Heuristics in Analytics / SAS Institute Inc (PDF)

Employ heuristic adjustments for truly accurate analysis

Heuristics in Analytics presents an approach to analysis
that accounts for the randomness of business and the competitive
marketplace, creating a model that more accurately reflects the
scenario at hand. With an emphasis on the importance of proper
analytical tools, the book describes the analytical process from
exploratory analysis through model developments, to deployments and
possible outcomes. Beginning with an introduction to heuristic
concepts, readers will find heuristics applied to statistics and
probability, mathematics, stochastic, and artificial intelligence
models, ending with the knowledge applications that solve business
problems. Case studies illustrate the everyday application and
implication of the techniques presented, while the heuristic
approach is integrated into analytical modeling, graph analysis,
text analytics, and more.

Robust analytics has become crucial in the corporate
environment, and randomness plays an enormous role in business and
the competitive marketplace. Failing to account for randomness can
steer a model in an entirely wrong direction, negatively affecting
the final outcome and potentially devastating the bottom line.
Heuristics in Analytics describes how the heuristic
characteristics of analysis can be overcome with problem design,
math and statistics, helping readers to:

* Realize just how random the world is, and how unplanned events
can affect analysis

* Integrate heuristic and analytical approaches to modeling and
problem solving

* Discover how graph analysis is applied in real-world scenarios
around the globe

* Apply analytical knowledge to customer behavior, insolvency
prevention, fraud detection, and more

* Understand how text analytics can be applied to increase the
business knowledge

Every single factor, no matter how large or how small, must be
taken into account when modeling a scenario or event--even the
unknowns. The presence or absence of even a single detail can
dramatically alter eventual outcomes. From raw data to final
report, Heuristics in Analytics contains the information
analysts need to improve accuracy, and ultimately, predictive, and
descriptive power.