REPLY "Flawless Consulting" and SD (SD6627) Data (SD6632)

[SDMAIL Richard Stevenson]

Posted by  Richard Stevenson <rstevenson at valculus.com>



On 17 Sep 2007, at 11:01, SDMAIL Kim Warren wrote:
> My take on this is that SD provides a rigorous up-front  architecture for
> how things actually work, so that data collection seeks the  appropriate
> information.


Data!  Now that's the most contentious issue in management science!
And, I think, the most destructive issue in rational management debate.

As practitioners (and by the way Kim... also as consultants) it   
seems we need always to depend on "data" to support our arguments.   
Rational argument, we apparently believe, must be supported by the  
right data. Because that's the way we have been brought up to think.

But data has two vast imperfections.  First, by definition, it is  
historical.  Second, it is always skewed in favour of the data  
collector and the client.

So screw data, I say.  Every successful project I ever was involved  
in either ignored - or better, overturned - historical data.   
Acknowledge it - then throw it away. Burn it.  Think better, instead.  
That's much harder.

Richard Stevenson
Valculus Ltd
Posted by  Richard Stevenson <rstevenson at valculus.com>
posting date  Mon, 17 Sep 2007 21:24:15 +0100