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FOREWORD Data Science touches every aspect of our lives on a daily basis. When we visit the doctor, drive our cars, get on an airplane, or shop for services, Data Science is changing the way we interact with and explore our world. Our world is now measured, mapped, and recorded in digital bits. Entire lives, from birth to death, are now catalogued in the digital realm. ˜ese data, originating from such diverse sources as connected vehicles, underwater microscopic cameras, and photos we post to social media, have propelled us into the greatest age of discovery humanity has ever known. It is through Data Science that we are unlocking the secrets hidden within these data. We are making discoveries that will forever change how we live and interact with the world around us. ˜e impact of these changes is having a profound e˚ect on humanity. We have propelled ourselves into this age of discovery through our incremental technological improvements. Data Science has become the catalyzing force behind our next evolutionary leap. Our own evolution is now inextricably linked to that of computers. ˜e way we live our lives and the skills that are important to our very existence are directly dependent upon the functions Data Science can achieve on our behalf. As we move into this new future, it is clearer than ever, that businesses must adjust to these changes or risk being left behind. From in˛uencing retail markets, to setting public health and safety policies, or to addressing social unrest, organizations of all types are generating value through Data Science. Data is our new currency and Data Science is the mechanism by which we tap into it. Data Science is an auspicious and profound way of applying our curiosity and technical tradecraft to solve humanity™s toughest challenges. ˜e growing power, importance, and responsibility of applying Data Science methodologies to these challenges is unimaginable. Our own biases and assumptions can have profound outcomes on business, national security, and our daily lives. A new class of practitioners and leaders are needed to navigate this new future. Data Scientists are our guides on this journey as they are creating radical new ways of thinking about data and the world around us. We want to share our passion for Data Science and start a conversation with you. ˜is is a journey worth taking. ˜˜

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THE STORY of THE FIELD GUIDESeveral years ago we created ˚e Field Guide to Data Science because we wanted to help organizations of all types and sizes. ˜ere were countless industry and academic publications describing what Data Science is and why we should care, but very little information was available to explain how to make use of data as a resource. We ˝nd that situation to be just as true today as we did two years ago, when we created the ˝rst edition of the ˝eld guide. At Booz Allen Hamilton, we built an industry-leading team of Data Scientists. Over the course of hundreds of analytic challenges for countless clients, we™ve unraveled the DNA of Data Science. Many people have put forth their thoughts on single aspects of Data Science. We believe we can o˚er a broad perspective on the conceptual models, tradecraft, processes and culture of Data Science Œ the what, the why, the who and the how. Companies with strong Data Science teams often focus on a single class of problems Œ graph algorithms for social network analysis, and recommender models for online shopping are two notable examples. Booz Allen is di˚erent. In our role as consultants, we support a diverse set of government and commercial clients across a variety of domains. ˜is allows us to uniquely understand the DNA of Data Science. Our goal in creating ˜e Field Guide to Data Science was to capture what we have learned and to share it broadly. ˜e ˝eld of Data Science has continued to advance since we ˝rst released the ˝eld guide. As a result, we decided to release this second edition, incorporating a few new and important concepts. We also added technical depth and richness that we believe practitioners will ˝nd useful. We want this e˚ort to continue driving forward the science and art of Data Science. ˜is ˝eld guide came from the passion our team feels for its work. It is not a textbook nor is it a super˝cial treatment. Senior leaders will walk away with a deeper understanding of the concepts at the heart of Data Science. Practitioners will add to their toolbox. We hope everyone will enjoy the journey. ˜˜

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WE ARE ALL AUTHORS of THIS STORY We recognize that Data Science is a team sport. ˜e Field Guide to Data Science provides Booz Allen Hamilton™s perspective on the complex and sometimes mysterious ˝eld of Data Science. We cannot capture all that is Data Science. Nor can we keep up – the pace at which this ˝eld progresses outdates work as fast as it is produced. As a result, we opened this ˝eld guide to the world as a living document to bend and grow with technology, expertise, and evolving techniques. ˜ank you to all the people that have emailed us your ideas as well as the 100+ people who have watched, starred, or forked our GitHub repository. We truly value the input of the community, as we work together to advance the science and art of Data Science. ˜is is why we have included authors from outside Booz Allen Hamilton on this second edition of ˜e Field Guide to Data Science . If you ˝nd the guide to be useful, neat, or even lacking, then we encourage you to add your expertise, including: łCase studies from which you have learned łCitations from journal articles or papers that inspire you łAlgorithms and techniques that you love łYour thoughts and comments on other people™s additions Email us your ideas and perspectives at data_science@bah.com or submit them via a pull request on the GitHub repository . Join our conversation and take the journey with us. Tell us and the world what you know. Become an author of this story. ˜˜

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We would like to express our sincerest gratitude to all those who have made ˚e Field Guide to Data Science such a success. ˜ank you to the nearly 15,000 people who have downloaded the digital copy from our website and the 100+ people who have connected with ˜e Field Guide on our GitHub page . We have been overwhelmed by the popularity of the work within the Data Science community. ˜ank you to all of the practitioners who are using ˜e Field Guide as a resource. We are excited to know that the work has had such a strong in˛uence, from shaping technical approaches to serving as the foundation for the very de˝nition and role of Data Science within major government and commercial organizations. ˜ank you to the educators and academics who have incorporated ˜e Field Guide into your course work. We appreciate your trusting this guide as a way to introduce your students to Data Science. It is an honor to know that we are shaping the next generation of Data Scientists. ˜ank you to the organizational leaders who have shared your feedback, encouragement, and success stories. We are thrilled to know that ˜e Field Guide has helped so many organizations, from energy, to life sciences, to retail, to begin their Data Science journeys. We hope you will all continue to ˝nd value from ˜e Field Guide to Data Science and to share in our excitement around the release of this second edition. Please continue to be part of the conversation and take this journey with us. ˜˜

683 KB – 126 Pages