After a new inspection workflow launched, an analyst picks a post-launch week with unusually low backlog as the 'baseline' and reports a huge improvement. What baseline practice should the information manager insist on?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation
Picking the easiest week after go-live as your baseline is like measuring a diet starting on the day you already lost five pounds—congratulations, you invented success. Honest baselines come from pre-intervention periods or pre-specified windows, not cherry-picked after seeing the results. Auditors notice; so will staff who lived through the real backlog.
Full Explanation
Diagnostic credibility depends on baselines selected independently of desired outcomes. Post-hoc selection of favorable windows biases effect estimates and misleads decision makers about intervention impact. Information managers should require documented baseline rules set before claiming improvement.