Fred Brooks in his classic book The Mythical Man Month asks and answers this famous question (how does a project get to be a year late? ) with "One day at at a time."
The parallel question for this blog is why did it take 8 months of silence before posting this entry and the answer turns out to be the same: One day at a time.
If I decided to create the trend line for Post Per Month (PPM) for this blog, it would show a pretty serious and easy to detect square wave drop to Zero for February 2006 through July.
What will happen next ? It's anyone's guess. The issues we were discussing are still vital. The standard accepted methods for presenting trend data about how the most important metrics change over time still fall far short of what's possible with today's technology. The opportunity for better understanding, better communication, better collaboration are all still there.
Time will tell.
Trend watching is still important and there are some people out on the web who are doing a good job these days with presenting trend data in a way that encourages collaboration. Over the past 8 months I have continued to seek out and follow the ways trend data is presented. Some of my favorites sites that I think are doing a good job with trend data these days are The Big Picture, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Pollkatz and the St. Louis Fed.
What are your favorites?
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