In my last article, “Understanding and Using Discrete Distribution,” we looked at different discrete distributions and how you can use them. This time, I’ll show you how to determine whether your data follow a specific discrete distribution. (Read here to see how to identify the distribution of your continuous data.)

Before we start testing discrete distributions, we need to distinguish between two general cases. In some cases, it is more important to:
• Check the assumptions (binary data)
• Perform a goodness-of-fit test

Checking assumptions for distributions that use binary data

For the distributions of binary data, you primarily need to determine whether your data satisfy the assumptions for that distribution. If you satisfy the assumptions, you can use the distribution to model the process.

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