Carl Sagan conjectured that early diurnal mammals feasted on the eggs of nocturnal dinosaurs. He remarked whimsically that a modern breakfast of chicken eggs is among the few relics of our immemorial joust against the dragons. So I think he wouldn’t mind that I spoof his book’s title for this nonsense column.

It often falls to the management scientist to evaluate how well a program (in the private, non-profit, or government sector) is performing.  There is a great number of ways to go about this task.  This article discusses some of the ways to evaluate a program.  

Different analysis techniques can be applied to the evaluation task, and as we shall see, the chosen technique is quite important. I don’t address the details of technique in this article  My emphasis today is on the variety of evaluation philosophies (principles).  

I had occasion last week to tell the story of my high school friend Allen (name changed to protect his by now certainly stellar career). We had met again back in Evanston, before starting our sophomore years in college. I’d just finished a summer job as camp counselor in Wisconsin’s north woods; Allen had worked for Searle laboratories in Skokie.