Data Mining For Dummies

Chapter 6

Planning for Data-Mining Success

In this Chapter

Making your business case

Developing plans

Mitigating risk

I have good and bad news about data mining. The bad news is that data-mining programs can and do fail. In fact, it’s pretty common for organizations to report that they have not achieved positive returns on their investments in data mining. The good news is that this kind of failure is preventable. Taking a few simple, common-sense steps at the start will put you on track for data-mining success and documented value.

Data miners who consistently and thoughtfully plan for success routinely produce results that lead to positive return on investment and satisfied executives. Preparing a business case maximizes your chances for producing information that decision makers can and will use to yield good outcomes. Planning lets you reduce risk for the business while building your own credibility.

This chapter shows you how to build a business case and establish a plan for data-mining success.

Setting the Course with Formal Business Cases

Data mining has costs — costs for software, costs for labor, costs for servers, and perhaps costs to obtain data as well. Expenses can ...