COMPUTATIONAL TOOLS FOR MANAGEMENT

The course, along with the other mathematics courses in the Business Administration and Management program, allows students to gain knowledge and understanding of the key mathematical concepts used in management disciplines and their application to real-world management decision problems.
The goal of the course is to provide students with a general understanding of financial mathematics and data management, as well as skills in using spreadsheets and databases to solve basic operational problems that arise in business and economics, such as: evaluating investments/mortgages/loans, analyzing sales/inventory/human resources/production data, supporting operational decisions. Spreadsheets and databases are used as information tools to structure, process and analyze data and to communicate information.

At the end of the course, students will have acquired a basic knowledge of financial mathematics and will know how to use spreadsheets and databases, e.g. to evaluate basic investments/mortgages/loans (hereafter referred to as basic investments and financial instruments), to analyze and process data on sales/inventories/human resources/production to support operational decisions. Specifically, students should be able to:
1. Knowledge and understanding
- Understand the terminology and basic concepts of financial mathematics.
- Understand the strengths and limitations of mathematical models and software tools in supporting management decisions.
- Understand the basic principles of data management, particularly relational database theory and queries.
2. Ability to apply knowledge and understanding
- Understand the main aspects of contracts governing basic investments and financial instruments.
- Know how to determine the values of various characteristics (e.g., principal, interest, yield) of basic investments and financial instruments.
- Know how to extract data of interest from a relational database.
3. Make judgments
- Critically evaluate the conditions under which basic investments and financial instruments may perform well.
- Evaluate which data in a database are most valuable in supporting simple business decisions.
4. Communication Skills
- Be able to present, discuss, and prove the mathematical correctness and economic viability of basic investments and financial instruments.
- Know how to interact with database designers and managers.
- Be able to argue simple business decisions from a quantitative perspective using spreadsheets or the results of database queries.
5. (Lifelong) learning skills
- Be able to critically consult textbooks and online materials in the areas of financial mathematics and data management to support decisions.

Being clear of OFA requirements.
Students should have knowledge of the basic concepts introduced in the MATHEMATICS - 1 and MATHEMATICS - 2 courses.
Specifically, students should know: systems of linear equalities and inequalities, matrix algebra, interest rates, minima and maxima of functions.
Students should also have a basic knowledge of set theory.

1. The decision-making process:
- Steps in a Decision Process and Data-Driven Decision Making
- Defining objectives, identifying constraints, determining and validating solutions
- The potential and limitations of mathematical models and the use of software tools to support management decisions.
2. Make management decisions using spreadsheets:
- Importing data, basic mathematical and logical functions
- Excel's main financial functions and their mathematical structure
- Valuing investments/mortgages/loans
- Analyze data with filters and pivot tables
3. Make management decisions using databases:
- Concepts of data, information, and knowledge
- Reasons for collecting and managing data and associated costs
- Introduction to Databases
- relational databases
- normal forms
- Microsoft Access
- Querying a Microsoft Access Database
- Query by Example
- Advanced Queries
4. Case studies.

Notes, slides, exercises, videos and other materials necessary to follow the lectures and achieve the intended learning outcomes are available for download from the e-learning platform moodle.unive.it.

Additional readings
- A. Basso, P. Pianca, Introduzione alla matematica finanziaria, Cedam (students interested in financial mathematics)
- F. Borazzo, R. Candiotto, Applicazioni aziendali con Excel, Apogeo (students interested in business and management applications of Excel)
- any Excel and Access manual (students interested in deepening their knowledge of Excel and Access)

Assessment of student learning takes place in two phases: during the course and at the end of the course.
During the course, students are encouraged to self-assess their learning by completing the exercises and tests proposed in the e-learning platform.
At the end of the course, students must take the final exam.
The exam consists of an oral/practical test that lasts approximately 45 minutes to verify that students have acquired the concepts and are familiar with the software presented in class.
In the final exam, students are required to solve two financial or managerial problems (max. 15 points per problem), similar to those presented in class, using spreadsheets and a database on a computer. Students will be asked to explain the methods they used to solve the problems.
For example, students might be asked to
- Explain the financial mathematics and data management concepts behind the solution methods they used.
- justify the hypotheses they assume to be true
- Prove the correctness of the results obtained
- Discuss the economic effectiveness of the operations analyzed.

Problems similar to those proposed in the final exam can be found on the university's e-learning platform.

To achieve a passing grade on the exam, it is necessary for the student to demonstrate that he or she is able to solve the financial mathematics problem from among the two problems proposed on the exam.
To achieve an intermediate grade above sufficiency, it is necessary for the student to demonstrate that he or she is capable of solving both of the proposed problems without serious errors.
To achieve a top grade, it is necessary for the student to demonstrate that he or she is able to solve both problems proposed in the exam exactly.

Face-to-face teaching and study material on the university's e-learning platform moodle.unive.it. This material includes case studies that students are asked to solve. This material also includes the solutions (possibly presented through videos) of the case studies to allow students to compare their solutions with those proposed by the instructor or used in the real word.

During the course, the instructor also presents and solves some case studies using software packages.
He encourages reflection and discussion on the cases. In particular, he will
- Emphasizes the systemic approach he takes to the problems considered and the mathematical concepts behind the possible solution methods.
- Discusses the inherent difficulties of modeling a real-world problem, such as data collection,
- Shows how to use the results provided by the mathematical model, for example, to negotiate a loan in light of typical contract characteristics.
- Presents situations in which software tools may not return a correct answer and explains how to respond to these difficulties.

1) Students should register for the course on the dedicated page (Strumenti Computazionali per il Management/Computational Tools for Management) of the university e-learning platform moodle.unive.it

2) Accessibility, Disability and Inclusion
Accommodation and support services for students with disabilities and students with specific learning impairments

Ca’ Foscari abides by Italian Law (Law 17/1999; Law 170/2010) regarding support services and accommodation available to students with disabilities. This includes students with mobility, visual, hearing and other disabilities (Law 17/1999), and specific learning impairments (Law 170/2010). If you have a disability or impairment that requires accommodations (i.e., alternate testing, readers, note takers or interpreters) please contact the Disability and Accessibility Offices in Student Services: disabilita@unive.it.

written and oral