Part 2. Building a product with software and statistics

The main object of any data science project is to produce something that helps solve problems and achieve goals. This might take the form of a software product, report, or set of insights or answers to important questions. The key tool sets for producing any of these are software and statistics.

Part 2 of this book begins with a chapter on developing a plan for achieving goals based on what you learned from the exploration and assessment covered in part 1. Then chapter 7 takes a detour into the field of statistics, introducing a wide variety of important concepts, tools, and methods, focusing on their principal capabilities and how they can help achieve project goals. Chapter 8 does the same for statistical software; the chapter is intended to arm you with enough knowledge to make informed software choices for your project. Chapter 9 then gives a high-level overview of some popular software tools that are not specifically statistical but that might make building and using your product easier or more efficient. Finally, chapter 10 brings all these chapters together by considering some hard-to-foresee nuances of executing your project plan given the knowledge gained from the previous detours into statistics and software, as well as the many pitfalls of dealing with data, statistics, and software.