Data science in government agencies : the challenge of deployment and operation

Abstract Despite the numerous business benefits of data science, the number of data science models in production is limited. Data science model deployment presents many challenges and many organisations have little model deployment knowledge. This research studied five model deployments in a Dutch government organisation. The study revealed that as a result of model deployment a data science subprocess is added into the target business process, the model itself can be adapted, model maintenance is incorporated in the model development process and a feedback loop is established between the target business process and the model development process. These model deployment effects and the related deployment challenges are different in strategic and operational target business processes. Based on these findings, guidelines are formulated which can form a basis for future principles how to successfully deploy data science models. Organisations can use these guidelines as suggestions to solve their own model deployment challenges.