1. Scope

Keywords

Rationale

Quality management practices allow test results from different laboratories to be used for product acceptance and payment. Current statistical test procedures are used to determine whether statistical differences exist between data sources. These test procedures are sensitive to sample size and lead to disputes over data acceptance. Some data comparisons with a small variations (acceptable data variability) may be rejected because the calculated confidence interval doesn't include zero. Those data sets with a high degree of variability (unacceptable), are found to be statistically non-different as the calculated confidence interval includes zero and are accepted. This standard will be used by local, state and federal agencies, consultants, and contractors.