Knowledge work
Work without a unit
The part that determines the outcome frequently involves no visible action at all.
Measuring Work That Has No Unit
Analysis, design, advice and management cannot be counted. Four approaches that work without a comparable unit.
Research, Design and Long Horizons
Work whose result arrives in months or years cannot be steered by period measurement. What to do instead.
Proxy Measures and Their Half-Life
When the real thing cannot be measured, something correlated is used instead. All proxies decay, and knowing how fast matters.
Thinking Time Is Not Idle Time
The work that produces the most value produces the least observable activity, and measurement systems are built to notice activity.
Collaboration, and the Work That Enables Others
Helping somebody else produce is invisible in individual measures and is frequently the highest-value work in a team.
Expertise: Why the Fast Answer Looks Cheap
The value of experience is that difficult things take less time. Productivity measurement reads that as less work.
When the Honest Answer Is That You Cannot
Some work has no reliable productivity measure. Saying so is a stronger position than producing a figure that will not survive examination.