Elements of the Capstone Project Report (Minimum 25-35 pages)

1. Motivation –
a. Why are we doing this project?
b. What implications will the project have from industry perspective?
c. Why is the project important to the project sponsor (some connection to top line –
revenue generation or bottom line – cost savings will be helpful)?

2. Project Description –
a. What is the project about?
b. Who are the stakeholders within the organization that will be impacted by the
project?
c. What is the data available? Did you need to collect additional data? Sources of
data and data attributes
d. Limitations with respect to data - unavailability of certain data that would add to
the analysis
e. How will the company be able to leverage the output you produce through this
project?

3. Process –
a. Data collection, Data exploration, Data cleaning
b. Analytical methods and Technology
c. Interpretation of Output/Visualization
d. Change parameters/method and Iterate

4. Model Comparison
a. Which model did you pick for the final recommendation and why?
b. What are the additional insights you can provide to the organization based on the
output from different models?
c. How will the project sponsor integrate the findings from the project back into
his/her organization (business rules, dashboard, etc.)

5. Challenges
a. What were the challenges your team faced while conducting the project?
b. What are the challenges the sponsor will face while implementing your
recommendations?

6. Conclusion/Recommendations
a. What is the business impact of the recommendations suggested by your project?
b. Are your recommendations and cost of implementing them justified by the
savings or profit they will generate?
c. What organizational/process change the company needs to undertake to show
sustained value from this project?
d. How often should this model be revaluated and re-calibrated?
 Elements of the Capstone Project Presentation (15-30 mins)

1. Introduction - Your presentation should have a compelling opening--drilling home why the
project was important. If you can't explain to the audience why your presentation is important
within one-two minute, you've lost them. Background information should not take more than
one minute. If you take more than that it tells the audience you don’t have anything else very
important to say because you are not getting to it. Make sure you introduce the team and the
project sponsor.

 Key Points - Before you do anything else, identify three to five key points you want the
audience to understand. For an analytics project, these are the problems and the analytical
techniques that were applied to recommend a course of action to the project sponsor.

Each analytical method should include: Why this method was chosen, Input and Output
parameters, and Recommendation based on output. One comparison slide of different
methods is very helpful.

 Conclusions and Recommendations – The final minute or two should include a Cost-
Benefit analysis. How does the project finding benefit the sponsor and how will they
integrate it within their business processes/rules? How often should this model be revaluated
and re-calibrated? Do mention future actions or additional study, and acknowledgements of
those who assisted you.