Re: [tlug] Now, this is getting out of hand!

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <turnbull@example.com>]

Curt Sampson writes:
 > This seems to be a matter entirely amenable to analysis, and in dire
 > need of it, really. The emperical facts are not even the topic here;
 > it's the question of how much in the way of resources one should spend
 > to get, or not get, those facts. To spend, say, $2000 to find out that
 > a $2000 switch will do just as well in your particular situation as a
 > $3000 one that's known to work is obviously counterproductive.
 > 
 > Surely someone's done some research on good strategies for making these
 > sorts of decisions. It might be the game theory guys, rather than the
 > economists, but those are rather related disciplines, anyway.

I hate to disappoint you, but what you're talking about is
benefit-cost analysis (which goes by other names in many fields;
that's the one that economists use for policy analysis).

In this case the analysis is a pure accounting exercise.  The data is
another matter.  Watts Humphrey's /A Discipline for Software
Engineering/ is a good text for software, which is especially
applicable to any situation where you're estimating by the seat of
your pants because (a) taking measurements is infeasible or (b) likely
to be more expensive than the biggest mistake you can make.  I also
recommend this one because he made a lot of effort to keep it
unencumbered by considerations of team management: this one is all
about "the habits of effective engineers" in managing their personal
work.

Any "management of engineering" text will do (I don't know what they
are really called, I came into this field sideways via /An
Introduction to the Personal Software Process/).