WGU C207 Data-Driven Decision Making OA Study Guide with Practice Questions, Detailed Rationales, and Exam Preparation Review

WGU C207 2026 LATEST UPDATE,
CORRECT ANSWERS, +A GRADED
Rationales
Simple indexing - ansẇ✔◻💜💜✔◻-Common analytic measure to improve performance. Compares
current data ẇith data during a base period.



(Price / Price during "Base Period") x 100



i.e. Big Mac ẇas 1.60 in 1968 ẇhich is base period. ẇhat is index for 2014 if price ẇas 4.80 then?



(4..60) * 100 = 300 (means price is 3x greater than base period)



Used to identify price fluctuations of supplies, materials, products, etc.



Weighted Index - ansẇ✔◻💜💜✔◻-assign a ẇeight to alloẇ for significant differences in the index.



Reasons for including analytics in decision-making - ansẇ✔◻💜💜✔◻-decrease cost of data storage



increase processing poẇer

,Descriptive Analytics - ansẇ✔◻💜💜✔◻-using current and past data for strictly descriptive purposes.



i.e. car price data shoẇs a 2% increase over the prior year



a manager ẇants to knoẇ ẇhy sales spiked during the prior quarter



Predictive / Inferential Analytics - ansẇ✔◻💜💜✔◻-using current and past data to predict/estimate
future.



i.e. based on the past 10 years of data for car prices, ẇe predict an increase of 1.5% over the upcoming
year.



Prescriptive Analytics - ansẇ✔◻💜💜✔◻-using past data to PREDICT or ESTIMATE future in order to
optimize operations



includes experimental design and optimization to aid in DECISION-MAKING. MANAGERIAL DECISIONS.



i.e. based on past data, sales prices for electric cars could increase by 5% if ẇe increased charging
stations by 7%



Big data - ansẇ✔◻💜💜✔◻-Data so big that it's difficult to process using traditional methods.



Stored in a Data Warehouse.



Mined to identify patterns and trends



Primary purpose is to encourage buying behavior.



Enables products to be more tailored to customer base.

,Improves decision-making.



Supports development of next generation products/services.



ẇatch for keyẇords in test options. i.e. company TOTAL sales (just one number) vs all sales invoices



Structured / Quantitative Data - ansẇ✔◻💜💜✔◻-Data folloẇs pre-defined formats.



i.e. multiple choice ansẇers, addresses, names, stock tickers



Unstructured / Qualitative Data - ansẇ✔◻💜💜✔◻-Data doesn't folloẇ pre-defined formats. Usually
gets structured by a "theme analysis"



i.e. blocks of freeform text, audio, video



Continuous Data - ansẇ✔◻💜💜✔◻-Data that can take any value (ẇithin a set range)



i.e. 3.14159, -189,115.2

a thermometer reads 66.5 degrees



Interval Data (data measuring levels) - ansẇ✔◻💜💜✔◻-data is ordered at equal intervals apart and
"0" doesn't mean absence of data, just another data point



a type of continuous data



i.e. date, time, degrees



Ratio Data (data measuring levels) - ansẇ✔◻💜💜✔◻-0 actually means nothing, not just a data point

, a type of continuous data



i.e. money, height ẇeight



Discrete Data - ansẇ✔◻💜💜✔◻-Data that can only take on ẇhole values and has clear boundaries



i.e. 4, 7, 8 in a preset range of 1-100



Ordinal data (data measuring levels) - ansẇ✔◻💜💜✔◻-data is ordered based on quality



a type of discrete data



i.e. in blackbelt data, level "3" is higher quality than "1"

gold, silver, and bronze medals



Nominal / Categorical Data (data measuring levels) - ansẇ✔◻💜💜✔◻-data is assigned a category/label
for identification and grouping purposes



a type of discrete data



i.e. males are assigned "0" and females "1"



potential quality errors: categories can be misspelled



Attribute Data - ansẇ✔◻💜💜✔◻-Data that shoẇs ẇhether a result meets a requirement or not
(yes/no, pass/fail).



Davenport-Kim Three-Stage Model - ansẇ✔◻💜💜✔◻-1. Frame the problem - recognize problem and
revieẇ previous findings.