Activities in blue in the above figure are associated with data science. These are research, measurement, and modeling activities. Data scientists translate management questions into research questions, identifying relevant data sources and sampling frames, defining appropriate measures (or what is sometimes called feature engineering), and building and testing models of the data.

Activities in red in the figure are associated with data engineering. Data engineers have a key role to play at the beginning of every data science project. Data scientists depend on data engineers to gather and prepare data for analysis. Without data, there are no analyses, no models to build and test.

Some analytics and modeling projects end with a written report to management or a display of results in a dashboard or presentation. Research findings guide management decisions.

Analysis and modeling projects need not end with a report. Many models are put into practice. They become the way a company conducts its business. Data engineers have key roles to play in building data science applications and implementing information systems.

To remain competitive in today’s world, companies need to be informed by data and to use data in their day-to-day operations. That does not happen unless there are data engineers, technical professionals (software engineers, database administrators, cloud architects, and the like). These are people who can translate research results and data science models into systems that work.

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