Introduction
Performing measurements is a process similar to an industrial production process. There are several phases to be observed. In each of these phases specific information is needed. The information is sometimes for the sake of the process itself, however in most cases the information has to be passed to the next phase. Items like purpose, identification, reliability and accuracy have to be addressed and have to be secured. In each phase one must be able to observe the process, see what has been produced, evaluate and visualise results. For simple and incidental processes these actions can be performed manually. As an ad hoc solution data is read into a spreadsheet programm and -when needed- graphs are drawn. When the process becomes more complicated and when a series of measurements has been performed, a more structural solution is needed, where checking and controling the process can be done semi-automatically.
The phases
As a paradigm we distinghuish five phases.
...