2.2. Assess the situation

This task involves the resources, requirements, constraints, assumptions, risks, contingencies, glossary of terminology, and the cost-benefit analysis.

This step is very important to outline the resources available to accomplish the data mining project to:

  • list personnel resources like business experts, data experts, technical support, and data mining experts

  • discover what data is available to meet the primary business goal

  • list of computing resources focusing on hardware platforms

  • list software resources like data mining tools, other relevant software

It is important to describe the requirements, assumptions, and constraints to:

  • schedule of completion, comprehensibility, and quality of results, and security, as well as legal issues

  • list the assumptions made in the project and the unverifiable assumptions about the business questions

  • list the project risks when considering the assumptions

  • list of constraints on the project considering resources availability and technological constraints

Also insvestigate the risks and contingencies to:

  • list the risks or events that might delay the project or cause it to fail

  • list contingency plans to determine what actions should be taken if risks or events occur

  • list the potential solution of the risks

Don’t forget to compile a glossary of terminology relevant to the project including two components:

  • a glossary of relevant business terminology to help other teams understand the business issue related to the project

  • a glossary of data mining terminology illustrated with examples

When checking the costs and benefits due to project implementation, it is important to include:

  • construct a cost-benefit analysis for the project comparing the project costs with the potential benefits

  • compare the cost-effectiveness as specifically as possible