Book Image

Learning Predictive Analytics with Python

By : Ashish Kumar, Gary Dougan
Book Image

Learning Predictive Analytics with Python

By: Ashish Kumar, Gary Dougan

Overview of this book

Social Media and the Internet of Things have resulted in an avalanche of data. Data is powerful but not in its raw form - It needs to be processed and modeled, and Python is one of the most robust tools out there to do so. It has an array of packages for predictive modeling and a suite of IDEs to choose from. Learning to predict who would win, lose, buy, lie, or die with Python is an indispensable skill set to have in this data age. This book is your guide to getting started with Predictive Analytics using Python. You will see how to process data and make predictive models from it. We balance both statistical and mathematical concepts, and implement them in Python using libraries such as pandas, scikit-learn, and numpy. You’ll start by getting an understanding of the basics of predictive modeling, then you will see how to cleanse your data of impurities and get it ready it for predictive modeling. You will also learn more about the best predictive modeling algorithms such as Linear Regression, Decision Trees, and Logistic Regression. Finally, you will see the best practices in predictive modeling, as well as the different applications of predictive modeling in the modern world.
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
Learning Predictive Analytics with Python
Credits
Foreword
About the Author
Acknowledgments
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
A List of Links
Index

Chapter 9. Best Practices for Predictive Modelling

As we have seen in all the chapters on the modelling techniques, a predictive model is nothing but a set of mathematical equations derived using a few lines of codes. In essence, this code together with a slide-deck highlighting the high-level results from the model constitute a project. However, the user of our solution is more interested in finding a solution for the problem he is facing in the business context. It is the responsibility of the analyst or the data scientist to offer the solution in a way that is user-friendly and maximizes output or insights.

There are some general guidelines that can be followed for the optimum results in a predictive modelling project. As predictive modelling comprises a mix of computer science techniques, algorithms, statistics, and business context capabilities, the best practices in the predictive modelling are a total of the best practices in the aforementioned individual fields.

In this chapter, we...