Translating Statistics to Make Decisions: A Guide for the Non-Statistician

© Victoria Cox 2017

Victoria Cox, Translating Statistics to Make Decisions , 10.1007/978-1-4842-2256-0_2

2. Data Collection

How Do I Get the Data?

Victoria Cox¹ 

(1)Dstl, Salisbury, UK

The main aim of writing an experimental design is to make sure you collect the relevant data to answer the customer’s question. The next step is to create a data collection plan to ensure that the actual data is both available as soon as possible and also in a useable format.

Collecting the Data

When collecting data the most important thing is to create a data collection plan. This advises all concerned as to what data needs to be collected, how it is to be collected, when it needs to be collected, and why it is being collected (i.e., which key question that particular ...