Data Analysis
Techniques

Seminar Overview

Corporate ethos which demands continual improvement in work place efficiencies and reduced operating, maintenance, support service and administration costs means that managers, analysts, and their advisors are faced with ever-challenging analytical problems and performance targets. To make decisions which result in improved business performance it is vital to base decision making on appropriate analysis and interpretation of numerical data. SAA & CONSULTING seminar aims to provide those involved in analysing numerical data with the understanding and practical capabilities needed to convert data into information via appropriate analysis, and then to represent these results in ways that can be readily communicated to others in the Organization.

The seminar adopts a problem-based learning approach, in which delegates are presented with a series of real numerical data analysis problems drawn from the widest possible range of applications - from engineering to finance and from logistics to quality control. Each problem presents and exemplifies the need for a different data analysis approach. The seminar is entirely applications-oriented, minimizing the time spent on the mathematics of analysis and maximising the time spent on the use of practical methods in Excel, along with the understanding why such methods work. The participants on this course will, as a result of their training, be better positioned to influence the Organization with recommendations based on objective data analysis that in turn produce a higher performing business.

Seminar Objective

• To provide delegates with both an understanding and practical experience of a range of the more common analytical techniques and representation methods for numerical data
• To give delegates the ability to recognize which types of analysis are best suited to particular types of problems
• To give delegates sufficient background and theoretical knowledge to be able to judge when an applied technique will likely lead to incorrect conclusions
• To provide delegates with a working vocabulary of analytical terms to enable them to converse with people who are experts in the areas of data analysis, statistics and probability, and to be able to read and comprehend common textbooks and journal articles in this field
• To introduce a range of statistical methods and concepts
• To explore the use of of Microsoft Excel for data analysis and the capabilities of the Data Analysis Tool Pack

Designed for

This seminar has been designed for professionals whose jobs involve in the manipulation, representation, interpretation and/or analysis of data. Familiarity with Microsoft Excel is assumed. The seminar involves extensive computer-based data analysis using Excel and therefore delegates will be expected to be numerate and to enjoy working with numerical data on a computer.

Seminar Outline

• Data Sampling, Accuracy and Completeness
• Conventional Statistics
• Basics of Data Mining and Representation
• Data Comfrankfurton, Correlation Analysis
• Histograms and Frequency of Occurrence
• Frequency Analysis, the Fourier transform
• Regression Analysis and Curve Fitting
• Probability and Confidence, Risk and Uncertainty, ANOVA (Analysis of Variance)
• Pivot tables the Data Analysis Tool Pack
• Dynamic Spreadsheets, Sensitivity Analysis