Dashboards vs. Scorecards: Technical Hair Splitting?

Many people use the terms “dashboard” and “scorecard” interchangeably. This post explores one critical difference between the […]

The Power of In-House Analytics

A business associate recently forwarded a white paper by one of the global BI software companies with the comment “… it all sounds so simple, yet we both know the complexities are just under the table.”  Like all good marketing materials, this white paper talked about the current pain of the target audience and provided […]

Volcanoes, Airplanes and Quantifying Risk

On April 19th, 2010, IATA, the chief trade group representing airlines, issued a press release which states in part: “IATA criticized Europe’s unique methodology of closing airspace based on theoretical modeling of the ash cloud. ‘This means that governments have not taken their responsibility to make clear decisions based on facts …’ said [Giovanni] Bisignani […]

How to Avoid Misleading Conclusions: Explore Your Data

Often we have to work with data without knowing all the details of how it was collected and processed.  In those situations we first need to determine what information the data contains and what it can and cannot tell us.   We need to ask questions of the data and determine whether it makes sense, […]

Decision Making During Turmoil: How Well Are We Prepared?

In order to make profitable decisions, we need good information.  Whether we base our decisions on sales, customer perceptions or the number of widgets we shipped last month, our information comes from some system that collects and measures relevant data for us.

In my Six Sigma Black Belt class we recently discussed the challenges of developing […]

Why We Need Good Data

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 […]

When Data Details Matter

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 […]