The Data Mining Process: Creation of the Analytical File

Abstract

Once the business challenge or problem is identified, analysts have to understand the data and information requirements for conducting the necessary analytics. Analysts do not need to perform a rigorous data needs analysis as would be required for building or designing a database; they are only concerned with what is already there and not with what should be there. When a file and some of its contents have been identified as potentially relevant for an analysis, analysts in most cases request the entire file as one data component in the project.