ABSTRACT
This chapter considers some of the basic ways to handle data by using graphical techniques. Graphical methods are quite satisfying, since they provide "pictures" of the data in a form that allows the user to interpret the data intuitively. Reliability data can be handled in two ways: by using mathematical equations and by plotting them on graphs. A cynical definition of technical research is the manipulation of available data to the point where it can be plotted as a straight line. This is disconcertingly close to the truth in reliability and accelerated testing. Times to failure for data from a reliability test, or from the product in service, often are so long that only a small percent of the total sample will fail in the time available for testing. The choice facing the practical reliability engineer is what to do when the data have obvious points of inflection.
