Defining our terms is to define the “quality” of an enterprise. Many practical, and working, definitions of quality exist. A key to using or striving for any of these ‘—ities’ is to know that they rely on measurements.
A measurement creates a value (usually numeric) from counting, taking a numeric value, or receiving a value from an instrument. Measurements are a base to all use, comparisons, or evaluating the ‘---ities’ in enterprises. Measurements can be multiple values (like map coordinates) and have units of measure.
Metrics are measurement values with context. Contexts include the rules and methods that produced the measurement value(s).
Measurement frameworks are groups of metrics related to rule-based collections.
Models are formed from measurement frameworks that define the relationships and the functions that can result in useful applications. The measurement rules, the richness of context, and framework collections combine measurements thru an algorithm in models that provide the tools for decisions and actions. We’ll discuss the properties and uses of models in a separate release.
Comments