Reference no: EM133592887

Question: Nausi runs a small business offering graphic design and marketing services to other small businesses in the neighborhood. She is interested in buying the license to use a new graphic design software suite, but unsure if it is worth the money. The company offers a free trial period of one month, so she decides to run an experiment. She divides her work for the upcoming month into 50 discrete tasks, estimating the time it will take to complete each task. She then randomly assigns the tasks into two categories: ones she will complete with her existing tools, and ones she will complete using the new software. Finally, throughout the month, she records the difference between her estimated time and the actual amount of time it takes her to complete each task. After running the numbers, she finds that the tasks she completed with her existing tools took on average 3% more time than she expected, while the tasks she completed with the new software took on average 17% less time. What is the explanatory variable?