Using MS Excel for One-way Analysis of Variance
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In the first part of this tutorial you learned both basic and advanced techniques for doing statistical analysis using MS Excel. One of the most important techniques is the comparison of two data sets using MS Excel, which is a common application in engineering, IT and business sector. In this article, we'll continue our study and delve more deeply into doing statistical analysis.
You can review the first part of this three-part series at the link. In this article, we will use MS Excel to do advanced comparison of numerical data sets involving two or more groups of data belonging to one factor. In statistical literature, this is commonly known as ANOVA (analysis of variance). Before the emergence of computers to do engineering calculations, doing manual computations using analysis of variance was often a lengthy and difficult process.
Using Excel, there are built-in functions and even Excel add-ons which we can use to make those calculations straightforward and quick. Statistical comparison of data is often ignored in engineering, research, IT and business sectors. This is due to lack of education and formal training to accomplish this type of analysis.
Only by doing "effective data-driven analysis" can you really be sure your project is aimed in the right direction. A lot of money has been wasted because of managerial dependence on "hunches," "educated guesses" and "based on experience" types of judgment.
Since MS Excel is very popular, available on almost every engineer's, scientist's or even manager's laptop, this article will provide some helpful guidance in how to do advanced statistical analysis, such as using ANOVA techniques. It is also important that the "Analysis Toolpak" is installed as an MS Excel add-on. You can confirm whether it is installed via Tools -> Add-ins; make sure that "Analysis Toolpak" is checked. If not, you need to install it before you can follow the rest of the procedures stated in this tutorial. Please refer to this article for the details.
Next: What is analysis of variance? >>
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