Unit 02 of 03
Reporting
Counting how much of a finding survives when it is carried to the person who will decide: the number of metrics that can be read back from a dashboard and the number of decisions the layout supports, how many ways a metric can be gamed without moving what it measures, the number the refresh lag between the data model and the data source writes into the report, how many steps it takes to build the narrative from finding to recommendation and the gap a skipped step leaves in the reader, and the number of items that must be pinned to produce the same report a second time.
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Lessons
- 01 Dashboard Design The same twelve metrics are encoded in three layouts, and the number of metrics read back at a glance is counted for each: 1 in the layout arranged by insertion order, 2 when every metric is given its own display, and 9 in the layout split by decision. The number of supported decisions is 0, 0 and 3 respectively; when the glance budget is raised to twelve, the first two layouts have 2 and 6 metrics read back but still support no decision. In the length channel, the 1.861 difference between two ratios read back separately with errors of 1.50% and 3.08% is read as 2.500, an error of 34.3%. 5 min read
- 02 Key Performance Indicators The gameability of a metric is counted: the reading coverage rate, which stands at 60.948%, is tried in six ways without a single reading changing in the measurement network, and five of them exceed the gaming threshold — denominator narrowing 64.286, counting zero as a reading 63.055, window widening 81.791, rounding 61.000, target normalization 93.766. A six-item redefinition lowers the number of ways exceeding the threshold from 5 to 0; a way that does not exceed the threshold is not counted as closed, because its movement of 0.037 points comes not from the definition but from the region sizes. When 106 readings are really lost in the measurement network, the tight definition drops from 60.948 to 53.273, while two of the six ways of the loose definition keep the number above its pre-drop value in the same drop. 14 min read
- 03 Business Intelligence Tools The same metric gives a different value under three refresh schemes and the difference is counted: in a report produced twelve days after the close of period 3, the reading rate comes out 56.659 with a live query, 48.081 with a periodic extract and 36.042 with a pre-aggregated model; the final value at the source is 63.055. The same lag moves mean consumption by only 0.038 m³. The grain and the field set that the report data model fixes permanently close three of six questions: the model that stores only the mean gives a wrong answer to one question by 0.192 m³, while the model that stores the sum and the count answers three questions correctly. Three schemes and five report days produce fifteen reports, five distinct values and a spread of 27.013 points. 10 min read
- 04 Building Narrative with Data When one step is removed from the five-step chain that runs from finding to recommendation, the premises the reader is forced to complete on their own are counted: removing the finding leaves 4 inferences open, removing the comparison 3, removing the candidate cause 2, removing the uncertainty 3, removing the recommendation 3. Of the eleven wrong defaults the chain carries, nine strengthen the recommendation and two weaken it — the gaps are not filled at random. The place of the margin of variation of the Statistical Analysis and Exploratory Data Analysis course is settled: if the margin is never written, 4 inferences and 3 wrong defaults remain; if it is written only at the end in a limitations paragraph, 1 inference and 1 wrong default remain; when it is written next to the finding and in the uncertainty step, both go to zero. 6 min read
- 05 Report Reproducibility The items that must be fixed to produce the same report a second time are counted: the report's own 11 items are added on top of the 39 decisions in the preparation ledger of the Data Collection and Preparation course and the 9 environment items of the Data Analysis with Python course, for a total of 59. Of the eleven items, 10 move the report when released alone — the reading rate goes anywhere between 36.042 and 100.000; the one item that does not move it, released together with another item, carries 87.168 to 94.432. The data cut-off and the refresh scheme change all seven lines of the seven-line report, while the presentation items change only one; the eleven items move 26 lines in total. 4 min read