The analytics team has been asked to assess sales data from their company's website with the hopes of providing insights to help increase online sales. It's the first time the team is looking at this specific data and they are concerned about the quality of data that has been captured. They decide to use the following approach as the next step:
Answer : D
Exploratory analysis is the approach that the analytics team should use as the next step, because it is a technique that allows them to examine the quality, structure, and characteristics of the data, without making any assumptions or hypotheses. Exploratory analysis can help the team identify any issues or anomalies in the data, such as missing values, outliers, or errors, and decide how to handle them. Exploratory analysis can also help the team discover any patterns, trends, or relationships in the data, and generate new research questions or hypotheses for further analysis. Reference:
* Business Analysis Certification in Data Analytics, CBDA | IIBA, CBDA Competencies, Domain 3: Analyze Data
* Understanding the Guide to Business Data Analytics, page 16
* CERTIFICATION IN BUSINESS DATA ANALYTICS HANDBOOK - IIBA, page 8, CBDA Exam Sample Questions and Self-Assessment, Question 8
An insurance company has seen an upward trend in winter-related accidents over the past three years. The company has just completed an analytics study to better understand the primary reasons for these accidents and assess how many of the drivers were using winter tires. This analysis will help the company decide how to move forward with drivers not taking precautionary measures during winter. What type of analysis will help in determining the primary reasons and percentage of those drivers with winter tires?
Answer : D
Descriptive analytics is a type of analytics that summarizes and visualizes the data to provide an overview of what has happened or is happening, such as the trend of winter-related accidents over the past three years, or the percentage of drivers using winter tires12. Diagnostic analytics is a type of analytics that explores and analyzes the data to understand why something has happened or is happening, such as the primary reasons for these accidents, or the factors that influence the drivers' decisions13. To answer the question, both descriptive and diagnostic analytics would be needed to provide the relevant information and insights for the company. Reference: 1: Guide to Business Data Analytics, IIBA, 2020, p. 182: Business Analytics: Data Analysis & Decision Making, S. Christian Albright and Wayne L. Winston, 2015, p. 53: Data Science for Business, Foster Provost and Tom Fawcett, 2013, p. 13.
The marketing department for a major restaurant chain is interested in testing a Kids Eat Free campaign to determine if it will help to increase sales. They are interested in piloting the campaign to determine which day of the week will improve sales the most.
The campaign is launched across 7 cities with each city promoting a different day of the week. The sales data is collected and provided to a team for analysis. What concern might the analytics team have regarding data quality across cities?
Answer : D
Variation is the degree to which the data values differ from each other or from a central tendency measure, such as the mean or median. Variation can affect the data quality across cities, as it can indicate the presence of outliers, errors, noise, or inconsistency in the data collection or processing methods. Variation can also influence the statistical analysis and interpretation of the results, as it can affect the significance, confidence, and validity of the findings12. Reference: 1: Guide to Business Data Analytics, IIBA, 2020, p. 302: Statistics for Business and Economics, David R. Anderson et al., 2014, p. 83.
While sourcing data, an analyst runs into a situation where different business units are using different names to refer to the same data element. This lack of standardization is resulting in confusion and additional time required to properly prepare data for analysis. Which practice, if implemented would address this situation and mature the organization's business analytics practice?
Answer : D
Meta data management is the practice that, if implemented, would address the situation and mature the organization's business analytics practice, because it is a technique that involves defining, documenting, and maintaining the information about the data elements, such as their names, definitions, formats, sources, and relationships. Meta data management can help the analyst resolve the inconsistencies and ambiguities in the data element names, and ensure that the data is standardized, consistent, and understandable across different business units. Meta data management can also help the analyst improve the data quality, accessibility, and usability for the analysis. Reference:
* Business Analysis Certification in Data Analytics, CBDA | IIBA, CBDA Competencies, Domain 2: Source Data
* Guide to Business Data Analytics - Iiba - Google Books, page 14
* Business Data Analytics (IIBA-CBDA Exam preparation) | Udemy, Section 2: Source Data, Lecture 8: Meta Data Management
A company wants to gauge the thoughts of their employees towards a new company product. On the 25th of March the interviewer makes a list of all employees who were at work on that day and then chooses a subset of those employees to interview. Which term describes the list of all employees present on March 25th?
Answer : C
The sampling frame is the term that describes the list of all employees present on March 25th, because it is a technique that defines the set of elements from which a sample is drawn. The sampling frame should ideally match the population of interest, which is the group of elements that the researcher wants to study or make inferences about. In this case, the population of interest is the employees of the company, and the sampling frame is the subset of employees who were at work on a specific day. The survey sample is the technique that selects a portion of the sampling frame to participate in the survey. The sample weights are the technique that assigns different values or importance to each element in the sample, based on their representation in the population. Reference:
* Business Analysis Certification in Data Analytics, CBDA | IIBA, CBDA Competencies, Domain 2: Source Data
* Understanding the Guide to Business Data Analytics, page 14
* CERTIFICATION IN BUSINESS DATA ANALYTICS HANDBOOK - IIBA, page 8, CBDA Exam Sample Questions and Self-Assessment, Question 14
An analyst at a supermarket chain has been asked to extract data from multiple data sources to complete a study on customer
spending habits. The analyst is going to query data from various databases. Which statement is true about database querying?
Answer : D
Querying is a technique that allows analysts to access, filter, join, aggregate, and transform data from various databases using a specific syntax and logic1. Querying can be used for different purposes, such as data exploration, data preparation, data analysis, and data visualization2. Querying is not limited to creating predictive data models, nor does it always produce tabular results. Moreover, querying languages may vary depending on the type and structure of the database, such as relational, hierarchical, or document-based3. Reference: 1: Guide to Business Data Analytics, IIBA, 2020, p. 552: Data Analysis Using SQL and Excel, Gordon S. Linoff, 2016, p. 33: Database Systems: Design, Implementation, and Management, Carlos Coronel and Steven Morris, 2019, p. 17.
As the team discusses how to utilize the results of their data analysis to put forth a business recommendation, an analyst on the team voices concern over the current organizational culture presenting a roadblock to their ability to influence business decision making. Which of the following would be a justifiable concern at this stage of the team's efforts?
Answer : B
A justifiable concern at this stage of the team's efforts is changing the mindsets of business stakeholders to trust insights gleaned from data over experience and intuition. This is because some stakeholders may have a strong attachment to their own opinions or beliefs, and may resist or ignore data that contradicts them. This can create a barrier to data-driven decision making, which requires a culture of curiosity, openness, and evidence-based reasoning. The team needs to communicate the value and validity of their data analysis, and persuade the stakeholders to adopt a data-driven mindset12 Reference: 1: Use Data to Accelerate Your Business Strategy 2: Data-Driven Decision Making: A Step-by-Step Guide