My Reading on ASQ CQA HB Part V Part 1 small

Charlie Chong/ Fion Zhang
Part VC
Chapter 20
Basic Statistics/Part VC
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Descriptive statistics furnish a simple method of extracting information from what often seems at first glance to
be a mass of random numbers. These characteristics of the data may relate to:
1. Typical, or central, value (mean, median, mode)
2. A measure of how much variability is present (variance, standard deviation)
3. A measure of frequency (percentiles)
Statistics is concerned with scientific methods for collecting, organizing, summarizing, presenting, and
analyzing data, as well as drawing valid conclusions and making reasonable decisions on the basis of such
analysis. In a narrower sense, the term statistics is used to denote the data themselves or numbers derived
from the data, such as averages.
An auditor must look at how an auditee defines the process and necessary controls, and must establish some
type of measurement system to ensure that the measurements or the process was properly defined. The
auditor looks at the results of what other people have done, and if they used statistical tools, the auditor must
be knowledgeable enough to decide whether the information being gathered from the data is valid.
Descriptive Statistics
The phase of statistics that seeks only to describe and analyze a given group (sample) without drawing any
conclusions or inferences about a larger group (population) is referred to as deductive or descriptive statistics.
Measures of central tendency and dispersion are the two most fundamental concepts in statistical analysis.