Starting the project
The phases of a general purpose predictive analytics project may be straightforward and perhaps easy (it's the practice of carrying out each of these phases effectively that is challenging).
The Phases of a predictive analytics project
These phases are:
Define (the data).
Profile & Prepare (the data).
Determine the Question (what to predict).
Choose the algorithm.
Apply the model.
Data definition
An interesting thought:
"…Once you have enough data, you start to see patterns," he said. "You can build a model of how these data work. Once you build a model, you can predict…"
– Bertolucci, 2013
At the beginning of any (and every) analytics project, data is defined – reviewed and analyzed: source, format, state, interval, and so on (some refer to this as the process of investigating the breadth and depth of available data).
One exercise demanded is to perform what is referred to as profiling...
