Exploring the Phenomenon of Data Science : An Exploratory Study of the Field and its Scientists

Abstract: The recent abundance of data combined with the current digitalisation all over the globe has made organisations across various industries become more involved with data-driven processes. The power of data is harnessed through wrangling and analysis in order to not only create valuable insights to guide strategic decision-making but to also improve efficiency and productivity. These data-driven processes often involve combining statistical analysis with sophisticated software such as machine learning, and while it shares similarities to business intelligence or big data analytics, it truly belongs to Data Science. The field is young and ever growing with rapid developments in both the industry and in academia, but its lack of maturity has made it challenging to determine how it fares in the landscape of other fields. Academic contributions have been made towards the field's interdisciplinary nature and suggest that Data Scientists are able to extract knowledge and insights from data and turn it into action. However, the constituents of the field have seen less attention and it is still unclear what the title entails. In this thesis, the phenomenon of Data Science is explored by investigating the field's possible interdisciplinary nature and what its possible constituents might be. Further, this thesis investigated the practical responsibilities and duties of a Data Scientist. The thesis followed a qualitative approach that consisted of interviews with experts within Data Science, an extensive review of relevant literature, and an analysis of a current education in Data Science. The conclusions suggest that the practical responsibilities of a Data Scientist are best described according to the workflow that permeates Data Science projects. The claim of the field being of interdisciplinary nature is strengthened, and the results suggest that its main constituents are mathematics and practices related to computer science. It also includes elements from less technical domains.