54 PART 2 Examining Tools and Processes

We also provide guidance on how to choose between code-based and non–code-

based software, and end by providing advice on cloud data storage.

Considering the Evolution of

Statistical Software

The first widespread commercial statistical software invented is called SAS, and it

is still used today. SAS was developed originally in the 1960s and 1970s to run on

mainframe computers. Around 2000, SAS was adapted to personal computers

(known as PC SAS), adding a user-friendly graphical user interface (GUI). During

the growth of SAS, other commercial statistical packages appeared, the most pop-

ular being IBM’s SPSS. SAS continues to be the go-to program for big data analy-

sis, where analysts can easily access large datasets from servers. In contrast, SPSS

continues to be used on a personal computer like PC SAS.

If you were to take a college statistics course in the year 2000, your course would

have likely taught either SAS or SPSS. Professors would have made either SPSS or

SAS available to you for free or for a nominal license fee from your college book-

store. If you take a college statistics course today, you may be in the same

situation — or, you may find yourself learning so-called open-source statistical

software packages. The most common are R and Python. This software is free to

the user and downloadable online because it is built by the user community, not a

company.

As the Internet evolved, more options became available for statistical software. In

addition to the existing stand-alone applications described earlier, specialized

statistical apps were developed that only perform one or a small collection of spe-

cific statistical functions (such as G*Power and PS, which are for calculating sam-

ple sizes). Similarly, web-based online calculators were developed, which are

typically programmed to do one particular function (such as calculate a chi-square

statistic and p value from counts of data, as described in Chapter 12). Some web

pages feature a collection of such calculators.

Comparing Commercial to

Open-Source Software

Before 2010, if an organization performed statistical analysis as part of its core

function, it needed to purchase commercial statistical software like SAS or

SPSS.  Advantages of implementing commercial software include the ability to