MyTVLab Quality Response Team

Video Features Page Download Times Study

Abstract History Methodology Conclusions
To Review Data

Abstract: Based on an investigative survey of video download times,

the MyTVLab Quality Response Team has been able to make some
useful deductions about the distribution of those times and is
suggesting some possible action items for the administrators of the
MyTVLab website.

History: Last year, the MyTVLab Quality Response Team was

constituted and charged with investigating the distribution of download
times of the first video on the MyTVLab video features page. In our first
meeting, Cindy Geozak and Wilson Fremont were selected as Team
Leaders. The QRT then held a series of five morning meetings to discuss
its methodology. We agreed that we would survey download times in-
house and not at remote locations. Cindy and Wilson met and
interviewed various officers of our company and the entire QRT team
decided to hold a one-day conference. When attendance was less than
expected, we scheduled an open forum in which interested employees
asked questions. Based on that feedback, the team agreed to ask our IT
department to develop a custom application that would automatically
record download times.

Methodology: When we were ready to begin our data collection, we

loaded the latest version of Internet Explorer and the custom download
time-tracking application onto 5 identical personal computers in the
Technical Administration Department. Using standard Ethernet wired
connections, we attached the PCs to the primary Web server for the
main MyTVLab server. We opened a Web browser, triggered the custom
application, and entered the URL of the MyTVLab video features page
into the browser. Our custom application automatically detected when
the first video on that Web page was finished downloading and it
recorded in a log file the elapsed time along with a date and time
stamp.

We then analyzed the collected data and present for the first time
publicly that data in the next section of this report.
Conclusions: We were surprised by the many different download
times that were recorded.

We were pleased to see that the mean time was only 12.8596 seconds.
We were pleased to discover that 50 percent of download times were
less than the mean and that 50 percent were greater than the mean.
This fact allowed us to use the normal distribution to further analyze
our data. Using the principles of this distribution, we can conclude the
following:

• A 15-second download is less likely than a 14 or 13-second download.

(Recall this was a question raised in our open conference when we
began our investigation.)

• If we can strive to eliminate times greater than 22.7 seconds, then

more times will fall within 3 standard deviations.

• One time out of every 10 times, an individual user will experience a

download time that is greater than 17.06 seconds.

• Since over 99 percent of download times fall within plus or minus 3

standard deviations, our home page download process meets the Six
Sigma benchmark for industrial quality. (Recall that senior management
held a meeting last month on the importance of the Six Sigma
methodology.)

We would like to suggest that the funding for the QRT be continued into
next fiscal year so that we can undertake a more complete sampling of
video download times.

Respectfully submitted,
The MyTVLab Quality Response Team

To Review Data: Open one of the attachments to this file. If you use
Excel, open MTL_DownloadTimes.xlsx.