Laws of Software Engineering · Saying
Saying
Gilb's Law
Anything you need to measure can be measured in some way that is better than not measuring it at all.
How to use it. When someone says "you can't measure that", treat it as the start of the conversation. A rough measure with known limitations beats a confident guess with hidden ones.
How it gets misused. Used to justify measuring badly. Read Gilb alongside Goodhart. Gilb says measure. Goodhart says do not turn the measure into a target. Together they are stronger than either alone.
Related
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Pattern
Goodhart's Law
Once a measurement becomes a target, it stops being a useful measurement.
- Saying The McNamara Fallacy What can be measured easily gets attention. What cannot gets ignored. Eventually the unmeasured is declared unimportant.
- Saying Vanity vs Actionable Metrics A vanity metric makes you feel good. An actionable metric changes a decision.
Clusters
- The Measurement cluster - How to measure without breaking the things you measure.