Practical Technology

I've been reading ' How to measure anything - Finding the value of intangibles in business, 3rd edition ' (you should read this, too) and it has completely revised how I approach problems. The biggest thing to me is this:  My understanding of WHAT a measurement is and WHY we measure things has completely and fundamentally changed. Pretend someone asked you 'what is a measurement?'.  Now do the same thing for 'why do we measure'.  Answer the questions then scroll down. Compare to this: What: A measurement is the reduction of uncertainty based on observations. Why: Because we are trying to reduce the risk in a decision we need to make. I am (badly) paraphrasing/summarizing...but that's the gist.  A reduction of uncertainty - NOT the elimination of uncertainty.  And measurement now has a PURPOSE - to help you reduce risk when making decisions.   It starts with knowing what decision you need to make. So simple, but so powerful.  You...

I get this picture in my head of all our users going to load our app (you know, the one they pay for), and they just get a spinning load icon.  And they frown, and try again.  Then they start getting all angry and blaming the app for making them late, and their mortgage, and all of life's problems...and then from that moment on they resent the app.  Other users simply sigh in defeat and walk away, always to remember this moment of the app letting them down. Kinda silly, but that's the best visualization of what goes on in my head when production's on fire.  The longer it takes to fix this, the more users get angry and/or depressed.