Why Excel Doesn't

If you find yourself defending your use of Minitab to colleagues and administrators who still believe programs like Excel are reasonable alternatives to a real statistics package, you might want to refer them to a recent American Statistical Association (ASA) position paper that suggests otherwise. Offered as a complement to the Mathematical Association of America's "Guidelines for Programs and Departments in Undergraduate Mathematical Sciences," the paper states that "Efficient computing tools are essential for statistical research, consulting, and teaching. Generic packages such as Excel are not sufficient even for the teaching of statistics, let alone for research and consulting."

For a firsthand account of the frustrations encountered when using a spreadsheet program to do statistics, check out Scot Petersen's column about using Excel in a quantitative analysis class. He quickly found he had to "jump through hoops to get much of the information" he needed, and ultimately convinced the instructor to let the class use Minitab (it was already conveniently bundled with their text). He concluded that even Minitab Student, the version he and his classmates were using "blows away Excel when it comes to statistical analysis."

This article originally appeared in the April 2002 issue of Minitab News.