The importance of measurement.

I was in recent discussion about quality and a couple of good points were made.

• You cannot improve what you do not measure.
• You cannot manage what you do not measure.

Measurement helps to visualize problems and gives us perspective. Whenever you implement a solution, be sure to include measurements so you can evaluate whether the solution is truly effective. Ideally it is a measurement you were doing before you implemented the solution so you can quantify the improvement, but at the very least, include some measurements so that future improvements can be quantified. Sometimes it will take a couple of attempts to arrive at the optimum solution.