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1.4 Place of Data Analysis in Problem Solving - ARTICLE

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71 views

1.4 Place of Data Analysis in Problem Solving - ARTICLE

Uploaded by

MANU CAST
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The place of data analysis in problem solving

This model shows the process of abstracting and solving a statistical


problem to help solve a larger real problem. A knowledge-based solution
to the real problem requires better understanding of how some things
work.

A data analyst often doesn’t come into the picture until mid-way through
the data step of PPDAC. To do a good job, an analyst needs to develop a
good understanding of what has gone on before, particularly how the
data was actually obtained. (Involving statisticians from the very start of
the PPDAC process is much better as it leads to better-quality data that
is better suited to answering an investigator’s questions).

Data to Insight: An Introduction to Data Analysis Chris Wild | Page 1 of 3


In the early stages, the problem is often poorly defined. People start with
very vague ideas about what the problems are, what they need to
understand and why. The Problem step is about trying to turn these
vague feelings into much more precise goals, some very specific questions
that should be able to be answered using data.

The Plan step is then about deciding what people/objects/entities to


collect data on, what things we should “measure”, and how we are going
to do all of this.

The Data step is about obtaining the data, storing it and “whipping it into
shape” (data cleaning). Data analysts are always involved with data
cleaning, if only because we almost always discover problems with data
during analysis.

The Analysis step and the Conclusions steps are about making sense of it
all and then communicating what has been learned. There is always a
back and forth involving doing analysis, tentatively forming conclusions
and doing more analysis. The formation of conclusions typically involves
the analyst and a subject-matter expert (e.g. someone who understands
the business) who will “own” the conclusions.

Often, looking at a set of data will raise more questions than it answers.
For this reason we may need to go around this cycle several times before
we feel that we’ve learned what we needed to learn. But with real-world
problems, there are always limits to the time and money that can be
spent on data collection and analysis.

This article has been about purpose-collected data. We also analyse data
that was collected for reasons unrelated to our problem. Such data is
much less reliable (for reasons discussed in Week 5) but a whole lot
cheaper!

(The PPDAC model was developed by R.J. Mackay and W. Oldford in the
early 1990s. Our diagram is an elaboration of PPDAC.)

Data to Insight: An Introduction to Data Analysis Chris Wild | Page 2 of 3


Common question(s)

How does PPDAC relate to PDCA, DMAIC and similar models used in
management?

The PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act) cycle often used in management and its
descendent DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control) used
to drive six-sigma projects are helpful for structured ways of thinking
about addressing a need to act to solve a practical problem such as
improving a manufacturing process or an administrative system.

PPDAC, on the other hand, is a structured way of thinking about


addressing a need to know about something by collecting and analysing
statistical data. It may need to be invoked many times in coming up with
action plans. There are variants in many other fields addressing
(sometimes subtly) different objectives. For example, a recent course
participant noted that the “Intelligence Cycle” has similarities with
PPDAC.

© 2018 Chris Wild, The University of Auckland

Data to Insight: An Introduction to Data Analysis Chris Wild | Page 3 of 3

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