Introduction to Data Python Data Analysis Projects

Overview

Teaching: 0 min
Exercises: 0 min

Questions

• What are common features of a project?

• What do I need to do to get my project shared?

• What will this lesson cover

Objectives

• Categorize pieces of code and organize them for efficient future use

• Identify components of a complete project

This episode will introduce the various tools that will be taught throughout the lesson and how the components relate to one another. This will set the foundation and motivation for the lesson.

A Data Analysis Project

Exercise

In small groups, describe all of the steps you might go through in developing a project, how it could work, and the things you want your project to do. Then discuss problems you anticipate or have had.

Solution

The rest of the episode adds them

Workflows, project stages, and common challenges

• collaboration
• work on multiple computers
• promote the work
• Make file:
• Pipeline tools
• backup -

Data and Code

• Different back up needs, different space requirements
• Different sharing needs
• Shared server examples
• scripts, numerical experiments, plotting(that get narrative)
• things that are project specific
• things that are method-related might be reused
  • these can be grouped as a package for install and then imported
• can become citable: Zenodo, get a DOI
• Data documentation, who , where, when, why: Mozilla has a checklist

Environments

• the set of requirements and dependencies
• what version of different software and packages
• don’t need to track it ourselves, the environment is like a wrapper
• many different managers; one is conda

Documentation

• demonstrate and publicize what you did (beyond an academic paper)
• help your team use your code
• clarify your thinking to do it in real time
• multiscale: overview, details,
• need to write the parts in natural language; but don’t need to work on the infrastructure, tools can do that for you

Why do good practices matter?

Lots of things can work and following “best” practices can take a lot of extra time. Why should we follow them and seek them?

• Jupytercon talk on issues about the problems with notebooks
  • hidden states
  • more risk for beginners
  • bad habits
  • hinder reproducibility
• automation tools are based on good practices: a little bit of good, helps fancy stuff be easy
  • sphinx autodocs

Key Points

• Projects have common structures

• Packaging enables a project to be installed

• An environment allows different people to all have the same versions and run software more reliably

• Documentation is an essential component of nay complete project and should exist with the code