I read an article in Wired magazine the other day that got me to thinking about the relationship between statistics, engineering knowledge, and theory. The article claimed that with the era of massive data storage and analytical capabilities, the scientific concept of the “theory” was becoming obsolete. What implications does this have for people working with data to solve problems? Can we find solutions without a theory? Will Google obsolete the Black Belt?

As I have discussed before, define, measure, analyze, improve, and control (DMAIC), like other problem-solving methods is a modification of the scientific method. Here is a comparison of various problem-solving strategies as compared to a simplified version of the scientific method.

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