Business Analytics exam questions
and answers graded A+
Business analytics is - ANS✅✅the use of data, information technology, statistical analysis,
quantitative methods, and mathematical or computer-based models to help managers gain
improved insight about their business operations and make better, fact-based decisions
Benefits of business analytics - ANS✅✅reduced costs, better risk management, faster decisions,
better productivity and enhanced bottom-line performance such as profitability and customer
satisfaction
Challenges of business analytics - ANS✅✅lack of understanding of how to use analytics, competing
business priorities, insufficient analytical skills, difficulty in getting good data and sharing
information, and not understanding the benefits versus perceived costs of analytics studies
descriptive analytics - ANS✅✅the use of data to understand past and current business
performance and make informed decisions
predictive analytics - ANS✅✅predict the future by examining the historical data, detecting
patterns or relationships in these data, and then extrapolating these relationships forward in time
prescriptive analytics - ANS✅✅identify the best alternatives to minimize or maximize some
objective
data - ANS✅✅numerical or textual facts and figures that are collected through some type of
measurement process
information - ANS✅✅result of analyzing data; that is, extracting meaning from data to support
evaluation and decision making
data sets - ANS✅✅a collection of data.
Examples: marketing survey responses, a table of historical stock prices, and a collection of
measurements of dimensions of a manufactured item
database - ANS✅✅a collection of related files containing records on people, places, or things.
, a database file is usually organized in a two-dimensional table, where the columns correspond to
each individual element of data (called fields, or attributes), and the rows represent records of
related data elements
metric - ANS✅✅a unit of measurement that provides a way to objectively quantify performance
measurement - ANS✅✅the act of obtaining data associated with a metric
measures - ANS✅✅numerical values associated with a metric
discrete metric - ANS✅✅one that is derived from counting something.
For example, a delivery is either on time or not; an order is complete or incomplete. Some
_______________ ______________ would be the proportion of on-time deliveries; the # of
incomplete orders each day, and the # of errors per invoice
continuous metric - ANS✅✅based on a continuous scale of measurement.
Any metrics involving dollars, length, time, volume, or weight, for example, are continuous
categorical (nominal) data - ANS✅✅sorted into categories according to specified characteristics.
ordinal data - ANS✅✅can be ordered or ranked according to some relationship to one another
interval data - ANS✅✅ordinal but have constant differences between observations and have
arbitrary zero points
ratio data - ANS✅✅continuous and have a natural zero
reliability - ANS✅✅data are accurate and consistent. the number of calls to a customer service
desk might be counted correctly each day (and thus is a reliable measure) but not valid if it is used to
assess customer dissatisfaction , as many calls may be simple queries
validity - ANS✅✅data correctly measures what it is supposed to measure.
A tire pressure gauge that consistently reads several pounds of pressure below the true value is not
reliable, although it is valid because it does measure tire pressure
and answers graded A+
Business analytics is - ANS✅✅the use of data, information technology, statistical analysis,
quantitative methods, and mathematical or computer-based models to help managers gain
improved insight about their business operations and make better, fact-based decisions
Benefits of business analytics - ANS✅✅reduced costs, better risk management, faster decisions,
better productivity and enhanced bottom-line performance such as profitability and customer
satisfaction
Challenges of business analytics - ANS✅✅lack of understanding of how to use analytics, competing
business priorities, insufficient analytical skills, difficulty in getting good data and sharing
information, and not understanding the benefits versus perceived costs of analytics studies
descriptive analytics - ANS✅✅the use of data to understand past and current business
performance and make informed decisions
predictive analytics - ANS✅✅predict the future by examining the historical data, detecting
patterns or relationships in these data, and then extrapolating these relationships forward in time
prescriptive analytics - ANS✅✅identify the best alternatives to minimize or maximize some
objective
data - ANS✅✅numerical or textual facts and figures that are collected through some type of
measurement process
information - ANS✅✅result of analyzing data; that is, extracting meaning from data to support
evaluation and decision making
data sets - ANS✅✅a collection of data.
Examples: marketing survey responses, a table of historical stock prices, and a collection of
measurements of dimensions of a manufactured item
database - ANS✅✅a collection of related files containing records on people, places, or things.
, a database file is usually organized in a two-dimensional table, where the columns correspond to
each individual element of data (called fields, or attributes), and the rows represent records of
related data elements
metric - ANS✅✅a unit of measurement that provides a way to objectively quantify performance
measurement - ANS✅✅the act of obtaining data associated with a metric
measures - ANS✅✅numerical values associated with a metric
discrete metric - ANS✅✅one that is derived from counting something.
For example, a delivery is either on time or not; an order is complete or incomplete. Some
_______________ ______________ would be the proportion of on-time deliveries; the # of
incomplete orders each day, and the # of errors per invoice
continuous metric - ANS✅✅based on a continuous scale of measurement.
Any metrics involving dollars, length, time, volume, or weight, for example, are continuous
categorical (nominal) data - ANS✅✅sorted into categories according to specified characteristics.
ordinal data - ANS✅✅can be ordered or ranked according to some relationship to one another
interval data - ANS✅✅ordinal but have constant differences between observations and have
arbitrary zero points
ratio data - ANS✅✅continuous and have a natural zero
reliability - ANS✅✅data are accurate and consistent. the number of calls to a customer service
desk might be counted correctly each day (and thus is a reliable measure) but not valid if it is used to
assess customer dissatisfaction , as many calls may be simple queries
validity - ANS✅✅data correctly measures what it is supposed to measure.
A tire pressure gauge that consistently reads several pounds of pressure below the true value is not
reliable, although it is valid because it does measure tire pressure
