What Has 1,108 Rows, 149 Columns and More Chances to Create a Pivot Table Than You Can Shake a Stick At?

Posted by Jeff Lucas

Why it's the Baldrige Blinded Applicant Scoring Data of course.  Just released last Friday was the second data set that now contains item level scores for every single applicant to the Baldrige National Quality Award between 1990 and 2006.  We have made the data anonymous (hence the "Blinded", in case you were thinking it only represented applicants experiencing visual challenges when they submitted) and hope that this new set will provide even more fertile ground for analysis and research.

A few fun facts from my limited time spent manipulating the spreadsheet:

• Largest point increase from Independent Review to Consensus Review = 89 points (an applicant in 2005)
• Largest point decline from Independent Review to Consensus Review = 190 points (an applicant in 2006)
• Most frequent score obtained during Independent Review = 437 (N = 8)
• Some scores never given during Independent Review = 419, 468, 486 (play these numbers tonight!)

Obviously, these are pretty trivial data, but then again my skill set with Excel starts to get pretty thin after sorting and "Count If".  I think we are counting on all of you clever analytical types out there to help us turn this data into knowledge.  

One caveat would be to read the FAQs that we have prepared to accompany this data set.  It outlines some of the changes that have taken place in both the Baldrige Criteria and Award Process over time that are important in interpreting the data accurately.

If you are looking for some more information on the Blinded Scoring Data and would like to have a conversation with someone who knows ANOVA was not a Chevy product from the 60s and 70s, contact Cristin Conner on our staff. She is someone who really knows her way around a spreadsheet and would be happy to answer questions.