ACG$4401$ Chicago Transit

You have been hired by the City of Chicago to help forecast expenses for the Department of Transportation. The Chicago DoT is responsible for planning, designing, programming, and constructing capital improvement projects throughout the city.

Projects include bridges, subway and elevated transit stations, arterial streets, and viaducts. The CDoT operates, repairs, and maintains all movable bridges, streets, street signs, pavement markings, street and alley lights, and traffic signals.

In the past, the city has primarily relied upon past spending patterns to determine the budget for the following year, but the department director has decided that they could make better projections if they incorporate other data. They have turned to you for help in this regard.

The City$$s Accounting Information System can provide you access to this year$$s budget and actual expenditures, but you should try to help them make more accurate forecasts by incorporating data from other sources.

Include the following issues in your answer, but you will earn more points by not limiting your response to these considerations. Think critically.

$1.$ What is the purpose of the request?

$2.$ What is the main issue$/$question$/$problem$?$

$3.$ What data is currently used to forecast expenditures?

$4.$ How are the data used?

$5.$ What additional data would you analyze?

$6.$ Where would you find these data and who owns it$?$

$7.$ How would you use these data?

$8.$ Would the data be in a usable format, or would it need manipulating $($scrubbing$)$ before you could use it in your analysis?

$9.$ What are some assumptions you need to make?

$10.$ What are some potential consequences or implications of your analysis?