How to Measure Anything

how-to-measure-anything

 

We find no sense in talking about something unless we specify how we measure it; a definition by the method of measuring a quantity is the one sure way of avoiding talking nonsense…
- Sir Hermann Bondi

This book was a great read and completely changed the way I think about measurement. It offers many techniques for taking the data you already have and analyzing them in ways that allow you make better decisions. It also teaches you how to evaluate what kinds of additional information would be most helpful to solving your problem, and even put a dollar value on how much it would be worthwhile to spend get that information in order to make a better decision.

Most importantly, it does an excellent job of challenging the basic assumption that some things just aren’t measurable. After reading this book, I feel like there’s always something I can do to help get the information I need, understand my problem better, and make a better decision. I heartily recommend this book.


Tech Note: Finding All the Assemblies Available to Your Application

I sometimes have .Net library code that needs to work both in web applications and in console or service applications. The differences between the two environments, even for a library, are sometimes surprising. For example, I recently needed to find all the assemblies available to (i.e., in the same folder with) the application. My first


Clarity

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted. One reason is that work has been taking large portion of my time, which is a good thing, generally. However, since I’ve been spending almost all of time I have available for programming on work, and that work is all proprietary, there’s been little material available to