Starting the project
The phases of a general purpose predictive analytics project may be straightforward and perhaps easy (it's the practice of carrying out each of these phases effectively that is challenging).

The Phases of a predictive analytics project
These phases are:
- Define (the data).
- Profile & Prepare (the data).
- Determine the Question (what to predict).
- Choose the algorithm.
- Apply the model.
Data definition
An interesting thought:
"…Once you have enough data, you start to see patterns," he said. "You can build a model of how these data work. Once you build a model, you can predict…"
– Bertolucci, 2013
At the beginning of any (and every) analytics project, data is defined – reviewed and analyzed: source, format, state, interval, and so on (some refer to this as the process of investigating the breadth and depth of available data).
One exercise demanded...