Alpha Stat Consulting

"It’s all in the computer!"

How many times have we heard this expression about data? Yet trying to get at that data and put it in a form that is useable is a major effort. Then turning it into information so that informed decisions can be made and priorities set requires another step. Spreadsheets make data manipulation easy, and software packages and add-ins provide statistical analysis with ease. Right? So what’s the problem?

In many cases, this process takes more time than it should. And when we finally get to what we thought would be the end, we’re not totally satisfied. We didn’t really get our questions answered, and we suspect there’s more insight to be gained if we just knew how to look at the data differently. Just because the data is accessible doesn’t mean we can answer the questions we have.

There are two major reasons we examine data.

We want to answer questions.
We want to gain insight.

We may be able to use the data we have, or we may need to collect more. What are some of the things we might want to do with our data?

Correlations
Determine whether different variables increase or decrease together or in opposite directions.

Modeling
Find a mathematical relationship between two or more variables.

Forecasting
Make predictions.

Trending
Look for patterns.

Caution:
A statistical data analysis can do a lot, but it has limitations.
Here are some examples of what it can and cannot do.

A Statistical Data Analysis CAN find relationships.
However, it CANNOT determine cause and effect.
A Statistical Data Analysis CAN make predictions with stated precision. However, it CANNOT guarantee the predictions 100%.
A Statistical Data Analysis CAN find unusual data values. However, it CANNOT understand why they are there.

"Your decisions are only as good as your samples."

E-mail: alpha@alphastat.com