by Dwayne Phillips Measuring small things is much more difficult than measuring large things. We do it anyways and report the results with great confidence. Woe is us. It is more difficult to measure small things that it is to measure large things. Consider measuring the diameter of a sphere. We can use a device […]
Entries Tagged as 'Estimation'
Measuring Small Things
July 7th, 2022 · No Comments
Tags: Appearances · Data Science · Error · Estimation · Measure · Science
Where are We Going? (Linear Regression)
December 6th, 2021 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Linear Regression is an old, basic technique to predict the future given the past. It seems that its utility has been forgotten by many. How did we get here? Why didn’t anyone see this coming? These are a couple questions I heard recently when groups of persons gathered to discuss … well, […]
Tags: Accountability · Analysis · Change · Data Science · Economics · Estimation · Hope · Planning
Earned Value Management in Two Sentences
July 26th, 2021 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Earned Value management can be explained at great length (it has). Let’s try two sentences. Some people live by earned value project management. Some people, well, not so much. There are many books and chapters written on the topic (I am one guilty author). Let’s cut it down a bit. If it […]
Tags: Approximation · Estimation · Management · Work
Logarithms and Other Old but New Concepts
February 20th, 2020 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Logarithms help represent large and complex items with smaller and simpler concepts. We forget this at our peril. I used a slide rule in years gone past. It functions on logarithms. These take large numbers and represent them with small numbers. It really is a remarkable concept. The logarithm concept has been […]
Tags: Concepts · Data Science · Estimation · General Systems Thinking
Happening and Reasoning
November 25th, 2019 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Everything happens for a reason (or two) or perhaps things happen and we create reasons to explain them. Funny how we often work backwards. Something happens and we proclaim, “I knew it would happen. We had this and that and they are reasons for what happened.” Few say these reasons before the […]
Tags: Estimation · Excuses · Failure · Reaction · Review
The Basis of Estimate
July 16th, 2018 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Another fundamental to what we used to call “project management.” If you don’t have something like a basis of estimate…good luck. You will need it. “We can have this done in so many days at such-and-such cost!” “Really? Great. Oh, by the way, why do you think that?” The answer is a […]
Tags: Estimation
Lack of Focus, Lack of Foresight
June 7th, 2018 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Jumping from one thing to the next may appear to be a lack of focus when it really is a lack of foresight. We’re working on this great thing. It took longer than we thought to build it. As we came close to finishing, rats, we quit because we realized that this […]
Tags: Adapting · Analysis · Change · Estimation · General Systems Thinking
Significant Digits: Another Forgotten Fundamental
June 9th, 2016 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Regardless of what Excel tells us, significant digits (remember that?) tells us otherwise. Recall something called significant digits from high school math? Consider calculating something with two numbers. One number has two digits while the other number has three digits. The answer can only have two digits. For example, 23 x 123 […]
Tags: Analysis · Clarity · Computing · Estimation · General Systems Thinking
Remote Sensing and not-so-Remote Sensing
August 17th, 2015 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Recent experience with Pluto shows us once again that all the expert ideas about remote things are usually wrong. Sensing something from a distance, a.k.a., remote sensing is difficult. I’ve written about this before. Everyone seems to know this, but that doesn’t stop people from acting as if they are exceptional. I […]
Tags: Estimation · General Systems Thinking · Learning · Science
Performers, Predictors, and Punishment
February 23rd, 2015 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips When a performer doesn’t perform as predicted, the predictor is in the wrong. Too bad that we usually fail to recognize that. I write this the week after all the big tech companies posted their quarterly financial reports. Some companies didn’t perform as expected, i.e., as predicted. The result was that the […]
Tags: Competence · Estimation · Expectations · Judgment