Data Validation with Alteryx: Testing and Optimization Tools from Coursera

Tired of spending hours looking for that one pesky bug that keeps messing up your results? This hands-on Alteryx course teaches you to audit and validate you data input and workflows, to get confidence in you output.

You will learn to check input data files for potential errors, detect data loss when combining data streams, and maintain data integrity through joins and aggregations. The course also covers ways to output data into multiple Excel tabs and add custom messages to guide future users of your workflows.

By the end, you will be able to add steps to your workflows to minimise errors, ensure consistency and improve the user experience for your colleagues.

By taking on the role of somebody tasked with collecting survey results data, you will learn to validate data sources, join and test data streams, keep numeric fields consistent, write data to multi-tab Excel files and implement custom alerts for better workflow management.

Learners should already have an understanding of the basic functions in Alteryx such as inputting/outputting data, using joins/unions, and manipulating data with filters, select or formula tools.

What's inside

Syllabus

Project Overview

This hands-on Alteryx course teaches you to audit and validate your data input and workflows, to get confidence in you output. You will learn to check input data files for potential errors, detect data loss when combining data streams, and maintain data integrity through joins and aggregations. The course also covers ways to output data into multiple Excel tabs and add custom messages to guide future users of your workflows. By the end, you will be able to add steps to your workflows to minimize errors, ensure consistency and improve the user experience for your colleagues.

Good to know

Know what's good

, what to watch for

, and possible dealbreakers

Teaches how to audit and validate data input and workflows, which is essential for maintaining data integrity and ensuring reliable results in Alteryx

Covers techniques for detecting data loss when combining data streams, a common challenge in Alteryx workflows that can lead to inaccurate analysis

Explores methods for outputting data into multiple Excel tabs and adding custom messages, enhancing the usability and clarity of Alteryx workflows for collaborators

Requires prior understanding of basic Alteryx functions, suggesting it is designed for users who have already started working with the platform

Activities

Be better prepared before your course. Deepen your understanding during and after it. Supplement your coursework and achieve mastery of the topics covered in Data Validation with Alteryx: Testing and Optimization Tools with these activities:

Review Alteryx Join Tool Functionality

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Review the functionality of the Alteryx Join tool to ensure a solid understanding before tackling data validation challenges involving joins.

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Review the different join types.
Practice using the Join tool with sample datasets.
Explore advanced join configurations.

Practice Data Validation Scenarios

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Practice common data validation scenarios in Alteryx to reinforce the techniques learned in the course.

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Create workflows to validate data types.
Build workflows to check for missing values.
Develop workflows to identify outliers.

Create a Data Validation Checklist

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Create a checklist of data validation steps to use as a reference when building Alteryx workflows.

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Identify common data quality issues.
Document validation techniques for each issue.
Organize the checklist for easy reference.

Four other activities

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Review 'Data Quality: The Information Dimension'

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Review this book to gain a deeper understanding of data quality principles and how they apply to data validation in Alteryx.

View Data Quality: The Accuracy Dimension (The... on Amazon

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Read the chapters on data quality dimensions.
Take notes on key concepts and techniques.
Relate the concepts to Alteryx workflows.

Follow Advanced Alteryx Validation Tutorials

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Seek out and follow advanced Alteryx tutorials that cover complex data validation techniques and error handling.

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Find tutorials on Alteryx's website.
Replicate the steps in Alteryx.
Adapt the techniques to your own data.

Create a Presentation on Data Validation Best Practices

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Create a presentation summarizing data validation best practices in Alteryx to solidify understanding and share knowledge.

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Research data validation best practices.
Prepare slides with key concepts.
Practice the presentation.

Build a Data Validation Workflow for a Real-World Dataset

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Start a project to build a comprehensive data validation workflow for a real-world dataset, applying the skills learned in the course.

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Obtain a real-world dataset.
Identify data quality issues.
Design and implement a validation workflow.
Document the workflow and its results.

Career center

Learners who complete Data Validation with Alteryx: Testing and Optimization Tools will develop knowledge and skills that may be useful to these careers:

Data Quality Manager

A Data Quality Manager is responsible for maintaining the accuracy, completeness, and consistency of data within an organization. This course is extremely relevant, providing hands-on experience with Alteryx for auditing and validating data inputs and workflows. As a data quality manager, you might use the skills taught in this course to check input data files for potential errors, detect data loss when combining data streams, and maintain data integrity during joins and aggregations. The knowledge related to outputting data into multiple Excel tabs and implementing custom alerts is directly applicable to improving workflow management and data accuracy. This course is essential for anyone seeking to enhance their career in data quality management.

See salaries and explore the career path for Data Quality Manager

Data Analyst

As a data analyst, you transform raw data into actionable insights, often involving cleaning, validating, and interpreting complex datasets. This course helps you to perform data validation and testing with Alteryx to ensure the accuracy and reliability of your analyses. It teaches you to check input data files for potential errors, detect data loss when combining data streams, and maintain data integrity, all of which are essential for a Data Analyst. The ability to output data into multiple Excel tabs and add custom messages further enhances your ability to present data clearly and effectively to stakeholders. Someone in this role should take this course to improve their overall data integrity.

See salaries and explore the career path for Data Analyst

Business Intelligence Analyst

The Business Intelligence Analyst role involves using data to understand market trends and inform strategic decisions. This course helps you ensure the data used for business intelligence is accurate and reliable. You will learn how to audit and validate data inputs and workflows using Alteryx. The course's focus on checking for errors in input data, detecting data loss, and maintaining data integrity directly applies to the responsibilities of a Business Intelligence Analyst. You also learn to output data effectively for users of workflows. This course is particularly relevant for its focus on optimizing data quality, a core concern for business intelligence.

See salaries and explore the career path for Business Intelligence Analyst

Data Engineer

Data Engineers design, build, and maintain data pipelines and infrastructure. This course helps you to ensure data quality and reliability within these pipelines. You'll learn to use Alteryx to audit and validate data inputs and workflows, which is crucial for maintaining data integrity. By learning to check input data files for errors, detect data loss, and maintain data integrity during joins and aggregations, you can enhance the robustness of data pipelines. Furthermore, the course's coverage of outputting data into multiple Excel tabs and adding custom messages can be valuable for presenting data pipeline status and issues. A data engineer should take this course to ensure the data pipelines they build are robust.

See salaries and explore the career path for Data Engineer

Marketing Analyst

Marketing Analysts use data to measure and improve marketing campaign performance. This course helps you ensure the data used is accurate and reliable. You will learn how to use Alteryx to validate data inputs, detect data loss, and maintain integrity across various marketing data streams. The ability to add custom messages to guide users of workflows can be particularly helpful in explaining data transformations and highlighting important findings to stakeholders. The course provides practical skills for ensuring the marketing insights are built on a solid, validated foundation. A marketing analyst would benefit from understanding these skills to improve overall accuracy.

See salaries and explore the career path for Marketing Analyst

Financial Analyst

Financial Analysts analyze financial data to provide insights and recommendations. This course helps you to ensure the accuracy and reliability of financial data by identifying and correcting potential errors in input data files, detecting data loss when combining data streams, and maintaining data integrity. The course's ability to output data into multiple Excel tabs and add custom messages is quite crucial for presenting financial analyses clearly and effectively. The validation and testing tools in the course can greatly enhance the reliability of financial analyses for those in this role. This course would be of particular interest to the financial analyst.

See salaries and explore the career path for Financial Analyst

Reporting Analyst

Reporting Analysts generate reports that summarize data for decision-making. The integrity of the data in those reports is important. This course helps you to use Alteryx to validate data inputs and workflows so that you may produce accurate reports. You will learn to check for errors, detect data loss, and maintain data integrity throughout the reporting process. Moreover, the course's lessons on outputting data into multiple Excel tabs and adding custom messages helps you improve user experience. This course is a valuable tool for anyone interested in producing reliable and actionable data reports.

See salaries and explore the career path for Reporting Analyst

Database Administrator

Database Administrators maintain and optimize databases, and this course helps validate data within those databases. The course teaches you to audit and validate data input and workflows, ensuring data integrity from the start. By learning to check input data files for errors, detect data loss during data manipulation, and maintain data integrity through joins and aggregations, you can improve the performance and reliability of databases. The ability to add descriptions is relevant for maintaining metadata and documenting data transformations. Taking this course can prove useful for any database administrator.

See salaries and explore the career path for Database Administrator

Research Analyst

Research Analysts collect and analyze data to support research projects. This course provides hands-on experience with Alteryx to audit and validate data inputs and workflows, which is crucial for ensuring the reliability of research findings. As a Research Analyst, you might use this to check input data files for errors, detect data loss when combining data streams, and maintain data integrity through joins and aggregations. The ability to add custom messages to guide users of workflows can be particularly valuable for documenting data transformations. The course's focus on data validation directly supports the core responsibilities of a Research Analyst. This course helps increase your effectiveness.

See salaries and explore the career path for Research Analyst

Data Visualization Specialist

The Data Visualization Specialist transforms data into visual formats to communicate insights effectively. While visualization is key, the underlying data needs to be sound. This course may help you ensure the data used for visualizations is accurate and reliable. Learning to validate data inputs and workflows using Alteryx, checking for errors in input data, and maintaining data integrity are all valuable skills. Furthermore, the course's coverage of outputting data into multiple Excel tabs may further enhance your ability to present data effectively. This course may be helpful to someone who wants to build a stronger foundation in data accuracy.

See salaries and explore the career path for Data Visualization Specialist

Data Architect

Data Architects design and manage an organization's data infrastructure. While this course does not focus on architecture, it may help you to validate data as it moves through the architecture. The course helps make you aware of data loss and inconsistencies, which are important to consider when designing data systems. Learning to use Alteryx to audit and validate data inputs and workflows may be valuable for maintaining data integrity at various stages. This course may be useful to someone who wants to ensure data accuracy within their architectural designs.

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Machine Learning Engineer

Machine Learning Engineers build and deploy machine learning models. This course may help you to ensure that the data used to train these models are accurate and reliable. Learning to validate data inputs and workflows using Alteryx and check for errors in input data are skills that may be valuable. Similarly, maintaining data integrity may be helpful. By ensuring the data is in top condition, you may improve the model's performance. This course may be useful to someone who wants to improve data quality for machine learning models.

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Solutions Architect

Solutions Architects design and implement IT solutions that meet business needs. This course may help you to understand data validation techniques and ensure data quality within these solutions. You will learn to audit and validate data inputs and workflows using Alteryx, check for errors in input data, and maintain data integrity. While this course doesn't cover the full scope of solution architecture, it may provide a valuable perspective on ensuring data accuracy. This may be useful to someone who wants to incorporate data validation into their solutions.

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Technical Consultant

Technical Consultants advise clients on technical solutions. This course may help you to provide informed recommendations regarding data validation and quality. The course teaches you to audit and validate data inputs and workflows using Alteryx. While not directly related to all aspects of technical consulting, this course may equip you with specific skills for data-focused projects. This could be useful to someone who wants to broaden their expertise with data validation.

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Statistician

Statisticians collect, analyze, and interpret numerical data. This course may help statisticians to ensure the quality and reliability of the data they use in their analyses. You will learn to use Alteryx to validate data inputs and workflows. Learning to check for errors, detect data loss, and maintain integrity may be quite useful. The ability to create and use custom alerts may be valuable for flagging potential issues. By ensuring data is consistent, the statistician helps improve the analytical results. This course may be a good fit for statisticians.

See salaries and explore the career path for Statistician

Data Validation with Alteryx

Testing and Optimization Tools

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