test please delete

[NickFitz]

I suspect I've picked up a mild lurgy at the conference; nothing drastic, but a bit of a runny nose on Saturday, and a slight achiness in the limbs at times today

And I'm also feeling very tired, despite not really having done a tremendous amount today - shopping shouldn't take that much out of one. Thinking about it, I was tired yesterday too, and I didn't do anything.

So another early night for me.

Goodnight all

[original PM]

Well was quite balmy in Northern West England last night.

Bit grey now in Manchester - maybe a bit of blue sky poking out.

Happy Tuesday!

[WTFH]

Morning all

[DoctorStrangelove]

Dry.

Dampish.

Overcast with hints of something that isn't.

Sun coming up like thunder through the murk over Margam.

Not windyish.

9.1 in the laundry room this morning, with an 8.9 min overnight.

I wonder what the day will bring.

[WTFH]

Hilarity of the morning:
One of the client managers has declared a report “critical before we begin testing”, and likes to send emails with the subject all in capitals when referring to it. The business cannot survive without this report, everything hangs off it.
I’ve asked for weeks for a sample of the report and finally got it yesterday. It’s that important, he couldn’t send me one sooner.
I open it to find 5 columns and 3 rows. I know what the three rows are (one per location). The 5 columns are: Location, total, percentage total and two other columns (which subtract from the total to give you the %)
So, I ask the manager what those two columns mean, that’s the two columns on the most critical of reports that end up calculating the percentage on this critical report.

...he doesn’t know.

He uses this most critical report every day, but he’s got no idea what it is actually telling him.

[NickFitz]

Morning denizens

A bit chilly out at only 8°C, but sunny

Alternative take: sunny out, but a bit chilly at only 8°C

[original PM]

Hilarity of the morning:
One of the client managers has declared a report “critical before we begin testing”, and likes to send emails with the subject all in capitals when referring to it. The business cannot survive without this report, everything hangs off it.
I’ve asked for weeks for a sample of the report and finally got it yesterday. It’s that important, he couldn’t send me one sooner.
I open it to find 5 columns and 3 rows. I know what the three rows are (one per location). The 5 columns are: Location, total, percentage total and two other columns (which subtract from the total to give you the %)
So, I ask the manager what those two columns mean, that’s the two columns on the most critical of reports that end up calculating the percentage on this critical report.

...he doesn’t know.

He uses this most critical report every day, but he’s got no idea what it is actually telling him.

Yes very interesting.

We used to have to have loads of reports sent out on Sunday at midday - if they did not go out the business would fail and the MD would be on the phone spitting his dummy out.

Anyhoo - old MD goes new MD comes in and first thing he does is get rid of these reports - and lo and behold the business did not fail (like who though it would)

Anyway point I am trying to make is people get very protective over data and reports when as you quite rightly point out often they actually have no idea why.

I proposed to our company that what we should do is create dashboards for people with the data which is relevant to them and also which they can actually influence (no point giving someone some data or info that they can literally do nothing with) - so in effect if you want a report or some extra info on a dashboard you now have to say what you want, why you want it, what the recipient is expected to do with it and what the business benefit is.

Oh and also it will not be available in excel format.

Heads have exploded..

[WTFH]

Don’t get me started on Cognos reporting.
Normal company: Export the tables to Cognos, we’ll slice & dice them there as we need.
This crowd: Perform multiple complex calculations on the system so that when it goes to Cognos everything is done. The extracts take 6 hours per night. Any time they want another field added, etc, it takes 3 months of dev & testing.
And all because they don’t want to use Cognos as a reporting tool, but as a display tool for reports already generated on the system.

[NickFitz]

Anyway point I am trying to make is people get very protective over data and reports when as you quite rightly point out often they actually have no idea why.

They've come across that assertion that "If you can't measure it, you can't manage it" and decided that if they demand lots of measurements, they must be managing

Of course they've never actually read The New Economics by W. Edwards Deming, where the full quote is:

It is wrong to suppose that if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it – a costly myth.

Source: Myth: If You Can’t Measure It, You Can’t Manage It at The W. Edwards Deming Institute Blog.

[original PM]

They've come across that assertion that "If you can't measure it, you can't manage it" and decided that if they demand lots of measurements, they must be managing

Of course they've never actually read The New Economics by W. Edwards Deming, where the full quote is:





Source: Myth: If You Can’t Measure It, You Can’t Manage It at The W. Edwards Deming Institute Blog.

Interesting read thanks!

I also wonder whether it gives people the illusion of control - e.g. they have all these figures so they must be in control.

But if you take step back and ask the question 'How do your actions influence those figures?' then you quickly see that you do just have the illusion of control.

Do people deliberately ignore this fact or do they genuinely not understand do you think?