Week 3 – Assignment: Design an Experiment for Enterprise Decisioning
Describe the problem and state the hypotheses to be tested.
For this assignment, you must write a paper describing your design for an experiment that will serve as a pilot project and will help you address an organizational problem or identify opportunities for continuous improvement or revenue growth.
When designing your experiment, remember to design it in a way that minimizes threats to validity, best addresses your research question, and is feasible to implement in your organization of interest. Please consider using the G*Power tool for determining your optimal sample size, which you can access via the course resources.
Your paper should consist of the following components:
Describe the problem and state the hypotheses to be tested.
Describe and justify the design (e.g., type of experimental, quasi-experimental, or pre-experimental design). Please note that non-experimental designs are not permitted for this assignment as you must manipulate at least one variable for your assignment.
Discuss how your design best mitigates potential threats to validity.
Describe your data requirements, how you will collect your data, and how you plan to analyze your data.
Length: 5-7 page paper, not including title and reference pages
References: Include a minimum of 5 scholarly resources.
The completed assignment should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts presented in the course by providing new thoughts and insights relating directly to this topic. The content should reflect scholarly writing and current APA standards and should adhere to Northcentral University’s Academic Integrity Policy.
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Designing Experiments for Hypothesis Testing
Your ability to design a robust experiment will be a driving force in your ability to implement positive change within an organization. In order to know what decisions to make, you need to have valid information available. Oftentimes, people start with a pilot or proof of concept before they implement any major enterprise-wide initiatives. For this course, consider a pilot project that you would conduct that could lead to a major strategic initiative.
Once your pilot project is identified and specified, you can begin collecting the required data and begin your experiment. For example, you might have a software development team that is part of a scrum team, and you are looking to get their user stories completed faster because the team is not delivering against the plan. You might identify that the amount of effort to complete a user story (e.g., assignment of story points) is often underestimated, holiday and vacation times are not adequately considered, and developers are pulled off of the project to handle other needs that arise. You hypothesize that all of these factors are impacting your team’s ability to complete the amount of work planned per 2-week sprint. Therefore, you design an experiment where you make a change in the process and examine how your team’s performance changes as a result. In addition, you would want to look at how appropriately productivity is being measured.
After you have completed your experiment, you will need to explore, clean, and analyze your data so that you are able to provide recommendations for continuous improvement or organizational growth. In Weeks 4-6, you will practice analyzing and interpreting data.
Review the weekly resources (as well as previous resources, as required) to prepare for this week’s assignments. The resources may include textbook reading assignments, journal articles, websites, links to tools or software, videos, handouts, rubrics, etc.
Books and Resources for this Week
García-Pérez, M. A. (2012). Statistical conclusion validity: Some common threats and simple remedies. Frontiers in Psychology, 3.
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Harris, P. (2008). Designing and reporting experiments in psychology. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
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Parker, R. M. (1993). Threats to the Validity of Research. Rehabilitation Counseling Bulletin, 36(3), 130–38.
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G Power Interactive Instructions
Word Document
Answer preview Describe the problem and state the hypotheses to be tested.
1640 words