Type: Organizational
Problem: Need to make a decision
Context:
- The situation is complex
- The factors affecting the decision are difficult to understand and not easy to quantify meaningfully
Forces:
- You need to be seen to be rational
- You need to be seen to be focussed on the BottomLine
- You need to be able to defend your decision
Supposed Solution:
- get all the factors quantified (e.g. as monetary cost and monetary benefit), usually by your subordinates
- then just do the arithmetic (is benefit > cost?)
Resulting Context:
- experts are annoyed at having to produce meaningless figures (rather than people seeking their advice)
- decisions are made based on figures which are not very meaningful
- people are held to deliver according to what were only FingerInTheAirEstimates
Design Rationale: 'Let's be scientific about this'
Related AntiPatterns:
Applicable Positive Patterns:
- Trusting people's judgment (both your own, and others')
Also Known As:
ManagementByNumbers (I prefer this one), any suggestions for a better name?
--
StephenHutchinson
Although the technique is imperfect,
what is the alternative? "My nebulous undocumented guesses can beat up your nebulous undocumented guesses"? At least numbers allow one to see the mental proportions others are putting on various factors. One can look at the numbers and say, "Why is server box cost being given such a high weight compared to software maintenance cost?" If somebody thinks so but doesn't tell anybody and says "just trust my judgement", then poor decisions are made without scrutiny.
This is delightful! -- Skip
See also:
DecisionMathAndYagni
CategoryManagementAntiPattern