It is tempting to dive head first into data right after receiving it, building graphs and dashboards, and focusing your time more on the hands-on activities rather than planning and structuring these. However, this behaviour is not ideal. On the contrary, engaging in planing your project before implementing has major benefits and can lead to better outcomes.
Benefits of Planning
There are many benefits to planning your data project, namely improved clarity of objectives, assured data quality and availability, appropiate expectations, and stakeholder alignment. Moreover, it becomes easier to measure success with a clear goal in mind and will make the workflow more efficient.
What to consider?
Data Observation
A closer look at the data enables data analysts to familiarize oneself with the data. It becomes clear which data is available and whether this is sufficient to reach the objectives. Furthermore, the scope of the data cleaning process is easier to estimate as data, such as missing values, becomes apparent.
Objectives
In some cases, data is provided by a stakeholder with clear guidelines on what the data analysis should entail. Nevertheless, it is an important step to make sure that data analyst and stakeholders are on the same page to avoid issues during the analysis.
Dashboard Planning
Another important aspect is planning the outcome of the analysis, as this will facilitate the assessment of the outcome of the data project. This part of the planning process involves sketching your dashboard, choosing a suitable colour and font pallet (possibly aligning with company standards), and selecting the best fitting design element and graphs.