Eric Siegel is blogging in the build up to Predictive Analytics World (at which I am speaking and teaching a workshop). He posted Predictive analytics FAQ #1: Prerequisites for success.I liked his list but personally I would have added another:
Know the decision(s) you want to influence
Unless you have a decision or decisions in mind when you start it is all to easy to generate insight without any understanding of how you will make it stick – how it will make a difference. Starting with the decision in mind helps focus the analytic effort on improving that decision. If it is a strategic decision, it focuses the project on helping an executive. If it is an operational one, it means thinking about how the results could be deployed into production.
I would also add something to his point about “General understanding and buy-in of a predictive analytics initiative by stakeholders across business functions”. For many predictive analytics projects this needs to include the IT department and the folks working on BI/DW projects and all too often predictive analytics projects include neither.
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