Coursera - Managing Data Analysis Review

Managing Data Analysis is the third course in “Executive Data Science” specialization offered by John Hopkins University on Coursera. The one-week course discusses the process of data analysis at a high level, from formulating questions to exploratory analysis, inference, modeling and communicating results. Grading is based on several short comprehension quizzes.


The lectures in Managing Data Analysis are of good quality and the instructor is generally easy to understand. The lectures do, however, use some jargon and concepts that aren’t always adequately explained. Unlike the first two courses of the specialization, which are geared toward managers, this course is more geared toward people who are actually going to be conducting data analysis. The concepts in this course are definitely important for data science managers to understand, but non-technical students may find this to be a jarring change of pace. In addition, certain parts may be confusing if you have had no prior exposure to statistics or machine learning other then the first two courses of this specialization.


Managing Data Analysis provides a useful overview of the process of data analysis, but it is taught at a level appropriate for data analysts. “The Data Analysis Process” would be a more appropriate name for this course.


I give Managing Data Analysis 3.5 out of 5 stars: Good.