600

For graduate students only. This course is a survey of quantitative techniques used in business decision-making, including linear programming, forecasting, decision analysis and queuing analysis. Students will develop spreadsheet models that enable these techniques to utilize the data available to them and apply the results to business decisions.

For graduate students only. Most business planning begins with a forecast. We cover the most helpful forecasting models, whether you are a financial analyst, an operations manager, an accountant, a marketer, a human resources manager or an entrepreneur. We use actual historical data much like the data you encounter in practice. The models are explained as procedures that you may replicate with your own data. In particular, we study moving-average, exponential smoothing, regression (simple and multiple), time-series decomposition and ARIMA models, as well as techniques for combining forecasts and data mining. We use Excel-based ForecastX, one of the most widely used forecasting software in practice.