7. How long would it take you to build a spreadsheet/Access application that could be used to forecast a daily count of customers at a small restaurant? If you could sell the application, you much do you think you could charge? Now search the Internet to see if such an application exists.
Some students might be optimistic and think they can do it in a day. A lot depends on their skills and knowledge of statistics. Those with minimal skills and knowledge are highly likely to underestimate the time and effort required. A second question is how the data will be acquired/entered. If you need to connect to a customer’s existing system, it will take more time. Selling it would likely be a challenge, but it would be useful to forecast the need for employees on various days. Price would have to be minimal, but would depend on whether you could sell it as part of a consulting package. The good restaurant systems have these tools (and more) built in. Some standalone employee scheduling packages exist. They tend to focus on days/hours of employee availability; but they probably have some basic forecasting capabilities.