What does descriptive analytics focus on?

What does descriptive analytics focus on?

• A. The future.
• B. It identifies root causes.
• C. It focuses on the past and answers 'what happened'.
• D. It predicts what will happen.

Answer: (C)

Descriptive analytics is about summarizing historical data to understand what has happened. It answers the question “what happened?” by turning raw numbers into clear metrics, reports, or dashboards that describe past performance. For example, looking at last quarter’s sales totals, headcount by department, or average churn gives a descriptive view of what occurred. Because its focus is on describing the past, it doesn’t try to forecast future outcomes (that’s predictive analytics) and it doesn’t specifically diagnose why things happened (that falls under diagnostic analyses).

Descriptive analytics is about summarizing historical data to understand what has happened. It answers the question “what happened?” by turning raw numbers into clear metrics, reports, or dashboards that describe past performance. For example, looking at last quarter’s sales totals, headcount by department, or average churn gives a descriptive view of what occurred. Because its focus is on describing the past, it doesn’t try to forecast future outcomes (that’s predictive analytics) and it doesn’t specifically diagnose why things happened (that falls under diagnostic analyses).