Matt’s Cars Data Project — Project Plan

Overview

This project analyzes a dataset of 30 vehicles owned over a period of more than 30 years. The work serves multiple purposes, including skill demonstration, academic practice, structured personal documentation, and exploratory data analysis using SQL, R, and Python.

Project Goals

Create a dataset for exploratory analysis
Demonstrate database design and data ingestion skills
Apply statistical and analytical techniques
Produce technical documentation
Publish pages to the Saxton Publishing documentation site

Phase 1: Planning

Objectives

Define the project
Establish project phases

Results

This project plan page
A list of project phases with descriptions

Phase 2: Data Preparation and Normalization

Objectives

Complete existing spreadsheet fields
Identify missing data or other anomalies

Results

Data dictionary describing all attributes
Documented standardization decisions

Phase 3: Database Development

Objectives

Populate the database from prepared data

Results

SQL statements to build the database
A populated Postgres SQL dataset

Phase 4: Exploratory Analysis (SQL)

Objectives

Create SQL queries to explore the dataset
Perform analysis using SQL queries
Identify patterns and anomalies
Record the findings

Results

A documented set of SQL queries
Descriptive analysis of the dataset

Phase 5: Statistical Analysis Using R and Python

Objectives

Develop a list of questions for statistical analysis using R
Develop a second list of questions more suited for analysis in Python
Produce visualizations that demonstrate the results of the analysis

Results

R scripts and visualizations
Python scripts in either Jupyter or Colab notebooks
Notes about the analysis, including limitations or assumptions

Phase 6: Car Documentation

Objectives

Create one page per vehicle for details

Results

Individual pages for each vehicle
Links between cars and relevant analyses

Phase 7: Reflection

Objectives

Identify what worked well, what changed, and what to improve next time

Results

Reflection page summarizing lessons learned
Blog post describing the project and results of analysis