When you think of statistical quality control and JMP, what is the first word that comes to your mind? If you answered “love,” then you are in the right place! Love is in the air on Valentine’s Day, especially for SAS and JMP users. Over on SAS Communities, there was a marriage proposal using SAS. And the heroine of the steamy new romance novel, The Kiss Quotient, is a SAS programmer.
But the greatest love story of them all is happening at SAS Press. The authors of Douglas Montgomery’s Introduction to Statistical Quality Control: A JMP Companion not only love JMP, statistics, and writing books, but they also happen to love each other! As a married co-author team, Brenda and José Ramirez prove that there is nothing more romantic than statistical quality control using JMP. In honor of Valentine’s Day, we asked them to talk a little bit about their book and how they work together.
SAS Press: You’ve written two books together and you’re still married! Congratulations, that’s incredible! Would you recommend having a spouse as a co-author? What advice would you give other couples who work together?
Well, that is a tough one to answer because this process does tend to bring out the “best” in both of you, as you might imagine. We always say that we are going to write a non-technical book titled “I wrote a book with my spouse and we are still married.” This was never more evident than when the hard drive in the laptop crashed and we lost a complete chapter from our first book, which was never recovered. José jokes that his tombstone will say, “He Did Not Backup Chapter 3.”
But for those who are up for the challenge, here are some words of advice:
- Be on the same page
- Strategically plan the writing and editing schedule to minimize impact to family life
- Leverage each other’s strengths
- Don’t micro-manage each other
- Enjoy the process, and above all…
- Don’t talk about statistics at the dinner table!
Don't talk stats at the dinner table, the co-authors advise.
SAS Press: Do you both enjoy the same aspects of your job? Or do you love different things about statistics?
We both love what we do and feel grateful that we chose careers that are rewarding in so many dimensions. From the people we work with, to being part of the broader statistical community, to writing books and papers, all aimed at solving practical problems in industry. The things we love most about our professions are provided below; and, we leave it to the reader to decide how similar, or different, they are.
Brenda:
- The technical aspects of statistics
- The practicality and accessibility of the tools and techniques
- The application space is far reaching
- The community of users
- The impact it has in this world
José:
- Helping people make sense of data using statistics as a catalyst for better science and engineering
- Collaborating and learning from the people we work with
- Teaching statistics
- Being part of a lineage of great statisticians
- Being an advocate and passionate user of SAS and JMP
Thanks, Brenda and José! We love that you share your passion for JMP and statistics with the larger community.
We will be on the lookout for I Wrote a Book with My Spouse and We Are Still Married to hit the shelves soon. In the meantime, Douglas Montgomery’s Introduction to Statistical Quality Control: A JMP Companion is available now. Check out that book and other JMP titles online at SAS Press.