Creating an anomaly analysis

Create an anomaly analysis to reveal deviations from a base set of data.

Before you begin

You must create one or more named areas before you can create an anomaly analysis.

About this task

Anomaly analysis compares data for a selected month or day against the same data for a specified comparison period. Data is considered anomalous if it is more than two standard deviations above or below the mean for the comparison period.

Procedure

  1. Select the option to create an anomaly analysis.
  2. On the General page, specify a unique name, and an optional description.
  3. On the When page, specify a time range, such as the last month, or specify a beginning and ending date and time for the analysis. Ensure that the assessment date for the data being analyzed falls within the specified time interval.
  4. On the Where page, select the area to include in the analysis. You must have already created the area.
  5. On the What page, select the data sources to include in the analysis.
  6. On the Analytic Details page, specify parameters for the Anomaly analysis type.
    1. Choose whether to seek anomalies by day or month.
    2. Specify the date range of the base period to evaluate. The specified time period is analyzed to determine mean values and patterns. Then, the data from the period that is identified on the Data Details page is compared to the values for the base period.
  7. On the Appearance page, select the order for lists, time interval to display on the chart, the color to display for each value or range, and whether to send an alert for that value.
  8. On the Alerting page, choose whether to be notified that analysis results are ready to view.
  9. On the Scheduling page, choose whether to schedule the analysis to run at specified intervals. Even though you scheduled the analysis to run at some future time and date, the analysis will always run first when you click Save and Run.
  10. Click Save and Run.

Results

The analysis runs when you click Save and Run. If you change parameters and click Save and Run before the analysis is complete, the running analysis stops and the new analysis runs.

What to do next

To view the results, select the location, then expand the Anomaly pane, and select the analysis. View details in the bar chart available in the report view, or in the list view.