Helpful tips about making reports using contradicting data

Fitness trackers are an amazing invention as far as I'm concerned. They allow analysts to adjust their fitness approach with added intelligence. My fitness data has allowed me to track progress timeously. Areas of improvement are also highlighted by the fitness app. The first app was wonderful until I was requested to install another app. The new app was required to submit virtual runs for half a marathon competition. Both trackers on these apps were used simultaneously. It was so as not to disturb good analytics on my older app.

To my surprise, the two apps tracked my activity differently. The analytics were also different on the apps. I was unaware of this when I was using only one app. These two apps made me anxious. I was unsure how I was doing activity-wise. I was missing a few kilometers as a variance between the two apps per week. The gap was bigger each month and impactful after a year. The variance reminded me of a work assignment where I was tasked to analyze “walk-aways”

I have often only discovered during a presentation that other analysts were asked to do the same work. The only difference was that our underlying data was different. We were asked, as analysts, to report on what was unique in definition in each department. The company’s interest in say walk-aways was in understanding business lost when a potential client does business with the competition. What seemed to had been a simple concern resulted in each department procuring software applications tailored for them. We had to meet for a solution as analysts from each department.

My reporting has improved after following guidelines to help with contradicting definitions. I would recommend creating manual adjustment when necessary, keeping separate reports for each application, a declaration data source to the audience before meetings, and data recovery planning using other application.

Contradicting data could diminish the intended impact of a report. Attendees in a meeting might debate about data source and miss findings on the report completely. The role of an analyst is not to dictate software application to be used. But could recommend an ideal system based on objectives and not convenience for reporting. The trick is to be relatable and establish to have a causal or logical connection to something.

Additional Resources on running reports using contradicting data

Article 06 - Helpful Tips to Run Reports.

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