Precision and accuracy

November 20, 2006 by Artem

High accuracy, low precision

High precision, low accuracy

Any plan is in essence a set of steps to perform in order to reach a given goal. Every goal and task has two important, but unfortunately often mixed characteristics: accuracy and precision.

Precision tells about the level of the detalization. A promise to make your database handle four simultaneous requests tomorrow at 9:30 is a very precise promise. A promise to make it handle hundreds of requests sometime next year is not very precise.

Accuracy tells about the level of confidence. A promise to implement a new feature next year can be a very accurate estimation while promise to complete it on May 12 is likely to be inaccurate, though very precise.

When planning, both accuracy and precision are the important components. Don’t miss one of them while specifying another one.

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