HR7004: Mental Wealth: Professional

exchange & Applied research

Data Analysis & Findings

Sujay Sinha
Learning Objectives

 Understand what Data Analysis is.

 Understand how to do a Data Analysis and report the
Findings.
 Learn about the types of Data Analysis.
 Learn about things to keep in mind while discussing
the findings.
Data Analysis & Findings
 Data analysis follows a rigorous step-by-step process as each stage
requires different skills and insights. Thus, it is important to
understand the process as a whole.
 Following are the steps to be followed while doing data analysis and
presenting the findings:-
 Defining the Question.
 Collecting the data.
 Cleaning the data.
 Analyzing the data.
 Sharing the results.
 Embracing limitations/short-comings.
 Summary.
1. Defining the Question: The first step in any data analysis process
is to define your objective. Defining your objective means
coming up with a hypothesis and figuring how to test it. 
2. Collecting the data: Once you’ve established your objective,
you’ll need to create a strategy for collecting and aggregating the
appropriate data. This might be quantitative (numeric) data, e.g.
sales figures, or qualitative (descriptive) data, such as customer
reviews etc.
3. Cleaning the data: Cleaning data essentially includes removing
major errors & duplicates, removing unwanted data points,
structuring your data, filling the gaps etc.
4. Analyzing the data: The type of data analysis you carry out
largely depends on what your goal is and also on what insights or
results your are hoping to gain.
5. Sharing the Results: One of the final steps of data analytics
process is to share the insights with the wider world. This is more
complex than simply sharing the raw results of your work as it
involves interpreting the outcomes, and presenting them in a
manner that’s digestible for all types of audiences.
6. Embrace your limitations/short-comings: Data analytics is
inherently complex and at times can produce several short-
comings and pitfalls. It is always recommended that you address
the short-comings and limitations in your analysis.
7. Summary: Ending your analysis with a brief summary covering
your question/hypothesis, data set, analysis, limitations,
conclusions etc.
 Types of Data Analysis
 Descriptive Analysis: Descriptive analysis identifies what has already happened. It
involves parsing (or breaking down) data and summarizing its main features and
characteristics. In this way, descriptive analytics presents what has happened in the
past without exploring why or how. 
 Predictive Analysis: Predictive analysis allows you to identify future trends based on
historical data.  In businesses, predictive analysis is commonly used to forecast future
growth based on historical data and current treads.
 Diagnostic Analysis: It related to the diagnosis of a problem based on the quantitative
or qualitative data collected. For instance, it could help a company draw correlations
between the issue (struggling to gain repeat business) and factors that might be
causing it (e.g. project costs, speed of delivery, customer sector, etc.) 
 Prescriptive Analysis: Prescriptive analysis allows one to make recommendations for
the future. This is also considered as the final step in the analytics part of the process.
It focuses on what has happened, why it happened, and what might happen in order to
determine what should be done next.
Things to keep in mind when reporting the results of a
study using quantitative methods
• Explain the data collected and their statistical treatment as well as all relevant results
in relation to the research problem you are investigating. Interpretation of results is not
appropriate in this section.
• Report unanticipated events that occurred during your data collection. Explain how
the actual analysis differs from the planned analysis. Explain your handling of missing
data and why any missing data does not undermine the validity of your analysis.
• Explain the techniques you used to "clean" your data set.
• Choose a statistical procedure; provide a rationale for its use and a reference for it.
Specify any computer programs used.
• Describe the assumptions for each procedure and the steps you took to ensure that
they were not violated.
• Use tables to provide exact values; use figures to convey global effects. Keep figures
small in size; include graphic representations of confidence intervals whenever possible.
• Always tell the reader what to look for in tables and figures.
NOTE
When using pre-existing statistical data
gathered and made available by anyone other
than yourself [e.g., government agency], you
still must report on the methods that were used
to gather the data and describe any missing data
that exists and, if there is any, provide a clear
explanation why the missing data does not
undermine the validity of your final analysis.
 Discussions
• Discussions of your findings should be analytic, logical, and comprehensive. The
discussion should meld together your findings in relation to those identified in the
literature review, and placed within the context of the theoretical framework
underpinning the study. The discussion should be presented in the present tense.
• Interpretation of results -- reiterate the research problem being investigated and
compare and contrast the findings with the research questions underlying the study.
Did they affirm predicted outcomes or did the data refute it?
• Description of trends, comparison of groups, or relationships among variables --
describe any trends that emerged from your analysis and explain all unanticipated
and statistical insignificant findings.
• Discussion of implications – what is the meaning of your results? Highlight key
findings based on the overall results and note findings that you believe are important.
How have the results helped fill gaps in understanding the research problem?
• Limitations -- describe any limitations or unavoidable bias in your study and, if
necessary, note why these limitations did not inhibit effective interpretation of the
results.
Text for Reference

 Saunders, M., Lewis, P.

and Thornhill, A. (2016)
Research methods for
business students. 7th
edn. Essex: Pearson
Education Limited.