202309011322 We need more information for complex decision making

Most complex systems have interconnected variables. We can't just make one change in isolation from others. If we could, then making decisions and affecting system-wide changes would be easy. In that case, we'd only need to know the direction of the change for that variable. In the case of a complex, interconnected system, we still need to know the direction of the change on each variable, but we also need to know its magnitude and be able to express all the variables' changes in direction and magnitude in the same unit of measure.

In the context of product development, this lends support to the theory that 202309011312 The primary goal in product development is to make good economic decisions. We build an economic framework, express each variable in terms of that singular cost, and can measure complex changes.¹