Scientific Method (Engineer’s version)

An algorithm comprised of the following steps:

  1. Observe phenomenon.
  2. Formulate hypothesis.
  3. Test hypothesis.
  4. Refine hypothesis based on results.
  5. Repeat until one or more of the following stopping criteria are met (in order of priority):
  1. The results are within the utility specified by the funding application in consideration of reasonable future use1;
  2. The results are within Experimental Uncertainty of the test2;
  3. Allocated resources are exhausted3.

Contrast with Science Project.

Footnotes
  1. We don’t need it to be any better.[↩]
  2. We can’t tell if we’re making progress.[↩]
  3. We did the best we could with what we had.[↩]