ABSTRACT
Of course every chapter author would like to think that his or her chapter is most important — but this one really is the most important! All kidding aside, the role of the specification of the input variables in nondeterministic analysis (NDA) is an important one because it is precisely what makes a probabilistic analysis probabilistic (or, alternatively, what puts the “N” in NDA.). When the input distributions are specified properly, the very powerful results of NDA can be realized. Oftentimes, however, the attention to the selection of the appropriate input distributions is seriously lacking, which can lead to highly erroneous results.
