A Shewhart Control Chart visualization tool.

I have read a lot about metrics from many different contexts: Six Sigma, project management, and Scrum among others. Below are the top five things that I think need to be considered when selecting and interpreting metric data.

I read an article the other day on the ABC News website that rattled my math-oriented sensibilities. Geetika Rudra wrote an article titled “Odds-defying Babies Born at 10:11 12/13/14.” My first response, aimed at the families and babies, was to think how cool that was. I have a nephew that was born on 8/7/87 and have always thought having a birth date with a pattern like that would be fun.

Statistical hypothesis testing error types include Type I and Type II. These error types have been used beyond hypothesis testing in areas such as etymology, inventory control, computer security, spam filtering, optical character recognition, bio-metrics, medical screening, and paranormal investigation.

I have been writing a short book over the last few months, so I haven’t had time to post an article. But I worked up an idea for the book that I thought I would share on my blog. I call it the Rule of 7-15.

After unsuccessfully searching Google on two occasions for the Wheeler rules for detecting an out of control process, I decided to publish them here so I could find them again in the future.

According to the Oxford Dictionary, an average is “a number expressing the central or typical value in a set of data…” There are several ways to calculate an average, but most people, at least non-mathematicians, use the word average to mean the arithmetic mean; or the sum of the values divided by the count of the values. The mean represents where a fulcrum would have to be placed on a number-line in order to get it to balance if we stacked blocks on it; one for each data point.

The PICK chart is a well-known project selection tool, often used by Six Sigma practitioners to whittle down a list of potential projects. It is usually used during a brainstorming session to help select a project from among a group of project ideas. By its nature, the PICK chart is qualitative. This paper explains the benefits of using a quantitative PICK chart and explores the issues inherent in quantifying the PICK chart.

Projects are the very heart of business. They drive new product development, and make our existing products better and our processes more efficient. Without projects, we would be stuck in a time-loop of constantly repeating days. Unfortunately, most managers and executives really don’t know how healthy their projects are until they end successfully, or rise up, out of control, spilling their doom and gloom over the entire organization.