Having established the Fundamentals, this section explores the practicalities of gathering data and the various methods that can be employed to analyze the data. The ultimate goal is to provide evidence to inform decision making.
The key parts of these processes – their anatomy – are detailed in the following sections:
- Measurement – identifies what can and can’t be measured, and the use of proxies to provide substitutes where direct data cannot be obtained
- Error detection and correction – highlights common sources of errors or factors that are detrimental to either accuracy or precision, and discusses methods that can be used to ameliorate these issues
- Analysis and simulation – once the measurements have been taken and errors where possible detected and corrected, these data sets can be analyzed directly or used to calibrate and provide inputs to simulation models
- Reporting and evidence – drawing safe inferences from the analysis or simulation outputs and these then need to be applied to support or challenge business decisions