Agility is almost everywhere and it also starts to get more into other hyped domains – such as Data Science. One thing which I like in this respect is the combination with DevOps – as this eases up the process and creates end-to-end responsibility. However, I strongly believe that it doesn’t make much sense to exclude the business. In case of Analytics, I would argue that it is BizDevOps.
There is a huge demand for Data DevOps nowadays. Basically, Data Science needs a lot of business integration and works throughout different domains and functions. I outlined several times and in different posts here, that Data Science isn’t a job that is done by Data Scientists. It is more of a team work, and thus needs different people. With the concept of BizDevOps, this can be easily explained; let’s have a look at the following picture and I will afterwards outline the interdependencies on it.
The process for Data Science: BizDevOps is the answer
BizDevOps for Data Science
Basically, there must be exactly one person that takes the end-to-end responsibility – ranging from business alignments to translation into an algorithm and finally in making it productive by operating it. This is basically the typical workflow for BizDevOps. This one person taking the end-to-end responsibility is typically a project or program manager working in the data domain. The three steps were outlined in the above figure, let’s now have a look at each of them.
Data DevOps: Biz
The program manager for Data (or – you could also call this person the “Analytics Translator”) works closely with the business – either marketing, fraud, risk, shop floor, … – on getting their business requirements and needs. This person has a great understanding of what is feasible with their internal data as well in order to be capable of “translating a business problem to an algorithm”. In here, it is mainly about the Use-Case and not so much about tools and technologies. This happens in the next step. Until here, Data Scientists aren’t necessarily involved yet.
Data DevOps: Dev
In this phase, it is all about implementing the algorithm and working with the Data. The program manager mentioned above already aligned with the business and did a detailed description. Also, Data Scientists and Data Engineers are integrated now. Data Engineers start to prepare and fetch the data. Also, they work with Data Scientists in finding and retrieving the answer for the business question. There are several iterations and feedback loops back to the business, once more and more answers arrive. Anyway, this process should only take a few weeks – ideally 3-6 weeks. Once the results are satisfying, it goes over to the next phase – bringing it into operation.
Data DevOps: Ops
This phase is now about operating the algorithms that were developed. Basically, the data engineer is in charge of integrating this into the live systems. Basically, the business unit wants to see it as (continuously) calculated KPI or any other action that could result in some sort of impact. Also, continuous improvement of the models is happening there, since business might come up with new ideas on it. In this phase, the data scientist isn’t involved anymore. It is the data engineer or a dedicated devops engineer alongside the program manager.
Eventually, once the project is done (I dislike “done” because in my opinion a project is never done), this entire process moves into a CI process.
This post is part of the “Big Data for Business” tutorial. Our focus was on Data DevOps and BizDevOps. In this tutorial, I explain various aspects of handling data right within a company. I also recommend you to read about the concept of DevOps.
