Comments on: You Can Manage What You Can’t Measure http://www.galorath.com/wp/you-can-manage-what-you-cant-measure.php Estimation . Analysis . Planning . Control Thu, 09 Feb 2012 14:51:09 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 By: Business development process http://www.galorath.com/wp/you-can-manage-what-you-cant-measure.php/comment-page-1#comment-228 Business development process Wed, 14 Apr 2010 16:31:12 +0000 http://www.galorath.com/wp/?p=892#comment-228 I have just been having this conversation with one of my fellow directors about measuring our sales leads and by measuring them we can manage them too - One of the best sayings in business and for business! I have just been having this conversation with one of my fellow directors about measuring our sales leads and by measuring them we can manage them too – One of the best sayings in business and for business!

]]> By: Pavel Barseghyan http://www.galorath.com/wp/you-can-manage-what-you-cant-measure.php/comment-page-1#comment-157 Pavel Barseghyan Sat, 12 Sep 2009 04:15:16 +0000 http://www.galorath.com/wp/?p=892#comment-157 Of course sometimes you can manage what you can�t measure. But the meaning of DeMarco�s words �You can�t manage what you can�t measure.� is the following: Measurable things come under better control than immeasurable things. In addition sometimes it is simply meaningless to measure even measurable things because of the measurement reliability problems. A classical example of this is the measurement of human productivity for project works or other type of complex works, because nobody wants to be measured. In most cases, measuring the productivity of people at difficult works is self-deception. In this sense we need reliable project management theories that can replace the measurement of immeasurable things by the: - Measurement of easy measurable parameters of projects such as effort, duration, staffing and then - Calculation of immeasurable parameters using reliable theories. Classical example of this kind of approach to the measurement problems is the equilibrium thermodynamics. Here are two main advantages of thermodynamics for project management: � Thermodynamics is an experimental science built by the means of bottom-up generalization of the data, � One of the major services of Thermodynamics � the avoidance of redundant measurements among macroscopic variables. The primary service afforded by Thermodynamics: � Means of transforming certain useful macroscopic data concerning a system into other useful macroscopic data on the same system, � The goal here is to avoid the measurement difficulties. Thermodynamic theory of projects allows measuring the human productivity without measuring it directly. For productivity calculations one can use project management theories presented here: http://www.pmforum.org/library/papers/2009/PDFs/may/Barseghyan-Top-Down-part-1.pdf and here: http://www.pmforum.org/library/papers/2009/PDFs/june/Barseghyan_Principles_Part2.pdf Pavel Barseghyan Of course sometimes you can manage what you can�t measure.
But the meaning of DeMarco�s words �You can�t manage what you can�t measure.� is the following:
Measurable things come under better control than immeasurable things.
In addition sometimes it is simply meaningless to measure even measurable things because of the measurement reliability problems.
A classical example of this is the measurement of human productivity for project works or other type of complex works, because nobody wants to be measured. In most cases, measuring the productivity of people at difficult works is self-deception.
In this sense we need reliable project management theories that can replace the measurement of immeasurable things by the:
- Measurement of easy measurable parameters of projects such as effort, duration, staffing and then
- Calculation of immeasurable parameters using reliable theories.
Classical example of this kind of approach to the measurement problems is the equilibrium thermodynamics.
Here are two main advantages of thermodynamics for project management:
� Thermodynamics is an experimental science built by the means of bottom-up generalization of the data,
� One of the major services of Thermodynamics � the avoidance of redundant measurements among macroscopic variables.

The primary service afforded by Thermodynamics:
� Means of transforming certain useful macroscopic data concerning a system into other useful macroscopic data on the same system,
� The goal here is to avoid the measurement difficulties.

Thermodynamic theory of projects allows measuring the human productivity without measuring it directly.

For productivity calculations one can use project management theories presented here:
http://www.pmforum.org/library/papers/2009/PDFs/may/Barseghyan-Top-Down-part-1.pdf
and here: http://www.pmforum.org/library/papers/2009/PDFs/june/Barseghyan_Principles_Part2.pdf

Pavel Barseghyan

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