Pareto distribution
Heavy-tailed processes where rare extreme durations are part of system risk.
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Shape previewStarts at the scale value and has a heavy right tail, so rare long durations remain possible.
Relative densityDuration (seconds)
- minimum
- 2 s
- Use when
- Heavy-tailed processes where rare extreme durations are part of system risk.
- Avoid when
- Long outliers are impossible or should be bounded.
- Support
- Values at or above the scale parameter, with an unbounded heavy right tail.
- Parameters
- Scale sets the lower bound; shape controls tail heaviness.
- Common mistake
- Estimating tail risk from too little data; rare extremes drive Pareto behavior and may be almost absent from a short sample.
- Example
- Incident resolution where a few cases consume disproportionate time.