The Final Deliverable最终交付成果

The ultimate purpose of analytics is to communicate findings to the concerned who might use these insights to formulate policy or strategy. Analytics summarize findings in tables and plots. The data scientist should then use the insights to build the narrative to communicate the findings. In academia, the final deliverable is in the form of essays and reports. Such deliverables are usually 1,000 to 7,000 words in length.
分析的最终目的是向相关方传达发现，这些发现可能被用于制定政策或策略。分析将发现总结在表格和图表中。数据科学家应利用这些见解构建叙述，以传达分析结果。在学术界，最终交付成果以论文和报告的形式呈现。此类交付成果通常为 1,000 至 7,000 字。

In consulting and business, the final deliverable takes on several forms. It can be a small document of fewer than 1,500 words illustrated with tables and plots, or it could be a comprehensive document comprising several hundred pages. Large consulting firms, such as McKinsey and Deloitte, routinely generate analytics-driven reports to communicate their findings and, in the process, establish their expertise in specific knowledge domains.
在咨询和商业领域，最终交付成果呈现多种形式。它可以是少于 1,500 字、配有表格和图表的小型文档，也可以是包含数百页的综合文档。大型咨询公司，如麦肯锡和德勤，通常会生成以分析驱动的报告来传达其发现，并在这一过程中确立其在特定知识领域的专业能力。

Let's review the "United States Economic Forecast", a publication by the Deloitte University Press. This document serves as a good example for a deliverable that builds narrative from data and analytics. The 24-page report focuses on the state of the U.S. economy as observed in December 2014. The report opens with a grabber highlighting the fact that contrary to popular perception, the economic and job growth has been quite robust in the United States. The report is not merely a statement of facts.
让我们回顾由德勤大学出版社出版的《美国经济预测》这份出版物。该文档是构建数据和分析叙事的良好交付成果示例。这份 24 页的报告聚焦于 2014 年 12 月观察到的美国经济状况。报告以一个引人注目的开篇强调了一个事实：与普遍认知相反，美国的经济和就业增长相当强劲。该报告不仅仅是事实陈述。

In fact, it is a carefully crafted report that cites Voltaire and follows a distinct theme. The report focuses on the good news about the U.S. economy. These include the increased investment in manufacturing equipment in the U.S. and the likelihood of higher consumer consumption resulting from lower oil prices.
事实上，这是一份精心制作的报告，引用了伏尔泰并遵循了独特的主题。该报告聚焦于美国经济的利好消息。这包括美国在制造设备方面的投资增加，以及由于油价降低而可能导致的消费者消费增长。

The Deloitte report uses time series plots to illustrate trends in markets. The GDP growth chart shows how the economy contracted during the Great Recession and has rebounded since then. The graphic presents four likely scenarios for the future. Another plot shows the changes in consumer spending. The accompanying narrative focuses on income inequality in the U.S. and refers to Thomas Pikkety's book on the same. The Deloitte report mentions many consumers did not experience an increase in their real incomes over the years, while they still maintained their level of spending. Other graphics focused on housing, business, and government sectors, international trade, labor, and financial markets, and prices. The appendix carries four tables documenting data for the four scenarios discussed in the report.
德勤报告使用时间序列图来展示市场趋势。GDP 增长图表显示了经济在大衰退期间如何收缩，以及自那以后如何反弹。该图表展示了未来四种可能的情景。另一个图表显示了消费者支出的变化。随附的文本重点讨论了美国的收入不平等问题，并引用了托马斯·皮凯蒂的同名著作。德勤报告提到许多消费者多年来没有经历过实际收入的增长，但仍然维持了他们的消费水平。其他图表关注住房、商业和政府部门，国际贸易、劳动力市场和价格。附录包含四张表格，记录了报告中讨论的四种情景的数据。

Deloitte's "United States Economic Forecast" serves the very purpose that its authors intended. The report uses data and analytics to generate the likely economic scenarios. It builds a powerful narrative in support of the thesis statement that the U.S. economy is doing much better than most would like to believe. At the same time, the report shows Deloitte to be a competent firm capable of analyzing economic data and prescribing strategies to cope with the economic challenges.
德勤的《美国经济展望》完全符合其作者的原意。该报告运用数据和 analytics 生成可能的经济情景。它构建了一个强有力的叙述，支持其论点——美国经济的表现远好于大多数人所相信的。同时，该报告展示了德勤作为一家能够分析经济数据并制定应对经济挑战策略的合格公司的能力。

Now consider if we were to exclude the narrative from this report and presented the findings as a deck of PowerPoint slides with eight graphics and four tables. The PowerPoint slides would have failed to communicate the message that the authors carefully crafted in the report citing Piketty and Voltaire. I consider Deloitte's report a good example of storytelling with data and encourage you to read the report to decide for yourself whether the deliverable would have been equally powerful without the narrative.
现在，假设我们从报告中排除叙述，仅以包含八个图形和四个表格的 PowerPoint 幻灯片形式呈现研究结果。这些 PowerPoint 幻灯片将无法传达作者在报告中引用皮凯蒂和伏尔泰时精心构思的信息。我认为德勤的报告是数据叙事的良好范例，并鼓励你阅读报告，自行判断如果没有叙述，交付成果是否同样具有说服力。

Now, let us work backward from the Deloitte report. Before the authors started their analysis, they must have discussed the scope of the final deliverable. They would have deliberated the key message of the report and then looked for the data and analytics they needed to make their case. The initial planning and conceptualizing of the final deliverable is therefore extremely important for producing a compelling document. Embarking on analytics, without due consideration to the final deliverable, is likely to result in a poor-quality document where the analytics and narrative would struggle to blend.
现在，让我们从德勤报告出发，逆向分析。在作者开始他们的分析之前，他们必定讨论了最终交付成果的范围。他们会商讨报告的关键信息，然后寻找他们需要的数据和分析来支持他们的论点。因此，最终交付成果的初始规划和概念化对于制作一份引人入胜的文档至关重要。如果在未充分考虑最终交付成果的情况下就开展分析，很可能导致文档质量低下，其中分析和叙述难以融合。