Fun With Stats: How To Turn Less Than Half Into 95%

from the lies,-damn-lies... dept

You have to hand it to the folks who put out research reports. They certainly know how to pick up stats that aren't particularly interesting and twist them into suggesting something that simply isn't true. While the Globe And Mail got this story right, others who are following up on it, are picking up on exactly what the study's publishers wanted them to focus on. Slashdot has announced that 95% of IT projects are not delivered on time -- which sounds a little alarming (though, probably not if you work in technology, where you might have guessed such a number). Of course, that's not what the actual story says at all. In fact, the study claims that less than half of IT projects run late. It's not Slashdot's fault, necessarily (though, it is made clear in the article), as it appears this is exactly what the study's backers wanted people to pick up on. The real stat is that 95% of IT groups claim that they don't complete all projects on time. In other words, if an IT group has 100 projects to work on this year, and they deliver 99 of them on time, but one comes in late, they fall into that 95% category. If anything is surprising about that number, it's that it's not 100%. However, by positioning the study with the 95% number, it sounds a lot more interesting than claiming less than half of all IT projects run over their expected delivery date.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    lemon obrien, 31 Mar 2005 @ 11:16am

    its not 95%, its more like 99%

    and i would put the blame on excecutives.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    ditdot, 31 Mar 2005 @ 12:16pm

    No Subject Given

    nice observation. I saw the 95% on slashdot and said ho hum. Knowing that the 95% figure is a bogus PR stunt that the slashdot crowd bit into and swallowed unwittingly makes the story interesting. Those sneaky PR flaks!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    dorpus, 31 Mar 2005 @ 3:00pm

    Math trivia of the day

    How do you get something for nothing?

    Zero raised to the zero power is 1.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Mark, 31 Mar 2005 @ 9:30pm

    No Subject Given

    99% of management clueless holders of vague requirements and unrealistic deadlines.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.