We're told repeatedly: you can't manage what you can't measure. Or, you can measure anything -- everything
Actually, you can't
Measurements do the changing
There are may project domains where measurements change the thing being measured, so that the results are incorrect, sometimes dramatically so:
- Many chemical reactions or chemistry attributes
- Some biological effects
- Most quantum effects
- Most very-high or ultra-high frequency systems (VHF and UHF, to extend to micro and millimeter wave systems)
- Some optical effects
Intangibles et al
Not be left out: the affects and effects of intangibles, like leadership, empathy, the art of communication, and others. Not directly measureable, their impact is a matter of inference. Typically: imagine the situation without these influences; imagine the situation with them. The difference is as close to a measurement -- if you can call it that -- that you'll get.
Which all leaves the project where?
- Inference and deduction based on observable outcomes which are downstream or isolated or buffered from the instigating effects
- Statistical predictions that may not be inference or deduction
- Bayes reasoning, which is all about dependent or conditioned outcomes
- Simulations and emulations
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