Better Business Decisions from Data

PART    II

Data

The temptation to form premature theories upon insufficient data is the bane of our profession.

—Arthur Conan Doyle

We now look at how data is obtained. This is the critical first stage in making use of data as the reliability of the conclusions of any statistical investigation depends on the data being obtained in an appropriate and fair manner. The features and format of the data, and how we can classify the data, are then discussed.