Measure twice, cut once -- Questions before starting with machine learning

With many articles promoting machine learning as the magic bullet to solve tough problems, the pressure has never been higher for data scientists and software developers to deliver impressive AI systems for their own tasks. However, the path to being a successful practitioner is a long journey and it is better to be aware of the pitfalls and tread lightly before rushing in. In this post, I would like to list the questions that I prefer to ask at the start of every project. More often than not, clearing these upfront has helped save valuable time in later development stages. As obvious as it may sound, the most important step is defining a valid problem statement.