Question

What is your understanding of the analysis below. Use practical for each analysis. ]12 marks]

a)      Descriptive analysis

b)     Diagnostics’ analysis

c)      Predictive analysis

d)     Prescriptive analysis

Answer 1

Descriptive analysis :

A descriptive analysis is an important first step for conducting statistical analyses. It gives you an idea of the distribution of your data, helps you detect outliers and typos, and enable you identify associations among variables, thus making you ready to conduct further statistical analyses.

practical use: Descriptive statistics are used to describe the basic features of the data in a study. They provide simple summaries about the sample and the measures. Together with simple graphics analysis, they form the basis of virtually every quantitative analysis of data.

Diagnostics’ analysis :

Diagnostic analytics describes the techniques you will use to ask your data: Why did this happen? It’s doing a deep-dive into your data to search for valuable insights. Descriptive analytics, the initial step in most companies’ data analysis, is a simpler process that chronicles the facts of what has already happened. Diagnostic analytics takes it a step further to uncover the reasoning behind certain results.

practical use : To understand the “why” behind what happened, here are some steps you can use to perform diagnostic analytics on your internal data, and it may be necessary to include outside information as well. First, set up your data investigation – what questions you will be answering.

Predictive analysis :

Predictive analytics uses historical data to predict future events. Typically, historical data is used to build a mathematical model that captures important trends. That predictive model is then used on current data to predict what will happen next, or to suggest actions to take for optimal outcomes.

practical use:  Predictive analytics can be used to develop a model on the possibility of a credit default in the future by individuals, institutions or countries. With predictive analytics, diagnosis can be automated leading to time and cost savings for the medical practice as well as the patient.

Prescriptive analysis :

Prescriptive analytics is a type of data analytics—the use of technology to help businesses make better decisions through the analysis of raw data. The opposite of prescriptive analytics is descriptive analytics, which examines decisions and outcomes after the fact.

practical use: Prescriptive analytics is a statistical method used to generate recommendations and make decisions based on the computational findings of algorithmic models.