What is consulting

The function of statistics is to

solve real problems

Do statistics
Subject matter view vs Statistical
view

Why statistical consulting?

Why people consult statistics?
Finding the righet system to explore
a problem , finding the nuts and bolts
to do the research
How to start identifying a statistical
relationship?
Where and which are the important
source of variation
Where are the uncertainty part

consultancy

what is statistics?
We may at once admit that
any inference from the particular to the general
must be attended with
some degree of uncertainty,
but this is not the same as to admit that
such inference cannot be absolutely rigorous,
for the nature and degree of the uncertainty
may itself be capable of rigorous expression.
Sir Ronald A. Fisher
(1935 The Design of Experiments)

digital.library.adelaide.edu.au/coll/special/fisher
12 Jan 2006

Hort Retreat Brian S Yandell

The Ideal Statistical Consultant and

the Satisfied Client
The statisticians
perspective.
The clients
perspective.
Five Dimensions of
Quality.
Aligning expectations.
Ten issues that
represent
vulnerabilities in the
client-consultant
relationship.

Asking Good Questions??

Avoid errors of the
third kind.
Identify what you
need to find out.
Develop an
effective strategy
for gathering
information.

Rules to Practice By

Rule 1:
NEVER give advice over the phone.
It will always be bad

Rule 2
NEVER answer when asked how
many.
It is almost always the wrong question
The right question has to do with
defining the goals of the experiment
Typically, you will have to help the
investigator figure this out.

10

Rule 3
Always interrogate the measurement
Systematic sources of measurement
variability abound
Ivestigators rarely know how to quantify
them
But they often can tell you what could be
there

11

Rule 4 (suggested by Lisa

Bernstein)
Get the raw data
Many instruments, vendor-supplied/usercreated software preprocess the data
in ad hoc, crazy ways devised by folks
with no statistical training
Producing irretrievable junk that no
subsequent analysis can redeem

Often difficult to get raw data and

difficult to deal with when you have
them
e.g. images

12

Rule 5
Thermodynamics: Disorder rules
unless you work hard to defeat it.
So...
Take nothing for granted
Provide explicit step by step
instructions, data format
specifications, ...
Remember Murphy

13

Some useful things Ive

learned
Most science is about hypothesis
generation, not hypothesis testing
All scientists have strong priors
All variation is caused
Beware of the data that arent there
(suggested by Bill Forrest)
All replicates are not created equal
You can never know too much statistics
But most of what you learn is silly
14

A few more ...

Listen more, talk less
Always provide an executive summary of
your results in a graph or two and a
paragraph or so of text
A little paranoia can be good thing
Its better to lead the parade than sweep
up after the elephants (good design is
more important than fancy analysis)
If you dont think its ethical, dont do it
Your job is to speak for the data integrity is
everything!
15

And most important ...

HAVE FUN !
(else why do it?)

16