How much wood would a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood?   There are several factors which need to be considered when aiming to answer this question.   These include:

o   Experience level of the woodchuck in question
o   Weather conditions
o   Percentage of hard wood vs soft wood
o   Quality specifications of properly chucked wood
o   Condition of the woodchuck's chuckers
o   # of attractive woodchucks watching & other distractions
o   Chucking hours
o   Availability of wood worth chucking
o   Competition from Beavers, Termites, & others w/ wood interests
o   Bias of the judge / Quality of the measurement system

It's a hairy question when you look at it more closely.   And one that actually has a lot in common with the question of how to measure engineering productivity as well.

With engineering, there are soooo many factors to consider.   These might include:

o   Output Quality vs Quantity
o   Good Work vs Perfection
o   Easy Projects vs Difficult
o   Beginner Skills vs Expert
o   Expectations vs Actual
o   Quality of Tools
o   Availability of Systems

As a member of the "measuring engineer productivity" team Katy Dickinson blogged about earlier and as a member of the management team in my organisation, this is something to which I give a lot of thought.