Interactive lecture demonstration — Philippine sari-sari store
Descriptive → Diagnostic → Predictive → Prescriptive
Tindahan ni Ana operates fictional small retail outlets in Cagayan de Oro, Iligan, and Malaybalay.
Management wants to understand sales, explain differences, anticipate future sales, and decide what actions to take.
Descriptive analytics summarizes historical data. It answers questions such as “What happened?” using totals, averages, counts, rankings, tables, and charts.
Lecture question: How much did the stores sell, and which products generated the most sales?
Diagnostic analytics examines differences and patterns in historical data to investigate possible reasons for an observed result.
Lecture question: Why are sales different across branches and product categories?
Predictive analytics uses historical patterns and analytical models to estimate likely future outcomes.
This demonstration uses a simple 14-day moving-average baseline. It is intentionally simple for first-year students.
Forecast idea: Use recent daily sales to estimate a likely daily sales level for the next period.
Prescriptive analytics uses data, predictions, business rules, or optimization to recommend actions.
Lecture question: Given what we know about sales, what action should management consider?
This classroom demonstration uses a simple rule: prioritize products with the highest observed sales.
| Type | Main Question | Typical Output | Philippine Retail Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Descriptive | What happened? | Summary, KPI, chart | Total sales last month |
| Diagnostic | Why did it happen? | Comparison, drill-down, pattern | Why one branch sold less |
| Predictive | What might happen? | Forecast or probability | Expected sales next week |
| Prescriptive | What should we do? | Recommendation/action | Which products to prioritize for restocking |
What happened? → Why? → What might happen? → What should we do?
This sequence is a useful introductory way to distinguish the four types. In real projects, organizations may move back and forth among these forms of analysis.