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Follow-up practice: evaluate plans, proxies and causal business claims

Test whether evidence supports a proposed decision, accounting for costs, selection, bottlenecks and the difference between a metric and a goal.

Paper packet. Every task here also exists on screen, where it is checked automatically; answers written on paper are not assessed by Nydus. When you are back at a device, enter your answers there.

1. What you will learn

Test whether evidence supports a proposed decision, accounting for costs, selection, bottlenecks and the difference between a metric and a goal. Attempt these four new problems without notes after a study gap. Explain the decisive restriction before opening feedback.

2. Practice

Which evidence would most directly test the conclusion?

Question context

Two branches serve different customer groups. Branch U's customers usually purchase complex services, while V's usually purchase simple services. U has a lower overall satisfaction score. A director concludes that U's staff perform worse on comparable work.

• Satisfaction comparisons between the branches within the same service categories.
• A second overall average using the same customers.
• The total number of customers served by the two branches together.
• The date on which each branch began offering complex services.
• An assertion that all customers are equally satisfied.

3. Practice

Which change would most improve the comparison?

Question context

A software vendor says its update caused fewer crashes because users who installed it reported fewer crashes than users who did not. The update was available only on newer devices, which already crashed less frequently.

• Compare updated and nonupdated devices of similar age and prior crash rates.
• Count each updated device twice.
• Exclude every nonupdated device.
• Compare the total number of updated devices with the total number of old devices.
• Assume newer devices must crash more often.

4. Practice

The recommendation improperly

Question context

A firm saved money by reducing inspections for low-risk shipments. It recommends removing inspections from every shipment because inspections are therefore unnecessary.

• generalizes a result from a selected low-risk group to shipments with different risks.
• infers that low-risk shipments exist.
• assumes inspections have some cost.
• distinguishes one risk group from another.
• denies that any cost reduction occurred.

5. Practice

What consideration most directly challenges the rejection?

Question context

A manager rejects a proposal to lease additional machines because current machines are idle for part of each day. The proposal is intended to relieve a two-hour peak when every current machine is occupied and orders are lost.

• Unused capacity outside the peak may not meet demand that must be served during the peak.
• Idle machines always require replacement.
• The machines have different serial numbers.
• Peak orders can never be lost.
• Leasing has no possible cost.

6. What you can do now

Classify errors as interpretation, method or execution. Revisit the preceding worked examples, then try a different problem before returning to these questions.