Monitoring Quarter

Data Gathering Quarter (hereinafter, the Quarter) is the first of four lectures of Operations Quadrivium (hereinafter, the Quadrivium):

• The Quarter is designed to introduce its learners to enterprise discovery, or, in other words, to concepts related to obtaining data needed to administer the enterprise effort; and
• The Quadrivium examines concepts of administering various types of enterprises known as enterprise administration as a whole.

The Quadrivium is the first of seven modules of Septem Artes Administrativi, which is a course designed to introduce its learners to general concepts in business administration, management, and organizational behavior.

Outline

The predecessor lecture is Strategic Management Quarter.

1. • Environmental scanning. Screening information to detect emerging trends.
   • Benchmarking. The search for the best practices among competitors or noncompetitors that lead to their superior performance.
   • Benchmark. The standard of excellence against which to measure and compare.
   • Information gathering. The stage of creative behavior when possible solutions to a problem incubate in an individual's mind.

1. Enterprise effort. A determined attempt or a set of attempts undertaken in order to create outcomes of a work package, task, activity, project, operations, and/or enterprise.
   • Work package.
   • Task.
   • Activity.
   • Project. One or more enterprise efforts undertaken in order to create a unique deliverable, most features of which can be identified before the development starts.
   • Operations (or Ongoing operations). Repetitive enterprise efforts undertaken in order to create a specified deliverable or a batch of specified deliverables using already designed process.
   • DevOps. Practice and a set of concepts, based on that practice, that define culture of unifying software development (Dev) and software operations (Ops). Its signature toolchain represents a chain of tools that fit one of the following categories: (a) Code, (b) Build, (c) Test, (d) Package, (e) Release, (f) Configure, and (e) Monitor.
2. Enterprise discovery. All activities resulted in obtaining of any data relevant to further effort development undertaken in order to achieve the effort goal or goals.
   • Activity. The smallest portion of an enterprise effort that has its own name, input, description, timeframe, and measurable result.
   • Data. Factual communications, raw documents, unprocessed measurements, and/or recorded observations collected for further analysis in order to create information.
   • Enterprise data. All data needed to administer the enterprise effort.
   • Goal (objective). Desired outcome or target.
   • Enterprise goal. A desired outcome towards which the enterprise effort is directed.
   • Enterprise objective. A measureable step taken in order to achieve the enterprise goal.
   • Means-end chain. An integrated network of goals in which the accomplishment of goals at one level serves as the means for achieving the goals, or ends, at the next level.*Problem formulation. The stage of creative behavior that involves identifying a problem or opportunity requiring a solution that is as yet unknown.
   • Problem. A discrepancy between the current state of affairs and some desired state or, in other words, an obstacle that makes it difficult to achieve a desired goal or purpose.
3. Data source. A place, person, or thing from which data comes or can be obtained.
   • Human communications. Data generated by an informational exchange between two or more people.
   • Document data. Data that one or more pieces of written, printed, or electronic matter contains.
   • Media data. Data that one or more pieces of audio- and/or visual matter contains.
   • Measurement data. Data that is obtained by one or more datapoint devices.
   • Reconnaissance data. Data generated by observations.
4. Data-gathering tool. An tangible or software implement used to carry out gathering of data.
   • Questionnaire. The data-gathering tool that represents a set of questions composed for the purposes of conducting of one or more event-based researches.
   • Prototype. A preliminary conceptual model of a deliverable to be developed; this model is used as a reference, publicity artifact, or data-gathering tool.
   • Datapoint device. Any data-gathering tool that counts, detects, gauges, meters, records, scales, scores, senses, surveys, and/or tests somebody or something and is located at some point where relevant data can be gathered.
   • Search engine. A software system that is designed to search for data on corporate networks or, as a web search engine, on World Wide Web.
5. Data-gathering technique. An established procedure for carrying out gathering of data.
   • Meeting. An occasional or arranged gathering of people for informational, emotional, or physical exchanges; particularly, this gathering can serve as a data-gathering technique.
   • Interview. A data-gathering technique that represents an arranged meeting of people face-to-face, especially for consultation or other informational exchange.
   • Town hall meeting. A data-gathering technique that represents an informal public meeting where information can be relayed, issues can be discussed, or employees can be brought together to celebrate accomplishments.
   • Workshop. An event and/or space at which one person or more people engage in working on a particular subject or subjects; if two or more people engage, the workshop can serve as a data-gathering technique.
   • Observation. The data-gathering technique that is based on watching something or someone; an observation can also be a statement based on something one has seen, heard, or noticed.
   • Document research. The data-gathering technique that is based on a systematic study of documents in order to gather data.
   • Media research. The data-gathering technique that is based on a systematic study of audio- and visual- materials in order to gather data.
   • Event-based research. The data-gathering technique that is based on a systematic study of behavior of people at arranged events such as pooling, sampling, and/or querying, either virtual or physical, undertaken in order to gather data primarily of the results of their behavior.
   • Inspection. The data-gathering technique that is based on careful examination of something in order to either learn about its features or check whether its features confirm its specifications.
   • Testing. The data-gathering technique that is based on taking measures to check the performance and/or reliability of somebody, especially before making agreements, or something, especially before putting it into widespread use or practice.

The successor lecture is Business Analysis Quarter.