Data, Directions, and Development: An Inside Perspective on the Growth of SAS/STAT? Software

Abstract

This presentation takes the statistical user on a high-level tour of many recent additions to SAS/STAT software. The tour begins with a behind-the-scenes look at the motivation for new directions, key aspects of the development process, and the more rapid pace of software releases. The tour then moves through selected areas of development, focusing on highly versatile statistical models, variable selection, survey design and analysis, extensions of linear models, and built-in statistical graphics. Within these areas, the tour pauses briefly to point out enhancements for finite mixture models, Bayesian analysis, missing data methods, structural equation models, quantile regression, frailty models in survival analysis, exact Poisson regression, constructed effects in linear models, and postfitting inference. For users who are interested in learning more, the tour provides tips on valuable sources of information and helpful gems in the documentation that are often overlooked.?