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Trend Analysis

About the narrative

Details covered in the analysis

A change in the measure's value between periods is categorized as a trend if it equals or exceeds a user-defined threshold percentage. Trends across consecutive periods that move in the same direction are merged into one trend. For example, when analyzing by month, if the measure's value rises in July 2021, August 2021, and September 2021, it is described in the narrative as a single trend from July 2021 to September 2021.

The narrative describes a maximum of three trends: the two most recent trends plus the most significant of all other trends in the series. To focus the analysis on particular periods in the series, filter your data.

Example: Trend analysis of Actual Sales over time by Country, Segment, and Product

The narrative includes:

  • An overview that describes up to three changes in the trend of Actual Sales over the time series (rise to fall, fall to level, fall to rise, etc.).

    arria-apps-trend-d1.png
    • For each change in trend mentioned in the overview: the overall direction of change, peaks and troughs within the trend, an analysis of the key drivers and offsets by Country, and a drilldown by Segment and Product reporting on the single most significant change at those levels (if one exists).

      arria-apps-trend-d2.png

Tip

Set the order of dimension drilldown in Step 2 of the NLG Apps wizard.

See Narrative options for further guidance on configuring the narrative.

 

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Data requirements

All NLG apps have the same data requirements for field names and formats. See Data field names and formats for details.

In addition, each app has specific data requirements:

Dimensions and measures

The requirements for dimensions and measures are:

Minimum

Maximum

One measure and one time dimension*.

One measure, two time dimensions*, and three additional dimensions.

*Time dimension requirements for each analysis period:

Analysis period

Required fields

Month

DateorYear + Month

Quarter

DateorYear + Quarter

Year

DateorYear

Aggregation and entity types

Not all combinations of aggregation and entity types are supported for measures. The Trend Analysis app can analyze the following combinations:

arria-apps-entity-aggregation-trend-analysis-tsf.png

Note

Entity types and other data attributes are set in Step 2 of the wizard.

 

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Narrative options

You can configure these narrative options in Step 3 of the NLG apps wizard:

arria-apps-narrative-options-trend.png

Use this option to select the period for comparison. The options are Month, Quarter, and Year.

Default: Month

 

Your selected data must contain the date fields required for the chosen period:

Period option

Required date fields

Month

Date or Year and Month

Quarter

Date or Year and Quarter

Year

Date or Year

 

This option sets the percentage change threshold for identifying trends. The higher the Trend Change percentage, the more significant a change in the measure's value must be to be included in the narrative.

For example, if you set the Trend Change option to 10% and the measure's value changes by at least ±10% between two periods, the app categorizes the change as an upward or downward trend.

Default: 5%

Note

The narrative describes a maximum of three trends: the two most recent trends plus the most significant of all other trends in the series. To focus the analysis on particular periods in the series, filter your data.

Examples: Time-Based Variance

Assume the Use color for variance values option is ON.

Increase in value is

Change

Example narrative

Good

Sales increased

Sales jumped by $3.2M from $1.6M to $4.8M (196%).

Sales remained the same

Sales remained stable at around $12.4M.

Sales decreased

Sales dropped by $1.3M from $2M to $724.9K (-63.6%).

Bad

Expenditure increased

Expenditure rose by $6.6M from $10.5M to $17.1M (63.4%).

Expenditure remained the same

Expenditure remained stable at around $17.1M.

Expenditure decreased

Expenditure fell by $61.5K from $688.4K to $626.9K (-8.94%).

Neutral

Personnel increased

Personnel increased from $1.5M to $3M (100%).

Personnel remained the same

Personnel remained stable at around $1.5M.

Personnel decreased

Personnel decreased from $3M to $1.5M (-50%).

 

See also: Show variance values in color.

 

This option controls whether the narrative uses color markup to highlight positive and negative outcomes.

When this option is ON:

  • Green highlights a positive change or outcome.

  • Red highlights a negative change or outcome.

Default: ON

This option works with the Increase in value is option, which controls which outcomes are considered positive and negative.

Note

The Show variance values in color option has no effect when Increase in value is set to Neutral.

 

Examples: Time-Based Variance

Assume the Use color for variance values option is ON.

Increase in value is

Change

Example narrative

Good

Sales increased

Sales jumped by $3.2M from $1.6M to $4.8M (196%).

Sales remained the same

Sales remained stable at around $12.4M.

Sales decreased

Sales dropped by $1.3M from $2M to $724.9K (-63.6%).

Bad

Expenditure increased

Expenditure rose by $6.6M from $10.5M to $17.1M (63.4%).

Expenditure remained the same

Expenditure remained stable at around $17.1M.

Expenditure decreased

Expenditure fell by $61.5K from $688.4K to $626.9K (-8.94%).

 

See also: Increase in value is.

 

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