The Data Analtics Lifecycle (DAL) is designed for specifically for Big Data problems and Data Science projects. The lifecycle has six phaes, and project work can occur in several phases at once. For most phases in the DAL, movement can be either forward or backward. This iterative depiction of the lifecycle is intended to more closely portrait a real project, in which aspects of the project move forward and may return to earlier stages as new information is uncovered and team members learn more about various stages of the project. This enables participants to move iteratively through the process and drive toward operationalizing the project work.

(Source: Data Science & Big Data Analytics: Discovering, Analyzing, Visualizing en Presenting Data. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2015)