Alteryx Learning Path: The growth in technology has resulted in growth in understanding. In today’s world, humans – fellow businessmen know the power of Big Data Analysis. Data analytics help to understand business problems by identifying them at the right time. Identification of a particular problem can lead to its possible solutions; in turn, it leads to the growth of a successful business.
The analytics process involves a lot of steps from gathering data to transforming it into the analysis performable format.
Since decades, MS Excel is the tool that deals with any sort of data but as the data is becoming huge with each passing day, working with MS Excel is getting tedious and many often incompetent. Automation is the need of the hour to overcome all the hurdles and carry out the analytics process at a much faster pace.
Alteryx is a self-service data analytics tool that helps to perform analysis of any amount of data by building workflows. In other words, Alteryx is a tool that helps to perform data analysis in a very easy and automated way. The tasks that took a huge amount of time and energy to perform in MS Excel, became a cakewalk with the help of Alteryx.
Industries are now turning towards Alteryx to make their processes faster.
It is very necessary for today’s era to learn Alteryx and get the knack of it. Below is the step by step guide to learn Alteryx from scratch. To start your Alteryx Learning you should have Alteryx Course, that offers practice sessions and self-paced learning.
Alteryx Learning Guide (Step-By-Step)
Beginning with Alteryx
To learn Alteryx the first thing we need to know its requirements. The following are the pre-requisites to learn Alteryx:
You need to know the basics of
- Algebra
- Descriptive statistics
- MS Excel
Alteryx combines a total of three products:
- Alteryx Desktop Designer Tool – To build workflows
- Alteryx Server – To upload and share the built workflows
- Alteryx Gallery – To view the work of fellow users and to publish your own workflows
Before start working on Alteryx, you should watch the below video to get an idea about Alteryx.
Working of Alteryx
To learn Alteryx, you need to understand first how Alteryx exactly works. The following is the process of working of Alteryx in brief:
Step 1: Input Data
Alteryx builds workflows to perform analytics. To perform analytics data has to be given to the workflow. The initial step is to input the data using the input data tool in Alteryx.
Step 2: Data Preparation & Blending
Once the data is given to the workflow it prepares and blends it to the further process. This preparation and blending of data are performed at a much faster rate than the traditional one by using MS Excel.
Step 3: Analytics
Mostly three types of analytics are performed within an organization. The three types of analytics are as follows:
- Predictive Analytics
- Spatial Analytics
- Visual Analytics
1. Predictive Analytics
It takes the basis of the statistical data to predict what could happen. As the name suggests it predicts the outcome of the business in the near future via analytics.
2. Spatial Analytics
To perform spatial analytics, it joins the data to the third-party demographic files.
3. Visual Analytics
Visual type of analytics helps us to view the data in motion or in the form of visuals. It shows the journey of solving a problem.
Step 4: Publish
After the designing of the workflows, it needs to be published on the server or on the cloud. This data can then be fed to a data visualization tool for performing visual analytics of the data.
The above four steps prove that to learn Alteryx it is necessary to first learn the designing of workflows.
Step by Step Alteryx Learning Path
The following is the step by step guide to learn Alteryx with all the necessary details and become Alteryx Expert.
Step 1: Download & Install Alteryx
Download and Install Alteryx. The guide to download and install Alteryx is given here.
Step 2: Get Acquainted with Alteryx Designer
Once you have successfully downloaded and installed Alteryx, the next step involves getting acquainted with Alteryx Designer. Let us dig in more into the Alteryx designer. Alteryx designer is for building workflows. The primary function of Alteryx is to build workflows. Alteryx Designer is divided into 5 parts. Each part has its own importance. The following are the 5 parts of Alteryx designer along with its functions:
1. Tool Pallet
The first part of the designer is situated at the top of the interface and consists of the list of tools required to build workflows. To get the information about any particular tool you need to click on it and a window will pop up giving you all the information about the particular tool. If you want to see the example of the exact working of the tool you can click on the open example to get more understanding of the tool. All the tools present in this pallet are the building blocks of the workflows.
2. Workflow Area
The second part of the designer is located just below the box one. In this area, your workflows are built. You can drag and drop the tools here from the tools pallet to build the workflows.
3. Configuration Window
The third part of the designer is located on the left-hand side beside the workflow building space. It is basically the configuration window of the tools dragged and dropped in the workflow building space.
4. Result Window
Once you have built your workflow and configured it, the output of the tool can be viewed in the result window. You just have to run the workflow. The errors and the additional information along with the result will be displayed in this area.
5. Overview
This part is used to navigate and get an overview of the whole workflow. This part comes into picture when the workflow is big and you are not able to view the whole of it in the provided workflow space.
Step 3: Build Alteryx Actual Workflow
As you have gained the insights of the designer tool now there is the time to build the actual workflow. But before building the one for you can check out in the community group of Alteryx that whether anyone has built the same model the way you want and if yes then you can gain the back up of building the one for you. Let us build a workflow. The following steps are involved to build your very first workflow:
1. Selecting the tool
To build any workflow the first step will be to select the tool from the tool pallet. Mostly the first tool is the input tool that brings the data to your workflow.
2. Drag & Drop the tool
The second step involves dragging the input tool from the tool pallet and dropping it in your workflow canvas area.
3. Connecting to Data
Once the input tool is dropped in the workflow canvas click on it. A configuration window will open to connect the chosen data source.
4. Build a workflow
Now drag other tools from the tool pallet and configure it and connect them together. In this way build the workflow of your desire. If your workflow is big enough you can check its overview from the overview window.
5. Run the built workflow
Once your workflow is built it’s the time to test it. The best way to test any workflow is by running it. Click on the run button to run the workflow. The run button is located on the tool pallet.
6. Result
Now its time to view the results. The result of your workflow can be viewed in the results window.
Step 4: Working with Alteryx Workflow
Once you have built your first workflow on your own you are set to use Alteryx on your own. But wait! To become a pro in Alteryx there are still certain steps to be followed. You can check out what other fellow users have used to build the same workflow as yours. In this way, you will learn more insights to compactly design your workflow and you can even add the things that you might have forgot to add in your workflow.
Step 5: Join the Alteryx Community
Now its time to join the Alteryx Community. Joining the Alteryx community will help you to keep updated with new insights by Alteryx regularly. If you need some predesigned workflow to use you get it easily on the community forum. You need not have to build it again as it is already available. Being a part of the community will also help you grow on the professional front. If there are some questions or problems that you are facing in building a particular workflow you can easily ask for help on this community forum. Someone will definitely be there to help you out with your problem.
Step 6: Join the Alteryx Online Course
This is the final step in learning Alteryx. You can learn any technology on your own but the journey becomes easy if you get a mentor or a guide to lead you on this learning journey. Try and find the best Alteryx training providers online that will help you in learning Alteryx step by step easily.
Thus, it is very easy to learn Alteryx if you follow the above-stated step by step guide to learn Alteryx. The steps stated are the best way to learn Alteryx and will help any aspirant to become a pro in Alteryx. In this ever-changing world, it is very necessary to keep oneself updated with the new technologies. In this way, you will always be standing apart from the crowd. This type of attitude will not only make yourselves updated but will also give you a boost in your career.
After the Alteryx learning, you are Job ready. If you are heading into the Alteryx Job Interview? Start your preparation with Alteryx Interview Questions & Detailed Answers to get most familiar with most frequently asked questions.