# Time By:: [[Ross Jackson]] 2022-09-14 One of the pressures analysts, as well as most every other occupation for that matter, face is time. Often in business, projects are time-sensitive. Deadlines loom over one’s task. Sometimes these deadlines are necessary. Other times they are simply imposed so that the project can be scheduled and monitored. The analyst needs to consider which type of deadline one is facing on a given project, as one’s responses should be informed by the degree to which the solution is provided by the required due date. In crises, any result is likely better than no result. In the absence of [[information]] groups flounder. Responding, no matter how underdeveloped, provides a point of reference around which a group can mobilize, make sense, and act. Between [[chaos]] and order, crises tend to benefit from whatever order can be established. Analytic results provide order, if not always accuracy. Fortunately, not every (or even most) situation is a [[crisis]]. In day-to-day business operations, most “deadlines” are simply end dates placed into the schedule for planning purposes. If one missed the deadline by a day, a week, or a month, there is very little existential consequence. Those due dates are more “lines” than deadlines. They mark a point in time. A point with various degrees of consequence for breaching. One of the key questions analysts benefit from considering is the tradeoff between accuracy and timing. Analysis can always be refined. Better approaches could be incorporated, alternative approaches could be added as crosschecks, and more historical information could be collected for context. It isn’t an overstatement to say that an analyst could spend one’s entire life on a single project. Some analysts have this obsessive tendency. It is rarely beneficial to organizations when they do. The organizational purpose of analysis is to inform. Determining the right balance between rigor and timing depends on context. Sometimes the 80% solution now is better than the 99% solution tomorrow. Other times it is worth the investment of extra time to refine and improve the analysis. It is beneficial for analysts to see and understand the inherent and likely disciplinary ethos that makes the analyst more likely to privilege accuracy over timing. An awareness of this potential bias, and an effort to overcome it, could enable an analyst to be viewed as more responsive by those making decisions within an organization. Doing so is strategically useful to both analysts and organizations. #### Related Items [[Analytics]] [[Business]] [[Problem Solving]] [[Project Management]] [[Accuracy]]