What is the role of a business analyst ?

1. Data Collection:
 Gathering relevant data from various sources, such
as databases, spreadsheets, APIs, or external
datasets.
2. Data Cleaning and Preprocessing:
 Cleaning data to remove errors, duplicates, and
inconsistencies.
 Handling missing data through imputation or other
appropriate methods.
3. Data Exploration:
 Exploring data to gain an initial understanding of its
characteristics.
 Generating summary statistics, visualizations, and
plots to identify trends, outliers, and patterns.
4. Statistical Analysis:
 Applying statistical techniques to test hypotheses,
determine correlations, and make predictions.
 Using statistical tests like t-tests, ANOVA, regression
analysis, and chi-squared tests when appropriate.
5. Data Visualization:
 Creating clear and insightful data visualizations
using tools like charts, graphs, and dashboards.
  Choosing the right visualization type to effectively
communicate findings.
6. Domain Knowledge:
 Understanding the specific industry or domain
you're analyzing data for. This context is crucial for
meaningful interpretation.
7. Programming and Tools:
 Proficiency in data analysis tools and programming
languages like Python, R, or SQL.
 Familiarity with data manipulation libraries (e.g.,
Pandas, NumPy) and data visualization libraries
(e.g., Matplotlib, Seaborn, Tableau).
8. Machine Learning (Optional):
 Knowledge of machine learning algorithms for
predictive modeling and classification tasks.
 Skills in selecting appropriate algorithms, training
models, and evaluating their performance.

9. Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving:

 The ability to formulate relevant research questions
and hypotheses.
 Critical thinking to interpret results and draw
actionable insights from data.
10. Communication Skills:
  Effectively conveying data findings and insights to
non-technical stakeholders through clear and
concise reports and presentations.
 Bridging the gap between data analysis and
business decision-making.
11. Continuous Learning:
 Staying updated with the latest data analysis
techniques, tools, and trends through self-learning,
courses, or professional development.

What is the role of a Data scientist ?

1. Data Handling: Data scientists gather and clean data

from various sources to prepare it for analysis.
2. Machine Learning: Data scientists build and train
predictive models using machine learning techniques.
3. Statistical Analysis: They use statistical methods to
validate hypotheses and make data-driven decisions.
4. Data Visualization: Data scientists create visual
representations of data to communicate findings
effectively.
5. Predictive Analytics: They make predictions about
future events or trends based on historical data.
 6. Classification and Clustering: Data scientists categorize
data into groups or classes for various purposes.
7. Natural Language Processing (NLP): They analyze and
process text data for tasks like sentiment analysis and
chatbot development.
8. Big Data Skills: Proficiency in tools for handling large-
scale datasets is crucial.

Sectors where data science is being implemented:-

1. Healthcare: Data science is used for patient diagnosis,
treatment optimization, drug discovery, and predicting
disease outbreaks. Machine learning models analyze
patient records, medical imaging, and genomic data to
assist healthcare professionals in making informed
decisions.
2. Finance: In the financial sector, data science is used for
fraud detection, risk assessment, algorithmic trading,
and customer analytics. Predictive models help identify
market trends and assess investment opportunities.
3. Retail: Retailers employ data science to enhance
customer experiences through personalized
recommendations, inventory management, and demand
forecasting. This sector also uses data science for supply
chain optimization.
4. Marketing: Data science plays a crucial role in digital
marketing, helping businesses understand consumer
 behavior, segment audiences, and optimize advertising
campaigns. A/B testing and customer churn prediction
are common applications.
5. Manufacturing: Manufacturers leverage data science for
predictive maintenance, quality control, and process
optimization. Sensors and IoT devices collect data to
prevent equipment breakdowns and improve efficiency.
6. Transportation: In the transportation sector, data
science is used for route optimization, demand
forecasting, and traffic management. This includes
applications in public transportation, logistics, and ride-
sharing services.
7. Energy: Data science is applied to optimize energy
consumption, monitor equipment performance, and
predict equipment failures in the energy sector. It also
aids in renewable energy resource optimization.

Some used cases :-

Finance:
1. Credit Scoring: Financial institutions use data science to
assess creditworthiness by analyzing an individual's
financial history, transaction data, and other factors to
predict the likelihood of loan repayment.
2. Algorithmic Trading: Data science algorithms analyze
market data and news sentiment to make automated
 trading decisions, aiming to optimize investment
strategies and minimize risks.
3. Fraud Detection: Machine learning models identify
unusual patterns of transactions to detect and prevent
fraudulent activities, such as credit card fraud or insider
trading.

Retail:
1. Recommendation Systems: E-commerce platforms use
recommendation algorithms to suggest products to
customers based on their browsing and purchase
history.
2. Inventory Optimization: Data science helps retailers
optimize inventory levels by analyzing historical sales
data and predicting future demand patterns.
3. Price Optimization: Retailers adjust pricing strategies in
real-time based on competitor pricing, demand, and
historical sales data to maximize revenue.

Marketing:
1. Customer Segmentation: Data science clusters
customers into segments based on behavior,
demographics, and other attributes to personalize
marketing campaigns.
2. Churn Prediction: Predictive models analyze customer
data to identify those at risk of leaving a service or
 product, allowing companies to take proactive retention
measures.
3. A/B Testing: Data science is used to design and analyze
A/B tests to evaluate the impact of changes to websites,
apps, or marketing materials on user engagement and
conversion rates.

Top Data Science Tools :-

SAS
It is one of those data science tools which are specifically
designed for statistical operations. SAS is a closed source
proprietary software that is used by large organizations to
analyze data. SAS uses base SAS programming language which
for performing statistical modeling.
It is widely used by professionals and companies working on
reliable commercial software. SAS offers numerous statistical
libraries and tools that you as a Data Scientist can use for
modeling and organizing their data.
While SAS is highly reliable and has strong support from the
company, it is highly expensive and is only used by larger
industries. Also, SAS pales in comparison with some of the more
modern tools which are open-source.

Furthermore, there are several libraries and packages in SAS

that are not available in the base pack and can require an
expensive upgradation.

Apache Spark
Apache Spark or simply Spark is an all-powerful analytics
engine and it is the most used Data Science tool. Spark is
specifically designed to handle batch processing and Stream
Processing. It is covered in all data science course.
It comes with many APIs that facilitate Data Scientists to make
repeated access to data for Machine Learning, Storage in SQL,
etc. It is an improvement over Hadoop and can perform 100
times faster than MapReduce.

Spark has many Machine Learning APIs that can help Data
Scientists to make powerful predictions with the given data.

Spark does better than other Big Data Platforms in its ability to
handle streaming data. This means that Spark can process
real-time data as compared to other analytical tools that
process only historical data in batches.
Spark offers various APIs that are programmable in Python, Java,
and R. But the most powerful conjunction of Spark is with Scala
programming language which is based on Java Virtual
Machine and is cross-platform in nature.
Spark is highly efficient in cluster management which makes it
much better than Hadoop as the latter is only used for storage. It
is this cluster management system that allows Spark to process
applications at a high speed.

MATLAB
MATLAB is a multi-paradigm numerical computing environment
for processing mathematical information. It is a closed-source
software that facilitates matrix functions, algorithmic
implementation and statistical modeling of data. MATLAB is most
widely used in several scientific disciplines.

In Data Science, MATLAB is used for simulating neural

networks and fuzzy logic. Using the MATLAB graphics library,
you can create powerful visualizations. MATLAB is also used in
image and signal processing.
This makes it a very versatile tool for Data Scientists as they can
tackle all the problems, from data cleaning and analysis to more
advanced Deep Learning algorithms.

Excel
Probably the most widely used Data Analysis tool. Microsoft
developed Excel mostly for spreadsheet calculations and today, it
is widely used for data processing, visualization, and complex
calculations.
Excel is a powerful analytical tool for Data Science. While it
has been the traditional tool for data analysis, Excel still packs a
punch.
Excel comes with various formulae, tables, filters, slicers, etc.
You can also create your own custom functions and formulae
using Excel. While Excel is not for calculating the huge amount
of Data, it is still an ideal choice for creating powerful data
visualizations and spreadsheets.

You can also connect SQL with Excel and can use it to
manipulate and analyze data. A lot of Data Scientists use Excel
for data cleaning as it provides an interactable GUI environment
to pre-process information easily.

Tableau
Tableau is a Data Visualization software that is packed with
powerful graphics to make interactive visualizations. It is focused
on industries working in the field of business intelligence.
The most important aspect of Tableau is its ability to interface
with databases, spreadsheets, OLAP (Online Analytical
Processing) cubes, etc. Along with these features, Tableau has
the ability to visualize geographical data and for plotting
longitudes and latitudes in maps.

Along with visualizations, you can also use its analytics tool to
analyze data. Tableau comes with an active community and you
can share your findings on the online platform. While Tableau is
enterprise software, it comes with a free version called Tableau
Public.

Users may construct dashboards and visualisations that

continually update in real-time and display live data thanks to
Tableau’s real-time data connectivity features.

Tableau is a useful tool in a variety of businesses and areas due

to its adaptability and simplicity of usage. It is a popular option
for data-driven decision-making and storytelling because of its
capacity to translate complicated data into useful insights
through interactive visualisations.

Jupyter
Project Jupyter is an open-source tool based on IPython for
helping developers in making open-source software and
experiences interactive computing. Jupyter supports multiple
languages like Julia, Python, and R.
It is a web-application tool used for writing live code,
visualizations, and presentations. Jupyter is a widely popular tool
that is designed to address the requirements of Data Science.

It is an interactable environment through which Data Scientists

can perform all of their responsibilities. It is also a powerful tool
for storytelling as various presentation features are present in it.

Using Jupyter Notebooks, one can perform data cleaning,

statistical computation, visualization and create
predictive machine learning models. It is 100% open-source
and is, therefore, free of cost.
There is an online Jupyter environment called Collaboratory
which runs on the cloud and stores the data in Google Drive

NLTK
Natural Language Processing has emerged as the most
popular field in Data Science. It deals with the development of
statistical models that help computers understand human
language.
These statistical models are part of Machine Learning and
through several of its algorithms, are able to assist computers in
understanding natural language. Python language comes with a
collection of libraries called Natural Language Toolkit
(NLTK) developed for this particular purpose only.
NLTK is widely used for various language processing techniques
like tokenization, stemming, tagging, parsing and machine
learning. It consists of over 100 corpora which are a collection of
data for building machine learning models.

It has a variety of applications such as Parts of Speech Tagging,

Word Segmentation, Machine Translation, Text to Speech
Speech Recognition, etc

TensorFlow
TensorFlow has become a standard tool for Machine
Learning. It is widely used for advanced machine learning
algorithms like Deep Learning. Developers named TensorFlow
after Tensors which are multidimensional arrays.
It is an open-source and ever-evolving toolkit which is known for
its performance and high computational abilities. TensorFlow
can run on both CPUs and GPUs and has recently emerged on
more powerful TPU platforms.

This gives it an unprecedented edge in terms of the processing

power of advanced machine learning algorithms.

The tools for data science are for analyzing data, creating
aesthetic and interactive visualizations and creating powerful
predictive models using machine learning algorithms.
Most of the data science tools deliver complex data science
operations in one place. This makes it easier for the user to
implement functionalities of data science without having to write
their code from scratch. Also, there are several other tools that
cater to the application domains of data science.

Data science encompasses a wide range of job roles, each with

its own specific responsibilities and skill sets. Here are some
common job roles in data science and the skills they typically
require:

1. Data Scientist:

 Responsibilities: Data scientists are responsible for

collecting, cleaning, and analyzing data to extract
valuable insights. They build predictive models,
perform statistical analysis, and communicate their
findings to stakeholders.

 Skills: Proficiency in programming languages like

Python or R, data manipulation using libraries like
pandas, machine learning, statistical analysis, data
visualization, and domain knowledge.

2. Data Analyst:

 Responsibilities: Data analysts focus on data

cleaning, visualization, and basic analysis to provide
actionable insights to the business. They often work
 closely with data scientists to prepare data for
modeling.

 Skills: Proficiency in Excel, data visualization tools

like Tableau or Power BI, SQL for data querying, and
basic statistical analysis.

3. Machine Learning Engineer:

 Responsibilities: Machine learning engineers

specialize in building and deploying machine learning
models at scale. They work on model development,
optimization, and integration into production systems.

 Skills: Strong programming skills (Python, Java, etc.),

expertise in machine learning libraries (scikit-learn,
TensorFlow, PyTorch), knowledge of cloud platforms,
and software engineering skills.

4. Data Engineer:

 Responsibilities: Data engineers are responsible for

designing, building, and maintaining data pipelines
and databases. They ensure that data is collected,
stored, and made available for analysis efficiently.

 Skills: Proficiency in SQL, ETL (Extract, Transform,

Load) processes, big data technologies (Hadoop,
Spark), database management systems (e.g., MySQL,
PostgreSQL), and knowledge of cloud platforms.

5. Business Intelligence (BI) Analyst:

 Responsibilities: BI analysts focus on creating

reports and dashboards to visualize data and help
organizations make data-driven decisions. They often
work with tools like Tableau, Power BI, or QlikView.

 Skills: Proficiency in BI tools, data visualization, SQL,

and a good understanding of business processes.

6. Data Scientist Manager/Director:

 Responsibilities: Managers and directors in data

science oversee teams of data scientists and are
 responsible for setting the strategic direction of data
initiatives within an organization.

 Skills: Leadership and management skills, strong

communication, strategic thinking, and a deep
understanding of data science concepts.

7. AI Ethicist/Responsible AI Specialist:

 Responsibilities: These professionals focus on

ensuring the ethical and responsible use of AI and data
science technologies. They develop guidelines and
policies to address ethical concerns.

 Skills: A strong background in ethics, AI and machine

learning knowledge, legal and compliance expertise,
and the ability to communicate ethical considerations
effectively.

8. Quantitative Analyst (Quant):

 Responsibilities: Quants work in finance and use

quantitative models and data analysis to inform
investment strategies and risk management.

 Skills: Advanced mathematical and statistical

modeling, programming (often in languages like C++),
and financial domain knowledge.

9. Research Scientist (in academia or industry):

 Responsibilities: Research scientists in data science

explore new techniques and methodologies, often in a
research or academic setting. In industry, they may
focus on cutting-edge innovation.

 Skills: Strong research skills, a deep understanding of

data science principles, and often a Ph.D. in a related
field.