1. An article of manufacture, comprising: a machine readable storage medium comprising instructions which when executed by a machine cause the machine to perform operations comprising: receiving a data set; based on a plurality of data patterns, determining relative pattern significance factors for the plurality of data patterns, the determining comprising: if the pattern type is an outlier pattern, calculating a percentage change of an identified outlier from a median; if the pattern type is a step change pattern, calculating a percentage of a step change between a last value of a step and a first value preceding the step, wherein the step corresponds to an outlier in a first difference on the data set; and if the pattern type is a trend pattern, calculating a degree of freedom factor; accepting a fitted curve approximation based on the degree of freedom factor; calculating a percentage change from a start value on the fitted curve to a end value on the fitted curve; and returning a ranked list of the pattern types based on their corresponding relative pattern significance factors.