“When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure”
Goodhart’s Law
“Perspective” is the most critical aspect of the structure–pattern-perspective decision process. It is where the analytical result is viewed and interpreted within the context of the decision environment, where factors not included in the model are addressed. It brings in the tacit knowledge from the people through conversation and brainstorming.
A model is an abstract of the reality it intends to emulate. It has a limit capacity to incorporate all potential factors as we often use the term “everything else being equal” to limit the scope of an analysis. However, it is often true that not everything else can be equal. This is where human judgement can help fill in the gap.
Another reason for bringing human intelligence is that sometimes the same data collected over different periods don’t mean the same thing, especially if the data is related to subjective measure on different subject, for example, comparing the performance between two employees, each assessed by a different manager. There is a potential inter rater reliability issue that requires additional input from people.