There are many different definitions of reporting and analysis.
I was interested to read what Zack at Juice Analytics had to say on the matter. To paraphrase, reporting is for things we know well and are predictable where as analysis if for things that are unknown and erratic. Now I’ve only looked at the slides (check them out there good!) so I may have missed the context, but that’s not really the point.
The point is that to me reporting is the process of getting the data on to the screen or paper, digging it out cutting it up that sort of thing. Analysis to my mind, is the process of trying to find out what the hell is going on and why! Business intelligence (a now out of date phrase I believe!) it therefore the process of bringing reporting and analysis together and giving it to the information user who uses it to make decisions.
That’s how I see it any road. (aka: Just my 2 cents!)
I think Zacks’ and my views are both valid, although slightly different. I wonder what other views of reporting and analysis there are?
Related posts:
How about…
Data + Analysis = Information + Formatting = Report
I agree that reporting and analysis are very different things, as are data and information. It’s the latter set that are a more critical distinction than the first though. Most of us inherently work with analysis and try to get a report out of it. The part that I find less people realize is that a sheet of data is meaningless without context. It doesn’t become information until you give it something to relate it to. (Preferably formatted into a report that is easy to read.)
:)
Data + Analysis = Information + Formatting = Report
I like that!
Thats a good point Ken, you have reporting at the oher end to me, and it’s quite right to be there, when i run a query I call the thing it outputs a report, but after I’ve presented this in a dashboard, I call that a report too!
cheers
Ross
To me, a query is nothing more than a pre-defined analysis. It generates information that you format (into your dashboard), which is then presented as your dashboard report.
“To me, a query is nothing more than a pre-defined analysis”
That’s a fair point – I would say it’s true for a lot of cases, but sometimes you just pull a load of data, some times the query is more structured, but sometimes its just getting data out, then you look at it in more detail
Cool