Neoclassical economics abhors inefficiency, and yet inefficiencies exist. Among the core issues that create inefficiencies is the asymmetrical nature of information. Asymmetry is an accepted cornerstone of economics that leads to inefficiency. We can see in our daily lives and employment the effects of one party in a transaction having more information than the other: knowing whether the used car you are buying is a lemon, measuring risk in the purchase of an investment and, apropos to this post, identifying how our information systems allow us to manage complex projects.
(more…)data reservoirs
The Water is Wide — Data Streams and Data Reservoirs
I’ve had a lot of opportunities lately, in a practical way, to focus on data quality and approaches to data. There is some criticism in our industry about using metaphors to describe concepts in computing.
Like any form of literature, however, there are good and bad metaphors. Opposing them in general, I think, is contrarian posing. Metaphors, after all, often allow us to discover insights into an otherwise opaque process, clarifying in our mind’s eye what is being observed through the process of deriving similarities to something more familiar. Strong metaphors allow us to identify analogues among the phenomena being observed, providing a ready path to establishing a hypothesis. Having served this purpose, we can test that hypothesis to see if the metaphor serves our purposes in contributing to understanding.
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Life, Project Management, and Everything 