How often do you use Tools:Data Analysis?

[InTurn123]

Hi,

Just wondering how often you use data analysis at your job. I used some of the things in a class last semester under data analysis like regression, t-test, Z-test, f-test, etc. I'm curious to know how often it's used if you even use it at all.

Thanks,

Jon the Intern.

 

[hatman]

I worked as a Mechanical Design Engineer for about 5 years, and a Mechanical Test Engineer for the last 2... even though I manipulate test data occassionally, I can't say that I have ever had a need to install the Data Analysis toolpack at all. F-test, Z-test, T-test... I can't say that I even remember what they are for, since I haven't seen them since my college course work.

 

[Greg Truby]

Once in a while. My company went through a "six sigma" phase a few years back and so the terms became en vogue for a brief time. In theory you would really need them to truly measure process improvement projects. But Six Sigma notwithstanding if you try to use the terms "confidence interval" or "fail to reject the null hypothesis" in a presentation to senior management their eyes will glaze over. If you can't distill your point down to a very simple chart that you can verbally explain in about ten-twenty seconds; forget about it. I use them to make sure that my analyses are good. But that's about as far as it goes. Unless your boss is a geek, know how to use it for your own skill at decision making. But expect that anyone else you are going to work with will think "Poisson" is a fish dish at a fancy French restaurant.

 

[RichardS]

... But expect that anyone else you are going to work with will think "Poisson" is a fish dish at a fancy French restaurant.

It's not?

 

[NateO]

I'll use Regression from time to time when I'm doing financial forecasting (mixing threads here, I know, one aspect of my career in Finance).

At one point I recognized a series of polynomials consistently occurring in our business year over year, with a touch of growth, and perhaps the odd anomaly.

So, I decided I wanted to describe these series of constant curves mathematically, for top-down forecasting.

Nice functionality, and the price was right!

 

[InTurn123]

Thanks for all the responses guys. I think i'll try to keep up with it so I can use it in the future.