With a comprehensive collection methods from both data analysis and data mining disciplines, this book successfully describes the issues that need to be considered, the steps that need to be taken, and appropriate treats technical topics to achieve effective decision making from data. Readers are given a strong foundation in the procedures associated with complex data analysis or data mining project and provided with concrete discussions of the most universal tasks and technical solutions related to data analysis, including: * Problem definition * Data preparation * Data visualization * Data mining * Statistics * Grouping methods * Predictive Modeling * Deployment issues and applications Throughout this book, the authors examine why this approach is much needed and how these methods will solve different problems. The process, along with the method, carefully and meticulously outlined for use in data analysis or data mining project. From summarizing and interpreting data, to identify the facts of non-trivial, patterns, and relationships in data, to make predictions from data, Data Understanding discuss many issues to consider and the steps that need to be taken to master data analysis and mining.