Data Science for Business

Preface

Foster Provost

Tom Fawcett

Data Science for Business is intended for several sorts of readers:

• Business people who will be working with data scientists, managing data science–oriented projects, or investing in data science ventures,
• Developers who will be implementing data science solutions, and
• Aspiring data scientists.

This is not a book about algorithms, nor is it a replacement for a book about algorithms. We deliberately avoided an algorithm-centered approach. We believe there is a relatively small set of fundamental concepts or principles that underlie techniques for extracting useful knowledge from data. These concepts serve as the foundation for many well-known algorithms of data mining. Moreover, these concepts underlie the analysis of data-centered business problems, the creation and evaluation of data science solutions, and the evaluation of general data science strategies and proposals. Accordingly, we organized the exposition around these general principles rather than around specific algorithms. Where necessary to describe procedural details, we use a combination of text and diagrams, which we think are more accessible than a listing of detailed algorithmic steps.

The book does not presume a sophisticated mathematical background. However, by its very nature the material is somewhat technical—the goal is to impart a significant understanding of data science, not just to give a high-level overview. In general, we have tried to minimize the mathematics and make ...