Data Analytics

What are the 3 stages of the Data Analytics Process?

plan, analyze, report

What are the 3 stages of Planning (under the data analysis process)?

Understand motivation, define objective, design data and analysis strategy

What is understanding motivation (under the planning stage)?

Establishing why the analysis is being done, including whether it stems from internal or external drivers such as problems or opportunities

The analysis reveals that total sales and total profit increased from 2023 to 2024, but decreased from 2024 to 2025 by 9.4%. OSS is concerned about the decrease. What is their motivation?

To understand why revenue decreased from 2024 to 2025

What does it mean to determine the objective (under the planning stage)?

Every data analysis project begins with setting an objective, which is the project’s goal. A clear objective narrows the analysis’ focus, and specific questions that guide the analysis can be developed based on it.

Which is an example of a question that determines the objective?

Is there a single product category that has experienced a decrease in sales and profit?

What is the stage of “Design the Data and Analysis Strategy” under the Planning stage?

Identifying the specific data needed to answer the questions and determining how to access it, including whether the data is internal or external, and selecting the appropriate type of analysis based on the data and questions.

What are the 4 types of Data Analytics?

Descriptive, Diagnostic, Predictive, Prescriptive

What is the objective of the Descriptive Method?

Reveal what is currently happening or what has happened in the past using summaries such as averages, counts, and proportions to understand the data

What is the objective of the Diagnostic Method?

Reveal why something has happened by drilling down into data to identify causes using patterns, anomalies, and trend analysis

What is the objective of the Predictive Method?

Predict what might happen in the future using historical data, statistical models, and machine learning to estimate future outcomes

What is the objective of the Prescriptive Method?

Determine the best course of action to achieve a goal using optimization and what-if analysis

Which data analytics method does this question apply to: What were gross sales by region for the past 2 years?

Descriptive

Which data analytics method does this question apply to: Why did sales decrease in Region 1 in the prior year?

Diagnostic

Which data analytics method does this question apply to: What will sales be next year if we can increase market share by 10%?

Predictive

Which data analytics method does this question apply to: What is the most cost-effective way to ship our products?

Prescriptive

What are the 3 steps under the Analyze Stage (from the data analysis process)?

Prepare data, build information models, explore data

What does it mean to prepare data?

Extracting, transforming, and loading data so it can be organized and made ready for analysis

Extracting

The process of retrieving raw data from source systems and moving it into a staging environment for further processing

Transforming

The process where data are cleaned, restructured, and/or integrated with other data prior to analysis

Loading

The process of importing transformed data into analysis software such as Excel, Power BI, or Tableau.