ACC 340 Chapter 5

Dark data

Data the organization has collected and stored that would be useful for analysis but is not analyzed and is thus generally ignored.

Prescriptive analytics

Information that results from analyses to provide a recommendation of what should happen, answers the question “what should be done?”

Data lake

Collection of structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data stored in a single location.

Data veracity

The quality or trustworthiness of data.

Big data

Data sets characterized by huge amounts (volume) of frequently updated data (velocity) in various formats (variety), for which the quality may be suspect (veracity).

Data visualization

Use of a graphical representation of data to convey meaning.

Data velocity

The pace at which data is created and stored.

Structured data

Data that is highly organized and fits into fixed fields.

Data volume

The amount of data created and stored by an organization.

ETL process

A set of procedures for blending data. The acronym stands for extract, transform, and load data.

Diagnostic analytics

Information that attempts to determine causal relationships, answers the question “why did this happen?”

Metadata

Data that describes other data.

Bots

Autonomous computer program designed to perform a specific task.

Data storytelling

The process of translating often complex data analyses into more easy to understand terms to enable better decision making.

Data variety

The different forms data can take.

Unstructured data

Data that has no uniform structure.

Predictive analytics

Information that results from analyses that focus on predicting the future, answers the question, “what might happen in the future?”

Data owner

The person or function in the organization who is accountable for the data and can give permission to access and analyze the data.

Data swamps

Data repositories that are not accurately documented so that the stored data cannot be properly identified and analyzed.

Mindset

A mental attitude, a way of thinking, or a frame of mind.

Descriptive analytics

Information that results from the examination of data to understand the past, answers the question “what happened?”

Data dashboard

Interactive real-time display of key indicators of operating performance; display of important data points, metrics, and key performance indicators in easily understood data visualizations such as line or bar charts, tables, or gauges.

Text qualifier

Two characters that indicate the beginning and ending of a field and tell the program to ignore any delimiters contained between the characters.

Semi-structured data

Data that has some organization but is not fully organized to be inserted into a relational database.

Data marts

Data repositories that hold structured data for a subset of an organization.

Delimiter

Character, or series of characters, that marks the end of one field and the beginning of the next field.

Automation

The application of machines to automatically perform a task once performed by humans.

Analytics mindset

A way of thinking that centers on the correct use of data and analysis for decision making.

Robotic process automation (RPA)

Computer software that can be programmed to automatically perform tasks across applications just as human workers do.

Flat file

Text file that contains data from multiple tables or sources and merges that data into a single row.