Programming Assignment 3

CSC 323 - Data Analysis and Statistical Software

Due: Thursday, 3/11/99.

 

On average, the cost per line of code to fix the Y2K problem is $1.70 for the financial industry. You have recently been hired as a project manager at a large bank and have been told that the cost being incurred by the Y2K team is in line with the industry average. From what you have observed, you dispute this claim and believe that the banks cost is greater then the industry average. You have shared your reservations with the CIO and have been asked by the CIO to conduct an experiment to address this issue.

For your experiment, you decide to select a sample of 26 programs that have already been fixed by the Y2K team and examine project management records for each program. You determine the cost per line of code for each program and decide to conduct a "test of significance".

  1. Write a SAS program to analyze this dataset. Your program should do the following:
    1. Read your data from an external file.
    2. Execute the PRINT procedure.
    3. Use the appropriate SAS procedures to produce the p-values to test your hypotheses.

    Note: For PROC PRINT, be sure to use labels for column headings rather than variable names. Use names for data sets and variables that are meaningful. You should generate an appropriate title for the output of these procedures.

  2. Write a short analysis (no more than one page) of the output of your SAS program. Your analysis should at least address the following:
    1. State the primary hypotheses. That is, the NULL and ALTERNATIVE hypotheses for the problem stated above.
    2. State and address any other hypotheses needed for your analysis.
    3. Discuss the significance of the p-value obtained for the primary hypotheses. If appropriate, provide a point estimate for the parameter in question. If you provide a point estimate for the parameter you must also provide a 95% confidence interval as well as a short discussion of the interval.