How do you combine data engineering with data science?

In today's data-centric world, the role of a data engineer is pivotal. We lay the groundwork for all data-related activities, ensuring that organizations can leverage their data assets to achieve strategic goals, stay competitive, and adapt to evolving market demands. Through our efforts, we facilitate the transition from raw data to actionable insights, thus driving business growth and transformation.

Data science is a race and racing car is a data engineering. Modern tools leveraging a lot from AI-ML capabilities to suffice a data analytics requirements. Data science provides statistical analysis on the actual and forecasted data which we call as predictive analytics. Key is to train data models in a such way that depiction of trends comply with the requirements and simplify the needs of customers. Along with traditional skills Data engineers now a days should also be familiar with predictive analytics, Natural language processing and modern visualisations i.e. BI with AI

One thing I disagree about is the arbitrary delineation drawn between data engineers and data scientists. To be successful, data engineers must be able to understand the needs of their end users as well as understand their data. At a basic level this involves understanding when there are unexpected variations in data as well as regular reporting for mathematical trends. At a deeper level though they need to understand what data scientists need and how they need it, which requires (some) knowledge of the techniques being used. Similarly, data scientists have to be familiar with data transformation techniques, sometimes just for creating complicated models. The distinction is more about day to day responsibilities than it is about skills

Data engineering and data science are seamlessly integrated by data engineers collecting, storing, and preprocessing data, ensuring its quality, while data scientists analyze this prepared data to derive insights and build models for informed decision-making.

Sem usar termos muito técnicos é a pessoa que tem conhecimentos em prover dados úteis de forma fácil e acessível para todas as camadas de uma empresa, como os dados de uma empresa são abundantes e de diferentes formatos engenheiro de dados enfrentam diferentes desafios e técnicas para manter a integridade dos dados.

I don't think Data Science is an application field of Data Engineering. Data Scientist are those who help businesses derive the insights out of the data. Having said that, Data Engineers help Data Scientist to get data converted into interepretable form and Data Scientist thus use this data, engineers the feature to extract the business outcome out of it. Data Engineers are the helpful brothers of Data Scientists.

Data engineers and data scientists exist mutually. Data engineers assist to extract, transform and load data into a place consumable by data scientists. Once data scientists can ingest these data into their models, they can extract insights, they can predict and as well visualize for consumption by different stakeholders. So, data science cannot be an application of data engineering but rather data engineering is an enabler of data science.

The role of data science will vary heavily from organization to organization. The general starting point of the data science process is data engineering bringing and preparing the data for data science. From here the role of data science could be anything from Analytics to R&D to ML model building and beyond.

Once upon a time in a world driven by information, data science is the wizard, weaving magic from the tangled threads of data. They harnesses power of data to reveal hidden patterns and insights. They are modern-day storyteller, decoding the narrative of digital age. Data science uncovers tales of customer preferences, predicts trends, and optimizes decision-making and empowers businesses to make informed choices, healthcare to save lives, and science to unlock the mysteries of the universe. It's the alchemist turning raw data into gold, fueling innovations and discoveries. Like a masterful bard, data scientists use statistics, machine learning, and domain expertise that guide us through the labyrinth of data, and helping solve problems.

Data science acts as the application of data engineering, with data scientists tasked with analyzing, modeling, and interpreting data to derive insights, predictions, and recommendations pivotal for informed decision-making and business advancement. Utilizing tools and frameworks such as R, Python, TensorFlow, PyTorch, Scikit-learn, and Tableau, data scientists conduct exploratory data analysis, data visualization, feature engineering, machine learning, deep learning, and natural language processing. Additionally, data scientists communicate their discoveries and recommendations to diverse stakeholders, including managers, customers, and developers, facilitating strategic alignment and informed actions.

Data engineering and data aren't meant to be considered separate, instead they're meant to collaboratively work yielding a data product that can provide business insight. By collectively having a clear distribution of tasks it's important to have a scalable, flexible infrastructure that can help both be on the same platform to get the outcomes i.e., DATA! Data Engineers must have a proper plan to go through the end result, which is in sync with the data engineers while the requirements are gathered, design and architectures are built. Once data engineers complete their part a thorough walkthrough must be given to data scientists, helping them get the right sense of data they must refer and have an insight about it's process flow.

Combining data engineering with data science yields benefits like improved data quality, faster insights, scalability, cost-efficiency, enhanced security, and cross-functional collaboration. It enables efficient problem-solving, better governance, continuous improvement, and a competitive edge in utilizing data for informed decisions and innovation.

Combining data engineering with data science isn't just about providing appropriate data from the engineering team to the data science team. Instead it involves collaborative discussions, brainstorming to design a scalable, flexible and reusable architecture that fulfills the demand of the final data product. From preparing data pipelines move the data into a repository to build MLOPs pipelines, both data engineering and scientist teams must combine work to understand the requirements, tools, approaches, environment and infrastructure along with other aspects like data volume, velocity, quality, security, governance and more. This helps to stay relevant reducing bias and rework for the final business outcome to yield impactful results

Data engineering and data science should not be considered separate entities. Instead, their synergy is crucial for the successful execution of data-driven projects. By working closely together, data engineers and data scientists can create a seamless workflow that leverages their combined expertise, ultimately driving more accurate insights and better decision-making for the organization. This integrated approach ensures that data solutions are not only technically sound but also aligned with business goals, fostering innovation and growth. Any project goals cannot be achieved without the integration of data engineering and data science.

However much it is a great idea to combine DS and DE teams into one, we need to evaluate pros and cons of doing so. Pros: As discussed it would bring synergy between DE and DS personals and Data would be more effective and reliable to be used for specific Modeling or Dashboarding purposes. Cons: Just for the cons sake, imagine it is a company that uses same or similar sources of data to derive insights for multiple business use cases. And this is one of the big MNC where each business is defined as seprate internal entities. Having one comparatively big DE team would be helpful in this case instead of seprate DE team combined with DS team helping each LOB.

Data Science and Data Engineering work hand in hand. Data Engineers create and maintain the infrastructure that allow for the efficient handling and storage of large data sets. They ensure data is accessible and in a usable format. Data Scientists then use this well-organized data to perform analysis, build models, and extract insights. Essentially, Data Engineers lay the groundwork for Data Scientists to effectively carry out their analysis.

Combining data engineering with data science poses challenges like data integration complexity, skill gaps, resource demands, scalability, security, and communication barriers. Overcoming these hurdles requires careful planning, effective collaboration, and ongoing adaptation to evolving business needs.

Combining data engineering with data science poses challenges for both the data team and the organization. Differing skill sets and backgrounds required for data engineering and data science, encompassing programming, statistics, mathematics, domain knowledge, and communication, can lead to gaps and misunderstandings between the two groups. Moreover, divergent goals and expectations, such as efficiency, accuracy, innovation, and impact, may cause conflicts and misalignments. Additionally, varying toolsets and frameworks utilized in each field, including SQL, Python, Spark, R, TensorFlow, and Tableau, can result in compatibility and integration issues between data systems and models.

Data engineering and data science initiatives must adhere to regulatory requirements and data governance policies to ensure data privacy, security, and compliance. Data engineers need to implement appropriate data governance frameworks and security measures, while data scientists must adhere to ethical guidelines and regulatory standards when collecting, storing, and analyzing data. Ensuring compliance with regulations such as GDPR, HIPAA, or CCPA can be complex and challenging.

Normally I'll call this "challenging" combination an ML Engineer (obviously + DevOps capabilities), because is someone who has the knowledge to understand the complexity of Data Science perspective, I mean, statistics + mathematics in addition with the deep capacities a Data Engineer needs to know in regard data processing. I think it's not too challenging in terms of mixing both disciplines but in my perspective is to master in all of them at the same time with depth of knowledge, that is very complex!

The data science team should communicate to the data engineering team as many details as possible about the kind of frameworks, models and techniques that will be employed to analyze and interpret the data. Doing so ensures that the data is engineered to be stored in the shape that the data science team needs.

I would say the best practice is to ensure each group understands the processes the other is going through. You don't need to be specialists in each other's area but knowing each other's strengths and weaknesses, challenges and goals, can really help in achieving your aims together.

Firstly, Identify & understand the problem that is being solved then divide that problem into actionable items. that can define clear and common goals for data engineers and data scientists. The other best practice would be that data engineers and data scientists must have regular discussions together with business stakeholders who have the complete picture of what is being built.

Na minha última experiência eu precisava prover dados de forma resiliente para um LLM que estava sendo parametrizado por um cientista de dados, entramos em acordo o uso requisições REST e NoSQL para consumo desses dados já que um banco de dados tradicional não teria a flexibilidade suficiente. A melhor forma de combinar essas áreas é encontrar meios em que ambas as partes se sintam confortáveis com a solução, consumir direto do data lake seria difícil pra ele mas também consumir direto com SQL não era uma opção.

- Combine data engineers and data scientists in teams to facilitate better communication and collaboration. - Hold regular meetings to discuss data requirements, progress, and issues. - Use platforms like Databricks, AWS, or Google Cloud that support both data engineering and data science tasks. - Implement version control (e.g., Git) for both code and data to ensure reproducibility and collaboration.

The quality and consistency of your data determines everything in a project. If its a personal or portfolio project, one is both the data engineer and the data scientist for it. But when it moves to enterprise level, teams of DEs and DSs might be required. A perfect collaboration is required because projects these days have the data flowing in loops. Example: a recommender system designed will get feedback on its results which need to be reinforced into the model, and the DS can have a code built for it but the DE should already have considered the architecture for handling that data in the pipeline, without which the change isn’t possible. If an app or the model needs a feature upgrade, the DS and the DE have to build it together.

In recent years, I have participated in projects implementing machine learning models in medium and large companies. The scenario is almost always the same: companies invest significantly in creating a data science department with the goal of leveraging statistical modeling, only to discover that without a consistent data flow—cleaned and directed—success is unattainable. This is where data engineering comes in. Data engineers are responsible for developing methods for data collection, processing, and delivery according to business needs. Data engineering and data science are complementary disciplines. To effectively leverage machine learning, companies urgently need to review their data generation and processing processes.