Foundations: Data, Data, Everywhere

Data Analysis: The collection, transformation, and organization of data in order to draw conclusions, make predictions, and drive informed decision-making.

Data Analyst: Someone who collects, transforms, and organizes data in order to help make informed decisions.

Data Ecosystem: The various elements that interact with one another in order to produce, manage, store, organize, analyze, and share data.

Data Science: A field of study that uses raw data to create new ways of modeling and understanding the unknown.

Steps of Data Analysis

1. Ask: Business Challenge/Objective/Question
2. Prepare: Data generation, collection, storage, and data management
3. Process: Data cleaning/data integrity
4. Analyze: Data exploration, visualization, and analysis
5. Share: Communicating and interpreting results
6. Act: Putting your insights to work to solve the problem

• EMC’s Data Analysis Life Cycle
• SAS’s Iterative Life Cycle
• Project-based Data Analytics Life Cycle
• Big Data Analytics Life Cycle