Which Tool Should I Use for Business Intelligence?
Last month, Data Science and Robots Blog featured an article titled Which Tool Should I Use? It is a key question to ponder throughout any data project as you often need different tools in different stages. So I thought I would add my perspective and some examples.
Defining Objectives and Weighing Options
I work on analytics projects for the City of LA. These often require quick turnaround in the form of a visualization or an answer to a question like “How many square miles of buildable land is within 1000 feet of LA freeways?”. No one cares if my code is pretty or if I use a mix of 5 different tools. So after I refine the goals and create a wireframe/outline (!!!), my top consideration when weighing options is efficiency. I ask Which tool in my toolkit can achieve the objective quickly and easily?
Tips
- Make the data smaller. If you’re working with a large dataset, consider whether you actually need to use the whole thing for your project. Maybe you can look at just the last few months of data or pull a representative sample or aggregate by category before starting the analysis.
- Regularly do a gap analysis of your skills. If the primary question you ask yourself is Which tool in my toolset is most efficient… then you probably want to evaluate your toolset frequently. This means staying on top of what the leading tools are for your type of work and understanding what your audience/patron wants. For example, if using open source software were to become more important, I might focus on upping my ggplot2 game. Right now I know I want a faster way of manipulating spatial data so I’m exploring R-ArcGIS Bridge.
If you are just starting out, navigating the ubiquitous forums and blogs in order to build your toolset can be daunting. John Bertrand, USC Marshall’s career guru, suggests starting with finding a job description for a role that sounds like what you want. Notice the tools they mention as well as the big picture skills. And talking to people helps enormously. Please feel free to reach out!
