What is Ad Hoc Analysis?
Ad hoc analysis is a one-off investigation to answer a specific question that existing reports do not cover.
Ad Hoc Analysis explained
Typical triggers are a surprising number on a dashboard or a new business question: why did returns rise last month, which customers are at risk? The analyst queries the data directly rather than relying on a prebuilt report.
Ad hoc work is where speed matters most and where mistakes are most likely, because the query is new and nobody has checked it.
Example
Finding out why refunds doubled in one week by splitting them by product, supplier and country is ad hoc analysis.