The Quotation Of The Day Mailing List
Quotation of the Day for November 15, 2003
"As information gets passed up an organization hierarchy, from people who do analysis to mid-level manager to high-level leadership, key explanations and supporting information is filtered out. In this context, it is easy to understand how a senior manager might read this PowerPoint slide and not realize that it addresses a life-threatening situation.
"At many points during its investigation, the Board was surprised to receive similar presentation slides from NASA officials in place of technical reports. The Board views the endemic use of PowerPoint briefing slides instead of technical papers as an illustration of the problematic methods of technical communication at NASA."
- Columbia Accident Investigation Board Report, Vol. 1, p. 191. [quoted by Edward W. Tufte in "Cognitive Style of PowerPoint", Graphics Press, Sept. 2003.]
Submitted by: Jeffrey Copeland
Nov. 4, 2003