This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Agile Buzz by James Robertson. Original Post: Questioning analysis Feed Title: Cincom Smalltalk Blog - Smalltalk with Rants Feed URL: http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/rssBlog/rssBlogView.xml Feed Description: James Robertson comments on Cincom Smalltalk, the Smalltalk development community, and IT trends and issues in general. Latest Agile Buzz Posts Latest Agile Buzz Posts by James Robertson Latest Posts From Cincom Smalltalk Blog - Smalltalk with Rants

Sun's John Clingan questions the reliability of industry analysts:

And are analysts completely on the level? There are those analysts who get paid to make a point. Companies pay analysts to make a point in their favor. Not coming to that conclusion means they will no longer be of value. Now, of course, coming to that point may be the 100% correct, and then the competition debunks it with their own analysis from another company (analyst shopping) who makes a 100% accurate counter point (ah, the chaos of statistics). I associate a .5 probability with this point so i have plausible deniability. How did I come up with .5? SWAG, man, SWAG. But at least I disclosed how I came about it.

IMHO, questioning these people is a good idea...