What is Data Science?

let's talk about data science and some of the other related terms you may have heard such as predictive analytics machine learning advanced analytics and others so let's start with the textbook definition of data science so data science is the field of study that that involves extracting knowledge and insights from noisy data and then turning those insights into actions that our business and then turning those insights into actions that our business or organization can take okay so let's dig into it a little bit more and discuss what are the different areas that are covered by data science and discuss what are the different areas that are covered by data science so really data science is the intersection between three different disciplines so really data science is the intersection between three different disciplines computer science then we also cover the area of mathematics and then what i think is the most important is business expertise so the intersection of these three disciplines is data science and true data science initiatives involve collaboration across all these three different areas okay so now let's touch on the different types of data science that you can do now what we need to understand here is that we have different data science methods for different questions that we might ask in an organization and these questions can vary by complexity and the value that we get out of them so let's chart them here by complexity and value okay so the first one that we have here descriptive analytics so this is really about what is happening in my business right and it and it involves having accurate data collection to make sure that we know what's happening so a a good question we could ask here is well did sales go up or down the next level is diagnostic analytics and this is more about why did something happen so why did sales go up or down and it involves drilling down to the root cause of our problem