Spring 2001 Course Objectives Business decisions are becoming increasingly data driven. An understanding of what data do and do not tell you is essential for survival in this environment. One needs to be able to discriminate between natural variation and changes driven by actions. That is, you need a theory of variation.
Statistics is one such theory.
In this course, we will attempt to give you some insight into how Statistics answers these basic questions. The basic questions appear in many incarnations. A production process usually produces 2 defects per automobile. A recent sample indicates an average of 8 defects per automobile. A southern state spends four times the national average per capita on mental health care.