Courts Have No Business Doing Research
The theoretical foundations and methodology of the disciplines of research and performance measurement overlap, but they are very different in important ways: sponsorship, organization, audience, functions, timing, and data interpretation rules. (See The Differences Between Performance Measurement and Research , Made2Measure , October 7, 2005; and Forget “Statistically Significant ,” Made2Measure , December 17, 2005.) Replication in Performance Measurement and in Research A critical difference between performance measurement and research that I did not mention previously has to do with replication. Basically, this means repeating the research to corroborate the results and to safeguard against overgeneralizations and other false claims. Repeated measurements on a regular and continuous basis are part of the required methodology in performance measurement. Analyzing trends beyond initial baseline measurement requires replication of the same data collection and analysis on a monthl...