In this paper, we investigate practical ways of using statistical methods to analyse traffic in a grid environment. We propose that there is a case to suggest that those new to this topic would be better off using Excel rather than a 'black box' approach, such as MATLAB. The proposed tool, Excel, forces the user to handle the component values and formulae, in great detail. Excel normally dynamically updates a workbook following a change to the contents of a cell. When a network engineer has a workload trace to analyse, there are several statistical methods that are contenders. When making use of these methods there are number of things to consider - the variables pertaining to the method need to be set; the amount of input data needs to be decided upon; the amount of output data to be plotted, for visual interpretation, needs to be decided upon. © 2012 IEEE.