Introduction
The application of experimental design in organic syn-
thesis is not easy, and the outcome of the results is sometimes
far from expectations. There is much resistance to using this
approach, and a lot of experimentation is still done with a
“one-factor-at-a-time procedure”. We want to encourage
chemists to use statistical planning and to show them that it
is not necessarily complex and can be done with the aid of
a spreadsheet. By explaining the logic behind the selection
of variables, the experimental scheme, and analysis of the
results we will prove that experimental design is not only
“black box” research. The more complicated the system the
more visible are the advantages of design of experiments
(DOEs). For multiparameter systems the traditional “one-
factor-at-a-time procedure” leads to many experiments the
results of which are difficult to interpret. Mistakes resulting
from omitting the interactions of variables are possible. There
is no simple way of presenting the results.