Guide to using the Anatomy

The Anatomy of Occupancy Analytics is organized into five key resources that can each be accessed via the main menu at the top of each page:

  • FUNDAMENTALS introduces and defines the concepts and terms and provides the basic vocabulary to discuss occupancy analytics.
  • ANATOMY sets out the four essential components of occupancy analytics and provides practical guidance on their application.
  • STORY SO FAR is a collection of episodes set in fictional organizations that allow the topics to be understood in practical, real world contexts. We will continually add stories to this section so be sure to subscribe or check back regularly to read the latest episodes.
  • WORKED EXAMPLES support the stories, fundamentals and anatomy with detailed illustrations of specific scenarios and methods.
  • The GLOSSARY provides a single reference library of all of the terms introduced or used within this guide.

You can navigate these sections to suit your needs: if you read through the Fundamentals and then the Anatomy in sequence, following links to the worked examples as needed, it will read like a text book. Alternatively you can read the stories and follow the links in these to the worked examples and underlying theory. Or start by simply using the glossary as a reference.

Using the glossary

Throughout this site, terms defined in the glossary are underlined with a dotted line – for example Operationalized. Whenever you see a glossary term, you can hover your mouse pointer over it (on a computer) or tap it (on a touchscreen device) to see a summary of the definition of that term. Many defined terms have more information than is shown in the pop-up, and to see the fully glossary entry, click on the term or tap on it again. You can try that now with the term Operationalized.

Folded sections

To improve the reading experience, the reference sections (fundamentals and anatomy) often contain folded content. This folded content helps keep the pages not too long by only allowing one fold to be open at a time. A closed fold look like this:

An example of folded content in the reference sections

Whenever you see a black bar with a plus symbol on the right you can click the bar to open that fold (and close any previously opened fold). On some devices, depending on where on the page the fold is, you may need to scroll up to find the beginning of the fold content.

Interact and engage

The Anatomy of Occupancy Analytics is intended to be a living resource. We would love you to get involved – provide feedback, ask questions, or contribute your own stories to illustrate the rigorous foundations laid in our fundamentals and anatomy reference.

Most sections allow you to leave comments and questions, and we encourage you to do that. We welcome challenging questions and constructive discussion, but would rather this platform is used to educate and share rather than promote specific technologies or tools. We will moderate posts accordingly.

If you are one of the specialists in this field, and want to get more involved to help shape the Anatomy in the future, we would love to hear from you. We welcome co-contributors who can help expand the content and provide more stories and examples to help our worldwide community improve.

We are also happy to work with organizations who want to adopt or endorse this resource. We believe we are better working together and collaborating, and so will promote these kinds of engagements. Whether you want us to certify that your particular methods follow the principles laid out in the Anatomy, or would simply like to help us spread the word and improve consistency and utility of occupancy analytics, please get in touch.

Curation and funding

This resource is provided free of charge for people to use, adopt and benefit from. However, it takes considerable time to maintain and curate, and to that end there are several ways in which you can help support the effort:

  • The creators of the Anatomy of Occupancy Analytics, Chris Lees and William Fawcett, are both consultants and would always be happy to hear from you if you would like their help with specific projects or challenges.
  • You can become a benefactor of the Anatomy by making a one-time or recurring donation. These donations will only be used to cover the costs of operating and curating the content of the Anatomy.

If you would like more information about any of the topics raised here, please get in touch by emailing aooa@s29.me or filling in the form below: