🧭Business Intelligence: Perspectives (Part XVI: On the Cusps of Complexity)

Business Intelligence Series

We live in a complex world, which makes it difficult to model and work with the complex models that attempt to represent it. Thus, we try to simplify it to the degree that it becomes processable and understandable for us, while further simplification is needed when we try to depict it by digital means that make it processable by machines, respectively by us. Whenever we simplify something, we lose some aspects, which might be acceptable in many cases, but create issues in a broader number of ways.

With each layer of simplification results a model that addresses some parts while ignoring some parts of it, which restricts models’ usability to the degree that makes them unusable. The more one moves toward the extremes of oversimplification or complexification, the higher the chances for models to become unusable.

This aspect is relevant also in what concerns the business processes we deal with. Many processes are oversimplified to the degree that we track the entry and exit points, respectively the quantitative aspects we are interested in. In theory this information should be enough when answering some business questions, though might be insufficient when one dives deeper into processes. One can try to approximate, however there are high chances that such approximations deviate too much from the value approximated, which can lead to strange outcomes.

Therefore, when a date or other values are important, organizations consider adding more fields to reflect the implemented process with higher accuracy. Unfortunately, unless we save a history of all the important changes in the data, it becomes challenging to derive the snapshots we need for our analyses. Moreover, it is more challenging to obtain consistent snapshots. There are systems which attempt to obtain such snapshots through the implementation of the processes, though also this approach involves some complexity and other challenges.

Looking at the way business processes are implemented (see ERP, CRM and other similar systems), the systems track the created, modified and a few other dates that allow only limited perspectives. The fields typically provide the perspectives we need for data analysis. For many processes, it would be interesting to track other events and maybe other values taken in between.

There is theoretical potential in tracking more detailed data, but also a complexity that’s difficult to transpose into useful information about the processes themselves. Despite tracking more data and the effort involved in such activities, processes can still behave like black boxes, especially when we have no or minimal information about the processes implemented in Information Systems.

There’s another important aspect - even if systems provide similar implementations of similar processes, the behavior of users can make an important difference. The best example is the behavior of people entering the relevant data only when a process closes and ignoring the steps happening in between (dates, price or quantity changes).

There is a lot of missing data/information not tracked by such a system, especially in what concerns users’ behavior. It’s true that such behavior can be tracked to some degree, though that happens only when data are modified physically. One can suppose that there are many activities happening outside of the system.

The data gathered represents only the projection of certain events, which might not represent accurately and completely the processes or users’ behavior. We have the illusion of transparency, though we work with black boxes. There can be a lot of effort happening outside of these borders.  

Fortunately, we can handle oversimplified processes and data maintenance, though one can but wonder how many important things can be found beyond the oversimplifications we work with, respectively what we miss in the process. 

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🧭Business Intelligence: A Software Engineer's Perspective (Part III: More of a One-Man Show)

Business Intelligence Series 

Probably, in some organizations there are still recounted stories about a hero who knew so much about the business and was technically proficient that he/she was able to provide data-driven answers to most business questions. Unfortunately, the times of solo representations are for long gone - the world moves too fast, there are too many questions looking for an answer, many of them requiring a solution before the problem was actually defined, a whole infrastructure is needed to be able to harness the potential of  technologies and data, the volume of knowledge required grows exponentially, etc. 

One of the approaches of handling the knowledge gap between the initial and required knowledge in solving problems based on data is to build all the required knowledge in one person, either on the business or the technical side. More common is to hire a data analyst and build the knowledge in the respective resource, and the approach has great chances to work until the volume of work exceeds a person's limits. The data analyst is forced to request to have the workload prioritized, which might work in certain occasions, while in others one needs to compromise on quality and/or do overtime, and all the issues deriving from this. 

There are also situations in which the complexity of the problem exceeds a person's ability to handle it, and that's not necessarily a matter of intelligence but of knowhow. Some organizations respond with complexity to complexity, while others are more creative and break the complexity in manageable pieces. In both cases, more resources are needed to cover the knowledge and resource gap. Hiring more data analysts can get the work done though it's not a recipe for success. The more diverse the team, the higher the chances to succeed, though again it's a matter of creativity and of covering the knowledge gaps. Sometimes, it's more productive to use the resources already available in organization, though this can involve other challenges. 

Even if much of the knowledge gets documented, as soon the data analyst leaves the organization a void is created until a similar resource is able to fill it. Organizations can better cope with these challenges if they disseminate the knowledge between data professionals respectively within the business. The more resources are involved the higher the level of retention and higher the chances of reusing the knowledge. However, the more people are involved, the higher the costs, especially the one associated with the waste of effort. 

Organizations can compromise by choosing 1-2 resources from each department to be involved in knowledge dissemination, ideally people with data and technology affinity. They shall become data citizens, people who use  data, data processing and visualization for building solutions that enable their job. Data citizens are expected to act as showmen in their knowledge domain and do their magic whenever such requirements arise.

Having a whole team of data citizens opens new opportunities for organizations, though such resources will need beside domain knowledge and data literacy also technical knowledge. Unfortunately, many people will reach their limitations in this area. Besides the learning effort, understanding what good architecture, design and techniques means is unfortunately not for everybody, and here's where the concept of citizen data analyst or citizen scientist breaks, and this independently of the tools used.

A data citizen's effort works best in data discovery, exploration and visualization scenarios where the rapid creation of prototypes reduces the time from idea to solution. However, the results are personal solutions that need to be validated by a technical person, pieces of the solutions maybe redesigned and moved until enterprise solutions result.

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🧭Business Intelligence: A One-Man Show (Part IV: Data Roles between Past and Future)

Business Intelligence Series

Databases nowadays are highly secure, reliable and available to a degree that reduces the involvement of DBAs to a minimum. The more databases and servers are available in an organization, and the older they are, the bigger the need for dedicated resources to manage them. The number of DBAs involved tends to be proportional with the volume of work required by the database infrastructure. However, if the infrastructure is in the cloud, managed by the cloud providers, it's enough to have a person in the middle who manages the communication between cloud provider(s) and the organization. The person doesn't even need to be a DBA, even if some knowledge in the field is usually recommended.

The requirement for a Data Architect comes when there are several systems in place and there're multiple projects to integrate or build around the respective systems. It'a also the question of what drives the respective requirement - is it the knowledge of data architectures, the supervision of changes, and/or the review of technical documents? The requirement is thus driven by the projects in progress and those waiting in the pipeline. Conversely, if all the systems are in the cloud, their integration is standardized or doesn't involve much architectural knowledge, the role becomes obsolete or at least not mandatory. 

The Data Engineer role is a bit more challenging to define because it appeared in the context of cloud-based data architectures. It seems to be related to the data movement via ETL/ELT pipelines and of data processing and preparation for the various needs. Data modeling or data presentation knowledge isn't mandatory even if ideal. The role seems to overlap with the one of a Data Warehouse professional, be it a simple architect or developer. Role's knowhow depends also on the tools involved, because one thing is to build a solution based on a standard SQL Server, and another thing to use dedicated layers and architectures for the various purposes. Engineers' number should be proportional with the number of data entities involved.

Conversely, the existence of solutions that move and process the data as needed, can reduce the volume of work. Moreover, the use of AI-driven tools like Copilot might shift the focus from data to prompt engineering. 

The Data Analyst role is kind of a Cinderella - it can involve upon case everything from requirements elicitation to reports writing and results' interpretation, respectively from data collection and data modeling to data visualization. If you have a special wish related to your data, just add it to the role! Analysts' number should be related to the number of issues existing in organization where the collection and processing of data could make a difference. Conversely, the Data Citizen, even if it's not a role but a desirable state of art, could absorb in theory the Data Analyst role.

The Data Scientist is supposed to reveal the gems of knowledge hidden in the data by using Machine Learning, Statistics and other magical tools. The more data available, the higher the chances of finding something, even if probably statistically insignificant or incorrect. The role makes sense mainly in the context of big data, even if some opportunities might be available at smaller scales. Scientists' number depends on the number of projects focused on the big questions. Again, one talks about the Data Scientist citizen. 

The Information Designer role seems to be more about data visualization and presentation. It makes sense in the organizations that rely heavily on visual content. All the other organizations can rely on the default settings of data visualization tools, independently on whether AI is involved or not. 

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📊Graphical Representation: Graphics We Live By I (The Analytics Marathon)

Graphical Representation Series

In a diagram adapted from an older article [1], Brent Dykes, the author of "Effective Data Storytelling" [2], makes a parallel between Data Analytics and marathon running, considering that an organization must pass through the depicted milestones, the percentages representing how many organizations reach the respective milestones:

It's a nice visualization and the metaphor makes sense given that running a marathon requires a long-term strategy to address the gaps between the current and targeted physical/mental form and skillset required to run a marathon, respectively for approaching a set of marathons and each course individually. Similarly, implementing a Data Analytics initiative requires a Data Strategy supposed to address the gaps existing between current and targeted state of art, respectively the many projects run to reach organization's goals. 

It makes sense, isn't it? On the other side the devil lies in details and frankly the diagram raises several questions when is compared with practices and processes existing in organizations. This doesn't mean that the diagram is wrong, just that it doesn't seem to reflect entirely the reality. 

The percentages represent author's perception of how many organizations reach the respective milestones, probably in an repeatable manner (as there are several projects). Thus, only 10% have a data strategy, 100% collect data, 80% of them prepare the data, while at the opposite side only 15% communicate insight, respectively 5% act on information.

Considering only the milestones the diagram looks like a funnel and a capability maturity model (CMM). Typically, the CMMs are more complex than this, evolving with technologies' capabilities. All the mentioned milestones have a set of capabilities that increase in complexity and that usually help differentiated organization's maturity. Therefore, the model seems too simple for an actual categorization.  

Typically, data collection has a specific scope resuming to surveys, interviews and/or research. However, the definition can be extended to the storage of data within organizations. Thus, data collection as the gathering of raw data is mainly done as part of their value supporting processes, and given the degree of digitization of data, one can suppose that most organizations gather data for the different purposes, even if only a small part are maybe digitized.

Even if many organizations build data warehouses, marts, lakehouses, mashes or whatever architecture might be en-vogue these days, an important percentage of the reporting needs are covered by standard reports or reporting tools that access directly the source systems without data preparation or even data visualization. The first important question is what is understood by data analytics? Is it only the use of machine learning and statistical analysis? Does it resume only to pattern and insight finding or does it includes also what is typically considered under the Business Intelligence umbrella? 

Pragmatically thinking, Data Analytics should consider BI capabilities as well as its an extension of the current infrastructure to consider analytic capabilities. On the other side Data Warehousing and BI are considered together by DAMA as part of their Data Management methodology. Moreover, organizations may have a Data Strategy and a BI strategy, respectively a Data Analytics strategy as they might have different goals, challenges and bodies to support them. To make it even more complicated, an organization might even consider all these important topics as part of the Data or even Information Governance, or consider BI or Analytics without Data Management. 

So, a Data Strategy might or might not address Data Analytics at all. It's a matter of management philosophy, organizational structure, politics and other factors. Probably, having a strayegy related to data should count. Even if a written and communicated data-related strategy is recommended for all medium to big organizations, only a small percentage of them have one, while small organizations might ignore the topic completely.

At least in the past, data analysis and its various subcomponents was performed before preparing and visualizing the data, or at least in parallel with data visualization. Frankly, it's a strange succession of steps. Or does it refers to exploratory data analysis (EDA) from a statistical perspective, which requires statistical experience to model and interpret the facts? Moreover, data exploration and discovery happen usually in the early stages.

The most puzzling step is the last one - what does the author intended with it? Ideally, data should be actionable, at least that's what one says about KPIs, OKRs and other metrics. Does it make sense to extend Data Analytics into the decision-making process? Where does a data professional's responsibilities end and which are those boundaries? Or does it refer to the actions that need to be performed by data professionals? 

The natural step after communicating insight is for the management to take action and provide feedback. Furthermore, the decisions taken have impact on the artifacts built and a reevaluation of the business problem, assumptions and further components is needed. The many steps of analytics projects are iterative, some iterations affecting the Data Strategy as well. The diagram shows the process as linear, which is not the case.

For sure there's an interface between Data Analytics and Decision-Making and the processes associated with them, however there should be clear boundaries. E.g., it's a data professional's responsibility to make sure that the data/information is actionable and eventually advise upon it, though whether the entitled people act on it is a management topic. Not acting upon an information is also a decision. Overstepping boundaries can put the data professional into a strange situation in which he becomes responsible and eventually accountable for an action not taken, which is utopic.

The final question - is the last mile representative for the analytical process? The challenge is not the analysis and communication of data but of making sure that the feedback processes work and the changes are addressed correspondingly, that value is created continuously from the data analytics infrastructure, that data-related risks and opportunities are addressed as soon they are recognized. 

As any model, a diagram doesn't need to be correct to be useful and might not be even wrong in the right context and argumentation. A data analytics CMM might allow better estimates and comparison between organizations, though it can easily become more complex to use. Between the two models lies probably a better solution for modeling the data analytics process.

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Resources:
[1] Brent Dykes (2022) "Data Analytics Marathon: Why Your Organization Must Focus On The Finish", Forbes (link)
[2] Brent Dykes (2019) Effective Data Storytelling: How to Drive Change with Data, Narrative and Visuals (link)

🧭☯Business Intelligence: Self-Service BI (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly)

Self-Service BI (SSBI) is a form of Business Intelligence (BI) in which the users are enabled and empowered to explore and analyze the data, respectively build reports and visualizations on their own, with minimal IT support. 

The Good: Modern SSBI tools like PowerBI, Tableau or Qlik Sense provide easy to use and rich functionality for data preparation, exploration, discovery, integration, modelling, visualization, and analysis. Moreover, they integrated the advances made in graphics, data storage and processing (e.g. in-memory processing, parallel processing), which allow addressing most of data requirements. With just a few drag-and-drops users can display details, aggregate data, identify trends and correlations between data. Slice-and-dice or passthrough features allow navigating the data across dimensions and different levels of details. In addition, the tools can leverage the existing data models available in data warehouses, data marts and other types of data repositories, including the rich set of open data available on the web.

With the right infrastructure, knowledge and skills users can better understand and harness the business data, using them to address business questions, they can make faster and smarter decisions rooted in data. SSBI offers the potential of increasing the value data have for the organization, while improving the time to value for data products (data models, reports, visualizations). 

The Bad: In the 90s products like MS Excel or Access allowed users to build personal solutions to address gaps existing in processes and reporting. Upon case, the personal solutions gained in importance, starting to be used by more users to the degree that they become essential for the business. Thus, these islands of data and knowledge started to become a nightmare for the IT department, as they were supposed to be kept alike and backed-up. In addition, issues like security of data, inefficient data processing, duplication of data and effort, different versions of truth, urged the business to consolidate such solutions in standardized solutions. 

Without an adequate strategy and a certain control over the outcomes of the SSBI initiatives, organization risk of reaching to the same deplorable state, with SSBI initiatives having the potential to bring more damage than the issues they can solve. Insufficient data quality and integration, unrealistic expectations, the communication problems between business and IT, as well insufficient training and support have the potential of making SSBI’s adoption more difficult.

The investment in adequate SSBI tool(s) might be small compared with the further changes that need to be done within the technical and logistical BI infrastructure. In addition, even if the role of IT is minimized, it doesn’t mean that IT needs to be left out of the picture. IT is still the owner of the IT infrastructure, it still needs to oversight the self-service processes and the flow of data, information and knowledge within the organization. From infrastructure to skillset, there are aspects of the SSBI that need to be addressed accordingly. The BI professional can’t be replaced entirely, though the scope of his work may shift to address new types of challenges.

Not understanding that SSBI initiatives are iterative, explorative in nature and require time to bring value, can put unnecessary pressure on those being part of it. Renouncing to SSBI initiatives without attempting to address the issues and stir them in the right direction hinder an organization and its employees’ potential to grow, with all the implication deriving from it.

The Ugly: Despite the benefits SSBI can bring, its adoption within organizations remains low. Whether it’s business’ credibility in own forces, or the inherent technical or logistical challenges, SSBI follows the BI trend of being a promise that seldom reaches its potential.

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🔭Data Science: Data Analysis (Just the Quotes)

"As in Mathematics, so in Natural Philosophy, the Investigation of difficult Things by the Method of Analysis, ought ever to precede the Method of Composition. This Analysis consists in making Experiments and Observations, and in drawing general Conclusions from them by Induction, and admitting of no Objections against the Conclusions but such as are taken from Experiments, or other certain Truths." (Sir Isaac Newton, "Opticks", 1704)

"The errors which arise from the absence of facts are far more numerous and more durable than those which result from unsound reasoning respecting true data." (Charles Babbage, "On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures", 1832)

"In every branch of knowledge the progress is proportional to the amount of facts on which to build, and therefore to the facility of obtaining data." (James C Maxwell, [letter to Lewis Campbell] 1851)

"Not even the most subtle and skilled analysis can overcome completely the unreliability of basic data." (Roy D G Allen, "Statistics for Economists", 1951)

"The technical analysis of any large collection of data is a task for a highly trained and expensive man who knows the mathematical theory of statistics inside and out. Otherwise the outcome is likely to be a collection of drawings - quartered pies, cute little battleships, and tapering rows of sturdy soldiers in diversified uniforms - interesting enough in the colored Sunday supplement, but hardly the sort of thing from which to draw reliable inferences." (Eric T Bell, "Mathematics: Queen and Servant of Science", 1951)

"If data analysis is to be well done, much of it must be a matter of judgment, and ‘theory’ whether statistical or non-statistical, will have to guide, not command." (John W Tukey, "The Future of Data Analysis", Annals of Mathematical Statistics, Vol. 33 (1), 1962)

"If one technique of data analysis were to be exalted above all others for its ability to be revealing to the mind in connection with each of many different models, there is little doubt which one would be chosen. The simple graph has brought more information to the data analyst’s mind than any other device. It specializes in providing indications of unexpected phenomena." (John W Tukey, "The Future of Data Analysis", Annals of Mathematical Statistics Vol. 33 (1), 1962)

"The most important maxim for data analysis to heed, and one which many statisticians seem to have shunned is this: ‘Far better an approximate answer to the right question, which is often vague, than an exact answer to the wrong question, which can always be made precise.’ Data analysis must progress by approximate answers, at best, since its knowledge of what the problem really is will at best be approximate." (John W Tukey, "The Future of Data Analysis", Annals of Mathematical Statistics, Vol. 33, No. 1, 1962)

"The first step in data analysis is often an omnibus step. We dare not expect otherwise, but we equally dare not forget that this step, and that step, and other step, are all omnibus steps and that we owe the users of such techniques a deep and important obligation to develop ways, often varied and competitive, of replacing omnibus procedures by ones that are more sharply focused." (John W Tukey, "The Future of Processes of Data Analysis", 1965)

"The basic general intent of data analysis is simply stated: to seek through a body of data for interesting relationships and information and to exhibit the results in such a way as to make them recognizable to the data analyzer and recordable for posterity. Its creative task is to be productively descriptive, with as much attention as possible to previous knowledge, and thus to contribute to the mysterious process called insight." (John W Tukey & Martin B Wilk, "Data Analysis and Statistics: An Expository Overview", 1966)

"Comparable objectives in data analysis are (l) to achieve more specific description of what is loosely known or suspected; (2) to find unanticipated aspects in the data, and to suggest unthought-of-models for the data's summarization and exposure; (3) to employ the data to assess the (always incomplete) adequacy of a contemplated model; (4) to provide both incentives and guidance for further analysis of the data; and (5) to keep the investigator usefully stimulated while he absorbs the feeling of his data and considers what to do next." (John W Tukey & Martin B Wilk, "Data Analysis and Statistics: An Expository Overview", 1966)

"Data analysis must be iterative to be effective. [...] The iterative and interactive interplay of summarizing by fit and exposing by residuals is vital to effective data analysis. Summarizing and exposing are complementary and pervasive." (John W Tukey & Martin B Wilk, "Data Analysis and Statistics: An Expository Overview", 1966)

"Every student of the art of data analysis repeatedly needs to build upon his previous statistical knowledge and to reform that foundation through fresh insights and emphasis." (John W Tukey, "Data Analysis, Including Statistics", 1968)

"[...] bending the question to fit the analysis is to be shunned at all costs." (John W Tukey, "Analyzing Data: Sanctification or Detective Work?", 1969)

"Statistical methods are tools of scientific investigation. Scientific investigation is a controlled learning process in which various aspects of a problem are illuminated as the study proceeds. It can be thought of as a major iteration within which secondary iterations occur. The major iteration is that in which a tentative conjecture suggests an experiment, appropriate analysis of the data so generated leads to a modified conjecture, and this in turn leads to a new experiment, and so on." (George E P Box & George C Tjao, "Bayesian Inference in Statistical Analysis", 1973)

"Almost all efforts at data analysis seek, at some point, to generalize the results and extend the reach of the conclusions beyond a particular set of data. The inferential leap may be from past experiences to future ones, from a sample of a population to the whole population, or from a narrow range of a variable to a wider range. The real difficulty is in deciding when the extrapolation beyond the range of the variables is warranted and when it is merely naive. As usual, it is largely a matter of substantive judgment - or, as it is sometimes more delicately put, a matter of 'a priori nonstatistical considerations'." (Edward R Tufte, "Data Analysis for Politics and Policy", 1974)

"[…] it is not enough to say: 'There's error in the data and therefore the study must be terribly dubious'. A good critic and data analyst must do more: he or she must also show how the error in the measurement or the analysis affects the inferences made on the basis of that data and analysis." (Edward R Tufte, "Data Analysis for Politics and Policy", 1974)

"The use of statistical methods to analyze data does not make a study any more 'scientific', 'rigorous', or 'objective'. The purpose of quantitative analysis is not to sanctify a set of findings. Unfortunately, some studies, in the words of one critic, 'use statistics as a drunk uses a street lamp, for support rather than illumination'. Quantitative techniques will be more likely to illuminate if the data analyst is guided in methodological choices by a substantive understanding of the problem he or she is trying to learn about. Good procedures in data analysis involve techniques that help to (a) answer the substantive questions at hand, (b) squeeze all the relevant information out of the data, and (c) learn something new about the world." (Edward R Tufte, "Data Analysis for Politics and Policy", 1974)

"Typically, data analysis is messy, and little details clutter it. Not only confounding factors, but also deviant cases, minor problems in measurement, and ambiguous results lead to frustration and discouragement, so that more data are collected than analyzed. Neglecting or hiding the messy details of the data reduces the researcher's chances of discovering something new." (Edward R Tufte, "Data Analysis for Politics and Policy", 1974)

"[...] be wary of analysts that try to quantify the unquantifiable." (Ralph Keeney & Raiffa Howard, "Decisions with Multiple Objectives: Preferences and Value Trade-offs", 1976)

"[...] exploratory data analysis is an attitude, a state of flexibility, a willingness to look for those things that we believe are not there, as well as for those we believe might be there. Except for its emphasis on graphs, its tools are secondary to its purpose." (John W Tukey, [comment] 1979)

"[...] any hope that we are smart enough to find even transiently optimum solutions to our data analysis problems is doomed to failure, and, indeed, if taken seriously, will mislead us in the allocation of effort, thus wasting both intellectual and computational effort." (John W Tukey, "Choosing Techniques for the Analysis of Data", 1981)

"The fact must be expressed as data, but there is a problem in that the correct data is difficult to catch. So that I always say 'When you see the data, doubt it!' 'When you see the measurement instrument, doubt it!' [...]For example, if the methods such as sampling, measurement, testing and chemical analysis methods were incorrect, data. […] to measure true characteristics and in an unavoidable case, using statistical sensory test and express them as data." (Kaoru Ishikawa, Annual Quality Congress Transactions, 1981)

"Exploratory data analysis, EDA, calls for a relatively free hand in exploring the data, together with dual obligations: (•) to look for all plausible alternatives and oddities - and a few implausible ones, (graphic techniques can be most helpful here) and (•) to remove each appearance that seems large enough to be meaningful - ordinarily by some form of fitting, adjustment, or standardization [...] so that what remains, the residuals, can be examined for further appearances." (John W Tukey, "Introduction to Styles of Data Analysis Techniques", 1982)

"A competent data analysis of an even moderately complex set of data is a thing of trials and retreats, of dead ends and branches." (John W Tukey, Computer Science and Statistics: Proceedings of the 14th Symposium on the Interface, 1983)

"Data in isolation are meaningless, a collection of numbers. Only in context of a theory do they assume significance […]" (George Greenstein, "Frozen Star", 1983)

"Iteration and experimentation are important for all of data analysis, including graphical data display. In many cases when we make a graph it is immediately clear that some aspect is inadequate and we regraph the data. In many other cases we make a graph, and all is well, but we get an idea for studying the data in a different way with a different graph; one successful graph often suggests another." (William S Cleveland, "The Elements of Graphing Data", 1985)

"There are some who argue that a graph is a success only if the important information in the data can be seen within a few seconds. While there is a place for rapidly-understood graphs, it is too limiting to make speed a requirement in science and technology, where the use of graphs ranges from, detailed, in-depth data analysis to quick presentation." (William S Cleveland, "The Elements of Graphing Data", 1985)

"A first analysis of experimental results should, I believe, invariably be conducted using flexible data analytical techniques - looking at graphs and simple statistics - that so far as possible allow the data to 'speak for themselves'. The unexpected phenomena that such a approach often uncovers can be of the greatest importance in shaping and sometimes redirecting the course of an ongoing investigation." (George Box, "Signal to Noise Ratios, Performance Criteria, and Transformations", Technometrics 30, 1988)

"Data analysis is an art practiced by individuals who are skilled at quantitative reasoning and have much experience in looking at numbers and detecting  patterns in data. Usually these individuals have some background in statistics." (David Lubinsky, Daryl Pregibon , "Data analysis as search", Journal of Econometrics Vol. 38 (1–2), 1988)

"Like a detective, a data analyst will experience many dead ends, retrace his steps, and explore many alternatives before settling on a single description of the evidence in front of him." (David Lubinsky & Daryl Pregibon , "Data analysis as search", Journal of Econometrics Vol. 38 (1–2), 1988)

"[…] data analysis in the context of basic mathematical concepts and skills. The ability to use and interpret simple graphical and numerical descriptions of data is the foundation of numeracy […] Meaningful data aid in replacing an emphasis on calculation by the exercise of judgement and a stress on interpreting and communicating results." (David S Moore, "Statistics for All: Why, What and How?", 1990)

"Data analysis is rarely as simple in practice as it appears in books. Like other statistical techniques, regression rests on certain assumptions and may produce unrealistic results if those assumptions are false. Furthermore it is not always obvious how to translate a research question into a regression model." (Lawrence C Hamilton, "Regression with Graphics: A second course in applied statistics", 1991)

"Data analysis typically begins with straight-line models because they are simplest, not because we believe reality is inherently linear. Theory or data may suggest otherwise [...]" (Lawrence C Hamilton, "Regression with Graphics: A second course in applied statistics", 1991)

"90 percent of all problems can be solved by using the techniques of data stratification, histograms, and control charts. Among the causes of nonconformance, only one-fifth or less are attributable to the workers." (Kaoru Ishikawa, The Quality Management Journal Vol. 1, 1993)

"Probabilistic inference is the classical paradigm for data analysis in science and technology. It rests on a foundation of randomness; variation in data is ascribed to a random process in which nature generates data according to a probability distribution. This leads to a codification of uncertainly by confidence intervals and hypothesis tests." (William S Cleveland, "Visualizing Data", 1993)

"Visualization is an approach to data analysis that stresses a penetrating look at the structure of data. No other approach conveys as much information. […] Conclusions spring from data when this information is combined with the prior knowledge of the subject under investigation." (William S Cleveland, "Visualizing Data", 1993)

"When the distributions of two or more groups of univariate data are skewed, it is common to have the spread increase monotonically with location. This behavior is monotone spread. Strictly speaking, monotone spread includes the case where the spread decreases monotonically with location, but such a decrease is much less common for raw data. Monotone spread, as with skewness, adds to the difficulty of data analysis. For example, it means that we cannot fit just location estimates to produce homogeneous residuals; we must fit spread estimates as well. Furthermore, the distributions cannot be compared by a number of standard methods of probabilistic inference that are based on an assumption of equal spreads; the standard t-test is one example. Fortunately, remedies for skewness can cure monotone spread as well." (William S Cleveland, "Visualizing Data", 1993)

"A careful and sophisticated analysis of the data is often quite useless if the statistician cannot communicate the essential features of the data to a client for whom statistics is an entirely foreign language." (Christopher J Wild, "Embracing the ‘Wider view’ of Statistics", The American Statistician 48, 1994)

"Science is not impressed with a conglomeration of data. It likes carefully constructed analysis of each problem." (Daniel E Koshland Jr, Science Vol. 263 (5144), [editorial] 1994)

"So we pour in data from the past to fuel the decision-making mechanisms created by our models, be they linear or nonlinear. But therein lies the logician's trap: past data from real life constitute a sequence of events rather than a set of independent observations, which is what the laws of probability demand. [...] It is in those outliers and imperfections that the wildness lurks." (Peter L Bernstein, "Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk", 1996)

"Data are generally collected as a basis for action. However, unless potential signals are separated from probable noise, the actions taken may be totally inconsistent with the data. Thus, the proper use of data requires that you have simple and effective methods of analysis which will properly separate potential signals from probable noise." (Donald J Wheeler, "Understanding Variation: The Key to Managing Chaos" 2nd Ed., 2000)

"No matter what the data, and no matter how the values are arranged and presented, you must always use some method of analysis to come up with an interpretation of the data.

While every data set contains noise, some data sets may contain signals. Therefore, before you can detect a signal within any given data set, you must first filter out the noise." (Donald J Wheeler," Understanding Variation: The Key to Managing Chaos" 2nd Ed., 2000)

"The purpose of analysis is insight. The best analysis is the simplest analysis which provides the needed insight." (Donald J Wheeler, "Understanding Variation: The Key to Managing Chaos" 2nd Ed., 2000)

"Without meaningful data there can be no meaningful analysis. The interpretation of any data set must be based upon the context of those data." (Donald J Wheeler, "Understanding Variation: The Key to Managing Chaos" 2nd Ed., 2000)

"Statistical analysis of data can only be performed within the context of selected assumptions, models, and/or prior distributions. A statistical analysis is actually the extraction of substantive information from data and assumptions. And herein lies the rub, understood well by Disraeli and others skeptical of our work: For given data, an analysis can usually be selected which will result in 'information' more favorable to the owner of the analysis then is objectively warranted." (Stephen B Vardeman & Max D Morris, "Statistics and Ethics: Some Advice for Young Statisticians", The American Statistician vol 57, 2003)

"Exploratory Data Analysis is more than just a collection of data-analysis techniques; it provides a philosophy of how to dissect a data set. It stresses the power of visualisation and aspects such as what to look for, how to look for it and how to interpret the information it contains. Most EDA techniques are graphical in nature, because the main aim of EDA is to explore data in an open-minded way. Using graphics, rather than calculations, keeps open possibilities of spotting interesting patterns or anomalies that would not be apparent with a calculation (where assumptions and decisions about the nature of the data tend to be made in advance)." (Alan Graham, "Developing Thinking in Statistics", 2006)

"It is the aim of all data analysis that a result is given in form of the best estimate of the true value. Only in simple cases is it possible to use the data value itself as result and thus as best estimate." (Manfred Drosg, "Dealing with Uncertainties: A Guide to Error Analysis", 2007)

"Put simply, statistics is a range of procedures for gathering, organizing, analyzing and presenting quantitative data. […] Essentially […], statistics is a scientific approach to analyzing numerical data in order to enable us to maximize our interpretation, understanding and use. This means that statistics helps us turn data into information; that is, data that have been interpreted, understood and are useful to the recipient. Put formally, for your project, statistics is the systematic collection and analysis of numerical data, in order to investigate or discover relationships among phenomena so as to explain, predict and control their occurrence." (Reva B Brown & Mark Saunders, "Dealing with Statistics: What You Need to Know", 2008)

"Data analysis is careful thinking about evidence." (Michael Milton, "Head First Data Analysis", 2009)

"Doing data analysis without explicitly defining your problem or goal is like heading out on a road trip without having decided on a destination." (Michael Milton, "Head First Data Analysis", 2009)

"The discrepancy between our mental models and the real world may be a major problem of our times; especially in view of the difficulty of collecting, analyzing, and making sense of the unbelievable amount of data to which we have access today." (Ugo Bardi, "The Limits to Growth Revisited", 2011)

"Data analysis is not generally thought of as being simple or easy, but it can be. The first step is to understand that the purpose of data analysis is to separate any signals that may be contained within the data from the noise in the data. Once you have filtered out the noise, anything left over will be your potential signals. The rest is just details." (Donald J Wheeler," Myths About Data Analysis", International Lean & Six Sigma Conference, 2012)

"The four questions of data analysis are the questions of description, probability, inference, and homogeneity. Any data analyst needs to know how to organize and use these four questions in order to obtain meaningful and correct results. [...] 

THE DESCRIPTION QUESTION: Given a collection of numbers, are there arithmetic values that will summarize the information contained in those numbers in some meaningful way?

THE PROBABILITY QUESTION: Given a known universe, what can we say about samples drawn from this universe? [...] 

THE INFERENCE QUESTION: Given an unknown universe, and given a sample that is known to have been drawn from that unknown universe, and given that we know everything about the sample, what can we say about the unknown universe? [...] 

THE HOMOGENEITY QUESTION: Given a collection of observations, is it reasonable to assume that they came from one universe, or do they show evidence of having come from multiple universes?" (Donald J Wheeler," Myths About Data Analysis", International Lean & Six Sigma Conference, 2012)

"Each systems archetype embodies a particular theory about dynamic behavior that can serve as a starting point for selecting and formulating raw data into a coherent set of interrelationships. Once those relationships are made explicit and precise, the 'theory' of the archetype can then further guide us in our data-gathering process to test the causal relationships through direct observation, data analysis, or group deliberation." (Daniel H Kim, "Systems Archetypes as Dynamic Theories", The Systems Thinker Vol. 24 (1), 2013)

"A complete data analysis will involve the following steps: (i) Finding a good model to fit the signal based on the data. (ii) Finding a good model to fit the noise, based on the residuals from the model. (iii) Adjusting variances, test statistics, confidence intervals, and predictions, based on the model for the noise." (DeWayne R Derryberry, "Basic data analysis for time series with R", 2014)

"The random element in most data analysis is assumed to be white noise - normal errors independent of each other. In a time series, the errors are often linked so that independence cannot be assumed (the last examples). Modeling the nature of this dependence is the key to time series." (DeWayne R Derryberry, "Basic data analysis for time series with R", 2014)

"Statistics is an integral part of the quantitative approach to knowledge. The field of statistics is concerned with the scientific study of collecting, organizing, analyzing, and drawing conclusions from data." (Kandethody M Ramachandran & Chris P Tsokos, "Mathematical Statistics with Applications in R" 2nd Ed., 2015)

"Too often there is a disconnect between the people who run a study and those who do the data analysis. This is as predictable as it is unfortunate. If data are gathered with particular hypotheses in mind, too often they (the data) are passed on to someone who is tasked with testing those hypotheses and who has only marginal knowledge of the subject matter. Graphical displays, if prepared at all, are just summaries or tests of the assumptions underlying the tests being done. Broader displays, that have the potential of showing us things that we had not expected, are either not done at all, or their message is not able to be fully appreciated by the data analyst." (Howard Wainer, Comment, Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics Vol. 20(1), 2011)

"The dialectical interplay of experiment and theory is a key driving force of modern science. Experimental data do only have meaning in the light of a particular model or at least a theoretical background. Reversely theoretical considerations may be logically consistent as well as intellectually elegant: Without experimental evidence they are a mere exercise of thought no matter how difficult they are. Data analysis is a connector between experiment and theory: Its techniques advise possibilities of model extraction as well as model testing with experimental data." (Achim Zielesny, "From Curve Fitting to Machine Learning" 2nd Ed., 2016)

"Data analysis and data mining are concerned with unsupervised pattern finding and structure determination in data sets. The data sets themselves are explicitly linked as a form of representation to an observational or otherwise empirical domain of interest. 'Structure' has long been understood as symmetry which can take many forms with respect to any transformation, including point, translational, rotational, and many others. Symmetries directly point to invariants, which pinpoint intrinsic properties of the data and of the background empirical domain of interest. As our data models change, so too do our perspectives on analysing data." (Fionn Murtagh, "Data Science Foundations: Geometry and Topology of Complex Hierarchic Systems and Big Data Analytics", 2018)

"[…] the data itself can lead to new questions too. In exploratory data analysis (EDA), for example, the data analyst discovers new questions based on the data. The process of looking at the data to address some of these questions generates incidental visualizations - odd patterns, outliers, or surprising correlations that are worth looking into further." (Danyel Fisher & Miriah Meyer, "Making Data Visual", 2018)

"Analysis is a two-step process that has an exploratory and an explanatory phase. In order to create a powerful data story, you must effectively transition from data discovery (when you’re finding insights) to data communication (when you’re explaining them to an audience). If you don’t properly traverse these two phases, you may end up with something that resembles a data story but doesn’t have the same effect. Yes, it may have numbers, charts, and annotations, but because it’s poorly formed, it won’t achieve the same results." (Brent Dykes, "Effective Data Storytelling: How to Drive Change with Data, Narrative and Visuals", 2019)

"While visuals are an essential part of data storytelling, data visualizations can serve a variety of purposes from analysis to communication to even art. Most data charts are designed to disseminate information in a visual manner. Only a subset of data compositions is focused on presenting specific insights as opposed to just general information. When most data compositions combine both visualizations and text, it can be difficult to discern whether a particular scenario falls into the realm of data storytelling or not." (Brent Dykes, "Effective Data Storytelling: How to Drive Change with Data, Narrative and Visuals", 2019)

"If the data that go into the analysis are flawed, the specific technical details of the analysis don’t matter. One can obtain stupid results from bad data without any statistical trickery. And this is often how bullshit arguments are created, deliberately or otherwise. To catch this sort of bullshit, you don’t have to unpack the black box. All you have to do is think carefully about the data that went into the black box and the results that came out. Are the data unbiased, reasonable, and relevant to the problem at hand? Do the results pass basic plausibility checks? Do they support whatever conclusions are drawn?" (Carl T Bergstrom & Jevin D West, "Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World", 2020)

"We all know that the numerical values on each side of an equation have to be the same. The key to dimensional analysis is that the units have to be the same as well. This provides a convenient way to keep careful track of units when making calculations in engineering and other quantitative disciplines, to make sure one is computing what one thinks one is computing. When an equation exists only for the sake of mathiness, dimensional analysis often makes no sense." (Carl T Bergstrom & Jevin D West, "Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World", 2020)

"Overall [...] everyone also has a need to analyze data. The ability to analyze data is vital in its understanding of product launch success. Everyone needs the ability to find trends and patterns in the data and information. Everyone has a need to ‘discover or reveal (something) through detailed examination’, as our definition says. Not everyone needs to be a data scientist, but everyone needs to drive questions and analysis. Everyone needs to dig into the information to be successful with diagnostic analytics. This is one of the biggest keys of data literacy: analyzing data." (Jordan Morrow, "Be Data Literate: The data literacy skills everyone needs to succeed", 2021)

[Murphy’s Laws of Analysis:] "(1) In any collection of data, the figures that are obviously correct contain errors. (2) It is customary for a decimal to be misplaced. (3) An error that can creep into a calculation, will. Also, it will always be in the direction that will cause the most damage to the calculation." (G C Deakly)

"We must include in any language with which we hope to describe complex data-processing situations the capability for describing data. We must also include a mechanism for determining the priorities to be applied to the data. These priorities are not fixed and are indicated in many cases by the data." (Grace Hopper) 

🔭Data Science: Data Scientists (Just the quotes)

"[...] be wary of analysts that try to quantify the unquantifiable." (Ralph Keeney & Raiffa Howard, "Decisions with Multiple Objectives: Preferences and Value Trade-offs", 1976)

"Most people like to believe something is or is not true. Great scientists tolerate ambiguity very well. They believe the theory enough to go ahead; they doubt it enough to notice the errors and faults so they can step forward and create the new replacement theory. If you believe too much you'll never notice the flaws; if you doubt too much you won't get started. It requires a lovely balance." (Richard W Hamming, "You and Your Research", 1986) 

"Many new data scientists tend to rush past it to get their data into a minimally acceptable state, only to discover that the data has major quality issues after they apply their (potentially computationally intensive) algorithm and get a nonsense answer as output. (Sandy Ryza, "Advanced Analytics with Spark: Patterns for Learning from Data at Scale", 2009)

"Data scientists combine entrepreneurship with patience, the willingness to build data products incrementally, the ability to explore, and the ability to iterate over a solution. They are inherently interdisciplinary. They can tackle all aspects of a problem, from initial data collection and data conditioning to drawing conclusions. They can think outside the box to come up with new ways to view the problem, or to work with very broadly defined problems: 'there’s a lot of data, what can you make from it?'" (Mike Loukides, "What Is Data Science?", 2011)

"As data scientists, we prefer to interact with the raw data. We know how to import it, transform it, mash it up with other data sources, and visualize it. Most of your customers can’t do that. One of the biggest challenges of developing a data product is figuring out how to give data back to the user. Giving back too much data in a way that’s overwhelming and paralyzing is 'data vomit'. It’s natural to build the product that you would want, but it’s very easy to overestimate the abilities of your users. The product you want may not be the product they want." (Dhanurjay Patil, "Data Jujitsu: The Art of Turning Data into Product", 2012)

"In an emergency, a data product that just produces more data is of little use. Data scientists now have the predictive tools to build products that increase the common good, but they need to be aware that building the models is not enough if they do not also produce optimized, implementable outcomes." (Jeremy Howard et al, "Designing Great Data Products", 2012)

"Smart data scientists don’t just solve big, hard problems; they also have an instinct for making big problems small." (Dhanurjay Patil, "Data Jujitsu: The Art of Turning Data into Product", 2012)

"More generally, a data scientist is someone who knows how to extract meaning from and interpret data, which requires both tools and methods from statistics and machine learning, as well as being human. She spends a lot of time in the process of collecting, cleaning, and munging data, because data is never clean. This process requires persistence, statistics, and software engineering skills - skills that are also necessary for understanding biases in the data, and for debugging logging output from code. Once she gets the data into shape, a crucial part is exploratory data analysis, which combines visualization and data sense. She’ll find patterns, build models, and algorithms - some with the intention of understanding product usage and the overall health of the product, and others to serve as prototypes that ultimately get baked back into the product. She may design experiments, and she is a critical part of data-driven decision making. She’ll communicate with team members, engineers, and leadership in clear language and with data visualizations so that even if her colleagues are not immersed in the data themselves, they will understand the implications." (Rachel Schutt, "Doing Data Science: Straight Talk from the Frontline", 2013)

"Unfortunately, creating an objective function that matches the true goal of the data mining is usually impossible, so data scientists often choose based on faith and experience." (Foster Provost, "Data Science for Business", 2013)

"[...] a data scientist role goes beyond the collection and reporting on data; it must involve looking at a business The role of a data scientist goes beyond the collection and reporting on data. application or process from multiple vantage points and determining what the main questions and follow-ups are, as well as recommending the most appropriate ways to employ the data at hand." (Jesús Rogel-Salazar, "Data Science and Analytics with Python", 2017)

"In terms of characteristics, a data scientist has an inquisitive mind and is prepared to explore and ask questions, examine assumptions and analyse processes, test hypotheses and try out solutions and, based on evidence, communicate informed conclusions, recommendations and caveats to stakeholders and decision makers." (Jesús Rogel-Salazar, "Data Science and Analytics with Python", 2017)

"Repeated observations of the same phenomenon do not always produce the same results, due to random noise or error. Sampling errors result when our observations capture unrepresentative circumstances, like measuring rush hour traffic on weekends as well as during the work week. Measurement errors reflect the limits of precision inherent in any sensing device. The notion of signal to noise ratio captures the degree to which a series of observations reflects a quantity of interest as opposed to data variance. As data scientists, we care about changes in the signal instead of the noise, and such variance often makes this problem surprisingly difficult." (Steven S Skiena, "The Data Science Design Manual", 2017)

"Data scientists should have some domain expertise. Most data science projects begin with a real-world, domain-specific problem and the need to design a data-driven solution to this problem. As a result, it is important for a data scientist to have enough domain expertise that they understand the problem, why it is important, an dhow a data science solution to the problem might fit into an organization’s processes. This domain expertise guides the data scientist as she works toward identifying an optimized solution." (John D Kelleher & Brendan Tierney, "Data Science", 2018)

"A data scientist should be able to wrangle, mung, manipulate, and consolidate datasets before performing calculations on that data that help us to understand it. Analysis is a broad term, but it's clear that the end result is knowledge of your dataset that you didn't have before you started, no matter how basic or complex. [...] A data scientist usually has to be able to apply statistical, mathematical, and machine learning models to data in order to explain it or perform some sort of prediction." (Andrew P McMahon, "Machine Learning Engineering with Python", 2021)

"Data scientists are advanced in their technical skills. They like to do coding, statistics, and so forth. In its purest form, data science is where an individual uses the scientific method on data." (Jordan Morrow, "Be Data Literate: The data literacy skills everyone needs to succeed", 2021)

"The ideal data scientist is a multi-disciplinary person, persistent in pursuing the solution." (Anil Maheshwari, "Data Analytics Made Accessible", 2021)

"Overall [...] everyone also has a need to analyze data. The ability to analyze data is vital in its understanding of product launch success. Everyone needs the ability to find trends and patterns in the data and information. Everyone has a need to ‘discover or reveal (something) through detailed examination’, as our definition says. Not everyone needs to be a data scientist, but everyone needs to drive questions and analysis. Everyone needs to dig into the information to be successful with diagnostic analytics. This is one of the biggest keys of data literacy: analyzing data." (Jordan Morrow, "Be Data Literate: The data literacy skills everyone needs to succeed", 2021)

"A data scientist is someone who can obtain, scrub, explore, model and interpret data, blending hacking, statistics and machine learning. Data scientists not only are adept at working with data, but appreciate data itself as a first-class product." (Hillary Mason)

"A data scientist is someone who knows more statistics than a computer scientist and more computer science than a statistician." (Josh Blumenstock) [attributed]

"All businesses could use a garden where Data Scientists plant seeds of possibility and water them with collaboration." (Damian Mingle)

"Data scientist (noun): Person who is better at statistics than any software engineer and better at software engineering than any statistician." (Josh Wills)

"Data Scientists should recall innovation often times is not providing fancy algorithms, but rather value to the customer." (Damian Mingle)

"Data Scientists should refuse to be defined by someone else's vision of what's possible." (Damian Mingle)

🔭Data Science: Statistics (Just the Quotes)

"There are two aspects of statistics that are continually mixed, the method and the science. Statistics are used as a method, whenever we measure something, for example, the size of a district, the number of inhabitants of a country, the quantity or price of certain commodities, etc. […] There is, moreover, a science of statistics. It consists of knowing how to gather numbers, combine them and calculate them, in the best way to lead to certain results. But this is, strictly speaking, a branch of mathematics." (Alphonse P de Candolle, "Considerations on Crime Statistics", 1833)

"A judicious man looks at Statistics, not to get knowledge, but to save himself from having ignorance foisted on him." (Thomas Carlyle, "Chartism", 1840)

"Statistics has then for its object that of presenting a faithful representation of a state at a determined epoch." (Adolphe Quetelet, 1849)

"Most statistical arguments depend upon a few figures picked out at random." (William S Jevons, [letter to Richard Hutton] 1863)

"[Statistics] are the only tools by which an opening can be cut through the formidable thicket of difficulties that bars the path of those who pursue the Science of man." (Sir Francis Galton, "Natural Inheritance", 1889)

"[…] statistics is the science of the measurement of the social organism, regarded as a whole, in all its manifestations." (Sir Arthur L Bowley, "Elements of Statistics", 1901)

"Statistics may rightly be called the science of averages. […] Great numbers and the averages resulting from them, such as we always obtain in measuring social phenomena, have great inertia. […] It is this constancy of great numbers that makes statistical measurement possible. It is to great numbers that statistical measurement chiefly applies." (Sir Arthur L Bowley, "Elements of Statistics", 1901)

"Statistics may, for instance, be called the science of counting. Counting appears at first sight to be a very simple operation, which any one can perform or which can be done automatically; but, as a matter of fact, when we come to large numbers, e.g., the population of the United Kingdom, counting is by no means easy, or within the power of an individual; limits of time and place alone prevent it being so carried out, and in no way can absolute accuracy be obtained when the numbers surpass certain limits." (Sir Arthur L Bowley, "Elements of Statistics", 1901)

"Statistics may be defined as numerical statements of facts by means of which large aggregates are analyzed, the relations of individual units to their groups are ascertained, comparisons are made between groups, and continuous records are maintained for comparative purposes." (Melvin T Copeland. "Statistical Methods" [in: Harvard Business Studies, Vol. III, Ed. by Melvin T Copeland, 1917])

"Statistics may be regarded as (i) the study of populations, (ii) as the study of variation, and (iii) as the study of methods of the reduction of data." (Sir Ronald A Fisher, "Statistical Methods for Research Worker", 1925)

"The conception of statistics as the study of variation is the natural outcome of viewing the subject as the study of populations; for a population of individuals in all respects identical is completely described by a description of anyone individual, together with the number in the group. The populations which are the object of statistical study always display variations in one or more respects. To speak of statistics as the study of variation also serves to emphasise the contrast between the aims of modern statisticians and those of their predecessors." (Sir Ronald A Fisher, "Statistical Methods for Research Workers", 1925)

"The statistical examination of a body of data is thus logically similar to the general alternation of inductive and deductive methods throughout the sciences. A hypothesis is conceived and defined with all necessary exactitude; its logical consequences are ascertained by a deductive argument; these consequences are compared with the available observations; if these are completely in, accord with the deductions, the hypothesis is justified at least until fresh and more stringent observations are available." (Sir Ronald A Fisher, "Statistical Methods for Research Workers", 1925)

"Statistics is a scientific discipline concerned with collection, analysis, and interpretation of data obtained from observation or experiment. The subject has a coherent structure based on the theory of Probability and includes many different procedures which contribute to research and development throughout the whole of Science and Technology." (Egon Pearson, 1936)

"All statistical analysis in business must aim at the control of action. The possible conclusions are: 1. Certain action must be taken. 2. No action is required. 3. Certain tendencies must be watched. 4. The analysis is not significant and either (a) certain further facts are required, or (b) there are no indications that further facts should be obtained." (John R Riggleman & Ira N Frisbee, "Business Statistics", 1938)

"[Statistics] is both a science and an art. It is a science in that its methods are basically systematic and have general application; and an art in that their successful application depends to a considerable degree on the skill and special experience of the statistician, and on his knowledge of the field of application, e.g. economics." (Leonard H C Tippett, "Statistics", 1943)

"Statistics is the branch of scientific method which deals with the data obtained by counting or measuring the properties of populations of natural phenomena. In this definition 'natural phenomena' includes all the happenings of the external world, whether human or not " (Sir Maurice G Kendall, "Advanced Theory of Statistics", Vol. 1, 1943)

"To some people, statistics is ‘quartered pies, cute little battleships and tapering rows of sturdy soldiers in diversified uniforms’. To others, it is columns and columns of numerical facts. Many regard it as a branch of economics. The beginning student of the subject considers it to be largely mathematics." (The Editors, "Statistics, The Physical Sciences and Engineering", The American Statistician, Vol. 2, No. 4, 1948)

"For the most part, Statistics is a method of investigation that is used when other methods are of no avail; it is often a last resort and a forlorn hope. A statistical analysis, properly conducted, is a delicate dissection of uncertainties, a surgery of suppositions. The surgeon must guard carefully against false incisions with his scalpel. Very often he has to sew up the patient as inoperable. The public knows too little about the statistician as a conscientious and skilled servant of true science." (Michael J Moroney, "Facts from Figures", 1951)

"Statistics is the name for that science and art which deals with uncertain inferences - which uses numbers to find out something about nature and experience." (Warren Weaver, 1952)

"Statistics is the fundamental and most important part of inductive logic. It is both an art and a science, and it deals with the collection, the tabulation, the analysis and interpretation of quantitative and qualitative measurements. It is concerned with the classifying and determining of actual attributes as well as the making of estimates and the testing of various hypotheses by which probable, or expected, values are obtained. It is one of the means of carrying on scientific research in order to ascertain the laws of behavior of things - be they animate or inanimate. Statistics is the technique of the Scientific Method." (Bruce D Greenschields & Frank M Weida, "Statistics with Applications to Highway Traffic Analyses", 1952)

"In brief, the greatest care must be exercised in using any statistical data, especially when it has been collected by another agency. At all times, the statistician who uses published data must ask himself, by whom were the data collected, how and for what purpose?" (Alfred R Ilersic, "Statistics", 1959)

"Poor statistics may be attributed to a number of causes. There are the mistakes which arise in the course of collecting the data, and there are those which occur when those data are being converted into manageable form for publication. Still later, mistakes arise because the conclusions drawn from the published data are wrong. The real trouble with errors which arise during the course of collecting the data is that they are the hardest to detect." (Alfred R Ilersic, "Statistics", 1959)

"The statistics themselves prove nothing; nor are they at any time a substitute for logical thinking. There are […] many simple but not always obvious snags in the data to contend with. Variations in even the simplest of figures may conceal a compound of influences which have to be taken into account before any conclusions are drawn from the data." (Alfred R Ilersic, "Statistics", 1959)

"Many people use statistics as a drunkard uses a street lamp - for support rather than illumination. It is not enough to avoid outright falsehood; one must be on the alert to detect possible distortion of truth. One can hardly pick up a newspaper without seeing some sensational headline based on scanty or doubtful data." (Anna C Rogers, "Graphic Charts Handbook", 1961)

[Statistics] is concerned with things we can count. In so far as things, persons, are unique or ill-defi ned, statistics are meaningless and statisticians silenced; in so far as things are similar and definite - so many workers over 25, so many nuts and bolts made during December - they can be counted and new statistical facts are born." (Maurice S Bartlett, "Essays on Probability and Statistics", 1962)

"Statistics is the branch of scientific method which deals with the data obtained by counting or measuring the properties of populations of natural phenomena." (Sir Maurice G Kendall & Alan Stuart, "The Advanced Theory of Statistics", 1963)

"Statistics may be defined as the discipline concerned with the treatment of numerical data derived from groups of individuals." (Peter Armitage, "Statistical Methods in Medical Research", 1971)

"We provisionally define statistics as the study of how information should be employed to reflect on, and give guidance for action in, a practical situation involving uncertainty." (Vic Barnett, "Comparative Statistical Inference" 2nd Ed., 1982)

"Statistics is a tool. In experimental science you plan and carry out experiments, and then analyse and interpret the results. To do this you use statistical arguments and calculations. Like any other tool - an oscilloscope, for example, or a spectrometer, or even a humble spanner - you can use it delicately or clumsily, skillfully or ineptly. The more you know about it and understand how it works, the better you will be able to use it and the more useful it will be." (Roger Barlow, "Statistics: A Guide to the Use of Statistical Methods in the Physical Sciences", 1989)

"The science of statistics may be described as exploring, analyzing and summarizing data; designing or choosing appropriate ways of collecting data and extracting information from them; and communicating that information. Statistics also involves constructing and testing models for describing chance phenomena. These models can be used as a basis for making inferences and drawing conclusions and, finally, perhaps for making decisions." (Fergus Daly et al, "Elements of Statistics", 1995)

"Statistics is a general intellectual method that applies wherever data, variation, and chance appear. It is a fundamental method because data, variation and chance are omnipresent in modern life. It is an independent discipline with its own core ideas rather than, for example, a branch of mathematics. […] Statistics offers general, fundamental, and independent ways of thinking." (David S Moore, "Statistics among the Liberal Arts", Journal of the American Statistical Association, 1998)

"Statistics is the branch of mathematics that uses observations and measurements called data to analyze, summarize, make inferences, and draw conclusions based on the data gathered." (Allan G Bluman, "Probability Demystified", 2005)

"Sometimes the most important fit statistic you can get is ‘convergence not met’ - it can tell you something is wrong with your model." (Oliver Schabenberger, "Applied Statistics in Agriculture Conference", 2006)

"Put simply, statistics is a range of procedures for gathering, organizing, analyzing and presenting quantitative data. […] Essentially […], statistics is a scientific approach to analyzing numerical data in order to enable us to maximize our interpretation, understanding and use. This means that statistics helps us turn data into information; that is, data that have been interpreted, understood and are useful to the recipient. Put formally, for your project, statistics is the systematic collection and analysis of numerical data, in order to investigate or discover relationships among phenomena so as to explain, predict and control their occurrence." (Reva B Brown & Mark Saunders, "Dealing with Statistics: What You Need to Know", 2008)

"Statistics is the art of learning from data. It is concerned with the collection of data, their subsequent description, and their analysis, which often leads to the drawing of conclusions." (Sheldon M Ross, "Introductory Statistics" 3rd Ed., 2009)

"What is so unconventional about the statistical way of thinking? First, statisticians do not care much for the popular concept of the statistical average; instead, they fixate on any deviation from the average. They worry about how large these variations are, how frequently they occur, and why they exist. [...] Second, variability does not need to be explained by reasonable causes, despite our natural desire for a rational explanation of everything; statisticians are frequently just as happy to pore over patterns of correlation. [...] Third, statisticians are constantly looking out for missed nuances: a statistical average for all groups may well hide vital differences that exist between these groups. Ignoring group differences when they are present frequently portends inequitable treatment. [...] Fourth, decisions based on statistics can be calibrated to strike a balance between two types of errors. Predictably, decision makers have an incentive to focus exclusively on minimizing any mistake that could bring about public humiliation, but statisticians point out that because of this bias, their decisions will aggravate other errors, which are unnoticed but serious. [...] Finally, statisticians follow a specific protocol known as statistical testing when deciding whether the evidence fits the crime, so to speak. Unlike some of us, they don’t believe in miracles. In other words, if the most unusual coincidence must be contrived to explain the inexplicable, they prefer leaving the crime unsolved." (Kaiser Fung, "Numbers Rule the World", 2010) 

"Statistics is the science of collecting, organizing, analyzing, and interpreting data in order to make decisions." (Ron Larson & Betsy Farber, "Elementary Statistics: Picturing the World" 5th Ed., 2011)

"Statistics is the discipline of using data samples to support claims about populations." (Allen B Downey, "Think Stats: Probability and Statistics for Programmers", 2011)

"[… ] statistics is about understanding the role that variability plays in drawing conclusions based on data. […] Statistics is not about numbers; it is about data - numbers in context. It is the context that makes a problem meaningful and something worth considering." (Roxy Peck et al, "Introduction to Statistics and Data Analysis" 4th Ed., 2012)

"Statistics is the scientific discipline that provides methods to help us make sense of data. […] The field of statistics teaches us how to make intelligent judgments and informed decisions in the presence of uncertainty and variation." (Roxy Peck & Jay L Devore, "Statistics: The Exploration and Analysis of Data" 7th Ed, 2012)

"[…] statistics is a method of pursuing truth. At a minimum, statistics can tell you the likelihood that your hunch is true in this time and place and with these sorts of people. This type of pursuit of truth, especially in the form of an event’s future likelihood, is the essence of psychology, of science, and of human evolution." (Arthhur Aron et al, "Statistics for Phsychology" 6th Ed., 2012)

"Statistics is the scientific discipline that provides methods to help us make sense of data. Statistical methods, used intelligently, offer a set of powerful tools for gaining insight into the world around us." (Roxy Peck et al, "Introduction to Statistics and Data Analysis" 4th Ed., 2012)

"The four questions of data analysis are the questions of description, probability, inference, and homogeneity. [...] Descriptive statistics are built on the assumption that we can use a single value to characterize a single property for a single universe. […] Probability theory is focused on what happens to samples drawn from a known universe. If the data happen to come from different sources, then there are multiple universes with different probability models.  [...] Statistical inference assumes that you have a sample that is known to have come from one universe." (Donald J Wheeler," Myths About Data Analysis", International Lean & Six Sigma Conference, 2012)

"Statistics is the art and science of designing studies and analyzing the data that those studies produce. Its ultimate goal is translating data into knowledge and understanding of the world around us. In short, statistics is the art and science of learning from data." (Alan Agresti & Christine Franklin, "Statistics: The Art and Science of Learning from Data" 3rd Ed., 2013)

"Statistics is a science that helps us make decisions and draw conclusions in the presence of variability." (Douglas C Montgomery & George C Runger, "Applied Statistics and Probability for Engineers" 6th Ed., 2014)

"Statistics is an integral part of the quantitative approach to knowledge. The field of statistics is concerned with the scientific study of collecting, organizing, analyzing, and drawing conclusions from data." (Kandethody M Ramachandran & Chris P Tsokos, "Mathematical Statistics with Applications in R" 2nd Ed., 2015)

"Statistics can be defined as a collection of techniques used when planning a data collection, and when subsequently analyzing and presenting data." (Birger S Madsen, "Statistics for Non-Statisticians", 2016)

"Statistics is the science of collecting, organizing, and interpreting numerical facts, which we call data. […] Statistics is the science of learning from data." (Moore McCabe & Alwan Craig, "The Practice of Statistics for Business and Economics" 4th Ed., 2016)

"Statistics is the science of collecting, organizing, summarizing, and analyzing information to draw conclusions or answer questions. In addition, statistics is about providing a measure of confidence in any conclusions." (Michael Sullivan, "Statistics: Informed Decisions Using Data", 5th Ed., 2017)

"Estimates based on data are often uncertain. If the data were intended to tell us something about a wider population (like a poll of voting intentions before an election), or about the future, then we need to acknowledge that uncertainty. This is a double challenge for data visualization: it has to be calculated in some meaningful way and then shown on top of the data or statistics without making it all too cluttered." (Robert Grant, "Data Visualization: Charts, Maps and Interactive Graphics", 2019)

"I believe that the backlash against statistics is due to four primary reasons. The first, and easiest for most people to relate to, is that even the most basic concepts of descriptive and inferential statistics can be difficult to grasp and even harder to explain. […] The second cause for vitriol is that even well-intentioned experts misapply the tools and techniques of statistics far too often, myself included. Statistical pitfalls are numerous and tough to avoid. When we can't trust the experts to get it right, there's a temptation to throw the baby out with the bathwater. The third reason behind all the hate is that those with an agenda can easily craft statistics to lie when they communicate with us  […] And finally, the fourth cause is that often statistics can be perceived as cold and detached, and they can fail to communicate the human element of an issue." (Ben Jones, "Avoiding Data Pitfalls: How to Steer Clear of Common Blunders When Working with Data and Presenting Analysis and Visualizations", 2020)

"Ideally, a decision maker or a forecaster will combine the outside view and the inside view - or, similarly, statistics plus personal experience. But it’s much better to start with the statistical view, the outside view, and then modify it in the light of personal experience than it is to go the other way around. If you start with the inside view you have no real frame of reference, no sense of scale - and can easily come up with a probability that is ten times too large, or ten times too small." (Tim Harford, "The Data Detective: Ten easy rules to make sense of statistics", 2020)

"If we don’t understand the statistics, we’re likely to be badly mistaken about the way the world is. It is all too easy to convince ourselves that whatever we’ve seen with our own eyes is the whole truth; it isn’t. Understanding causation is tough even with good statistics, but hopeless without them. [...] And yet, if we understand only the statistics, we understand little. We need to be curious about the world that we see, hear, touch, and smell, as well as the world we can examine through a spreadsheet." (Tim Harford, "The Data Detective: Ten easy rules to make sense of statistics", 2020)

"The contradiction between what we see with our own eyes and what the statistics claim can be very real. […] The truth is more complicated. Our personal experiences should not be dismissed along with our feelings, at least not without further thought. Sometimes the statistics give us a vastly better way to understand the world; sometimes they mislead us. We need to be wise enough to figure out when the statistics are in conflict with everyday experience - and in those cases, which to believe." (Tim Harford, "The Data Detective: Ten easy rules to make sense of statistics", 2020)

"The whole discipline of statistics is built on measuring or counting things. […] it is important to understand what is being measured or counted, and how. It is surprising how rarely we do this. Over the years, as I found myself trying to lead people out of statistical mazes week after week, I came to realize that many of the problems I encountered were because people had taken a wrong turn right at the start. They had dived into the mathematics of a statistical claim - asking about sampling errors and margins of error, debating if the number is rising or falling, believing, doubting, analyzing, dissecting - without taking the ti- me to understand the first and most obvious fact: What is being measured, or counted? What definition is being used?" (Tim Harford, "The Data Detective: Ten easy rules to make sense of statistics", 2020)

More quotes on "Statistics" at the-web-of-knowledge.blogspot.com.