Descriptive analytics, or business intelligence, uses historical information to answer the question “What Happened?” Think of it as a rear-view mirror into business performance or a summary view of facts and figures in an understandable format to either inform or prepare data for further analysis. Observations, case studies, and surveys form the basis of descriptive analytics.
Descriptive Analytics Examples Include:
- Summarizing past events such as regional sales, customer attrition, or success of marketing campaigns.
- Tabulating social metrics such as Facebook likes, Tweets, or followers.
- Reporting of general trends like hot travel destinations or news trends.
- Discussing and debating what happened in the last iteration during a Sprint Retrospective.
