Every day, the amount of data out there grows and grows.

So the ability to interpret it effectively is

more important than ever before. Data analytics is becoming one of the fastest-growing and most
rewarding career choices in the world.
Currently, there are nearly 500,000 open jobs in data analytics, with a median entry-level salary of
$92,000 and a 20% annual growth rate [Source: Lightcast™ US Job Postings (2022: Jan. 1, 2022 -
Dec. 31, 2022)]. Companies in all kinds of industries need qualified data analysts to solve problems
and help make the best possible business decisions. And once you complete this program, you’ll be
prepared to make smart, strategic, data-driven recommendations for organizations of all kinds.
Throughout the courses in this program, you’ll complete many assignments and projects based on
both the practical activities and the day-to-day life of a data analyst. Along the way, you’ll learn
how to ask the right questions and understand objectives. You’ll also discover how to effectively
clean and organize large amounts of data to make it ready for high-quality analysis. On top of that,
you’ll gain experience using all kinds of tools and techniques that will help you recognize patterns
and uncover relationships between data points. Further, to help you communicate the results of your
analysis, you’ll learn how to design visuals and dashboards. There’s even an opportunity to create a
case study, which you can highlight in your resume to demonstrate what you have learned to
potential employers.

Program overview
The program is composed of eight courses:

1. Foundations: Data, Data, Everywhere (this course)

2. Ask Questions to Make Data-Driven Decionsis
• Prepare Data for Exploration
• Process Data from Dirty to Clean
• Analyze Data to Answer Questions
• Share Data Through the Art of Visualization
• Data Analysis with R Programming
• Google Data Analytics Capstone: Complete a Case Study
8.
Foundations: Data, Data, Everywhere is the first course in this program.
Course 1 content
Each course is broken into modules. Here’s a quick overview of the skills you'll gain in each of the
four Course 1 modules.

Module 1: Introducing data analytics and analytical thinking

Data helps us make decisions in both everyday life and in business. In this part of the course, you’ll
learn how data analysts use a variety of tools and skills to inform those decisions. You’ll also get to
know more about this course and the overall program expectations.

Module 2: The wonderful world of data

In this part of the course, you'll learn about the data life cycle and data analysis process. They are
both relevant to your work in this program and on the job. You’ll also be introduced to applications
that help guide data through the data analysis process.

Module 3: Set up your data analytics toolbox

Spreadsheets, query languages, and data visualization tools are all a big part of a data analyst’s job.
In this part of the course, you’ll learn the basic concepts to use them for data analysis. You’ll also
understand how they work through interesting examples.

Module 4: Become a fair and impactful data professional

In this part of the course, you’ll examine different types of businesses and the jobs and tasks that
analysts do for them. You’ll also learn how a Google Data Analytics Certificate will help you meet
many of the requirements for an analyst position with these organizations.

What to expect
Each module includes a series of lessons with many types of learning opportunities. These include:
• Videos for instructors to teach new concepts and demonstrate the use of tools
• In-video questions that pop up from time to time to help you to check your understanding
of key concepts and skills
• Step-by-step guides you can use to follow along with instructors as they demonstrate tools
• Readings to explore topics more in-depth and build on the concepts from the videos
• Discussion forums to share, explore, and reinforce lesson topics
 • Discussion prompts to promote thinking and engagement in the discussion forums
• Practice quizzes to prepare you for graded quizzes
• Graded quizzes to measure your progress and give you valuable feedback
This program was designed to let you work at your own pace—your personalized deadlines are just
a guide. There is no penalty for late assignments. To earn your certificate, you simply need to
complete all of the work.
If you miss two assessment deadlines in a row, or if you miss an assessment deadline by two weeks,
you'll see a Reset deadlines option on the Grades page. Click it to switch to a new course schedule
with updated deadlines. You can use this option as many times as you need—it won’t remove any
progress you’ve already made in the course, but you may find new course content if the instructor
updated the course after you started. If you cancel a subscription and then reactivate it, your
deadlines will automatically reset.
Throughout the program, you'll be assessed with graded quizzes and activities. Both are based on
the wide variety of learning materials and activities that reinforce the important skills you’ll
develop. And both can be taken more than once.
Congratulations on choosing to become part of the wonderful world of data analytics!

ASK
What you will learn:
• How data analysts solve problems with data
• The use of analytics for making data-driven decisions
• Spreadsheet formulas and functions
• Dashboard basics, including an introduction to Tableau
• Data reporting basics

Skill sets you will build:

• Asking SMART and effective questions
• Structuring how you think
• Summarizing data
• Putting things into context
• Managing team and stakeholder expectations
• Problem-solving and conflict-resolution

PREPARE
What you will learn:
• How data is generated
• Features of different data types, fields, and values
• Database structures
• The function of metadata in data analytics
• Structured Query Language (SQL) functions
Skill sets you will build:
• Ensuring ethical data analysis practices
• Addressing issues of bias and credibility
• Accessing databases and importing data
• Writing simple queries
• Organizing and protecting data
• Connecting with the data community (optional)

PROCESS
What you will learn:
• Data integrity and the importance of clean data
• The tools and processes used by data analysts to clean data
• Data-cleaning verification and reports
• Statistics, hypothesis testing, and margin of error
• Resume building and interpretation of job postings (optional)

Skill sets you will build:

• Connecting business objectives to data analysis
• Identifying clean and dirty data
• Cleaning small datasets using spreadsheet tools
• Cleaning large datasets by writing SQL queries
• Documenting data-cleaning processes

ANALYSIS
What you will learn:
• Steps data analysts take to organize data
• How to combine data from multiple sources
• Spreadsheet calculations and pivot tables
• SQL calculations
• Temporary tables
• Data validation

Skill sets you will build:

• Sorting data in spreadsheets and by writing SQL queries
• Filtering data in spreadsheets and by writing SQL queries
• Converting data
• Formatting data
• Substantiating data analysis processes
• Seeking feedback and support from others during data analysis

SHARE
What you will learn:
• Design thinking
• How data analysts use visualizations to communicate about data
• The benefits of Tableau for presenting data analysis findings
 • Data-driven storytelling
• Dashboards and dashboard filters
• Strategies for creating an effective data presentation

Skill sets you will build:

• Creating visualizations and dashboards in Tableau
• Addressing accessibility issues when communicating about data
• Understanding the purpose of different business communication tools
• Telling a data-driven story
• Presenting to others about data
• Answering questions about data

ACT
What you will learn:
• Programming languages and environments
• R packages
• R functions, variables, data types, pipes, and vectors
• R data frames
• Bias and credibility in R
• R visualization tools
• R Markdown for documentation, creating structure, and emphasis

Skill sets you will build:

• Coding in R
• Writing functions in R
• Accessing data in R
• Cleaning data in R
• Generating data visualizations in R
• Reporting on data analysis to stakeholders

CAPSTONE
What you will learn:
• How a data analytics portfolio distinguishes you from other candidates
• Practical, real-world problem-solving
• Strategies for extracting insights from data
• Clear presentation of data findings
• Motivation and ability to take initiative

Skill sets you will build:

• Building a portfolio
• Increasing your employability
• Showcasing your data analytics knowledge, skill, and technical expertise
• Sharing your work during an interview
• Communicating your unique value proposition to a potential employer
data analytics:data analytics is the science of data
data:Data is basically a collection of facts
or information,

Documents and files for course activities

To complete certain activities in the program, you will need to use digital documents, spreadsheets,
presentations, and/or labs. Data analytics professionals use these software tools to collaborate
within their teams and organizations. If you need more information about using a particular type of
document, refer to these resources:
• Microsoft Word: Help and learning
• : Microsoft Support page for Word
• Google Docs
• : Help Center page for Google Docs
• Microsoft Excel: Help and learning
• : Microsoft Support page for Excel
• Google Sheets
• : Help Center page for Google Sheets
• Microsoft PowerPoint: Help and learning
• : Microsoft Support page for PowerPoint
• How to use Google Slides
: Help Center page for Google Slides

Improve your posts

Course discussion forums are your chance to interact with thousands of like-minded individuals
around the world. In any social interaction, certain rules of etiquette are expected and contribute to
more respectful and productive communication.
1. Stay on topic in existing forums and threads. Off-topic posts make it difficult for other
learners to find information they need.
2. Post in the most appropriate forum for your topic, and don’t post the same thing in multiple
forums.
3. Use the filters at the top of the forum page (Latest, Top, and Unanswered) to find active,
interesting content.
4. Upvote posts that you find helpful and interesting.
5. Be civil. If you disagree, explain your position with respect and refrain from any and all
personal attacks. You will be communicating with learners from around the world, with
different styles of engaging. Remember to be respectful when discussing concepts or asking
for clarification.
 6. Make sure you are understood. To be helpful to learners using English as a second language,
try to write full sentences, and avoid text-message abbreviations or slang. Be careful when
you use humor and sarcasm, as these can be easy to misinterpret.
7. If you are asking a question, provide as much information as possible before or after posing
your question. For example, you might write what you’ve already considered, what you’ve
already read, etc.
8. Cite appropriate references when using someone else’s ideas, thoughts, or words.
9. Don’t use a forum to promote your product, service, or business.
10.Invite other learners to extend the discussion with an open-ended statement or question. For
example, you might write something like, “I would love to understand what others think.”
11.Don’t post personal information about other posters or yourself in the forum.
12.Report spam and spammers.
For more details, please refer to Coursera's Code of Conduct
An organization was experiencing a high turnover rate among new hires. Many employees left the
company before the end of their first year on the job. The analysts used the data analysis process to
answer the following question: How can the organization improve the retention rate for new
employees?

. ASK

First up, the analysts needed to define what the project would look like and what would qualify as a
successful result. So, to determine these things, they asked effective questions and collaborated
with leaders and managers who were interested in the outcome of their people analysis. These were
the kinds of questions they asked:
• What do you think new employees need to learn to be successful in their first year on the
job?
• Have you gathered data from new employees before? If so, may we have access to the
historical data?
• Do you believe managers with higher retention rates offer new employees something extra
or unique?
• What do you suspect is a leading cause of dissatisfaction among new employees?
• By what percentage would you like employee retention to increase in the next fiscal year?

PREPARE
It all started with solid preparation. The group built a timeline of three months and decided how
they wanted to relay their progress to interested parties. Also during this step, the analysts identified
what data they needed to achieve the successful result they identified in the previous step - in this
case, the analysts chose to gather the data from an online survey of new employees. These were the
things they did to prepare:
• They developed specific questions to ask about employee satisfaction with different business
processes, such as hiring and onboarding, and their overall compensation.
• They established rules for who would have access to the data collected - in this case, anyone
outside the group wouldn't have access to the raw data, but could view summarized or
aggregated data. For example, an individual's compensation wouldn't be available, but salary
ranges for groups of individuals would be viewable.
• They finalized what specific information would be gathered, and how best to present the
data visually. The analysts brainstormed possible project- and data-related issues and how to
avoid them.

PROCESS

The group sent the survey out. Great analysts know how to respect both their data and the people
who provide it. Since employees provided the data, it was important to make sure all employees
gave their consent to participate. The data analysts also made sure employees understood how their
data would be collected, stored, managed, and protected. Collecting and using data ethically is
one of the responsibilities of data analysts. In order to maintain confidentiality and protect and store
the data effectively, these were the steps they took:
• They restricted access to the data to a limited number of analysts.
• They cleaned the data to make sure it was complete, correct, and relevant. Certain data was
aggregated and summarized without revealing individual responses.
• They uploaded raw data to an internal data warehouse for an additional layer of security.

ANALYSE
Then, the analysts did what they do best: analyze! From the completed surveys, the data analysts
discovered that an employee’s experience with certain processes was a key indicator of overall job
satisfaction. These were their findings:
• Employees who experienced a long and complicated hiring process were most likely to
leave the company.
• Employees who experienced an efficient and transparent evaluation and feedback process
were most likely to remain with the company.
The group knew it was important to document exactly what they found in the analysis, no matter
what the results. To do otherwise would diminish trust in the survey process and reduce their ability
to collect truthful data from employees in the future.

SHARE
Just as they made sure the data was carefully protected, the analysts were also careful
sharing the report. This is how they shared their findings:
• They shared the report with managers who met or exceeded the minimum number of direct
reports with submitted responses to the survey.
• They presented the results to the managers to make sure they had the full picture.
• They asked the managers to personally deliver the results to their teams.
This process gave managers an opportunity to communicate the results with the right context. As a
result, they could have productive team conversations about next steps to improve employee
engagement.

ACT
The last stage of the process for the team of analysts was to work with leaders within their
company and decide how best to implement changes and take actions based on the findings.
These were their recommendations:
• Standardize the hiring and evaluation process for employees based on the most efficient and
transparent practices.
• Conduct the same survey annually and compare results with those from the previous year.
A year later, the same survey was distributed to employees. Analysts anticipated that a comparison
between the two sets of results would indicate that the action plan worked. Turns out, the changes
improved the retention rate for new employees and the actions taken by leaders were successful!

How data analysts approach tasks

The data analysis process is composed of the six phases of ask, prepare, process, analyze, share,
and act. Their purpose is to gain insights that drive informed decision-making. Earlier in this
course, you explored a case study about a group of data analysts using the six phases of data
analysis to improve employee retention at their company. In this reading, you’ll focus on the phases
themselves and explore how a data analyst might use this process to help a fictional company make
data-driven decisions about investing in training.

The six phases of data analysis

The data analysis process helps analysts break down business problems into a series of manageable
tasks:
In the ask phase, you’ll work to understand the challenge to be solved or the question to be
answered. It will likely be assigned to you by stakeholders. As this is the ask phase, you’ll ask many
questions to help you along the way.
Next, in the prepare phase, you’ll find and collect the data you'll need to answer your questions.
You’ll identify data sources, gather data, and verify that it is accurate and useful for answering your
questions.
The process phase is when you will clean and organize your data. Tasks you perform here include
removing any inconsistencies; filling in missing values; and, in many cases, changing the data to a
format that's easier to work with. Essentially, you’re ensuring the data is ready before you begin
analysis.
The analyze phase is when you do the necessary data analysis to uncover answers and solutions.
Depending on the situation and the data, this could involve tasks such as calculating averages or
counting items in categories so you can examine trends and patterns.
Next comes the share phase, when you present your findings to decision-makers through a report,
presentation, or data visualizations. As part of the share phase, you decide which medium you want
to use to share your findings and select the data to include. Tools for presenting data visually
include charts made in Google Sheets, Tableau, and R.
Last is the act phase, in which you and others in the company put the data insights into action. This
could mean implementing a new business strategy, making changes to a website, or any other action
that solves the initial problem.

The retirement contribution dilemma

The management team at a fictional midsized tech company, Geo-Flow, Inc., noticed that employee
participation in the company’s retirement contribution program was lower than expected. The
company had invested a lot of resources in establishing its world-class benefit program, with the
goal of reducing employee turnover. Because so few employees were using the program, leaders
wondered if they should develop educational training to explain the benefits to employees. They
wanted to make a well-informed decision before committing to the investment, so they asked their
data analytics department to make a recommendation.
The analysts used the six phases framework and began by defining the problem. They asked, “Are
employees investing in the company's retirement contribution program?”And, if not, “Should we
create an educational program to encourage participation?” Satisfied with their research questions,
they prepared their analysis project by gathering data from HR, such as employee demographics,
salary levels, and current retirement contributions.
Next, they processed the data by cleaning and organizing it. They removed duplicates and data
from individuals who had retired or left the company, then sorted the data by the employees’ ages,
departments, and length of employment. Their analysis showed that some employee groups were
less likely to contribute to the plan or to be aware that the company offers a matching contribution.
They interpreted these results to mean that these employee groups were not receiving enough
education on the company’s retirement contribution matching program. They also studied the data
to find trends and insights and used data visualization to review their analysis by exploring it in
different contexts.
The analysts shared their findings with the management team using visualizations including bar
and pie charts that illustrated the facts clearly so decision-makers could easily interpret the data.
The report showed that, while overall participation was decent, some employee groups were not
taking full advantage of the retirement program—but they might, if they knew more about the
program and the matching contribution the company offers.
Based on these findings, the company took action, creating a targeted educational program focusing
on the benefits of retirement contributions, specifically aimed at the employee groups identified as
low contributors. Results showed that a few months after implementing this training, there was a
significant increase in retirement contributions among the targeted groups.

Iteration during the data analysis process

The data analysis process is designed to build on itself, so the results from each step are the inputs
for the next step. Keep in mind, however, that you might not always move through the steps
linearly. For example, you might be in the analyze phase and find out your data was pulled from the
wrong database. Or, you could learn while cleaning the data that your original question didn’t
adequately define the problem.
In cases such as these, you may have to go back to an earlier stage and work through the process
with new, better information. The important thing is not to skip steps and miss something that’s
important. In fact, the biggest mistake analysts make when using this framework is looking for
quick and easy answers.
Finally, make sure to review your work in each phase of the analysis. This helps you learn more
about the situation and your own skill set, which will lead to the kind of continuous growth that
helps data professionals succeed.

Key takeaways
The six phases of the data analysis process help answer business challenges, such as understanding
how to improve a retirement program. Additionally, iterating on and reviewing your work
throughout the data analysis process is critical for obtaining quality results.

Decision Intelligence for Google Cloud.

Decision Intelligence is a combination of
applied data science and
the social and managerial sciences.
It is all about harnessing the power and beauty of data.
data science, the discipline of making data useful,
is an umbrella term that encompasses three disciplines:
machine learning, statistics, and analytics.
These are separated by
how many decisions you know
you want to make before you begin with them.
If you want to make a few important decisions under
uncertainty, that is statistics.
If you want to automate, in other words, make many, many,
many decisions under uncertainty,
that is machine learning and AI.
But what if you don't know
how many decisions you want to make before you begin?
What if what you're looking for is inspiration?
You want to encounter your unknown unknowns.
You want to understand your world.
That is analytics.
When you're considering data science and
you're choosing which area to specialize in,
I recommend going with your personality.
Which of the three excellences
in data science feels like a better fit for you?
The excellence of statistics is rigor.
Statisticians are essentially philosophers,
epistemologists.
They are very, very careful about
protecting decision-makers from coming
to the wrong conclusion.
If that care and rigor is what you are passionate about,
I would recommend statistics.
Performance is the excellence of
the machine learning and AI engineer.
You know that's the one for you if someone says to you,
"I bet that you couldn't build
an automation system that performs this task with
99.99999 percent accuracy," and
your response to that is, "Watch me."
How about analytics?
The excellence of an analyst is speed.
How quickly can you surf through vast amounts of
data to explore it and discover the gems,
the beautiful potential insights that are
worth knowing about and bringing to your decision-makers?
Are you excited by the ambiguity of exploration?
Are you excited by the idea
of working on a lot of different things,
looking at a lot of different data sources,
and thinking through vast amounts of information,
while promising not to
snooze past the important potential insights?
Are you okay being told,
"Here is a whole lot of data.
No one has looked at it before.
Go find something interesting"?
Do you thrive on creative, open-ended projects?
If that's you, then
analytics is probably the best fit for you.
A piece of advice that I have
for analysts getting started on
this journey is it can
be pretty scary to explore the unknown.
But I suggest letting go a little bit of
any temptations towards perfectionism and instead,
enjoying the fun, the thrill of exploration.
Don't worry about right answers.
See how quickly you can unwrap this gift
and find out if there is anything fun in there.
It's like your birthday, unwrapping a bunch of things.
Some of them you like. Some of them you won't.
But isn't it fun to know what's actually in there?
1. Ask: business challenge, objective, or question
2. Prepare: data generation, collection, storage, and data management
3. Process: data cleaning and data integrity
4. Analyze: data exploration, visualization, and analysis
5. Share: communicating and interpreting results
6. Act: putting insights to work to solve the problem
-EMC's data analysis process
EMC Corporation's data analytics process is cyclical with six steps:
1. Discovery
2. Pre-processing data
3. Model planning
4. Model building
5. Communicate results
6. Operationalize
EMC Corporation is now Dell EMC. This model, created by David Dietrich, reflects the cyclical
nature of typical business projects. The phases aren’t static milestones; each step connects and leads
to the next, and eventually repeats. Key questions help analysts test whether they have
accomplished enough to move forward and ensure that teams have spent enough time on each of the
phases and don’t start modeling before the data is ready. It is a little different from the data analysis
process on which this program is based on, but it has some core ideas in common: the first phase is
interested in discovering and asking questions; data has to be prepared before it can be analyzed and
used; and then findings should be shared and acted on.

SAS's iterative process

An iterative data analysis process was created by a company called SAS, a leading data analytics
solutions provider. It can be used to produce repeatable, reliable, and predictive results:
1. Ask
2. Prepare
3. Explore
4. Model
5. Implement
6. Act
7. Evaluate
The SAS model emphasizes the cyclical nature of their model by visualizing it as an infinity
symbol. Its process has seven steps, many of which mirror the other models, like ask, prepare,
model, and act. But this process is also a little different; it includes a step after the act phase
designed to help analysts evaluate their solutions and potentially return to the ask phase again.

Project-based data analytics process

A project-based data analytics process has five simple steps:
1. Identifying the problem
2. Designing data requirements
3. Pre-processing data
4. Performing data analysis
5. Visualizing data
This data analytics project process was developed by Vignesh Prajapati. It doesn’t include the sixth
phase, or the act phase. However, it still covers a lot of the same steps described. It begins with
identifying the problem, preparing and processing data before analysis, and ends with data
visualization.
For more information, refer to Understanding the data analytics project life cycle
.

Big data analytics process

Authors Thomas Erl, Wajid Khattak, and Paul Buhler proposed a big data analytics process in their
book, Big Data Fundamentals: Concepts, Drivers & Techniques. Their process suggests phases
divided into nine steps:
1. Business case evaluation
2. Data identification
3. Data acquisition and filtering
4. Data extraction
5. Data validation and cleaning
6. Data aggregation and representation
7. Data analysis
8. Data visualization
9. Utilization of analysis results
This process appears to have three or four more steps than the previous models. But in reality, they
have just broken down what has been referred to as prepare and process into smaller steps. It
emphasizes the individual tasks required for gathering, preparing, and cleaning data before the
analysis phase.
For more information, refer to Big Data Adoption and Planning Considerations
.

Key takeaway
From a journey to the pyramids and data in ancient Egypt to now, the way people analyze data has
evolved (and continues to do so). The data analysis process is like real life architecture: There are
different ways to do things but the same core ideas still appear in each model of the process.
Whether you use the structure of this Google Data Analytics Certificate or one of the many other
iterations you have learned about, your approach will be effective.

Data ecosystemData ecosystems are made up of various elements that interact with one
another
in order to produce, manage, store, organize, analyze, and share data.
The cloud is a place to keep data online, rather than on a
computer hard drive.
At the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, coral reefs all
over
the world are monitored digitally, so they can see how organisms change over time,
track their growth, and measure any increases or
declines in individual colonies.
The possibilities are endles
.
Data analysts can use this data to help farmers predict crop yields.
Some data analysts are even using data ecosystems to save real
environmental ecosystems.
At the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, coral reefs all over
the world are monitored digitally, so they can see how organisms change over time,
track their growth, and measure any increases or
declines in individual colonies.
The possibilities are endless.
Okay, now let's talk about some common misconceptions you might come across.
First is the difference between data scientists and data analysts.
It's easy to confuse the two, but what they do is actually very different.
Data science is defined as creating new ways of modeling and
understanding the unknown by using raw data.
Here's a good way to think about it.
Data scientists create new questions using data, while analysts find
answers to existing questions by creating insights from data sources.
There are also many words and
phrases you'll hear throughout this course, that are easy to get mixed up.
For example, data analysis and data analytics sound the same,
but they're actually very different things. Let's start with analysis.
You've already learned that data analysis is the collection, transformation,
and organization of data in order to draw conclusions,
make predictions, and drive informed decision-making.
Data analytics in the simplest terms is the science of data.
It's a very broad concept that encompasses everything from the job of managing and
using data to the tools and methods that data workers use each and every day.
So when you think about data, data analysis and
the data ecosystem, it's important to understand that all of these
things fit under the data analytics umbrella.
All right, now that you know a little more about the data ecosystem and
the differences between data analysis and data analytics,
you're ready to explore how data is used to make effective decisions.
You'll get to see data-driven decision-making, in action.