What primary question does descriptive analytics aim to answer?

Descriptive analytics primarily focuses on analyzing historical data to understand what has already occurred. It provides insights into past events by summarizing data and identifying trends, patterns, and relationships. By answering the question "What happened?", descriptive analytics helps organizations assess their historical performance and contextualize current states based on prior events.

This retrospective view allows businesses to glean valuable information from their experiences, which can be used as a foundation for making better-informed decisions moving forward. In contrast, the other options relate to different types of analytics: prescriptive analytics addresses what actions are needed, predictive analytics anticipates future events, and scenario analysis explores potential outcomes if certain trends continue.