Abstract

Statisticians and quality professionals should be placing greater emphasis on the practical significance of the results of their studies. Such consideration augments, and does not replace, the concept of statistical significance. Finding statistical significance is necessary but not sufficient. Integration of both types of significance should be in our problem solving and process improvement work, as well as in the articles we write and the statistics and quality texts we publish. This enhanced emphasis on practical significance will result in our employers and scientists, engineers and other professionals making better decisions. Of course, this should be our overarching objective in any statistical study. An added benefit will be that our profession becomes more relevant as its practitioners create more solutions that truly matter.