1. How do you describe the importance of data in analytics? Can we think of analytics without data? Explain.

2. Considering the new and broad definition of business analytics, what are the main inputs and outputs to the analytics continuum?

3. Where do the data for business analytics come from? What are the sources and the nature of those incoming data?

4. What are the most common metrics that make for analytics-ready data?

5. Define data mining. Why are there many names and definitions for data mining?

6. What are the main reasons for the recent popularity of data mining?

7. Discuss what an organization should consider before making a decision to purchase data mining software.

8. Distinguish data mining from other analytical tools and techniques.

9. Discuss the main data mining methods. What are the fundamental differences among them?