Are you aware of the difference between quantification and measurement?   The difference may sound subtle, but knowing it could save you a great deal of money.

Numbers are an abstract concept for communication. Numbers only exist in the real world as sounds or  marks on paper or other media, however the meaning conveyed is quantity.

Quantification is the process by which we develop sufficient contextual understanding to use numbers in a meaningful way. So if we talk about how far it is from home to work in terms of hours we are establishing a way of measuring distance by unit of time.

Measurement is the process of getting a number and the term measurement need not be taken too literally in this context. An estimate is a valid measurement process and though it might not be as accurate as other measurement processes, the fact that an estimate produces a number means that it falls within a measurement process.

So how does this save money? Well if you rush into measurement without having gone through the quantification process to understand what meaning the numbers are going to give to you, you have collected meaningless data.

As a final check before collecting data, be clear about what you might possibly do as a result of the information it provides. If you can't take any action, then there is little point collecting data.