Evaluation

Judging Criteria

The written report your team provides in this entry form is the foundation of your entry. Entries will be judged on use of the full analytics process – incorporating not only the technical analysis and solution, but also understanding of the business problem, team organization, and the clarity and effectiveness of communication. Think of this report as a presentation to Principal’s upper management on the critical elements in the analytics decision process.

Entries will be judged by the clarity of the solution, the technical strength of the methodology, the uniqueness of the approach, the degree to which the data support your conclusions, and written presentation.

The following are the main criteria and weighting judges will consider when evaluating your entry:

Quality of Solution (40 points)

• The problem is clearly defined.
• Objectives and tradeoffs are addressed and weighed. In particular, the report addresses how the constraints impact the solution and the objective quality (i.e., some form of sensitivity analysis).
• The report assesses how well the solution meets the criteria of the stakeholders.
• The analysis assesses how sensitive the solution is to assumptions and data.

Methodology/Modeling (40 points)

• Data used in the model have been collected, cleaned and analyzed correctly.
• The methodology(ies) used for solving the problem is(are) reasonable and appropriate.
• The model has been clearly formulated, with decision variables and parameters defined. The model formulation is correct and applicable to the problem.
• Simplifying assumptions made in the model are clearly stated, reasonable, and assessed.
• The report presents a clear methodology that effectively and creatively addresses the problem.
• The proposed solution can be executed efficiently.
• The report demonstrates that the methodology can be scaled up to much larger problem sizes.

Quality of Presentation (20 points)

• The report is clearly written (few typos; few distracting grammatical hiccups; appendices, tables and figures are well-labeled and easy to read).
• The writing is coherent, fluid, and has a clear structure.
• All sources are credited.
• The Executive Summary is appropriately written for the target audience (executives stakeholders).
• The team makeup and process are clearly described so that the reader can understand the division of labor and workflow of the project.