT team to keep systems running.

After these steps have been completed, you can confidently choose the most productive and efficient program.