MIS770A – Foundation Skills in Data Analysis

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Foundation Skills in Data Analysis
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Introduction
One of the leading financial institutions in Australia is the Commonwealth Bank. This
institution was founded under the Commonwealth Bank Act in 1911 and begun its operations
officially in 1912. The bank’s mandate is to conduct general banking business and savings.
Currently, the bank has over 800,000 shareholders and has employed 52,000 people. In this
report, I will focus on developing a set of criteria in coming up with data representation
techniques. I will also show how the criteria developed has been applied in Commonwealth Bank
of Australia. I will achieve this by comparing the data presentation techniques with those of the
Commonwealth Bank.
Part A: developing evaluation criteria
My evaluation criteria will cover bar graphs, pie charts, and tables. The following are the
criteria for each.
Bar graphs
1. Bar graphs are used for displaying categorical and qualitative data (Katal,
Wazid, and Goudar, 2013, pp.406). They can also be used to display quantitative data in
situations whereby the data set is small.
2. Bar graphs can be presented both vertically and horizontally. There should
be a gap between the bars.
3. The graph should have two axes (Grimmer and Stewart, 2013, pp.272).
The horizontal line is the x-axis and the vertical line is the y-axis.

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4. The values of the y-axis more often than not begin with 0 at the bottom on
the left side of the graph, moving upwards (Wang, et al., 2013, pp.300). The axis is
labeled with the data they represent.
5. The data in the bar graphs should be arranged in a meaningful way, from
greatest to the least value. The data placed should only be that which can be compared.
6. The graph should have a rich data comparison. The difference between the
variables should be well outlined.
7. The x-axis and the y-axis should each be labeled with the data they
represent.
Pie charts
8. A pie chart is a circle which is divided into slices. Each slice should
represent part of the whole circle.
9. The slices in the pie chart should be sorted from the largest to the least
(Lewis, 2015, pp.480). The left side of the largest slice should begin at the top, at 0
degrees.
10. The area of each slice should represent relative size (Lazer, et al., 2014,
pp.1204). It is better to display the values in terms of percentage in relation to the whole
degree of the circle which is 360 degrees
11. The properties of the data should be first considered when using the pie
chart (Yang, Wang, and Sun, 2015, pp.25). Pie charts are excellent at comparing
categories in the pie slices especially when the categories are near 25 or 50 percent.
12. For visual appearance, each slice in a pie chart may be colored differently
and a key developed to explain the colors in terms of the values.

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13. Pie charts should be used for a few variables (Shuman, et al., 2013,
pp.95). If the slices are more than seven, it becomes difficult to read and interpret.
14. . Pie charts only represent data with positive values (Kuang, et al., 2014,
pp.287). Negative values cannot be captured in the slices.
15. Labeling of the smaller slices should be done outside of the whole circle,
especially if the labels are long.
Tables
16. Tables should be organized in rows and columns (Sandryhaila and
Moura, 2014, pp.88). They can also accompany other data representation techniques, for
example, the graph.
17. A good table should display data in a way that is easy to look things up. It
should capture all aspects of the values.
18. In a table, units should be included in the labels when dealing with
numerical data.
19. The data in a table should be formatted consistently to compliment with
the units.
20. In grouping data in classes, the range must be well defined (Engström, et
al., 2013, pp.1185). The classes should be at least 5 and not more than 15.