• Objective (O): The assumptions, limitations, and measurements
of the problem need to be specified first so as
to precisely define the problem to be solved. With this
information, the objective of the problem can be made
crystal clear.
• Data (D): Another important concern of data mining is
the characteristics of data, such as size, distribution, and
representation. Different data usually need to be processed
differently. Although data coming from different
problems, say, Di and Dj , may be similar to each other,
they may have to be analyzed differently if the meanings
of the data are different.
• Mining algorithm (A): With needs (objective) and data
clearly specified above, data mining algorithm can be
easily determined, as to be discussed in Section III-E2.