Assessing the Organization: Measurement

Abstract

One of the most important tasks in investigating the organization and user requirements is to develop useful, valid, and reliable measures. On the one hand it is important that the organization does not become bogged down in a costly quagmire of overdetailed and unnecessary measures. On the other hand, without adequate attention to the issue of measurement, it is simply not possible to drive an appropriate design, implement, evaluate, and extend a system effectively. The failure literature points inescapably to this conclusion. There are few known cases of “overmeasurement,” where implementors concluded that they had erred on the side of too carefully investigating their needs and evaluating system impacts. The tragedies have fallen on the other side, where systems did not correspond to user needs, could not be cost justified, did not adequately take into account the user and organizational climate, and were not refined when required, etc.

Skinner’s Constant: That quantity which, when multiplied by, divided to, added to, or subtracted from the answer you get, gives you the answer you should have gotten.