Huffing and puffing about the number of methods for analysing data

Excuse me if I huff and puff a bit about being right. There really is only one way to analyse evidence in a crime to identify the bad guy – not four ways. Similarly, there is only one way to analyse data to learn the cause of an accident or failure in the built or natural environment.

This came out in a talk with a friend about his career in police work. He saw four ways of analysing data and evidence. I allowed maybe four but only one underlying method as posted in a previous blog. (Fig. 1)

My friend sees the four methods as follows:

1. Tactical (Specific to a project or occurrence)
2. Strategic (Addressing general…