Data Analytics and Visualization
Action/Reasoning Chart
For use in both the Analytics Tutorial and Analytics Project Assignments
The steps involved in analyzing data can be complex, iterative and even move ‘backwards’ from time to time. New insights from Step 5 may make an analyst rethink Step 3, for example.
As you work through the Data Analytics Tutorial and the Data Analytics Project (also a tutorial), you should fill in the following chart. Note that the Get Started with Tableau tutorial also refers to ‘Steps’. You will probably at least use these steps to complete the table, but there might also be an opportunity to create additional steps.
Action refers to the type of analysis or the task that you decide to pursue (likely based on a previous step). Reasoning/Rationale is the WHY (this step?). It might be what you are hoping to find, or simply that you’re working on a hunch. Results/Observations are what results from that Step. Decision, may be a final business decision or a decision to move forward to another Step, another line of reasoning.
Think of this table as a way of mapping out your analytics pathway, both where you are going and where you’ve been. Part of crafting a story may very well be communicating how you came to a certain conclusion—of course, depending on your audience and their level of knowledge and/or interest in the nuts and bolts of data analytics.
Step #
Action
Reasoning/Rationale
Results/Observations
Decision (if any)