Final Project Part 2
Analysis Plan Flowchart
Due: November 17 by 11:59PM ET on Quercus

The goal of this assessment:

The purpose of this assessment is for you to construct an analysis plan for your final project. By
formulating a plan early, you can ensure that you perform your analysis using the correct
methods at the correct times. Your detailed plan will also aide you in writing out your final report,
as it will form the foundation for your methods section (in the methods section, you will outline
how you plan to answer your research question and provide justification for any decisions you
will make along the way). This assessment will also let you demonstrate that you understand how
to use the various aspects of linear regression, and the limitations of these tools.

Instructions:

You are tasked with creating a flowchart that outlines the steps you will take in your final project
analysis to arrive at an answer to your proposed research question. Since you have already
completed your exploratory data analysis (EDA) in Part 1 of the project, your flowchart should
start with the first model you plan to build and outline the steps you will take to arrive at a final
model that answers your research question. You will not need to write code or do what you
describe in your flowchart for this part of the assessment. Rather focus on describing how you
will build models and make decisions to reduce or increase the size of your model, as well as how
you will incorporate model diagnostics. This means you will need to think about the order (i.e.
where in the analysis it makes sense to do these steps) in which you use certain linear regression
methods and what process you will follow/decisions you will make depending on the results of
these methods.

The plan that you are outlining will be fairly general – while you can refer to specific variable
names and properties of your dataset, you will not necessarily know the outcome of any decision
step. Rather you should consider all possible outcomes of these decisions and show us in each
case what your steps would be. You should focus on making each element of your flowchart
(e.g. process, decision, etc.) clear and specific. For example, instead of writing “check
assumptions”, be specific about how (which specific residual plots) and what you’re checking
(looking for what specific patterns)). This will ensure your audience knows exactly what you
would be doing at each point and how that leads to different decisions and further steps. If
you’ve already identified interesting characteristics of your data, or important predictors based
on reviewing the literature, you can include this at the starting point of your flowchart.

How to Create a Flowchart:

A flowchart consists of different shaped boxes in which you write steps/decisions corresponding
to a process in your analysis. Arrows connect these boxes and point in the direction that you
would proceed after each step. You can create loops and branches in your flowchart if you need
to repeat a certain process until the desired result is achieved (loop) or if, depending on the
result, you will take a different approach (branch). There are specific shapes for the boxes that
have specific meanings which you should use (see below, table 1). These boxes should contain
text that describes what is occurring at this step (e.g. check assumption __ by creating __ residual
plot and looking for ___ pattern).

Table 1 - Flowchart Elements and their meaning/purpose
Flowchart Elements Meaning and Function



This shape indicates the starting point or ending point in your
flowchart. You should ensure it is clearly written inside the box what
the starting point of your process is and exactly where it ends.
This shape indicates that you are applying a certain method/process in
your analysis (often called an action). The text inside should specify
exactly what action you are taking at this step.
This shape indicates you must make a decision. The text inside this
shape should refer to what question you are asking at this step and
should have arrows leading out indicating what you would do
depending on whether the answer is yes/no, for example.
If you need to continue your chart on another page/on another part of
the same page, you can use a circle to indicate that there is a break in
your flowchart at the end of one page/step and use the same circle as
the starting spot on the new page/area. You should include a label
inside that is the same on both pages/areas so that it’s obvious this
links the two halves of the flowchart together.
The arrow is what connects the steps together and shows how you will
proceed through your analysis. Arrows are unidirectional but can be
used to refer to a previous step (if looping is needed).

Some details and examples on these flowchart elements can be found at
https://www.rff.com/flowchart_shapes.php and some examples of the types of structures you
may wish to consider (e.g. how to write an iterative or branching step) can be found at
https://www.rff.com/structured_flowchart.php. These should be used to help you decide how
you might want to draw your flowchart (these websites refer to paid software, but don’t purchase
it). An example flowchart has been provided on the Quercus assignment page which is not related
to our linear regression content, but shows you how you might want to organize your own
analysis.

You may create your flowchart in any way that you are comfortable. This includes simply drawing
it by hand, creating it in Word or some other word processing program, or using more graphics-
based software if you have access to one. One option is use the free version of the online
flowchart creator at lucidchart.com, however any of the aforementioned options will be
accepted. You should use the shapes and flowchart elements above as they are intended to be
used, and it is recommended to colour code your flowchart to highlight which week your step
refers to. If you do colour code your flowchart, please provide a legend to tell us what each colour
refers to.

Submission Requirements:

Your final flowchart should be submitted to Quercus by the deadline above. A 1-hour grace
period (until November 18 at 12:59AM ET) is provided in case of technical difficulties. After this
grace period, a 10% per day late penalty will apply. We will only accept submissions up to 3 days
late (i.e. until November 20 at 12:59AM ET) Your submission should have the following
characteristics:
o Be no more than 2 pages (of standard letter-sized paper, 8.5x11 inches) in length
o Should be saved as a PDF file
o All components and text should be legible and easy to read.
o A legend is included that displays what week of course material each step in the flowchart
covers
o Your flowchart should include steps relating to material on linear regression covered
throughout the course, from Week 2 up to Week 8’s material (only up to where we cover
in class before the break). At least one topic from each week below should be included in
your flowchart:
o Week 2 – creating training and testing datasets
o Week 3 – fitting linear models and estimating coefficients
o Week 4 – confidence interval and test for coefficients and mean response, a listing
of assumptions
o Week 5 - prediction interval for the actual response, coefficient of determination,
ANOVA F test for overall significance
o Week 6 – partial F test, assessing assumptions, checking additional conditions,
transformations for non-constant variance
o Week 7 – transformations for non-linearity/non-normality, Box-Cox
o Week 8 – identifying problematic observations and remedies

Guidelines for writing a flowchart

o Consider what step/action you would take if you answer Yes or No to a decision step and
outline both options
o Be sure to include enough detail that the reader knows exactly what tool is being used
and how it is used to make a decision
o Avoid using R function names to describe how each step is being conducted – instead,
refer to the information in the lecture slides and outline the process in words
o If you plan to perform a specific action multiple times, consider using a loop (i.e., having
your flowchart circle back to an earlier step) to make your flowchart more concise

Rubric:

See the next page for the rubric and criteria that will be used to assess the flowchart.
Criteria of Assessment Satisfied in
all relevant
steps
(1 point)
Satisfied in
more than
half of all
relevant
steps
(0.5 points)
Satisfied in
fewer than
half of all
relevant
steps
(0 points)
Submission Requirements (5 points):
All required weeks of material are present in the
flowchart

Flowchart elements (see table 1 of instructions) are
used correctly throughout

Flowchart does not exceed 2 pages in length (8.5x11
inch pages) and is saved in the correct file format

A legend has been included that displays the week of
course material that each step in the flowchart
covers

Flowchart is legible and easy to read without
excessive digital magnification

Flowchart Content (15 points):
Sufficient detail is provided to know when a model is
being fit

Assumptions are assessed correctly
Assumptions are assessed at the correct point in the
analysis

Sufficient detail is provided to understand how
assumptions are being assessed

Remedies for violated assumptions are chosen and
used correctly

Sufficient detail is provided to understand how
remedies for violated assumptions are chosen and
applied

Problematic points have been identified correctly
Problematic points have been identified at the
correct point in the analysis

Sufficient detail is provided to understand how
problematic points are being identified

Problematic points are correctly handled
Confidence intervals/hypothesis tests are concluded
correctly

Confidence intervals/hypothesis tests are used at
the correct point in the analysis

Sufficient detail is provided to understand which
confidence intervals/hypothesis tests are being used
and how

Tools to assess the goodness of a model are used or
are set up to be used correctly

Sufficient detail is provided to understand how
multiple models are compared

TOTAL: /20