Data Analytical Techniques

  • Descriptive Analytics tells you what happened in the past.
  • Diagnostic Analytics helps you understand why something happened in the past.
  • Predictive Analytics predicts what is most likely to happen in the future.
  • Prescriptive Analytics recommends actions you can take to affect those outcomes

Descriptive Analytics

Diagnostic Analytics

  • diagnostic methodologies use knowledge, usually extracted from historical data, to predict past, or otherwise unknown (e.g. to find out what happened or caused a particular cyber breach)

Predictive Analytics

  • predictive methodologies use knowledge, usually extracted from historical data, to predict future, or otherwise unknown, events
  • analytic techniques that fall into this category include a wide range of approaches to include parametric methods such as time series forecasting, linear regression, multilevel modeling, simulation methods such as discrete event simulation and agent-based modeling; classification methods such as logistic regression and decision trees; and artificial intelligence methods such as artificial neural networks and bayesian networks

Prescriptive Analytics

  • prescriptive methodologies not only look into the future to predict likely outcomes but also attempt to shape the future by optimizing the targeted business objective while balancing constraints
  • analytic techniques that fall into this category include optimization techniques such as linear programming, goal programming, integer/mixed-integer programming, and search algorithms; artificial intelligence optimization techniques such as genetic algorithms and swarm algorithms; and multi-criteria decision models such as analytic hierarchy process, analytic network, process, multi-attribute utility and value theories, and value analysis

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