Aqil Akmaludin Makarim

081911633066

Chapter 2
Step 1: Justifying and Planning the Data Visualization and Data Mining Project

First step of the eight-step data visualization and data mining technique is to compose the
purpose and the plan of the project itself. The purpose of the project justification is to identify
quantitative project objectives, develop a sound business case for performing the project, and to
gain executive support and funding from the decision makers for the project. Also defines the
overall business stimulus, ROI targets, and visualization and data mining goals for the project.

Classes of Project
• Proof of Concept
Determine whether visualization and data mining will be beneficial, to prove visualization
and data mining to the decision makers, and to give an experience of visualization and
data mining to an organization.
• Pilot
Investigate, analyze, and answer one or more business questions to determine if the ROI
of the discoveries warrants a production project.
• Production
Fully investigate, analyze, and answer the business questions and then to implement an
action plan and measure the results of the production visualizations and data mining
models created.
Project Justification
Defines the overall business stimulus, ROI targets, and visualization and data mining goals
for the project. Realistic ROI objects and expected outcomes in form that contains the project ROI
objectives; describes the content, form, access, and owners of the data sources; summarizes the
previous research; explains the proposed methodology; and forecasts the anticipated outcome.
Closed-Loop Business Model
A business model is considered closed-loop when the output of the final stage feeds back
into the initial step. The example of the closed-loop model:

How to use closed-loop model:

1. The first stage is to obtain and select corresponding raw data from the data
warehouse and business data repositories.

2. The next stage is to identify key business indicators, might also be called as
KPI/Key Performance Indicators. If a KPI can’t be defined of doesn’t make sense
at all, it needs to be replaced with another indicator.
3. After that, the investigation and drill-down stage is started. Dataset is further
investigated to gain business insights and behaviours i.e. patterns and/or trends of
lost customers.

4. The visual and analytical models are developed for different business scenario.
Different models and action plans are created to gain approval for the best
strategic use of the models, visualization, and insights, that produce the best ROI
based on the business goals.

5. Then, the models and action plans created are discussed with the decision makers
and other business analysts as there might be suggestions and updated business
decisions that might beneficial than the one previously stated and used as the base
of the models and plans.

6. Later when a business plan has been approved, the next stage is to implement an
action plan that comes with it.
7. As the plan is implemented, the result is then monitored while the results received
from the business plan will be added to the original dataset.
8. New business models are created with the refined dataset, bringing a more in-
depth look while also giving improved action on the business plan.

9. The new business models are discussed with the stakeholders and decision
makers, and when it is concluded which business plan is likely to be
implemented, the processes repeat itself.

10. These feedback loops enabled the data and business analysts to focus and improve
their data mining models to achieve a higher ROI than their previous business
models and plans.
Project Timeline
The timeline based on the VDM type being used. Here is the general guideline for
estimating the project timeline.
Project Resource and Roles
Allocating project resource and roles is important. When allocating a resource to a project,
reach an agreement with all and every team, i.e., operations and data warehousing, data and business
analysts, domain experts, and decision makers.

Data and Business Analyst Team

Involved in all phase of the project. They’re responsible for these following:
• Justify and plan the project document to the decision makers;
• Identify the top business questions to be investigated;
• Mapping questions into questions that can be investigated through VDM;
• Creating extract procedures for historical and demographic data with the
guidance of domain experts and data warehousing team;
• Create, analyze, and evaluate the visualizations and data mining models with
the guidance of domain experts;
• Presenting the solution to the decision makers and assisting to create an action
plan.
At the implementation phase of production project, they have responsibility for:
• Implementing the solution's production environment and maintaining the
solution's production environment until the operations team is trained;
• Measuring the results of the solution and them to further refine, enhance, and
correct the production visualizations and data mining models.
Domain Expert Team
Consultant role for the data and business analysts team and the decision makers.
Their job are to ensures the correct data is obtained and valid KPIs are discovered by the data
and business analysts team. Also, they have to ensures that the solutions suggested make a
good business sense to the decision makers. For proof-of-concept, pilot, and production
projects, responsible they for the following:
• Helps data and business analysts team to justify and plan the project;
• Helps data and business analysts team to identify top business questions that
needed to be investigated;
• Validate data obtained by the data and business analysts team;
• Validate KPIs discovered by the data and business analysts team.
Decision Maker Team
Their role is to evaluate business scenarios provided and potentially approve the
solution. For proof-of-concept, pilot, and production projects, responsible they for the
following:
• Evaluate and approve business justification plan
• Lead the project to the rest of the organization at a high level;
• Allocating the project funds.
For the implementation phase of a production project, they responsible for the following :
• Provide feedback during the action plan creation to the data and business
analysts team;
• Provide feedback to measure the project’s results and success.
Operations Team
Their role is to provide network, database administration, and system administration
assistance to the data and business analysts team. For proof-of-concept, pilot, and production
project, the operations team is often responsible for the following:
• Identify contact names for historical and demographic data, network, and
database administration services;
• Ensures compatibility and integration of the VDM ‘s software and hardware
with the existing network and production environment.
Data Operations Team
The existence of this team depends on the size of the organization. The role of this
team is to provides extract files from the data warehouses or other business sources. For
proof-of-concept, pilot, and production projects, the data warehousing team is often
responsible for the following:
• Setting and maintain the environment for the extract files,
• Create the extract procedures from the data warehouses or other business sources.