Making Sense of Data: A Practical Guide to Exploratory Data Analysis and Data Mining

8.3 ACTIVITIES

The following activities need to be accomplished during the deployment phase:

• Plan and execute the deployment: A plan should be generated describing the deployment of the solutions. It should include information on how the solution is to be deployed and to whom. Issues relating to the management of change, as the solution may introduce changes to some individual's daily activities, should be addressed. Also, a deployment may require a training program that outlines both how to use the new technology and how to interpret the results. In many situations the value of the data, and hence the models generated from the data, diminishes over time. In this situation, updated models may be required and a strategy should be put in place to ensure the currency of the models. This could be accomplished through an automated approach or through manually updating of the models and needs to be planned.
• Measure and monitor performance: It is important to understand if the models or analysis generated translate into meeting the business objectives outlined at the start of the project. For example, the models may be functioning as expected; however, the individuals that were expected to use the solution are not for some reasons and hence there is no business benefit. A controlled experiment (ideally double blind) in the field should be considered to assess the quality of the results and their business impact. For example, the intended users of a predictive model could be divided into ...