Phase 1 Project Template - Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

This repository is like a blueprint, providing structure for your first End of Phase Project. We suggest you base your Phase 1 project off of this repository so you can focus less on formatting and organization, and more on the analysis and communication skills that will support your progress through the course. This template is designed to make your project portfolio-ready in order to impress the future employers who will review it.

Repository Contents

Below is a list of the contents of this repository - instructions for using them are in the next section.

• README.md: The README for this repo explaining its contents - you're reading it now.
• TEMPLATE_README.md: An example of a project README that provides a brief overview of your whole project.
• dsc-phase1-project-template.ipynb: A starter Jupyter Notebook with headings, code examples and guiding questions.
• create_sql_database.ipynb: A notebook for creating an SQL database if you would prefer to use SQL for this project.
• DS_Project_Presentation_Template.pdf: A starter slide deck presenting your project - here is an editable version.
• data folder: A folder for the data you reference with your code.
• src folder: A folder containing custom functions.
• images folder: A folder for the images you reference in your files .
• .gitignore: A hidden file that tells git to not track certain files and folders.

Instructions For Using This Repository

Fork This Repository

1. Fork this repository to your personal account

   • In GitHub, go to this repository and click the "Fork" button in the upper right.

2. Change the name of your fork of this repo to a descriptive name of your choosing

   • In GitHub, go to your fork of this repo -> "Settings" -> "Options" -> "Repository Name" -> "Rename"
   • Make the name descriptive, since potential employers will read it. Ex: "Microsoft-Movie-Analysis" is better than "Project-1"

3. Use git clone to clone your fork of this repo to your local computer

Work In Your Fork Of This Repository

• Work in the repo clone that you created on your local machine
• Start writing and coding in the Jupyter Notebook dsc-phase1-project-template.ipynb
• Fill in the README template in TEMPLATE_README.md
• Use git add, git commit, and git push often to update your repo in GitHub
  • For a refresher on how to do this and why it's important, review Topic 2: Bash and Git

Use The Slide Template

1. Go to this link to make an editable copy of the slide deck in your own Google Drive account
2. Go to "Slide," select "Change Theme," and pick a theme you like so your presentation doesn't look like everyone else's

Tidy Up Your Project

• Change the file name of the Jupyter Notebook (dsc-phase1-project-template.ipynb) to something more descriptive
• Save an appropriately-named PDF version of your slide deck to the repository
• Rename the template readme you've been working in by running git mv TEMPLATE_README.md README.md
• Delete unnecessary files from the repo using git rm
  • The presentation PDF: DS_Project_Presentation_Template.pdf
  • This README file: README.md
  • Any unused data files in the data folder
  • Any unused images in the images folder

Submit Your Project

To submit your project, please follow the instructions in the Project Submission & Review page on Canvas.

Notes

• The visualizations in the notebook use best practices for visualization that you should try to emulate. For example, they have clear axes, descriptive titles, and appropriate number formatting.
• The dsc-phase1-project-template.ipynb is intended to be the final version of your project. The first notebook you create will not look like this. You are encouraged to start with a very disorderly notebook and clean it as you go.
• If you would like to use SQL for this project, please open the create_sql_database.ipynb notebook, and run the cells. The schema for the database is stored in the images/ folder.