Data mining is a particular data analysis technique that focuses on modeling and knowledge discovery for predictive rather than purely descriptive purposes.
Business Intelligence covers data analysis that relies heavily on aggregation, focusing on business information.
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Qualitative data analysis
... to analyze text, interview transcripts, ... field notes of (ethnographic) observations, et cetera.
The process of data analysis
Data analysis is a process, within which several phases can be distinguished
- Data cleaning
- Initial data analysis (assessment of data quality)
- Main data analysis (answer the original research question)
- Final data analysis (necessary additional analyses and report)
Data cleaning
Data cleaning is an important procedure during which the data are inspected, and erroneous data are -if necessary, preferable, and possible- corrected. ...it should always be possible to undo any data set alterations. ...
Initial data analysis
... refrains from any analysis that are aimed at answering the original research question.
Quality of data
The quality of the data should be checked as early as possible.
...: frequency counts, descriptive statistics (mean, standard
deviation, median), normality (skewness, kurtosis, frequency
histograms, normal probability plots), associations (correlations,
scatter plots).
Other initial data quality checks are:
- ...distribution of the variables....
- ... missing observations...
- ...extreme observations: ...
- ...coding schemes are not comparable...
Quality of measurements
The quality of measurement instrument...
Initial transformations
...missing data...
Characteristics of data sample
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Final stage of the initial data analysis
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Analyses
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One needs to distinguish between Data and Information. Data simply says that the organization:
- had so much revenue
- spent so much on hire staff
- spent so much purchasing supplies
By itself, data does not lead to correct action. If you know that the cost of staffing was up 10%, this is not very useful. If the number of people hired was up 30% or the number of people hired was at budget, or down 20%, that data plus number of hires will give provide information to make better decisions.
.This is why techniques the following build on data to obtain more actionable information.