Hint of the Month - March 2025

What is Analysis Paralysis?

 

 

This term refers to the case of over analyzing information or data related to a situation to the extent that disables analysts to reach conclusions and make decisions. The reasons leading to this paralysis can be the pressure of time or the criticality of the situation and the implications of the decisions to be made, or the amount and complexity of the data being analyzed. Desire to reach perfection of analysis will lead to escalating commitment and allocating time and effort for more analysis with deminishing return  and low gain with regards to the quality and value of the final decisions. This case can be avoided by proper planning of the analysis process, including selection of data sources, data collection and cleansing, setting goals of the analysis and desired decisions to be made, and identifying the target stakeholders impacted by the decisions, as well as using professional analysis tools. By Experience, analysts will master control over the analysis process and are not to get trapped in this paralysis case.