OCTom (7/24/2014)
Steve,Does this really apply to data professionals? I have been a programmer and data provider since 1982 and I have never been asked to interpret the data. It was always someone else's job to do that. I provide the data, the reports, and the Excel spreadsheets. I think that it is dangerous for the same person who is providing the data to be making decisions based on it. I just have to make certain that the data is correct and has not been corrupted, and, that it is reported correctly.
Maybe some, maybe not others. I've often worked with business people to identify patterns and understand data. Sometimes it's a back and forth as I find business people I've worked with often haven't understood how to interpret large sets of data, or how averages, counts, distribution, and other statistical measures impact things. On the other hand, I don't always understand the importance or impact of a particular piece of data, and I can work with them to better understand how to structure things.
As an example, years ago (far too many, like 18), we were trying to determine how to plan for inventory of a few products. Demand can vary, but the salesman suspected some broad patterns. However it wasn't quite apparent from the data. I would look at patterns, go talk with them, get feedback on what they saw based on my patterns, and eventually we could make a decision on how to predict a portion of our demand (70% or so). Then the ordering people would need to apply their knowledge for the rest.