2 Pre-project: From opportunity to requirements

 

This chapter covers:

  • Understanding the project type and the stakeholders’ expectations of scale and structure
  • Setting up a pre-sales/pre-project process
  • Understanding requirements for model performance
  • Understanding data assets
  • Understanding the project’s general requirements
  • Coming to grips with the tools and infrastructure to deliver successfully

Project success and failure are defined by the pre-project/presales activity that surrounds it. The challenge is to move from knowing that there’s an opportunity to get paid for an ML project to a job that you can use to pay your mortgage. The purpose of this chapter is to lay out the activities and actions that need to happen to understand if an ML project is possible and if it’s useful. Then, we need to determine what effort is required to get it done and by whom.

2.1 Pre-project backlog

2.2 Project management infrastructure

2.3 Project requirements

2.3.1 Funding model

2.3.2 Business requirements

2.4 Data

2.5 Security and privacy

2.6 Corporate responsibility, regulation, and ethical considerations

2.7 Development architecture and process

2.7.1 Development environment

2.7.2 Production architecture

Summary