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P a r t

II

Descriptive Analytics

Learning Objectives fOr Part ii
■ Learn the role of descriptive analytics (DA) in ■ Learn the importance of information
solving business problems visualization in managerial decision support
■ Learn the basic definitions, concepts, and ■ Learn the foundations of the emerging field
architectures of data warehousing (DW) of visual analytics
■ Learn the role of data warehouses in managerial ■ Learn the capabilities and limitations
decision support of dashboards and scorecards
■ Learn the capabilities of business reporting and ■ Learn the fundamentals of business
visualization as enablers of DA performance management (BPM)

Descriptive analytics, often referred to as business intelligence, uses data and models to answer
the “what happened?” and “why did it happen?” questions in business settings. It is perhaps
the most fundamental echelon in the three-step analytics continuum upon which predictive and
prescriptive analytics capabilities are built. As you will see in the following chapters, the key enablers
of descriptive analytics include data warehousing, business reporting, decision dashboard/
scorecards, and visual analytics.

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