Relying heavily on simulations and illustrations, this book begins with all the basic mathematical and statistical background necessary to select the correct distribution to model real-world data sets. This includes inference, decision theory, and computational aspects including the popular Bootstrap method. The authors then examine four skewed distributions in detail: exponential, gamma, Weibull, and extreme value. For each one, they discuss general properties and applicability to example data sets, theoretical characterization, estimation of parameters and related inferences, and goodness of fit tests. The final chapter deals with system reliability for series and parallel systems.