The first quarter of 2014 is now in the history books, and industry sales for the first month were sent to me recently. Listed below is a summary of these data compared to last year.

The "founder" of TMI asks, How much is more analysis worth?

Just because something can be done doesn’t mean that it should be done.

A few customer encounters this past month caused an issue to ricochet around in my mind like a 1970s pinball machine. I’m referring to a trap we’ve all fallen into: analysis paralysis.

Three interrelated definitions I have for analysis paralysis are worth enumerating:

1. The condition of being indecisive while overanalyzing alternatives. (Classic analysis paralysis.)
2. Allowing a project to mushroom into something bigger than it needs to be to get the job done. (This column is a good example.)
3. Using data from the most expensive tools you own just because you have the tools or the data (e.g., it’s expensive and took a lot of time, so it must be good).

It’s not that analysis or expensive tools aren’t good, but their employment is an optimization process.

Relative to the above, I can’t and won’t lecture on trying to rely on overanalyzing things or using “too much information” as if I have a solid handle on it. When non-engineers say to me, “That’s TMI,” I say, “I invented TMI.”

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