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Manual Override

I've been running an experiment with our call scheduling algorithm in our telephone facility for a number of months now. I've written about some of the strange results that we've had. We modified the algorithm to cover almost all calls. But we've continued to have some strange results.

I've always known that supervisors can manually override the algorithm and manage the sample "by hand." I've assumed that this activity has been minimal. Just to be sure, we've added a routine that records when this happens. This routine should allow us to determine the impact of type of supervisor intervention. Of course, an experiment comparing an algorithm that allowed this type of intervention versus one that didn't would be ideal. For now, we'll see what the level of supervisor intervention is and which cases it impacts.

If this doesn't explain the strange results, then I may be left to conclude that the two algorithms do actually contact different types of people. Not a bad result, just unexpected.

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