Comments

8 responses to “Thought For Today”

1. 2007/06/13

   Stephen Usher

   re: Thought For Today

   You forgot the subtext at the end…

   …so those who can do can’t any longer.

   Reply
2. 2007/06/13

   Laureen

   re: Thought For Today

   I am told that actually, they are not metrics, they are analytics, you’re using outdated nomenclature, really, where have you been???? LOL!

   Reply
3. 2007/06/13

   Geoff Arnold

   re: Thought For Today

   Logical thinking 101: you cannot infer from this that those who demand metrics cannot DO (i.e. if someone demands metrics, this means they cannot DO).

   If some web designer comes up with a sexy widget that appears to (a) cost a lot of CPU time, (b) add 20ms latency to the page, and (c) not attract eyeballs or clicks, the only rational thing to do is “demand metrics”. Because only the numbers will make the case. (And only the numbers will allow you to automate the decision-making process.

   Reply
4. 2007/06/13

   alecm

   re: Thought For Today

   notes:

   1: humour, type=empathic; subtext is to suggest inability or possibly incompetence on the part of management

   2: empirical observation, not logical argument, therefore causality not required to be proved

   3: rationality? logicalness? who said they need to be brought to bear for an observation?

   4: note the imperative nature of the word demand, used by myself and (oddly) repeated by yourself; this lends flesh to the us/them theme of the statement, and provides impetus for the reader to differentiate into either one demanded-of (likely) or demanding (less likely).

   5: implication that all decision processes should be automated? whyfore?

   6: overly serious treatment of lighthearted comment. YHBT. YHL. HAND. 🙂

   Reply
5. 2007/06/13

   alecm

   re: Thought For Today

   ps: for your next trick, please calculate accurately:

   *either* “The ROI for Security”

   *or* the ROI for any particular three of your last 50 blog posts.

   Use both sides of the paper if necessary.

   Reply
6. 2007/06/13

   yon

   re: Thought For Today

   Re 4 – Actually, I find myself both demanded-of and demanding of metrics lately – in some cases, demanding that I get to produce some!

   (To be honest, it’s more a case of requesting please please pretty please that we actually apply ourselves in a methodical enough way that metrics might be possible and sensible, rather than flailing around randomly and ineffectually creating the illusion of great busyness – the hope is to get us to “being able to produce nice software” rather than “being able to produce nice piecharts”. But if the piecharts are useful, I’ll have ’em.)

   I clearly fail on 6. Bah. YHL?

   And I too am curious about 5?

   Reply
7. 2007/06/14

   allen w.

   re: Thought For Today

   you must be spying on me, given that i read this right after a meeting where my boss’ boss talked about monitoring and wanting a dashboard and blah blah blah.

   Reply
8. 2007/06/14

   Chris Samuel

   re: Thought For Today

   So do the older ones demand imperials instead ?

   I’ll get me coat..

   Reply