worst practices for data miners

This Way Failure Lies

Rule 2. Frame the problem in terms of the data. Don't consider alternative solutions to the business situation. Because the problem has been passed to a data miner, the best way to solve the problem is through data analysis. Don't consider whether other decision-making or data-gathering efforts would be appropriate, or whether some other method of dealing with the business problem would help. Don't consider the other challenges faced by the company or the specifics of the industry the company competes in. Consider only what the data set as it currently exists has to reveal. Whatever the data can be persuaded to reveal, recast the business objective in terms that the data addresses.