Probability, Statistics and Other Frightening Stuff
Probability, Statistics and Other Frightening Stuff
Description
Probability, Statistics and Other Frightening Stuff (Volume II of the Working Guides to Estimating & Forecasting series) considers many of the commonly used Descriptive Statistics in the world of estimating and forecasting. It considers values that are representative of the 'middle ground' (Measures of Central Tendency), and the degree of data scatter (Measures of Dispersion and Shape) around the 'middle ground' values. A number of Probability Distributions and where they might be used are discussed, along with some fascinating and useful 'rules of thumb' or short-cut properties that estimators and forecasters can exploit in plying their trade. With the help of a 'Correlation Chicken', the concept of partial correlation is explained, including how the estimator or forecaster can exploit this in reflecting varying levels of independence and imperfect dependence between an output or predicted value (such as cost) and an input or predictor variable such as size.