What is Analysis?
That column included an overview of some definitions of analysis provided by my colleague Chris Kerns’ Web analytics team. Based on his team’s input, I shared some of the top 10 terms that describe analysis. As promised, this column will go deeper here into what analysis is and what it isn’t. This again will expose why so many companies fail to reach the potential Web analytics has to offer. Before digging into that topic, let’s consider a question posed by a reader in response to my last column: what type of analytics are we talking about here and how do you use it? It doesn’t matter what type of data you use; the principles of good analysis are the same. But in terms of specific analytics discussed here and at the Analytics Symposium, it’s all about digital analytics — with the goal of using metrics to improve your digital properties’ performance. (Note: I’m wording this carefully to avoid saying “Web site” because that’s only part of the story. Mobile, media, social, partner, offli
Ever dissected a frog? If you did that just to cut it up, you would be guilty of cruelty. One dissects a frog to learn how and why things inside the frog work as they do. Why have two arteries here, not one? Generally, all analysis gets beyond mere description and into examination and explanation. The same principles apply to essays. Consider these examples, from a hypothetical final exam in the Core class : Example 1: This quotation comes from Freud’s Civilization and its Discontents. Here, Freud implies that man will only be happy when living according to the pleasure principle. The pleasure principle leads people to do or desire things that bring them pleasure. Freud presents a good point here, and he uses many examples throughout the text to support it. Example 2: This quotation contains a central concept of Freud’s psychology: humans are driven by the pleasure principle and are most happy when fulfilling its demands. As Freud notes elsewhere in the text, the ego and superego play
Analysis is examining information (sorting it out, adding it up, comparing it) in order to understand the “parts” in relationship to the “whole”. The parts The whole Both insiders and outsiders contribute Insiders and outsiders together plan the analysis. This helps ensure that information is comprehensive, valid and understood. Analysis may be included in information gathering Some of the analysis may have already been done, or partially done, depending on which information gathering tools have been used. For example, suppose the Ranking, Rating and Sorting Tool (Tool 10) is chosen to answer the question: “which tree species do farmers prefer to plant with their crops?” Using this tool, a list of ten species, from most preferred to least preferred, has been produced. This information is already analyzed. It only needs to be examined along with other information, such as the species farmers request from the community nursery. Partial analysis If a team has been given responsibility for
Roughly speaking, analysis deals with approximation of certain mathematical objects–like numbers or functions–by other objects which are easier to understand or to handle. For instance if you want to find out the first few decimals of pi, then you will most likely want to write pi as the limit of a sequence of numbers that you already know how to calculate. Or an example going the other way around: the sequence of factorials n! looks aesthetically pleasing, but in calculations one often needs an approximation of n!
