One can reasonably argue that processes don’t produce results, people do. In and of itself a process does nothing. It takes people to engage in a process – for better or for worse – to produce something. On the other hand are quality pioneers like Edwards Deming who says: “Eighty-five percent of the reasons [...]
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With the massive recall due to sudden acceleration problems, Toyota’s reputation for superior quality has suffered a black eye – if not more. The future will tell how serious this injury is and whether it represents the tip of an ominous iceberg. Sprinkled amongst the news coverage are hints that Toyota has known about accelerator [...] Recently, while working on input for a decision tree, I ran into a scenario that reminded me of the fact that we cannot improve a decision simply by applying a tool or technique. We also need good data. Here is a hypothetical example: Let us assume we are a contractor who is evaluating a fixed bid [...] Ted Cuzzillo, the author behind the datadoodle blog, got me thinking about data details today. When do they matter and when do they distract from what matters? Being a data analyst means that I love details: the more the better, so I can understand how they form the Big Picture. Intrinsically, I am drawn to graphs [...] When we use analysis tools like Tableau software, it becomes very important to keep our bearings about the data we are investigating. For example, we need to keep in mind that Tableau retrieves and calculates information based only on the data needed to generate the graph. That statement sounds really, duh, obvious. But we can [...] Have you ever had the “pleasure” of slogging through hundreds of feedback forms from a seminar or conference? Have you ever noticed how the mind seems to dwell on the negative comments, maybe even to the point that all the positives seem to loose their luster? That’s when crunching actual survey numbers can help put [...] Last week I wrote about the need to expand our visual vocabulary in line with software that allows us to graph complex data relationships and events in ever more meaningful ways. Let me expand on this point with an example. Just about any introductory statistics course covers the draft lottery of the Vietnam War era as [...] During several conversations recently the following comment came up: “What’s the big deal with visual analytics? It’s just a bunch of pretty pictures!” It took a while, but it finally dawned on me that we have reached the Xerox-GUI-Macintosh stage for data analysis. The early versions of a graphical user interface (GUI) which were developed [...] For several years I have participated in the Heartland Association of Research Professionals (HARP), a non-profit organization that provides educational and networking opportunities for nearly 200 professionals engaged in clinical research and related fields. Recently we surveyed current and prospective HARP members to gather feedback regarding the services we provide. This gave me a nice opportunity [...] An illustration by visual analytics guru Stephen Few recently caught my eye because it seems to run counter to the excellent advice he usually provides. In his 2004 book “Show Me the Numbers” he suggests the use of paired bar graphs as an alternative to scatter plots when the intended audience is unfamiliar with such [...] |
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