3 Data modeling
This chapter covers
- Modeling data as a fundamental analytical activity
- How to define business entities from raw data
- How to structure a data model to best suit the analytical question
As an analyst, you will find yourself applying the same logic to raw data over and over again. For example, every time you calculate revenue, you might need to remember to remove internal money transfers between departments. Or when you look at customer spending, you might need to exclude a certain customer because they operate differently. Whenever these business rules need to be applied constantly to ensure data is accurate, it is a good opportunity to build a data model.
A data model is a dataset created from raw data that has been cleaned, with specific business rules built into it. Creating reusable data models will save you time and maintenance headaches in the future. Data modeling also forces you to think deeply about your or your stakeholder’s question, which leads to a more valuable answer.