What is Business Data Analytics?

Business Analysis Viewpoint

Domain – I – Identify the research questions

Domain I of IIBA®- CBDA certification

Sudhakar Velagada, MBA, IIBA®-CBDA, CBAP®

Agenda

1 What is Business data analytics?

2 Business Data Analytics Perspectives

3 IIBA-CBDA – Domain – I - Identify the research questions

4 Case Study

5 Quiz
What is Business Data Analytics?
A lot of data is generated by business and this data can be analyzed and mined using special tools and techniques
to generate patterns and intelligence, which reflect how the business is functioning. These ideas can then be
fed back into the business so that it can evolve to become more effective and efficient in serving customer
needs. And the cycle goes on…

Business
Activities

Business
Data
Insights

Data
Mining
What is Business Data Analytics? – Definition by IIBA
Data is a collection of unorganized facts or observations that can be processed to obtain valuable information.

Analytics is the science of examining raw data and information in order to draw insights.

IIBA defines it as “a practice by which a specific set of techniques, competencies, and

procedures are applied to perform continuous exploration, iteration, and investigation of
past and current business data for the purposes of obtaining insights about a business that
can lead to improved decision-making.”

In other words, organizations will collect the data that they have or they have access to, in the
area that they are interested in, (marketplace, customer behavior, product launch etc.), analyze
that data, and draw business insights which may make the decisions more effective.

Data Business insights Evidence based Decision Making

Data Analytics Team
Data Analytics Team
We need

Data engineers to build the pipelines and get us clean data.

Decision makers, to decide how deep we want to invest in a data-driven opportunity while weighing the benefits for the
organization.
Analysts, to explore the data for insights and potential relationships that could be useful as features in for example, a machine
learning model.
Statisticians, to help make us in making data-inspired decisions become true data-driven decisions, with their added rigor.
Applied machine learning engineers, who have real-world experience building production machine learning models from the
latest and best information and research by the researchers.
Data scientists, who have the mastery over analysis, statistics, and machine learning.
Analytics managers to lead the team.
Social scientists and ethicists to ensure that the quantitative impact is there for our project and, it's the right thing to do.
A single person might have a combination of these skills/roles, but this depends on the size of the organization. The team size is
one of the biggest drivers in whether we should hire for a specific skill set, up-skill from within, or combine the two.
Business Data Analytics Applications (Business Analysis Viewpoint)

Investigate a proposed business decision, action or hypothesis

Discover new insights from business data

As per IIBA, Business data analytics is an area of study that targets effective business decision-
making as opposed to using the rigorous technical know-hows through which data is analyzed.

 Focus is NOT on technical know-hows of data analysis. The technical part is more of relevance to
data science discipline than to business analysis practice.
Business Data Analytics Perspectives

Movement

Decision
Making Business Data Capability
Paradigm Analytics

Set of
Data Centric
practices and
Activity Set
Technologies
Business Data Analytics Perspectives

BDA as a Movement

“When an organization embraces' evidence through data as the

Movement
driver of business decisions and change“ For. e.g., R & D and
Product Design –
Open innovation, where customers take a leading role in the design of new offerings, expands the
information pool regarding needs, applications and solution technologies that would be most valued by a
potential consumer and, in turn, are most important to secure success in the market.

Advances in digital technologies are creating defining moments for

Business Data
the customers, and for their relationships with the organizations. Analytics

The prevalent use of data across the organization ensures:

 transparency,
 aids the discovery of market needs
 uncovers process or service variability,
 improves performance and
 assists in the adoption of more sustainable practices
Business Data Analytics Perspectives

BDA as a Capability

It primarily includes
 the organizations' data analytics competencies‘, and also Business Data
Capability
Analytics
 the competencies of the employees in their individual
capacities.

An organizational culture evolution that outgrows intuition and

embraces data-driven decision-making is needed to create the
perfect ecosystem for business analytics to produce actionable
results and recommendations.
Business Data Analytics Perspectives

BDA as a Data-Centric Activity Set

Business Data
Analytics
Data Analytics Activities

Presenting
Assessing Examining Aggregating Analyzing Interpreting
results
Data Centric
Activity Set

(Business) Analysis Oriented Activities

Stakeholder Recording & Tracking &

Strategy Collaboration Solution Verifying Managing
Planning
Analysis & Designing Analytics Analytics
Management Approaches Recommendations
Business Data Analytics Perspectives
BDA as a set of practices and technologies

Identify the
Business Data
research Analytics
Guide questions
Organization
al-Level
Strategy for Source Data
Business
Data Framework that Set of
helps in practices and
Analytics Technologies
successful
execution of
Data Analytics
Use Results Initiative
to Influence
Analyze
Business
Data
Decision-
Making
Interpret
and Report
Results
Business Data Analytics Perspectives
BDA as a Decision-Making Paradigm

Through this lens, business data analytics is considered the tool of

making decisions using evidence-based problem identification and
problem solving.

The traditional methods have mainly focused on modeling and

analysis/explanation than on the real/practical problem and the data. Decision
Making Business Data
Hence the need for the paradigm shift from research to analytics. Paradigm Analytics

For example, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has

provisions that give consumers the right to receive an explanation for
any automated decision-making, such as the rate offered on a credit
card or mortgage.
The role of business data analytics becomes even more
critical in this sense where evidence generated through data must be
explained with the right business context to the decision-makers as
well as end customers.
Business Data Analytics Cycle

Scientific research method paired with the business data analytics cycle Business data analytics process
vs Scientific Research Method
Assessment of relevant
Business data analytics

Descriptive
existing knowledge
about a problem or Research - In business data analytics,
opportunity
(Exploratory Research)
testing may not always
Research on
Formulation
Test the include an experiment to
the topic Statement of Hypothesis
of concepts &
propositions
Hypothesis collect data, as the data might
simply be accessed from a
server using existing data
sources.
- In business data analytics, it is
Business Analysis

necessary to perform data

Communicate Troubleshoot
Ask a Results / Lessons Analyze and Draw
Does Testing
problems/ validation and verification
Yes capture data No
Question learned for future Conclusions
effectively?
Consider different
method
on the data collected. In the
research
scientific method, data
validation may not be required
because the data collected as
part of a scientific experiment
is obtained in a controlled
environment.
 Data Analytics Type(s) shape the outcome of BDA Initiative.

Descriptive Analytics - "what Diagnostic Analytics - why did this

Forward-thinking happened?" happen?
organizations may use a
variety of analytics together to This can be in the form of data This includes using processes such
make smart decisions that visualizations like graphs, charts, reports as data discovery, data mining, and drill
help their businesses. and dashboards. down and drill through.
E.g. A monthly profit and loss statement E.g. Analyzing data to know why, sales
- business could make some high level significantly increase in the months of
decisions over time about where to March, June, September.
invest more.
Data Analytics
Types

Predictive Analytics - "what will happen?“ Prescriptive Analytics –”what action to

Leverage data from both diagnostic and take?” - to either capitalize on
descriptive analytics to detect exceptions opportunities or avoid future problem.
and patterns that can, with modelling, E.g. Using Google Maps to travel to a
help predict future trends. particular destination.
E.g. Which is more effective at increasing
sales: A 5% or 10% discount?
Business Analysis and Data Analytics
Business data analytics is a specialized area of study that contains aspects of business analysis and analytics disciplines and
is used for creating better business outcomes through evidence-driven business decisions.
5 Practice Domains

1. Identify the research questions 2. Source Data

Formulate the research question(s) that business Determining what type of data must be used for
analytics will be used to answer. the formulated research question and assessing
the quality of the data. Typically, involve the
most amount of effort.

3. Analyze Data 4. Interpret and Report Results

Deciding how data analysis will be performed, including Draw business insights from the analysis results and
which models and mathematical or statistical techniques determine the best possible way to communicate and
will be used. It includes performing the data analysis and report the outcome to intended stakeholders. Think like a
making adjustments to the approach, when analysis results designer and build the data story with the right visuals
are found to be not helping answer the research question. to explain the insights that effectively aids decision-making.

5. Use Results to Influence Business Decision-Making

Translate the analytics outcomes to business recommendations that the
stakeholders and decision-makers can consume. Any business action that is
influenced by the result of analytics initiative may result in an
organizational change that affects people, process, offerings, or technology.
 1. Identify the research questions
Identifying the correct research question(s) is very crucial to the outcome of the data analytics initiative as the tasks in
this domain shape the work that would follow….
 What is a research question?
A research question investigates a specific component of a broader topic. It is
the question we are trying to answer, when we do research on a topic.

Topic Research Question

• Marijuana and Crime • Could the decriminalization of
marijuana lead to less crime in
British Columbia?
• Nutrition and Academic • Does improved nutrition in
Performance children impact academic
achievement
 Steps to developing a research question:
Some steps to follow which will help in framing the research question –
1) Choose an interesting general topic - e.g., Food > History of Food
2) Do some preliminary research on your general topic – e.g., What will be discussed about the history of food [cultural
influences, recipes, chemistry…] – further narrowing down to the research question – e.g., The historic importance of rice
in china.
3) Consider your audience
4) Start asking questions
5) Evaluate/Re-evaluate your question.

Strategies to narrow a research question

Limiters Topic
Time Since 2000? This year? In the future?
Population (demographic limiters) Gender, age, occupation, ethnicity, nationality,
education, geographic location, language, etc...
Tasks in “Identify the research questions” Domain

Select Techniques for

Define business problem or opportunity Identify and Understand the Stakeholders.
Identify the Research
Understand the custodians and consumers of Questions
The outcome of this task involves identifying the
data to identify the relevant stakeholders for an
business problem which is a higher-level Business Model Canvas
analytics initiative.
description than a research question/problem.
E.g., Improve customer experience of a retail [Data view of the business problem] Process Modeling
store?
Scope Modeling
Assess Current State Define Future State
Root Cause Analysis
Determining what the existing data is pointing Clear understanding of the business objectives and
the value the business is seeking to obtain from Document Analysis
towards. May include understanding the business
value chain or how data and information flow the analytics effort. May also include setting of Interviews and Workshops
throughout the organization vision about the length and breadth of analytics
capabilities. E.g. Tracking more KPIs Exploratory Data Analysis

Hypothesis Formulation
Formulate Research Questions Plan Business Data Analytics Approach. and Testing
The research questions are derived from the Defines how analytics work will be performed. This
business need. Technical resources and/or the Problem Reframing and
will include determining Data Analytics capabilities
analyst, based on their understanding of the data Shaping
of the Organization, Type of Analytics Questions
and the business problem or opportunity, may
suggest an analytics problem that could be
explored
Task – Define Business Problem or Opportunity

Business Problem or
Areas to focus upon to Opportunity Discovery
identify the problem –
 Strategy Output
 Service or Products  Business Problem
 People Techniques –
Statement
 Processes 1) Interviews
 Research
 Applications 2) Job Shadowing
Question(s)
 Information 3) Surveys and Questionnaires
 Infrastructure 4) Problem Analysis Techniques

Skills & Competencies -

Business Knowledge
Organizational Knowledge
Task – Identify and understand the stakeholders

Output
Identify and Understand the  Who are the
Areas to focus upon to
identify the relevant SH –
Stakeholders stakeholders?
 What is their level of
 Who is creating the knowledge about
data that the data analytics?
analytics initiative will  What aspect of the
be concerned with project is of interest to
Techniques –
 Who will be impacted them?
1) Interviews
by all that existing  What communication
2) Brainstorming
data methods and
3) Process Modeling
 Who will be techniques are
4) Organizational Modeling/Chart Analysis
responsible to take appropriate?
the decisions  When should
Skills & Competencies -
Facilitation and Communication skills stakeholders be
Business and Organizational Knowledge communicated to?
Task – Assess current state

Areas to focus upon to

Assess Current State
identify the context of the (Context of the change)
change initiative – Output
 Find out how data
and information flows  What is the current
in the organization. baseline in terms of –
 Study the value being Techniques – organizational
added at various 1) Business Model Canvas capabilities, resources,
stages in any relevant 2) Organizational Modeling business processes?
process. 3) Process Modeling  Understand the
 Results of any 4) Scope Modeling context of the change
previous analytics 5) Value Stream mapping
projects Skills & Competencies -
Conceptual and Systems thinking
Solution Knowledge
Business Acumen
Task – Define future state

Define future state

(Vision of the outcome of the Output

data analytics initiative)  Set of conditions that,

when met, can be
Areas to focus upon to considered as the
define the future state – Techniques – achievement of future
 Understand and 1) Metrics and KPIs state.
define the 2) Visualization  Clear understanding
scope/boundaries of 3) Stakeholder Maps of the business
the analytics effort 4) Scope Modeling objectives and the
Skills & Competencies - value the business is
Conceptual and Systems thinking seeking to obtain from
Interaction skills the analytics effort.
Communication skills
Analytical thinking
Problem-Solving Skills
Stakeholder Map Technique
ATTITUDE

Bob John

Manage
Keep Satisfied
Closely Accounts
Dept.
Mary

INFLUENCE

Monitor
(Minimum Keep informed
Effort)
Stakeholder Map Technique
ATTITUDE

Bob Mary

Manage
Keep Satisfied
Closely

INFLUENCE

John

Monitor
(Minimum Keep informed
Effort) Accounts
Dept.
Balanced Scorecard Technique
Define future state – Additional notes
Future state description may include':

Setting up a vision about the length and breadth of the analytics capabilities

Example –
Tracking more KPIs,

Increasing the frequency of reports being generated from monthly to daily/weekly,

Automating reporting functionality.

Future state may evolve throughout the lifecycle of the engagement:

Task – Formulate Research Question

Formulate Research
Question(s)
Output
Areas to focus upon to
formulate the research  Technical term
question – independent
 Business Techniques –
1) Elicitation techniques – Interviews, statement of the
Problem/Need research question
 Results of the analysis Workshops, Prototypes
2) Decision Tree Analysis  A good research
from other tasks – question should be
Current State 3) Prioritization
4) Concept Modeling specific, precise,
Assessment; Future complex, doable and
State Definition 5) Problem reframing and shaping
6) Hypotheses Formulation and Testing relevant
Skills & Competencies -
Facilitating Skills
Leadership and Negotiation Skills
Formulate Research Question - Additional notes
There are usually many different questions that could be asked about a particular topic, only one of which you will
choose to focus on in the data analytics initiative. Answering your chosen research question is the goal of your data
analytics initiative.

Possible type of research questions:

Example –
Descriptive questions - These questions describe something and analyze it in a larger context. They usually begin with “what”, “which”, or “how.”

Causal questions - These questions examine the results, causes, or reasons for something, looking for a direct cause-effect relationship. They usually begin
with “why.“

Structural questions - These questions make suggestions for measures that could be implemented to achieve a certain goal. E.g. What steps should cities
take if they want to increase use of public transportation?

Evaluative questions - These questions make a value analysis. E.g., How well has Canada communicated mask policies during the pandemic?

Predictive questions - These questions attempt to look into the future and predict how something is likely to develop.

Sometimes it will feel like you are going back and starting from scratch. This is not a setback, but is a part of the
research process.
Task – Plan Business Data Analytics Approach

Plan Business Data Analytics

Output
Approach
(How the analytics work will be  Depending upon the
complexity of the
carried out) research question
Areas to focus upon to and/or the solution
define the BDA approach Techniques – approaches, the
– 1) Brainstorming approach can be
 Planning horizon 2) Process Modeling/Scope Modeling stage-wise approach –
 Level of formality 3) Functional Decomposition like, POC, Pilot and
 Data characteristics 4) Estimation Production Roll-Out.
Skills & Competencies -  Helps in maintaining a
Leadership Skills traceability of business
Facilitation skills needs, research
Negotiation skills questions, sources.
Analytical thinking
Problem-Solving Skills
Case Study – Data Analytics in Education
Khan Academy is an innovative non-profit educational organization that is turning the K-12 education
system upside down. It provides short YouTube based video lessons on thousands of topics free.
It shot into prominence when Bill Gates promoted it as a resource that he used to teach his own children.
With this, kind of a resource classrooms are being flipped … i.e. student do their basic lecture-type learning at
home using those videos, while the class time is used for more one-on-one problem solving and coaching.
Students can access the lessons at any time to learn at their own pace. The students’ progress is recorded
including what videos they watched how many times, which problems they stumbled on, and what scores
they got on online tests. (Source: KhanAcademy.org)
Case Study – Data Analytics in Education - Steps
The Approach –

1) Business Stakeholder identification

2) Discuss and get a shared understanding of the business problem. Examples in this context may include discussions around the challenges being faced -

Motivating Learners; Computer Literacy; Technical Issues; Course content; Evaluating effectiveness

3) Perform Pre and Post Discovery Workshop related tasks which can include – discussing on available avenues for measuring the effectiveness' and
communicating the list of research questions

4) Discovery Workshop results - may result in the research question –

a) How does a dashboard improve the teaching experience?

b) How does a dashboard improve the student’s learning experience?

The journey till this point usually covers - validating business needs, validating assumptions, utilizing business knowledge and demonstrating the outcome
using easy to understand solutions.
Case Study – Data Analytics in Education - Outcome
How does a dashboard improve the teaching experience? And the student’s learning experience?

Khan Academy has developed tools to help teachers

get a pulse on what's happening in the classroom.
Teachers are provided a set of real-time dashboards
to give them information from the macro level ("How
is my class doing on geometry?") to the micro level
("How is Jane doing on mastering polygons?") Armed
with this information, teachers can place selective
focus on the students that need certain help.

Suggested Task - Try designing a dashboard for tracking your own career.
Quiz

Q.1 Belief or claim for a parameter whose value is unknown is classified as -

a)Parameter claim testing

b)Expected belief testing

c)Hypothesis testing

d)Primary limit testing

Quiz

Q.1 Answer – (C) Hypothesis testing; A hypothesis is a statement that can be

proved or disproved. A research question can be made into a hypothesis by
changing it into a statement.
For example, if you are studying the effects of sleep on reflexes, you might formulate the following research question:

What are the effects of sleep on reflexes?

A similar question might be: Does sleep have an effect on reflexes?

Or: Is maximum reflex efficiency achieved after eight hours of sleep?

The goal of your research is to find the answer to the research question.

For example, the third research question above can be made into the hypothesis:

• Maximum reflex efficiency is achieved after eight hours of sleep.

Quiz

Q.2 A financial software company has growth and expansion as one of their
top strategic priorities for the year. The senior executive team wants to assess
their sales performance over the last 3 years to help set the sales objectives.
From the questions below which would evaluate the team effectiveness at
making a sale -

a)What is the annual growth?

b)What is the average time for conversion?

c)What is the number of customers retained over the past 3 years?

d)When is the correct time to market the software?

Quiz

Q.2 Answer – (B) What is the average time for conversion?

Here the primary metric that the team wants to measure is about setting of a
sales target. If the data analytics initiative is able to accurately specify this
metric, the sales target that would be set based on this metric would be
called an evidence based decision.
Quiz

Q.3 Among the following aspects, which must be included as part of the
future state?

(a) Budget available to implement analytics solution

(b) Availability of the best in class analytics tool

(c) Expertise available within the project team

(d) A shared understanding of project scope

Quiz

Q.3 Answer – (D) A shared understanding of project scope

Here the primary metric that the team wants to measure is about setting of a
sales target. If the data analytics initiative is able to accurately specify this
metric, the sales target that would be set based on this metric would be
called an evidence based decision.
Quiz

Q.4 Where, TP = True Positive, i.e., Number of transactions predicted as fraud

which are actually fraudulent FP = False Positive, i.e., Number of transactions
predicted as fraud but are not fraudulent TN= True Negative, i.e., Number of
transactions predicted as not frauds and are not actually fraudulent FN =
False Negative, i.e., Number of transactions predicted as not fraud but are
actually fraudulent Accuracy is defined as?

(a) TP/(TP+FP)

(b) TP/(TP+FN)

(c) TN/(FP+TN)

(d) (TP+TN)/(TP+FP+TN+FN)
Quiz

Q.4 Answer – (D) Accuracy= (TP+TN)/(TP+FP+TN+FN)

Quiz

Q.5 The data analyst has made the following statement – The SLA
performance dropped in Q1 2019 as one support executive suddenly went on
2 weeks unannounced leave. This is an example of
a)Prescriptive analytics
b)Descriptive analytics
c)Diagnostic analytics
d)Predictive analytics
Quiz
Q.5 Answer – (C) Diagnostic analytics. Statement talks about the reason why
there is a dip.
Business Data Analytics Domains - Relationships