It seems obvious once you have decided to undertake a data mining or big data project to use established frameworks to plan and report results. At DataRev we firmly believe that it is critical to consider what is "good practice" prior to the start of a data project. How can we take the intuitive stance that an organization can benefit from interacting with big data and translate that into a strategic operational plan? On way we like to make sure a company will get results is by using guidelines that have been industry established and peer reviewed. In 2010 Tom Khabaza published his 9 laws of data mining and predictive analysis. It has been discussed for nearly a decade now and we think there are great lessons that can inform the start of a data project.

Before you begin your strategy, prior to deciding to implement CRISP-DM, SEMMA or KDD, you must first fundamentally align your strategy and business goals.

Rule 1: Business objectives are the origin of every data solution.

A data project must be concerned with solving business problems and achieving business goals. Data strategy is not primarily a technology; it is a process, which has one or more business objectives at its heart. Without a business objective (whether or not this is articulated), there is no data mining, no KPI analytics and no big data strategy. Hence the maxim: “Data Mining is a Business Process”.

“Data Mining is a Business Process”

For any project that we participate in, we make sure that the core business is the focus. Too many projects suffer and use resources when a technology is used "for technologies sake." Our focus is plain and simple - achieve business goals and align the solution to those goals.

Rule 2: Business knowledge is central to every step of the process.

Some implementing CRISP-DM would see business knowledge used at the start of the process in defining goals, and at the end of the process in guiding deployment of results. This would be to miss a key property of the process, that business knowledge has a central role in every step.

“without business knowledge, not a single step of the process can be effective; there are no “purely technical” steps”

We are always translating and mapping business goals to data strategy. Every one of our projects builds in executive steering, KPI mapping and reporting that clearly defines expected vs measured outcomes. All stakeholder concerns and goals are carefully addressed and your data roadmap is understood before it is implemented. The first two steps of our process are to make sure it is understood what your goals are and how we can provide a solution to assist in those goals.

Let us show you how we align your business and big data
~DataRev Team