We have seen a step-by-step method to decompose a time series and forecast its future values. This can help us, at least in general terms, to predict the outcome of different processes. Time series can be studied both graphically and numerically, extracting their characteristics and using them to understand how they will behave in the future. We have also seen that this can be done automatically in Excel, with the risk of using it as a black box and not understanding the full forecasting method. More advanced techniques exist, and we will discuss them in future chapters.
The next chapter will show you how to build some basic diagrams in Excel and how to use them to gain insights on your datasets.
