Business Analytics Lecture Review

A comprehensive set of vocabulary flashcards covering the fundamental concepts, history, types, and tools of business analytics as discussed in the lecture notes.

Business analytics

The use of data, information technology, statistical analysis, quantitative methods, and math/computer based models to help managers gain improved insight about business operations and support fact-based decision-making.

Business intelligence (BI)

The collection, management, analysis, and reporting of data which answers basic questions like, 'How much product did we sell last month?'

Statistics

The process of summarising, understanding, and interpreting data to find patterns or relationships, including methods like description, estimation, and regression.

Operations research (OR) or Management science (MS)

A discipline involving the analysis and solution of complex decision problems using mathematical or computer-based models, originally used to improve military operations during WWII.

INFORMS

The Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences; the leading society devoted to OR/MS.

Data mining

Analysis focused on understanding characteristics and patterns among variables in large databases using various statistical and analytical tools.

Decision support systems (DSSs)

Analytical-based computer systems that support decision-making by combining business intelligence concepts with OR/MS models.

What-if analysis

A key feature of Decision support systems (DSSs) that allows users to see how changes in inputs affect results.

Descriptive analytics

The use of data to understand past and current business performance to make informed decisions through categorization, characterization, and consolidation.

Predictive analytics

The use of past and current performance data to detect patterns and predict the future, often identifying risks or hidden patterns in large data sets.

Stochastic (or Probabilistic) model

A model in which some input information is uncertain.

Deterministic model

A model in which all input information is certain.

Prescriptive analysis

An analytical approach that uses optimization to identify the best alternatives to achieve an objective, such as maximizing profit or minimizing cost.

Objective function

A mathematical expression that defines the goal of an optimization problem by specifying what needs to be maximized or minimized.

Optimal solution

The specific decision or set of decisions that optimize the objective function.

Big data

Massive amounts of data gained from a variety of sources characterized by volume, variety, and velocity, often measured in terabytes, petabytes, and exabytes.

Model

A representation of a real system, object, or idea that captures important features in an easy-to-interpret form such as a flow chart, spreadsheet, or graph.

Decision model

A logical or mathematical representation of a business situation used to understand, analyze, or facilitate making a decision, typically shown as mathematical functions.

Uncontrollable inputs

Quantities in a decision model that can change but cannot be directly controlled by the decision maker, such as inflation rates.