Listen to the excellent interview with author of "Experimentation Matters", Stefan Thomke.

Available from Economist.com here.
(Real Audio required)

Quotes:

"I ask them if they experiment and they look at me and start nodding. If I ask them HOW they experiment... they often shake there heads... Often projects become experiements after fact... they try something out and it doesn't work and of course it was an experiment..."

"new technologies... are making it easier than ever to conduct experiments...as a result we can do that sort of experimentation at a tiny fraction of the cost... that creates this potential to do something differently...faster... at lower cost... "

His book is available at Amazon.com:

Experimentation Matters: Unlocking the Potential of New Technologies for Innovation