7 Statistical Analysis Techniques

John Spacey, November 05, 2015 updated on May 17, 2019

Statistical analysis is the use of probability distributions to solve problems. The following a few statistical analysis techniques that are commonly used in business scenarios.

Cohort Analysis

The use of behavioral analytics to study the behavior of a particular group of people, known as a cohort.

Data Dredging

Data dredging is a brute force method of data analysis that tries to match known statistical models to large sets of data. At risk of finding patterns that are meaningless noise.

Data Mining

The analysis of a large repository of data to find meaningful patterns of information. Typically starts with a hypothesis that you want to confirm with data.

Probability Distribution

A probability distribution is a function that predicts the results of a set of experiments over a large sample space.

Regression Analysis

A statistical method of investigating the relationships between variables. For example, regression analysis can be used to plot the relationship between two variables on a graph.

Statistical Model

A probability distribution constructed to support data analysis.

Statistical Population

A set of observations that share a set of properties. For example, the set of all coffee drinkers in Japan.

Overview: Statistical Analysis
Function	Management Accounting Risk Management Operations
Definition	The practice of applying statistics, a branch of mathematics, to solve business problems and make decisions.
Value	Statistics is useful for solving problems that involve probability such as forecasting. It is common for future looking calculations including risk measurements to rely on statistical models.
Related Techniques	Statistical Model Probability Distribution Statistical Population