The Analytics Lifecycle Toolkit: A Practical Guide for an Effective Analytics Capability

PRAISE FOR THE ANALYTICS LIFECYCLE TOOLKIT

"Full of wisdom and experience about analytics, this book's greatest strength is its lifecycle approach. From framing the question to getting results, you'll learn how analytics can really have an impact on organizations."
--Thomas H. Davenport, Ph.D., Author of Competing on Analytics and Only Humans Need Apply

"This book condenses a lot of deep thinking on the wide field of analytics strategy. Analytics is not easy--there are no quickie AI/BI/ML shortcuts to understanding your data, your business, or your processes. You have to build a diverse team of talent. You have to respect the hazards of 'fishing expeditions' that may need false-discovery-rate adjustments. You should consider designed experiments to get the true behavior of a process, something that observational data may hint at, but not provide complete understanding. There are dimensions of data wrangling, feature engineering, and data sense-making that all call for different skills. But with deep investment in analytics comes deep insight into processes and tremendous opportunity for improvements. This book puts analytics in the context of a strategic business system, with all its dimensions."
--John Sall, Ph.D., SAS co-founder and chief architect of JMP

"The Analytics Lifecycle Toolkit provides a clear prescription for organizations aiming to develop a high-performing and scalable analytics capability. Greg organizes and develops with unusual clarity some of the critical nontechnical aspects of the analytics value-chain, and links them with the technical as building blocks in a comprehensive practice. Studying this map of how to negotiate the challenges to effectiveness and efficiency in analytics could save organizations months, or even years of painful trial and error on the road to proficiency."
--Scott Radcliffe, Executive Director, Data Analytics at Cox Communications

"Many books exist that answer the question 'what is the right tool to solve a problem?' This is one of the few books I've read that answers the much more difficult question 'how do we make analytics become transformative throughout our organization?' Incorporating elements of data science, design thinking, and organizational theory, this book is a valuable resource for executives looking to build analytics into their organizational DNA, data scientists looking to expand their organizational reach, and analytics programs that teach students not just how to do data science, but how to use data science to affect tangible change."
--Jeremy Petranka, Ph.D., Assistant Dean Master of Quantitative Management at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business

"This book is the 'thinking person's guide to analytics.' Greg has gone deep on some topics and provided considerable references across the analytics lifecycle. This is one of the best books on analytics I have read...and I think I have read them all "
--Bob Gladden, Vice President, Enterprise Analytics, Highmark Health

GREG NELSON is the CEO and founder of ThotWave, an analytics advisory firm specializing in analytics talent development and has over 20 years of consulting experience in big data, statistical analysis, data visualization, and change management. Greg serves as adjunct faculty at Duke University's top-ranked Fuqua School of Business and is an expert for the International Institute for Analytics. Greg has authored over 200 papers and publications and is a regular speaker and keynote presenter at national and international events. Greg earned his bachelor's degree from the University of California, Santa Cruz in Psychology, a Master's in Clinical Informatics from Duke University, and conducted Ph.D. level work in Social and Cognitive Psychology at the University of Georgia.