1. Research potential data sources in your area of interest. Many sources are available from the U.S.

Government and private organizations. For instance, check out https://www.kaggle.com/ and select

"Datasets" from the top.

2. Determine the focus area.

Determine an area of interest in which to perform analysis and which has a data source

available.

3. Develop Initial Requirements.

Access the results of the analysis that are to be achieved and develop specific requirements for outcomes that was expect.

Identify data/information necessary as inputs to the analysis, which is specified based

upon the requirements of those directing the analysis or customers (who will use the

finished product of the analysis).

Develop a set of questions that you will attempt to answer with your analysis.

Develop specific variables regarding a "population" that you will attempt to obtained

Data may be numerical or categorical.

Avoid textual data unless you plan to perform some form of Natural Language

Processing or word vectorization. This type of analysis is highly technical and not

recommended.

4. Develop a hypothesis of what you expect to determine in your analysis.

A hypothesis is a supposition or proposed explanation based on limited evidence as a starting

point for further investigation.

An initial hypothesis helps to guide your investigation and search for data to support the

hypothesis and/or the null hypothesis.

5. Collect Datasets and Information based on your chosen area of interest.

Collect data and information from a variety of sources, as required.

Evaluate your data sources for validity and quality.

Consider the following data characteristics:

Defined, Measurable, Unitized, Relatable, Normalized, and Quality.